5,4,3,2,1... Blastoff!

Blastoff... Salt Lake City, Dallas, Miami.... Lima, Peru!
This week, Wednesday, our missionary heads off to Peru. The visas came through, flights are booked and he is PUMPED!!!- to say the least :).

It's strange thinking of him being half a world away. He will spend four weeks at the Peruvian Missiionary Training center in Lima. After finishing his language and skills training there he will be sent to a city or village in the Piura, Peru mission. His Spanish should improve drastically during his time at the Lima MTC. Usually at a foreign MTC, the missionaries are paired with a "native" companion. This helps the language progression drastically! In a recent letter to his Grandfather Dallon said,"I know God is with me. He is blessing me as I learn this new language. With his support, I am amazed at how quickly my language skills are progressing".

Dallon will be in a warm, humid area. Temperatures range from about 50 degrees to 90 degrees with between 40 and 90% humidity. The terrain is varied with one portion of Piura being beautiful resort beach towns (Crystal clear waters, waving palms, white sand beaches) and the other being brown, brown, brown. (Homes are built with corrigated tin, cardboard and whatever the people may have. There is little to no plant life and the ground is hard packed clay and dirt.)

Dallon has already been blessed with so many great "coincidences". Besides our next door neighbors' brother being his teacher here at the Provo MTC, we have friends of 20 years who were his Branch President(ecclesiastical leader) and wife while he was in the Provo MTC. We learned from them, there son in law's parents will be Dallon's MTC President and wife in Lima! He will have "family" connections wherever he is!

As the time draws near for him to leave, we'd like to remind evryone to write him often! Mail and the spirit are a missionary's life blood! Here's the address:
Packages or letters sent via DHL: Dallon Cory Schofield
Peru' Piura Mission
Calle Los Naranjos Mz H, Lp 4
Urb. Los Geranios
Piura
PERU

Letters via Pouch mail: Elder Dallon Schofield
Peru" Piura Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City Utah 84130-0150
Pouch mail MUST be done as follows: Items leave in pouch mail each Friday. Items sent after pouch leaves will be held until the following Friday. Only postcards or one pages correspondance may be sent through pouch mail. Notebook or other lightweight paper will not process through the USPS machines. Photographs are not acceptable.

Letters must follow these direction: Lay the blank letter side down. Fold the bottom of the letter about one third of the way up the page and crease. Fold the top of the letter to the bottom and crease. Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch from each end, but do not seal the ends. In the top left corner write your name and complete return address. Affix first class postage in the upper right corner. In the middle write the missionary address.

DHL will definetly be faster. I am told the cost is about $3. A letter through DHL will go directly to Dallon (when we have an address) and should take about three weeks. Pouch mail goes to the mission home first, then out to Dallon. It will take 4-6 weeks minimum to get to him:)