SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:

My wife, Sheila, surprised me with a Peruvian Amazon tour for my 76th birthday, and what a wonderful gift it was.

After a short stay in Lima we flew to the city of Iquitos, the port for the riverboat La Amatista, our home for seven nights.

Words like adventure, mystery, history and wildlife that come to mind to describe the mighty Amazon do not begin to paint the colorful picture.

There are thousands of “white-”(brown, really) and “black-water” tributaries that feed into the Amazon sustaining hundreds of species of fish, pink and gray dolphin, banks alive with Red Howler, Capuchin and Squirrel monkeys, caimans, bats, snakes, sloths, exotic frogs and iguanas, thousands of species of birds and more bugs than I have ever thought of.

Our naturalist guides not only shared their wonderful knowledge of the river and its inhabitants, but cared for us as though we were dear relatives who came to stay in their home. We soon felt as though the river was our home too.

Of all the beautiful sunsets, glorious sights and joy in the surroundings that we came home with, the best is a heart filled with love for the people we met.

The most memorable time of our experience, however, was not found on the river. While we were in Lima, we decided to take a taxi and visit the Lima Mormon Temple. The welcome we received was overwhelming. To see the beautiful brown faces and feel of their faithfulness made this one of our best Temple experiences ever.

We have made a new commitment, whenever we visit a distant city that has a Temple, to allocate time to attend a session. We missed this experience in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo on a recent journey, but we will avail ourselves of that opportunity in the future. It materially enhanced the remainder of our trip.

TOM THORKELSON is the director of Interfaith Relations for Orange County at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.