There and Back Again...

Our blog title goes out to all you Hobbit and Lord of the Ring fans.  And we did go there and back again this week, referring to our return trip to Lima on Monday and Tuesday.  The church had to fly us back to the capital so we could complete paperwork with the government to obtain an extended stay visa.  This one will last us one year.  We will have to go back to Lima about this time next year to stay the full 18 months.  One day was spent standing in lines at immigration office and the next morning was spent standing in lines at Interpol.  At Interpol we had to get a mug shot taken and our fingerprints taken, the old fashion way with the messy black ink.

The bright spot of going back to Lima was we were able to pick up some church materials at the distribution center next to the temple that we needed for our mission and we got to see a lot of the senior missionaries we had met and made friends with during our week stay earlier.  Monday, July 7th they held a get together to celebrate Independence Day.  They decorated up the cafeteria quite nicely, did a pot luck dinner & BBQ, played some pretty funny games and had one Elder do a monologue as if he were Mark Twain (all memorized and everything).  It was quite fun.

 Chowing down.

 

Cindy playing name that patriotic tune, hummed by the guy with the earphones.  It really was quite hilarious to play.  Hermanas Arana & Moore planned the games and did a fantastic job.  Hermana Moore (to the right in the photo) does a mean air guitar just so you all know.

 

 

The one missionary moment we had while in Lima, was all that time waiting at Interpol gave us the chance to have a gospel discussion with a lady waiting as well.  She was a Jehovah Witness, but didn't bible bash.  She politely shared with us their beliefs about a number of things and we shared ours.  We were able to tell her about the Book of Mormon being another scripture testifying of Christ.  We wished we had a copy to give her, but we didn't.  Hopefully we planted some good seeds with her.

 

Tuesday night we observed our first workshop taught here in Cusco, the Planning for Success workshop.  The brother who taught it means well, but the presentation could definitely use some spicing up.  On our to do list - Christ like coaching and suggesting improvements that will bring the presentation into the 21st century (add technology in other words.  I know some of you doubt our ability to teach any kind of technology to someone - yes, John B. I'm referring to you and probably Spencer as well), but the Lord enables those he calls.  We have faith in that.

 

Here are some more photos of Cusco.

 

 

Here's a map of Cusco that we bought and hung on our office wall to help us learn how to get around.  The different colors represent the different districts of the city.  We live in the blue section just below the big green area, which is military training grounds.  Our office is in the lowest part of the pink area covered with blue.  Most days we walk to the office.  We figure it is at least a mile one way, maybe a bit more.  The blue part above the pink area and down into the pink area is the historical area of town (where most of the tourists hang out).  The mission office is close to where the pink and golden area meets.

 

 This is a display at the same plaza where the big fountain is at.

 Dave standing next to his twin brother, well not quite, but I think the smile seems to be very similar.  The cat statue is made from black basalt lava rock.

 We managed to get a photo of Quirikancha light up at night this week.  This is quite close to our office.

 



Here is one of the many murals I mentioned can be found in the city.  This is only the center part. Dave's guess is it is 120 feet long.  This photo doesn't do it justice and you can't really make out all the scenes included.  Guess you will just have to come down and see it in person!  (Shameless plug for visitors)

 

Upon our return to Cusco, we didn't have nearly the adjustment to the altitude as before.  I don't think we were gone long enough.  But our week started to shape up as very frustrating and unproductive.  We weren't getting anyway it seemed in making headway with our calling.  

 

We did have a stressful thing happen Tuesday night when the Planning for Success workshop is offered.  The teacher didn't show up and we had three students waiting to take it.  I quickly had to present to the best of my ability the class.  That was a joke.  Yes, I know the language, but I don't know the lesson outlines very well yet.  I did the best I could and Dave babysat the little kids that came with their parents.  Now that is a role reversal for ya.

Thursday was especially frustrating and unproductive.  Friday morning we pleaded with Heavenly Father to help us get the information we were needing (lists of priesthood leaders to contact for all the stakes and districts in the mission as well as participants information in PEF & LDSjobs) and to open doors to move the Daily Dose English teaching programs forward towards implementation.  Up to this point we had not been able to interest any priesthood leaders in authorizing classes.  There are plenty of people interested in learning English since this is a tourist driven town, but we had to get the backing of the priesthood leadership.

Our prayers were answered.  We still don't have the priesthood list but we found a source to get it and should have it soon.  We also were able to get into the tracking system for PEF and find what we needed, something that seemed to be a locked door the day before.  We also found a great PowerPoint presentation on Daily Dose in our materials, made a visit to the Cusco Stake President, who happens to own a print shop (perfect for making the posters & handouts we need for the class) and in the evening gave him a presentation and he was enthusiastically on board.  Yippee!  There is still more that has to be done before we will hold the first English class but we felt like we were moving forward and on our way.

Saturday was market day.  Here are some more photos.




It looks like they will be serving potatoes at the Rhoades-Stone Reception.  Wait, is that a helicopter I hear?  And look, here come the guests.

 Here is a great shot of the purple corn that is so common here and is used to make a very popular drink called chicha morada.  It is really quite good.  But you don't eat this corn at all.  It is also used to make a dessert called Mazamorra, which is heavenly on top of arroz con leche.

 

This is the view from the market parking lot.  You can see how the town is surrounded by hills and the people build their houses right up the side of the hills.

Later on Saturday we took a member out walking as therapy for his legs.  He had surgery on them awhile back because of a congenital deformity but now has to learn how to walk again.  He is using a walker but needs to build up the strength in his legs so he can walk without it.  He also needs to get a job so we figured if we can help him strengthen his legs, the sooner he will be able to get work.

Victor Cuentas and his dog Tom.  He has been a member for almost two years.

 

We walked to a plaza called Tupac Amaru after a general in the Peruvian army two hundred years ago when they were fighting a war with the Chileans.  Here is a photo of his statue.  That's him on his horse in case you can't tell.

 

 

By now we are getting hungry for lunch so we decide to treat Victor to some lunch at a near by restaurant.  Here is part of what we were served.

 

In case you can't tell that is a chicken's foot on Dave's spoon.  I do plan to learn how to make some Peruvian dishes, so if any are interested let me know and I will get the recipe and fix it for you when we get back.  At the supermarket later that day we saw bags and bags of chicken feet for sale.  Apparently, it is quite tasty.  Dave liked it.  I refused to eat it.

 

The highlight of Saturday, however, was finding a air popper for popcorn.  We came right home and decided to see if we could make caramel corn.  We meet with the missionaries in zone meeting tomorrow morning and thought we would bring that as a treat.  There will be 22 missionaries so we had to make up a lot.  We did 5 batches total.

 

 Notice the air popper looks like a soccer ball?  The lid turns into a popcorn bowl.

We have no baking pans or cookie sheets so we used a brown bag inside of a large cardboard box to spread out the finished batch.  Notice how full the box is as well.  The brown sugar down here is not very dark thus the lighter color.  Corn syrup is pretty costly here however.  My mom was known as the cookie lady in her mission.  Who knows, maybe I'll become known as the caramel corn lady.

 

 

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  D&C 104:15-17

 

And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine.  But it must needs be done in mine own way...for the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.

 

This is the central scripture used in relation to self-reliance.  We heard it a lot in our training sessions and the church leaders that work in self-reliance refer to this often.  You could call this our mantra, I guess.