Shaking Things Up!

We had a marathon Sunday last week.  We have been working mostly in the Cusco stake since we live in the Cusco stake and the Self-Reliance center is located in the stake center for the Cusco stake. But there are two stakes in the city of Cusco, the other one is called Inti Raymi and it actually has more units and covers more area, I believe.  We realized after about six weeks here that we needed to make ourselves known to the members in that stake by visiting and helping them see us.  We learned that one of the chapels has three wards meeting in it so we decided to attend as much of the meetings of each ward as possible.  We started at 8 am and ended at 3 pm, which is when the sacrament meeting of the last ward ended.  We could have been there until 5 pm if we stayed for all of their meetings, but we had a plane to catch down to Lima that night and had to be at the airport by 6 pm at the latest so we thought that might be cutting it close.  We were able to get the word out about the English classes that we planned on starting up in their stake this week.

English classes are taking up more and more of our time.  We are now booked for Tuesday through Friday nights with classes, plus Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  And there is still a demand for additional classes.  There is an interest in offering a conversation group for those return missionaries that studied English while on their mission and still need to practice to get ready for the English exam BYU-Idaho offers that allows them to study via the internet if they can show proficiency in the language.  As well as there are many people who have already had quite a bit of English instruction (it is required in the schools now) but need opportunity to practice what they have book learned.  It looks like we will be starting next month a conversation group that will meet in at 6 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays each week.  Dave will head it up.  Since his Spanish is limited, he can't contribute a lot to the Planning for Success workshop that meets at that same time.  English seems to be his niche.  We would also like to teach a Book of Mormon class in English, but to do that through the Institute program we would have to teach it at 6:30 am on Saturday.  Yup, 6:30 am!!!  Who goes to Institute at 6:30 am on a Saturday??  They say that's a popular time here, but it has to be dang cold at that time in the morning.  I think church at 8 am is hard to handle with no heat in the buildings.  We have taken that proposition under advisement. 

Our trip to Lima was successful.  Our flight down had 14 other missionaries traveling down to Lima for visa business as well.  We figured that it is a never ending process.  With 12 missions in Peru and if each mission has as many missionaries as our mission (about 225) we are talking 2,700 missionaries that at some point or other needs to deal with the government regulations when it comes to visas (except for native Peruvian missionaries, I would imagine, which actually probably brings the number down).  We had to be into the immigration office first thing in the morning so we had to spend Sunday night there in Lima.  It took all morning and we spent the majority of it standing in one line just to go to another line to then go to another line.  But at the end of it, we had our Peruvian ID. 

This whole process will have to be repeated next summer since the visa goes for a year.

Our open house produced two new volunteers for our center!  We've had two sisters coming this week to be trained and help out.  Unfortunately, we learned one of them may not work out as she may not be able to get cleared by her ecclesiastical leader as she is not attending her assigned ward due to conflicts with some of the members.  Apparently, the Peruvian government has a Ministry of Work Department that is probably comparable to our Dept. of Labor.  We were told that a representative from that Department could show up at anytime to audit what we are doing and we have to be able to show that everyone is working as a volunteer or the church can be fined and required to back pay anyone that we can't prove is strictly a volunteer. So they require everyone to bring in a form signed by their ecclesiastical leader and themselves designating they are a volunteer and we keep that on file.  Apparently in the past the church has been on the losing side of this law and doesn't want to repeat it.

But I have a task for the Ministry of Work to handle.  Friday night after teaching English class, we headed over to the one mall Cusco has in town since it is only about 1/2 mile from the chapel.  When we got there it was probably close to 9 pm and when we left it was 9:40 pm.  On the walkway leading up to the mall, we saw one boy, about age 6 by our best estimate, sitting on the ground with a pile of candy bars that he was supposed to sell, but he was konked out, fast asleep sitting up! Poor thing!  Then on our way out we saw two little girls sitting on the walkway as well trying their hardest to stay warm while they tried to sell their treats.  These girls were probably 10 and 6 years old.  We gave each of them a roll we had just bought in the store and I bought a treat from the 6 year old.  I don't know how late they stay there, but obviously there are no child labor laws in Peru!  I've been haunted by those scenes ever since

Our new workshop instructor for the Career Workshop has been a no-show since the first class and we can't seem to get in touch with him by phone.  We've left a number of messages but he doesn't return our call.  Our Self-Reliance Center is considered a model SRC so we are supposed to be offering all the services.  It looks like we are going to have to be prepared to teach this one until we can find someone more reliable.. 

We are still struggling completing phone calls. I spent one day fixing the headphone settings on the laptop computers so that they would function ok.  That has been part of the problem, the computers hadn't been configured correctly.  Well, duh.  Now that we are getting busier at the center, it is harder to find time to make the calls.  We have the goal to get enough volunteers we can have some come after hours to make the calls, while we are not open for services and then we would also like to be able to have the center open in the evenings.  We may have found a volunteer today in church that will make that possible.  We'll see how that pans out.

I had my first member that I helped go through the whole PEF application process send her request in this week.  I worked with her during the Planning for Success workshop and then I helped her fill out her request online.  She has been working as a pre-school teacher, but needs to get certified.  Your pay goes up immensely when you can show that you have graduated and are certified.  Currently, she works full-time and gets paid equivalent to $120 a month!  Once she becomes certified, she anticipates her pay will go up to a range from $555 to $740 per month.  What a difference that will make for her and her family!  BTW, I saw a job posting for an English teacher that pays $555 a month.  Any takers?

Dave went ahead and bought me a new tablet this week.  One of the returned missionaries coming in for help had a two week old Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7 inch screen that he needed to sell since he found out it wasn't the best fit for what he needed for his classes at the university.  It has a lot more technology than we had planned to buy (and more expensive).  We may come home a lot more tech savvy than when we left!  If I can manage not to lose this one!

We also broke down and bought some drawings from a street vendor.  There are quite a few of them on the streets trying to hit up tourists.  One of them told us his name is "Johnny Cash" and he spoke a bit of English so we promised we would look at his drawings later.  Well, this week "later" came and we liked two of them enough to buy them and now have them displayed in our apartment.

This one we liked because of how well it captures what we daily see around us.  We just don't have a view of the snow capped mountain where we live.  What we see is this hillside (in photo below) everyday as we leave our apartment.

Not sure if you can make it out.  I was trying to capture the lettering that is mowed into the side of the hill.  It says Viva El Peru.

The other drawing we bought is below.  It makes us think of something Emily Rhoades would draw.  It is very well done in charcoal and also depicts a very typical scene here in Peru. You really ought to come down for a visit, Emily.  You would have a hay day here getting lots of new inspirations for drawings/paintings.  As well as taking tons of photographs.

 

I guess it was a week for house decorating because we also bought some coverings for our desk.  When we picked out the desk a number of weeks ago, we chose it for its L shape.  We didn't particularly like that it had sections of the tabletop in glass so we decided we could fix that by purchasing some cloth to cover it.  We finally got around to doing it.  We had them made up to fit each glass section.  Here is a photo showing one of them.

 I don't think the photo does the colors justice.  They are very vibrant and gives our desk a local flair.

 

Saturday I woke up sick as can be.  I somehow picked up an intestinal bug and had stomach cramping, diarrhea (pretty gross), no energy, aches & chills.  I stayed in bed all day.  Dave went to the local outdoor market all by himself and bought the produce we needed for the upcoming week.  He had no problems, a definite indicator that his Spanish is getting better.  It was a gorgeous sunny day in Cusco and we had planned on going kite flying mid-afternoon so Dave took off for that on his own and managed to go and come without any problems as well.  He was so busy flying kites he didn't take any photos.  Our neighbors, the Guerras, joined him so I hope I can get some photos from them.  

Dave took his dragon kite and he said it made a big sensation with the kids at the field.  Here in Peru they sell kites but the cheap plastic kind that are only in the shape of a diamond with various graphics on them so a kite in the shape of a dragon was quite an abnormality for them and the kids were very curious about it.  Dave said the wind was good this time and the weather was warm and he had a great time.  But he had been fighting off a cold for the last few days and I think all that wind didn't help because the next day he woke up pretty sick with head congestion and fever.

Sunday, August 23rd, we both managed to get up and go to church for three hours but that was about all we did.  We rested up and tried to get better the rest of the day.  I was on the mend but David was worse.  We visited the Villa Union ward.  Their chapel is actually very close to our apartment, closer than our own ward building, a 10 minute walk that's all and they meet at 9 am instead of 8 am the time of our home ward meetings.

Behind my back, prior to the meeting starting, Dave committed to the bishop that I would speak to the ward about the center and self-reliance.  When he let me know, he gave me the impression it was merely an introduction and invitation short announcement type of thing.  Well the announcements were given and nothing was mentioned about me coming up.  We had the sacrament and then when it came time to announce the speakers, that is when the bishop is telling everyone that I am going to SPEAK on self-reliance.  Oh my heck!  I looked at Dave and he shrugged and told me he hadn't wanted to scare me too badly.  Luckily, I've been preparing a Power Point presentation for next Sunday in the Picchu ward on spiritual principles of self-reliance so I was able to pull some of those thoughts together and give a brief 3-5 minute talk.  Learning to speak extemporaneously I think is part of being a missionary.  I'm also learning to be prepared to play the piano at anytime.  Good thing I've developed that talent well.  It's just I don't get much practice time here in Peru and they do have some hymns that we don't have in English.

We had another experience with an earthquake on Sunday as well.  Two earthquakes in two months and both on a Sunday.  This one hit later in the afternoon.  It seemed to last a good long time.  It shook our building with enough force that we decided we needed to go outside when it didn't subside after awhile.  All the buildings are cement and we've commented that we'd be dead meat if a significant earthquake were ever to hit Cusco.  We've been told that Cusco rarely gets earthquakes and yet we are here in Cusco just shy of two months and we feel a strong one!  The epicenter was actually near a town called Tambo which is 393 miles from Cusco but I think that is a bit deceiving as that is not how the crow flies but as a car drives and there are a lot of switchbacks on these mountainous roads.   So here is a screen shot of google maps showing where Tambo is compared to Cusco.

 According to Dave's caluculations using the map's legend it is more like 102 miles away as the crow flies.  It was a bigger earthquake, 6.9, than the one that hit California earlier in the day.  It was also a lot deeper about 50 miles deep.  It's a good thing it was as far away as it was.  So keep us in your prayers.  We'd sure like to make it back to the states come December 2015!

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  The scriptures are full of references to self-reliance.  We are now reading the scriptures with that mind set due to our call and we've been amazed at how many apply.  Here are a couple.

D&C 38:39  And if ye seek the riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto you, ye shall be the richest of all people, for ye shall have the riches of eternity; and it must needs be that the riches of the earth are mine to give; but beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old.

D&C 132:5  For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world.

 

Be Careful What You Wish For

or pray for... you just might get it.  During the first few weeks here in Peru, we weren't very busy and we didn't feel like we were contributing very much or like we were being diligent missionaries.  We prayed and wished for more work to do.  Well, now we have what we wished and prayed for, plenty of work!

August 10th we had a busy Sabbath day.  It was our mission president's 60th birthday and we were invited to a surprise birthday dinner in his honor.  It only involved the local senior missionaries, his assistants and the couples that work with him in the mission office so it wasn't a big group.  It was interesting to find out that President Harbertson is the same age as David, just 4 months older.

 Pres. Harbertson blowing out his candles.  You can see Dave practicing for his turn in December.

Here is the merry group.  L-R  Elder & Sister Hasler, document retrieval missionaries for family history, President & Sister Harbertson, the Rhoades, Veronica & Carlos Hale, unknown couple, Bro. & Sister Aguerra, mission secretary

 

We didn't get to stick around much, we had to eat and run because we also had our Self-Reliance Center Open House for the priesthood leaders of the Cusco stake that evening.  All the bishoprics for all the wards, the stake presidency members and their wives were all invited. It was well attended.  We had 42 people in attendance and it was a fairly big affair.  We had flowers for the office.  Below is an example of one of the arrangements. Look at the flowers not me (not the greatest photo of me)

 



You can also see an example of the English posters we use for our English classes.

 

We also had a program.  I spoke and introduced Dave & I and gave a little background of how we came about to be serving in Cusco.  Told them about the big long delay in getting our call and the obstacles we had to overcome to get out on the mission.  Then told them with how hard we had worked to get on a mission we wanted to make sure we worked hard while here in Cusco and we asked for their help.  I had also been given the assignment to plead for volunteers to help us man the center.  Dave bore his testimony.  It was short & sweet since he is still struggling with Spanish.  Each of the other volunteers bore their testimonies, Javier & Carlos both spoke on Self-Reliance and the stake president, Mario Garcia spoke.  He is great!  He is very supportive of the center and our activities.

 

After the program we invited them all to visit the center and see what resources we have.

It was a bit crowded as you can see.  This photo shows a bit of both rooms.  The leaders are in the room with the six new laptop computers, but you can see through the window that connects to our other room as well, where we have two desktop computers and printer.

 

We also served refreshments.  Not just a few nuts or cookies and punch.  We served a full meal it seems.  We served two types of empanadas (which are very popular here), chicken & cheese, a veggie tray, drinks and cake.

 

It must have been a success because we've been busy ever since with lots of people coming in to the center for help.

 

English classes continue.  It is always anybody's guess as to how many will show up for each class.  Sometimes we have to divide the group and we both teach.  Other times we are lucky if we have three to four people there.  We do have a handful of faithfuls that are coming to every lesson.

 

We started the Career Workshop this week.  We found a teacher to present the class who has experience with this workshop.  He taught it down in Lima before moving to Cusco.  He is also in his branch presidency and starting his own business so I hope he will be able to keep his commitment.  Now we just have to get the members to attend.

 

We also met with the leaders of the Picchu ward.  They have caught the vision of self-reliance.  They are asking us to help them present the Career Workshop to all their members. I told them it was really important that they be taught the underlying spiritual principles first and then the workshop so it was decided that we would meet with their ward on the 5th Sunday during the combined priesthood/relief society hour and talk about self-reliance principles and then each Saturday in September we are going to present one of the 4 lessons included as part of the Career Workshop.  It is their hope that if their members don't necessarily need help finding work right now, they will learn something they can pass on to others that they know who do need the help.  It should be interesting to see how this turns out.

 

We received some additional training from Lima this week as well via telephone conferencing.  This training was on the system that tracks the PEF recipients and their loan status.  I have been exploring the system and trying to figure things out and some of the things taught I had managed to master on my own, but I did learn a few new things that were very helpful.  There are a couple of surveys we are supposed to do with each recipient, which this training helped me learn how to handle and register in the system.  One is a graduation survey and the other is a work survey.  We are behind in all these tasks because we didn't understand the system.  We have 52 graduation surveys needing to be done and we have 245 PEF recipients (and growing) that we need to stay in contact with and track.  We received this training on Tuesday.

 

I really feel this is a mountain that needs to be conquered and it has been such a struggle.  So I determined that I would faithfully make phone calls the remainder of the week.  I wish I could report good success, but it was a flop.  So many of the recipients' contact information seems to be out of date.  Even the alternative contact information wasn't very useful.  But I did learn how to look up their bishop's contact information and stake president's information as well.  It may be slow going to get everything verified but hopefully once we do we'll be able to consistently contact them.  We learned that Cusco is in the bottom of the cellar for repayment of PEF loans.  That is not something to be proud of.  It needs to be a major emphasis for us to help turn that around.

 

By the time we hit Thursday evening when we attended our first Cusco stake self-reliance committee meeting I had devised a plan.  I asked the stake counselor to help us.  I told him I had made a list of all the recipients from his stake and that we needed help from the ward leaders to verify the contact information.  He said he would talk to all the bishops in a meeting he had scheduled for Sunday and that all I needed to do was get him my list.  I did that before the meeting was over.  Let's hope that will help.

 

Dave got to travel this week to Abancay with Carlos Hale.  I opted to stay in Cusco.  At that point, I was still hopeful regarding phone call success.  Plus I really needed some time for housekeeping items.  But to be truthful, a big factor in me choosing to stay home was what we were told the road was like to get there.  Abancay is lower in altitude than Cusco but you have to go down, then back over another mountain and then back down to reach Abancay.  Apparently, the road has many switchbacks that are quite acute and motion sickness and nausea are very common.  Dave was told to go without breakfast since it is easy with an empty stomach.  It is a 4.5 hour drive one way from Cusco to Abancay so they were planning on leaving Friday morning spending the night and coming back sometime on Saturday.  So it was the first time we worked apart since arriving in Cusco.

 

I did a lot of grunt work those two days.  I gave our apartment a good thorough cleaning, did laundry, walked all over doing errands, shopping at the markets, and working on a power point presentation for the Picchu ward and getting no where with phone calls (very frustrating).

 

Dave had a blast on his trip.  He did say he had some problems with the drive but while in Abancay he enjoyed his time.  I had given him a list of PEF recipients for that district and asked him to verify their contact information.  He came back with current telephone numbers.  He also met with some of the members who need help and met a number of the full-time missionaries out there.  He said it is much warmer, more tropical there.  He said there were banana trees, avocado trees, and mango trees.  Yup, that's tropical.  Here are some of the photos he took.

 Close up of an avocado hanging in the tree.  Here the word they use for avocado is palta.

Here is a close up of some bananas hanging in the tree.  So interesting how they grow!

 Dave says the taller tree on the left is an avocado tree and the taller tree on the right is a date tree.

 On the road to Abancay.  Apparently one of the straighter sections of the road.

I liked this photo because you can tell how high up in altitude they are since the shot is from the car window and the clouds are on level with the camera.

They passed this mountain which if it is snow covered, you know it has to be one of the higher peaks in Peru.  They are so high up it's like you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

 

Dave took quite a few photos of the tropical flowers they had there in Abancay.  Here are some of his photos.  I have no idea what types of flowers they are, except the first one does look like a daisy.  He says there were orchids there, but I don't think any of these are orchids, at least not the kind I am familiar with.

 



He said the hotel where he spent the night had a flower garden.  Here is a photo showing part of the garden. 

 

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "What an amazing source of power, of strength, and of comfort is available to each of us.  He who knows us better than we know ourselves, He who sees the larger picture and who knows the end from the beginning, has assured us that He will be there for us to provide help if we but ask.  We have the promise:  'Pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good' [D&C 90:24]  ---President Thomas S. Monson  Ensign August 2014 "Heavenly Father Said No and Yes".

Down to Business

Well, we finally did it.  We've had a fairly boring week.  No travels, no excursions, no fun activities, just work.  And it's about time!  We hit our two month mark yesterday, so we better be getting into the groove of missionary work by now.

Our leader, Carlos Hale and his companion, Javier Caseros, took a trip to Puerto Maldonado the first of the week and left us in charge of the Self-Reliance Center.  Puerto Maldonado is in the Amazon jungle area of our mission near the border with Bolivia.  We, mostly Dave, would like to visit there at some point.  It is tropical and warm all year round.  Apparently you can catch tours from Puerto Maldonado out to the jungle to see the wildlife.  But this time we stayed home and held down the fort.  Which was not as easy as you would have thought.

This is a photo we found off of the internet of Puerto Maldonado. We have not visited here ...yet!

We have three sisters who volunteer time and help run the center.  One had her baby three weeks ago and isn't currently coming in.  Another sister had family visiting from out of town this week so she didn't come in at all.  That left us with one sister and she came down sick and missed Tuesday completely and came in late Wednesday.  I am pleased to report that we managed pretty well on our own.  We were able to help the people that came in for the most part.  We did have to make a couple of calls to Brother Hale on a few things, but other than that we did pretty well. 

Part of the battle is convincing the members that we truly can help them and they don't have to resort to Brother Hale or one of the other sisters.  I think as we are here longer that will become less and less of a problem, I hope.

We completed week two of our English classes.  The number of participants has swelled to the point where for some of the classes we have to divide into two groups and both Dave and I teach that hour.  This week's class was based on talking about family.  We have noticed that the younger members seem to pick things up so much easier than the older ones.  So if you are going to learn a language, do it while you are young!

Tuesday, we also had our teacher for the Planning for Success Workshop not make it in to teach and we had three members there to take the first lesson.  Once again, I had to fill in last minute with no advance notice.  I did have a teacher's manual to follow but it was a challenge.  I think I did better than the last time this happened though.

We've been asked by the Institute director if we could teach a class.  We told him only if it was Provident Living as that would dovetail with our calling.  He said he was amiable to that and will get us a manual.  However, it doesn't look like we will be teaching that as Javier Caseros already offers that to the members.  Now they are talking about having us teach a Book of Mormon class in English for those members who have more advanced English skills.

Last Sunday  we had a long but very enjoyable Sabbath.  We started out attending our ward, where Zoila, one of our volunteers, blessed her baby.  Dave got to be part of the circle and it was a good thing, as there were only two other men, the father and a friend that participated.  They named their baby Nathan, surprisingly.  The father's name is Jimmy. We have also met a lot of men named William, Freddy, & Percy down here.  Those are not Spanish names. Where they come from we have no idea.

Our ward also just did a temple trip to the Cochabamba Bolivia temple and so testimony meeting was almost exclusively sharing testimonies by those who went about that experience.  It was a week long trip, requiring a couple days of travel each way.  It was very moving to hear them talk about the sacrifices they had made and how the Lord had opened up doors to make it possible for them to go.  It's about a two day trip just to get there and many do not have a lot of disposable income to do something like this very often.  We are sure spoiled in Utah.

Cochabamba, Bolivia temple.  This is off the web as well.  We did NOT travel to take this photo.

Last Sunday, we also decided we would join the choir that is practicing for the Cusco stake conference that is at the end of August.  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  The practice went three hours!!  They are learning Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and it is way beyond their abilities.  Not sure if we will stick with this endeavor.  We will definitely miss this week's practice.

Once Brother Hale returned from Puerto Maldonado, he put us to work getting ready for an open house the center is hosting for the leaders of the Cusco stake this Sunday, August 10th.  Friday we spent all afternoon cleaning and straightening up so we can give a tour to all those who come.  It is hoped that each bishopric and the high council members along with the stake presidency and their wives will attend.  We've been told to plan on 30 people.  We will have a short program in which Cindy has been asked to give a talk and Dave will bear his testimony among other speakers and there will be a question and answer period, a tour of the center and we will provide refreshments at the end, which we were given the bulk of the responsibility to prepare.

Yesterday, we finally had some time to do some housekeeping at our apartment and then we headed over to the other stake in Cusco, Inti Raymi, for their stake conference meetings.  Saturday at 4 pm was the leadership meeting and we were hoping that would help us meet some of the bishops and other leaders we need to work with in that stake.  We also attended the Saturday evening session that started at 6:30 pm.  Poor David, he had to sit through two two hour sessions.  Luckily, the visiting general authority, Frederico Calderon an area seventy, was a very animated and entertaining speaker.  We got to speak to him at the end of the evening session.  We also were able to meet some of the bishops for a few of the wards in that stake.

Even though we didn´t travel or go sightseeing anywhere this past week, while we were out and about doing errands we stumbled across the municipal theater and had to step inside and take a few photos.  We try not to take the same route every time we go somewhere so we can get better familiar with the city and this time we were able to enjoy exploring this theater.

This door was what got our attention.  Dave would have loved to take this home with us.

In the lobby of the theater.  Dave, your tour guide, points out the amazing mural on one side of the lobby.

This was my favorite part of the theater.  In the lobby above the entrance were all these typical Peruvian instruments but gigantic in size.

Ceiling mosaics found in the theater.

 In the different lobbies were these llama statues.  Three in the entrance lobby, these above in another smaller lobby along with a condor statue and these below in the open balcony above the main lobby.

How's this for a gilded mirror frame?  Like the artistic effect Dave used to catch both of us in the photo?

 We peeked inside the theater.  It was pretty modern and plain compared to the lobby and entrance.  You see this golden disc around Cusco a lot.

 

To all you older readers of this blog, just want to let you know we have discovered the way to lose weight without even trying - serve a foreign mission.  Both Dave and I have lost weight since we've been down here.  I've lost 10.5 pounds or 4.5 kilos in 5 weeks.  Not sure how much Dave has lost, but his clothes are looser on him as well.  So one more reason to plan on serving a mission, it can be good for your health.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:  Area Seventy Fernando Calderon in his talk to the Inti Raymi stake encouraged them to be diligent in their scripture study.  To illustrate his plea he talked about the Israelites in the desert and the fiery serpents and how many of the Israelites would not look at the brazen serpent due to the easiness of the way.  He said we in our time read about this situation and we think, "How dense were they to not look?"  He then reminded the members that studying the scriptures is an easy thing to do as well.  He asked them if generations from now, people will say the same thing about us, "How dense were they to not read their scriptures?" 

John 5:39  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life:  and they are they which testify of me.

Week of Firsts

This week we had a lot of first experiences here in our mission.

1.  Outgoing Missionary Seminar - Monday, July 28,  2014

We participated in our first Self-Reliance seminar with the outgoing missionaries.  Apparently, this was only the second tme for the seminar so it is a new practice here in this area.  We had 13 elders, no sisters who had completed their mission and were slated to leave the next day.  We had them for a one day training on self-reliance.  Carlos Hale presented first and did an excellent job discussing an overview of where should these young missionaries be headed now.  They have just completed two years of service where their entire focus has been on serving the Lord and preaching the gospel.  Often, they come home off their missions and are at a loss as to what to do with their lives and where to focus their time and attention.  It is an adjustment.  He did a great job explaining the what (education, work, family, service in the church) and the why.  I thought he painted a very good picture of how sacrifice now to make these things happen will allow them to harvest well in their later years.

We were asked to spend two hours reviewing the Career Workshop principles with the missionaries.  Normally the Career Workshop is an 8-12 hour affair.  We had to condense and present only the most important principles to these missionaries to pique their interest and encourage them to visit their centers in their home stakes to get more information.

Dave taught them a new tradition, one he had in his mission in the Gulf States back in the early 70´s.  He got them to take a group photo, with the soles of their shoes on display to prove that they had earned their walking papers to return home.  See photo below.

The elder on the left of the mission President, was our zone leader in the Cusco zone.  President Harbertson is on the far right in the front in case you couldn't distinguish him from the younger missionaries.

Side note:  July 28th is Peru´s Independence Day.  We didn´t see much celebrating.  We don´t know if it is because we were in meetings all day or what.  But no fireworks or parties in the evening.  It was a relatively quiet day.

2.  English classes -Tuesdays & Thursdays

We finally started our  Daily Dose English classes.  We are currently offering three different times, all on Tuesdays & Thursdays.  We are doing a morning class at 9 am before the Self-Reliance center opens and then two evening classes, one at 7 pm and then another class at 8:15 pm in another chapel within the Cusco stake.  Dave taught the 9 am and the 8:15 pm classes and I taught the 7 pm class as it is almost exclusively women and we felt they would be more comfortable with a female teacher.

Tuesday attendance was sparse, but we learned that both Monday and Tuesday were considered national holidays for the independence celebrations as well as the schools are in a vacation time as well.  Thursday, however, our attendance jumped.  We had 8 attend the morning class and 8 attend the 8:15 pm.  If we continue to have more people come, we will have to split the groups and both Dave & I teach every hour.

Daily Dose is an English conversation class geared to teach basic words and phrases required for daily living in an English speaking country.  The church is using it quite sucessfully for immigrants to the U.S.  We are not sure how well it will work here, where they do not hear a lot of English or required to use English but we feel it can be of benefit to them.  The course has 4 levels, with 12 lessons per level, each lesson takes one week to present.  Since it is a conversation class, the number of participants can not be large.  It is recommended 6-8 per group, 10 at the most.

The members here are anxious to learn.  We are learning as we go.  I´m confident my background teaching Spanish will help me.  Dave´s enthusiam and out-going personality will help him.

We also had a meeting with the stake president of the other stake in Cusco to get him on board with teaching these English classes to his stake members.  He was an easy sell.  They are currently announcing to their members this program and getting them to sign up and we will begin teaching classes to that stake on August 13th.  We will be doing those classes at similar times but on Wednesday and Friday evenings.

Our first week´s lesson was on Introducing Yourself and this next week is on Talking about Your Family.

3.  Home Improvement Project

Dave was a happy camper this week.  He was able to spend some time making something with his hands.  The church has a budget for apartment furnishings for us and they allocated some funds for a bookcase.  When we went shopping for furnishings, the bookcases were extremely flimsy and costly for the level of quality.  Dave told them he wanted to make the bookcase rather than buy one already made.  Well, he finally was able to make that happen and for half the cost he made us two large sturdy bookcases.  You can see Dave hard at work with his new drill below.

And this photo shows one of the finished products.  It sits at the end of our hallway.  The other one is identical and is in the bedroom that serves as our office.

All I can say is I noticed a definite lilt in his steps and a more happy tone to his voice the two days he spent an hour a day making those bookcases.  He bought himself a drill and I think he now feels complete, whereas without one I think he just wasn´t himself.

We also finally have all the furnishings for our apartment.  Friday, we did one last shopping trip with the brother assigned to take care of that and got an area rug and coffee table for the front room.  It really makes a difference.  See?

Dave relaxing in the front room.  I don't think we are going to be doing much of that from here on out.  We are getting busy!

Dave also took some time to mount some wire and we are using that to hang items on the wall.   We got this alpaca wool wall hanging when we were in Puno. 

With the additional area rugs we purchased, our apartment is finally feeling more like a home (look wise, not temperature wise).

4.  Sightseeing Adventure

I know a lot of you think we have already done a lot of sightseeing and playing around already.  What you have to understand is our chapel that we work out of is only like 4 blocks from the start of the historical district of Cusco so it is really easy to see a lot of this stuff just walking around town doing errands.  But this week we had our first planned excursion.  The families of the two sisters who help in the self-reliance center wanted to take us to see the Cristo Blanco that sits on one of the highest hills surrounding the city and do a hike/picnic.  We told them sure, so Saturday was the day. 

There are some ruins just outside of the city call Saqsaywaman, a quechua word.  We didn´t want to go into the archeological park yet, since we haven´t gotten our national ID cards yet and that gets us into these sites at a much cheaper cost, but they said if we hiked up to this Cristo Blanco statue we would be able to overlook some of the ruins. 

It turned out to be a very long, but fun and memorable day.  We had great weather and it was a lot of fun with these two families.

We met at the San Pedro market, named after the Catholic cathedral that is located there.

We were the first to arrive as the Hispanic culture does not put a lot of emphasis on punctuality.  While we were waiting, of course, the street vendors tried to get us to buy from them.  One lady was selling jewelry and knew a bit of English, so Dave tried to recruit her to come to our English classes.  Her two year old daughter that she had with her, climbed right up onto Dave's lap while they talked.  She also had an 8 year old daughter who hit me up to buy these little llama key rings.  You see vendors selling those all over the place.  When I found out her name was Jennifer and her little sister's name was Michelle (two names I used with two of my daughters) I decided I had to provide her with a sale.

Here I am with Jennifer, a young entrepreneur, and her little sister, Michelle.

Finally our two families arrived, we bought a few items to picnic on from the market and we took off.  We headed to the Plaza de Armas and took a group photo before starting the hike.

The next thing we knew we were taking a side street off the Plaza that took us up the hillside and out of the city.  This was not an easy stroll.  I took some photos to hopefully show how steep the stairs were that we climbed.  And the stairs went on and on.  We are definitely acclimatized to the elevation now or we would never have survived even this part of the hike, and it only gets more demanding from here.

This photo shows our fearless tour guide, Gladys.  She is the one in the sweatsuit, white hat and hands on her hips.  These stairs took us up to a plaza where we found yet another church and some food vendors.  Here is a photo of a display of all the Catholic saints that was sitting outside of the church.

Dave captured the wares of one of the food vendors.  Be sure to enlarge this photo so you can see really well what she is selling.

That is guinea pigs, head, feet and all. 

 

 

Here is the view from this point in our climb/hike.  But we still have a long ways to go.

 

 



This is where the hike got interesting.  Our guide, took us off the main roadway and said there was a path where we could hike up the mountainside to get to our goal. The next thing we knew, we were having to cross this gully with a small stream over a bridge made of four large tree trunks and then we headed off into the brush following a very small path.  Often it was overgrown with bushes that we had to push the branches out of our way or duck to make it through.  We climbed up a very steep incline for most of the way.

 You can see our log bridge at the bottom of the photo above.

Here is a view looking back during our hike up the mountainside.

This photo is from above looking back on our path.  Can you see it?  Didn't think so.  We were not on a well used path to say the least.  It was quite the adventure.  The kids had a blast.  Dave & I handled the climb pretty well, making us feel like we still haven't become old geezers even though we are serving a "senior" mission.

 

After about 45-60 minutes of climbing like mountain goats we were at the top and there was the Cristo Blanco.  You can see it from just about anywhere in the city.  It is huge.  Not as huge as the one in Rio de Janeiro, however, but similar.

 

And here are the views from the top.  We had a great day for the outing.  You could see really far.  It was impressive.

 The photo above is looking straight down on Cusco.  Below is looking off to the left.  If you look hard, or enlarge the photo, you can make out the airport.

 

Here is a photo of the view zoomed in.  I think it looks very picturesque.  What's your opinion, Emily?

 

 From the top of the mountain and the White Christ statute we could see the ruins of Saqsaywaman.  We only took photos from a distance.  The only close up photo we got was the sign at the entrance of the park.

 

 The pronunciation of this Quechua word sounds a lot like "sexy woman".  I think Dave is trying to point at me and say "Now, there is a sexy woman!".

 

We will post better pictures when we finally go into the park.

 

Speaking of Quechua, they say the pronunciation is closer to English than Spanish pronunciation.  A lot of the street names are in Quechua.  Try pronouncing this street name.

The apostrophe apparently means you are supposed to do this clicking sound in your throat.  I think Quechua is tough from what little exposure we have had so far to it.

 

Both Dave and I got to do some herding during this hike.  See below and you decide who is the better shepherd.

 

 

Dave brought some kites along hoping to be able to fly them.  We've heard that August is the season for wind here but we sure couldn't get enough wind to do much flying.  Later we heard that the wind really picks up from 3 pm on, and we were there before then.  Dave is determined to get back up there before August is over.

 

Some other activities we did while up on the mountain - a tree climbing contest which Dave won.  I think one of the boys would have gone higher, but his mom starting freaking out and forbade him to go higher.

 

We also visited what they called a laguna or lagoon, but I would call it a pond.  It was full of trout and there was a restaurant there that the whole menu was just trout prepared different ways.  We didn't eat there but reading the menu list sure made my mouth water.  The kids had fun trying to catch the trout barehanded and also messing around on a paddleboat.  Even the Guerra's family dog, who was along for the day fell into the pond trying to get a drink.  The dog was in over his head.  Dave put on his fireman hat and scooped him out before anything bad happened.  The family was very impressed with his quick response time.

It had been a really fun time, but it was mid-afternoon so we needed to head back.  We were not going to go straight back down the mountain they way we climbed up so our guide knew of another way to go.  We headed down the mountain on the roadway a bit and then headed down stairs built right into the side of the mountain.  We didn't count the stairs.  I wish I had.  We went down hundreds of steps, maybe between 300-500 stairs total?  It was a least a half a mile of stairs, I think.  Here is a couple of photos to give you an idea.

 

 

On the way down we passed some flowering shrubs that we were told by our guide was the native Cusco flower.  It blooms in a number of different colors and sizes.  If the shrub is small the flowers are small and as the bush gets bigger, so do the flowers.  Here is a photo.

 



It's the same flower we saw down in Lima that was white and we called it a trumpet tree.  It wasn't a bush in Lima, but a real tree, so apparently it can get quite large.  It will also form a fruit at the base of the flower when it dries up and we have tried eating it.  It looks like a small cherry tomato but yellow and the flavor is a bit tart and sweet at the same time.



 

When we got down into the city we ended up in the San Blas area of town.  They have a plaza there where on Saturdays a lot of artisans come to sell to the tourists.  We saw a lot of pretty things but we did not have a lot of money with us as we were not out to shop.

Dave was fascinated watching this lady at work weaving her handicraft.

 

There was a museum at the plaza of a famous artist, Hilario Mendivil.  This shows the entrance to the museum.  Entrance was free so we stepped inside to take a look.

 

This artist's work is apparently distinguished by the exaggerated neck lengths he uses in his work.  Here are some examples.



We decided we are not real fans of this technique or approach.  Here is something a bit more interesting to us that he did.

 

 

By now we are pretty beat.  We gathered for one last group photo before going our separate ways.  I love this photo.  It is in front of the fountain at San Blas plaza.  We had a blast today!

 



Left to right:  Henry Guerra, Gabriel Guerra, Mariana Guerra, Gaby Guerra, Renzo Machado, Gladys Machado, other son of Gladys.

 

Spiritual Thought:  2 Kings 4:1-7  We discovered this story in the Old Testament this week that really works well with Self-Reliance.  It tells of a widow who goes to Elisha asking for help as her husband had died and left her with debt that she could not pay unless she sold her sons into servitude/bondage and she didn't want to have to do that.. (She was not self-reliant.  She did not know how to solve this problem on her own)  Elisha asked her what she had in her house. (He made her look at what her resources were). She said only a little bit of oil in a small bottle.  Elisha told her to go borrow empty vessels from her neighbors and not a few, and pour her oil into those and  Her small bottle filled even the large vessels .  He then told her to go out and sell the oil to pay off the debt. (She had to do the work.  It wasn't just given to her).  She also had to exercise faith and do what the prophet told her to do even though it may not have seemed to make sense or seem logical, or may have been hard. (We as well need to exercise faith and follow the prophetic counsel of our church leaders to become self-reliant).  Interestingly, Elisha told her to use the extra to support herself and her sons.  (God will bless us with what we need and extra if we are humble and exercise faith to obey him and his servants).