A Trying Week Continued....

Not much to report except that I spent the whole week sick and really didn't do much work as I spent a lot of time in our new little apartment and in bed.  To be sick for two solid weeks is not like me.  I finally broke down on Friday and went and saw a medical doctor.  The stake president of the Inti Raymi stake is a medical doctor and helps out when missionaries need medical attention.  Javier arranged for me to go see him Friday morning.

He gave me prescriptions for a bunch of medication and a lecture about how I need to eat more.  Apparently, the body burns more calories at a higher altitude as the heart beats faster to circulate the blood.  Therefore, contributing to my weight loss in the first two months I believe and President Carrasco believes it is contributing to me not being able to heal quickly as I am not, in his opinion, eating sufficient nutrients and calories for my bodies defenses to combat the germs.  So how often do you get to hear a doctor order you to eat more?

My slew of medication

The medication has kicked in quickly and I am doing better.  As our MachuPicchu trip is scheduled for next weekend, I am not taking any chances of doing too much too soon and relapsing.  I am still staying at home most of the time and doing what I can from home.

Dave held down the fort, practically teaching every single English class himself.  I went to the missionary zone lessons as the group is just too big for one teacher, but we let the gringo missionaries do a lot of the teaching so I was really there just for moral support.

The most interesting thing occurred on Tuesday.  More than half of the Cusco mission, 80 companionships, met for the whole day with David F Evans, of the First Quorum of the Seventy who is over the missionary department.  Even the missionaries out in Puerto Maldonaldo, the jungle, had been flown in to meet with him.  The only groups of missionaries not there were the ones out in the Puno/Juliana areas, but Elder Evans and President Harbertson, were going out there the next day to meet with them the following day.

We sat in on the last two hours only as we had to run the self-reliance center in the morning, but we were impressed with the last two hours.  He was letting the missionaries ask questions and teaching from Preach My Gospel, chapter 9 - How Do I Find People to Teach?  He really focused on the section Talk to Everyone, particularly the first bullet point about talking to them about their family.  He used Dave & I in a role play to show how talking to people about their family can lead to finding non-members or in-actives to teach.  He also pointed out to the missionaries that their current investigators, part-member families & currently inactive families can be a starting point and work better than talking to strangers on the street or the strong leadership families that most missionaries go to for leads.  I think he opened up a lot of the missionaries eyes to a wider vista of possibilities.

He also focused on the section Teach When You Find, Find When You Teach in Chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel.  He point blank asked the missionaries if they were doing what they are counseled to do in this section and that is asking the question, Who do you know who would be interested in and benefit from this message?”  I was flabbergasted when not one missionary raised his hand.  He challenged and committed these 80 companionships, 160 missionaries to begin to do it that very night or at the latest the next day.  He promised them the work would significantly change here if they did. It will be interesting to see how faithful these missionaries will be to being obedient to this challenge and how much faith they have in the promise of one of the Lord's representatives.

At the end of the meeting, President Harbertson announced to the missionaries that he had gotten word in the morning that his father, who was 82 years old, had passed away.  His dad had been in good health when President Harbertson left to begin serving as mission president back in July 2013, but recently his health had gone deteriorated.  I had recently learned that his father had served as a general authority from 1984 to 1989 back when the church was having the 70's serve for a set number of years and then be released.

He was called when he was only 51 years old.  I read up on his biography on the Church's website and he was called the same time Elder Nelson & Oaks were called to be apostles.  Before being called as a seventy he had served as a counselor in the General Bishopric.  He served in the Young Men's General Presidency and in the North American NW area presidency.  Dad, maybe you remember him?

We also met a young missionary serving here, Elder Black, from Blanding, UT.  Of course, Dave had to explore the family genealogy as he has Blacks in his family line.  The young elder didn't know much, but he is going to ask his parents.  Here is Elder Black with Elder Rhoades.  Related?  

We continue to settle in to our new apartment and figure out better ways to organize our things as the space is much more limited.  Here are a few things Dave has done to help.

 I really like this idea of his in the kitchen.  It allows things to be easily accessible without cluttering up the limited counterspace we have.

Here is a sample of some hooks he has installed in the hallway.  He has hung some in the bathroom and at the entrance of the apartment as well.

Saturday I was feeling well enough to do a few errands and get some items to help me organize the kitchen.  We found some shelf lining and padding that is helping me not feel so bad about the kitchen color decor.

 Here is some left over shelf lining that is on the microwave table.  The red flowers actually match quite well the red tile and the pretty yellow and white design really looks nice.

This is some left over shelf padding we found as well.  I stuck with the yellow color scheme as it seems to go well with this red/purple tile.

Here at this apartment, you hang your wash on clotheslines up on the roof.  Good thing we are on the third floor, I don't have far to go.  Here is the view I get to enjoy as I hang our wash.

I'm looking forward to doing some scripture study time up there when I get better.  It is so nice up there - sunny and warm!

During the week, Dave explored around our new neighborhood.  There is the Wanchaq market only two blocks from our house.  He bought a number of fruit items (he found a canteloupe & big purple grapes!) there and said he likes it better than the Huancaro or San Pedro markets we've been going to previously.  He also discovered a number of bus lines that will work wonderfully to get us to and from the different chapels we visit.  I think the taxi drivers are going to see a lot less business from us now.  

The fare for a bus ride to anywhere in the city is 70 cents per person one way.  That would make 1 sol 40 centavos for both of us to travel, approximately 50 cents American money.  Compare that to a minimum of 3 soles up to 6 soles each time we take a taxi anywhere.  That really doesn't amount to  a lot of savings per trip.  It's anywhere from 60 cents to 2 dollars per trip, but when you consider that some days we can take up to 4-5 trips per day, you are then talking $2.50 to $10 dollars a day, or a possible $60 a month savings.  We poor missionaries have to find every way possible to be frugal with our funds!  Remember those days, you returned missionaries out there?

Saturday, we did manage to get back to two of the three families we are trying to work with.  I managed to go with Dave to the Ponce family.  We brainstormed some more about ways to make their restaurant pass the city codes so they can operate during the day as well with minimal capital investment and then left them to ponder some more about their options.

By then I had reached my limit on what I could and should do, so I remained at home while Dave went over to the Molino market to visit the Cuadros family.  He visited with Brother Cuadros  and explained about me being sick which had prevented us from coming to see them before this.  He said he did not see the new sales ledger there at the shop that we had taught Sister Cuadros to use.

If you were to compare these families to investigators, the Ponce family is the more receptive of the two.  Not sure if we are going to have much success with the Cuadros family, at least until they decide to be obedient to gospel principles.  The difference is the Cuadros are inactive while los Ponce both serve in leadership positions, Sister Ponce as Primary president for her ward and Brother Ponce in the stake YM presidency.

Saturday evening was another dance festival.  It seems to be a very popular activity here.  This time it was the YSA age group putting on the activity.  Here are a few photos.  This time they did folk dances from other countries.  

 This was quite the dance and dancer

 This one is a Mexican folk dance

 This one is either Peru or Bolivia, I don't remember which



This one is a Columbian folk dance

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "Who is there among us that does not wound his spirit by word, thought, or deed, from Sabbath to Sabbath?  We do things for which we are sorry and desire to be forgiven...The method to obtain forgiveness is...to repent of our sins, to go to those against whom we have sinned or transgressed and obtain their forgiveness and then repair to the sacrament table where, if we have sincerely repented and put ourselves in proper condition, we shall be forgiven, and spiritual healing will come to our souls...I am a witness that there is a spirit attending the administration of the sacrament that warms the soul from head to foot; you feel the wounds of the spirit being healed, and the load being lifted.  Comfort and happiness come to the soul that is worthy and truly desirous of partaking of this spiritual food.  - Melvin J Ballard quoted by Cheryl A Esplin October General Conference 2014 "The Sacrament - A Renewal for the Soul"

A Trying Week

This has probably been one of the hardest weeks we've had on our mission.  I guess it can't all be a bed of roses and we have to taste the bitter to know the sweet.

I have been sick all week.  It started the Saturday of our English party with a terrible sore throat and it proceeded to worsen from there.  Despite trying to take it easy and rest, it just got worse.  As of this writing (Nov. 19th), I am still sick so I am on day 11.  It has really hindered how much work we've been able to do.

I think it also possibly contributed to a spirit of contention that has existed between Dave and I.  Satan truly doesn't want the work to move forward and we have started to see small but significant advances.  Both of us have had to humble ourselves and repent of our errors and make a greater effort to live close to the Spirit.  Being on a mission seems to magnify these offenses.  Serving the Lord full time can also be a refining experience as all returned missionaries can testify.  No wonder the missionaries need so much the prayers of the members! I found this video on the church's website about the refiner's fire. If you want to watch it, here is the link.  http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?=3897359657001&cid=HPTU111814487  The spiritual thought at the end of the post this week speaks to this topic as well.

The other stake here in Cusco, the Inti Raymi stake, has finally gotten on board with self-reliance.  This is a major miracle!  They have called a stake specialist who went to our training retreat in Valle Sagrado and this Sunday they actually held a stake self-reliance committee meeting which Dave attended and came back very enthused and excited about how the members reacted to the training they gave -  a big step forward!  And even more amazing is they have designated a room at the stake center as the self-reliance center for their members.  Now to get the word out to the members.

Dave standing in front of the Inti Raymi stake center.  It is by far the biggest chapel in Cusco and one of the newer ones as well.  I love the hat he is wearing.  It makes him look British, but it works great as a sun protector for his head.

Here I am in the new office.  It is pretty austere right now.  We will need to encourage the stake leaders to brighten it up.

Dave and I have committed to being at the Inti Raymi center on Wednesday and Friday mornings with the idea of training the stake specialist and any volunteers we can manage to recruit.  This week was our first week of going over there.  The specialist didn't show, but we did get a few visitors.

One visitor in particular was a counselor in the bishopric of the Cusco ward.  He was wanting to know how we can help his members as their economic situation is not the best.  Yahoo!  Another field white and ready to harvest.  He got excited upon hearing about the new workshops set to be released and said he would take that information back to his bishop.  We will need to do a follow up visit to their ward.

We started English classes with the missionaries of the Inti Raymi zone, which are Wednesday and Friday mornings since we are over there with the center.  What a different feel!  They are so much more quiet and serious than the missionaries in the Cusco zone.  Not as much comaraderie between them either.  Anyway, we gotta build more energy into the classes.  I hope that will come with time.

Dave has been meeting with the Ponce family in Picchu ward, advising them on ideas to improve their income levels.  He has had various talks with them, but has been sure to let them know they have the individual responsibility to solve their own problems and we are here to help.  He used Brother Ponce to do some work in preparing the new apartment so we could provide some extra income to them.

The Cuadros family has gone by the wayside as I´ve been too sick to do more than the minimum and Dave has been busy with our move.  Next week we will have make a contact with them.

One fun thing we did this past week was take one of our favorite English students, Empe Dolmo, out to lunch with her two kids.  Her birthday was Nov. 4th, but the 10th was the earliest we could squeeze in time to treat her to a meal out.  Since it was a Monday, we ran into a few missionaries eating at Chili's on their P-day.  Dave recruited them to join the waiters in singing happy birthday to her  as they brought her a complimentary scoop of ice cream.  Cusquenos love ice cream.  It is customary to clap while singing the birthday song.  They sing it in English and then the Spanish version.

L-R:  Karolayne, her 17 yr. old daugher, Victor, her 14 year old son and Empe, the birthday girl.

Most of our attention this past week went towards making the move to our new apartment a reality.  We didn't get any help from Henry Guerra who is over the church facilities.  He means well, but he doesn't seem to know how to move quickly, so Dave took things into his own hands and made sure we didn't lose this apartment.

The contract is still being worked out but the owners are members so they have a lot of confidence in the church.  The wife´s dad worked in the institute programs here in Cusco for many years before retiring.

Since we don't have a lot of things here, it didn't take long to pack things up, but it still took two trips with the hired truck to get things moved.  It took all day Saturday.  It didn´t help that the truck was scheduled to arrive at 1 pm and didn´t show up until 2 pm.  That is life in Peru.  Punctuality is not their forte.  Dave had asked a few members to come help, which was a good thing, and the missionaries from the Picchu ward (4 of them) came over to give service as well.

It was a bit tricky getting our king size bed up the stairwell and every piece of furniture and box had to be carted up two flights of stairs as we are now on the third floor.  By the end, we all were exhausted and the next day our legs were feeling it.

 Calif, in purple and Julio in green were two of our helpers.  They show off how tired they were after helping all day.  We took them out for dinner afterwards.  Chicken seems to be the hands down favorite of Cusquenos.

Here is a view from one of the bedroom windows.  We are directly across the street from one of the train stations here in Cusco.  This train goes to Puno & Arequipa so it is not the real busy station that Machu Picchu is.  The two hills in the background are the ones we lived by in our previous apartment.

We are now only about two blocks from the chapel.  On Monday we left our apartment 5 minutes before we needed to be at the center whereas before we had to leave about 30 minutes before needing to be there.

We are still settling in, but here are some photos of what the apartment looks like.

 This is our apartment building from the outside.  We are on the top floor on the left.  Dave is bending down near the brown metal door that we enter at.

 View from the front door, and yes, our bed is in the living room.  It gives the apartment a hotel feel, but the bedrooms face the street and the first night, Saturday, the traffic was pretty heavy well into the night.  I couldn't sleep and finally went out and slept on the couch.  Dave stuck it out but says he didn't sleep all that well, so we brainstormed and this is what we came up with.  If we can find sound deadening curtains, than we may move the bed back into the bedroom and give it another try, but for now, it stays in our living room.  We figured a good night's sleep was more important than aesthetics. We don't have that many visitors anyway.

View from the other side of the living room.  You can see we are using a tarp as the curtain...for now.

The kitchen is good size but lacked storage space.  Dave built some shelves for the kitchen that were simple to make and functional.

View looking into the kitchen above shows the shelves Dave made.  Below is a view looking out from the kitchen.  It had an opaque glass window that we decided to take out so we can easily hand food from the kitchen to the table.  Dave has promised to put a curtain rod up and allow me to have a curtain there so when we do get a rare visitor or two they can't see into the kitchen.  We do not have a separate laundry room so the washer and dryer are in the kitchen hooked up to the kitchen sink when being used.

I just had to include a photo that shows off the tile color used in the kitchen.  We don't know what the builder was thinking, perhaps he got a good price.   But it will take some getting use to, if that is even possible. The kitchen size is actually larger than the other two apartments we considered getting and many apartments we looked at so I don't want to complain, but I definitely wanted to get a photo in as a picture is worth a 1,000 words.

The shower is a work in progress.  Right now it is just a tube coming out of the wall, no shower head.  After 3 days of no shower, it was great to just have warm running water to bathe in.  So now it definitely feels like we are living in a 3rd world country!  No more high society penthouse mansion for us.  But that doesn't mean we don't want family and friends to come visit us.  The hotel prices are very reasonable and we live close to a number of them.   We'd probably even help pay for the cost since we are saving quite a bit of rent money with this move.

Just so you won't feel too sorry for us, here is a photo of the shower now, just minutes ago Dave installed a shower head!

Below you can see what we have done with the master bedroom.  It is a very glorified dressing room.  Here is the closet space.

 And below you can see our dresser.  The odd thing is this room has a post, not in the middle of the room but in an awkard position in the room, which limited what you can do in the room.  The bed was able to fit but I had to walk around the post to get into my side of the bed.  Currently we are using blankets for curtains in this room.  Since the church representative didn't help us with anything, we have been on our own to take care of all the arrangements.  Between being sick and trying to keep the self-reliance work going and moving forward, it has been difficult to find time to take care of all these things.  Especially since in Peru any task you need  to do typically will take much longer than you could do it in the states.

The other bedroom is being used as an office.  We finally have it somewhat organized so here is a photo.  The other side has a second bookshelf and it is from this window that I took our outside view.You can see the most beautiful sunsets from this room.  Not that we will be here often at that time of day, but since I've been sick and spending more time at home, I've witnessed a few.  I tried to take photos but the photos just didn't do them justice.

As you can see, it is much smaller and simpler than our first apartment.  The advantage to that is Dave ought to be able to hear me no matter what room I´m in and it is easy to heat if needs be, but being on the third floor it stays a lot warmer.  We also figured we stand a better chance of surviving if a major earthquake hits.  We won't have as many cement floors crashing down on top of us as we would have at the other apartment on the first floor. But honestly, we don't worry about that too often!

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  Being able to see ourselves clearly is essential to our spiritual growth and well-being.  If our weaknesses and shortcomings remain obscured in the shadows, then the redeeming power of the Savior cannot heal them and make them strengths.  Ironically, our blindness toward our human weaknesses will also make us blind to the divine potential that our Father yearns to nurture within each of us.

We must approach our Eternal Father with broken hearts and teachable minds.  We must be willing to learn and to change.  And, oh, how much we gain by committing to live the life our Heavenly Father intends for us.

Those who want to improve and progress, those who learn of the Savior and desire to be like Him, those who humble themselves as a little child and seek to bring their thoughts and actions into harmony with our Father in Heaven - they will experience the miracle of the Savior's Atonement.  They will surely feel God's resplendent Spirit.  They will taste the indescribable joy that is the fruit of a meek and humble heart.  They will be blessed with the desire and discipline to become true disciples of Jesus Christ.               Dieter F Uchdorft "Lord is it I?" General Conference Oct. 2014

Five Months Out Already!

November 5th was my birthday.  In honor of the only birthday I will ever have where my age is the same as my birth year, I am posting proof that I have reached the age where I would be considered an antique.  Here is a photo taken up in Utah about a year ago.  It is one of my favorites of all time.  In my humble opinion, I feel like I look very young for my age.


Below is what my hair looks like now.  Dave has wanted me to stop coloring my hair for a number of years now.  I just wasn't ready to do that.  I promised David that if we went on a foreign mission, I would forego coloring my hair while we served.  We are now five months out and I've become a silver fox.  You can see on the ends of my bangs just a vestige of my summer hair color.  I'm pretty sure by the time we return, most, if not all, of that color will be replaced with silver/grey. I guess if I'm going to serve as a full-time senior missionary I better look the part!

My birthday was a busy day, but full of surprises.  One of our English students, Emperatriz Dolmo (whose birthday was the day before mine) came over bright and early to wish me happy birthday and brought some surprises.

She brought this flower arrangement and a small tres leche cake.  They both had to have cost her a fortune.  She owns a small tailor business and works her fingers to the bone starting at 8 am and not closing shop until 8:30 pm most nights.  I was thrilled to get these flowers.  I don't think I have ever received as lovely of an arrangement but at the same time I was appalled that she would spend so much of her hard earned money on me.

Also, just a heads up.  If a latino ever tells you that it is a tradition for the birthday girl/boy to take a bite out of their cake, don't believe them!  It is a set up.  You will find your face planted into the icing and cake before you realize what has happened.  I thought the idea was to take a photo looking like you were eating your cake but it was a ploy to get your face close enough for them to shove the cake into your face.  Dave has it all on video.  If we can link it to the site , we'll include it.  It is actually pretty funny.

At the center the two full-time sister missionaries that are helping us out, surprised me with a gift of three service coupons, one for 10 minutes, one for 30 minutes and one for an hour.  The 10 minute one I used for a back massage.  It felt wonderful.  The 30 minute coupon was used to clear and polish 3 pairs of my shoes. My shoes looked brand new when they returned them.  These sisters are so silly, they delivered them with smiles and shoe polish mustaches!

Hermanas Camacho & Sanchez deliver my newly polished

 shoes, smiles & mustaches complimentary.

The one hour coupon was applied to kitchen help for our English level 1 graduation celebration on Saturday.  More on that later.

Carlos Hale, the area manager, had taken Dave & I out for lunch the day before as he was scheduled to leave town on the 5th for an extended travel itinerary related to PEF/SR.  We also had a huge cake delivered to us by Gabby Guerra, one of the center volunteers, the next morning as we had come home late the day of my birthday.  We had a FHE invite from a member we hardly knew Nov. 5th and it didn't start until 9 pm.  We didn't get home until 11 pm!  Good thing there isn't a curfew for senior missionaries.  It was a late night, but the member was a single mom that has only been a member for a year and a half yet spoke with the wisdom of a strong deep-rooted testimony.  She served us the best, hands down, hot chocolate we've had down here.  It had a merengue topping and a smooth chocolatey taste, not the typical bitter chocolate you get down here.  They called the merengue an egg cocktail.  We told them they needed to go into business and market that to at least the tourists.  We are learning that Peruvians don't have much of a sweet tooth like Americans do.

This week, I went out with Sister Condie to help her do missionary work the afternoon of my birthday while Dave worked on preparing for our English party on Saturday and making arrangements for a new apartment.  He is determined to have this one work out.  While out with Sister Condie, we visited a young 9 year old boy who is getting baptized on Saturday, gave a lesson to a less active member and looked up a few other less active people and set visiting appointments with them.  Here in Peru, the church is strong, but there is a high inactivity rate.  They probably average about a 12% attendance rate by the members.  Many members have stopped attending.  This past week, two of our taxi drivers and one shop attendant told us they were inactive members of the church.

For Emperatriz's birthday (November 4th) we had finally found a shop that sold printed birthday cards and picked out a card that had a pop out bouquet of roses inside.  We also found a pretty birthday bag and put an English Book of Mormon inside.  We wrote in the card and the book.  We told her we wanted to take her and her kids out to lunch next Monday (our most open day of the week).  When we gave her the card and book, she started to cry.  I don't think she gets a lot of pampering or extra things in her life.  Life for most people here is about work and meeting basic needs of life.

Dave had his turn to be robbed this past week.  We were riding on the bus during the 6 o'clock hour to our English class at the other stake building.  This time of day the buses tend to be rather crowded.  We have been warned to beware of theft while riding the bus.  Well, Dave was standing up since all the seats were taken and at one point he felt a hand in his left pocket.  He tried to grab it but by the time he reacted, the hand was gone and so was his cell phone.  Dave was pretty sure who had taken it and tried to get him to give it back.  He even asked me to tell the man to give him his cell phone back.  The man denied he took it, but at the very next bus stop he quickly got off.  Dave followed him.  I was left in the dust and barely got off before the bus took off again.  By the time I caught up with the man, who had turned the corner, the man had his hands up and Dave was frisking him in search of his cell phone.  Well, we left empty-handed.  We don't know for sure if he was the culprit or if it was someone else on the bus.  We feel blessed that it was the pocket with our cell phone and not Dave's wallet which was in the right pants pocket.  Dave hated that cell phone anyway and we brought two phones down with us so we switched the sim card to the other phone and will probably shop around for something reasonably priced down here to use for the rest of our mission as the back up phone is not the greatest either.

The highlight of the week was our English class Level 1 graduation activity.  We had planned for weeks, and put in a lot of time and effort for this.  We had hyped it up at the classes for the last 2-3 weeks.  We wanted everyone to have a good time to keep them enthused about learning English.  Dave prepared pioneer games that we had learned in Nauvoo.  He made the equipment to do a ring toss game and a beanbag toss (not the traditional ones that first come to mind, however).  He also prepared the soap mixture for the giant bubble maker that Kent Smith had brought down from the states.

Jhonathan, one of our students, practices making the bubbles in preparation for the party.

I planned a Bingo game so they could practice their numbers in English and Fruit Basket Upset so they could practice their food vocabulary.  We sang all the songs we have taught them so far which are Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Happy Family, The Wheels on the Bus, and the first verse of I Am A Child of God.

The stake president, Mario Garcia, printed up certificates that looked real professional and we recognized the 12 students from all 4 of our classes that had achieved at least 70% attendance for the first level classes.  That is a major accomplishment since commitment over a long period of time seems to be a difficult thing for these people.  We also named off those with over 50% attendance as honorable mention.  We encouraged more of them to qualify for the second level which starts next week.  We hope making a big deal out of it will light a fire under some of them to want to be among those awarded a certificate next time.

L-R, Jaime Reyes 17 yrs. old, Albertina Huaman, her husband, Eusebio Espejo, daughter Regina Espejo 17 yrs. old, Victor Dolmo, 14 yrs. old, Emperatriz Dolmo, Marcia Pinto, wife of President Garcia, President Garcia, Teofila Alvarado, Jhonathan.  Hellen is on the end but she was not a certificate recipient.  Two of our students had already received their certificates because they had left the area.  Hyrum Garcia had left on Nov 4th for his mission in Cochabamba Bolivia and Juliane Quispe had left for a job in Lima.  Not present was Jeremiah Reyes.

At the end we served up plates with a variety of american food.  We had done celery sticks with peanut butter and some had raisins on top for ants on a log.  We also cut up some apples and put manjar (something a kin to caramel) on top so they could see what caramel apples taste like.  They have some rather plain flat cookies that we spread some Betty Crocker vanilla & chocolate frosting on with a few sprinklers on top.  We also did small quesadillas and ice cream floats.  The food was a hit.  Everyone loved what we served.  The boys went back for seconds with the left overs.

We had about 28 of our students attend, which was a pretty good turn out.  If all had been able to come we would have had 40.

Sunday, November 9th marks 5 months serving our mission.  The time just seems to fly by and there is so much work that needs to be done.  Progress is often slow, so we can get frustrated, but with patience and persistence, these people will be blessed.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:  "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel"  Neal A Maxwell April 1998 Conference.

This whole talk is great!  I wanted to post it all, but here is what I've managed to limit myself to.

Our Heavenly Father has described His vast plan for His children by saying, “Behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39; emphasis added). Consider the significance of the Lord’s use of the word work. What He is doing so lovingly and redemptively is, nevertheless, work—even for Him! We, likewise, speak of “working out our salvation,” of the “law of the harvest,” and of the “sweat of the brow” (see Moses 5:1; see also Inspired Version, Gen. 4:1). These are not idle phrases. Instead, they underscore the importance of work. In fact, brethren, work is always a spiritual necessity even if, for some, work is not an economic necessity.

I remind you that the gospel of work is part of “the fulness of the gospel.” Though joyful, missionary work is work. Though joyful, temple work is work. Alas, a few of our underwhelmed youth work all right, but mostly at trying to please themselves.

Each form of work can stretch your talents. Nevertheless, watch for the warning lights. For instance, if you are engaged in part-time work,are all your wages spent on yourself? Is tithing paid? Is some saved for a mission? President Spencer W. Kimball gave us this crisp counsel: “[If the young man] is permitted to spend his all on himself, that spirit of selfishness may continue with him to his grave” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball [1982], 560).

Homework from school is surely a necessity, but does mental work squeeze out spiritual work entirely? Your grade-point average is very important, but what is your GPA for Christian service?

Whatever the mix of work, the hardest work you and I will ever do is to put off our selfishness. It is heavy lifting!

Knowing how to work will give you an edge in life, and experience with excellence—a special edge!

But the capacity to work and work wisely will never become obsolete. And neither will the ability to learn. Meanwhile, my young brethren, I have not seen any perspiration-free shortcuts to the celestial kingdom; there is no easy escalator to take us there.

My brethren, old and young, sweeping is the only way to describe your spiritual history and your possible future! There will always be plenty of work to do, especially for those who know how to do the Lord’s work!

This talk was apparently given in the Priesthood session, but it just as well applies to women as well as men!

Visit from Salt Lake

We started this week off with special visitors from Salt Lake.  Sister Bonnie Oscarson, YW General President, and Sister Jean Stevens, First Counselor General Primary Presidency, were in town to do focus groups with the presidents of these two organizations and provide some training.  My name had been submitted as a possible translator and I had interviewed and tested with the Lima representative in charge of making these arrangements.  In the end they found some local sisters with strong enough English skills to handle the task.  But they were holding these focus groups in the rooms directly across from our Self-Reliance Center during the afternoon hours when we are not busy working with members, so I sneaked into the meeting with Sister Oscarson and so did Sister Hasler, the other full-time senior missionary serving here in Cusco.  Here is the group photo taken afterwards.  Sister Oscarson is in front in orange and Sister Waddell (the wife of Elder Waddell of the area seventy) in green with Stefany Ahuaro, the translator in between the two.  What a thrill of a lifetime that must have been for her.  I know she was pretty nervous, but did a great job.

The Primary group came out just as we were finishing up taking our photos so I snapped a photo of that group as well.  Sister Stevens is in the back row second from the left.  Sister Harbertson, the mission president's wife is in the front on the far right in bright blue.  Not sure who was used as the translator in this group but Javier's wife attended because she is the Primary president in her ward. She is in the middle of the front row wearing the bright purple sweater and third from the left in the front in red is Nidia Ponce.  We are working with her family trying to help them become more self-sufficient.

We had another meeting with Sister Cuadros and showed her how to keep better daily records of her sales.  We challenged her to start using this system on November 1.  I knew this would be a bit challenging since she is in the flower, vase and candle business and November 2 is a big holiday in the Spanish speaking world called Dia de los Muertos.  It is a bit like our Memorial Day as everyone takes flowers and memorabilia to the graves of their loved ones and it is one of the busiest days for her business.  We'll see how she does.  It would be nice if she didn't work that day as it falls on a Sunday this year, but right now they are inactive and it is not likely they will keep the Sabbath day holy.  Every time we meet with them we are encouraging them to either pay their tithing or keep the Sabbath day holy as those are two key commandments for success with self-reliance.

Sister Sanchez and Camacho are coming regularly to the center to help.  They seem to enjoy it and are making all kinds of calls.  It has taken a burden off my shoulders.  We do have to spend more time at the center as they come in the afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 pm and have been staying until 8 pm.  They seem happy to serve.  Apparently, they had gotten quite discouraged sitting home in their apartment all the time.  Sister Camacho has 9 months out and her knee was injured while she was in the MTC and she has had two surgeries on it and still hasn't recovered so it has been quite the trial for her.  She is fluent in both English and Spanish as she is from Sinoloa, Mexico and lived for a time in Mesa, Arizona.

It was a good thing they were helping last week, as we had a computer glitch that caused me to lose my entire translation of the Family Finance workshop we were scheduled to start on Sunday.  I was in a panic since this happened on Thursday and it had taken me days to get as much translated as I had.  I mentioned this to the sisters and they jumped all over it and said they would come in extra hours to do it for me.  I was so grateful!  It didn't leave me much time to study and learn the material but I did the best I could.  After reading their translation, I decided it was a blessing in disguise to have lost my translation because their translation sounded much more natural than mine.

We had about 20 people attend the Finance Workshop and I got positive feedback from the participants afterwards.  There are 5 classes total so we'll see how many stick it out through all five lessons.  It was a holiday that day so we may have a number of new participants next Sunday.

Our apartment fell through that we talked about in our last post.  We were to the point of getting bids from painters and had two bids in hand when the landlady told us the rent was going to be more.  We told her no thank you and promptly went out looking for something else.  We got lucky and found another one only two blocks from the church where we have our center within a few days.  This one is owned by church members and we are hoping to move by November 15th.  With two other apartments not working out so far, I'm a bit skeptical.  We'll keep our fingers crossed as the rainy season is fast approaching.  Dave is determined to not let this one slip away.

One of our  volunteers in the center had her birthday on Wednesday, October 29th.  She is a very dedicated volunteer and is a big help to us.  We found out last  minute so we weren´t able to do a lot.  But we found out birthday cards are very rare here.  We looked and looked and couldn´t find a single store that sold birthday cards.  We got another volunteer to make one and brought in a cake to the center.

The birthday girl, Gladys Machado with her homemade birthday card.  This cake (below) is their version of an ice cream cake, I think,, but they use jello instead.  Inside is a cake that has been surrounded by two different layers of whipped gelatin and then on top they do regular jello.  It was really quite tasty.  You just can´t put too many candles on top or have them burn for very long or you have melted jello.

I like this photo as it shows almost the  whole Self-Reliance Center office staff.  We are just missing one volunteer.  Back row from left to right  is Hermana Rhoades, Javier Caseres, Carlos Hale (area manager), Julio Condori, Nathan (Zoila´s baby), Elder Rhoades, Zoila and in front the birthday girl, Gladys Machado.

We got a copy of the report the Clarks made to the area presidency regarding our returning missionaries training meeting we did on October 20th when they visited.  We hold those every 6 weeks as the departing missionaries return home.  It was a very thorough and detailled report.  We were blown area by how glowing and complimentary  it was.  We are now famous as the Clarks are holding us up as the exemplar for the other areas and even recommending that "the Cusco approach" be adopted area-wide (Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru & Bolivia).  It made us laugh as some of the things we did and they called "best practices" were decided on last minute or even during the training in the moment. The credit has to go to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.  We are just grateful  to be receiving inspiration since so much of what is needed down here can be overwhelming.  It´s a good thing this is the work of the Lord and we are pleased to see His hand involved in what we are doing.

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "Self-reliance is ...an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being...Salvation can be obtained on no other principle."  Thomas S Monson,  Ensign Sept 1986.

Temple in the Sky

Things just aren't slowing down here.  Not only do we have plenty to do, but time seems to just fly by.

Our English classes have almost completed the first level.  We bumped up the Inti Raymi class to the same class as our classes in the Cusco stake after we forgot to switch out the poster and came unprepared to teach one time.  We have decided to hold a celebration with all our students and play games in English and sing songs in English and of course eat American food!  We are planning that out and are excited.  That is scheduled for November 8th.

One of our most consistent students, Juliane Quispe, left for Lima as she took a job there.  We have had a lot of gospel discussions with her as she was just returning from inactivity and her testimony is rather weak.  We hope we helped strengthen her testimony and that she will continue her return to activity there in Lima.  We will miss her.

Two good things that have come out of teaching the missionaries English.  One was orchestrated by David and the other was inspiration in the moment.  David invited the zone leaders of the other group of missionaries here in Cusco, the Inti Raymi zone, to come observe what we are doing to help the Cusco zone missionaries learn English.  They came on Friday and jumped on the bandwagon and would like us to start working with their missionaries as well.  So now we just have to figure out how to fit it in.  We may have to do some juggling of our schedule.

 Here's some of our Cusco zone missionaries practicing their English by singing a Primary song.

Our two crippled sisters, Sister Camacho, from Mexico & Sister Sanchez, from Honduras are on the left.

The serendipitous occurrence was two of the sister missionaries coming to the English classes are on crutches.  They both have had surgeries on their knees.  They have been homebound and bored.  They have been in a three some and the healthy one asked if I could be her companion and go out to work with her while the other two stayed in their apartment.  An idea popped into my head, which I believe was inspiration.  I told her yes, but only if the two crippled sisters could come to the center and help us make phone calls.  Needless to say the two sisters jumped all over the idea, anything to get out of the house and be useful.  They are going to come on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to do phone calls and Wednesday and Friday mornings (the same mornings of the English classes) they are going to stick around afterwards and help in the center.  Friday was their first day and we taught them the process members need to follow and had them fill out their LDSjobs profile to familiarize themselves with what the members will need to do.

We met with the Cuadros family twice during the week to help them take an inventory of their products.  We thought it would only take one visit but they have a lot of stuff.  That seems to be the way they do business down here.  They seem to think the more inventory they have the more successful they are being.  But instead it just causes them to run up debts, as most do not have the capital to purchase outright the products to sell, rather, they buy it on credit.  We have a lot of paradigm shifting or changing of the mindsets to do with the people here.  Pray for us, because that sometimes can be more difficult than changing outward habits

We are beginning to work individually with another family that needs help.  This is within the Picchu ward where we did our Career Workshop.  The Picchu ward seems to be at a much lower economic level than many of the other wards here in Cusco.  Even the bishop is struggling to make it economically.   This family, the Ponce family, has some good things going for them like their housing is free and they run a small restaurant out of the front of their home so they usually are not lacking for food to eat.  The husband has good working skills, but they are still not making it.  Much of the problem according to the bishop is the mind set they have.  After visiting with them I have to agree with the bishop.  I'm not sure the Peruvian people know how to really work hard.  Their definition and mine are different.  They also don't seem to know how to be pro-active and make things happen.

Another big problem here is capital.  Most don't have a single extra dime, let alone a chunk of money they can use to invest in starting up a company.  Any ideas of how we can get around this and help these people own their own businesses and become self-reliant is welcome.  We are praying for inspiration because sometimes the challenges seem overwhelming.

One thing we have no doubt about.  If these people were more diligent in their obedience to two commandments - tithing and Sabbath day observance - things would be very different for them.  We are certain that we can talk until we are blue in the face about good business practices and money management, but until they live those two laws, any improvement in their standard of living will be limited.

On a more cheery note....

We made it back to Pisaq a lot sooner than we thought.  We had a Self-Reliance/PEF Fireside last Saturday in Urubamba, which is part of Valle Sagrado so we were making a trip out there anyway.  Carlos & Javier were nice enough to suggest we go out early and take some time to see some of the sights.  We were all for it.  It turned out we only had time to see one sight. 

We left with plenty of time from Cusco as we left at noon and the fireside was not until 6 pm and it is only an hour drive under normal conditions, but we did not have normal conditions.  As we were going up over the mountain, we had to drive through a pretty severe thunderstorm.  The lightening was spectacular and the rain came down pretty heavily and then changed to hail and then to snow.  We saw snow here in Peru!  The road and ground had a covering of white, enough that the car tires left tracks in the snow.  We were at a pretty high altitude at that point in the trip.  We hadn't dropped down into the valley yet. 

Hopefully you can make out the snow in this photo.  Enlarge it and you will probably be able to see it better. 

We got into Urubamba around 1:45 and had a lunch buffet at a very scenic restaurant.  I got to try llama meat.  It was very lean, but a bit tough to chew.  It had a good flavor, a lot like beef, but a bit different.  I also got to try some typical desserts I've seen before but hadn't eaten yet.  They also had the best watermelon.  Valle Sagrado is at a lower elevation so it is warmer.  Not sure if the watermelon was grown there, but it was great along with the papaya.

View looking down into the valley and the city Urubamba.  Pretty huh?

The restaurant where we ate lunch was very picturesque.   They had these outdoor cabanas where you sat and ate.

We just had to get photos of the Brazilian parrots they had there.  Proof we were in a more tropical climate.

After lunch, the rain had cleared up and the sun was out so off we went to explore and we were not disappointed.  Get ready for plenty of photos.

The drive to our destination was beautiful.  Here are some photos showing a bit of the valley.

The ruins at Pisaq were so amazing it was hard not to take a lot of photos.  The terraced hills were just the beginning. 

From a distance you can not appreciate how impressive these terraces are.  The mountainside is quite steep and high and these go on almost from bottom to top.

Closer up you can see these terraces are huge.  They certainly could grow a lot of potatoes on these mountainside terraces.  There were multiple terraced sections all over the mountainside.

The Pisaq ruins are divided into four sections - agriculture, village, a military outpost, and the temple site.  Historians believe Pisaq was built to defend the southern entrance to the Sacred Valley 

 Here is a photo looking down on the lower compound.  We didn't have time to go down and explore this part of the ruins, but we definitely want to go back again when we have more time.

 These photos are of the military section, we believe as it is built quite a ways in front of the temple site.  It was just built right into the side of the mountain it seems.

It took quite a bit of hiking to get to the temple site, but it was a very cool hike with awesome views of the valley.  Hopefully these photos help you see how high up we really were..  How the heck they got these big stones up to the top to build these structures is mind boggling.

These stairs were towards the beginning, thank goodness, before we had time to get tired out.  And this hike would definitely be difficult if you weren't acclimatized to the altitude yet. 

At one point the trail took us through a tunnel.  You can see into the tunnel behind David and it wasn´t very wide or high.  I kept thinking how the grandkids would think this was one of the coolest hikes they'd ever seen.

Part of the trail was pretty narrow and the drop off would have been dangerous.  Javier jokes about falling off in the photo below but where we were, at that point, really wasn´t much of a danger,  but later on, would have been another matter.

At the temple site looking back to the trail we had come down on.

We were a bit rushed for time so we only had time to really explore the temple site.  Our guides, Javier and Carlos, believe it is an ancient Jaredite temple site and  pointed out how the layout and rooms could represent the different areas of ordinance work in the temple.

These, they believe are possibly ruins of an ancient baptismal font.

The view from the crest looking down on the temple site.

Here they pointed out how the stone masons chiseled grooves into the rock for the next rock to sit in.  That was part of the technique for fitting them so perfectly and not needing mortar.  Can you make out the indentations?

Here are a slew of photos showing different sections of the temple site.

 



 There is a natural spring of water here and Carlos and Javier believe this area could have been the washing and anointing area of the temple grounds.

Below is the entrance to what Carlos and Javier believe to be the holy of holies or celestial area of the  temple.












The black rock inside is volcanic and they called it the "mother rock" but they believe it was where the alter was.

We felt extremely fortunate to be able to explore these sites.  What a great place to serve a mission!

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  One of the four spiritual principles of Self-Reliance is Individual Responsibility, which is based on agency.  I found this quote in the October Liahona (the Spanish version of the Ensign).

If we follow the Savior's example, instead of saying, "I do what I want," we will declare, "I do what the Father wants."  Using our moral agency this way will bring us freedom and happiness.

It seems to be contradictory that giving up our will to His brings more happiness and freedom but when we have faith to act that way, we learn the truth of that statement.