Abancay is the beginning

We started the week, (Jan 18) out in Abancay, a small city about a 6 hour drive from Cusco on a very curvy road up and over two mountain ranges.  The drive isn't too fun but Abancay is a treat.  It is at a much lower altitude so it is quite a bit warmer!  Yeah!  Dave visited back in August without me so this was my first chance to visit.  It is in a secluded valley and this time of year, a very green valley.

Here are some photos from our trip and fireside.  We were so high up at times that we were driving higher than the clouds.  It made me think of the movie titled A Walk in the Clouds.

 You can see the city of Abancay below in the photo above.  Below you can see a view of the countryside.  It is so green right now since we are in the rainy season.

 So many tiny villages and hamlets with their livestock out in the front yard.

 I like the photo below because it shows the road sign that we kept seeing over and over again - hairpin curve ahead.

Dave shows off the choclo, or corn on the cob, he bought from a roadside stand on the way out.  Hopefully you can see how huge the kernals are.  The Peruvians love to eat this corn.

There was quite a bit of water in the river this trip.

Of course no trip to Abancay would be complete without some photos of the tropical or semi-tropical plants you can see there.

We were told this was a type of tomato that has not reached maturity yet, but it was growing on a tree not from the ground.  So not sure exactly what this is.

We held our first fireside with the new program, Mi Camino a la Autosuficiencia (My Path to Self-Reliance).  We still do not have the church's printed materials so we did a do-it-yourself print job off the digital files you can find online at srs.lds.org.  It wasn't as professional and it cost a pretty penny but we were excited to finally be able to work with the members using this great program.

This photo shows the size of the meeting.  At the last minute we were told we were supposed to talk.  Great.  We thought we were only there for moral support and to field questions from the members.  We kept our part short.

After the meeting the members signed up for a follow up workshop based on what they determined their needs were at this initial fireside.

Carlos Hale, the area manager, fields questions.

Everyone excitedly discusses what they learned after the meeting.  Or maybe they are just talking about the weather as we had a very strong thunderstorm during the meeting.

Needless to say things didn't go completely smooth due to it being our first time but we learned from the experience and will make the adjustments needed.  Our next presentation is Feb. 1st in Urubamba, Sacred Valley an hour out from Cusco.

Monday we hosted both Elder Guevara, from Mexico and Elder Black, from Arizona to a birthday dinner.  They are companions and Elder Guevara had a birthday the Saturday before and Elder Black had his birthday Sunday, the day before.  We did a spaghetti dinner.  It had been so long since we had eaten spaghetti it tasted like heaven.  It helped that we had found cans of Hunts spaghetti sauce at the supermarket.

We also shared with them a video we really like that has a lot of life's lessons embedded in the animated video.  It is by Pixar, called Boundin'.  We found a Spanish version.

See my facebook page for the English version.  I'm not sure how to get that one linked to the blog.

Our area manager, Carlos Hale, traveled to Arequipa this week, and the other local member, Javier took his family down to Lima for a vacation and visit to the temple, so we were on our own to hold down the fort.  And it was a very busy week but we managed to do pretty well, I think.

We had a member come in and ask us to help her find members to work for her business.  She really preferred to hire church members.  There were 5 positions, all requiring computer skills and English ability, 4 basic English and 1 advanced English.  These are good quality jobs with good pay.  We have sent a number of members over.  We learned that 3 have been hired.  One in particular we were happy to hear was hired, a girl named Rubi.  She has been coming to our basic English classes and had asked us to help her find a job working on the computer.  We knew she had good computer skills and would be a good employee but she is only 19 and hadn't really had a real job yet.  She also has a speaking impediment that makes it a bit difficult to understand her and we were worried that employers would not look past that.  But luckily, their desire to hire members worked in her favor, I think and the fact that there are not a lot of people with good English skills kept the competition down.  What a great opportunity for her.  We wish her the best.

Another one hired is the oldest son of the Cusco stake president, Alan Garcia.  He has advanced English skills and was hired for that position.  Both he and we are excited about this opportunity for him to use his English skills in a work environment.

We did our first class using the new Education for a Better Employment material.  It still teaches a lot of the same things, just in a different format which requires more commitment and action from the students.  It will be interesting to see how the students preparation for applying for the Perpetual Education fund improves with this course.  The first four lessons follow the old program, but then they have two additional classes that talk about how to be an effective student in the classroom and outside of the classroom so it aims to teach them good study skills and provide them with other tools to be successful in their goal to graduate with a degree.

We now have a second group doing the self-employment workshop.  Our pilot group had the sixth lesson this week, which means they are halfway through the workshop.  The participants had to do a 3 minute presentation to the class members about their business and then they were able to get feedback from the group.  It turned out to be a very interesting and productive meeting.  Those that are doing the assignments and implementing the principles taught are progressing.  There are some that aren't and you can easily tell which ones they are.

We went right from that lesson over to the other stake center for the first lesson with the high councilmen in the Inti Raymi stake.  Our stake specialist was in charge, we just went to support him.  It is a good thing as he had misunderstood and had only prepared the initial My Foundation lesson which teaches a spiritual principle of self-reliance.  He was totally unprepared to teach the first lesson of the workshop.  Luckily I had the digital manual on my USB that I carry with me everywhere and the videos needed as well.  Considering his lack of preparation he did amazingly well, which speaks volumes for how well they have written the manual.  It is really designed so that anyone can handle facilitating a group if they will just follow the materials and we saw that in practice Saturday.

Saturday morning, after our institute training,we took a trip to Dave's favorite market, Barrattio.  I was looking for a typical dance costume for a fellow missionary and Dave was looking for one of his favorite things, pieces of eight.  I didn't find what I was looking for but ended up buying some other typical outfits that are actually from Bolivia or the altiplano area.

The shawl is surprisingly heavy but beautiful.  The slip is worn under the skirt with just a portion of the bottom lace part showing.  This one had sequins and everything.  I couldn't decide on which top skirt to buy so that will have to be on another trip.

Dave did get three more silver pieces of eight that he can now add to his collection.  He has 6 total now.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:  I read the article from the January Ensign on setting goals (Three Ways Setting Goals Can Be Different This Year) and it corresponds with what Elder Gay talked about in his September presentation to all church employees and what we teach the members when we are working with them on self-reliance.

1.  Know what God wants for you
2.  Know that God can help you succeed.
3.  Know that God loves you even if you feel like you have failed.

They quote Elder Uchtdorf "God loves you this very day and always.  He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits.  He loves you today with a full understanding of your struggles...He knows of your remorse for the times you have fallen short or failed.  And still He loves you...He wants you to achieve your destiny -- to return to your heavenly home in honor."