B is for Baptism and Brownies!

We have been having a cold rainy stretch of weather for the last two weeks. We've seen more extended rain than normal.  Typically, when it rains you get 20 minutes to an hour at a time, but this past week we had rain last for the whole morning or all evening.  We are heading into winter down here which means cooler temperatures and drier weather but April is on the early side for this cold of weather.  They say the rain should be tapering off soon and we will head into the dry season, but it will be getting colder at nights, but we've even had low temps during the day.  One day it was only 52 degrees for a high.  This is about 15 degrees lower than normal.

Elder Rhoades finds a cup for his hot chocolate that will work with all this cold weather.

We started the week out by celebrating Javier Caseres birthday on April 13th.  He helps a lot with self-reliance.  He wouldn't tell us how old he was, but he did invite us to his home to be part of his celebration.  They started at 8:30 pm and held a brief family home evening lesson and then had everyone stand up and share their feelings towards him with the group and extend their birthday wishes to the birthday boy.  They then went into party mode.

They cranked up the music for some dancing and brought out heaping plates of oven baked chicken, baked potato and noodles.  The food was served about 10 pm.  There were probably around 25 people they were serving, so we are finding that Peruvians will do quite a bit to celebrate birthdays despite limited incomes.

 The birthday boy dancing with his wife as his daughter, Alexis looks on below.

Cheers!  Of course they served the beloved drink, chicha morada, made from the purple corn shown below.

Tuesday we treated Javier to a birthday lunch.  He wanted to go to a ceviche restaurant (a typical raw fish dish here in Peru) so he took us to a favorite place of his that was new to us.  This was the third time for me to try ceviche.  I haven't been a big fan of it to this point, but this time it was much better than the other times I've eaten it and I was able to actually enjoy it to a degree.  I must be acquiring a taste for it.  Dave had a cooked fish dish and for someone who doesn't enjoy fish, he said he actually enjoyed his as well.  So this place, El muelle de Tono, will be visited again I'm sure.

We are praying and looking for local members who can serve as self-reliance volunteers.  It is highly unlikely that another senior couple will be available to take our place when we go and so we need to help the members here become self-reliant in running the programs.  We also just need more help.  We were successful last week in signing up a new volunteer that we hope can become a facilitator for the Job Search workshop.  He actually searched us out and said he wanted to help.  He is the son-in-law to Fernando Aguerro, who had worked in Operations and Management for the church here in Cusco up until about 6 weeks ago when he was transferred to Lima.

We heard through the grapevine that the members out in Puerto Maldonado still do not have a good handle on what the PEF is and how it can help them, so we will probably be making another trip out there.  I vote for a visit in June or July when Cusco is the coldest.  A visit to the jungle will feel real nice about then.

We learned that we are going to be spending a week down in Arequipa the first part of May to get some training.  They have a large self-reliance center there that serves 7 stakes and the programs are very well developed.  We should be able to learn from them a lot of things we can implement upon our return to Cusco.

We have not been able to get the stake specialist in Inti Raymi to move things forward on his end for his stake, but we continue to try to mentor him to magnify his calling.  We did invite him to attend the My Pathway presentation on Sunday so he could observe how we have been handling it in the outlying districts.  He was very impressed and hopefully it will light a fire under him to move things forward in his stake.

Our English classes with the missionaries were quite fun this week.  With one group we worked on teaching them the EFY Medley of Sisters in Zion & Army of Helaman.  They are singing the separate parts in English and then when they join up and sing together they do it in Spanish.  It is actually sounding pretty good only after a few practices.

 Practicing EFY Medley

The other group of missionaries were learning the English lesson based on Family Home Evening so we decided we had to provide some treats.  We went into caramel corn production mode.

And the missionaries went into chow down mode

Here is one more of our students receiving their second level English certificate.

Marcia Garcia is one of our most faithful student.  She rarely misses a class and her English has improved a lot.

We learned that we had facilitated in a most unusual way a baptism that occurred this week, so we had to attend.  According to Elder Brown, the Inti Raymi zone leader, Elder Rhoades gave him a bag of chips that we had left over from the returning missionary training a few times back.  Elder Brown then shared them with a member and while visiting over this bag of chips, Elder Brown was able to gain the member's confidence and he provided a referral to a family member who was not a member.  This was who was being baptized this Sunday so Elder Brown gave us the credit for making this happen (a bit of a stretch, but a fun story anyway)

Elder Brown & Elder Taipe with their convert baptism.  Below we get in on the photo action.  We brought along a new bag of chips for the photo op.

At the baptism we met a full-time missionary we hadn't seen before and as Elder Rhoades visited with him he discovered that his father was one of Elder Rhoades' missionary companions down in the Gulf States mission!

Elder Asay junior

Oh and by the way, we also met some of the new missionaries coming in during the last change and there is an elder from Pleasant Grove!  Elder Wimmer.  He lives on Murdock Drive and about 1300 N.  He is friends with Jade Adamson.

Elder Wimmer from Pleasant Grove, fresh out of the CCM (MTC-Lima)

Our My Pathway to Self-Reliance presentation on Sunday was the first one done on the ward level here in Cusco and it was with the Villa Union ward, where Javier Caseres attends.  We had about 24 members attend and we had enough interest to start a Business workshop in their ward for the members.  We also now have the biggest group registered at one time for the Education Workshop ever.  We have 12 people signed up for the upcoming group that starts April 23rd.

And this weekend I was successful in baking a batch of brownies!  Yeah.  Maybe I will become a decent baker at 11,200 feet altitude yet!

This is what my first attempt looked like last week.  It was still edible but was more like the chocolate molten lava cake than brownies.  For some reason, I didn't take a photo of the successful pan of brownies.  I think they got eaten up too quickly!

And this photo just says Cusco, Peru perfectly

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  God loves all of His children, and He will never cease to love and to hope for us.  The plan of our Heavenly Father is clear, and His promises are great:  "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."  (John 3:17)  Elder Deiter F Uchdorf "Point of Safe Return"  April General Conference 2007

Another one bites the dust

Well, it's that time again.  Every six weeks, a group of missionaries go home and we do our self-reliance training.  I've lost track of how many groups we have done now.  But this was the second time with the new materials and it went better than last time.  We also had a smaller group as well.

They moved the training from Monday to Tuesday due to a decision on the part of church headquarters in Salt Lake, which from where we sit has the drawback of not allowing the missionaries to attend the Lima temple before going home.  Some of the Latin missionaries do not return to homes that are close to temples and that is their last chance to go to the temple for who knows how long.  Before, when they had our training on Monday, they would fly out Tuesday morning, attend the temple during the day and then fly out Tuesday night.  Now with this change they have our training all day Tuesday, fly out late Tuesday afternoon to Lima and then wait for their connecting fly to take them directly home.  They don't have any time in Lima outside of the airport.

In this group we knew the two sisters going home.  They had both come to our English classes for the missionaries while serving in their last area.  The elder in the back, first on the left is Elder Rivera.  He is from El Salvador, so of course he is a favorite of mine.  He served as Inti Raymi zone leader for awhile and then was out in Puerto Maldonado when we made our visit there.  He speaks really good English and scored in the Advanced level on his exit English test.  He invited us to stop in and see him on our way home if we decide to go back to visit El Salvador.  I must say that is VERY tempting.  The North American elder in the back row, Elder Bengtzen, we knew as well as he served as the AP almost the whole time we've been in the mission it seems.

These photos have the missionaries holding up their shoes, a tradition Dave had in his mission when he served in the Gulf States.  I have to say a number of these elders in this group are in the running for the most wasted shoes we've seen.  Elder Estrada's (third from the right) shoes are ready for the trash.  Elder Rhoades learned that Elder Jensen's (who is the first on the right in the back row) father is a retired firefighter down in Arizona.  That caused them to bond a bit.

On our way  home from the training the main artery east & west through Cusco, the Avenida de la Cultura, was shut down due to a protest march.  From time to time this happens and the people march right down the middle of the street.  We climbed up on a pedestrian walkway and got a good view of the procession as it went by.

And lo and behold it was the regional federation of civil construction, Cusco division.  I told Dave that is possibly a group that he needs to get to know if he is interested in promoting his straw-bale construction down here in Peru after our mission.

This was a week of good news.  It felt like payday as we heard about some successes that we have helped facilitate.  They are listed below in the order we heard about them this week.

1- Elder Tandazo, an elder who served here in the Cusco mission and went home to Ecuador at the end of February.  He attended our English classes for about 4-5 months regularly while serving in a sector here in Cusco.  He was on the quiet side and didn't say much.  He sent us an email this week informing us that he had been accepted into the BYU Idaho Pathway program and starts his classes April 18th!  This program allows returned missionaries to study through the internet actual courses taught at BYU Idaho at a very discounted price IF they can test high enough in their English competency and he qualified!  Wow, we were pleasantly surprised.

He sent us this photo of him as he was greeted by his family at the Guayquil airport upon his return home.

2-The Ponce family Part I  - We hadn't seen Nidia and Atilano Ponce for quite some time but we were able to touch base with them this week and find out where things were at with their efforts towards becoming more self-reliant.  Holy cow good things have been happening for them!  They made a trip high up into the mountains to a small mining town where they had heard there were lots of laundry service businesses that needed an appliance technician to deal with their machines.  He spent a week up there and made as much money as typically can be made in one month or more.  It was a god-send to them as it helped them pay off some debts that were hanging over their heads.

3-The Ponce Family Part II - Nidia also informed us that they have found a renter for their store space.  This had been one of the suggestions Dave had given them to consider as a means to generate more income as their little restaurant was not doing well.  They found a member of the church who has signed a three year contract to rent their space for 1800 soles a month (which comes to only about $600 US but here that can be a very comfortable monthly income).  They have another part of their property that is rented out to a shoe store that they are in the process of negotiating a raise in rent as it has been the same amount now for 5 years.  That currently generates 400 soles a month.  She didn't indicate what amount they were looking at raising it to.  But to bring in more than 2000 soles a month is a big improvement for them in their earnings.  We were so pleased to hear this news.  Hopefully, all will work out well for them in the long run.  We think if he were to work a regular job during this time, all of his income could be earmarked towards savings for capital to start their own business, something they have talked about since we first met them.

Piano classes, English classes, and Self-Reliance workshops continue as always.  We finally managed to present the level 2 certificates to most of our students who earned them.  Here are some photos from that.

 Our 7 pm. class above and our 8 pm class below.   Above left to right certificate earners:  Teofila Huaman, Roxana, Rolando Mamani

Below left to right:  Irma Cuadros, Carolayn Dolmo, Gina Pinto, Empe Dolmo (with certificate) Jhonathan Herrera (with certificate), Victor Dolmo and Edgar Aguerre

This weekend we made a trip over to Dave's favorite market, Barrattio.  Of course we didn't make it out without buying some souvenirs.  Look what two cute little granddaughters will be getting, hopefully in time to wear as Halloween costumes next October.

I just hope they will be the right size for them.  Also I bought a typical hat that you see the local ladies wearing all the time and I've wanted to get one for some time.  

It lies flat when you are not wearing it so it should transport easily.  But it does look a bit ridiculous on me, when it looks so appealing on these little campesinas walking around town.

This weekend was a youth conference for the youth in the Cusco stake.  They asked me to play the piano for the choir that would perform at the culmination of the conference on Sunday at their closing fireside.  I've been practicing with them for weeks now.  I had recommended that they learn the EFY medley "As Sisters in Zion and Army of Heleman" so they sang that as well as "Choose Ye This Day" from the I Walk By Faith music of Janice Knapp Perry only it was called "Escoged Hoy" and "Sirvamos Unidas/Ejercito de Helaman".  It went fairly well for latino singers.  Latinos are not the most talented in the area of singing like the Polynesians are.

But here are some photos from the talent show they had on Friday night, the first night of their conference.

This photo is from a skit one of the wards did.  These are two missionaries trying to teach a non-receptive family and the one elder on the left (who comes to our English classes) has a ninja warrior attitude and is threatening to slit their throats if they don't stop talking and listen to their discussion.  A bit extreme I would say, but meant to be funny.

A vicarious Grandpa moment at the Talent Show for Dave

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "Restoring what you cannot restore, healing the wound you cannot heal,  fixing that which you broke and cannot fix is the very purpose of the atonement of Christ...I repeat, save for the exception of the very few who defect to perdition, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no apostasy, no crime exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness.  That is the promise of the atonement of Christ."  Boyd K Packer, "The Brillant Morning of Forgiveness"  October Conference 1995.

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Holy Week, Easter & Conference all in the same week!

This week is called Semana Santa in the Latin speaking world.  I remember what it was like on my mission to El Salvador & Guatemala when I was younger so I was looking forward to seeing processions, sidewalk art and other activities.  We actually saw none of that.

We heard about some traditions that the Peruvians have that are different from where I served.  One is the blessing of Cusco by the patron saint of Cusco, Senor de Los Temblores.  Apparently that happened on Monday night.  We heard a lot of sirens and they went on for a long time.  I remember wondering what was going on.  Apparently, that was part of the ceremony.  The blessing of Senor de Los Temblores apparently is supposed to protect Cusco from major earthquakes.  Back when they had the last major earthquake in 1950, the Catholic priests rushed out of the cathedral with the statue of Senor de Los Temblores and apparently at that moment is when the earthquake stopped so the people believe this saint was responsible for protecting them.

We also heard about the tradition on Thursday, the day of the Last Supper, of eating 12 plates of food.  Six are supposed to be salty and six sweet.  We were not invited to anyone's house for that but we were told by a number of members that is what they do.  Maybe we'll have to bring this tradition home with us.  Six dessert plates!  Who wouldn't want to participate in something like that?

Friday, the day of Christ's crucifixtion, was a holiday and the city was a ghost town.  No noisy traffic.  The streets were empty of cars and people.  I have never seen the streets so deserted.

But we didn't see one single procession.  Nor did we see any sidewalk art of chalk or flower petals (which they can do it either way).  We did go up to the Plaza de Armas on Thursday night and the churches were packed.  Apparently, a tradition is to visit all 7 major Catholic cathedrals in downtown Cusco in one night.  We went into Saint Teresa's Cathedral there at the Plaza de Armas.  Normally, you have to pay to go in and tour, but we were able to get in free.  Here are some photos we took from the outside before we entered.

Here are some photos from the Plaza de Armas at night.  It is really pretty at night there but our photos didn't turn out too well.

 This cathedral above, San Cristobal, sits on a hill overlooking the Plaza de Armas.

There was a full moon just coming up over the main cathedral.  The Inca emperor tries to grab the moon as it goes by.

I did buy some Easter lillies for our apartment to help get in the mood for Easter.

We spent the weekend listening to General Conference, most of the sessions over the internet at our apartment.  We needed the time at home to do some housekeeping.  During the week, we had a young girl come to the center looking for work.  She brought her young son who is just on the verge of walking with her.  As I worked with her in opening up an LDS account and filling out her online profile for ldsjobs.org, it was hard for her to concentrate on the task due to her wiggly son, so I stepped in and held him on my lap, carried him around a bit and even took him outside to allow his mom to fill out her profile.  That was on Wednesday, I believe.   The day, Dave was finally feeling like he had conquered his stomach bug problem completely.

That evening when I went to bed, I had the worst case of itching around my abdomen and I scratched and scratched.  In the middle of the night, I woke up with my belly covered in flea bites and they stung like crazy.  I counted 18 all over my midsection.  I don't know where the fleas came from for sure, but the most likely culprit is the little boy.  I showered, changed my clothes and sprinkled flea powder on the sheets (I wasn't about to wash them in the middle of the night).

Thursday night I picked up some more bites while I slept since Friday morning as I got dressed I discovered new bites on my right leg and foot.  So Friday afternoon as soon as we finished our morning activities, I was doing wash.  Our bedsheets, our pillow cases, all my clothes that I had worn in the last few days.  We sprinkled down the furniture and throw rugs with a generous dusting of flea powder.  That managed to do the trick as no new bites have been noted since.

These flea bites take about 5 days to stop itching and a good two to three weeks to totally disappear from your skin.  We are learning that no matter how careful you try to be in what you eat, drink or handle, the conditions of Peru are impossible to avoid.  So we just do our best and smile.  It could be a lot worse, you know.

We thought Conference was excellent!  How exciting to hear about the three new temples and to listen to the messages on marriage, families, and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  A number of the talks will be helpful for self-reliance talks to the members.  It did make me a bit homesick to see the conference center and listen to the tabernacle choir.

Between Saturday conference sessions, we visited the Tupac Amaru market.  We ended up buying some more souvenirs.  Dave models them for you below.  Cute, huh?

Sunday, Easter, was Sister Julie Hasler's birthday.  Her husband invited all the senior couples, including the mission president and his wife, to a dinner between the two sessions.  He went all out.  He managed to prepare a Mexican meal complete with shredded beef, black beans, Spanish rice, shredded cheese, guacamole, salsa, even a sour cream substitute and homemade tortillas, as there is not a single supermarket in Cusco carrying tortillas right now.

He also had an awesome birthday cake made for her which we enjoyed after we watched the afternoon session of Conference.

Sister Julie Hasler with her birthday cake, complete with a chocolate bunny on top and jelly beans!

We took some photos this week of typical things we see all the time as we travel around Cusco, so here you go, an insight into life in Cusco.

 It's very common to see street vendors with children.  The one above sells empanadas while her child sleeps wrapped up in a blanket lying in an open cardboard box.  Below, this toddler's mom sells quail eggs.

Dogs lie around on the sidewalks EVERYWHERE.

Here is a photo of one of the main roads in Cusco, Avenida de la Cultura.  We ride up and down this street practically every day, sometimes multiple times as the Inti Raymi stake center and the mission office are located on this street along with two other chapels.

And as we work with the PEF and help youth get into university studies we decided we needed to take photos of one of the main universities here in Cusco, UNSAAC.

 UNSAAC stands for Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco.

Here I am in front of a mural on the building for Medical studies.

We tried to make our English classes a bit fun for the Easter holidays.  We made up a bingo game using the school vocabulary we were learning, but as you can see below, some of the gringo missionaries were having more fun making designs out of their marker beans than playing the game.

Elder Jeffrey and Elder Bird make drawings out of their bean markers.

 Elder Nicholls, the zone leader and Elder Jensen, who is from Spanish Fork called out the words.  They would put them into funny sentences.

As changes are slated for next week, we took a group photo and a lot of the missionaries were asking for photos with us.  I felt like a celebrity.

Cusco & Los Incas zone missionaries at English class.

 Sister Mendez has 9 months in Cusco, half her mission!  She figures she is outta here.

Elder Schumacher has been helping us teach English classes in the Ttio ward.  He goes home this change.  So sad.  He was a natural at presenting the lessons.

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary.  He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.  He rose from the grave to become the first fruits of them that slept.  We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles - that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God.  He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world.  His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.  God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.  - The Living Christ  2000