Arequipa & Ilo revisited

We started out the week traveling back to Arequipa and Ilo.  We left early Sunday morning and no sooner arrived in Arequipa then we took off for Ilo.  Even though this wasn´t our first time traveling in this part of Peru, I was still amazed at how barren the landscape is for most of the trip.

We took the coastal road this time as the protests over the Tia Maria mine had died down and this road was no longer shut down.  We drove through a small town where you could see protest flags everywhere, however.  The people are mostly farmers and they feel the mine company is polluting the land with their operations and it is harming their crops, from what I can gather.

Ilo was overcast and colder this time.  June and July are considered their winter months.  But it was still warmer than Cusco.

We held a short training for the facilitators again just prior to the Mi Camino fireside.  We had good attendance and much interest in the new workshops, but I want to share in particular about one sister we met there.

She arrived early for the fireside and when she saw me she gave me a big hug.  I wasn´t sure why.  During the fireside when we came to the part where we announce how to sign up for the different workshops, she jumped out of her seat and practically flew to where the sister was standing to register participants for the business workshop.  I could see she was very excited about the idea.  We talked afterwards and she told me her story.

She joined the church 3 years ago.  About a month and a half ago her husband lost his job due to an accident he was in.  They didn´t know what they would do for income.  She likes to cook, so they decided to start an empanada business.  She makes all kinds of empanadas - cheese, chicken, fish, meat, triple, etc.  She said the first day she made just 10 empanadas to sell.  But as time went on, they upped their production little by little.  Now, after just 6 weeks they sell on average 150 empanadas a day!  She gets up at 2 am to prepare the empanadas and her husband leaves at 5 am to go out and sell them.  But she didn´t complain whatsoever!  She said they make enough for their daily needs and have some left over to pay off debts they incurred from her husband´s accident.  She has plans to buy a bigger oven, hire some help, hopefully open a store location rather than sell out in the street and she would like to study to be a chef as well.  She testified of the prinicple of hard work (we talk about that in the presentation).  She also testified that God is mindful of them.  There are days when the sales don´t go well.  They pray and ask for help.  They are inspired to go into a different part of town perhaps or buyers start appearing after they pray.  It was great to talk to her.  I just wished I had gotten her name!  And I wish more members would catch on fire like she is!

Monday we returned to Arequipa by way of Moquequa so we could buy more CHEESE!!  We bought two big rounds.  One to cut up and give away to our volunteers and another for us.  Delicious.

We had Monday afternoon free so we decided to visit the number one tourist attraction in Arequipa, the Santa Catalina Monastary & Convent.  Apparently, it was for centuries and city within a city where cloistured nuns lived and worked.  In 1970, they opened up the major part of the monastary to the public but there is a section where cloistured nuns still live and work/worship.  Here are some photos.

 A painting of Santa Catalina

 There were a number of courtyards, all with the arches and colonade surrounding the patio.

These are poinsetta trees, one red, one white.  I couldn´t help but think of Liz Woofenden.  I think she would be impressed.

 This was my favorite courtyard.  The fountain was beautiful.

 They had beautiful gardens, trees and bushes everywhere.

A favorite was geraniums as you can see from these photos below.

There were plenty of individual apartments and each one had their own kitchen.  This one below was one of the better lit apartments.  Most were on the dark side.

The kitchen ceilings were all covered with soot and when you walked in you could still smell the smoke even though the kitchens haven´t been used since 1970.

 Above the chapel with the choir seats in the foreground.  Below is a confessional.  They had 5 of them.  How many sins can a nun commit when they are living cloistured lives?

 They had an art gallery that had three wings.  I wasn´t much impressed with the paintings.  This altar piece above was impressive however.

Below is the bath.  Whoa.  It looks more like a swimming pool.  

 And this was very interesting.  Below is where they would do the laundry.  They had a canal with water flowing and then half of a large pottery bowl with a spicket coming out of the canal to allow water to flow in as needed and they would use the bowls to do the wash.

We were able to climb up on the roof of part of the monastery and got some great views.  Notice the short sleeves and no coat or sweater?  I loved Arequipa´s weather!  And they complained it was cool since it is winter.

 You can see the three volcanoes that are near Arequipa.  The large one, Misti is very close the other two behind us in the top photo are not.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by the main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas.  The doors were open to the public so we stepped in since normally the Catholic church charges admission to tour the inside.  They even let you take photos!

 It is pretty modern inside as it was only built in 1847, not that long ago compared with the cathedrals in Cusco.

 Saint Simon, holding a saw.  Took this saint´s photo as we worked the saw activity at the Nauvoo pageant country fair.

 And there is their organ.  Not as big as the one at the conference center in Salt Lake

 Very pretty columns and pulpit for the priest to preach from.

Tuesday we visited the Arequipa self-reliance center again.  I was able to give some training to their workers regarding how to work the new computer system used to track the PEF participants.  They were very grateful to get a better understanding of how to enter information and complete tasks.

We also tried to meet the couple in charge of BYU-Idaho Pathways to get some of our questions answered about that so we can provide better information to those who ask in Cusco.  We were blown away when we say the Institute building.

Carlos and Elder Rhoades standing outside the entrance.  First of all they have their own building and not just part of a stake center like we have in Cusco.  Second of all it was two stories and so large!

We weren´t able to meet the couple but we got their phone number and spoke to them and got our questions answered.  They meet on Thursday nights so if we ever get back to Arequipa we want to try to be there for Thursday so we can observe how it works.

Then we visited the restaurant of the American, Jake Marriott, whom we meet on our last visit.

We wanted to get ideas for how to help the member here that has opened up his new sandwich shop.

 We tried their pancakes that they serve.  We weren´t impressed.  But we were impressed with their donuts.  They actually tasted pretty close to regular ones.  We tried some of their cookies as well and a brownie.  We were on a sugar high when we left, but we had gotten some ideas to take back to our members.

Tuesday afternoon we met with the Arequipa mission president´s wife, Angela Zobrist, and two pair of sister missionaries, one gringa and one latina, and shared with them the Daily Dose program.  We spent two hours with them.  We even did a short version of a class so we could demonstrate how to facilitate a group.  They were very enthused about the program and anxious to get started.  I had brought my jump drive with my additional activities and ideas to share with them but found out my files had been corrupted when I worked on them at the SR center the day before.  I was pretty upset as it had all my ideas I´ve developed for these classes over the last year.  I am slowly reconstructing all my files and hopefully will get those sent to them shortly.

We got back to Cusco Wednesday morning and went straight to work at the center and with our classes.

Friday we had to start the process to renew our national ID so we can stay past the year and be legal.  Luckily, we can do that right here in Cusco rather than have to fly down to Lima like we had to do that originally a year ago.

They weren´t kidding when they said the month of June is party month here in Cusco.  The dancing in the streets continued this week with the school children presenting the typical dances they have learned.  We took Friday afternoon to watch the boys school, Garcilaso de la Vega, perform as our volunteer in the center, Gladys, has her boys attending there.  We learned that there are more than 5,000 students at that school so you can imagine the performances went on and on, group after group performed in front of stands set up in the Plaza de Armas, but they also performed in the street as they marched towards the Plaza.   Here are a few photos.  (Are you getting tired of dance photos yet?)

 The group above is pretending to ride llamas.

The group above was dressed as skunks and part of their dance was to imitate the skunk spraying so they would lift one leg and then use spray foam cans they would spray.  It was pretty funny.

 The costumes were colorful, varied and elaborate at times.  The boys took seriously the task of performing their dances.  I think it is a matter of national pride.

 The group below is dressed as cowboys.

Often the groups would be sitting resting for their turn to advance down the street and get to the Plaza.  It was slow going.  It took all afternoon and into the evening to have them all reach the Plaza and perform.

The funnest part was mingling with them as we walked up the street.  Invariably, they would surround Elder Rhoades and he would be the center of attention.

Can you locate Elder Rhoades among the group of dancers above?  Below is Renzo, the son of Gladys raised up on Elder Rhoades´shoulder.

Below, Renzo dances with his group as they wait to progress towards the Plaza.

Saturday was a full day.  What´s a P-day? we ask, as we don´t seem to have free days anymore.  We held our morning workshop for the PEF applicants, then after lunch Elder Rhoades came to the rescue of the Johnsons.

During these festivities in Cusco, a fair is held at the fair grounds near to where our first apartment was at.  The Johnsons decided to  host a booth about family history.  They put in a lot of work preparing for it and this would go over a 10 day period.  The idea was to generate interest in the public regarding family history and hopefully obtain references for the missionaries to contact afterwards and hopefully from those references convert baptisms would result with some of them.

Well, the Johnsons had been told they would have electricity in their booth so they prepared a video loop to show on a TV screen to attact attention to their booth.  Reality was there was no electricity, so they desperately needed to find an alternative way to power their computer and TV.  Dave was just the man for the job as he knows how to think outside of the box and he understands powering machines.  Rather quickly, Dave had the problem solved for them and life was good for the Johnsons.

However, this put us running late for our appointment out in Valle Sagrado for a training of the leadership in regards to the Self-Reliance Committee and how they are supposed to function.  We gave them a heads up that we would be arriving late but it turned out we arrived about an hour late and luckily the members had been willing to wait around for us.   We had a great meeting with them and have gotten the ball rolling with them to implement these SR programs out there.

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  Omni 1:26

An now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.  yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

Dancing in the Streets

I´ve heard that expression before but this past week in Cusco is probably the epitome of that saying.  On multiple days, the street just above our center was a dance floor.  We could hear bands playing, car and bus horns honking and traffic on the street below our center was backed up due to the street above being shut down to traffic.  It was crazy.  Finally one morning, as we had no one at the center, we decided to go see what all the noise was about.  For 45 minutes we watched as group after group of dancers went by.  And that was only a small segment of the whole procession!  At one point, the parade of dancers was backed up and a group had to wait to go on.  I asked them how far they were going.  I was amazed when they said San Sebastian, a neighborhood clear on the other side of town!  I googled up the distance and it is 4 to 6 kilometers depending on what streets they used.  4 kilometers would be 2.5 miles.  Some of the dancers were wearing really high heels as part of their costumes.  I think there were some pretty sore feet that night.  Here are a few photos I took as we watched this cultural tradition that occurs every June here in Cusco.

 All ages participated, adult men and women, teenagers and even children.  And they all took seriously the performance of their dance.

 Each dance and costume represents a different region or area of Peru.  The people here seem to know what dance goes with which region, but there are so many it is hard for us to keep track.

 These women are wearing costumes and performing dances typical of the Cusco region.

 The dance above originates from the jungle area of Peru.

 This one, above, was new to me.  I had never seen a costume with hats that look like haystacks and sleeves longer than the arms of the dancers.

 This one above was quite interesting as each dancer carried a stuffed animal of a llama on their back and wore these knitted masks on their face.  This group even had a donkey carrying on its back offerings to the saint which was being carried behind it.

Not sure which saint this represents but we did see this one at the Corpus Christi celebration as well.

Masks were pretty common with a lot of the dances.  Not sure why the one above is a back mask, but there were a number of groups using them.  

 The dance above is called, doctorcito, and they represent doctors.  They carried these books and would hit them with their small stick as they danced.

 Above, these teenage boys were very intent on performing well their dance.

 Many of the masks had very long noses.  I am not sure what they represent.  At one time someone told me the long noses were used to represent the Spanish race and distinguish them from the inca people.

 The bands all wore very colorful costumes.  This band´s jackets were a very bright pink.  I don´t even think the photo does the color justice.  Other bands wore purple or mint green shirts.  Not your typical band colors in the states.

 Above, this group´s costumes represented the bullfighter.  They even had small kids acting as the bulls.  It was a pretty fun dance to watch.

 These costumes were gorgeous!  And look at the braids, how they weaved gold ribbon down through their hair.  Very colorful.

 The orange costumes and the derby hats above are the costume from the region of Puno and have more of a Bolivian flavor.

These young girls amazed me how they could dance and march wearing the size of heels they have.

As for the missionary work...

We started out the week having a FHE with a family we have gotten close to.  Empe Dolmo is a return missionary, single mom with two teenage kids, a girl and a boy.  She works as a seamstress/tailor and has a shop of her own.  She works way too hard, starting early in the morning and going until 8 or 8:30 at night.  When we first got here she worked alone, but she has so much business that she now has 2-3 assistants that come in sew for her.  Whenever we visit her she constantly has people coming and going.  She has done some work for us as well.  She is as sweet as sweet can be, but she is inactive!  She has been disappointed by an ex-husband who was a return missionary and didn´t live up to the expectation that comes with that classification.  He hasn´t been there for his children.  She has been disappointed by church members and leaders who she feels have judged her and have not given her the support she needed.  Sounds way too familiar and hits a very personal nerve for me.  I have tried to share with her what I have learned and how important it is to not let the actions of others jeopardize her salvation.  We have extended nothing but love and support to her and her children since we have been here.  But so far no movement in her coming back to church.

We did a FHE lesson on faith and showed the very powerful self-reliance video used to teach this principle.  Here is a link to watch this 5 minute presentation about an experience a young girl had in the Phillipines as she exercised faith to solve a financial challenge her family was having.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-06-1110-pure-and-simple-faith?category=principle-1-exercise-faith-in-jesus-christ&lang=eng

We then invited this sister to come back to activity.  The temple dedication for the Trujillo Peru temple is soon and she is not worthy to attend, but in 3-4 years will be the dedication for the Arequipa, Peru temple and we challenged her to be worthy to participate in this event and promised her we would pay for her transportation to Arequipa so she could be a part of that if she would make herself worthy.  She was touched and said she would work towards that.  Hopefully, she means it.

We hit the year mark as missionaries on Tuesday, June 9th.  So hard to believe that a year ago we were set apart and entered the MTC as green as could be, not knowing a thing of what we were expected to do as Self-Reliance/PEF missionaries.  With a year of experience under our belt, we can now talk for hours about the topic, help anyone set up an account on LDSjobs, present workshops on Self-Reliance and Perpetual Education Fund, present firesides as well, train leaders, facilitators, volunteers and run a self-reliance center and we do it all in SPANISH!  Dave´s language ability has improved tremendously.  I have watched him go on and on in Spanish to members and non-members alike.  I have even seen him speak extemporaneously, all in a language that was pretty much foreign to him a year ago.  My Spanish as well has improved and I now feel comfortable in almost any situation.

We visited the new restaurant that has opened up in the Ponce local.  All the renovations have been completed and they have been opened for business for a couple of weeks now.  One of my PEF students has even been hired to work there.  She had set a goal to obtain employment and within a week had gotten this job.  She is a very sharp gal.

This is their placemat, but it shows the name of the restaurant and the type of food it serves.  Pan means bread and Kracio is their last name. " Donde lo típico se come con pan" means "Where the typical is eaten with bread".  They have a very small menu.  They only offer two types of sandwiches, a lomo saltado sandwich and a chicharron sandwich.  Lomo saltado is a very typical Peruvian dish but it is normally served with rice and french fries so to put it on a sandwich is unique.  And chicharron is pork and it is a very popular, well liked menu item.  They also serve brownie with ice cream.  We went to try out the brownie dish.  It was ok, but still didn´t measure up to what we consider a good brownie back home.

We really want to see this member succeed with his business.  Not only will it help him, but it will help the Ponces as well and if he can hire other members of the church, it will be a help to them.  He needs to attend the business workshop, but currently we have no group meeting for that workshop.  We set up a time to consult with him and will let you know what happens.

This weekend, our manager, Carlos Hale came in to Cusco and we had training set up with both the Cusco stake and the Inti Raymi stake leaders on Friday and Saturday nights.  This training was with the Self-Reliance committe members.  The committe is made up of five people: the counselor in the stake presidency assigned to Self-Reliance, the SR specialist, the high councilor assigned to SR, the bishop assigned to SR and the stake relief society president.  The SR committe is the one responsible for making an action plan and implementing the SR program in their stake.  They should be meeting regularly.  This has not been happening at all and I´m pretty sure none of the leaders were even aware of this part of their stewardship.

We held a two hour training with each stake and set up a follow up date for their first Self-Reliance committee meeting.  They all expressed a desire to meet and make things happen, but I am learning that saying and doing are not the same thing in the Peruvian culture.

With only six months left in our mission, our focus is on training the members themselves to do what we have been doing.  We have been told that there are no plans to replace us with another SR couple missionary anytime in the future.  We are it.  We have been told that the goal is for each church unit to become self-reliant in regards to implementation of these programs.  Seems like an appropriate goal - to be self-reliant in self-reliance.

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "...one of the salient characteristics of the Savior: His love and compassion for the downtrodden, the weary, the weak, the suffering.  Indeed, these acts of compassion are synonymous with His name.    The Lord declared in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith: "It is my purpose to provide for my saints..But it must needs be done in mine own way".  The Lord´s way consists of helping people help themselves.  The poor are exalted because they work for the temporary assistance they receive, they are taught correct principles, and they are able to lift themselves from poverty to self-reliance.  The rich are made low because they humble themselves to give generously of their means to those in need."   If the Savior were among us in mortality today, He would be found ministering to the needy, the suffering, the sick.  Following this example may be one of the reasons President Spencer W. Kimball said:  "When viewed in this light, we can see that [welfare] is not a program, but the essence of the gospel.  It is the gospel in action.  It is the crowning principle of a Christian life."

Joseph B Wirthlin, June Ensign 2015  "Helping Others in the Lord´s Way"