Into New Territory

So the week started off with Cindy giving a talk in sacrament meeting in the Tullumayo ward.  They didn't have time to have both of us speak, so they asked Cindy to talk.  They said they would get Dave some other time.  We'll see...  She spoke on self-reliance, of course, but based her talk around the scripture, Moses 7:18  "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them."  Wouldn't that be great!  No poor among us.  It's possible in Zion.  Of course, she didn't mention that it took them hundreds of years to achieve.

After Sunday she promptly began to get sick and so the rest of the week she had to take it rather easy and stay at home in the evenings so she would feel up to traveling on the weekend to Juliaca & Puno where it tends to be even colder than Cusco.

Dave had to teach the Book of Mormon Institute class by himself and do some of the English classes on his own as well.  He has decided to turn the missionary English classes over to the missionaries more as we will need to travel more in the next few months.  He talked to the missionaries in the Inti Raymi zone about it and handed out a set of our posters for the first level to them.

He also met with the missionaries in Juliaca and Puno while we were there this weekend and trained them and handed out material to them as well.  He's a man on a mission when it comes to these English classes.

Our Job Search class bombed this week.  After having good attendance last week, not one single person showed up for the second class.  Wow.  Talk about discouraging.

Our second group for Education was discouraging as well.  We had 11 people signed up and only 3 showed up.  And that was with scheduling it on Saturday, the day they said was more convenient for them.

What can I say?  "Many are called but few are chosen"  seems apt in this situation.

On a positive note, one of my participates got her PEF loan approved in only 6 days!  She was so happy.

The self-reliance group being run by the leaders in Inti Raymi started this week and they had 12 in attendance!

The self-reliance groups in Abancay have completed their first set of classes.  We are trying to set a date to go out and present the certificates to the few that stuck it out for the full 12 weeks of the business workshop and did all the assignments.

Also, we have been given the name of a couple who have been called by the Ttio bishop to be self-reliance volunteers.  We were so excited to hear that.  However, we tried all week to reach them and visit with them and we couldn't get through to them.  The bishop told us they will be traveling the month of June so it won't be until July when we will be able to use them if they don't fall by the wayside.

Dave attended a Chamber of Commerce gala on Wednesday night with Javier Caseres.  To his amazement, Javier was called up on stage and recognized for the church's contributions to the business community in Cusco.

Javier & Dave hold the certificate presented to the church (ASPERSUD, the church's legal entity here in Peru) at the Chamber of Commerce gala May 27, 2015

 Dave hobnobbed with some of the rich and powerful that night.  He said they were passing around free champagne and cavier and women were dressed scantily.

It wasn't held here.  This is a photo of a casino called Babilonia, which in English is Babylon, but that is where Dave went Wed. night, into Babylon.  Side note, this photo shows below the name of the casino, "tragamonedas" which I find funny because the literal translation is "traga" - swallow and "monedas" coins.  I think it is referring to slot machines, but when you realize they are being called swallow coins, why would you go there just to let a machine swallow your coins?

He did say he had the chance to meet and talk with the owner of a chocolate factory here in town, Sol Naciente.  They gave everyone free samples of chocolate.  He thought it was eating chocolate and was disappointed to find out it was the baking chocolate with no sweetener added, very bitter.  I promised to use it to cook brownies when I have some time.

Despite not feeling 100%, we managed to visit some museums on Friday afternoon.  We visited the Museum of Popular Art, which was actually more interesting than we expected, the Museum of Natural History, which is housed in the building that was Inca Garcilaso de la Vega's house, a famous Peruvian writer back in the 1500's,

  and the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was a bit of a bust and not worth visiting except that it is housed in the Municipal Building which has a very pretty center patio and fountain.

Here are a few pieces of art work from this last museum.  The others we weren't allowed to take photos.

 Above, an oil painting of a typical Peruvian mountain landscape.  Below an interesting design for a table.

 Below, I think Dae found a long lost cousin or something.

The end of the week we traveled to Juliaca and Puno to do leader training.  This was new territory.  We have never worked with the members or leaders in Juliaca, which is a town about an hour before you get to Puno from Cusco.  And the leaders we worked with in Puno are from the other stake, Bella Vista, that hasn't done anything with self-reliance either.  Hard to believe we are almost to our one year mark and just now are starting to work with these two stakes.  But on the other hand, it is great to see the ball finally starting to roll with them.

We met with leaders only this time and trained them on the new program and their roles and responsibilities with it.  In Juliaca it was only 5 people, the ones that form the stake self-reliance committee and a few facilitators.  In Puno, the stake president wanted all his ward leaders there so it was a full meeting.  The attendance was good.

 Above is the leader meeting, early into the meeting.  It was even fuller by the time we finished.  Below is the stake presidency for the Bella Vista, Puno stake.  The man closest to the camera is the stake president.  The man standing up is his counselor assigned to self-reliance, Luis Oliviera.  I think we will be getting to know him well, at least I hope so.

What was amazing was most of them came for an hour long training and then stayed for another two hours for a meeting on PEF.  That was three hours.

The Bella Vista stake is really starting from scratch.  They don't even have all their members called to form their self-reliance committee and the counselor over self-reliance pretty much knows nothing about his duties so should be interesting to see where we go from here.

We set up a follow up time to do the Mi Camino charlar in Juliaca for July 5th so we will head out there again.  We were fortunate that the cold really wasn't bad that weekend, but it will be come July 5th.  We were not able to set a date with the Bella Vista stake.  They will need to get their ducks in a row before we can do a Mi Camino.

We flew to Juliaca instead of taking the bus.  What a treat.  It was a 55 minute flight versus an 8 hour bus ride.  It cost a bit more but it was well worth the cost.  I think our bus traveling days are over to Puno, unless the airfare costs skyrocket.

 Hotel lobby where we stayed in Puno on this trip, Conde de Lema.  Below is the view from our room.  You could catch a glimpse of Lake Titicaca if you looked to the left.

Below, Dave at breakfast at the hotel just before we left Monday morning.

The self-reliance leader in the Puno Central stake gave us a book about Tihuanaco, the ruins in Bolivia that we went to see.  Dave's all excited about it as it was written by a member of the church and talks about how the Book of Mormon relates to the ruins there.

 In Peru it is common to make xerox copies of books, so that is what this is.  Below is a graphic of the Wiracocha statue and what each part represents.

We were able to pick up our scripture bags we had custom made for us by a member that lives in Puno.  They turned out to be more like a small suitcase than a bag, but we love them anyway.  We ordered more items.  If any one likes what they see, and wants to get some as well, we'll take orders down with us in July.  They have a facebook page, Munay Art Puno where you can see a lot of samples of what they do.  They make scripture covers, ipad/tablet covers, bags & backpacks.  Take a look.

Not sure if you can make it out, but the left has the emblem of the Cusco Mission which shows MachuPicchu in the middle and around the edges it say, in Spanish, Faith, Obedience, Diligence, Charity.  Dave's emblem is the representation of the god Wiracocha that is found on the sun gate at Tiahuanaco.  Each of the bags have our names at the bottom.

Spiritual Thought for the Week: One of the attributes of the Savior we most appreciate is His infinite compassion.  My message to you tonight is that you can and must be an important part of His giving comfort to those who need comfort.  You can play your part best if you know more of how He answers those prayers for help.  Many are praying to Heavenly Father for relief, for help in carrying their burdens of grief, loneliness, and fear.  Heavenly Father hears those prayers and understands their needs.  He and His Beloved Son, the resurrected Jesus Christ have promised help.  You have seen such tests in the lives of good people you love.  You have felt a desire to help them.  We lighten the loads of others best by helping the Lord strengthen them.  Only God knows hearts, and so only He can say, in truth, "I know how you feel."  So I can only imagine, but the Lord, who loves [us] knows.  I can know only partially how much He feels joy each time you help Him bring a moment of peace and joy to a child of our Heavenly Father.  His love never fails, and we never will cease to feel in our hearts the urge "to mourn with those that mourn...and comfort those that stand in need of comfort."  Nor will the peace He promises ever leave us as we serve others for Him."  Henry B Eyring "The Comforter"  Ensign May 2015