They held three dedication services, at 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm. They broadcasted the services into all the stake centers throughout the country so our chapel, Tullumayo, became an extension of the temple for the day. Elder Uchdorft presided and Elder David Bednar accompanied him. The area presidency were in attendance. The temple president we met when we first arrived in Peru. He and his wife were serving a mission in the area offices at the time. It was a very beautiful, uplifting experience and the first time we have attended a temple dedication in Spanish. Hopefully, it won´t be the last.
Embroidered white handkerchief given to us as a gift with the design of the temple and the dedication date embroidered on it. What a great keepsake!
Sunday evening we hosted a pancake dinner. We invited the couple with the new restaurant over to taste our pancakes and discuss business ideas. We also invited over the sister missionaries and elders assigned to our Tullumayo ward, which are the zone leaders. Three of them are gringos. We figured not only would they enjoy the dinner but they could give some honest feedback to these members.
I also made a batch of brownies and they turned out perfectly! I was so excited and they tasted so wonderful. We had a great time and the members walked away with a lot of good ideas for their business.
Here we are - the Farfans, the restaurant owners, Hna. Rhoades, Elder Gonzalez, Elder Day, Hna. Miceli & Hna. Hoskins.
Monday, Cusco members were all excited as Elder Uchdorft came for a visit and held a meeting with the members. This was the first time a member of the first presidency has EVER visited Cusco so it was a historic meeting for the members.
We managed to get our inactive friend, Empe Dolmo, to go to this meeting. Pres. Uchdorft spoke simply and emphasized not to be ashamed of the gospel and standing up for our beliefs with those around us. He counseled the members to keep the commandments and to trust in the Lord and all would be well. His daughter accompanied him as well as his wife and they both spoke as well. The members were speaking about this experience for days afterwards. It is something they will remember forever.
Out of the blue we had this doctor contact us about teaching him and 3 of his coworkers the Daily Dose program so they can become fluent in English. He had provided physical therapy to Sister Sanchez after she had her knee surgery and apparently Sister Sanchez had told him about our English class. We told him we could not do it, but we would work on getting one of our students to do it. We hope we can find someone that can benefit from this and make some money as well.
Wednesday, June 24th is a BIG day here in Cusco. It is the winter solstice, but the Incas traditionally held a great celebration that day called Inti Raymi. Inti is Quechua for Sun and Raymi means Celebration or Party. It was considered a sacred religious ceremony to the Incas. All of Cusco celebrates this with a great re-enactment of these ceremonies and people from all over the world come to attend and watch this theatrical re-enactment. So of course, we can´t live here in Cusco and not attend.
WARNING: We walked away with hundreds of photos, so even though you will see only a small sample, there are still A LOT of photos ahead.
They hold it in three stages at three different locations. The first one is Qorikancha, which is only a few blocks from the chapel where our office is located. The crowds were incredible and we had to get there early and still didn't get the best spot.
Qorikancha is the field and building set on the hill. If you enlarge the photo you will be able to see better how there are people EVERYWHERE! The best spot was probably in the open balconies of the yellow building in the background.
The performers came in from all sides. They marched down the street right through the crowd. Above is the conch shell blowers, and below are Inca warriors.
What follows are some close up photos of this part of the ceremony.
Above is the Inca ruler welcoming everyone to the Inti Raymi festivities.
The daughters of the Inca ruler walk down the stairs (above) and below are the soldiers and servants.
Sorry about the quality of these photos. There was a haze and the sun was not conducive to good lighting where we were standing.
After all participants filed in (which took a while) a brief welcoming ceremony with dancing took place. The whole program is done in Quechua, the native language of the Incas, so you have to read your program guide to get the gist of what is going on.
When this part finished up, the second part took place at the Plaza de Armas. The crowd and the performers all walked up to the Plaza which is about a half a mile from Qorikancha. Here was where the crowd was the worst! Apparently, while the ceremony is taking place down at Qorikancha, people are saving places at the Plaza. So the Plaza was already crowded to start with and then came all the crowd from Qorikancha. The best spot would have been on one of the balconies, and we had a chance to do that but the price for a seat there was pretty high and we had not brought enough cash with us, but we would have gladly paid the asking price to be able to watch in comfort.
We ended up finding a spot that was in one of the four corners of the Plaza. It turned out to not be a good choice as we were jostled and pushed constantly since the spot was right where bystanders were coming and going. The one benefit was that again, the performers came in from all sides and that meant they came right in front of us.
The Inca empire was called Tihuantinsuyo and was divided up into four regions, so the performers came in from the four corners of the square and each group represented each area of the Inca empire.
Here are some photos of the performance at the Plaza.
The performers filing in and taking their spots for the ceremony that would be reenacted once the Inca ruler arrived.
We did not have a good view of the center part of the enactment which was where the fountain usually is, but they turned it into a stage. The photo below we took later in the day after the festivities had ended.
For the last corner they had this Inca mummy, which probably represented their ancestors.
Above is Dave's favorite character. He represented a deer. On his back was a deer skin. His hat had antlers and he pranced around and acted like a deer throughout the whole performance.
We got tired of all the jostling at the Plaza de Armas and decided to leave by way of the back streets. So we circled around and as we were coming back to the Plaza, we noticed people lining the street we were on. So we joined in. It turned out that the performers all exited the Plaza down this street to buses that would take them to the next act of the ceremonies, Sacsayhuaman. So we got some awesome photos as they filed past. Here are just a few.
The last stage is done right at Sacsayhuaman, one of the coolest ruins here in Cusco, just outside of town. We had reserved seats for that so it was nicer to watch. It reminded me of the Hill Cumourah Pageant as the performers ascended down the ruins and for most of the performance the ruins provided the backdrop.
It started off with a bang, or should I say, smoke bombs.
They re-enact a number of Inca ceremonies. The first one being the ceremony of the chicha, which is the purple corn drink they all love here.
Anciently the Incas fasted for three days prior to this celebration, only eating very limited items and in very small amounts. To break the fast, they bring the Inca emperor a drink in a gold goblet first and it is then passed around to all those present. The priests then pour some out on the ground in an offering to the gods to bless them with a good harvest.
The next ceremony is the fire ceremony. Anciently apparently, the Incas were not allowed to light a fire for three days prior to this ceremony. Nor were they allowed to sleep with their women for those three days either so they couldn't light that kind of fire either!
The third ceremony is the sacrifice of a llama.
The priest would cut out the heart and hold it up for all to see. If the heart continued beating after it had been cut out of the llama, that was a good omen for a prosperous year ahead. (The killing and the heart were all staged, so don't fear animal lovers)
Out of the blue we had this doctor contact us about teaching him and 3 of his coworkers the Daily Dose program so they can become fluent in English. He had provided physical therapy to Sister Sanchez after she had her knee surgery and apparently Sister Sanchez had told him about our English class. We told him we could not do it, but we would work on getting one of our students to do it. We hope we can find someone that can benefit from this and make some money as well.
Wednesday, June 24th is a BIG day here in Cusco. It is the winter solstice, but the Incas traditionally held a great celebration that day called Inti Raymi. Inti is Quechua for Sun and Raymi means Celebration or Party. It was considered a sacred religious ceremony to the Incas. All of Cusco celebrates this with a great re-enactment of these ceremonies and people from all over the world come to attend and watch this theatrical re-enactment. So of course, we can´t live here in Cusco and not attend.
WARNING: We walked away with hundreds of photos, so even though you will see only a small sample, there are still A LOT of photos ahead.
They hold it in three stages at three different locations. The first one is Qorikancha, which is only a few blocks from the chapel where our office is located. The crowds were incredible and we had to get there early and still didn't get the best spot.
Qorikancha is the field and building set on the hill. If you enlarge the photo you will be able to see better how there are people EVERYWHERE! The best spot was probably in the open balconies of the yellow building in the background.
The photo below was taken during the ceremony. If you enlarge it you will be able to see past the crowd in the foreground and see the performers on the field and on the wall of Qorikancha.
After all participants filed in (which took a while) a brief welcoming ceremony with dancing took place. The whole program is done in Quechua, the native language of the Incas, so you have to read your program guide to get the gist of what is going on.
When this part finished up, the second part took place at the Plaza de Armas. The crowd and the performers all walked up to the Plaza which is about a half a mile from Qorikancha. Here was where the crowd was the worst! Apparently, while the ceremony is taking place down at Qorikancha, people are saving places at the Plaza. So the Plaza was already crowded to start with and then came all the crowd from Qorikancha. The best spot would have been on one of the balconies, and we had a chance to do that but the price for a seat there was pretty high and we had not brought enough cash with us, but we would have gladly paid the asking price to be able to watch in comfort.
View of the Plaza from our corner
We ended up finding a spot that was in one of the four corners of the Plaza. It turned out to not be a good choice as we were jostled and pushed constantly since the spot was right where bystanders were coming and going. The one benefit was that again, the performers came in from all sides and that meant they came right in front of us.
Here's a close up of one of the actors that filed in from our corner. By the costumes they wore, they obviously represented the jungle area of the Inca empire.
The Inca empire was called Tihuantinsuyo and was divided up into four regions, so the performers came in from the four corners of the square and each group represented each area of the Inca empire.
Here are some photos of the performance at the Plaza.
We did not have a good view of the center part of the enactment which was where the fountain usually is, but they turned it into a stage. The photo below we took later in the day after the festivities had ended.
The Inca statue is usually at the top of the fountain. Now it appears as if he is standing on rock walls.
Each of the four regions brought in a statue (or should I say idol?). The first three represent the trilogy of animals that the Incas attributed sacred powers to. The puma...
The snake...
and the condor...
Below are photos of some of the memorable characters in the performance.
Above is a jungle medicine man. Below is the Inca emperor and his wife.
We got tired of all the jostling at the Plaza de Armas and decided to leave by way of the back streets. So we circled around and as we were coming back to the Plaza, we noticed people lining the street we were on. So we joined in. It turned out that the performers all exited the Plaza down this street to buses that would take them to the next act of the ceremonies, Sacsayhuaman. So we got some awesome photos as they filed past. Here are just a few.
The last stage is done right at Sacsayhuaman, one of the coolest ruins here in Cusco, just outside of town. We had reserved seats for that so it was nicer to watch. It reminded me of the Hill Cumourah Pageant as the performers ascended down the ruins and for most of the performance the ruins provided the backdrop.
It started off with a bang, or should I say, smoke bombs.
They re-enact a number of Inca ceremonies. The first one being the ceremony of the chicha, which is the purple corn drink they all love here.
The next ceremony is the fire ceremony. Anciently apparently, the Incas were not allowed to light a fire for three days prior to this ceremony. Nor were they allowed to sleep with their women for those three days either so they couldn't light that kind of fire either!
After lighting a fire, using the reflection of the sun off a gold bracelet, they send torches out to light various bonfires around the field.
In between each of the ceremonies there was dancing. Plenty of dancing.
At the end all the performers paraded around the perimeter of the field which gave us a chance to get a good look at all the costumes and take some great photos. Here are just a few.
Interesting band attire and instruments
This was surprising to see. Apparently the dancers use pig legs to dance with.
After the performance we decided not to return with the tour group since we live in Cusco and know how to find our way around. We wanted to look around the ruins.
At the end all the performers paraded around the perimeter of the field which gave us a chance to get a good look at all the costumes and take some great photos. Here are just a few.
And so now we are at the height of winter here in Peru while you guys roast up there in Utah.
All week long our apartment building was being painted. We no longer live in an dingy yellow building. It is now a bright white with grey trim.
During all these festivities, the Johnsons were manning a family history booth at the local fair, the one that kept us up our first few nights we were here in Cusco last year. We took time on Friday afternoon to stop by and see how they were doing. Since they don't speak a lot of Spanish, they utilized the full-time missionaries to do the contacting, which they would have needed to do with or without Spanish. They worked in shifts and did an amazing job collecting referrals by using family history as the springboard. It makes sense in a city that has such historical significance and background that family history would resonate with many. By the end of the fair, 10 days total, they had collected 1151 referrals that now need to be followed up with and hopefully harvested. Surely, we will see a number of baptisms from that many referrals, but it will definitely keep the missionaries busy for awhile.
The fair was a lot like a good ole state fair. With a lot of booths showing off agricultural products, vendors hawking their wares, farm animals to look at, and even a few amusement park rides.
I was also busy practicing with some of the full-time missionaries for a special musical number on Sunday. Two groups of missionaries wanted to sing and recruited me to accompany them. Luckily, their meeting times did not conflict so I was able to play for both of them. More about that in the next post.
The rest of the week was busy preparing for Saturday. We held our third English graduation for the students who completed level 3. Only a handful have graduated from all 3 levels. The members pictured above have completed all 3 levels.
Karolayne Enfante Dolmo
Empe Dolmo
Marcia Pinto Garcia
We taught them how to play Yahtzee, presented certificates and feed them a typical 4th of July picnic with hot dogs, chips, watermelon, soda and s'mores, or at least the Peruvian version of s'mores. They have these chocolate covered soda crackers that we used so we only had to put a roasted marshmallow in between or they could use a small cookie similar to the Keebler fudge stripe cookies with their roasted marshmallow, but they all enjoyed learning how to make and eat s'mores.
Spiritual Thought for the Week: John 8:12 "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
What do all those green hats people are wearing in the pictures at Qorikancha? If you are in the middle of winter there, weren't those performers pretty cold that were wearing the costumes that didn't cover very much skin?
ReplyDeleteThe green hats were free sunshades that the tour guides gave out to those who bought tickets to the events through them. And yes it is winter here, but winter doesn´t mean the same thing here. It really only means dry weather and colder temps at night but during the day it is actually warmer in my opinion than during the summer months since it rains during those months. It is all based on how much sun you have and during the winter months since it doesn´t rain, you actually have more sun so more warmth. Crazy huh?
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