What? August already!?

After two pretty good weeks in a row, this past week was a let down.  Our Book of Mormon institute class was a bomb.  Not one of our students showed up.  Our facilitator training meeting scheduled with the Inti Raymi stake was a bomb as well.  Not one person showed up.  Not even our Victor Condori, the member of the stake presidency assigned to self-reliance, nor our stake specialist, nor any of the other committee members.  Each ward was supposed to send three people to this meeting to be trained and not one showed.  It was pretty discouraging.  We had been making such great progress with this stake and everything had been coming together.  Well, it can't be all steps forward, there has to a few steps back from time to time for things to be real, I guess.

We heard through the grapevine that the Inti Raymi stake presidency was going to be released at the stake conference scheduled for the weekend.  It's about time as President Carrasco has been serving for about 12 years now.  But we are pretty concerned.  We have come a long way with President Carrasco, gaining his confidence and building a working relationship with him.  We hope the changing of the guards doesn't set us back to square one again.  After all, we only have 4 more months to make a difference.

We did have some time to stop by Nilda Mamani's home and see how she is doing with her fight against cancer.  I have been so worried she wouldn't get treatment due to her worry about finances, and her fear of hearing bad news.  But she has been following up with the doctors and it now looks like she will have her uterus removed sometime soon.

Nilda's oldest daughter and her 6 year old daughter.  Both in pink.  How cute.  Her oldest is helping her mom with her laundry business.

We had brought her some chocolate no-bake cookies to help cheer her up.

I was pleased to hear her say that she can feel the strength of the prayers of the members.  She is calmer and more at peace about things.  She told us the doctors did another blood work up and were astonished at the results.  They came back a lot better than anticipated.

Please keep her in your prayers and please contribute to our go fund me account.  We are not getting a lot of donations as we had hoped.  Honestly, everyone should be able to contribute something!  If you could see how little she has, and feel of her sweet spirit, I'm sure you would want to help.  Seriously, $5 or $10 dollars from everyone would go a long way.

Here is the web address to make a contribution -  gofund.me/8g5dp5defc

Saturday our schedule was pretty open so we decided to go exploring with the Johnsons, the family history couple serving down here.  Their schedule as well was open.  So we took them to see the ruins just out of town called the Temple of the Moon and some additional ruins near by called Temple of the Monkeys, which they had not visited before.  They then took us to see some ruins just out of town as well, called Inkilltambo and they were pretty impressive.

 You walk down into this slot canyon just on the edge of town and you come across this impressive site - extensive terraces built by the Incas.

 You are so close to Cusco, you can still make out certain buildings and landmarks.  I am pointing at the condor statute that is located a few blocks from the Inti Raymi chapel building.

This is a kiln, used by the Spaniards, not the Incas.

 We've climbed onto the side of the terraces and above is looking back.  Below are gardening toughs.  They would plant above and allow the ditches to fill with rainwater and the plants' roots would soak up the moisture.

 There is a deep font with stone canal work leading the water into the canal.

 To get a sense of the depth of the font, look at Dave as he stands at the bottom and prepares to climb out.

 But even more interesting is the stadium seating surrounding this font.  What do you think our minds went to as we observed this spot?

 The photo below shows the view looking down from the top tier.  We couldn't help but think of this as an outdoor baptismal font.  We could just imagine holding a baptismal service at this location.

 And look below.  How beautiful the rocks fit together and they even form what looks like a flower.

It was a fun place to find.  And of course, our scoutmaster, Dave Rhoades, took us out of the slot canyon by a new path that the typical tourists don't follow that is for sure.  We walked by some mud housed built on the side of the canyon.  It really gives you a new appreciation for the living conditions we have.  They may not be as nice as the states, but they are certainly better than what many here in Peru live in.

We came home from our exploring and got ready for a birthday party for a 4 year old, Alexia Caseres, the daughter of Javier, our compatriot with self-reliance.  Man was that girl spoiled.

 She had a Frozen themed party and she even dressed up in her Elsa dress with her braid to the side, just like Elsa.  They had a big pinata prepared.  Blue and White helium balloons.

 Her mom had made up the cut outs and lettering, the cupcakes and gift bags and the table was covered with goodies to munch on.

 You can see the Elsa candle on her cake above, and the princess with her tiara below.

 And Dave wasn't going to waste his chance to be a kid.  He played with the long balloons, being silly and sword fighting with the boys.  Then he took a turn at dancing with the girls.  Good thing dancing is allowed for the senior missionaries!

 They even had someone dress up as a grown up Elsa and she conducted some of the games for the kids.  Luckily we had another commitment that forced us to leave after only about an hour.  The music had been cranked up and the kids were congregating and all the sugar was starting to kick in by the time we left.  We were sure they wouldn't even miss us.

Our other commitment was a dinner get together with some other couple missionaries, the Oxborrows.

 The Oxborrows, pictured above and Sister Oxborrow below, were finishing up their mission as records preservation (the same thing the Haslers are doing) in Huarez in central Peru.  They were doing some traveling before returning home (just like we plan to do).  Since they worked in the same area as the Haslers, they wanted to visit with them and we were invited along as well.

 It is always fun to meet other senior missionary couples, share experiences, compare notes and bond together.  Below we are saying good-by to them at their hotel.  The Oxborrows are from the Mesa, AZ area, but they had her brother and his sister along for the trip and they live in Lehi, Utah.  They had served in English-speaking Gayana about a year and a half ago, in self-reliance!  So that was fun to meet them.

The one thing our evening together proved is that no two senior missions are the same.  Even if it is in the same general service area like self-reliance or family history.

It was a pretty fun ending to a frustrating week, so it helped lift our spirits and get us in a better frame of mind to head into our next week.  We are now at the 14 month mark.  Only 4 more months to go!

Spiritual Thought for the Week: This conference talk seemed to fit the bill this week for us.
"Latter-day Saints Keep on Trying" by Elder Dale G Renlund from April 2015 General Conference.  Here are some of the best parts of his talk from our perspective.

"A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying"
"God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were."
"One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final."
"The Savior will bind up the brokenhearted...give ...beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mouring and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."
"No matter what, with His help, God expects Latter-day Saints to keep on trying."
"We must not only be tolerant while others work on their individaul illnesses; we must also be kind, patient, supportive, and understanding.  As God encourages us to keep on trying, He expects us to also allow others the space to do the same, at their own pace."
"If we don't try, we're just latter-day sinners; if we don't persevere, we're latter-day quitters; and if we don't allow other to try, we're just latter-day hypocrites."