Open Chapel in the Vitarte Ward

Sunday, October 9, our church department taxi picked us up at 8:30 a.m. and we headed out to do Open Chapel training at the Vitarte Ward, address Industriales 251.  Our meetings began at 9:00 and we were assured that it was just 20 minutes from our apartment.  The driver assured us that he knew where we were going, but we got suspicious when we pulled up in front of an old deserted warehouse and he announced that we had arrived.  We assured him that it was not the chapel.  He redirected his GPS and we headed in a different direction.  This time we came to a brick fence with no gate.  We convinced him to call the Bishop of the ward, who told him where to go, but by this time we were late for the meeting.  When we finally arrived 45 minutes late, we tried to sneak into Sacrament Mtg., but "blending in" down here is not easy.  The Bishop stood and asked us to come to sit on the stand.

We did have an excellent training in a ward with about 250 people in attendance.  It was in a poor part of Lima where there are shacks on the hillsides and lots of humble people in the streets.

Saturday, October 23, a young couple from the Vitarte Ward, the Mendiettas picked us up and took us out to the chapel this time it was just a 20 minute drive.  It was an excellent experience.  The members had really worked to create beautiful, informative displays.

Elders at the Reference Table

Members at the Primary Display

The diplay of the Elder's Quorum

Relief Society Display

Young Women Room with the value colors in flags

There were some excellent missionaries in the ward who had invited lots of investigators.

Missionaries in front of the chapel with the Open Chapel banner

Delicious treats!  Peruvian cookies....

As we ended the night, we took a picture of the participants from the Vitarte Ward.

Sister missionaries teaching from the banners inside

We enjoyed working with a very humble little Bishop.  Here is a picture of  Bishop Velasquez and his wife who were super!

In the end we had about 150 visitors and lots of them brought friends who were not members of the church.  The missionaries had also invited their investigators and lots of them showed up and it was the first time that many of them had been inside of a Mormon Church.  The Elders got lots of references and we met lots of humble, great people.

Back to the future

Elder and Sister Record have been our mentors since we arrived in Lima.  He is the Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency.   We work in the same general area in the office building, and they have really taken it upon themselves to introduce us to life in Peru.  They taught us about money, taxis, and going out to eat.  They have included us in many things and we are really in their debt.
On Saturday, October 7, they decided that we needed to see some of the ancient ruins here in Lima. The sites upon which the ruins sit are called "huacas" which is pronounced "wacas".  There are 100 of them around the city and most of them have been discovered and excavated since 1980.  The biggest one that is right in the center of the city is called "Pucllana"  which is pronounced "pookaianna".  It is what remains from 3 different civilizations that date back to 600 years after Christ, the Lima, the Wari, and the Yschi.  They built their Temple, as you can see, according to the bookshelf brick construction, which is having the bricks stand on end.  This was supposedly more stable during earthquakes.  I hope we don't find out!

Sea worshipers (notice the bookshelf bricks)

Offerings

Making bricks

Courtyard

Contrast with modern buildings

As you can see from the pictures it is a great big mound of dirt.  The dirt is a very sandy, dry soil that gets all over everything.  Hand made bricks made of the dirt and sea shells form the walls and the sides of this temple site.  It is interesting to see the contrast with the Peruvian skyscrapers in the background. The hole in the ground with the two lumps in it is actually the burial place of two people who were wrapped in cloth in a sitting position and then buried.  There are different layers of bricks and as the civilizations grew, they added more layers until it became a huge pyramid.

Cactus-- yum yum?

Lunch (guinea pigs-still eaten today- Cuy)

3000 varieties of potatoes

Here they have a reminder of what life was like for the people then.  They grew over 3000 varieties of potatoes and ate lots of cactus.  They grew different varieties of quinoa and beans.  The llama was domesticated and the guinea pigs were eaten.  We were humbled at the poor circumstances in which they lived, amazed at the hard work that they did, and grateful that we didn't live back then.

Records from California

After we finished at the Huaca, we took a taxi to the beach.  There is a really modern mall built into the side of the cliffs that overlook the Pacific Ocean.  It is called Larco Mar.  There were lots of families and young people there and it was a real contrast from Pucllana.  There were Nike and Adidas stores and lots of North American shops.  That part of Lima is called Miraflores.  There are some very ritzy homes and a huge Marriott Hotel.  We saw people hang gliding off the beach, there were surfers and people out in boats.  We just stood and shivered because it was so cold!  We did catch supper at Chili's Restaurant and that was fun!  We could see out across the bay where there was a big cross that was all lit up once it got dark.

It was really interesting to see the two different parts of Lima today.  We felt like we had truly gone "back to the future."