Machu Picchu (the big mountain)

Tuesday, November 8, we were picked up by a mini-bus at the Area Office and driven through hectic Lima traffic for an hour to the Airport.  There we boarded a plane for Cusco, Peru.  (Have you ever heard of Avianca Airlines)?  The flight lasted for one hour and fifteen minutes.  The last fifteen minutes were an experience you would have to pay money for at Lagoon, seated in a roller coaster car!
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We got off the plane and were immediately hit my the altitude!  Cusco sits at 11,150 ft. above sea level.  Lima is at sea level.  The drastic change was really something, which caused some of the group to suffer from altitude sickness immediately.  This includes headaches, nausea, and general weakness of the body.  Luckily, we were okay.  They took us in buses to the Incan Palace, which is an old Catholic monastery that has been converted into a luxury hotel.  As soon as we checked in they had us all drink "coca tea" to help with altitude sickness.  We don't know what that is, but it really helped after the crazy plane ride.  They also encouraged us to drink lots of caffeine and introduced us to a soda drink that is very popular here, Inca Cola.

Looks like Mountain Dew tastes like Creme Soda.

All of our meals were at the hotel in a huge dining room.  There were tables inside and outside on the patio.There was a delicious buffet for each meal with lots of Peruvian dishes like potatoes and rice, a pasta bar, fresh fruits and vegetables and of course chicken.  There were lots of different breads and rolls with a great variety of desserts like puddings, cakes, pies and filled pastries.  We met lots of the other guests at mealtime.  Twice we shared meals with Elder Falabella and that was an honor.

Zucchini bird

Our hotel room was deluxe!  We enjoyed the huge, puffy king-size bed with chocolates on our pillows at night and a huge TV.  We crashed after dinner, jumped into our fresh terry-cloth white robes, and settled down to watch the US Presidential Election returns.  What shocker!  We were expecting Hillary to be leading, but when we joined the News, it was all Trump!  We finally went to sleep at 11:30 thinking that in the end she would catch him and pass by to victory.  When we woke up in the morning we could not believe that Hillary had been beaten and that Donald Trump was our new president.

Hotel--Incan Palace

Selfie---watching election results

View from hotel window

Cusco as seen from the hotel

Across the street from the hotel is one of the famous tourist sites of Cusco, Qorikancha.  The Incan Empire in the 1400s built a temple to the Sun.  It was built of huge stones set together without mortar,

It was built here because Cusco (which means navel, or belly button) was the capital of the Incan Empire.  When the Spaniards came to Cusco, they built a huge Catholic Cathedral over the top of the Incan Temple.  They wanted to completely erase the Incan religion and left no evidence that there had once been a beautiful temple where the Cathedral stood.  In 1950 a huge earthquake toppled the cathedral and to the shock and surprise of the people, there stood in it's place, the remains of a beautiful Incan Temple.  We joined 3 of the other couples, all from South America, and had an educational, delightful tour of it.

Calderons, Valleljos, Silvas, Knapps

The constellation of the black llama

The windows of eternity and the walls without mortar

The reason we were in Cusco was the semi-annual Mission President's Seminar.  There are 32 missions in our Area and 2 MTCs.  Elder Godoy, the Area President, invited us to attend so that he could encourage the missions to adopt the Open Chapel program.  The 4 days of training are conducted by General Authorities and our leader was Elder Richard. J. Maynes of the Presidency of the Seventy. We had to contact each of the mission presidents individually to share information about our program.

It was really fun, because we got to meet so many new people.  

Elder Richard J. Maynes

Elder Godoy (Area President)

Elder Falabella

Elder Montoya

At the close of the meetings the first day, they announced that there was a transportation strike the next day, which was when we were scheduled to visit Machu Picchu.  In order to avoid the strike we would have to leave the hotel at 3:30 a.m. the next morning.  So we were up early and they greeted us with authentic little Peruvian bags filled with water, rain ponchos, snacks, sun screen, sanitizer, tissues, and bug spray.  They also provided us with hats for the sun, and walking sticks for the climb.  It was fun to see the General Authorities all decked out in their hiking gear.  We rode buses to a train station where we caught a train which took us through the "Sacred Valley" to the town of "Aguas Calientes".  There we took a bus up a steep mountain where the road was a narrow bunch of scary switch backs.

At the shops outside of the train station

Got our tickets, ready to go!

Train through the Sacred Valley

Peruvian hiking bags

Machu Picchu is an Incan City built high up in the Andes Mountains.  It is located above the Urubamba River about 50 miles from Cusco.  It is 8,000 ft. above sea level.  It was built as a religious site above the Sacred Valley in 1450 and is also known as the "Lost City of the Incas".  Mysteriously the civilization disappeared in the early 1600s.  It was never discovered by the Spaniards who conquered Cusco.  It was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham.

The people were farmers and astronomers who were skilled in making pottery and textiles.  They were religious people who worshiped the Sun and kept a near perfect calendar with use of sun-dial and windows strategically set in the walls of the buildings.  They had a water draining system which allowed for taking baths and washing clothes.  It was a reverent experience to be where they lived. 

Gate to the City

Aerial view of the Temple of the Sun

The Inca Trail

City walls without mortar

Asays, Knapps, Moores 

Piter, our excellent tour guide

Farming terraces

The second day of meetings was great.  We had arrived home late the night before and so we were late getting started.  We continued to meet with Mission Presidents and push the Open Chapel program.

Saturday, we were some of "the last gringos standing".  The altitude sickness really got to some of our group.  Some needed oxygen, and went home early.  We were blessed not to be affected too severely and Elder Falabella said we looked like we kept ourselves in good shape for our age.   He is the same age we are.  We walked around Cusco, visiting the Plaza de Armas and doing some shopping in the shopping district near the hotel.

Peruvian peasant with baby lamb

In the tourist trap

So many choices!

Treasures from our trip to Cusco

Our trip to Cusco was a great learning experience. We gained lots of new friends and respect for an ancient people who were industrious and humble descendants of Father Lehi.

 

     

Senor de los Milagros

In the early 1600's there was an earthquake in Lima, Peru and all that was left of the Catholic cathedral was one wall with a picture of Christ on the cross which had been painted by a slave. This was the first miracle-that the picture was saved and nothing else in the church was.  That is why they call it the Lord of Miracles.  Apparently there are other miracles involved too. When they rebuilt the cathedral they built it around this wall. The original picture is still there.
Every year a replica of the picture of Christ is paraded through various streets in Lima.  Every four years it comes down the street we live on.  This was that year!  The replica weighs about 2 tons which includes the heavy wooden beams that about 24 men in purple robes carry on their shoulders.  It is accompanied by a group of women in purple skirts and lace veils who walk backwards and sing.  Some of them carry incense that is burning.  There is also a band which plays.  The procession stops at the homes of those who have paid and have decorated their places with flowers and balloons.

Some of the wealthier people pay to have professionals make a "carpet of flowers'' in the street in front of their homes.  The people in the procession stop in front of those homes for a special prayer and blessing.  Each family also gives some flowers which are put up by the picture of Christ.  Our landlord was one of those who had this done.  We were able to be outside and watch the proceedings.  He said it was okay to take pictures.

In front of our apartment which is right above the picture of Christ.

Our landlord and his family with their carpet of flowers

Another flower carpet on our street

Another way to get blessings

It makes you wonder how these traditions get started.  It was a lot different than our Open Chapel last night!

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."

Sunday, Sept. 18-
We have been busy preparing for our first Open Chapel in the South America Northwest Area.  We had it last night at the LDS chapel on the corner of the streets Bogota and Brasilia in a neighborhood called La Molina.  The church is huge.

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This is the church for our first Open Chapel, You can see it from the front and from the back.

We were excited to have some of our favorite people come to the event like Elder Godoy, the Area President and his wife.

Elder Godoy is the one in the white shirt.  He was pleased with the involvement of the youth! 

We actually had over 300 visitors, which was great.  We had great support from the members who prepared excellent displays of the different auxiliary organizations.  We also had 76 non-member visitors which was super!  Lots of members brought their friends, neighbors, family members, and fellow-workers.  We were busy with 3 sets of sister missionaries all night.  They were teaching and testifying of Jesus Christ from 5:00-8:00 pm and by the time we closed the event.

 Mission President Boswell and his wife, and missionaries.

Sisters teaching---Below, Young Men teach about the Duty to God and the sacrament.

 This beautiful tapestry of Christ and the children was in the Primary room.

 Elders, dressed in white, teach at the baptismal font which is at the level of their elbows, not below ground.

 Sister missionaries begin with the words of Christ in the chapel.

The display of the Primary.

 Visitors learn at the different banners.

By the time we finished the event, this little Bishop Silva, and his wife, Liliana, who both work with us in the Area Office, were about to collapse.  They had spent the morning cleaning the chapel, and then hosted throughout the evening.

On Sunday morning we heard President Palhua, the Stake President, give a glowing report to the members of the Santa Patricia Ward, praising them for their help with the Open Chapel.  The other ward involved was the Santa Felicia Ward, the ward where we go and where Bishop Silva is our bishop.

It was a great way to begin this program here in Peru.  It will be interesting to here President Godoy's comments once we get back to the office.

This little, rather flimsy shopping cart is what we used to get these supplies to the church.  We had to take the boombox out of the box to fit it in.  We probably looked pretty funny carting these things for the 2-3 blocks we have to walk to church.  Doug carried the banners in their cases and I pulled the cart.  It was nice to have one of the members offer to take us with our supplies home after the event.