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.

Getting the Open Chapel Program Started

Thursday, August 18th was a special day in our Area.  The "Area Review" took place in our office. That is where General Authorities from SLC come to bless the Area with their observations and suggestions.  We enjoyed a devotional presented by Elder Dale Renlund and Elder Whitney Clayton. They shook our hands and asked about our assignments here.  It was awesome!  They told us that no matter what our specific assignment was, we were first to remember that we are "Disciples of Christ."
Below is a picture of Elder Carlos Godoy, President of our Area and his wife, then the Claytons, then the Renlunds, and Elder Montoya, Counselor in our Area and his wife.  They are such kind, warm leaders.  Those in the Area Presidency met with us about our assignment and we really felt their love.

They finished preparing our apartment this week and we moved.  We now live at 162 Asuncion, in an area called La Molina.  It is a 2nd story apartment and our landlord lives just below us with his wife. They are such sweet, older people, Jorge and Teresa.  They have been kind and helpful.

We began some volunteer work at the MTC where we pose as investigators for an hour so that the missionaries here can practice their teaching.  The MTC is located right next to the Area Office and we go during the work day.  They have a beautiful facility with huge buildings for missionary apartments and study.  They have flags of all of the countries represented here.  They also have built some little homes "casitas" where we go to do our teaching.  They are fun and that is where the missionaries come to practice their teaching on us.

We received approval for the Open Chapel program to proceed in the Area last week when we met with Elders Godoy and Montoya.  They were actually quite excited to get things going.  So we attended a special training for all of the 18 Area Seventy fromVenezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia on Saturday.  We presented a Power Point explaining the Open Chapel program.  Mom organized the slides on the program and then we presented it both together.  They love it when mom speaks Spanish because there are so few Sisters that speak and none as well as she does.  Anyway, they were positive, asked lots of questions and asked us to come quickly to Bogota, Colombia and Guayaquil, Ecuador.  We will see if the Area Presidency decides to let us go!

We have also received permission to have our first Open Chapel event here in the Lima, East Mission.  We will train the members of the Santa Felicia Ward this next Sunday, and then on Saturday, September 17, we will have our first Open Chapel in the Area.  That should be an amazing event and we are excited to have all of our materials prepared and to get going.

We do a lot of walking including yesterday when we walked 12 blocks to the grocery store and then 12 more back with all our groceries.  There are taxis but we like to walk.  From our new apartment we have a 15 minute walk to the office and a 15 minute walk the other way to the temple.  And of course there are many fruit stands, bakeries, and shops along the way.  We see lots of beautiful vegetation as we are out an about.  Below you will some of it.

Another week passed and we are on our way!  We attended a baptism for a young lady, Rosa, who is 18 years old and a very sweet girl.  Janet sat by her in Relief Society and got to know her a bit more.  Today, Sunday August 28, we met in the Area Council with Elder Held, an Area Seventy, and presented the Open Chapel program to the stake presidents in his area here in Lima.  President Larsen of the Lima Central Mission wants to meet with us this next week to get the program going in his mission.  We will be busy trying to schedule and get handouts and information available. How blessed we feel to meet with so many of the great leaders of the Church!  What great men they are.  It is different for Janet to go to these meetings since they are usually attended only by priesthood brethren.  

Arriving in Peru

We arrived at the airport early Monday morning August 8,  only to find our flight was delayed.  Thanks to Bryson we didn't have to spend the day or night in the SLC airport.  He came to get us to wait for the next flight the following morning.  We spent the day with Monsons which was fun.  Our Tuesday morning flight was also delayed so when we arrived in Atlanta we had to hurry to board our flight to Peru!

Once we landed in Peru, it took us 45 minutes to get our baggage.  Then we passed through customs and were met by Elder and Sister Record who took us across Lima to our apartment in the temple housing unit.

At the Airport baggage claim

Elder and Sister Record

Temple housing

We began training the next morning with Elder and Sister Hansen.  Doug was trained by Elder Hansen and Sister Record trained Janet.  The Area Office is located next to the MTC right next to an LDS chapel that is huge.  It is about a 30 minute walk from where we live.  Everything is so green and beautiful as you can see by the gardens at the office.  There is always a haze over the area, but for winter it is not cold.  We have only seen the sun a couple of times...that's how it is in Peru they tell us.  Next week Elder Renlund and Elder Clayton will be here for the Area Review with Elder Godoy (Area President).  It should be interesting.  We may not even see them.  Maybe after their visit, we can visit with Elder Godoy and get started on the Open Chapel program!

Elder and Sister Hansen

Area Office gardens from 2nd floor