Friday, December 30, 2016

A Great Time With Morgan


Overlooking Cusco from the Saksaywaman ruins.

The Christo Blanco a gift from Arabic Palestinians who sought refuge in Cusco after WWII.

The Salt Mines in the Sacred Valley.

Incredible views!  While he was here Morgan traveled on planes, buses (nice and not so nice), train, taxis, moto, mini vans (combis), horse, raft, dune buggy, zipline and on foot.  

Fog had settled in so we didn't get the scenic views but we'd hiked up to the top of Huaynu Picchu

Huaynu Picchu and Machu Picchu behind them. From here, we hiked over to the Inca Bridge and then Morgan ran up to Sun Gate.  We were running out of time and energy to keep up with him!

Getting in a  little zip-lining while we were waiting to start our rafting adventures.


The weather was fantastic but it was nice to have those wetsuits when that cold water splashed in.


Curt sitting up front during one of the white water runs.

Not the best picture but this is Morgan finishing up a back flip off the rocks into the Urubamba River.

Horseback riding on some Peruvian Pasos.  They had an interesting gait to them.  We were going out to see some more Incan ruins.


The Devil's Balcony.  This Incan Temple ruin is a natural rock bridge that has a cave below that you can actually walk through if the water is not too high. 

Morgan with Cusco in the background.

Trying lots of different foods during our trip. We enjoyed the view of the Plaza de Armas and the people watching during a lunch in Cusco. 

Morgan in a Cessna 207 as we head out to see the Nasca Lines.  
Morgan went down the hill standing up.  I guess it's hard to turn in the sand so he just went straight down! I haven't taken the time to figure out how to post a video here so this picture will have to do for now.


We had a little competition who could go the furthest on their stomach. I think Curt ended up winning that one and winner got to buy dinner!

We had the missionaries over for a Christmas Party and Morgan won one of the games.  This frog shower cap was the prize.


At the Reserve in Marcona looking out at the penguins, sea lions and migrating birds.

An attempt at taking a picture of penguins with the cell phone through the binoculars.

Morgan found a tiny octopus in the tide pools. He was trying to get it out of the rocks when it inked and hid from us. 



About that time, Curt and Juan came up.  Juan got super excited about it and the three of them searched for quite awhile until they found it again.


Finally we found it and got to hold it before we let it go back into the ocean. 
Our time with Morgan went too fast!  We sure enjoyed having him come down and spend time with us.


Christmas in Peru



We were notified we needed to show up in court and give sworn statements about our house being burglarized.  Curt was my translator for anything I wasn't understanding (most of it).

Starting some English lessons at the house with Danara. She has great pronunciation.  

Mirella visiting about what she still needs to do before she leaves on her mission.  Dana is such a happy little girl.

Agusto came by to escort these beautiful ladies home safely.  He is so good to help out. Dana thinks he's a chew toy!

We are heading out to spend a few days with Morgan in the cool mountains before we take him back to Nasca.

Okay, I know we have llamas in AZ but come on - they are just cooler when you walk by them while at Machu Picchu!

Morgan and I playing around with a rubiks cube. 
The branch Christmas party.  These wise men are hunting for the new baby.



At the manger.

Aren't these young children adorable?!?

A perfect little Nativity scene.

The Sisters played on the cups while the R.S. sang Christmas carols.

We had a Christmas party for the missionaries.  After eating a lot of tacos - we played some games and watched a movie. Elder Pena was excited about how well he did balancing the ornaments on the ruler.
Who can cut into the stack of flour without making the ring fall?
  
I don't think Sister Bellitti did quite as well on this game.  Then when she started laughing - it was all flour!



Morgan found himself digging for a fallen ring too.

Elder Pena lost his round and was able to dig the ring out with not too much trouble.



Sister Zuchel had the most steady hands and won a couple of dryboard markers rather than flour on her face.



The mission sent us a copy of the movie Finding Dory which the missionaries thoroughly enjoyed.  We ended the evening with testimonies. Both of the Sisters and Elder Pena are being transferred out of this area the day after Christmas.

We were invited over to Jenny's to celebrate Christmas Eve with her and her family.  We had to take a picture in front of her beautiful tree.  She made most of the decorations for it.

La Noche Buena with the Melendez Family.  Turkey, potatoes and a delicious chocolate punch. Of course we ended the meal with Paneton.

After church on Sunday, Curt went back down to the family history center and helped the Cocche family with the computer so they could Skype their son who is serving a mission in Columbia.

The two missionaries now serving here in Nasca. We met up with them and showed them how to get to the internet store.  


Tuesday, December 13, 2016

temple trip

We've got our house decorated and ready for Christmas!

One of the Peruvian hairless dogs has taken up residence on our street.

We walked by this pack of dogs.  I crossed to the other side of the boulevard and Curt walked closer to take a picture.

Zone Meeting in Ica.  We were playing a game while we were learning to be better missionaries.

I got to hold the snowman and advance or go back spaces for our team.

Break time means snack time!  This transfer we had: Hna Balderrama (Bolivia), Hna Mostert (CA), Hna Zuchel (Chile), Hna Belletti (UT), E' Calle (Bolivia), E' Chicoma (Peru), E' Roca (Bolivia), E' Wahl (AZ), E' Siesquen (Peru), E' Driscoll (NV), E' Miranda (Peru), E' Mitchell (UT), E' Fulton (UT), E' Vergara (Chile), E' Pena (Dom Rep), E' Peterson (AZ) Oh and Elder Mayberry is hiding there in the back!
Curt standing in front of the bus we took to Lima this week for our district temple caravan.  It was actually a pretty decent bus and we enjoyed the trip.  Nasca/Vista Alegre and Marcona rented two buses and we ended up with about 80 people from our district at the temple this week.  To finish filling up the buses, they just stopped at a bus stop and sold the extra seats to people wanting to go to Lima.
Mirella from Nasca and Mirella from Marcona (with her mom) went to the temple in Lima this week. We were glad we were able to go with them. Both of these ladies will be leaving soon to serve a mission.

As we were coming out of the temple with Mirella, we ran into Hermana Russell!  She was serving here in Nasca when we first got here and she finishes up her mission at the end of this month. We were so glad we got to see her one more time. What a wonderful young woman!

Curt lending a hand as we load the bus for the ride back from Lima.  This is Fernandina's mom and she only speaks Quechuan and is such a sweet, spunky lady.



We're all loaded back on the bus and ready to head back to Nasca.  We were supposed to leave by 6 and we actually headed off within the hour!  I had already taken my motion sickness pills so I was probably already snoring and drooling.

We usually have two p-day activities with the missionaries during each 6 week transfer.  This week we took a combi and met up with the Elders in Marcona for a day at the beach. The Sisters look like they were happy to be heading for a day of fun and sun.  We met up with the Elders, ate some pollo ala brasa and then headed to the beach.

Curt was trying not to get his feet wet as he hopped across the rocks.

This bird was taking a really good nap until we woke it up.  It stayed around and posed for more pictures.

Oh, look at that crab!  There is NO WAY I'd want that thing on my face!

We were having fun climbing around on the rocks.  What a good guy I'm married to!
We wanted to remember our fun day at the beach.

Now we needed one with Curt in it. After a few stumbles, we tried again.

A bit of hiking around on the rocks while we were waiting for our rides to come back and get us.



Well, we waited and they never came.  Finally we learned that both the moto and the taxi had flat tires and so we all ended up walking a few miles back in to town.

It was E' Peterson's birthday so we had made a cake and ate it at the chapel there in Marcona before heading back to Nasca.