Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Traveling to Ayacucho



We took the Elders to a little Chifa restaurant after district meeting.

Then we went to our house for a quick slice of apple pie before they headed out.
On Wednesday, we took an 8 hour bus ride to Lima, got up the next morning at 2, headed to the airport at 3 for a 5:00 flight. We ended up waiting until almost 9 before our plane finally took off heading for Ayacucho.

Ayacucho's arch of triumph. That street, just about a block from the central plaza, was always crowded with pedestrians.

We caught a cab up to a lookout spot over the city.  There are 33 Catholic churches in Ayacucho (one for every year of Christ's life).

Then we hiked down stairs to get back into town. High altitude and lots of stairs - that's all I can say!


The central plaza with everyone getting ready for the upcoming carnival.

Some Wari ruins we had a chance to go visit near the city of Quinoa. 

These kiddos were dressed in period costumes and would let you get photos so they could earn a little money during their summer break. Okay, maybe I had fun and thought it was worth the couple of soles. 

These pre-incan wari buildings were supposedly destroyed during an earthquake. 


Excavation wasn't very regulated when they first began but now they are trying to protect what is left as they continue to uncover these historic remains.


This obelisk commemorates the Battle of Ayacucho near the city of Quinua. 

Walter (left) was our tour guide for the day.  He told us all about the battle and the history of the area. He has a couple of weeks of summer vacation and this extra bit of money-making left before it's back to school for he and his friend. 

They took their job very seriously and were very good about posing us for plenty of photos throughout the tour.

We climbed to the second story to look out over the beautiful countryside.  It was so green and it was nice and cool which we really really liked!

Now for the real reason we flew to Ayacucho, we met with Sister Segovia so she and her husband can get started with chapel open houses in that area.

We were then able to meet up with Pres and Hna McGinn and Stake Pres and Sister Ataurima for a nice dinner overlooking the plaza de armas and we enjoyed the evening with good company.



The Ayacucho Carnival was actually set to start the day Curt and I were flying back to Lima.  The carnival is a few days of lots of dancing, drinking and a little bit of orneriness.   These kiddos got us with some water balloons as we were passing.
We were already seeing quite a few parades of dancers and musicians in the days before the carnival actually started.


The McGinns were staying during the carnival for a stake conference.  A large portion of the celebration was right near the plaza (and the hotel).  Sister McGinn ended up in the middle of  the celebrations - with lots of talcum powder!


Back through Lima, jumped on a bus and headed for Paracas.  We'll miss the cool weather but gosh - how can we complain about these views from our hotel room?!?
We arrived in time to enjoy our balcony and then we got to watch the pretty sunset over the ocean.

We got to enjoy it just a little more the next morning before we headed into town for church.


Elder Arco and Elder Morris were so helpful to us this week as we had a training in their ward and then prepared for the next week's open house.   Peru Lima Sur has some of the best missionaries!

Lots of traveling this week.  We were jumping on the bus for the last 5 hour leg of the journey back to Nasca.  We got back about 10:30 and it seems we're always ready and happy to sleep in own bed again.



Monday, February 20, 2017

Curt's birthday celebrations


Erick and Laisy took us out today for Curt's birthday.  I was off in la la land and wasn't ready when it was time to order so I just told the waiter I'd have the same thing as Curt.  What was I thinking?  I swear that fish could still see out of that eyeball and watched me the whole time I tried to eat him. It was just waiting for me to choke on one of his bones. 
Rosa and Miguel stopped by the house, brought alfajores (giant cookies with carmel centers) and wished Curt a happy birthday.

A gift from Fernandina and that is Louis with Curt in the picture.   The gift is a beautiful picture frame.

A noche de hogar at the Ventura home.  Everyone sang happy birthday to Curt and then sang feliz cumpleanos.

Curt taking a bite out of the cake before they serve it (it was more like a nibble) but E' Maydana almost bumped Curt's head down into the cake.


Tuesday the Elders in our district surprised Curt with a cake and a little birthday celebration after district meeting. l to r: Curt, E' Maydana, E' Fernandez, E' Anstead, E' Kirkman

Complete with a birthday sign on the whiteboard.

We came back to the house to eat the cake and drink some Inka Cola. Sugar daily intake might be a little high again!

Ran into Cupid on the way to the church. He must have got us because we saw hearts!  Happy Valentines Day from Peru.  

Emergency transfers seem to happen often.  We had to say goodbye to E' Anstead as he heads off to his new area in Lima. 

Multizone Conference this week in Ica.  Curt and I were assigned to talk about time management.  The missionaries participated in an activity to start off the discussion.

Here they are circling the room backwards as a group.

The Hermanas took the challenge to create something for Pres McGinn.  

He accepted the gifts, which gave those teams extra points.

Singing has to be part of the activity (or are they making sounds from the Amazon Jungle here?)



We went to Pisco on Saturday and enjoyed a beautiful walk along the beach that evening after we checked in at our hotel.

We enjoyed the nice cool breeze and watched the birds.

Do they "call mine"  to get the post they want?  Where are the bird that belongs on the posts that are empty?  Why is one bird sitting on the rope instead?    


In Pisco we gave a 3rd hour training in two of the wards.  This is E'Cornejo and E' Anderson with the banner of Christ we take to all the trainings and will take to the chapel open houses. We jumped back on for 5 more hours on the bus.  Luckily these are the nice buses and we enjoy traveling around the southern part of our mission.

Curt took this picture this week so we'd remember this dog.  It likes to bark and try to get out as we walk past.  We know this but it still catches us and makes us jump more than we should (if dogs snicker at silly humans, I'm sure this one would).



Monday, February 13, 2017

Children Dancing


We traveled to one of the Pisco chapels this week and these children were at the church learning a dance when we got there.

It was a traditional dance from the Cusco region and the children were working hard to learn all the steps.

I was glad our meeting ran a little late so I could sit and watch them for awhile.

They were willing to have their picture taken during one of the breaks. We will be traveling to Pisco quite a bit during the upcoming month so it will be fun to see these little ones again.


Curt, Pisco's stake pres, Pres. Aguilar and the high councilman that is over missionary work in that stake, Hno. Jeronimo.  We met together to organize and schedule the Open Houses that will take place in that stake.

Hno Jeronimo was willing to take a picture with both of us in it. It was a great meeting and we enjoyed our time with these good men and look forward to the upcoming open houses in that stake.

Two 5-hour bus rides in one day?  UUGH! It ended up being a fairly comfortable ride and we were too late at night for the last leg of the journey from Ica to Nasco so we took a taxi the last couple of hours.  


But look who was on the bus coming back to Ica from Lima!  The missionaries had transfers and then training for new missionaries.  We were able to welcome Elder Torres to our mission.  He's got a great companion in Elder Roberts.

Hermana Linares will be training Hermana Horn.  It's been a long few days for these missionaries with travel, transfers and training.  They are usually tired and just want to go to their apartment and go to sleep by this point in the process.  Such sweet, beautiful young ladies!

E' Anstead and E' Maydana visiting with a nice man at the plaza de armas in Nasca.  We just sat on a nearby bench until they finished their chat.

E' Anstead is looking for us.  We had told him we'd be right there!

Rosa and Miguel Toledo came to the house a couple of times this week for some English.  Rosa teaches English at a private school here in Nasca.  They are on break right now so she is trying to get her things together for the upcoming school year.

Danara working on some English.  She also works on Family History indexing sometimes while she's here. Behind Curt is one of the areas in our house where the moisture has caused the paint to bubble and come off the wall.  They really aren't used to much moisture here in Nasca!