Spending Time in Lima

Spending Time in Lima

This week was super busy! Monday we had six young missionaries at our house to do their weekly emails and then spend some time relaxing and enjoying time together before they had transfers this week. Some of the relaxing time was spent playing a game of steady hands. Flour is packed into a bowl with a coin on the bottom, then turned onto a plate, two people take turns cutting the sides of the flour until the flour collapses and the coin falls. the loser then gets to retrieve the coin by mouth. As you can imagine this was not my forte. I got to eat several mouth fulls of flour. Eventually we all did:).

 Wednesday we left for Lima. Along the way I took some landscape photos for perspective. Every 20 or 30 miles we would cross a river valley and there is where the crops are grown. If the river water can't be redirected to the field it won't get water. They have quite the elaborate canal/ditch system that supplies ALL irrigation water. I haven't seen a pump for the trees or produce yet.  The grapes are irrigated by pumps and a drip system. That's for another post. But as you can see it is super baren except in the river bottoms. The tree in the foreground is watered by a the highway department via a large tanker truck. It's amazing the effort that goes into getting things to grow here.

 After the usual 8 hour bus ride, then a 30 minute cab to our hotel I find out that we were at the wrong Casa Andina hotel. There are 3 of them in Miraflores (Lima). So we catch another cab for the 8 blocks (20 minutes) in traffic to the correct hotel. The reward... a hot shower and air conditioning. That alone was almost worth the nine hour trip. Thursday was spent in some super good training meeting and followed up  with dinner with the McGinns and a senior couple that are working in Canete (Myers) then a trip to Wongs. A huge supermarket. It was probably the size of Safeway but it seemed like a Supercenter to us.
Friday we met up with the McGinns and the Myers and went to Barranco. This is still in the down town part of Lima. Where we visited the "Bridge of Sighs". Here it is promised that if you hold hands and hold your breath as you cross the bridge your love will last for ever. So Joyce and I did it. I am glad to report it seems to be working cause I love her more and more each day.


We also went to a museum of electricity where I got to pedal a bicycle to generate electricity to turn on some lights. Riding the bike ranked right up there with the hot shower and air conditioning.

Then it was off to the Rustica restaurant for lunch. I felt compelled to sit by these fine fellows for a quick vote. I'm not sure what they voted for I but my vote was for Ceviche and lots of it. The ceviche consisted of sea bass and octopus mostly. It was very good. I hope to go back there many more times.






That afternoon we headed back to Nasca. At about 11:30pm the bus had a flat tire. About two hours later, as the drivers and the crew were finishing up the tire change, someone leaned a steel bar against a window and broke it. So it was taped up before we finished the drive home.

Saturday we helped a family start their genealogy research and attended a baptism at the chapel. Sunday evening we had the youth come from Vista Alegre to do some indexing.

It was a good week. We had lots of adventures. We met some very interesting people. Thanks for reading.
C&J

Elections

Oh, happy days!  It's starting to cool down.  We've actually slept without the fan on all night TWICE this week!  AAAAH such a wonderful feeling! We got to go with Elder Olhaiser and Elder Elton to family home evening at the Ventura's home with some wonderful investigators. We really have some wonderful missionaries here in Nasca and we enjoy getting to spend time with them! They are a great example to us of Christlike service and love.

The United States has some stiff competition with the craziness of elections this year.  All along the roadways they have painted the walls as campaign posters. There are signs plastered on walls, electric poles, posters all over the place and fliers everywhere.  They use the little kids to help them with their campaign.  We saw a group of little kids in the plaza one day and we're thinking  "school group", nope, "campaign rally"!

One gal was telling us that she doesn't vote here, she goes where she has a relative running for mayor and votes there, another lady we talked to makes the 8 hour bus ride to Lima to vote there.

They are no meetings today just to be on the safe side and we have to be inside early.

Signs

Yesterday we had been asked to help with a primary activity.  They wanted us to find a video that was about 20 minutes long and on the topic of reverence.  After literally hours of looking on the internet, we finally found a fun little video that hopefully got the point across.  Then after the program we had some cake to celebrate the birthday of three of these cute little guys.  They went to sing happy birthday and I told Curt, "I don't know how to sing that" - well, they sing it in english so I didn't mess that up too badly. We are loving it here and it's absolutely life worth remembering!

Cahauchi Temple Ruins

Monday April 4, 2016

Joyce and I along with 10 of the young missionaries went to see the Cauhuachi Temple ruins. We all loaded in to a SMALL minivan at 1:30pm. The AC was on for about 10 minutes then, no more AC.








After about an hour (17 miles) on a dirt road we  arrived at the ruins.
The place is just amazing in many ways. First, how did a civilization survive in this harsh environment.












Second, why all the effort to build such a magnificent structure where it was surely a struggle to simply survive.

Third, how did the structure that is made of the local soil, turned into adobe, last for 2000 years.

In trees in the background there is water. They would carry the water in large ceramic containers
and pour it into these underground cisterns located all around the temple.
It was amazing to see that they could grow cotton down in an old river bed

that only ran when there was a big enough rain 40 or 50 miles away to make it run. I guess I wasn't all too surprised to see Bermuda grass on the edge of the fields. :)







There were pottery shards everywhere. Some pieces were very thin some were a half inch thick and seemed like they came from  very large pots or bowls.




Up near the top it was super windy but down low there was no wind at all. It's no wonder the place is covered in sand after being abandoned for over 1000 years.

 The locals say that the exploration team ran out of money several years ago, if work doesn't begin again soon much of what is now visible will be re-covered in sand.

Imagine all 12 of us, plus the driver, in a mini-van.
We had a great afternoon. We are glad we got to go. Here is wiki take on the place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahuachi

A Little Service

Service is a great way to get to know the people and it keeps us busy!  Curt was able to go out this week with the Elders and clean some trees for a lady (no pics) While Curt was out with the Elders one evening, he found out Gloria was needing to get her motorcycle shop moved out of the building they were in and she could use some help.  We finally caught up with her and were able to set up a time. We got there a little early so we relaxed under a shady tree and enjoyed the sights.

 The paint here comes in a bag and it's a paste.  Ronald is having to mix it with water as it's used.

We are washing the off the paint that got on the baseboards.

                          Curt's taking a moment to chat before he gets back to work.

A selfie after the work is done.

                Walking in a different area this week we came across this prickly pear cactus field.  They sell the fruit (tunas) in town.

We enjoyed watching conference this weekend.  It's awesome that there will be another temple here in Lima Peru!  How grateful we are for the reminder that we have a loving Heavenly Father who loves each of us individually.  That there is strength in our Savior Jesus Christ when we don't have it in ourselves and we should never give up.  It is our choice, He never forces us.  "Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong"

Joyce's Espanol

I've been asked quite a few times how my spanish is coming so .... here's a little update on the undertaking.
When we first got here, I thought I had some of the basics down but I soon realized just because you can ask them about themselves (and maybe even have the verbs conjugated correctly) - does not mean you can understand when they start telling you! Sometimes they don't even take a breath until they've pretty much told you their entire life story - or I think that might have been what they were telling me.  It is soooo easy for me to zone out when I loose track  ... can you say squirrel?!?
They love to ask us to bear our testimonies and say prayers.  I think my first attempts sounded something like a two year olds but I swear I was sincere! Using notes really helps me not forget to include important words.  My next goal is to be able to not use notes.
One of the funnier misunderstandings was when Curt and I were praying together right after we got here.  I am really trying to listen as he's praying in Spanish.  I'm putting the gist of the prayer together and then BAM, I'm lost!  Did he just say CHICKEN?  Is he praying for a CHICKEN?  What is going on?!?  Well, come to find out pollo is chicken and apollo is support.  It still throws me every once in awhile but I am glad to know Curt is asking the Lord for support and not for a chicken!
We had a guy driving us around and he told Curt he wanted to talk to me. Curt told him to just talk slow and I would probably be able to understand.  I walked up and the guy just started hollering at me when I couldn't understand what he'd say -slower/louder ... same thing right? We were trying to help a guy with his family history and golly, there were names of people and places that I just couldn't understand.  I usually wasn't quick enough to get the spelling or dates on the first try but we ended up getting things done and he'll be back next week.
There have been quite a few times I want to contribute something to a conversation and by the time I get it all put together a little bit in my mind, that ship has sailed.  Luckily, Curt is able to help me out a lot.  Sometimes he gives me a little breakdown of the conversation, especially if the topic of conversation goes off on a tangent. Sometimes maybe he forgets that I'm not always following, or maybe he was just going to cut me a break -like the time the branch president invited us up in a meeting and he got up without me but the branch president was having none of that business so I bore my testimony too.  We had a lot of fun playing pictionary with the sister missionaries and a family last week.  Curt didn't know the movies and I didn't know how to say anything in spanish. Como se dice ...cloudy with a chance of meatballs?
It's been an adventure, I have a lot to learn but haven't found myself super frustrated with it yet, ackward - YES, confused - YES, misunderstood - YES, wrong - YES but having fun with it - YA, that too!

A great Easter week

Well it's Sunday night again. We've had another good week. Most of the week was spent talking to people in their homes, helping them to remember Christ especially in the Easter Season. Sharing a message about Christ is always rewarding. Sometimes we shared smiles, sometimes we shared tears. But either way it's a good feeling to see the light in their eyes when they share feelings of Christ.      Monday one of the young girl missionaries had a birthday. So we took her (hermana Russell, from Utah) and her companion (hermana Ybanez, from Argentine) and a couple of the young men missionaries (elder Elton, Utah and Elder Olhaiser, Argentine) to lunch. We had quite a feast. The young missionaries all had chicken and rice. Joyce had cow heart with chicken and rice, I had grilled cow liver, fried chicken gizzards, some undefined sausage, chicken and rice. It came on a platter with charcoal burning under it. That kept the meal warm while we enjoyed it. Then the young girls came to the house to make brownies (from a package mix) that had been mailed from home. The young men came by for just a minute to help eat them, then they had to go. Tuesday morning we attended our first district meeting. Where we met another set of young missionaries ( elder Tapia, Cusco and Maldonado, Argentina) that serve in the neighboring town of Vista Alegre.

Thursday is fruit day. We finally found the fruit market. I didn't get any pictures but it is pretty intense shopping, Vendors set up on the street and under a covered area. Then sell fruit by the kilo. This happens every Thursday and Sunday.   I will get some pictures this week. Saturday we went to Marcona with the mission president and his wife. Marcona a coast town about 50 miles southwest. The town is a mining town. There is a large copper mine there and a Marble quarry. We went to see the animal preserve with sea lions, seals and  Humboldt penguins. Then visited some beautiful beaches. It was nice to just get out, relax, oh and speak some english.

We went to visit new friends and Joyce found this beautiful rose and snapped a pic.

 The rock formation behind us is known as the elephant.

 I think what was most impressive was the desert between Nasca and Marcona. Miles and miles of absolutely nothing but sand and dirt and rocks. We did cross one river where water was pumped from under ground and crops were irrigated in the old flood plane. but other than that, NADA. This desert runs for hundreds of miles along the coast of Peru and down into Chile.

 Selfies in the desert, about 50 miles in the back ground is Nasca, Those big clouds in the distance don't produce any showers untill they are about 40 miles east of Nasca.

Best friends in any conditions.

 I'm so glad I like chicken and rice... Dinner in Marcona

 Sunday after church in Marcona (Curt, Elder Moran, Ecuador, Sister McGinn, Elder Rowley, Utah, Elder Whitaker, Utah, Elder Castillo, Peru)
                                    

There are sea lions, seals and penguins in this photo.
Well thanks for reading, I hope you all had a good Easter. Thanks for all the prayers.
Elder and Hermana Mayberry....