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.  

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. 

Puquios y Paredones

Monday was P-day, we invited our little band of 4 missionaries to the house for burgers before we all went to the Aqueducts and Paredones.  Elders Pena and Peterson are serving in Marcona and Sisters Zuchel and Bellitti are here in Nasca. 

The Elders had to go do some urgent internet stuff so sister Bellitti and Zuchel enjoyed a relaxed visit.

We are all here and ready to eat. I bought about 4.5 pounds of hamburger and it was nearly all eaten.  Some of us really like hamburgers.

Elder Peterson was working like crazy to get the mayo out of the bag when someone realized he hadn't removed the lid!

This is the first Puquio in a series of about 10. They get deeper as we go.

Of course the ladies found some beautiful flowers. I think the ladies are more beautiful though. 

If you look hard you can see my face down there. 

Selfie time. With some perspective. 

As we left the puquios (aqueducts) we  decided to walk to the Paredones.

In the shade under a banana tree. 

After what seemed like an eternity of walking we made it to the Paredones. These walls were  first erected by the Nasca people about 1200 years ago.  Then when the Spaniards conquered the area they were modified in the 1500's. 

This is a fragment if pottery at Paredones.  There is pottery everywhere. 

Mirella is getting ready to go to Ecuador to serve and she came by the family history center to watch a few episodes of the district. 

Sister Fernandina and sister Cueva stopped by also to get a little family history done before the upcoming temple trip.

We were finishing up a little walk as the sun was going down. 

December 1st we went to Marcona with the sisters and helped a family move to a different house. 

Joyce, sister Bellitti and Zuchel unpacking boxes

Of course we had to eat some Chifa (Chinese) before we left. 

We were in the back of the combi getting ready to go to Nasca it seemed like a good time to snap a pic. as we did we see the elders at the back photo bombing. Way to go elders.

The man on the left is brother Orihuela he came all the way from Lima to teach a self sufficiency class to both Nasca and Vista Alegre Branches.  Vista Alegre branch's casa capilla has been closed down and as of this week, they have begun attending meetings here in the San Carlos Chapel. 

President and sister McGinn were here for interviews this week.  Sister McGinn always comes with some language development ideas. So everyone had to write their last name on the board then write a word that describes them that started with each letter of their last name, Spanish for the gringos and English for the latinos. 

They are progressing on the water storage tank for the small community north of the river. Everything is carried up here by hand, today they were carrying water in buckets to mix the cement.