He is in the minute details of our lives...

I just have to share something that happened this morning.  Yesterday, Saturday, I decided to wash a set of curtains in our dinning area.  After washing them, Val was putting them back up on the curtain rod and found that he was missing one of the hooks he needed so we improvised with a paper clip.  It worked, but wasn't the best.  This morning, while walking to church, Val stopped and bent down to pick up something from the street.  He held up his hand and what do you think he had found?  Yep, a drapery hook.  Just one.  Just what we needed!  Coincidence...we don't think so.

So what have we been up to lately.  Well, on Feb. 5th we took a trip to Puno.  To start with, our travel agency forgot to confirm our flight so when we arrived at the airport, we didn't have seats on the plane.  So frustrating.  The airline had oversold the plane by about 20 seats.  They offered to pay for a taxi to a hotel in Lima in the San Isidro district, give us lunch and dinner, bring us back to the airport and also give is $50 each for our trouble.  We accepted and were given a much later flight that evening.  So we lost almost a full day in Puno.  We did take the time to visit one of Lima's better museums so all was not lost.  We flew into the airport at Juliaca and an hour later arrived in Puno at the Sonesta Posada de la Inca hotel that evening.

 Puno is home to Lake Titicaca.

By volume of water, it is the largest lake in South America.  The highest navigable lake in the world. It is actually shared by Perú and Bolivia.  We had wanted to visit in order to see the Reed Islands.
Titicaca is notable for a population of people who live on the Uros, a group of 47 artificial islands made of floating reeds (Totora, a reed that abounds in the shallows of the lake).  Even the boats they use are made out of reeds.  These islands have become a major tourist attraction for Perú, drawing excursions from the lakeside city of Puno.  Their original purpose was defensive, and they could be moved if a threat arose.  Many of the islands contain watchtowers largely constructed of reeds.

Uros Island

We were especially drawn to the islands because one of them has a population of members of the church and a small chapel. During our first island visit, our guide told us how the islands were constructed and then we were led into a home of one of the families to escape the pouring rain and hear more about the islands.  It was a very personal visit.  Next we visited the Mormon island.

Mormon Island Family and our fun treasures

Us with Luis

We met with a wonderful family and she shared with us her conversion story and testimony of the church.  They have recently disbanded the small branch and now the members have to get up early to take the 25 minute boat trip to make it to church for the 8:00 am meetings.  She is currently the Young Women's president and he is the executive secretary.  They are committed members and bore strong testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel.  It was a very spiritual time with this amazing family.  What a blessing to have met them and shared time in their humble home.

We were also drawn to Puno because of a once a year dance festival featuring dancers and bands from Puno and other local areas.  This year, over 78 groups participated.  it is called the Festivalidad de La Virgin de Candalaria.  We were excited about seeing the dances and the costumes.  You can imagine our disappointment when we arrived and learned that the main activity featuring the dancers was only held in the soccer stadium on Sunday.  Elder and Sister Hansen, a couple serving with us in the area office had lined us up with one of their former missionaries.  They were mission presidents in Mexico a few years ago.  Luis Gustavo Quispe was our unofficial tour guide.  He met us at our hotel, suggested we spend some time on Friday getting adjusted to the high altitude and offered to take us into town later that evening to show us "how to be safe" while seeing the city and let us hear and see some of the bands marching through the streets.  There were people everywhere.  It was fun to participate in the activities.  During our outing, we talked about our desire to see the dancers.  He also offered to get up early on Sunday morning, go to the stadium to purchase tickets (the only way to get them) then come back and pick us up at the hotel.  We would go to the stadium early, see some of the dancers, leave to attend church and then maybe go back after church to see some more. 

Luis, who is only 24 years old, serves as a member of his stake's High council which meant he would be missing and early morning meeting not to mention he would be purchasing tickets on the Sabbath.  The more we thought about it, the more uncomfortable we felt.  It just didn't seem like the right thing to do.  We finally decided to call him back and tell him to forget the tickets, we just wanted to go to church.  We would just have to see the dancers on TV.  We thoroughly enjoyed attending church in the small ward.  During the Sunday School, Relief Society and Priesthood meetings we could hear a band outside.  After the meeting we went outside, and much to our surprise, there marching up the street next to the chapel were dancers and bands on their way to perform at the stadium.  

 

Instead of being far away in a huge stadium, we were literally right among them. Val was literally walking backwards in the street taking pictures of the dancers.  How cool is that!

He was able to get some amazing pictures and we were able to tell Luis to take the money and use it for his family trip to the Bogotá Cochabamba Temple where they were to be sealed together as a family the next week.  As Elder Quispe said, if we take care of the spiritual, the Lord will take care of the temporal.  Elder Clark even got a chance to play a trumpet with one of the bands.  It couldn't have been much better.

One thing I neglected to mention was that our guide to the Uros Islands and another historical site named Sillustani was very interested in the church,. We talked to her and gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet about the restoration. We love being able to share the gospel.  It makes us feel more like missionaries.