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.

Time with "old" friends...

Wednesday evening we had dinner with our friends Lilia and Ronald....

Me with Lilia & Ronald at church

     You may remember them from one of our first blogs.  They were instruments in the Lord's hands.  We had prayed and decided we needed testimonies of missionaries who had learned English on their missions to share with others. Lilia found us on a bus, she introduced us to her husband Ronald, he bore testimony of the the Companionship Language Study program and now his testimony goes everywhere with us as part of our CLS PowerPoint presentation. What a blessing to see them again at Stake Conference, one year later.  As we enjoyed a wonderful, typical Peruvian dinner of arroz con pollo, we talked about that day when we first met Lilia on a bus coming back from Mira Flores and Inca Market.  We asked her why she walked past two other missionary couples and came and talked to us. She said she didn't know, she just did.  It was a confirmation for us that the Lord was guiding our activities and those of others that day just so we could meet Ronald and get his testimony. (See the scripture below)  Ronald and Lilia are in their early twenties.  They represent so many of the young couples in Perú.  Ronald is a member of our stake High Council and Lilia is the stake Primary President.  It's hard to imagine those callings being extended to members this young in Utah, but they are the foundation of the church here.

South America Northwest Area
 President

     President Uceda often reminds us that the church in Perú is still young and Ronald and Lilia are truly a representation of that.  In the early 1970's, President Uceda was one of very few missionaries from South America.  Now there are thousands and we are so blessed to be able to work with many them as we try to encourage them to learn English.  We have a wonderful testimony from him talking to the missionaries about being humble and working hard to learn English.  He is a powerful example to all of these young missionaries.  We tell them, that just like President Uceda, you have no idea how the Lord will use you in twenty or thirty years. President Uceda also tells them, that when he was learning English on his mission he had no idea that he would one day use English everyday in his work as a member of the Quorum of Seventy of the Church.

     Every two weeks we are blessed to be able to make a CLS presentation to the missionaries who are leaving the Lima CCM to go to their various missions.  FYI - Here it is called the Centro de Capacitacion Misional.  For the longest time I didn't know what people meant when they talked about the CCM.     We Love It!  It is the highlight of our mission.

Twins! Me with Sister Gonzalez at the CCM

Calling home for Christmas

On Christmas Day we got to spend time with the missionaries playing games while they waited to be able to call home.  Missionaries at the Provo MTC didn't get that blessing, there were just too many.

Rummikub at the CCM on Christmas Day. This is getting serious! 

It was so fun to spend time with them on that special day, but it's also wonderful to spend time with them every other week and to hear them recite the line of scripture that they have learned as part of our CLS presentation.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,

And lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge Him

And He shall direct thy paths. 

                                                                                           Proverbs 3:5-6 

We divide them up into four groups and have the English-speakers teach the Spanish-speakers one line.  They are so excited about learning and the English-speakers are excited about their progress. They are great cheerleaders. It isn't much English, but we want them to leave thinking that:                            

English can be "easy" and fun. 

One year down, but not counting....

The End of Our First Year

With Self Reliance Managers in Puembo, Ecuador

Starting a blog is easy.  Keeping it up is hard.  After returning from our Cusco, Peru assignment, we had a short rest before being sent to Puembo, Ecuador –- a short distance from Quito, Ecuador. We created and gave a PowerPoint presentation to the Self-Reliance managers, that they could give to the missionaries who are just ending their missions and returning home.  The presentation shows missionaries how they could continue to learn English, which would qualify them to enter the Pathway Program, run by BYU-Idaho, and offers them a college education from their home countries using Skype.

On one afternoon, we all bused to the Equator (both of them)!  One was Ecuador's historical monument, which they originally built. The 2nd was the authentic center circumference of the earth, which was identified after GPS technology was developed.

(Any excuse will do!) 

It was fascinating being able to balance an egg on the top of a nail, and seeing water drain in opposite directions - on each side of the Equator.

This is the brochure we created for the missionaries.  It is a combination of two brochures we had already created for use by Area staff members to learn English.

We then transferred to a hotel in delightful Quito where we gave presentations to missionaries returning home and met with President and Sister Christensen of the Quito Mission.  What an inspiring couple, serving in a beautiful city!  We had many wonderful experiences while there.  One afternoon we stopped at a group of art and craft booths. As we viewed some necklaces (Julene really loved one of them), I felt impressed that the artist needed an invitation to obtain a copy of the Book of Mormon.  When I asked her if she would accept our card, she smiled broadly and said "I'm a returned missionary!"  She had been looking in our faces and didn't notice our name badges.  It was a "tender mercy" moment, that confirmed that when we live the gospel there is a "light that is radiated".

The 2nd "tender mercy" was holding an impromptu meeting in our hotel room with a member of the Church, who is a Member of the National Assembly of Ecuador, and directs the Special Commission for Culture, Education, and Technology.  It is too long a story, but in brief, she proved to be the person in the government I needed to meet. Two weeks earlier, on assignment from the Area Presidency, I had prepared a proposal to bring some of the BYU performing groups (Ballroom Dancers, International Folk Dancers) to these countries.  The one venue location I was missing, was Quito.  She was excited to be the person who could help — especially after I showed her my TV commercials of the two groups.  The Lord is very much aware of, and involved in, the details of our lives.

More Presentations

Following our return to Lima, we made presentations to 4 more of the 5 missions in Lima and 400 returned missionaries in the north portion of Lima.  They are only part of all the native returned missionaries, since there are 500,000 members of the Church in Lima, alone.  With 15 million members worldwide, those numbers will continue to increase.

We then were sent on assignment again to Colombia and other cities in Ecuador, where we gave presentations to hundreds of missionaries and met with many mission presidents.  We were brought to tears on more than one occasion, as we were led and directed in events, over which we had had no control.  We are very grateful for "tender mercies".

Barranquilla, Colombia new temple site
overlooks the ocean and city.

Barranquilla Spanish-language missionaries learning a scripture in English.

From humid and warm Barranquilla we flew to cool and rainy Bogota for more meetings with mission presidents, presentations to missionaries, attending the Bogota Temple, and enjoying a Christmas celebration with many Stake Presidents and Bishops.  We especially were overjoyed at the opportunity to give a presentation to the 80+ missionaries who were in the Colombia Missionary Training Center, just before they traveled to their respective missions.  We even managed part of one day for a little sight-seeing.

Pres. Dyer and a few missionaries at the Bogota MTC

Artifacts at the Bogota Gold Museum

With Clarks at the Central Plaza in the original part of Bogota.

On to the Coast of Ecuador

We were wisked from the airport to a Sunday fireside with over 100 missionaries from the Guayquil West mission and Elder Calderon, an Area Seventy.  The next day we met with more returning missionaries from the Guayquil North and West missions.  The next day we taught Zone Leaders and brand new missionaries in the North mission, had a wonderful luncheon with the mission president and his wife, and attended the Guayquil Temple.  It and the Bogota Temple are two of the three largest temples outside the United States.  We were exhausted by the end of the presentation the next day to returning missionaries from the South Mission.

 Finally, just before we flew back to Lima Thursday evening, we managed a tour bus of Guayquil and a walking tour of the city's outstanding river/ocean front boardwalk.  It was a hot and humid tour of the city, but as I stood on the roof of the bus with the air blowing in my face, I was very glad we got to take a closer look at this beautiful city that has placed a strong emphasis on artwork to beautify the city, and traffic lights at every major intersection that bring order to the driving and fewer car horns.  I love the look of this city.  It's too bad it is soooo humid and hot.  All in all it was a very fulfilling 2 weeks.  We have been very blessed.  We'll end the trip with the pictures telling the story.

Stayed at the Courtyard Marriott

Guayquil Temple

We arrived back in Lima one week before Christmas.

We enjoyed 3 Christmas parties with the other senior missionaries, then snuggled all down for a Christmas Eve sleep, when out on the street their arose such a clatter, we sprung from our beds to see . . . that in Lima . . . the whole town celebrates Christmas Eve with fireworks!!!   These were literally right above our heads! And went on from 11 pm to 2am.

New Year's Eve was much the same with "Bombs bursting in air...". Our year went out quite literally with a BANG (actually more than one).

  

It's a Wonder...

We never dreamed we would be at Machu Picchu Peru, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  It was off to Cusco and Machu Picchu.  Once again we were traveling with the Clarks to returning missionary seminars.  These are always a treat because we get to work with the missionaries and talk to the mission president and his wife. We met a young man who had just taken the English test and passed.  He's from Lima.  We also took time to go to church in a local ward.  I always feel blessed to be somewhere that feels so familiar.  The church is wonderful.

Saints Day Parade

Cusco is a beautiful old colonial city whose downtown surrounds a grand plaza complete with two large cathedrals.

The streets of Cusco 
(no, we are not the old stones)

 Many of downtown Cusco's cathedrals and houses are built upon the ancient stones of Inca temples.  It is the jumping off point for a visit to Machu Picchu.  To get to Machu Picchu we hired a guide who showed us around the Cusco and then drove us to the Sacred Valley that is home to many Inca ruins. We stopped at a small village and watched these women spin, dye, and weave the Alpaca yarn.  They are singing a song for us here.

Using natural dyes to color the llama yarn

We spent the night in a small town called Ollantaytambo.  There is also a large Inca temple ruin here and the streets remain much the same as in Inca times.  They are narrow with the original cobblestones. We met two young children as we walked through the streets.  They sang to us in Quechua which is the language of the native people.  Often you hear them called Incas, but the Inca was the King of the Quechua people.  So there were really only 11 Incas.  

Machu Picchu with Huana Picchu in the back 

The next morning, we boarded a Vista Liner train to make the 1.5 hour trip to Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu.  I had to take a picture of the stewards as they looked and acted much like airline stewards and stewardesses.  It was beautiful country with tall mountains and green (don't see much of that in Lima).  It was a delightful train ride.  When we got to Aguas Calientes, we were greeted by our Machu Picchu guide who led us quickly through the market stalls to where we needed to be to get on the bus to go up the mountain.  There are 27 tour buses that make 2 or 3 round trips each up the mountain per day.  With over 2-3 thousand visitors per day, they are non stop.  There were some places on the mountain road that made me wonder how two buses could possibly pass each other.  There just didn't seem to be enough room. When we got to the top of the mountain, we went through a checkpoint where they checked our tickets and passports.  Then it was time to hike.  I still remember my first reaction to being there.  I just couldn't believe that I was actually seeing something that I thought I would only ever see in pictures.  It is amazing to think that people were able to get those huge stones to the top of the mountain.  And...I just kept thinking of how I would feel as a mom raising children in this city that has so many drop off points.  I would constantly be worried that the kids would just fall off of the mountain.  Even though there were tons of people there, it was amazing to see!  The guide took us around and explained the history, building techniques, and worship associated with the city.  It is surrounded by lushly covered mountains.  The guide spent two hours with us and then left us to explore on our own.
The Clarks decided to hike down to the bus stop, but we still had a few places we wanted to see before our scheduled departure.  We hiked up to where the old Inca Trail begins, found a large grassy terrace and a big rock and sat down and made ourselves comfortable so we could just soak in all that was around us.  I kept thinking of the people that lived there who gardened on the terraces and raised llamas and kids.  It was quiet up there.  Sometimes we felt like we were the only ones there.  We took some more pictures.

Machu Picchu

Val tired to get some without people in them.
 That's difficult, but he managed to do it.  It was too soon time to start hiking back down to meet the Clarks and catch our bus.  Back on the bus, down the hill, off the bus, through the market to find the train station, then wait in the dark since the power went out.  While there, we saw the super fancy Hiram Bingham train with its chef, tables with cloths and lamps, and luxury.  It would have been fun to take that train, but it was much too expensive.  We arrived in Ollantaytambo after dark and had dinner at the train station.

 It was a delightful meal.  The next day it was more visits to Inca ruins and back to our hotel in Cusco.  Our hotel there had a delightful restaurant on the top floor that overlooked Cusco.  The next day we transferred back to our first hotel in downtown Cusco.

Nighttime in Cusco' Plaza de Armas

 Saturday night, there was a beautiful fireworks show which we decided was just for our send off so we got on our coats and headed for the Plaza de Armas.  We found a nice bench and settled in.  Of course, sitting there we were sitting ducks for all of the vendors.  Elder Clark was the first one to cave by buying a pair of gloves.  Soon all of us had gloves, hats, and scarves and all of the vendors had pass along cards.  We looked like a bunch of minions sitting there in our funny little Inca hats. It was so fun.  At one point we saw a delightful young family which Val was sure must be members of the Church.  So he took off after them, tapped the woman on the shoulder and asked if she spoke English.  Lucky for him she did.  So he was able to give them a Restoration pamphlet.  It's our way of doing missionary work.  Church again on Sunday and then dinner at our guide's house who is a member of the church and was kind enough to invite us to dinner at his house.  What a treat!  Then it was off to the airport.  We feel so blessed to be able to mix missionary work with a little travel.  It is the best of both worlds.

On the road again...

Don't know if you have noticed, but today we are playing blog catch up.  It is a holiday here, and we are at home.  We have been busy doing mission visits.  We have been asked to go with the Clarks to attend some returning missionary training seminars.  The area presidency felt that the missionaries who were returning home needed some training in staying spiritual, finding jobs, continuing to study English, and the opportunities that they can take advantage of.  Missionaries spend one day at the end of their mission getting this additional training. Our part of the training deals with the Pathway program.  Pathway is a one year program in conjunction with BYU Idaho where students can study at institutes and on line.  It is a great way to get a college education for a little less cost and from your home town.  Our trip to Iquitos was in conjunction with the returning missionary program.  We also got to travel to Arequipa and Chiclayo. Interestingly, the three cities they asked us to visit were the three cities we felt we needed to go to.  Tender Mercy!  In addition to missionary training, we also take time to visit with the mission presidents to see how the Companionship Language Study program is going, specifically what we can do to be of help to them as they try to encourage missionaries to study English on their missions.  We were able to do our Power Point presentation in Iquitos and Arequipa. In Iquitos we met with zone leaders and in Arequipa with three zones. What fun to interact with the missionaries and the presidents and their wives.  It is always the highlight of our mission.

President Zobrist

President Gomez

Temple lot

Arequipa, is the second largest city in Peru and has a European feel to it with narrow streets and a large square surrounded by a large cathedral and colonial style buildings.  One of its claims to fame is a mummy of a young girl recently found when ice melted revealing her.  Our hotel was beautiful and just a block away from the mission home.  Arequipa is also scheduled to get a temple.  They had just finished acquiring the last of the land needed for the temple site, so President Zobrist (who just happened to be a neighbor of our friends the Van Wagoners when they lived in Las Vegas) and his wife took us to see the temple site and presented us with our very own little bottles of temple dirt. How fun is that.


The day after, we took a tour of the downtown cathedral.  They took us to the top and we could look out over the entire city.  Amazingly enough, you can see the temple site from there.  Won't it be fun when it is done and people look out and ask "What is that beautiful building over there?" We also got this fun picture of a little girl and her goat there at the Plaza de Armas waiting for people who pay for pictures. Notice her colorful, traditional dress.

We also visited a convent.  It was the tradition that the second daughter of the cities wealthy would be sent to the convent when they were about 13.  Each had her own room complete with space for a servant.  From that time forward, they could only see their families through a grated hole.  At 16, they had to decide whether or not they were going to be nuns.  If they decided not to, the family was embarrassed and often the girls were shunned.  At the time it housed over 200 young women and their servants. So not only did the girls live a life of solitude, but so did their servants.  It was a city within a city complete with streets, a communal bath and laundry area and a dinning area.  Now it is a museum with only a small section dedicated to the nuns who still live there.  I think there are only about 20 now.

Chiclayo is a smaller city and we were only there for two and a half days.  Since most of our time was spent with missionaries, we didn't see much of the city  But on the way there we met an amazing young woman on the plane.  She spoke beautiful English and we had a delightful conversation.  At the end, she asked if we were going to have time to see the city and offered to be our guide.
So, Tuesday morning she and her brother met us at our hotel and took us to tour a museum that housed artifacts from El Señor de Sipan.

With Candy at the Lord of Sipan Museum

This was a tomb that was only recently discovered in 1987.  They found many mummies (the wives, servants and children were buried with the "King"), artifacts of gold and silver and clay pots.  Afterwards, we were able to talk to Candy and Josémaria a little about the church and give them a Restoration video and a pamphlet.  They are our new Facebook friends. We also got to see our friends Sister Moore and Sister Arana.  They are now serving in Trujillo which is about a three hour bus trip.  It was fun to see them again and catch up on what they are doing.