Power On - Power Off

Sunday was a busy day, we attended our first Sacrament meeting here and Julie ended up playing the piano. It doesn’t take long to use your talents here. The Ttio (Quechua name, pronounced T’io) Ward was very friendly and welcoming. Our friend Cesar Rodriquez, who was the mission secretary when we lived here before, sat down next to us. It was funny because he didn’t have his glasses on and didn’t recognize us at first; afterwards there were lots of hugs and remembering our time together.

Later Sunday evening there was a stake fireside for all the new members (2 years or less), all the missionaries in the stake, stake president and mission president. We were asked to explain our mission assignment and bear our testimonies. Nothing like jumping right in! Afterwards the stake president said he should have us speak at the Young Single Adult Conference this weekend. Julie’s hoping he forgets about that! She is not sure her Spanish is ready yet.

We wish we had spent more time in the Family History Library with Sister Kraus. Everyone thinks we’re experts on how to index and use Family Search! Sadly, we are not, in fact the Peruvians will have to teach us!

Monday we had a true “Mission Miracle.” We went to the central market to buy fruits and vegetables, as we were leaving Rich realized that he didn’t have his Peruvian cell phone.  At first we thought he had been pick-pocketed, but realized that couldn’t have happened, so the phone had been dropped somewhere or left in the taxi we took. We were frantic because all of our contact numbers in Peru were in the phone.  Fortunately, Rich had written down the cell number in a notebook so he tried to call several times with no answer. We made our way home, said a fervent prayer, and Rich went to look for the current mission secretary who lives below us. Out on the street he found a public phone and tried the cell number one more time. This time a woman answered and said her son had found the phone. She was just getting ready to board a bus and told Rich to hurry to meet her before the bus left. He grabbed a taxi, described himself to her as the “bald gringo missionary” and went flying through the streets of Cusco to meet her. She had the phone and all is well. We were truly blessed!



Our Route to Work

Our trainer, Alan Lopez, arrived from Lima to help us get our equipment set up in the archives where we will be working. Happily, the birth, marriage and death records for Cusco and its districts have been moved from the Cusco University Offices to some rooms in the basement of the Cusco Government Offices off campus. We’re really happy because the University is always having a “huelga” (strike) of some type and everything is locked down. They actually had a strike on Wednesday, our first day of real work, but we were able to get into our offices and start to work. 

Alan, our Trainer

Julie at work



We were all ready to begin when the lights and power went off in the whole building! Sometimes things can get pretty frustrating here! The power eventually came on and we were able to get our first book digitized. We are in the basement of this building; they have a good room set up for us with nice bathrooms across the hall. The walls are cement but painted white and it’s very nice except that it is FREEZING!!  Naturally there is no heat, after lunch we brought a little space heater from home and when Rich plugged it in, it blew nearly all the electrical outlets in the whole building!!  We found an outlet outside the office that works and on Thursday we bought an extension cord and finally started to get some work done. We’re still freezing because we’re nervous about plugging in the heater and who knows when an electrician will come. Monday and Tuesday are “días feriados” (holidays) for Peru’s “Fiestas Patrias” (their independence day) so we probably won’t see an electrician for some timeL we suspect that the place wasn’t wired correctly in the first place… no surprise!  We hear big firecrackers going off at all times of the day and night in preparation for the big Fiesta tomorrow!

We had a fun birthday dinner with Brother & Sister Agüeros’ family. Marisol, their daughter, turned eight and is getting baptized on Saturday. They invited us downstairs to have lasagna and cake with them at 9pm. It was fun and we enjoyed our visit with them. Peruvians like to party, they pretty well always start late and usually don’t provide any advanced warning!

Friday began well, we were able to get three books digitized, went for lunch, came back ready to work until 6pm or so and… surprise! No electricity again!! We wonder how anything ever gets done here!

We spent the afternoon getting old camera equipment boxed up and out of the apartment and down to the bus station to send it to Lima. What an adventure that was! There were a bazillion people coming and going for Fiestas Patrias, it was a zoo!  The bus company would not take the old computer (too much responsibility) so Alan has to take it on the plane with him. We came home so grateful for our little, quiet apartment. We hunkered down, watched a movie on the computer and relaxed. It was great!

On Saturday, Rich was the tour guide for Alan our trainer. They visited some of the major sites around Cusco, Qorikancha, Saqsayhuaman, Puka Pukara, Q’enko (for the linguists out there, these apostrophes mark either very guttural consonants q’, a k, deep in the back of the throat. A t’ is almost like a d) and Tambo Machay. Julie has been to those places many times so she stayed home and organized and cleaned our apartment. It was fun and peacefulJ Saturday evening we attended the baptism of Marisol Agüero and had an enjoyable time. Alan went to Machu Picchu for his first time on Saturday night. He was excited to see and learn about his own country.

When Rich and Alan were at Saccsayhuaman, this little girl came up and asked if they would give her a tip for this picture of her. Typically this is the small change in one’s pocket. When Rich gave her 30 centimos, she whined and said, “that won’t cover it.” Alan asked her what she meant and she said she could not buy candy with so little money. They both laughed and gave her a few more centimos…



Qoricancha

Sacsayhuaman



Tambo Machay



The little hijacking girl

Before Rich left for the sights, we got a call from the mission president. He has been trying to figure out how to best use us in our “free time.” There are many struggling branches of the church and we had told him we don’t want to be bored. He told us that he wants us to attend the Curahuasi branch, two hours west of Cusco. When Rich called the branch president there, he told Rich that they have such strong local traditions for Fiestas Patrias that they have suspended their meetings for Sunday… We see that we  have our work cut out for us. Espinar’s early days all over again!!!

We have a brand new, fancy, LG Washing machineJ Brother Agüeros’ original plan was to put it on the roof of the apartment building where there are spaces to do laundry. One of the many problems putting it up there is the lack of electricity! We would need to run a 50+ foot extension cord across the roof, down a hole two floors down through a vent in our shower and across the top of the shower to plug it in. We both got the giggles just thinking about it; the alternative is a little easier, the machine is in our apartment and we’ll have to run hoses to the bathroom for water and draining. Fingers crossed that it doesn't leak on the parquet floors! We’re just happy to have a washing machine and we have no problem taking clothes up to the roof to hang for drying.

The Agüeros at Marisol's baptism

We’re getting used to our little apartment. We always have our coats on, even with the space heaters we have. Thank goodness for the “Little Hotties” hand a foot warmers we brought.  We will survive!

We found a restaurant with good cebiche!

Home Sweet Home... Cusco

 

We left SLC airport last Monday at 12:15pm and naturally the flight out of DFW was late, nothing new there! We arrived in Lima at 3:00 am Tuesday morning, exhausted but happy to be here. We were told that we needed to travel to Cusco a few hours later. We were in SHOCK! Fortunately that plan was changed to travel to Cusco on Thursday afternoon. It’s Peru, we always have to be flexibleJ We finally arrived at the hotel at 4:15am and dropped into bed, it was HEAVENJ We slept until early afternoon when our ride came to take us to the Church Offices to get Rich’s visa going. We met our dear friends Taylor Godoy an Area Seventy and over the Seminaries/Institutes in Peru and his half-brother Armando Rebaza who is over Visas and Travel for Peru. We had a great visit with them. Later we went to the National Archives to visit with David Tirado, our supervisor for Family Search. The archives were pretty much what we had imagined. They are downstairs in the Palacio Justicia (Justice Palace), shelves and shelves stacked to the ceiling with big hard bound books, the rows and stacks go on forever! It was musty and cold but the room where David and Julio (another contract worker) take the pictures was pretty comfortable because of the big lights used to capture the images. We spent the afternoon with them learning some more “tricks of the trade.” Later we went to dinner with Rich’s driver and friend Jose Luis Briceño and his family. We have known them for years; we went to Jockey Plaza, the big mall in Lima. It has changed! It’s huge and beautiful with fountains and tons of stores. We had a great time.

Wednesday we spent in the archives and practiced taking pictures and learning more, sure hope we can remember everything! We had delicious pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken w/French fries, Peruvian fast food) with David and Julio. Later our driver, Graciela took us back to the Church Offices to get our tickets to Cusco and pick up our passports. We went to bed early, we were pooped! Thursday morning we met the Lowes another couple working in the Family Search, they had just arrived from a trip back to the states. They work in Huancayo. 

We made it to Cusco Thursday afternoon and Fernando Agüero, the mission secretary met us. He brought us to our apartment which looks just like all the apartment buildings in Peru, similar to the tall building in the photo of the view from our bedroom. We’re in a third floor walkup, just upstairs from Hermano Agüero and his family.  I had prepared myself for the worst and was pleasantly surprised, we have two bedrooms, living/dining area, kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen has no oven, only a gas cook top and a dorm room size refrigerator but it’s easy to buy things here, so a big fridge really isn’t necessary. We do have a microwave and there is no hot water to the kitchen so we have to boil water to do dishes. The bathroom is TINY but nice; it has a 15 liter (a little less than 4 gallons) water heater that will get you through a shower if you turn the water off midway to soap up.  We’re learning to be fast! The homes here have no built in heat; even the brand new mission home has no heat! Fortunately, we have two space heaters and good warm blankets. Thank goodness for Paradox thermals, they have saved us at night!

Estefania, Brother Agüero’s 18 year old daughter has helped us immensely with bargaining for goods. The vendors here see “gringos” and the prices double/triple/….She is quite the negotiator and has been great. We tell her what we want and she goes into the tiendas/stores and bargains away.

We met President Harbertson and his wife last night; they have been here for about three weeks. They are freezing in the mission home so they are trying to get some heaters for them. They’re from Farmington, Utah, and they are so happy that we’re here. We told them all about high altitude and what they need to tell the missionaries that are coming up, she was taking lots of notes and I think we helped ease their minds about a lot of things. The Cusco Mission is not easy. Missionaries serve in some of the highest locations in the world here so, I hope we helped them with some of their anxiety. They are anxious to get us busy working in the districts. It will be interesting to see what we can do.

 Julie looking cute, all P-Dayed up with typical Cusco street scene

Rich in P-Day duds in another narrow Cusco street

Steep Cusco alleyway

 View from the front of our apartment, Looking Due East

 Walkway to the Plaza De Armas 

Cuy Chactado (Deep Fried Guinea Pig) in a traditional Picantería

Camera Shy

Our heads are spinning after our week in the Church Office Building and not just from eating lunch everyday on the 26^th floor! We have terms such as “grayscale,” “pixels,” “LSI,” “white board,” “full array,” “crop 90⁰,” “gutter,” and “fully blocked,” swimming around in our heads. We have “wedged,” “taped,” and “clamped” our way through massive books, torn legal documents, slips of paper and attachments.  WHEW!  It’s a good thing there are two of us so we can help each other remember all the camera and book adjustments that need to be made! After our “attempts” at taking our photos our trainer sent us down to auditing for several hours. That was very informative and humbling!  The auditor showed us all of our mistakes, blown up to 200%! Who knew that this whole process of taking photos of these documents was so tricky and picky!! We actually had a lot of fun with the two other Senior Couples; the McIntyres who are going to the Dominican Republic and the Moores who will be in Washington D.C. This is the Moore’s 6^th mission! We have a ways to go!

One of the hazards of wearing a missionary name tag is that people assume that you know things. Complete strangers asked us how to get to the genealogical library, how to get to Welfare Square how to get to the airport. We could answer the airport question, everything else we just had to smile and shake our heads, and look lost ourselves. It has been a great week, we visited the Bloomers who just returned from their mission to Peru and they filled us in on the latest and greatest. We just spoke with President Robert Harbertson our new mission president. He just arrived a week ago. He’s excited for us to get there… he said he has lots of work for us! I imagine we won’t be kicking back, eating passion fruit and watching the sun set ;)  We leave for Peru on Monday, July 15, so our next installment will be from Lima. Hasta entonces.

 

 

 

Our Equipment 1



Our Equipment 2

 

Brother Jones,the Moores, Haslers, and McIntyres

 

While we have been at the MTC and in training in Salt Lake, we have been staying at Rich’s brother Steve and his wife, Nan’s house in Provo Canyon. The house is set in a gorgeous, Wasatch Mountain setting and is absolutely idyllic.  I only wish I had time to paint here. Still, to wind down at night, we  have had the opportunity to get acquainted  with their new little  girls. Beyond all else, they love grapes… This is the third time they have raised raccoons.

 

 Eating grapes 1

 Eating grapes 2

Rich's brother Steve



And Away We Go!

What a week we have had at the Missionary Training Center (MTC)! WOW, WOW and WOW! It has been an inspirational and amazing experience. We came in last Monday with a group of 107 Senior Missionaries, (53 couples and 1 single sister.)  Some of these couples are going to Malaysia, Cincinnati, New Hampshire, Paraguay, Washington State, Honolulu, Argentina, California, Ecuador, Liberia, Salt Lake City, Milano, South Dakota, Dominican Republic, Chile, London, Central America, Nauvoo, Las Vegas, NV, Scotland-Ireland, Tonga, Asia North Area, Germany, South Africa, Oregon, Vancouver, Panama, Samoa, Tahiti, Kenya, Arizona, Texas, Bulgaria, Tennessee, Missouri and Peru. All over the world! On Wed., 865 young missionaries entered the MTC. The MTC is receiving about 1,000 new missionaries every week. This week there were about 5,000 missionaries on the MTC campuses. It has been so much fun to be with them in the cafeteria and just walking around and listening in as they practice some of the 50+ languages that are taught here.

Our classes, held in English went from 8am – 4:30pm M-F, with lunch and breaks. We had extraordinary teachers, young return missionaries who taught us how to be the best missionaries that we can be. These young instructors were wise and insightful beyond their years. We loved getting acquainted with many of the other couples and most of the couples leave on Monday for their assigned area.

Last Tuesday evening we enjoyed a devotional at the Marriott Center with all of the missionaries. Elder Matthew O. Richardson Second Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency gave a wonderful talk “Eager in my Soul.” It was thrilling to sing the hymns with thousands of eager missionaries.

We were able to have some “down time” and had wonderful dinners and visits with cousins and their families and dear friends from Peru.  We’re excited about this coming week; we’ll be training in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on the cameras!