Cultural Insights # ...

Rich went to the Izcuchaca Family Group last Sunday without Julie since she was still a bit under the weather. Rich had a wonderful and valuable insight into cultural diversity. The man who takes us to church in our far-flung assignments gave a talk on Sunday that fascinated Rich. He began by explaining that he is a successful head of a construction company and that he had gotten down to the wire for a bid. He needed s/.80,000 (~$29,000US) in earnest money and had come  up short, s./18,000. He was fretting about it since this was the last day that he could present.

 His wife asked him if he had prayed about it to ask the Lord’s help. He said that he had not and went off to pray. Then he called everyone he knew to ask for the loan. Everyone he could think of was tapped out.

 Frustrated, he agreed to run his wife to the fabric store where she said she would only take five minutes but took twenty. This added to his frustration and he grumbled about her taking so long, not to her, just internal growling, he said. When she got in the car, she said she needed him to take her over to a friend’s house, making him grumpier than before.

 He pulled out of his parking spot and made a U-turn, essentially illegal in all of Peru and he did it right in front of a motorcycle policeman. The cop pulled him over and in his frame of mind, he argued with the policeman. Then, he said, “Look, just write me the ticket and let me get on my way, I am in a hurry.” This, of course, never plays well with law enforcement types in any country.

 When he dropped his wife off, he looked at the ticket and it had the letter “G” written on it and he had never seen this before. He called a policeman friend and asked, “What does the letter ‘G’ mean on a ticket.”

 The friend explained that it stood for, “Grave” and that means serious regardless of the pronunciation. The policeman friend said, “But, listen, I can take care of that for you. My friend is the Colonel and he will fix the ticket. Just meet me down on the Avenida Del Sol,” the, “Main Drag,” in Cusco.

 When they met to get the ticket fixed, the policeman friend said, “Listen, I’ve come into some money and don’t want to put it in the bank where the SUNNAT (Peruvian IRS) will see it. So, I have been wondering if I could invest it in your company for a while. It is $8,000US dollars. This amounted to about s./23,000.

 He concluded by saying that his prayer was answered because, had he not taken his wife and made the illegal U-turn, resulting in a serious ticket and sought out his friend’s advice and agreed to have him fix the ticket, he would have never gotten the money from his friend seeking to hide if from the tax authorities…

Our supervisor David Tirado came from Lima and spent Tuesday with us, to make sure we were doing things correctly. On Wednesday it poured rain all day and it was so cold. We had another mission conference with Elder C. Scott Grow of the Area Presidency all day Wednesday. It was great and we learned a lot.  Julie’s cousin wrote me an email Tuesday night and said that his nephew Elder Lindblom was in Peru and he thought he was serving in Cusco. At the conference on Wednesday we were told that there would be two new missionaries serving in Curahuasi where we go every other Sunday. Julie walked over to meet them and there was Elder Lindblom! Julie asked if he knew her cousin Dea Montague and he said “yes, he’s my uncle!” and Julie said “I know, he’s my cousin!”  It will be fun to work with him in Curahuasi. The world is small inside the church.

Thursday was a good work day, but with some terrible books! They were really hard to lay flat and capture good images. It was frustrating but we managed to get about 780 images taken. Our supervisor told us that there are couples that get about 1500 images a day! We do wonder what kind of records they are capturing. The books that are all the same size and open easily are called “celestial books” in this business. I’m not sure our books would even be considered “telestial!” They are difficult! Nevertheless, we will try to step up our game.

We had fun walking by the art competition on our way to work this week. The artists were painting “Imitations of the Classic Cusco style religious art” or “free style.” There is some amazing talent here in Cusco.

Friday we had an unexpected holiday, “Santa Rosa de Lima.” She is the patron saint for the military and police in Peru so there were parades of all sorts.  We met our friend Yeny Yauli from Espinar. She and her mother were some of the early baptisms that we attended when we moved to Tintaya. She has served a mission in Trujillo, Peru; her younger sisters are on their missions in Argentina and Colombia.  A truly remarkable family! We had a wonderful visit with her and can’t wait to get up to Espinar to see all of our friends.

Another In The Series Of Creative Station Wagon Applications (Immense Squash Called Zapallo (Said "Sap-ayl-yo))

Our Meeting With Elder Lindblom

Our Blanket That Covers Our Bed Is Reversible # 1 The Tiger

# 2 Chinese Rose/Carnation Hybrid???

Big Art Competition Photo 1

Big Art Competition  Photo 2

Big Art Competition  Photo 3

Santa Rosa De  Lima Parade (Little  Kid Style)

Yeni Yauli With Us In The Main Plaza

Older Woman In Chincheros Garb.