The Reason We Traveled To Cusco

This is the reason we traveled to Cusco, to hold these two meetings.

This is a group of participants and their parents from a small town called Siquani...(see-quanee). It is about 2 hours by bus from Cusco. It is hard for them to go to any university, there are none in their town. Many leave their family and stay with some other member closer to Cusco in order to study at the university level.

The best idea for them, is to attend a "technical" school. They have several in their community. It is much cheaper, and they finish much sooner in order to begin working and earning a living. The problem is the same as in larger cities, they want a university degree, even though they are not prepared to get one.

Sicuani is a community of mostly agricultural families. Their schooling should include, auto and truck mechanics, carpentry, ect. This would help them to better live off the land where they live. But they desire more. It is a very difficult situation. Perpetual Education does not help with transportation, living expenses and the like. So...they are struggling. They want the same things other young adults want, more of what the world has to offer.

This was the second meeting of the day. It is a group of students and their parents and some leaders from the Cusco area. It was at their Stake Center. Both meetings were held here.

Elder W. is teaching his principle that first the program is first spiritual, then temporal. We are trying to change the mindset of the leaders and the students and the families. I have mentioned this in earlier postings. I think we are making some progress, the financial reports I get daily, indicate we are seeing progress made as they better understand their responsibility.

This is again Cusco, they were very excited to be at this meeting. We had a wonderul attendance.

Many of these young people have younger brothers and sisters who will eventually be participants too.

If their parents and leaders are involved at this beginning point, then we will see even greater results of repayment. Even though it is a spiritual program, if the students do not repay their loan, there will be no Perpetual Education Fund for the future students. So the temporal side is important too.

One of our favorite photos of the trip.

Elder Whitaker, The President of Siquani Stake; Elder Renee Loli; one of the bishops; the President of Cusco Stake and the Director of Seminaries and Insitutes in Cusco.

Elder Loli is being released at this General Conference. He has served 5 years as an Area 70.

We are very sad, we love him and his teaching, he has been the best companion teacher for Elder W. we have been able totravel with him three times.

This is my favorite photo of the trip. You all recognize this type of bulletin board in our chapels. This is in the Cusco Stake Center. The entire bottom rows of photos are missionaries either out on their mission or will be leaving

within a month or so.

Count them; there are 18!!!!! From mostly poor families. The left side are photos of missionaries and their favorite scriptures. The right side are missionaries who have returned home. The photos are of some of the families that were taught the Gospel and the baptisms that resulted. They are very proud of this board and their missionary effort;

A Cusco Mission is being created in July. President Calderon will be the new Mission President. Right now, Cusco is part of the Lima South mission.

Overall this was trip was a great success. We were able to meet and interact with the students.

We serve because we Love our Father in Heaven. We are so richly blessed to know that He is real and His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, is real and gave of His life for us. The Lord is ready to answer our prayers at every turn.

We wish all our family and friends a wonderful Easter. We know the real reason for Easter, is the resurection of Jesus Christ.

Love to you all, until I write again,

Hermana W.

Our Stay In A Wonderful Hotel

This is Pablo with Elder W. I have neglected to write about our wonderful friend.

He is the maintance man for the condominium building we live in. He has been working here for 9 years; from the beginning, even while the constuction was going on. He is very good at all odd jobs, he has even fixed my clothes dryer. He is here each weekday and half of each Saturday. We are happy to know him. He is very diligent at making the tenants happy. He also delivers our bills to us, with a little laugh each time.

We told him we would be traveling, he smiled and told us our apartment would be safe.

This is inside the Hotel Libertador. It is an old residence. A very old residence. This is one of the sitting rooms. It is a comfortable room for reading or just sitting or visiting with other guests. The structure itself is at least 400 years old. It was restored in 1976 to be a hotel. We are told by many of the staff that it was one of the many homes for the explorer Francisco Pizzaro when he visited Cusco. The wall behind the couch is an original "Incan" wall.

The furnishings in the hotel are authentic reproductions of the period.

This is one of my favorite parts of the hotel. It is the door that opened for the animals to enter this part of the building. Our waiter began to show us how the door opens. The wooden bar accross the door slides into an opening in the wall, you can push it about 8 feet into the wall accross the other side.

There are two different types of material in the walls of the hotel. The original stone is below the newer rock built by the Spaniards. When the Spanish came through the country, they destroyed many original churches and buildings, for what reason I do not know.

This a carving of the Pizzaro Family Crest. This one is hanging in the dining hall. Many years ago, these chandeliers used candles, (I can't imagine lighting all the many candles) but now they are electric. They hang in every public room of the hotel.

The seat backs of each chair in the dining area is leather carved with the same crest. They are beautiful and confortable too.

A waiter remembered our visit with our family last Christmas. He remembered that our tree grandsons were very polite. We loved hearing that, and I am sure his mother will be too!

This is my favorite photo. We are in front of that fabulous door. As we were leaving the dining room after dinner, the head waitress asked if she could take our photo. We were delighted. She has worked at the hotel since it's opening. I think I understood her to say about 24 years.

There are 4 Libertador Hotels in Peru. At Christmas we stayed here and also in Puno, on the edge of Lake Titicaca.

The staff knew we were interested in the history of the hotel, so our waiter showed us the "secret" room where they store the wine. When we told him we did not drink wine, he was a little suprised, but then he saw our name tags and said "Claro" which is of course in Spanish.

But I thought this would make a cute photo, so to Elder's surprise, I snapped the photo. The cabinet is a beautiful very ornate cabinet. The funny thing to me, it was not chilly or there were not many bottles. They must have another storage area.

After dinner we went out to the courtyard. It is in the middle of the grounds. The hotel is kind of in a circle of sorts with the courtyard in the middle. They did that a lot in the haciendas. So, here is Elder W. after a very good meal enjoying the night air.


So...I wanted a photo too!

The night was so nice, we had actually been told it might rain. We went prepared with our umbrellas. I felt a little foolish taking umbrellas to Lima; we thought we could buy them on any street corner just like Quito. No, No. We have not seen an umbrella for sale. It does not rain in Lima, at least where we are. Outside of Lima, it rains a little more often.

As it turned out, we did not even need them, the weather was warm and sunny.

I will finish the trip in my next entry. It is getting very late, and I am making too many mistakes!

So, until I write again, (hopefully soon)

Hermana W.

We Love Meeting The Members Around Peru.

It's hard to make out this photo, but it is looking down from the balcony, to a fountain in the entrance of the hotel. Elder W. will be staying

in Iquitos, this weedend. We stayed here on our trip in November. It is a 5 star hotel in the middle of a very interesting area on the Amazon River. On the other side of the river, is the jungle. We could see it from our room.

Elder Loli will be released as an Area Seventy in May, so this weekend will be his last Priesthood training.

This area is called "Belen." It is one of the poorest areas of Iquitos. The houses are built right on very marshy ground. We have participants who live in this area, most are going to technical institutions and smaller universities.

You can see why the Perpetual Education Fund is the only way for them to afford to get a better education.
In November, Jimmy, our mototaxi driver told us this is a very dangerous area for turists and non residents. There is a lot of crime in this area.

Two weeks ago we had a visitor from Salt Lake.

Tom Rueckert. In this photo is Elder Loli on the left, Tom Rueckert seated on the right. Samuel Gomez, and President Villar.

Tom speaks no Spanish, so Samuel translated the meeting for him. Tom handles the repayment aspect of the Perpetual Eduacion Fund. He asked to have this meeting with participants, who for one reason or another had stopped making the payments, but during the last 3 or 4 months have again begun to pay. Salt Lake is very interested in why they have started again to make their payments. We heard their stories, we laughed a little, and cried with them too. The participants were very glad to know that someone, especially someone from Salt Lake, would come to Peru and cared about their situations. Tom bore a very strong testimony of the vision President Hinkley had of the success of this program.

We were very blessed to have 14 participants attend this meeting. Two of the men are Bishops. Several of the women have graduated and have careers.

This is Evelyn, Galo, Carol and Victor.

Both couples have loans. For several years both

couples have struggled to make their payments. They felt there was no hope, but they all remained active in the Gospel. All hold callings in their wards, both women dropped out of their universities because they had their babies, which is very common.

Two days later one of the other sisters in attendance wrote me a wonderful email. I get so excited to reaeive these emails. She said it was wonderful for her to meet other participants like herself. She does not feel alone now. Each person in attendance told their story. Each one had similarities and differences too. All had one vey common thread, they wanted to do better.

This is my cute story: Carol was holding her little girl (in yellow) and her husband had not yet arrived. Tom asked her to tell her story. I wanted to take the baby so she would be able to speak to the group without the baby fussing. Every time the baby looked at me, she began to cry. I tried several times making a neusance of myself instead of helping. After the meeting ended and we were mingling and talking as a group, Carol explained it was my hair. The baby had not seen a blond before. I totally understand, almost everyone in Peru and Ecuador too, has very dark hair. I just desperately wanted to hold and squeeze those babies.

I thought with Elder W. gone I would really enjoy my free night. Instead, I find myself wondering around the apartment. I finally decided maybe it would be a good idea to write in the blog. Then I don't "hog the computer" as he puts it. It will be free for him when he returns late Sunday night.

We miss you all, pray for you all. I testity that this work is important to the Lord. The time is quickly passing. I know that God loves each one of his children, especially those who struggle with the difficulties of life. The Savior knows each one of us by name. He paid a very precious price so that we all might have the opportunity to live eternally with He and Father as families. I know this to be true. I love my family, I miss them terribly. We have dear friends who we miss as well.

Until I write again,

Hermana W.