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.

Beginning Our Sixth Month

It is hard to believe we are starting our sixth month soon. But it is because of brethren like Elder Loli and many others, that we have been able to accomplish what we have to this point. This is a picture Elder W. at the top of the stairs with Elder Loli. He will be released in May, we will miss him a great deal. He is a wonderful teacher.

This was the meeting we were attending. It is in a Stake called Huacho. It is in the Northern part of Lima. In the beginning of the meeting (the front half of the chapel,) Elder Loli taught the Priesthood. The Stake Presidency, Bishops, Branch Presidencies. In the second part of the training inculded the students and their parents. He taught that if a person really wants to work, there is work available. He brought the classified ads with him and read some of the ads. A good deal of our particpicants tell us they don't have work, so they can't pay their loan. The left side of the chapel is full also. It was a great meeting. Elder W. taught for about an hour. They understand a little bit more the focus of the progam of Perpetual Education is to help them obtain a better life.

This is a photo of Elder W. teaching about our part of the equation to Samuel Gomez. Samuel is from Bogota, Columbia. He is the Co-ordinator of the PEF program in the South America Northwest Area. He has a good deal to learn. I don't mean that in a bad way, he is young and wants very much to do a good job.

This is how we send our grandchildren their birthday messages. I know it must to be very hard for you all to believe that Lima, Peru does not have a mail system! I mean it.

I'm not making that up. We have tried to mail our christmas cards now for almost 3 months. All the bills for our apartment and the information that comes to the offices, are brought by curriers. So, in order to let our grandchildren know we remember their birthday, we take a photo with our sign, (hand made by grandma,) and send an email off to the birthday child. I think it is really a pretty smart way to do it. I do have to keep on my toes, we have 21 grandchildren to send these messages to. Some months there are up to 3 birthdays in a month. We miss them all and want them to know that we do think of them all the time.

Elder W. has been sick almost the entire time we have been here. It actually started before we came. It feels like there is something very important to be done, and Satan does not want it accomplished. Every time he is feeling better, the very next day he begins to get sick again. The poor Mission Dr. probably thinks he is crazy, but he has really been ill much of the time, but he pushes through it and keeps working. So, I am not only his secretary but his nurse also. My children will tell you what a bad patient he can be. Thankfully, today he is feeling much better after the 4th round of antibiotics for different ailments. We may have a handle on it at last (fingers crossed.) I sure hope so, we need some restat night, you'll understand by the next story.

OK...the story of my shoes. This was absolutely my craziest day for me. I have NEVER done this before! This happened last Friday. We were a little late getting started for our day, I got ready very fast. As our driver arrived, I ran back for my shoes (which I should have taken out when I dressed.) As you can see, I pulled two shoes from the closet, put them on and ran out the door. I got to the office and after several hours I needed to use the restroom. As I was sitting there, I looked down and almost screamed. One black shoe, one brown shoe. They are the same style, different colors. I began to laugh so hard, you can imagine.

I was almost in tears I laughed and laughed.

I prayed so hard that no one else would come in the bathroom. My girls are probably crying right now reading this. When I returned to my desk, (almost running) I took OFF my shoes and went barefoot the rest of the day. I am more than sure it will not happen again, at least not to me. I did not even want to tell Elder W., but it was so funny, I could not help it. I knew he probably would never let me forget it, but now you all know!

We are so blessed to be here in Lima. The work can be tiring. I know this is the work of the Lord and it is important because He loves all his sons and daughters, and I love Him, because He loves me. The Lord restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth for our benefit. We are blessed when we live by the precepts and ordinances and we serve others wherever we are.

Until I write again,

Hermana W.

Out And About

We were very blessed to have found a member of the church who lives near our apartment who is a driver. He had just bought a new car and asked his Bishop (who works in the Area Offices) if he knew of anyone needing a driver. He has driven for years, his old car finally gave out. He prayed about it, exercised his faith and bought a new car. Elder W. asked the Bishop the very next day if he knew of anyone who would be willing to drive for us. How about that for timing. The Lord always provides!

So as we travel with Eric to and from the office, these are some of the interesting places (to us) that we see each day. Thus the title, "out and about." I hope you like the journey.

When we arrive at our office these two wonderful men are working hard on their "Garden of Eden." That is what they call the beautiful garden area outside of the office building. There are so many plants like the ones at home, they make me homesick. The other day as we waited for Eric, we were looking at the new plants that they were working on and a little humming bird was darting from flower to flower. I LOVE humming birds. They also helped me replant the two plants we purchased for our office. I paid them in candy!


When we enter the building, Esperanza is the first person we see. She is the receptionist. She is always smiling and a very friendly, happy person. Esperanza in Spanish means "hope." She, her parents and her son attend our ward on Sundays. Our ward building is on the other side of the Mission Training Center which is next to our office. All three buildings are together in a row.

As we drive each day to and from, we see this university. It is one of, if not the most expensive universities in Lima. There are satalite campuses around Peru, but this is the largest campus.
We have students in the Perpetual Education Fund attending this university; not many, mostly because of the cost. They have to be very qualified and demonstrate that they are serious about studying and will continue their studies and not drop out. Unfortunaltly, students do drop out of their studies for reasons of health; they need to work to help their family; some leave because they did not realize it would be hard.

This is another one of the small businesses we pass each day. In Peru, funerals are a huge deal. I wanted to post a large photo but I had a hard time, so I had to settl for the small one. I hope you can see the gorgeous funeral arrangements. They are spectacular! You can see how large they are. We have seen many funeral processions, each one has a tall black panel truck with hooks on the sides. The hooks hold these arrangements as they drive to the cemetary. The cars follow the black truck.

Do you remember my blog about our anniversary dinner? It was at Pardo's Chicken Resturant. These are some of the delivery drivers. As we walk on Saturdays for our "P" day (our Preparation Day) we pass this intersection. We counted the motorcyles one day. Elder W. says there are about

45. They take off on their motorcyles with their precious meal in the box beind the driver. We have even see them quite far away from this location.

This is our American Embassy. It is very close to our apartment, which is one reason we chose to live where we do. The crime rate is low and the security is high. We pass it walking on our Saturday outings. It is a huge ediface. We had to go there one day to have some papers noterized; the doors are about two feet thick. A friend of ours, who works in the Embassy, told Elder W. the doors were built to withstand mortar blasts, just in case of a riot or revolution.

Scarry thought!

This was our FIRST sunset about two months ago. It was beautiful. It reminded me of our first mission in Quito Ecuador. We had the MOST beautiful sunsets in Quito. I remember our children telling us that if we posted or sent home one more photo of a sunset, they would not read the blog or open our emails. That first mission I sent our photos home after we had them printed. Our daughter-in-law Corinna, put together a wonderful album with our emails and the coresponding photos. It is a great rememberance for us. We so enjoyed both of our missions to Quito.

Lima is a very different place from Quito. It is overcast almost every morning and gloomy the rest of the day. We have a Senior couple in the mission here. The sister has "seasonal affective disorder." She needs sunlight. If it had been me, I would have asked for a change of assignment, but they did not know that was an option for them. As Senior Missionaries, we do have options. We have situations that are different at this older time of life. She has had a very hard time. She did not have the kind of experience I have had on my missions, mostly because of her need for better weather conditions. They are going home on February 15, and are very excited. The interesting thing is, the weather has changed and it has been warm and sunny almost every day for two weeks now.

We love being in Lima, working in the Perpetual Education Fund program again. The people of Peru are wonderful; friendly, helpful and the Saints are very, very faithful. We have wonderful leaders and great support from the Area Presidency. But even though we are in South America, the Spanish here is different! Some words and phrases are totally different. We feel as if we are learning Spanish all over again. Each day as Eric drives us to and from the office, Elder W. asks if a word or phrase is correct. I tease Eric and tell him he needs to charge us extra for the Spanish lessons. He thinks I am funny, and he speaks NO English.

Well, that is about all for now. I hope you have enjoyed your travels along our path.

We keep you in our prayers and we feel your prayers for us. We are very grateful for all the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. To know our Savior lives and loves us and we have a Father in Heaven who wants us to return to Him is the greatest blessing of all.

Until I write again,

Hermana W.

Our 45th Anniversary

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary today. When we got to the office Elder W. came over to my desk and kissed my cheek and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't get you much for our anniversary..." to which I said, "what do you mean, you have taken me to far away exotic places," he thought and said "you mean Machu Picchu" I said, "no Lima, Peru and Ecuador before that." We celebrated this evening at our favorite restaurant "Pardo's." They serve great chicken, salads and a tasty tenderloin steak all for a really good price too!

It has been a bumpy road much of the time but, I would not change my life for anything. If I

were to begin to recount all of the trials we as a family, but especially we as a couple have been

through, I would be blogging until next Sunday. So, I will only say that we will be eternally grateful for those trials, for they have made us who we are. We are very grateful to have been

blessed with seven children, now with their six spouses and our 21 grandchildren, it is

remarkable to see them grow to be independent people, raising their own children; some are going through trials as we did.

I would have loved to have had Becky here for a longer time, but Father had other ideas and He is in charge; so I will be patient and see her later, I know she is fine and I know where she is. That is the blessing of being an eternal family.

There are really no guarantees in life, just hard work, lots of prayer, more prayer; then maybe it turns out the way you would like.

I want my family especially to know how much I love and I miss them all.

Until I write again,

Mom

More Of Our First December In Lima

Here is more about our first December in Lima.

I am still talking about our great trip with our family. This was taken in the Sacred Valley on our way from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca. Our grandsons really liked this part of the trip. We all had our pictures taken with this family.
Elder W. and I are with the mother and her one of her children. They sit on the side of the road, when cars or busses stop, they get their children ready, fetch the animals and the photo session begins. We spent about 20 minutes here. I was so afraid of being "soiled" or stepped on, I was giddy, thus the strange face.

Since the Christmas tree in our apartment consisted of a fake ficus tree with one strand of twinkling lights, (pathetic) I loved entering the office building each day during the holidays. There was a beautifully decorated tree in the corner and a Nativity set up right in the center of the foyer.

When we returned to our office the Monday after Christmas there was quite a bit of work that had piled up, so we dug in and completed the month end report. We have so pleased to see the Priesthood and the participants respond so well to our emails, phone calls and interaction with them.

One day we decided to give all our volunteers a Pizza Party for the great job they do. We had pizza, soda, and a chocolate cake. Boy do they love pizza!

I have written before in other entries about our "driver" Jack. He was blessed to get a full time job driving construction trucks. Regina was a volunteer in the call center in our office. They are going to have their first baby in February, that's about 3 weeks from now. On the same day we had our pizza party, several of the sisters in the office building who have known and worked with Regina for some time, gave her a baby shower. It was a TOTAL surprise. They were given most of the large items needed for a new baby. They are sooooo cute!
The next week was Regina's last week with us in the office. We miss Jack, but our new driver, Eric is working out very well. We miss Regina's sweet spirit in the office; she may come back after the baby, at least for a few hours each week.

So that is how our year ended, very busy and with great success. We are very happy to be in Lima at this time.

We had a wonderful Christmas and pray you did too; let's have a great New Year!

Until I write again,

Hermana W.