Family History Work / Getting a Visa

Edgar age 17 and his Grandfather

 Remember my story about Edger?  He is the man with the amazing memory and had 4 generations of names and dates in his head.  I posted a picture of him earlier.  Remember how he couldn't sleep because he was feeling pushed to do the Temple work for his brother and Grandfather.  He was so relieved when we sent the ordinances to the Temple for him, but when I was closing up our laptop he mentioned that he had a little sister that died.  We had to run to another appointment and so I told him we have to get her name in the computer and get her ordinances done.  He is one of the less-active people the sister missionaries found and have been working with.  He still wasn't coming to church. He was offended years ago and hasn't been back except for the one time he had to go to get his membership number so we could set up an account to do his family history.
 Well, we returned and put his baby sister in familysearch and had the ordinance for sealing to the parents sent in to the Temple.  He was so grateful that night he just kept telling us, "if I only had a car, I would let you use it to drive to Michu Picu to see the beautiful ruins there".  Isn't that sweet?  I was the one that was relieved because it had been haunting me that that sweet little sister, just over a year old, had not been sealed to the family that loved her.
 This last Saturday we went with the Sister missionaries to his home again, he had even more names to enter.  He has these amazing pictures I want to get put on familysearch for him.  The picture above is of him and the Grandfather who was pushing him from the other side to get his Temple work done.  We were able to send in about 30 more ordinances for his family.  He said a very sincere and heartfelt prayer at the end.  Then he told us this story.
 I guess the last time we were there and sent his sister's name to the temple, he said it was the first time he had really thought about her for a long time.  He was so emotional as he told us then about how he had pulled her around in a little wooden wagon.  That night he got on his knees and prayed to Heavenly Father asking in faith if the work we he was doing for his family was true.  He said he had a dream that night that confirmed to him that the work he is doing for his family is truly the work of Heavenly Father. He has been coming to church each week since then and we will be visiting again as he gets more names ready for us.

 Tonight we just finished up with a woman who has been keeping family records by hand for some time.  There were just relationships and a few dates.  It was a big puzzle.  After we worked for an hour and half entering the information we looked at the family tree and saw the green temples.  We reserved all the ordinances and when we looked at how many were reserved there were 44.  She was so excited.  I was excited because I haven't seen any Peruvian records go back to the 1700's.  She sent them all to the Temple.  This is why I love this work.  It is so gratifying to see families put back together again.  This woman is the only active member in her family and she is so happy to know that some of her ancestors - grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles will have the opportunity to accept the Gospel and be blessed by it just as she has.


Now for just another Peruvian adventure.  We went to Lima to start our papers for our work (missionary) visas here about 2 months ago. Each time you go to work on these papers it is called a "tramite" in Spanish. That word sounds like trauma to me and that is exactly what it is. We had to meet with Interpol.  They checked our teeth and took our fingerprints and it took hours.  We were to finish them here in Cuzco.  We hoped to finish the papers last week, but I guess all of Peru closes up on Thursday for Easter. So we went in at 10 am on Monday and  of course the paper work wasn't exactly right. (Partly our fault, warning -carefully fill out those papers they give you on the plane before you land and put the receipt in a safe place.)  We had to make some copies and go to the Bank to pay some fees for processing.  There was a copy machine right there but the man who runs the copy machine was not and no one else is allowed to make copies, so we went across the street to get copies made.  Then we had to go to the bank to pay the fees.  They can't take any money at immigration and only the Government  Bank can do the transaction.  We went to the closest bank that could do it for us, only to find huge lines at all the tellers. It looked like it was a run on the Banks, but it wasn't.  It was just ordinary business here in Peru.  So we took a Taxi to another branch of that bank that is supposedly less busy.   I have a picture of the line at that bank below.  Finally we had everything we needed (we thought) then we went back, waited in line, and found out we needed to have a couple of papers notarized.  There are no notaries in banks or other types of businesses, you have to find a private person with his own office that notarizes papers full time. We went to the closest Notary but he wasn't supposed to return for an hour and a half.  We waited until he was to return, then we were told he wasn't going to come back for another 2 hours.  We walked about 4 blocks and found another Notary but he wasn't expected back either.  Finally we found a very small, crowded office with a Notary and after a couple of other problems our papers were finally ready to turn in at the Immigration office.  It was 4:00 by then and we had to wait in line again.  When it was finally our turn, the man said it was closing time and took our papers, stuffed them in his drawer and said to return in the morning.  Another wait this morning and meeting with a couple of more people our papers are in order, but we have to check the website everyday for the final approval and then return for pictures and I don't know what else.  I really feel for the people trying to get visas in the U.S.   It was bad enough here and we had the Church helping us.

Five taxi rides.

Running to get copies.

Waiting in bank lines that run down the street.

Elder Thacker and Elder Webb helping us figure out what we need next. These are two of the office Elders that really work hard to help us.

Something to look at while waiting and waiting in the office of immigration.  This statue of Christ hangs in the office of Immigration.  Isn't it nice to know that not all countries have to keep their faith out of the office especially government offices?

Hallelujah, the paperwork is done - we hope!

I

Playing "find the tourist" while waiting for the Notary to arrive at his office.

Looking at the Mural while waiting for the Notary to arrive.  This mural depicts the history of Cuzco.

Trying to figure out what this lady is brewing while still waiting for the Notary to arrive at his office.

Getting my shoes polished (30 cents) while still waiting for the Notary to get back to his office, which never did happen. Two hours and several blocks of walking later we finally found a Notary that was working.  

Finally we headed back to our apartment.  Here are some pictures.

This is how the gas is delivered to the homes and businesses, there are no natural gas lines installed here.  There is another tank on the other side.  

Oil change and car wash at a Ferrari Dealership?  No Ferraris ever in sight.

Elder Poulsen looking for a couple of perfectly ripe Mangos to take home. Yummy!

These colorful produce stands are right around the corner from our Apartment.  We love it, fresh produce daily.  In fact some of the food stands have fresh cut-up watermelon, pineapple and other fruits. What healthy snacks.  I wish I dared buy some, it just looks so good.  The problem is that you don't know how clean the surface and the knife and the hands were when the fruit was cut up and we just aren't immune to the different bacteria here -so we sadly have to just pass fruit stands with the already cut up fruit.