Return from Last Week's Trip

A couple more days work in Puno

This is the wall across the street from the Puno Church,  The hospital is behind it.  The paintings teach about health.

Next Stop Juliaca 

We spent a couple of days with the great elders in Juliaca.  They always treat us so well and try to make our work run smoothly.  Elder Poulsen went on a couple of visits with these Elders to their investigators and he loved it.  He really felt the spirit during the visits and was so glad he was invited and was able to bare testimony to them about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Zone Leaders - Elder Bird and Elder Black  These missionaries are so cheerful every time we work with them.

These are a couple of the Sister Missionaries in Juliaca.  Yes we all wear our layers of coats and sweaters, it is cold here.

Final Stop is Sicuani

We arrived at this town on Saturday and were able to witness the baptism of one family of three and one boy that night.  That is a real treat for us because we are usually busy elsewhere and cannot come to baptisms.  

Weeks ago we had made plans with the counselor of the Stake President of this town, to come and work with the High Counselors and their wives.  So, we were pretty surprised when they announced in Sacrament Meeting and Relief Society that we were giving a fireside at 3:00 in the afternoon (exactly the same time we were supposed to help Stake High Counselors find ordinances for their ancestors).  We were trying to figure out how we could do both, especially hard because only Lyle speaks Spanish well enough to give a fireside and Lyle is the expert at setting up familysearch accounts.  Finally at 2:45 the Stake President shows up and we explain the problem, he just walk into the Chapel where people are gathering for the Fireside and said, "There has been a mistake, there will be no fireside tonight".  He just sent everyone home, but the Relief Society had a 4:00 meeting and when that was finished a bunch of sisters sneaked into the office where we were working.  I take pictures and we have a portable printer so we can put pictures in their My Family booklets.  There was a line of women who wanted their pictures taken.  They were so cute, because they would say they wanted me to take and print their pictures then they would get all shy about it.

Here are some pictures of some of the people we worked with.  As you can tell they are not all on the Stake High Counsel.  We were able to find ordinances and Hermano Milton (the counselor in the Stake Presidency that set this all up) just kept telling the people there, "print them and take the names to the Temple to do the ordinances yourself or send them to the Temple".  He said there are far too many reserved in the Stake and the work is just sitting there.  One man I worked with found 7 names and 30 ordinances he printed up and is taking to the Temple.  They are his parents, grandparents and Great-grandparents.  He and I were so excited.  That doesn't happen that often here.  We usually are lucky to get just one or two.

 The computers in the family history were not working so we set up a laptop and used the 2 computers in the Secretaries Office.  It was a little crowded, but no one seemed to mind.  The Sister on the left was an great help to us.  She is Hermana Davis a missionary that is part of a threesome, so we could use her while her companions went out on appointments as long as we stayed together.  I needed her to translate for me and it wasn't long before she was able to get people in and help them build trees.  She said she had a great time.  She was so loving and patient with all the people she worked with.  I think she was unsure that she wanted to do this in the beginning, but later she said she didn't know family  history could be so fun and told us how grateful she was to be able to help us.

Relief Society Presidency

One of Lyle's favorite things to eat are the roasted chickens.  They roast them in these large ovens on a wood fire.

It seems there is always an occasion for a parade.

Sister Davis and one of the women she helped.

Sister Davis and her companions.  This is a great companionship, they love working together.  Sister Davis said they are all best friends.

Garbage collection is done by these workers.  Can you see the Organic and Inorganic carts?  Sometimes we could hear music, like the music you hear when the ice cream man comes - well, here that sound is the garbage collector.  Everyone knows to run out with their garbage when they hear that music.  I watched one of these little carts pull up to a gate of a home and ring a triangle (like the ones they used in the old westerns to call everyone in to eat).  Then when no one came he knocked on the door and waited and waited.  After about 3 times knocking someone came to the door with the garbage.  Talk about door to door service.

So we thought we had the bus system figured out and we jumped on a bus that looked really nice and clean.  The man outside was calling, "Cuzco, Cuzco, Cuzco!"  It was on the street ready to go, so we decided not to go in the terminal to get a bus instead we jumped on this one, thinking it was a direct bus.  It wasn't too crowded but the only seats together were in the back.  There was a window for Lyle (he gets claustrophobic with out a window that opens), so we just sat back ready for an uneventful ride,  Pretty soon the bus started making random stops and picking up people.  We discovered this was not a direct bus, which meant we would be stopping all the time and it would get crowded.  It was okay though, we thought it will just take a little longer.  There are speed bumps all along the road.  The bus puts on it's brakes at each one.  Finally, we went over one and we could smell burning brakes.  The bus stopped at the next town, everyone stood up and looked around.  The driver and another man got out and do a brake repair right there on the street with all the passengers that got out to watch.  In the meantime while Lyle is outside watching, and I am inside watching when a bus pulls up behind us with a bunch of people.  An old truck pulls up next to it and a very angry Ketchua woman in the passenger seat of the truck starts yelling at the bus driver. The road is completely blocked by now.  The bus driver, trying to maintain control, closes his window and the irate lady's husband and driver of the truck starts taking off his coat and climbing out of the truck.  People are gathering and the bus driver looks like he is ready to get out too and there is going to be a fight on the street.  The bus driver thinks better of it (I am sure he would lose his job if he left his bus and passengers to fight) he shuts his door and gets ready to drive off.  The farmer gets back in the truck and takes off.  I don't know if the bus had cut them off or not, but that little farmer's wife sure was mad.

People from the bus that went outside to wait while the bus brake gets fixed.

People in the bus waiting. See the man at the front standing by the door, he is the salesman that says he is not selling anything.

Well the brake was kinda repaired.  Lyle said they just did some adjustments.  We were finally on our way again.  Then one of the men standing in the aisle got sick from the swaying of the bus.  In seconds there were plastic bags being pulled out of packs, purses and pockets all up and down the bus.  I think about 10 bags made it to the man. They are super prepared for these bus rides.  In the meantime we have a salesman at the front of the bus telling us he is not selling anything, but if you want good health you should buy his product.  Finally, things settled down and we were nearing Cuzco.  We thought we had made it when the little five-year-old boy next to us started throwing up.

We gathered our things, figured we were pretty close to our apartment to get a taxi for the rest of the way.  We got off the next stop and did not look back.  I guess we really didn't have the buses figured out after all.

These are some ancient ruins just outside of town.  We may have to explore these some day.