Sunday in Calca

Sunday June 29, 2016 we visited a small town an hour away from Cuzco, named Calca.  It is settled in the Sacred Valley and the drive was beautiful as we looked down into this fertile valley.  Here are some pictures of the park in the center of town.  This is where the bus dropped us off.  We had no idea the town was this small.  We started asking taxi drivers to take us to the Church.  Most said they didn't know where it was and finally one taxi driver stratched his head and said, "hop in".  He took us directly to the Jehovah Witness Church, then an Evangelical church.  We told him that wasn't right, so he took us to another Church, which was not our church either.  Finally, after he thought for awhile longer he took us to the right church which is a rented building.

The bronze statues of the deer look so natural in this park.

We finally found the church.

They had a wedding the day before in this rented Church building.

There are only two missionaries in this area.  There were about ten people at the beginning of the meeting, but maybe 40 at the end.

Lyle talking with the members, the flowers were from the wedding the night before and used to decorate the chapel.  Every Chapel we have been to has fresh flowers brought to decorate the podium by the members of the ward or branch. I wonder what he is discussing, he looks so serious.

The two missionaries in Calca.  The one on the left was heading home in two days and it was a very emotional day for him.  This sister was baptized by him at the beginning of his mission.  Then, here at the end, he was sent to Calca for the day to replace the companion of the missionary on the right while he went to Cusco for some training.  So he was very happy to see his convert again.  He helped us with getting her a familysearch account and finding ordinances. 

This is her little boy, check out the shirt.  He was so happy when we gave him the Ipad to play with while he waited.  It has the "angry bird" game on it.

We had a great day in Calca and were able to help a lot of people with their familysearch accounts.  We were busy until evening.  When we asked one of the sisters when the last bus to Cuzco left, she told us 6:30.  It was almost that time so she told us to hurry because we didn't want to miss our flight to Salt Lake City.  Sometimes the people are told we have come all the way from Salt Lake City (because the know where that is) just to help them with their family history.  Here are some of the people we helped.

This man has such a happy temperment.  I loved working with him.  He was able to get four generations on his account (that is uncommon here) and he was still working on it when we had to close up and leave.  He was so excited to get a picture with his wife. 

Cathedral in the Center of the town, I thought the red heart painted on the door was interesting.

Old adobe walls and houses are found in every town.  I always think about the many generations families that have lived in these homes, and what their lives were like.  Doing family history gives you a glimpse of the lives of these people, the births, the deaths, the happy times, the sad times and the love each family shared.

There are a lot of these Volkswagen Beetles in Peru and they just keep running, but it looks like this one might need a little help.