CHIVAY!

This post will be mostly photos.  As way of introduction, the Chipman's niece, Claire, was in town and they invited us to be tourists and go to Chivay with them.  Claire is a birder, so there will be some birds in these photos.  Let me just say it was AMAZING!

We saw lots of Alpacas and Llamas

And this little guy. This is a viscacha.

A village we drove through

This "witch" was erected at the summit (16,000 feet).  People leave sacrifices such as the TV.

Driving down into Chivay

Some Good Friday celebrating in the town plaza of Chivay:

Souvenir shopping in Chivay

Tim with his new souvenir hat made of alpaca

View from hotel - smoking volcano

Hotel Room

On the road to see the condors:

Watching for Condors

Back on the Road:

Wild Flamingos:

Not just driving, but also hiking:

President making friends with the locals

Quinoa

Inca Ruins.  The wildflowers were beautiful:

More hiking:

Catacombs below the bridge:

Sacrament Meeting at the Chivay Branch

Some furry friends joined sacrament meeting

This was taken before the meeting started.  Those chairs filled up.

There is no air conditioning, so they keep the doors open and the stray dogs walk in and join us.

Some of the members of the branch

The dogs even photo bomb

Saying goodbye to Chivay:

Back to the summit.  At the lookout you can see several volcanos.

19,767 feet

19,619 feet

20,341 feet

19,872 feet

19,101 feet

This is a better view of Misti.  This can be seen in photos of the Arequipa temple.

Better view of Chachani.  This can also be seen from Arequipa

And finally a vicuña:

"Whenever I hear the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

Or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenever I touch a velvet rose

Or walk by our lilac tree,

I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heav’nly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see

The color of butterfly wings.

He gave me my ears that I might hear

The magical sound of things.

He gave me my life, my mind, my heart:

I thank him rev’rently

For all his creations, of which I’m a part.

Yes, I know Heav’nly Father loves me."

My Heavenly Father Loves Me, Children's Songbook #288

 

Tacna Zone Conference then on to Ilo

This is a continuation from the last post.  Saturday we went to the Tacna Zone Conference.  The conference went well.  Tim and I helped distribute packages and mission supplies to the missionaries and we had lunch with them after.  

Lunch after the Tacna Zone Conference

Presidente Chipman and Elder Candia (Assistant to the President) singing the birthday song after lunch

The missionaries in the Tacna Zone

The sister missionaries in the Tacna Zone (with me and Hermana Chipman)

We then took off for stake conference in Ilo.  Ilo is on the coast.  We checked into our hotel, then walked down to the ocean and found a place for dinner.  Presidente is still lamenting about what he ordered for dinner.  It was a traditional peruvian dish, but instead of beef or chicken, we ordered fish in it because we were right on the ocean.  We know now to just stick with the beef or chicken.  Hermana Chipman was the only smart one who ordered just the plain grilled fish.  

This is where we at dinner on the beach.  It was called the Monkey Beach Club (in English)

View from our hotel

The next day we went to stake conference where Presidente and Hermana Chipman both spoke.  Hermana Chipman doesn't speak Spanish, but she's amazing the way she writes a talk, translates it and gives her best effort at delivering it.  The Area 70 who was presiding had asked for an hour to speak, but he actually took 1 1/2 hours so it was a 2 1/2 hour conference (in Spanish of course).  I'm told he had a lot of good things to say, but he spoke on a lot of different subjects - marriage, tithing, temple and on and on.  I especially felt for the missionaries who gave up their seats to their investigators and had to stand the whole 2 1/2 hours.    

Here are some photos from our trip back to Arequipa:

We had to take a detour around this protest.  The farmers were protesting the plan to put in a mine.

This was a beautiful valley full of rice fields

This week I want to work harder at preparing thoughts and testimonies in Spanish that I can share when we go with the missionaries to lessons.  I have been working my way up to it and I believe I am starting to feel more ready.  We'll see how it goes.

Last week we also meet some missionaries for a Family Home Evening where their 13 year old daughter had a date to be baptized.  She was baptized on Saturday.  It was really fun.  We sang, had a lesson and they served some peruvian snacks. Both missionaries are gringos and one has only been a here about 3 weeks or so.  He did really well with his Spanish.  I get a little jealous how well the young American missionaries learn Spanish and how quickly.  If you are wondering, I did not participate.  I'm ready if they ask me, but I'm not volunteering yet.  

We were quite late because it was on the other side of the city and raining and rush hour, so couldn't find a taxi who wanted to drive out there.  When we finally found one, he had to stop and get gas.  It was quite comical.  I was little nervous about getting home, but we found a taxi very easily later on that evening.

Here is the Family Home Evening group.  The missionaries are on the left.  The chica in front is who was baptized.  The mujer on the right is the missionaries pensionista who cooks their meals.  She kept teasing the vegetarian missionary while we were there.  The kids were super cute.  The youngest didn't want to be in the photo, but she ran up and gave us the biggest hug when we arrived.

Zone Conference/Pensionistas/English Connect

 This week we were able to get English Connect underway, we visited more pensionistas and zone conferences are already here again.

I am writing from Tacna (south Peru, near Chile).  Our second trip here.  The first trip we visited pensionistas and went to zone conference.  This time we stopped in Moquegua and spent the night so Presidente Chipman could get a head start with interviews for the Tacna zone conference.  These missionaries will bus into Tacna today for the conference tomorrow.  Lisa took us into the plaza area and cathedral, but it was night, so we didn't get many photos.  Here is the inside of the cathedral.

Moquegua is a valley in the middle of a lot of sand and dirt, but there is a river, so the valley is green.  The contrast is striking.  Here is a photo I found on the internet that shows the contrast.

In the morning we drove an hour and a half to Tacna.  Presidente got started on his interviews here and we checked into our hotel and got to work.  Tim contacted a new pensionista here and the one we weren't able to see last time and arranged for Socrates (the mission driver in Tacna) to pick us up after lunch.  We ate lunch near a cathedral in Tacna.  We met Dave there during his lunch break.  Here is a photo at the cathedral that makes me think of Mary Poppins.

I then did some work on the computer for Lisa and after lunch we headed out to the pensionistas.  It went really well.  We enjoy visiting and getting to know them.  After dinner we went out with some sister missionaries to a lesson.  They also brought along their pensionista who is a return missionary.  We had met her on our first trip here.  The lesson was on prophets and that there is a living prophet on the earth today who receives revelation for our time.  It was good timing with General Conference coming up.  This is a man whose 19 year old daughter was baptized two weeks ago and he is set to be baptized a week from tomorrow.  We'll be back in Arequipa and will miss it unfortunately.  We really enjoyed him.  He was very engaged and excited about the gospel.  He gave the hermanas a gift:

Recognize Taylor Swift?  He's a fan of country music as is one of the hermanas.

Here we are after the lesson.  We are all gringos except the pensionista.

So back in Arequipa earlier this week, we visited several pensionistas there.  We went over the new contracts with them as we did in Tacna.  We are trying to keep the missionaries from getting sick.  We found one didn't have a filter and has been boiling the water, so we made sure to get them a filter.  It's really fun to hear their stories and see where they live.  One thing that strikes us is how humble their homes are, but how clean they keep them.  They take great pride in their homes (a good kind of pride).  Here are photos of some of the pensionistas:

We are in front of a potrait of her late husband who died in an auto accident a couple of years ago.  Sorry about the bad selfie.

These are some pensionistas with their grandson

This was a fun couple for me.  They could speak English.  He has lived in Utah and she learned English on her mission.  Their son is learning both Spanish and English.  He was super cute.

Javiar drove us around to the pensionistas.  He is one of the drivers for the mission.  He brought us to one pensionista, who we found out had moved.  So he put the new address in GPS and took us on a wild ride up a mountain.  These photos don't do it justice.  It was quite the adventure.

This is Javier trying to figure out where the address is.  For those who don't have a car they have endless stairs going up.

This was steeper than it looks.

We eventually got a hold of her and met her at her restaurant down below.  Turns out she lives at the bottom of those hills.  We kept saying - no way the missionaries walk up here whenever they need to eat!  

For lunch we went to a mall we'd never seen before.  It was very modern and the three of us got Papa Johns pizza.  A lot of the missionaries were there doing the same thing because it was pday, so that was fun.

The next day was zone conference for the Pichu Pichu and La Costa Zones.  Tim went to the conference, but I stayed in the mission office and got prepared for the English Connect classes later in the week.  I needed to sort out the materials and get them to the right missionaries.  The conference is all in Spanish so I wouldn't understand it anyway, although many times I try, because I really want to learn the language.  

After the conference, Javiar took us back out to finish up the pensionistas.  We were able to visit 2 more during a rain storm.  One pensionista had two boys, a toddler and one about 9 or 10.  She had just gotten home with her kids and led us to a metal ladder type staircase to get into her house in the rain.  She carried her toddler up the stairs while holding an umbrella.  Tim offered to help but she said she was fine.  I guess she has to do it everyday.  It was coming down on the wet steps that was a little sketchy.  

This is the family with the metal ladder stairs.

We also came across this statue of Jesus during our pensionista tour.  It's up on a hill and can be seen as you drive into Arequipa from the west.

Finally, this week was English Connect.  I had prepared a powerpoint to present to the whole mission.  We planned a zoom meeting last Friday at 10:00.  All the missionaries showed up and then, of course, I couldn't share my screen.  Luckily I was at the mission office, so the office elders helped get us on track.  The presentation went alright after that.  Hermana Sheely did most of it since she speaks Spanish.  The first class for Level 1 was yesterday and Level 2 was today.  The classes were very encouraging.  The missionaries seemed very engaged.  So far so good.

Another highlight of the week, was Lisa and I went to lunch at the main plaza of Arequipa after the zoom meeting.  We had a nice view of the cathedral and it was fun to take a minute away from all the busy-ness.

This is getting long, so I'll finish our trip in the next post.

Our First Cambio (Transfer)

We've had a busy week and a half.  First, I meant to include a photo of Tim getting his first Peru haircut in the last post:

She was amazing!  Super detailed and very reasonable.

On Monday the 4th, about 11 missionaries finished their mission and went home, which didn't have anything to do with us, but I thought it's good to know.  We, however, have been to district councils, transfer meetings and we accompanied some sister missionaries to their lessons which was fun.  At both lessons, the investigators committed to be baptized.  The first was a mother and 16 year old daughter who were very engaged and excited about the gospel and getting baptized.  The other was the 11 year old daughter of a couple who have started coming back to church.  They are a great family!

Here we are out and about with the sisters.  The sister on the right is from Colorado Springs and worked in the Denver Temple the same time I did.

Then about 23 missionaries arrived on Friday from either the Provo or Peru Mission Training Center or their reassigned missions while waiting for their visas.  They came from Mexico, Texas, Ohio, and California missions.  They were bused to a hotel near the mission home and President Chipman spent the afternoon interviewing and determining what area to assign them.  We were then invited to the mission home that night to have dinner with the new missionaries.  It was really fun to see their nervous excitement.  The shopping and cooking is not easy here, so the Chipmans always hire a caterer whenever the missionaries need to be fed which is super nice.  When we were working in the Denver South Mission, a lot of times the office senior couple took care of all that food.  We are glad that is not something we have to worry about.

Earlier that day, we went to the mission office and helped set up for the next morning.  The missionaries were bused from the hotel to the office in the morning where they were given their assignments.  Those staying in Arequipa met up with their companions.  Those in the outlying areas were taken to the bus station where they took a bus to their area and met their companions there.  The bus ride to Tacna is about 6 hours for example, but 4 by car.  They also had to fill out forms for immigration and will eventually have to come back and do the fingerprinting craziness we had to do.  We also set them up with supplies.

The new missionaries receiving their assignments.  The missionaries up on the screen are zooming in from the outlying areas, so they can hear who their new companions are.

The new missionaries are loaded and ready to head to the bus station.  

Since we received twice as many missionaries as the number that left, the Chipmans had to open new areas and new pensions and pensionistas had to be found.  It was a crazy week, but it always works out.

These last couple of weeks, Tim has been working on what needs to be done to form a stake out on the coast.  One of those districts had their district conference on Sunday.  He's also been working with the district president to plan the meetings.  Once we sent all the new missionaries off on Saturday, we rode out with the Chipmans and stayed at a quaint hotel in Mollendo right on the water.  On our way we had to stop on this 2 lane twisty road for about 30 minutes not knowing why.  Then finally this came down the road:

It's something for the mine that's nearby there.  It was much bigger than it looks in the photo.

Tim and Dave had meetings to go to that evening so Lisa and I drove down to the beach.

The next morning was leadership meeting.  Tim presented the things he had learned during his time looking into forming a stake.  President Chipman calls him his project manager.  Then next was the district conference which was well attended.  They are close to becoming a stake and they are excited about it.  

We saw a couple of the new missionaries there and asked how their bus ride was.  They said very hot - no air conditioning and the windows didn't open.  Didn't sound very fun.  Then after a presidency meeting, we headed back to Arequipa.  A date was set to present the English Connect program to all the missionaries, so I've been getting the PowerPoint ready and getting with Hermana Sheely who will be teaching the classes.  I am the administator and she is the instructor.  It is on Friday morning and I'll report on the next post.

Here are a couple of photos of one of 3 volcanoes - Chichani.  The other two are Misti and Pichu Pichu.  It's hard to get photos when you're driving around in taxis and sometimes they are covered in clouds, but we'll get all of them eventually.  Not sure why there is snow on them.  We are just finishing up Summer here.  They are at a very high altitude (20,000 feet) and it has been rainy season here the last couple of weeks, soooo.  . . Someone told us they will have snow until September which is actually Winter going into Spring, so we'll see.

An interesting photo taken in the city center.