Puno/Lake Titikaka

We are in the mission office today.  The office couple needs to go home for a few days, so Tim is learning the finances from Elder Van Dusen.  I will probably need to fill in as well, but I'm not needing to train right now, so I thought I'd take advantage and catch up on the blog.

  The Chipmans were in Tacna with Elder Pino for a mission tour and zone conference.  Members of the church may remember Elder Pino from his talk in General Conference in 2022 about trying, coconut with chili and avocado with sugar.  The Chipman's other daughter Megan and her husband Ethan arrived in Arequipa a couple of weeks ago (two days after Alli and Jacob left). So Tim and I went to dinner with Megan and Ethan and the Chipmans returned from Tacna about the time we returned to the mission home.  

We began p-day (our day off) on Monday by touring the Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa.  We frequent a couple of restaurants across the street, but hadn't taken the time to visit the monastery.  The monastery was built in 1579 and housed nuns.  There are still some nuns there today, but in a part of the monastery that is away from the tourists.  It is very large.  Here are some photos:

This piano was built between 1798 and 1814

These old time kitchens were found off of most bedrooms

This was an indoor well in the large kitchen

El baño

Bath tub

While at the monastery, the Chipmans invited us to go to lunch with them.  While at lunch, they invited us to go to Puno/Lake Titikaka with Lisa, Megan and Ethan.  President Chipman wasn't able to go (he had just been with Alli and Jacob) so they had room in the car.  We figured we better take advantage while we had the opportunity.  I have a lot of photos, but we were only gone from Tuesday morning to Thursday night.

We arrived in Puno Tuesday afternoon.  It took 5 hours to drive 180 miles.   The highways here are only 2 lanes with many very slow trucks and buses.  We stayed on one of the many man made islands on Lake Titicaca made of reeds.  We went to a demonstration of how they make and maintain the islands. The islands are roped down in the lake, but they can move it to another location if they want.  About once a year they have to lift up their homes and replace the reeds underneath.  We also took a ride in a boat made of the same reeds.  They fed us fish from the lake and duck eggs, which is what they live off of. 

Waiting for our ride to the island:

Heading out to the island

An island next door

Waiting for dinner

Learning about the islands

They had us dress up.  The little Peruvian girl was adorable and wanted her picture with us.

The Primary School House

Inside our hut

Outside our hut.  Those stairs were a little sketchy.

How we got from out hut to the dining room.  You walk on the reeds.

Going for a ride in a boat made of reeds.

Back side of our hut

Trying out some reed.  You can peel and eat it.

 

Heading off the island

View of Puno and Lake Titikaka.  The boarder of Peru and Boliva goes through the middle of the lake.

Next, we took Megan and Ethan to Chivay/Colca Canyon.  Tim and I had been there already with Claire, the Chipman's niece, but we love it there and we were happy to return.

We arrived in the evening and happened upon this ceremony where they danced with yoked bulls.  There appeared to be a judge there.  We happen upon little parades and celebrations a lot in the little towns:

The next morning we headed up Colca Canyon:

Condors in Colca Canyon:

These two crashed into each other

All of a sudden a whole flock of condors appeared:

Road block!

The tourists drive through this little town on the way to the condors.  They have shops set up and photo ops with llamas, etc.  We stopped here after the condors when they were starting to close up.  The condors are just out in the morning.  Once the tourists were gone, they started this little parade around the square.

Ethan put together this video of their trip which I wanted to share:

You Tube Video - Megan & Ethan Chambers

Then it was time to get back to missionary work.  Since the trip, Tim went to Camana for the Camana District Conference and presented the work they have been doing to make Camana/Mollendo a stake.  I sat out this trip because I came down with the Peruvian stomach issue.  My second time, but this lasted longer than the first.  

During the week we attended district counsel meetings, a ward missionary council meeting, and went out with some missionaries.  Tim met a returned missionary at the ward council meeting who had recently returned from the same mission Tim went to as a young missionary, so he was excited to get caught up on the latest there.  He found out his little branch in one of his areas is now a stake.

The missionaries we went out with live in a super hilly area with lots of stray dogs.  The roads were so steep the taxi refused to drive down or up them.  We ended up getting out and walking up the street to meet the missionaries.  One of the missionaries has been bit by a dog twice.  Luckily, the dogs we encountered that night were friendly.  We knocked on doors using a list the bishop had given them and had some luck contacting people.  They were able to set up a couple of appointments for later in the week.

We had a nice view from up there:

And we saw another dog on the roof:

We also did our usual tasks this week working on things to help the Chipmans stay on course.  I did English Connect Thursday and Friday.  Today we have 12 missionaries finishing their missions and heading home.  We get 7 new missionaries on Friday.  So there are things to do to get ready for them.

View of Pichu Pichu Volcano

Finally, yesterday was p-day.  We went into the Centro and toured another old church. Our tour guide gave it the old college try and spoke in English, but we couldn't understand him, so I don't have a lot of information about this church.  There was something to do with the monk San Francisco.

View of Chachani volcano from the bell tower

This is Pichu Pichu

The bell tower where we were at above

Afterwards, we accidentally ran into the Chipmans while we were shopping.  They went with us to our favorite store and then we went out to lunch.  We tried to visit a free museum, but it was closed.  We'll have to try again next p-day.  

Cathedral; Lessons and a DNI Card

The day before the Newmans left for their tour, the Chipman's daughter Allie and her boyfriend arrived.  We met up with them for dinner before they all headed out to Lake Titicaca.  We plan to also make the trip out there sometime while we are here.  It is about 109 miles away, but takes 5 hours to drive there.  We had a nice visit with them and took another stroll down to the plaza.

We were treated to a Michael Jackson impersonator

Then Tim and I took the tour of the cathedral on the plaza on p-day.  It was very beautiful and quite interesting.

This pipe organ has 1,280 pipes.  Someone comes into play it each Sunday at 11:00.  It was damaged in 2001 by an earthquake when the roof caved in and has since been repaired.

This was constructed in France in 1879

Mass is held here each Sunday

This is a smaller room where Mass is held each day

Top of the organ pipes

Looking down on the organ

On top of the cathedral with Misti volcano in the background

One of two bell towers

Plaza de Armas down below

Where the roof was repaired after the 2001 earthquake

This last week we went to two Family Home Evenings with sister missionaries in the Misti Zone which we enjoyed.  On Wednesday we went to three lessons with the elders in the Chachani Zone.  We taught Gustavo who is in his twenties and scheduled to be baptized on May 11.  We taught an 8 year old girl and her parents.  The parents aren't members but her older brother is and would like to see her baptized.  The parents seem to be good with it.  We then met up with two sisters at the church.  One is a recent convert and the other is taking the lessons.  The power was out in the church, so we took chairs outside where it was still light.  However, it got dark pretty quick, so we had to use the flashlights on our phones.  It got to be too cold for the Peruvian missionary.  Missionaries from Lima say it is too cold for them in Arequipa where it is 75 degrees every day.  

On Thursday we went out with different elders in the Chachani Zone.  We taught a 20 something man about chastity and the Word of Wisdom (guidance for a healthy lifestyle).  Then we met with a widow and her daughter who are members.  Finally, we taught Alicia who currently lives with her boyfriend.  He is a member and a returned missionary.  They plan to get married in the next couple of weeks and her date to be baptized is May 25.  

They ordered pizza for us.  It was a good time!

We also went to immigration on Monday morning to pick up our DNI cards, so we are official now.  Our visa expires after 6 months, so we had to get this card (kind of like a green card).  It expires 4/11/28, so I guess we are legal until then.  

I think that is the worst photo I have ever taken.

We arrived at immigration before it opened and stood in line in the direct sun - no shade nearby.  The Latinos were all wearing puffy coats and sweaters.  Even coats with fur around the hood.  I was dying of the heat in a short sleeved shirt.  

After our English Connect class on Thursday, Hermana Sheely asked if I could go with her shopping for decorations for a devotional they were putting on that night for prospective missionaries in their stake.  She showed me several banners she wanted to order, as well as buy flowers and tablecloths.  The amount of things she wanted to buy would have cost a fortune in the States, so I asked her how much all of that would cost.  She assured me it wouldn't be very much.  We ordered about 5 large banners which came to $16.00.  We also bought bunches of flowers for center pieces which cost about $25.00.  I don't really like to shop, but the Peruvian experience was really fun.   This is the market where we bought the flowers.  I have posted these before, but here is a reminder.

Then outside are rows and rows of small shops on the streets.  I need to take photos of the shops.  You walk down a street of all shoe shops, then all party supply shops, then all eyeglasses, then barbershops, etc.  I asked Hermana Sheely how you know which shop to buy from - there are so many to choose from right next to each other.  

In other news, we have a new senior couple in the mission - Elder and Hermana Otero from Lima, Peru.  He was a sealer in the temple and she was a temple ordinance worker.  They have been here in Arequipa training and just left for their assignment in Tacna.  So we have three senior couples in the mission now.  The three couples went out to dinner together when they first arrived and then we had dinner at the Van Dussen's (the other couple who work in the office) also.  They will be really great for the mission!

Elder and Hermana VanDusen (office missionaries) are in the back and the Oteros are in the front

This weekend the Area President was in town to reorganize a stake presidency - Elder and Hermana Zeballos.  On Saturday Tim and I went to lunch at a restaurant near the mission home.  The Chipmans were there with Hermana Zeballos and Allie and Jacob.  Elder Zeballos was in meetings and couldn't be there.  They invited us to join them and during the lunch we became aware that the Zeballos' were good friends with Kailie's (our daughter-in-law) family when they lived in Chile.  I texted Kailie and let her know who we were with.  Hermana Zeballos asked us to come to the stake meeting to meet her husband later that day, which we did.  

At the restaurant with Hermana Zeballos

At stake conference with the Zeballos'

And this is how they decorated for stake conference.  These flowers are real.

More fun photos:

They love their dresses here

And their meat

We ate at an authentic Peruvian restaurant.  I ordered fish and Tim had a huge chunk of pork that he couldn't finish

Inside one of the many taxis we ride in.  They are all 5 speed and drive in crazy traffic.  I think the taxi drivers must have very strong left feet.

And finally another roof dog

Baptisms

During these last couple of weeks we've attended some baptisms which we really enjoy.  I believe I mentioned that we joined some sister missionaries in teaching a mother and 16 year old daughter over in the Pichu Pichu Zone.  The mother was baptized on Easter while we were in Chivay, so we wanted to be sure to attend the daughter's baptism.  Peruvians are notoriously late, so the missionaries put a time on the invitation a half hour before the baptism was supposed to start.  With our history with taxis, this was a good thing for us as well.  We arrived early and the missionaries arrived soon after.  They checked the font to be sure it was filled - and it was!

When they saw the water they called the daughter and asked her if she would like to move the baptism to another church.  We have no idea why the water was so brown.  The missionaries said they had never seen it like that before.  Anyway, the daughter said she would go ahead with it.  Not sure I would have.  

Of course, the baptism got started late, but it was very nice.  Now, it is important that the entire body (including clothes) is immersed in the water when baptized.  It took about 5 tries in that dirty water.  Her dress kept floating to the top and her elbow didn't go under.  Tim and I were cringing.  But in the end she was happy and everything worked out.

We are in the back left and Angheli is dressed in white two over.  Her arm is around her mom.  The missionaries who taught her are seated in front, left to right.  Sister Barnard (new), Sister Litardo, Sister Callahan and Sister Nally

This is Angheli on the left being welcomed to the ward

The next day we went to church to a ward we hadn't been to before.  We learned that they had a baptism scheduled for after church.  She was also a teen girl.  So we stayed after to attend this baptism as well.  This font was located off a hallway in the church with sliding curtain doors.  So the members set up chairs in the hallway and they rolled out a piano and we all sat in the hallway.

Elder Ogill is a really good pianist, even in the church hallway

Thank goodness, this time the water was very clear and clean.  Long story short, she was also baptized 4 or 5 times because her dress kept floating up.  Tim pulled out the handbook to see if the dress really needed to be fully immersed and it said that it does.  Pictures were taken of all that attended, but we didn't get a copy unfortunately.

The next day Presidente Chipman picked us up so we could help him set up for the leadership meeting the next day.  We let him know what we had seen over the weekend, so he asked us to demonstrate to all the missionaries how to baptize so this doesn't keep happening.  The mission has a Monday night devotional each week over Zoom, so during the devotional, Tim pretended to baptize me.  Ideally, the women would wear a white jumpsuit, because they don't float.  However, in Peru, the church members make white dresses for the baptisms, because they can't get the baptism clothes here.  We actually need to look into that, because that can't be right.  Anyway, we instructed the missionaries to be sure the women tuck their dress in between their knees and to have everyone sit in the water instead of leaning back like a stiff board.  It was a little comical, but I think we got the point across.  We suggested they practice with those getting baptized the day before.

The following Sunday, we attended the baptism for two sisters (related, not missionaries).  We had attended a lesson for them where we met them at the temple earlier in the month.  This baptism went really well.  The program was really nice and each sister was only baptized once.  And, low and behold, they wore jumpsuits.  So I guess they can get them here, so we need to find out how.

Elder Palmer, Sara and Isabela (in jumpsuits!), Elder Nielsen, Tim, Jalene

For fun that week, we met the Chipmans and Newmans for dinner.  The Newmans live across that street from the Chipmans in Highlands Ranch and they were here to visit before joining a tour to see the sights of Peru.  We also know the Newmans, so they invited us to join them for dinner before they all headed up to Chivay.  We didn't think to get a photo, but I took this picture of the cathedral after dinner.  There was a full moon that night.