Friday, October 28, 2011

Chan Chan with the Talbots.

Today a visit to yet another awesome archaeological site here in the Trujillo area(we haven't even scratched the surface...no pun intended....seriously). Chan Chan is the largest Pre-Colombian city in South America and the largest ancient adobe city in the world! Well--just read about it  HERE!  All of the guides were already out on tours, so we just walked around ourselves. It was pretty incredible and we plan on returning to learn more on a guided tour.

We took some of our friends and their 5 children with us! It was for sure an adventure! They are CA-UTE kids- 4 boys and 1 girl(she being the oldest). They are all toe head blonde, and are routienly mauled by the locals here, asking to take pictures with them, feeling their hair, KISSING the baby. So our tour took even longer because almost every tour group that passed us had to stop for pictures with the whities! It was SO funny! I just kept thinking- If someone showed up in Montana from Peru, or India or something like that, we wouldn't be stopping them on the street like they were a side show! It was NUTS! I've included some pictures of that too! 
It was a fun day! We can't wait to share it with the friends and family that might come to visit! Check it out!



The above creepy thing was down in black cave of the below picture. It was WEIRDDDDD! The kids loved it!
 These are the 4 oldest kids pretending to be figures- Dawson-in the green shirt- later jumped off of this ledge. WILD MAN!


There is a spring in the middle of the site. It was actually pretty amazing. You're walking through all of this sand and adobe and then this little desert oasis pops up out of no where.

 Here are some pics of the babies being mauled. poor Myles!





 There were 2 sets of these cool figures. We told the kids that they are called "The spankers"(pronounced"Esponkars")-and that if you climb on the walls they will come to life and paddle your bum.


 The Talbots-and the spankers.




 Kathy and I havin a goood goood time!





Monday, October 24, 2011

Spiritual Experience

By James:
For those of you who are not of our faith, you must already know that Whitney and I are here to supervise the construction of the LDS Temple in Trujillo.  A Temple in our faith is the culmination of our worship of the Savior and of our Heavenly Father. Temples are only open during the week and members go there to commune with our Heavenly Father on a more personal basis than we experience on Sundays in our chapels.  I use the word "personal" because in the temple it is quiet, reverent and individual.  In the temple one ponders and worships individually.  It is a wonderful place.  Please visit www.mormon.org for more information about temples.  
   ANYWAY:  because the temple is such a special place, it is unfortunate that there are not more temples around the world.  Members of the church currently may have to travel long distances and save for many years to attend the temple and may not be able to return to the temple as often as they would like.  Just to give you an idea, a trip to the Lima Temple costs around $25 USD for travel and food.  No lodging because you travel all night, go to the temple the next day, then travel all night to get home.  There are many members of the church here that don't have $25 extra dollars to go and can't ever save that much either.  So when a temple is announced in a new area, the members are very excited.  Which brings me to my experience:
  Last week, an elderly gentleman came by the house to talk to me about building some bookshelves and file cabinets (just as cheap to get them made as to buy cheap metal things!).  He asked if I was the "ingeniero" that was here for the temple (ingeniero is engineer, I'm not an engineer, but they don't have a name for a construction manager, so hence, I'm the ingeniero).  When someone brings up the temple it's apparent that they are members of the church.  I was excited to talk about the temple and responded by saying that I was indeed the ingeniero for the temple and asked if he had seen what the temple was going to look like.  He said that he had seen pictures of it.  We have a large (3'x4') framed computer image of the temple in our entry and I motioned behind him so that he could look at it.  He glanced at it, paused and then reverently walked toward it.  
   He was a small man, maybe 5'3" and slight of build, in his mid 60's.  He had traditional latin features and was well dressed with a polo type shirt tucked in, slacks, and polished leather dress shoes.  He also wore very distinguished looking glasses.  As he approached the picture, he slowed.  There was an immediate feeling that came into the room of awe and reverence. But the feeling wasn't coming from him, it was around us both as we approached the picture of what would someday be the temple he would attend.  He stared at the picture for what seemed like minutes, but was only about 7 seconds; totally silent.  He turned to me and looked up into my eyes and through his glasses, I could see tears starting to form.  He couldn't speak, and neither could I.  I noticed that I to had tears forming and a lump in my throat.    
   I had witnessed the love that this man had for the Lord and for the House of the Lord.  This humble man had taught me the importance of why I'm here, or in better words the importance of the work that is here in which I will participate.  I finally said to him "I feel the same way."  He gazed at the temple once more and then turned back to the office, took a deep breath, blinked a few times to rid the tears, and said "bien" -good.  We finished what he had come for and he left, but I will never forget the feeling that came over us both as we stared at a computer generated image of a building.  I will always remember that the building, the temple is the representation of that feeling I felt; it is the physical manifestation of our love toward God and His son Jesus Christ.  It is because of the love and testimony these people have that the temple is being built here.  What a wonderful opportunity in which to be involved.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Another field trip!

This time downtown Trujillo. We hit up the Acrheological Museum and the Plaza de Armas(the town square).  Check it out!!!!







  1. I'm pretty sure this guy is the original "Dillbert".
  2. A model of another "Decapitator" from Huaca de la Luna.
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  10.  Beautiful bowl, inlayed with mother of pearl.
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  12. Turquoise and yellow feather head dress.
  13.   Weavings
  14.  Original pan flutes!
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  20.  The wood work around this building was incredible! Plus all of the murals of Europe.
  21.  Plaza De Armas
  22. Each of the 6 statues represent something. Slavery, abundant agriculture, literacy....things of Peru's past. The top stature represents its independence.
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