From: Dean and Leona Larsen
To: Matt Hirst
Subject: Trip to Huaraz, Peru
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 17:36:20 -0700
Hope all is well with you. How is everything going with the Hirst family. Do you have Omar Ortiz address? I have sent many messages to him but they never go through with the address I have. Elder Castellano called on the phone about a month ago and said he would write, but as of now I havent heard from them.
This past weekend has been a most memorable one. It is amazing how different each part of this country is. We left here at 7:30 am on Friday morning and traveled through the "land of desolation" for almost three hours to a place where we met President and Sister Duarte of the Trujillo Mission. As soon as we got into their 4-wheel drive we started up into the mountains. We traveled through small towns, cane fields, cornfields and thousands of Mango trees. We climbed up to around 14,000 ft and everywhere there was the possibility of some water there were little farms with rock fences. Of course, it became cooler and cooler until we were in the clouds. It even started to hail on us a couple of times. They call the hail granizo. We turned off the main road and went about 15 or 20 miles up a very rough, pot holed road that got my neck so stirred up that my head began to ache, and I thought I would die or be completely cured of my neck problems. They wanted us to see this view of the snow covered mountains and the valleys below then they were going to take us to a famous Inca ruin which would take us another hour and a half. By the time we got to the top to see the view the mountains were mostly covered with clouds and it was raining and hailing. We got out to look but couldnt stay out long. They were terribly disappointed.
We decided time would not permit us to go to the ruins (thank goodness for me) and to my consternation we turned around and had to go back down that same road. I held on and Dean tried to hold my neck still until his arm became sore. My head was pounding and my stomach could take no more. I had them stop the car so I could throw up. We were on a paved road by then and I felt much better but my head still hurt. After eight-and-a-half hours of driving we arrived at our hotel and I fell asleep immediately and slept for an hour and a half. When Dean woke me up we had six minutes to be on our way to the District Meeting. I hopped out of bed and felt fine but had to do a magic trick to be ready. I didnt have time for prayer but Dean hadnt stopped praying for me the whole time that I was asleep. From that point on I was fine.
We met with about 400 people from around the area of Huaraz in a nice big chapel. We are amazed at the reverence and the cleanliness of these people. It was cold in Huaraz and our jackets felt good. The members seemed to really appreciate our talks. Dean always does so well. They all like to come and give us a hug and handshake, especially the "little" Peruvian Indian women. They are truly wonderful people. President Duarte had made reservations for us and about 15 missionaries to eat at a restaurant. They brought us big bottles of Inca Cola, the national, no caffeine, drink and a plate piled high with delicious French fries and half a roasted chicken. Boy, those missionaries can eat.
Even though our hotel was only a three star, it was very nice and we even had a king-sized bed. We are amazed at how much better things are constructed here than in the Dominican Republic or Venezuela. The bathrooms are all tiled and there are no bugs, so far. We were supposed to leave at 6:00 am but they let us have a little longer, and we didnt leave until 7:00.
The two assistants and a counselor to the president traveled with us and we traveled all day in the most incredible mountains. They call it the Switzerland of Peru. Just outside of Huaraz in the city of Yungay is a huge cemetery. At 3:45 pm on May 31 of the year 1970, there was a big earthquake and a huge part of the mountain peak split off and covered this city of 25,000 people in THREE MINUTES. There is a new city being built, but this area has been left and made into a memorial. There is a huge statue of Christ on the side where 72 survivors were able to make it to safety. From the statue you can see the whole valley strewn with huge boulders that came from the mountain. There are four palm trees that were the only trees to survive, a big statue base painted white once held a statue of some hero and marked the middle of the town. A fifteen year old girl recited the history of this place for us completely from memory and it took her about 10 minutes She said that there were 300 children who survived because they were up on the side mountain at a circus. The circus had been there for several days and because it was their last performance, they had invited the children free of charge and that is why so many had gone to it. People from all over the world adopted these children, many from Japan. Only one of them that they know of has returned to see this place and he came just last summer. One of the survivors was a Japanese tourist. He had a new video camera and filmed the whole avalanche but the film has been locked up in a vault somewhere in Japan and they wont allow it to be shown. Im sure for very good reasons. One survivor was a member of our church. He is about 75 years old now, and he sits up by the monument almost every day and talks to the tourists. There isnt a branch there anymore but he says he still reads his Book of Mormon. This was a very humbling and sad experience.
After we left Huaraz we ascended the mountains again. The spectacular views of the snow covered mountains and the jagged peaks were all viewed from a dirt road carved out of the mountain side and above this river that changed colors from clean to muddy to black as it passed through different colors of mountains. We stopped to eat lunch by a narrow waterfall that was about a half-mile high. The missionaries tried their skill at throwing rocks to see if they could make it to the other side of the river. One of the most amazing things was that we went through 40 tunnels hewn out of granite. It is called canyon del pato because there are some mountain sides that look like duckbills. It has taken 20 years to build this road and it isnt really completed yet. The worse thing is that Dean got the cameras all ready to go the night before we left and then left them sitting on the couch. We bought a disposable camera and the Duartes took their video camera and said they would make us a copy. We will see if ours turn out so we can send you some. It is at times and places like these that I wish I were an artist.
After traveling over eight hours we arrived in Trujillo and our hotel. We set the alarm for an hour of welcomed rest and then went to another meeting with all the adults from the area of Casa Grande. There were about 500 people in attendance and I think that all of them came up to greet us. They didnt have a chapel big enough to hold all that wanted to come, so they rented a large agricultural committee building. It had one fan and it was very warm and humid. Im sure they were grateful the meeting only took a little over an hour. My talk is never over 10 minutes and Dean can make his long or short. They love to hear anything about the temple and always make commitments to come.
The Duartes live in Trujillo so they let us off at our 5-star hotel and we got to have a little time to ourselves for a nice dinner and a sweet nights rest in a very nice room and bed. We got to sleep in a little, as we didnt have to be at sacrament meeting until 10:00. They asked us to sit on the stand and to bear our testimonies. At noon we met with all the missionaries from the Trujillo area, about 90 of them. There was a wonderful spirit as only can be found with a group of missionaries like that. One elder came up an introduced himself as Elder Hoopes from St. George. His parents owned the apartments where Dane, Dean and Danika lived and remember enjoying playing ball and hanging out with Dane and Dean. He remembered Darrell and Dallas He has only been here in Peru for one month. He had to wait six months in Dallas, Texas for his visa. I think 80% of the North American missionaries are over six feet tall and surely stand out in the crowd..
Well, to end this "book", we had dinner at the mission home and then took the long way to the airport and got to see the beautiful beaches and huge waves. It seems to be famous for great surfing. We waited in a very warm airport for over an hour and finally got home at 8:30 PM. I was most grateful to see the temple and our sweet home. I am surprised we werent exhausted but we really felt fine. We read the e-mail and unpacked, got a good nights rest and we are ready to go back to work again. Except for the rough road, it was a wonderful trip. The Duartes gave me a woven handbag from Huaraz, Dean a key ring with a famous Inca Tumi on it and the missionaries gave us a large picture of the Lima Temple woven out of Alpaca wool. It is really beautiful. What a privilege it is to be with these good people. We feel we have made friends forever.
We go back to Cusco next week and will visit the Sacred Valley. It is time to say good night. We love you all and wish you could be here with us.
Dean and Leona
Special thanks to Matt Hirst for making this information available to the web master. 03-13-2002.
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