MISSION TRIP TO TRUJILLO, PERU

     On April 2nd - 4th we flew to Trujillo to stay with President and Sister Turk and teach at a zone leaders conference and to visit health clinics and doctors.  We loved their mission home and enjoyed our visit with the missionaries and seeing some sites.

 We visited this clinic that has really taken great care of our missionaries.  It's not easy to find good medical care in our area, so we get very excited when we find good doctors and clinics!

We were given a tour of this hospital/clinic.

 Janet Turk at her desk at the mission office with her awesome juaco collection in the background!  A picture of the Trujillo Temple (artist rendition) hangs in the background.  Isn't she pretty!

President Turk chats with Steve and his assistant and we really enjoyed our time with these great elders! 

 The Trujillo Temple

Janet inspired me about her juaco collection and helped me choose my first two.

 We stopped to catch this view of the temple in construction.  It was closed and will be for a another few years.  We returned back to the mission home and their lovely entrance.

These following pictures are at the mission home and you can see why the missionaries love having dinner here!  The Turks are blessed to have two wonderful sisters to prepare their meals and large dinners.   The food was fabulous!

 This was the guesthouse and perfect for us.

We traveled to the main Plaza de Arms and enjoyed the people, architecture, and the shops.

 The plaza was especially pretty at dusk.

The buildings and doors were very beautiful in the plaza!

 We stopped at this restaurant for a great steak dinner and visit with the Turks!

The next day we taught a health class and focused on back care and hydration.  We also saw some missionaries with health problems.

After the zone leader conference, they all went back to the mission home for a wonderful lunch and then they changed to go play soccer for a few hours.

After the zone conference, the Turks took us to see the "Largest Mosiac Wall" in the world.  It surrounds a university campus!

The wall begins at creation and is now showing the invasion of the Spanish conquistadores.  Each tile is about an inch squared and the tiles are multicolored as next to each other to include all the colors used, verses having the sky and water a solid color.  It is an amazing work of art!

We met the artist in charge of the project and he showed us his drawings and let us try to put some tiles on the wall.

You can see the color patterning that he uses.

He was so happy that we appreciated his life's work and wanted to know how he chose the tiles to use! He was a very humble artist and had four assistance who helped him from time to time.  Needless to say, we were amazed at his work!  He would make a drawing, submit it to the university for approval, and then continue to beautify the walls.

Our next stop was at the Chan Chan ruins.  This was the capital of the kingdom of Chimu and composed of ten complexes, each of which had its own palace, residential area, water reservoir, food stores, ceremonial square, streets, ramps and funerary chambers.

This was the entrance maps showed the immensity of Chan Chan

The walls were decorated with seabirds and fish!  This was the main square and looked like two football fields.

I loved the texture that the builders used and overwhelmed by the work and years that it must have taken to create these buildings with such limited tools!

The Turks are great mission presidents and will be heading back home to Mesa, Arizona this June!

 This complex was supported by this natural spring!

 Many of the walls were built with a pyramid structure.

 This is a burial chamber where the ruler who died would be joined by his wife and their household servants.  They would take a drug and it was considered a great honor to die when their ruler passed away.  Therefore, the family and the household would take great care of their ruler to ensure a long life!

 We enjoyed our guide and the history he shared with us!

Our last stop was the beach at Huanchaco with the famous reed boats.  We saw lots of surfers and just down the beach is the place that has the longest waves in the world.

We watched these fisherman paddle in with their fresh catch using nets.  It was surprising how many they hauled in on one cast!

A street vendor stops to sell her cart full of fruit.

We watched some beginner surfers being instructed!

This long pier had a gazebo at the end and a great view of the waves!

Can you see the lonely pelican floating by himself.  He has no competition for all the fish in this bay!

Another fisherman shows us his catch of the day.

Look at what Janet and I caught!

Janet snaps a great shot in the gazebo! 

We had a nice fish dinner at this restaurant across from the beach!

Goodbye to the beach and and our trip to Trujillo!