Dedication of the Trujillo Temple - Part II
The cultural celebration - Saturday evening

After lunch on Saturday we returned quickly to the event center in order to get  good seats for the evening presentation which started at 6:00. It was presided over by President Dieter Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency. Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve and his wife were also in attendance.

President Uchtdorf and his wife greeting the crowd before the start of the evening performance.

This replica of the temple was mounted above the entrance to the event center.  At the conclusion of the program, they showed pictures of the temple as it was being constructed. The entire event was very well organized.

What better way to start the show than with a "selfie"!

Part of the evening audience. The event center was filled to capacity.  We thought it was interesting that the major part of the audience was also youth from the area.  As we looked around us and at the dancers, we were struck with the thought that we were seeing the future leaders of the church in Peru.

The opening ceremony was a choir accompanied by some instruments.  
Very nice.

A large group from a stake near Trujillo.  All the first dances represented the indigenous people of Peru from the different areas of the country.

Representing a dance from the coastal area.

From a stake over the mountains in the jungle portion of Peru.

Another colorful group.

This was a boat with a fisherman casting his net as the boat moved through the water, represented by the blue cloth sheets. This was part of a very creative dance routine by one of the stakes.

This was our Huaraz Stake youth in full costume. I took a video of most of their dance number so this is the only still shot. They were very good. They should be, they had been practicing 3 or 4 nights a week for over 3 months.

After the show, some youth wanted to take a picture with us. Not sure which stake they were from as there were over 2,500 youth from about 30 stakes that participated in the celebration. (Maybe these hadn't seen senior missionaries before in their stake.  Honestly, our missionary badges are like magnets that draw people to us.)  You can tell it was warm by Marilyn's flushed face.

It was a wonderful celebration! We are so happy that we were able to attend and witness the cultural richness of this country in their many different types of dances as performed by these amazing youth who are now part of the new Trujillo Temple district.