Dedication of the Trujillo Temple - Part III -
The temple dedication - Sunday

We were fortunate to have tickets to the first session at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday. The Bejaranos, who had obtained the tickets for us, joined us in the meeting. We were seated in the chapel of the temple and there were groups in several other rooms. All were connected to a closed circuit television with two large screens in each room so we had a good view of all the speakers and the cornerstone ceremony.  While we were all quietly waiting for the session to begin, we heard a familiar voice saying "Buenos dias--we are so glad you are here with us."  It was President Uchtdorf who apparently went to all the areas in the temple where the session was being televised to greet the members.  Elder Bednar was with him and he said "Hola".

Elder David Bednar conducted and the new Temple President, his wife and the Area President all spoke. President Uchtdorf spoke and then gave the dedicatory prayer. The session lasted a little over one hour. It was very reverent and peaceful in the temple.

As we came out of the session at about 10:30, there was already a line waiting to enter for the 12:00 session.  Special tickets were required to attend.

Some decided to sit until the line got shorter.

Many took pictures in front of the temple.  The temple is beautiful!  We really like the design of the new temples, as compared with the Lima temple, but of course the are all very special.  When we were here in December, they were having trouble with birds sitting on top of Moroni's statue.  We don't know what they did but there weren't any birds this time.

 

Behind the line is the "guest house". The temple president and his wife and temple workers who do not live in the area will have apartments here. Members who come in buses from outlying areas can stay here overnight.  We have been told it is like a five-star hotel.

We took the Bejarano's photo.

"Erected 2015" - The cornerstone of the temple.

From a different angle.

Together with the Bejaranos.

I didn't wear my hat when we left the hotel, thinking we would be inside most of the time. I didn't count on 30 minutes of standing in the sun taking pictures. The result was some sunburn on top of the head.  Marilyn is wearing her new blue shoes purchased in Trujillo -- not too stylish compared with all the spike heels that the Peruvian ladies wear, but very comfortable.

As we leave the temple, a final look back at the parking and guest house.

As we drive away, one last look.  The temple is very visible in Trujillo since it is on the road to the airport and built right next to a beautiful major cemetery.  They had 90,000 people attend the open house in the month of May.  All the taxi drivers we rode with knew where the temple was. We don't know if we will ever be back here, but we had a great visit.

We took a taxi back to the hotel and then went with the Bejaranos to eat seafood. I had ceviche which was very good and Marilyn had corvina which was also very good. We have tried to take advantage of being on the coast to catch up on our seafood cravings.

The Bejaranos returned to Huaraz on the overnight bus. We flew to Lima on Monday morning, left our suitcases at the airport hotel and went straight to the Brazilian Embassy. We have to obtain a visa to enter Brazil as tourists and pay a fee of US$160 per person. It took about two hours and it should be ready in a week. Graciela Alvarado, our tour and taxi friend, will pick up the visas when they are ready. 

We went to Chili's for lunch and had big salads, which we miss eating here. We then took a taxi to the Area Office and spent a couple hours with Ron and Bonnie Clark. He was a missionary in Lima in 1959 - 1960 when I was here, so we spent some time talking about the "olden" mission days.

We then went to the National Archives where David Tirado, our records preservation supervisor, works. They have just moved all the records from the basement of the Justice Dept. building to this new location which is on the ground floor with much more room for the two cameras that are there. We were impressed with the orderliness and cleanliness of the archives compared to the one in Huaraz. David took us to dinner with the Hasslers, a couple who are doing a records preservation mission in Cusco. They are heading to the States for 3 weeks for some R & R and then they will return for one more year and hope to finish the archives there in Cusco.

Although we had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 5:30 flight back to Huaraz, it was nice to be "home" after being on the road for 4 days.

The view of Mt. Huascaran from the Huaraz airport, our favorite mountain view from Huaraz.  The plane was full of hikers coming to climb here and this is the view that greeted them.  Impressive, no?

An unforgettable weekend!