Back on American Soil

Hola Elder Nielsen,

How is everything? We are glad to be back in the USA. We loved the trip and enjoyed what we saw. I especially loved using my Spanish and meeting all the wonderful people. We truly made friends for life with a lot of people on our trip. We have email addresses and Facebook accounts of many people we met on our trip. I am pretty sure we talked about the gospel every day to people we met. In one little store, there were these 2 older ladies working who were sisters, and we got into a gospel discussion and I told them all about the book of Mormon and many of our beliefs. We had many people tell us that we made their day and they were so happy we went in to their stores and talked to them. We went in to this one silver store and we told them we had 7 kids and were Mormons and there were about 7-10 people gathering around us and listening to our story and our beliefs. It was soooo cool. It reminded me of my mission and I talked to everyone I saw. They were all impressed and told me how well I spoke Spanish and wanted to know how I learned to speak so well. So I told them I was a missionary in Argentina 33 years ago and that our daughter had served a mission in Peru recently and that is why we were there. They would all ask me, what kind of mission or what would you do on a mission. So I told them we preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. They wanted to know what was the difference between our church and the Catholic church, so I would explain the B.O.M., etc. It was awesome. I felt like a missionary again. I can't wait until mom and I can go serve a mission again. I think the people loved how happy we were and wanted to know more about us.

After 1.5 days I got over the jungle revenge and my system was some what normal. Machu Pichu was absolutely amazing in every regard. But I had no clue that there were Inca ruins all over that part of the country. As mom said, we stopped and visited at least 10-15 other ruin sites that had there temples, etc. What gets me, is they built these places in the tops of the mountains. Not in the lower levels. In some places we were at 15,000 feet elevation and the altitude affected many people. They made us drink coco tea to help us not get sick. Mom and I did really well and did not get sick. I just received a notice from our friends from Antofagasta Chile and she said she was sick due to altitude and had to go down to lower elevations. But I believe that they built them up there as that was sacred ground as no one had walked up in those areas. But the stones they used to build these weighed over 72 tons and they were carved and shaped to fit together like legos and were earthquake proof. The craftsmanship was amazing. you could not get a piece a knife or paper between the rocks they were that tight. It was amazing. Every thing was amazing. 

Lake Titicaca was a huge lake that took us 5 hours to drive across. And it is at 13,000 feet elevation. The people that live on those reed islands (called Los Uros) are fascinating as well. We went in the house built out of reeds of a 21 year old girl named Ana and her boyfriend. She says that her and her boyfriend live together for 6 months to 2 years before they get married. Since the don't like divorce, this is a way for them to see if they are compatible before marriage. If they have a child during that time, they have to get married. Her boyfriend was a fisherman. She referred to him as her husband, but they were not married yet.

We left on Tuesday to morning to fly from Juliaca Peru to Lima. We got in to lima around 4 pm and had some extra time. Out flight back to the states was at 1 am the next day. We thought about going to the Lima temple, but they told us it was at least 2 hours each way and it would cost us over $100 in taxi fees, but you can't trust the taxis in Lima. So we just hung out at the airport. Then we had an all night flight to Atlanta. Mom watched movies the entire time and I tried to sleep, but it was difficult. We got to Atlanta around 8:30 am. Flew to SLC and got there around 1 pm. DeeRay picked us up from the airport and took us to Sharon's to get our Suburban. We hit Costco and filled up with gas and drove home. We got to Elko around 6:40 pm. A day and a half of traveling to get home. Then I took the next day off to go hunting with Hernold. So I went to bed at 11 and had to get up at 3 am to meet Hernold. We went in to that area before Krenka Creek and climbed a high mountain and glassed all morning. We saw about 40 deer, 4-6 bucks and only 1 good buck. A nice heavy horned 3 by 4 we think. But we were glassing it from 3 miles away. He was rutting and doing the lip curl. We tried to bed them down, but they disappeared over the mountain and we could not see where they went. So we hiked up there and got in position for them to come out in the evening, but we waited and waited and they never came out. I was so tired, only getting about 4 hours of sleep in 3 days. 

Hernold came in to Elko and spent the night here and we got up at 3:50 am to do it all over again. We decided to go to the same area to see if we could get that buck. We got into position and at 1st light we found this 2x3 buck about 800 yards away with a few does. Hernold could see him in the spotting scope, but I could barely see him in my scope. I thought I would take a pop and see what happens. I put the crosshairs about 3-4 feet above his back and shot and it seemed to take forever for the bullet to get there and Hernold said, you got him. He just stood there and did not move very much. The other deer ran off. We thought I have gut shot him. He laid down and we thought we would give him an hour to stiffen up of bleed to death. After an hour, he got up and started up hill. So I shot about 5-6 times but could not hit him. Come to find out I had hit him in the front knee on one of the shots. He laid down again and I told Hernold, I have to get closer as I was just guessing on the range. So Hernold stayed and watched him with the spotting scope and I hiked down a big canyon and up on the other side and he was giving me arm signals to where I needed to go. I got up there about 15 yards away and he took off down hill in the thick quakies, I shot but just to throw lead his way. He ran down hill and laid down again. Hernold directed me to him and the same thing happened, got about 15 yards away and he took off again, but i did not shot as I could not get a bead on him. So Hernold came over and helped me track him with the blood trail. He can see blood like Chelsea. I still can't see it that well. We tracked him down and I finished him off. But it took us 3 hours to drag him down hill in all that quaken aspen brush. I was beat up. We got him to the road and Hernold went to get the truck and I skinned him in the shade. 

We got back to town around 1 pm. And I caught the last half of Summer's soccer game. They lost to fallon 3-1 and are out of the playoffs. They play spring creek on Tuesday and they are done. 

Spring Creek played Elko in football on Friday night and killed Elko 34-0. SC is undefeated and won the league. We play (host) Fallon this week for the 1st round of the playoffs.

Have a super week. WE love you and pray for you daily. Enjoy every second you have serving as a missionary. It is great!!

Love,

DAD

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

Well, we are back from Peru.  It was an amazing experience, but it is always good to come home.  It almost feels like it was a dream; last week on this day we had  been climbing around Machu Pichu.  The last time I wrote we were in Cusco, Peru.  Saturday we left out hotel and caught a bus/van  that took our group of about 15 on a road trip toward the the town closest to Machu Pichu.  There are a lot of Inca ruins along the route and it seemed like we stopped at every one of them.  We were traveling through what was called the Sacred Valley.  It was very rural and fertile with a lot of farms and simple adobe houses all along the way.  We saw a lot of corn crops.  It was spring there, so they had just planted.  One of the things that was very prominent was the terracing that was built by the Incas.  The mountains were literally made into a staircase that they would plant their crops on.  Lots and lots of rocks stacked into retaining walls that went up nearly the entire mountain--what a lot of work!  Towards the end of the day we arrived at a very impressive site, that was an ancient city with lots of terracing and steps made out of flat rocks and at the top there is always a place where the massive stones are brought in from a nearby quarry and cut perfectly to stack on each other and to be their place of worship (sound kind of familiar?)  The best materials available were reserved for their temple.   There was a lot of reference to Sun, moon and stars, and certain stones would align with  the sun during the summer and winter solstice.  It was very interesting.  We caught a train from that place that went though this canyon along side a river.  It was about an hour train ride and we sat across the table from this couple that was from Belgian.  They were in their late 20's/early 30's.  They spoke really good English, and so we chatted with them the whole way.  They were very interested in our upcoming elections and what we thought of the candidates.  We told them we weren't happy with either one.  The young lady didn't like the idea that America had so many guns. Then we got to our destination, a town called Aguas Caliente.  Its a town that was literally built for the purpose of accommodating the hoards of tourists that would be heading to Machu Pichu (a 35 min. bus ride from the town)  There were lots of hotels, shops and restaurants.  Our hotel was really nice and right on the river.  We went out that night to check out the town and it felt very lively, kind of like a college town.  The people walking around were all tourists and it felt very safe.  The next morning we got up at 4am so that we could eat the buffet breakfast before heading to where the buses start to load people.  The buses just head up the mountain, switching back and forth while heading up.  We got up on top and then we found our tour group and headed into the park.  It is just as it looks in the pictures--magnificent!  Its big too, with lots of buildings and stairs, a amazing aquaduct system.  I didn't really pack the proper shoes, most people there were wearing hiking boots or running shoes.  Me?  I packed very light so I had one some very light kind of foam fabric slip-ons--very comfortable, but not really the proper shoes to be marching around on all those rock staircases.  One momentous event happened when I turned my ankle on one of the bumpy rocks and usually, I can catch my self and recover, but I was stepping down and had the camera in one hand, and so I went forward and came down on one knee and then continued toward the ground next connecting my elbow with Mother Earth and literally caught myself as my nose came inches away from hitting the ground.  Dad heard the commotion and turned around to see me just about kissing the dirt.

We hiked up the Inca Trail about a mile to the top of the mountain to whats called the sun gate.  That was a good hike.  It was an incredible day, beautiful weather--clear and sunny about 70 degrees.

The rest of the trip we were in Puno and we went out on Lake Titicaca, to see the people who live out on the reed islands out there.  Quite amazing.  The islands are about 4 ft. thick and they are covered with reeds on top kind of like straw.  They are spongy to walk on.  We met a young couple, the young girl was from Antafagosta, Peru where the Patarakis and the Cubillos were from.  She knew Sabastian and George Patatakis.  Small world.  We had a good time visiting and getting to know them.  Dad talked and shared gospel stuff the whole way home on the boat.

All and all it was a great trip, but I love being back home.   We got Ads a stuffed animal of a llama for her birthday and she loves it.  Erin went back to Rexburg with Kylee and her husband.  It was sure wonderful for her to be here and take care of things while we were gone.  Landon was good to let her come and be gone for so long.

Are you having any more typhoons?  that sounded kind of scary last week.  Be safe and keep working hard. 

Love you lots, Mom