Something Purple
October is Mes Morado (or purple month) in Lima, Peru, and the faithful dress from head to toe in purple as a sign of their devotion to El Señor de los Milagros (the Lord of Miracles). This Christ figure, known for its miracle-working powers, is housed in the Church of the Nazarenes, and thousands of purple clad worshippers come to pray and make offerings during the month of October. There are several processions on different dates in October, including a 24 hour long procession which is one of the largest in all of the Americas annually. Tens of thousands of the faithful dressed in purple tunics, sing hymns and pray as they accompany a huge two ton litter which bears the painting of the Christ from the church of Las Nazarenas. The smell of incense and the steady beating of drums add to the solemn atmosphere as the procession winds its way along the narrow, purple clad streets of Lima.
 |
| The procession of the Lord of Miracles |
The origins lie in colonial times, when a slave drew an image of Christ on a wall. The wall with the image stayed standing despite an earthquake which destroyed the rest of the building. Thus, this image has since become one of the most venerated in South America, and the church of Las Nazarenas was built around it.
We had two different processions that came by in our neighborhood. The first was my favorite. It was a child's procession on October 30th. The little ones were dressed as angels or dressed in purple. They had a band that played the same sad song over and over again.
 |
| The childrens' procession--they carry a small litter with a picture of the Lord of Miracles. |
 |
| The angels in the procession |
Today, November 3rd, we had a really serious procession. The litter they had with the painting of Christ, looked seriously heavy. Everyone was dressed in purple. They would stop at different houses and put the litter down. There would be some kind of talk and then singing and incense waving.
 |
| The procession on our street |
Something Orange and Black
Monday, October 28th, there was a special activity for all the sister missionaries in the Peru Lima East mission. It was a fun morning. We played Halloween bingo and frosted cookies! The hermanas brought clothes that they no longer wanted to wear and were able to trade them.
 |
| Hermanas Morales, Flores, Segundo, and Suarez |
We had a fun sandwich bar for lunch. The missionaries were very excited about the spinach that they could put on their sandwiches. (They are banned from eating lettuce. It cannot be cleaned well enough to be safe.)
 |
| Hermanas Niziato, Morales, Cuellar and Black |
We had some special messages from the sister training leaders. It was about the beauty that they all have within them. We were reminded that we are all children of God. We each have divine potential within us.
Something Colorful
Friday, November 1st, we traveled to Lurin, to the Beach! We were at a resort by the beach, so we officially didn't hear the ocean or see the waves. We were invited to help at the Young Single Adult Conference. There were about 950 youth that attended. On Friday we were suppose to help with a self reliance training. Funny thing, we went on the wrong day. We were scheduled for Saturday.
Our group went home in the van, and we stayed to help out.
 |
| Feeding the 900! |
They put us to work! We helped with lunch. It was a major production to feed that many people. We then helped with a Family History presentation. In the late afternoon President Amato, his family, and about 30 of our missionaries arrived. They did a training for all the youth that want to go on missions. We rode home in a van with the missionaries.
 |
| Hermanas Segundo and Suarez teaching at the JAS convention |
On Saturday we traveled back to help with the self reliance training. It was a lot of fun talking with the youth that came to our station. We talked about EnglishConnect--a program to learn basic conversational English; and BYU Pathway--a low cost program to help people get university degrees. We had fun seeing the youth from our Pathways group and youth from the ward that we attend.
Random Photo of the Week
 |
| I saw this big yellow spider at the convention! |
 |
| This is what happens in a soccer game when an elbow hits the nose of Elder Wilcox. Also this week in soccer, Elder Shockley broke his wrist! |
No comments:
Post a Comment