All Saints Day

We had another great week.

 Last Sunday November 1st was All Saints Day (Dia de Todos los Santos Vivos) and Day of the Dead (Dia de los Difuntos).  It is a National Holiday. They celebrate by picnicking with the deceased and decorating the graves.  The belief is that souls visit the earth on this day and it inspires families to to bring offerings and share meals with departed family members.  Large cemeteries throughout the country suddenly fill with color, vendors, street musicians, flowers, families and food. The holiday begins on the evening of 31 October and ends at the close of 1 November.

That is exactly what happened here.  Since the temple is next to a big cemetery, our street was full of people walking,cars, taxis, bikes, motorcycles, and buses. There were a lot of people honoring their dead. I tried to capture the craze with these pictures.

The cars are backed up way down the street. The cemetery is to the right of the picture. This is in front of the temple.

It was so crowded and busy around the temple that they have added more security and policemen on the streets

This is one of many selling flowers.

These people are cooking food.

If you can zoom in it shows better the crowd.

More of the cemetery

It was interesting to see this event. When we got back to the temple, it looked like this. Calm and quiet!

A big event started here on Tuesday. We now have a cafeteria and can eat downstairs. They are open from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm. Tuesday thru Saturday. There is a company that comes in and cooks the food here. It is Peruvian food and the cost is very reasonable. It is for the people who work at the temple and any of the people who come to the temple.

It is good food and it is nice to not have to figure out what we will eat.  We have been eating lunch there.  It costs about 5 soles or about $1.85 for a meal.

We get one meal and share it because there is so much food.

This picture is of two meals.

This is Brother and Sister Rodriguez. They both work in the temple. He is a sealer and was just called to be the Patriarch in his stake.

We have enjoyed the cafeteria.

Monday we went to the mall and we saw a bunch of missionaries. This is just one group. We always like seeing them. They are always happy to see us and I can usually talk to most of them.

It is fun being a missionary and being a part of this mighty army of young people serving the Lord.
It is a great work!


Jan Haws