JAS Day 1: Cultural Night

We just had one of the greatest weekends of our Peru trip!  (I told you, they keep getting better and this week we’re going to the beach so there might be another “greatest weekend” posts)  We’ve been looking forward to this weekend for WEEKS.  What did we do that made it so great?  We were part of a huge Young Single Adult (JAS) convention that included six stakes here in Peru.  The Cajamarca stake and five from Chiclayo (the city we’re going to this weekend).  It started Thursday night and then finished this morning (Sunday) with a large Singles ward.  I’ll split up this post into the different major activities/ days so it’s easier to read (and because there's way too much to write all at once)

Preparations

• We arrived at the Banos ward building to meet the rest of the JAS and ride together to Cajamarca.  While there we got our Convention t-shirts!!!  Don’t be too excited, when they held up the smalls we ordered we were mortified.  We should have thought that a Peruvian woman small would be much smaller than an American small.  We tried them on in the bathroom and even though I want a picture of us in them, it wouldn’t be appropriate.

• We met some of the leaders from the other stakes who were living above the chapel for the convention.  One of the men works in Chiclayo for Eagle-Condor.  He ended up being one of the stake presidents and his wife’s an English teacher!  They became some of our good friends this weekend.

• This began our weekend of fame.  Many of the leaders wanted pictures with the gringos.   

Cultural Night

• The main event at cultural night were the different dances performed by each stake.  They were awesome!  I loved watching both boys and girls dress in traditional costumes and perform different dances.  It's too bad we couldn't do a dance from our neck of the woods...I was thinking some sort of country line dance.  We could blow their minds.  

• A few of the stakes then had theatrical acts to perform and Cajamarca was the best, of course.  The microphones weren’t working too hot so it was hard to hear most people (not that I understood everything anyways haha)  I did catch a few of the jokes and they were super funny...by super funny I mean they were marriage or dating jokes just like at BYUI.  It felt like home for a bit.

Cajamarca Stake

One Stake did the John Tanner story

• The show went a little long…I was struggling by the end to keep my eyes open haha  We thought it was going to be 7:00-9:00 but it didn’t end until after 10:00 so we didn’t get home until really late.  Thankfully our friend, Ricardo, performed with his band for the closing act and they were so good that I didn't even mind when they did an encore.

• Apparently people don’t really “whoop” during Peruvian performances like we do in America.  Some of the others in our ward were a little embarrassed of us.

• I loved being there and being surrounded by hundreds of YSA.  It was great to have so many people our age all in one spot.  I also loved that before the dances each stake had a little movie or slideshow set to music about their stake.  Sadly, our ward picture didn't get put in the slideshow but it was so amazing to see pictures of YSA from around Peru dressed in their Sunday best or doing a service project or attending the temple.  I'm not sure if it makes the church seem a little smaller or a little bigger.  It's interesting to think about.  But I love the Saints here and this weekend was such a wonderful opportunity to meet them and see the examples they set.