Sunday, November the 18th, and we have not been assigned a ward to attend yet so we went back to the Nueva Amanecer Ward. Elder Hughes was not feeling well so we took Hermana Hughes with us. I played the piano for him. They have a keyboard in the chapel. Felt good to play! We felt better today and understood much more. The Chilean's speak real fast and like to leave off the first of the word and the endings of the words and you hear the middle and have to guess what they are saying. The locals like to kid about not speaking Spanish but Chilean.
We were invited to eat lunch with the Rodriquez family. She is the Relief Society President. Brother and Sister Rodriguez were sealed in the temple this past week. They have been waiting for years because he couldn't find his first wife to get a divorce so they couldn't get married and sealed until he found her. They were so happy. It was wonderful to share this special time with them.
even under the overpass
The sister missionaries also ate with us, Hermana Compuzano from Paraguay y Hermana Gomar from Argentina.
Hermana Rodriguez fixed baked chicken, rice, corn and peas. The corn and peas are served cold here. We had ice cream bars for dessert.
They live in this apartment complex. He is a fireman
Hermano Rodriguez taking the dog out
This is Julia. She is smiling at us. She really had a personality
We didn't get home till 5. Sunday's haven't been too restful yet.
Monday morning we decided to walk to the office. We feel better when we get some exercise. It is all downhill to the office. It takes us about 35-40 minutes to get there. The walk to work is not bad but we definitely feel the walk home, uphill all the way. We spent the morning working on the housing for the missionaries. We have no computer for us yet at the office so we are making files for all the 70 apartments we are in charge of. We had 4 missionaries going home today so the office was a busy place getting them off.
Tuesday we had orientation with 7 new missionaries, 4 boys and 3 girls. We met at the President's home. We got there a little early and Sister Brotherson sent us to the store to get some things that were needed for the lunch. It is so special to be able to watch the assistants to the President and the Sister trainers in action. These young people are amazing and have such strong testimonies. The President has a beautiful home. They have their youngest daughter here with them. She is a senior in high school.
The back yard
Tables and chairs for a big group
Swimming pool
We didn't go up stairs but the staircase was beautiful
The entry way to the front room
The dining room (apple cake on the table, it was delicious)
This is the cook. She rides the metro to work and it takes her 2 hours to get here
Laundry
Nice Kitchen
All of the mission presidents, north, south, east, and west, live in the Las Condes section of town. Our President is the only one who has a house so he does a lot of entertaining.
We took our lunch (baked chicken stuffed with spinach, mashed potatoes) with us back to our apartment as we had the internet people coming this afternoon. So happy to finally have internet in the apartment!
We got back to the office to see the new missionaries meet their trainers. Hopefully when we see these new missionaries next week they will be as excited as they were today!
Wednesday: We had to drive to the South Mission again today for more training. Our GPS decided to have two different voices telling us two different ways to get there. It was a nightmare for me. I am the navigator and was completely lost! Luckily we had Elder Saldarriaga with us and we got there 45 minutes late. We are trying to learn all we can about the Capilla Abierta program from the Brooks in the South Mission. They are having great success with the program. We got back to the office at 8:30 and walked home.
Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving. We left the office about 9:15 and headed to the Gabriela Zone to inspect the housing there. We took Elders Torres and Gonzales with us (they are secretaries to the President and serve in the office with us). Had no trouble with the GPS today. We went through 4 houses and tried to encourage these missionaries to clean up their homes so that the spirit can be with them. The Zone leaders house was the worst.
A typical street in this section of town
The missionaries in this Zone live in two story duplexes here. They have 4 Elders living together in two of the homes. We took pictures of any damages to document them so the landlords can't claim that the Elders did the damage and expect the church to pay for the repairs. We are also making sure that the houses are fit for the Elders to live in. In these 4 the only problem was that the Elders needed a day of service to clean them! 4 down and only 66 to go!
It is a cactus tree but I didn't get close enough to really appreciate it
We got back to the office at about 2 and left at 4 to have our Thanksgiving dinner with the Hughes.
We went to Ruby Tuesdays
Elder Hughes is feeling better. We had barbeque chicken and shrimp, not your normal Thanksgiving dinner but they don't do turkey here.
The 4 of us shared a dessert of warm brownies and ice cream. Really good!
We got home at 7 and went over our material for our presentation at Zone meeting tomorrow.
We told all the Zone leaders and the Sister trainers about our calling here. We explained why we were going to visit each missionary home and take pictures. Then we told them about the Capilla Abierta program and a little about their roll in it. I think we wetted their appetite when we told them that the South Mission had received 80 referrals at their last one. Then we were able to attend a session at the temple. It is in our mission and about 20 minutes away, depending on traffic. We caught the 11:30 session and the traffic was very light. We saw Hermana Wallace there. She and her Husband are serving in the temple. They are from the Jerome 10th Ward. Fun to see someone from home!
Arriving at the office. We change our shoes after we get there. Craig and Robbie, thank you so much for the backpacks. We use the constantly.
We thought of Chandler today when we saw this truck. He laid sod last summer
These are Empanadas Peruvian. We haven't had any from Chile yet but these are wonderful. They have a filling of chicken, spicy sauce and cheese. So far these are the closest typical food we have found, these and cold vegetables like corn and peas.
Today, Saturday, is our P-day and we took a walk to show you some of the things we see as we walk each day to the office. The blue gates are our apartment complex
Interesting tree
This city has a children's park or an exercise park through out the city. These are the ones we pass on our way down the hill to the office.
Most of them have astro-turf instead of grass
Notice the lady who is using the equipment
Another beautiful park. The flowers are just starting to grow. It is only spring here
More Cactus plants
Flowers are blooming
Another park
Bikes for rent
One more children's park
This is the Falabella Mall that is only 15 minutes away. We haven't been through it yet. It is 6 stories tall. We bought Elder Thompson some Hush Puppies here and we have been in the Home Center and the grocery store.
The other end of the mall
This little tienda is right across from the office. They have some very nice fruits and veggies.
Well, I have rambled on long enough for this week. We are starting to feel like we are helping here. It is so different than our temple missions. There we were helping with the spiritual area of peoples lives and here we spend a lot of time with the temporal area. Both are important so we are thankful that we can help our young missionaries. We look forward to getting the first Capilla Abierta going so we can help with the spiritual area again and help to teach people of their Savior, Jesus Christ, and his love for them.
We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We send our love. You are in our prayers always. Have a great week. Cherish each day, they go by so fast!
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