Because we didn't tell anyone we were coming, we got to come home and take a nap instead of eating with a family.
Transportation in this city is done by personal cars, micro's (buses of all sizes) taxi's, and the metro (subway). Each morning about 6:30 the buses begin going past our apartment building. Our apartment is right in front of this street so we are woken up then. The buses pretty much stop going past at about 10:30pm so we can sleep without all the noise. We have red, orange, blue and teal colored buses. They come in three sizes:
The normal size bus
the caterpillar bus. He is half way around the corner
then the rest of the bus turns the corner
And the accordion center comes back together
And the baby size bus
We have not seen any of the colorful old school buses like we saw in Central America in use here. But we haven't been in any of the real small towns either.
The taxi's are all the same
This company must have the contract for the whole city
The only school buses we have seen
are just orange vans with escuela printed on them
We hope to one day take a ride on the metro.
There are stop lights at almost every intersection and in between the intersections there are stop lights for pedestrian crossing in the busy sections of town. It can take up to 15 minutes to go one mile during the rush hours, 7-9am and 6-8pm. We use WAZE at all times. It will try to take us around the traffic jams. We have been on some really narrow streets but it is better than sitting in traffic for an hour. It took us an hour to get to the stake house for a meeting with the ward council and only 20 minutes to return home because of the traffic. Elder Thompson is definitely having his patience tested and is passing the test with flying colors!
The only crop we have seen so far is grapes.
It is early spring here so there isn't any action in the fields.
This is Jorge, our apartment gate keeper.
Monday Hermana Thompson asked one of our young missionaries who is a secretary to the President if he could help set up a power point presentation to use when we meet with the wards to instruct them about their roll in the Capilla Abiertas. Elder Gonzalez did a wonderful job. He is making us look real good. Elder Thompson worked on invitations, cutting them up and writing the dates and times on them. No one told us about the meeting this morning with the new Elders and Sisters who arrived last week. We had to introduce ourselves and tell what our assignments are in the office.
Today was Elder Hughes' birthday and he was given a pie from the Brotherson's. We were invited down to their apartment around 9 for pie and ice cream. It was apple and cranberry, very good.
Tuesday morning we did a lot of phone calling and setting up appointments to inspect missionaries housing. We met with the Hughes' and the manager of a new apartment. We have 2 sisters who we need to get into a new place cause they are being harassed where they live now. The manager was fantastic. She was even more picky than we are. The apartment is very nice, except for the carpets. We think they are beyond cleaning and need to be replaced. Most of the apartments we have seen have laminate flooring here. We got back in time to pick up the office Elders, Saldarriaga, Torres and Gonzalez. They went with us to the ward council for the Nunoa 1st ward. This ward is going to have a Christmas Devotional and then the Capilla Abierta right after on the 15th of December. The meeting was to start at 8. We left here right in rush hour. It took us almost an hour to get there. Thank goodness everyone else was late as well. It only took 20 minutes to get back home after the meeting. Another 10 hour day!
On Wednesday, Elder Hughes had to take his car to be serviced. We went to pick him up. It took 45 minutes to go 4 miles! Thank goodness for WAZE! It takes us on back roads and tries to keep us away from the worst road blocks. We have driven on some very narrow streets, winding through neighborhoods, but moving. Not bad for two country bumpkins! Elder Thompson is doing an amazing job driving the stick shift in this traffic and not loosing his patience.
We inspected one apartment today. This one needs a paint job!
We practiced our power point presentation this afternoon on the Elders and Sisters of the Nunoa Zone who will be doing the first 2 Capilla Abierta's. Just a little tweeking to do and we are ready.
We got home early today - 7:30.
We spent the whole day in the office on Thursday. Elder Thompson worked on getting apartment repairs scheduled and writing a letter to be sent to the bishops. I spent the day helping Hermana Hughes get paper work done for our missionaries who are leaving in December and preparing for our new missionaries who are arriving in January.
On Friday the 30th, we went to the Cordillera Zone to inspect the 6 pensiones (houses or apartments) where the missionaries live. This zone is the farthest away from the mission office so we wanted to inspect all of the apartments in one day. Two of the office missionaries decided to go with us. We think that they just wanted to get out of the office and visit friends in this zone as they had once served here. They tried to make it look like they were going along just to be sure that we had no trouble. It's funny, the only times we get lost is when the missionaries tell us that they know the way and we don't listen to our guide on Waze.
Elder Bravo ZL, Elder Torres office, Elder Gonzalez office, Elder Wood ZL
This area of Santiago is very humble. We went to the District Leader's house first. After inspecting the pensiones last week, which were filthy, we were thrilled to visit 5 very clean, orderly homes. There were a few things that needed repaired and Elder Thompson was able to do a few of them.
Then we went to a house that had only 2 Elders living there but had 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. We're not sure why this is, but will check with the President on this.
The 6th house in this district wasn't as clean but what an amazing area. We drove past orchards, hay fields, and vineyards.
Every time we have to go south we have to go through this mile long tunnel. It is awful cause we loose our GPS and there are exits all along the tunnel. I think we have figured out just which one to take but I still feel uneasy when we have to go through it. It is just toooo long.
more grapes
the two office Elders took a few random fotos as we were driving
Flower shops all along the way
taking a foto of a broken mirror and Elder Thompson noting it on paper
This house has such a personality
the front entry way for the same house
Two other houses that the missionaries live in in this area
nut tree orchard
Cactus starting to bloom
more cactus
tennis courts
These were right outside of the last house we inspected. The Andes mountains in the background
It was an amazing ride but it took all day. We didn't take a lunch and found no place to eat so we were hungry when we got home. 
We stopped at one last apartment on our way home to drop off 2 chairs and pick up the 2 broken ones. We picked up 4 broken chairs, 1 broken heater and 1 broken fan. Glad we had a truck to transport them in. It was a good day. We got 7 pensiones inspected and met some amazing Elders. We still haven't inspected any of the Sister's pensiones.
November has ended as well as this week. We are tired tonight but feel like we are settling into our new assignments. It is good to serve in the office with the Hughes and the Elders but we enjoy being able to get out of the office and meet the young Elders and see more of this huge city.
We look forward to a relaxing Sunday - oh wait - we have 4 more inspections after church tomorrow. It is the only time we could nail down these busy Elders and Sisters to get their inspections done. Thankful that they are busy. Time for bed. We send our love. Have a great week and be happy!
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