Thompson Life: Another "sleep-over" with 9 new missionaries! And a trip to the Costanera Center

I told you last week that we were heading to a baptism on Saturday evening, the 27th. We left our apartment at 5 and picked up Elder Alvarez. He needed to go by his apartment to pick up a few things before the baptism. He doesn't know how much longer he will be with the office Elders. We arrived at the church about 7 and the baptism was scheduled to begin at 7:30. It was interesting to finally find out exactly what happened to his foot. He and his companions were with 2 families from their ward. One of the mothers had a video of the outing and she shared it with us. They had gone into the mountains to play in the snow. They had found a place to go "tubing" down the hill. The only problem was that the rocks were sticking up out of the snow all over. It really looked like a real "Safety Zone" episode! They were very lucky that Elder Alvarez was the only one hurt and that it wasn't worse. Our thoughts were: What were these people thinking???
   For you who haven't heard of the "Safety Zone": it is a series of videos that the church has prepared to try and teach our young missionaries how to avoid getting hurt while serving. They are very educational and sadly they all are real events that have happened to missionaries, from being hit by a bus, being electrocuted, falling out of a pick-up, etc. Tubing down a rocky, slightly snow covered mountain would fit right in. Well, back to the baptism.
   At 7:40 it was announced that the baptism would begin at 8. I was asked to play the piano so at 8 I began to play some prelude. Elder Thompson predicted 8:30 as the starting time and he was right! The person to be baptized was an 84 year old man named Pedro. He was scared of water but had a deep desire to be baptized. We had a nice program and then it was time and he and Elder Morris went to the font. It took about 15 minutes for Elder Morris to get Pedro into the water, which was only about 2 feet deep. Pedro sat on the floor of the font with Elder Morris kneeling down. The first time Elder Morris tried to get him submerged, his foot came up. The second time, his head didn't go under the water. We believe in baptism by emersion, so there had to be a third time. Poor Pedro was so patient but determined and so was Elder Morris. The third time Elder Morris put his leg over Pedro's feet so they couldn't come out of the water and then he put his forehead on Pedro's and pushed his head under the water. Both men came out of the water with big smiles. They had accomplished it. Pedro was baptized! By the time they got dressed and we finished with refreshments, we didn't get home till 11pm. Elder Alvarez was so thankful that we took him and we were thrilled to be able to witness the faith of Pedro to do such a hard thing, but Sunday morning is going to come very quickly.
   We headed to Puente Alto 1st ward on Sunday morning. It is about a 45 minute drive on Sunday with no traffic. This is Elder y Hermana Acevedo's ward, our office couple that help with the bodega and pouch mail. They were not there and so I was asked to play the piano, Hermana Acevedo usually plays. Two days in a row, boy am I being blessed. The closing hymn was one that is not in our English hymnal and one that I had never heard or played before. Luckily one of the members had a very strong voice and knew the hymn well and really sang out so I could follow him. The music director didn't sing loud so I couldn't follow her. We had 4 missionaries in this ward give the power point about Capilla Abiertas to prepare their ward for the 10th of August when they will have one. It was a great Sabbath Day here.
   Monday morning we had to take Elder Alvarez to the doctor to have his foot checked. We picked him up at 9 and headed to the Las Condes Clinic. It is a huge complex. We entered the green building, parked and went to x-rays. We had Elder Alvarez in a wheel chair so we could get to the appointments faster. We left the green building and went to the blue building to have his eye checked. Then we went to the red building to see the doctor and find out what the x-ray showed. And from there back to the blue building to order new glasses as he broke his coming down the hill. His foot is not broke but has a bad sprain and he will be with the office Elders for at least 2 more weeks as he cannot walk for long periods of time. We will get it rechecked in 2 weeks and hopefully he will be able to return to his area and his companion and not have to be sent home. He only has about 4 more months so it would be sad if he doesn't get to finish his mission. Back to the green building for the truck and we arrived at the office about 1. It was a long morning but at least everything was in one place!
   Monday afternoon the going home missionaries started arriving at the office to be picked up and taken to the airport.

Elder Wood wanted a photo with us. He was the first zone leader that we met when we first came and started inspecting the pensiones. He has been an assistant to the President these past few months. It has been great serving with him.

Elder Willard speaks just like a native Argentine. His trainer was from Argentina so he learned Spanish with that "sha" accent. He was an excellent missionary and trainer.

Hermana Hawkes was the trainer for all the Hermanas. She and Hermana Hale lived in our apartment complex.

Hermana Hale These two young women were the giggliest trainers we have had. They were always so pleasant to be around. We will truly miss them.

We headed to the CCM to meet our new missionaries. We get the beds made with the help of Hermana Wallace. Elder Wallace is not feeling good. We got the sandwiched all made and actually had time to sit down and visit before these 3 arrived about 8:30.

Elder Gonzalez, El Salvador; Hermana Cardozo, Argentina y Hermana Villagra, Argentina

Elder Gonzalez visited for about an hour after the young women started to prepare for bed. It was fun to talk about our adventures in El Salvador with him.

Our next group didn't arrive till about 10:30.

Hermana White, Utah; Hermana Webb, Utah; Elder Smurthwaite, Utah; Elder Evans, Alaska; Elder Healy, Texas; y Elder Steadman, Utah.

By the time they unwound, ate and said good-night it was midnight. Everyone was up and ready to go by 7:30am. We put Elder Healy in charge and headed for our shift at the temple. The missionaries were picked up and delivered to the mission office. It will be fun to watch these young people blossom over the next 9 months that we have left.

With cambios we always have extra calls for help with housing. We spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday moving beds, missionaries, and junk. We were thrilled when a set of missionaries who were white washed (into a new area for both) and called for help to haul off all of the stuff in the apartment that has been left by other missionaries for as long as we have had the apartment. We had a pickup full! Now if we can just get others to do the same. We felt the earth move on Thursday afternoon with small earthquake. It was a busy week and Friday night we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant with the Hughes, the LinLan. The Hughes are finally feeling better. They were down about a week.

Saturday morning we got hair cut, laundry started, picked up the truck and a few groceries and inspected an apartment all before 12. At 12 we headed to the Costanera Center with the Hughes. We took the 503 (blue bus) from our apartment to center of town.

From the street looking up

The Costanera Center or Gran Torre of Santiago is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. It is about 980 feet high with 700,000 square meters of building space. It is the largest mall in Chile and Latin America with over 300 stores, 12 theaters, and a 2,000 person capacity food court. It is 64 stories tall with 6 basement floors. We went to the Sky Costanera which is on the 61st and 62nd floors. The 61st floor is enclosed but the 62nd has no roof on it. The 360 degree view of the city is amazing. We have been waiting for a clear day to go here.

The sun was shining and it was 65-70 degrees. We tried to take a selfie to show just how beautiful the day was. It is still considered winter here for another month. We sure love winters like this!