Monday morning we found out that an American has killed someone in the demonstrations in Valparaiso. It doesn't look like American's are being targeted so life went on as usual. We headed out to do some service and inspections. We had no trouble with the first 2 stops but as we drove to the third one, we ran right into a demonstration.
They had the road blocked and our GPS just wanted us to reroute and go around the block and come right back to the riot again so we had to follow the map and find our own way around it.
We only had 3 blocks to go to the Hermana's apartment and it took us a half hour to get around the road block demonstration.
We are into the 4th week and the people don't seem to be letting up!
We finally had to drive over the curbs because of items thrown in the street to get to the apartment to help the Hermana's. We got all 5 visits done and were glad to return to the office.
We had a farewell/welcome lunch with the temple missionaries.
The Moses' were at the head of the table, where you can only see the back of their heads.
We said good-bye to Elder y Hermana Hughes and Elder y Hermana Black.
We welcomed Elder y Hermana Potter and Elder y Hermana Ferguson. It was fun to be with all of the American missionaries serving here in our East Mission.
Our new apartment is located in this building.
It is huge. It is in a "U" shape with 12 towers and 754 apartments. We live in A 72.
Our apartment
The office is to the left about a 3 minute walk.
The view from our bedroom window
night view
The entrance of the apartment building
The tree is iron and the little woman is a rock and iron
Isn't she cute. Her body is one big rock and the head is a little one.
The entrance to tower A
The center of the "u"shaped apartment complex with
beautiful gardens
bird sanctuary
a day care
two grocery stores which are very well stocked with the necesities
an indoor playground for the young
an astro-turf soccer area for the youth
And down the stairs to the
3 foot swimming poot
And the weight room
It is really a city within itself with a guard station, post office, and administration offices
We are missing our recliner which is at the Hughes so next week we will get that when they leave
It is a big front room
One bedroom will have 2 bunk beds so that we can house 4 missionaries if we can't house them at the CCM or in case of an emergency
We will get lamp tables also when the Hughes leave. The windows are big and the light is wonderful. Our old apartment was on the ground floor with bushes in front of the windows and we got no light at all from them.
The master bath has a walk in shower
The kitchen is amazing for Chile
we have a double door frig and an electric oven!
We have more cupboards and cabinets than we will ever fill
And we am not camping anymore when we do dishes. 2 SINKS!!
The laundry has been fun to figure out. This is the washer and the dryer all in one. The first time we used it, we ended up washing the load 3 times before we found the cycle that would also dry the clothes.
The antique looking door that goes into the bedrooms and bathrooms
We have a sofa bed and a desk in the small bedroom
The small bath
We have a few items to pick up but mostly need to wait till the Hughes leave to finish furnishing the apartment completely. It is great to be so close to the office. We get up and take our walk then shower and eat breakfast and head to the office. We don't have to eat sandwiches cause we can walk home for lunch. Moving was not fun but it will be good to live here.
Tuesday morning we received a text from President Brotherson who was concerned about us driving anywhere today. It is to be a national strike day! The protesters have threatened to stone any vehicles that are on the roads today. We choose to not go to the temple for our shift and will stay at the office today. There are demonstrations planned in 10 different locations and the airport, public hospitals, public schools, and transportation routes will have road block barricades. Our missionaries are not allowed to use any public transportation that is running today and they are to be home no later than 6pm. We are into our 4th week and things don't seem to be getting any better. We have had 30 buses burned up in 28 days. We heard the drums and noise of a demonstration on Cristobal Colon from our apartment. But they ended before 10pm so we lost no sleep. Our missionaries didn't have their P-day on Tuesday due to the demonstrations so they will be off on Wednesday instead.
We went to the temple on Thursday morning. It is so wonderful to be able to feel peace and love in the House of our Heavenly Father. The temple has gone back to only having sessions in the mornings. Our afternoons and evenings seem to be one constant protest somewhere in the city. We were saddened to see on the news that the mobs broke into a Catholic Church and destroyed it. It was one of the old buildings down town. We received two new missionaries today from Bolivia. They were in the Colombia CCM and needed to fly to Bolivia to get their passports and a stamp in them to fly on to Ecuador to their assigned mission but Bolivia is in worse conditions than we are and the airport there is closed. We don't know if they will be here for 3 days, 3 weeks, or the whole two years of their mission. We just received word that the American missionaries in Bolivia are being reassigned to other missions. We are so sad for them but are very thankful that our Heavenly Father is watching over them and all of us.
We pray that you have had a wonderful week. We send our love. We are in the arms of our loving Heavenly Father and are being watched over by angels. The work goes on. Chao!!
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