When we arrived at the chapel this morning, there was some ugly prelude music playing and the member of the Stake Presidency who was visiting the ward unplugged the keyboard. I was privileged to be able to play for Sacrament Meeting. As I was playing prelude, I saw someone rushing toward the piano out of the corner of my eye. I was immediately engulfed in a big bear hug.
Hermana Samantha Grudechut started serving in the temple the same day that we did. She is a return missionary and is always smiling and energetic. It is so fun to be able to serve with her.
We were asked to visit with the Bishop during Sunday School and found out that this ward is planning a Capilla Abierta in April. Samantha said that we had to stay to take pictures with her after church because we can't take pictures in the temple.
Samantha's mother is in the temple at least once a week, usually on Thursday when we go to do our personal family work.
And then we find out that the Bishop is her father. We look forward to being able to attend this ward again for the Power Point Training for the ward and then at the Capilla Abierta.
Monday started very early with a phone call from President Brotherson at 2:50AM. We needed to meet a missionary and his companion at the Emergency room of the Hospital and take care of whatever needed to be done for them. Luckily a member of their ward, the only one with a car, was able to bring them to the hospital, a 45 minute drive. Elder Anson has a virus and is dehydrated. He was given an IV and then we were able to bring him home.
Elder Stegelmeier and Elder Anson
Once he was rehydrated and meds kicked in so he wasn't throwing up any more, both young men were very happy, hungry, and tired. We got them to our apartment at 6am, fed them some scrambled eggs and toast and put them to bed. We also crawled back into bed for a two hour nap.
We got to the office at 9 to do the pouch run. The President decided that each companionship needed new guide lines about dehydration and flu and cold precautions so we were an hour late leaving for the pouch run as we waited for the paperwork to be printed and put into each pouch. We didn't get back until 2 and found our house guests at the office. They had slept in till noon! Elder Anson was feeling so much better. We took them to get his prescriptions and then back to their home.
I just hit the wrong button so this will be a work in progress this week!
Tuesday, since the temple is closed for the two week break for cleaning, we agreed to take Elder Greer and Elder Goodman to San Jose de Maipo. Neither of these young missionaries have been out to San Jose and they only have a couple of months left in their missions. They have only served right in the heart of the city so it was a treat for them to get out of town!
I handed the camera to the Elders and these are the things that they felt were important to document.
We saw a lot of sheep and goats on the way and the water is still brown at this point in the trip
It is about 30 - 35 miles to San Jose de Maipo from our apartment and then another 20 miles to the reservoir. Although it is only about a 60 mile trip, it takes over 2 hours to get there.
Yes, this area gets a lot of snow in the winter. We are climbing continually but the road is good.
We are heading out of San Jose de Maipo. It is about an hour drive to Embalse de Yeso, our destination. It is a man made reservoir that was started in 1964 and took 10 years to build. You can see the road along the right side of the photo that we will be taking.
The road ahead is very windy as you can see. The water is clear now.
We drove up in this area with the Hughes one day in October of 2019 trying to find the reservoir but we took the wrong road and never did arrive at the lake.
We wound around one corner and then another until we ran out of pavement
Crystal clear waterfalls along the way
There were times when we had only a one-way road to travel on and hair pin turns that really made me nervous as there were large dump trucks going to and fro on the road.
Our first look at the lake.
Another water fall cascading down the mountain
There is still some snow on the mountain tops
zoomed in on the snow
This is an old mining camp that is used as a military shelter
The concrete building made me thing of Bruno, Idaho
Elder Greer, Elder Goodman, Los Thompson
This is the dam
It water was a beautiful emerald color. The Elders were so thrilled to be breathing clean fresh air.
Don't know exactly what the settlement here is, but it is definitely new and not completed
We didn't go on down the road as we were running out of time but if you go a bit farther down the road there are hot tubs and a camping area before you enter Argentina.
Again I don't know what this is exactly but the Elders thought we needed a foto?
We headed for home, stopping at the Chocolate House for ice cream cones. I told them that as a Mother, I would not have suggested ice cream before dinner but as a Grandmother it was a great idea, as long as they promised to eat their dinner.
We stopped at the Casa Bosque for dinner. We went to the Chocolate House and the Casa Bosque with the Hughes and the fotos of them are in the October blog.
We had a fun day with two of our young adopted grandchildren. Elder Greer is very special to us as we served with him in the office for several months and really got to know him well. We are thankful for the opportunity to get to know Elder Goodman better. And they both ate their dinners even after the ice cream cones! But then they are missionaries and they are always hungry!
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were spent doing inspections, service calls and working on getting new supplies for our 72 hour kits. Some of the food items are expired so we are getting all the supplies needed to get them restocked at Zone Conferences next exchange.
We actually came home early on Friday. We got home at 5 and had just changed our clothes and were ready for a quiet evening when the phone rang. "Could we please make another emergency room run?"
We weren't as lucky this time as no ward member was available to bring the missionaries to us so we had to go pick them up. Hermana Carpenter had fallen down a couple of stairs and thought that she had broken a bone in her foot. We left the office at 6pm, right in the middle of rush hour. It took us an hour to get to the Hermana's apartment. We got to the emergency room, they took x-rays, found out that is was just a very bad sprain, got a boot put on and took the Hermana's home. The GPS took us on a road we had never been on before. We were very worried that we were not going to end up where we needed to be. We went through tunnels as we headed out of Las Condes toward the airport, then took a side tunnel and actually ended up on the right freeway after all. But very un-nerving for us. We dropped off the Hermana's and got home at midnight!
Hermana Veli from Peru y Hermana Carpenter from Middleton, Idaho
We enjoyed sleeping in on Saturday morning and even took a nap! It has been another busy week. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be here serving these young missionaries. They are amazing. We just love them all.
We are thankful for our Savior and for His love for us. We thank each of you for your prayers in our behalf. We truly feel the angels with us as we try to navigate in this huge city with these drivers who are so unpredictable. You are in our prayers siempre! Con Amor, Chao
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