¡Empezamos la Obra!

¡Por fin, me siento mejor!

I got off to a slow start here in Santiago.  On the flight from Atlanta the fellow who sat in the seat behind me had a bad cold and coughed the whole way.  I felt sorry for him as he was quite miserable from his cold.  And he was a big man who on the best of days could not have been comfortable in such a small airline seat, much less so being in the condition he was in.  Well, he shared his cold with me, which I unhappily began to feel on our forth day here.  It's been over a week since.  I'm not 100% yet but I'm a whole lot better.  ¡Qué bueno!

El llamiento

Backing up a bit.  Last August 27, 2016 Teresa and I received the letter from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints calling us to serve a full time senior couple mission to Chile Santiago South.  We couldn't have been more pleased or excited with the call, having hoped/anticipated for a long time to serve somewhere in Spanish speaking South America.  A subsequent flurry of activity ensued and we somehow managed to complete the needed preparations prior to entering the missionary training center (MTC) in Provo Utah on Monday Nov 7, 2016.

Centro de Capacitación Misional

The MTC was amazing, packed with intensive study, personal growth and lots of spiritual experiences.  We were two of 137 senior missionaries in training that week, completely dwarfed in number by another 2500+ younger missionaries, coming from all parts of the world and going to all parts of the world.  And this is just one, although the biggest, of fifteen MTCs scattered around the globe.  Our district, composed of four senior couples who we studied with throughout the week we were there, demonstrated the variety in places and assignments.  The Lisonbees are serving at the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center in San Diego.  The Garffs are serving on the BYU-Hawaii campus.  He'll serve as a construction manager and she'll assist with young single adult programs there.  The Millers are serving in Madagascar where she will be the mission nurse and he will assist her as well as help in other areas of the mission.  Teresa and I are in Santiago as member and leader support (MLS) missionaries.

¡Llegamos a Santiago!

Elder Gomez looks much fresher than we do on our first day.  The Santiago
temple was right next to where we picked up the car so we took the
opportunity to stroll the gardens in back.  Spring time in Santiago is beautiful!

I wish we thought to take a picture when our mission president, President Gwilliam, and his wife treated us to a delicious lunch at a restaurant the day we arrived.  Though it's probably just as well since we looked a bit disheveled for lack of sleep and shower.  But the day was still young so no rest yet for our weary heads.  There was still a car to pick up in downtown Santiago (yes, we have our own car!) and a basic supply of groceries to buy (Jumbo, kind of like Target), which took us into the early evening.  Special thanks to Elder Gomez, dubbed our "personal assistant" by Pres Gwilliam, for all his help showing us around and helping us find the food we wanted.  Also for his forethought of purchasing new bedding and making the bed for us before we arrived.  Come 8pm we had no energy left and basically collapsed in that nice clean bed!

Nuestro departamento

A little hazy but from our apartment
windows you can see the Andes in the
background.

The apartment is much bigger than we anticipated, and on the forth floor, with lots of windows.  We have a beautiful view of the Andes Mountains bordering the city on the east.  This area reminds us a lot of Utah valley, both the mountains and the arid climate.  It's beautiful!

Teresa cooking in her clean kitchen.

The next few days we spent cleaning our apartment and settling in, well, mostly cleaning the apartment.  As most people know, Teresa likes her house clean, clean, clean, and the apartment was not that.  But working together we brought it up to snuff.  Teresa paid me a complement when she asked if I would put in so much effort if I lived alone.  When I said no, not to that degree, she was surprised.  She supposed, after all our years together, and our mutual efforts maintaining a high level of cleanliness, that I had

Our comfortable living room.

somehow adopted it into my own nature.  Nope!  She expressed gratitude that I help so much with keeping our place clean and orderly.  To me that's a big part of marriage, striving to make your spouse happy regardless if the particular effort is that important to you.  And it works both ways.  For instance, Teresa makes special efforts to prepare foods she otherwise wouldn't because she knows I like them.  Yup, I think we've got a good thing going!

Nuestras asignaciones

Pres Lamartine on the left and
Sister and Pres Gwilliam on the right.

From this point on I was sick and spent most of my time at home.  But I did attend a few meetings to learn more about our responsibilities.  The first meeting was with Pres and Sister Gwilliam and with Pres Lamartine, counselor in mission presidency.  There's a program directed by the area presidency in Buenos Aires, Argentina, requesting that we conduct open houses at our chapels as a way to introduce non-members and reacquaint less active members to the Church.  It follows the pattern used in Church visitor centers, including small tour groups led by sister missionaries visiting different displays teaching basic Church doctrine.  A basic audio/visual presentation is also used.  Since the previous senior couple went home last May, Pres Lamartine has run the program single handedly.  Teresa and I will take over its coordination and oversight just as soon as we are able.  Pres Lamartine will shortly be breathing a little easier!

We also met with an innovative young Elder (now that's an oxymoron!) missionary, Elder Kieffer, who has utilized some custom computer tools to supplement the Church membership database to list and organize member names and addresses in especially helpful ways.  I thought young single adults were transient (well, those I worked with back in Kansas certainly were) but people apparently move around even more here.  It's a nightmare trying to keep track of where members move to.  We lose track of them and often they then go inactive.  Though the tools Elder Kieffer has created aren't earth shattering, they do make the work more efficient and help focus our effort on "finding the one" (ref Luke 15, Parable of the Lost Sheep).  Our second responsibility will be to build on Elder Kieffer's work and promote it mission wide.

This Tues we'll meet with a community member here who runs a charity who needs help delivering Christmas gifts to the less fortunate in the area.  Still need to learn more details, and specifically how we can help.  This will be a good lead in to our third responsibility, which is to work with community leaders and organizations to identify service projects that the 170+ missionaries here can help with.  That's a lot of manpower (and womanpower) that can go a long way (well, at least start to make a dent) to help the poor and needy, upgrade learning environments, refurbish dilapidated living space, teach and help qualify people for better employment, or whatever need there may be.  Some missionaries are currently involved with helping Haitian refugees in the area, who are invited to come to Chile but are not provided tools to make the transition.  If our understanding is correct, they left deplorable conditions in their homeland but find themselves hungry, unemployed, in insufficient housing and unable to speak the language here.  Teresa and I need to figure out how we can assist the government and other aid organizations to help these people in their distress.

Varias cosas divertidas

The day before I became ill we ventured out to a local feria, or market, we were told was held on Fridays.  Turns out it’s held on Sundays and Thursdays, so the place was empty.  A gentleman had dismounted his bicycle under the canopy so we stopped to ask him what days the feria was open.  I was shocked.  I couldn’t understand him at all.  And what’s worse, he couldn’t understand me at all either!  The only reason I think he was speaking Spanish is because I did make out the words “nueve meces”.  That was it.  He did a lot of hand waving.  And at one point he held his hands close together which appeared to indicate a baby or small child, but honestly, I really had no clue.  Fortunately, after we took leave of that fellow, another man strolled by and we asked him what days the feria was open.  He understood my question and I in turn understood his response.  Happy day, my faith in communicating in Spanish was restored!

Out the door on
her own!

A couple other fun items to note.  Since I was ill I didn't attend the Saturday night session of Stake Conference last week end.  However, this did not deter Teresa.  Even though she can't speak more than a few words of Spanish she forged ahead and attended by herself.  She didn't understand much of what was said but she impressed a lot of the ladies at church and made a bunch of friends!

The next day was the Sunday morning session which we both attended.  I was able to understand a good part of what was said and Teresa could pick out a word here and a phrase there.  A children's choir sang a few songs and they were cute, cute, cute!  Here's an informal picture of them with their director outside afterwards. I think Latino children are about the most beautiful in the world.   Everyone wore white tops, accented with hairpieces or bow ties with the same aqua color.

A great birthday with some great elders!

Elder Bahamondez
holds a sweet spot
in Teresa's heart!

Teresa's birthday was also last Sunday.  We went to the mission office to use the internet to make phone calls to family.  While Teresa was talking to her brother in another room the

Elders Bullock, Bahamondez, Maser, Gomez and Keck

office Elders suddenly started hanging streamers from the ceiling and blowing up balloons.  They even pulled out party hats and noise makers.  Elder Maser had noticed from our records that her birthday was immanent and planned to have all the Elders come to our apartment to throw a little surprise party.  Our arrival caught them off guard and necessitated their making a hasty plan B, which went off flawlessly.  When Teresa finished her call, she walked into a room of partiers yelling "surprise!" and making all kinds of noise.  They even had a tres leche cake topped with lit candles for her to blow out.  She was touched and very grateful.  We work with some very sweet Elders!

The day before US Thanksgiving all the sister missionaries (Hermanas) got together to bake apple pies, which they shared with all the mission.  Teresa loved mingling with these wonderful young women.  And the pies they made were absolutely delicious!


We returned to the feria on Thursday (Thanksgiving day in the US)  where all our anticipation and expectations were fulfilled!  We had been told before we arrived in Santiago that the fruits and vegetables here are fresh, sweet and delicious, and that they are available year round.  We can now confirm the former, and we're looking forward to verifying the latter as the year progresses!

This covered market continues like this for two blocks.

A bouquet of flowers for about $3.

Teresa loves her fruits and vegies!

All this, including the flowers,
for less than $27!

Thanksgiving for us was simple yet delicious, primarily made from the bounty we had just purchased at the feria.  Unfortunately, I was so exhausted from our morning's excursion (and having only walked maybe two miles) that I couldn't help Teresa in the kitchen.  But I did my best to consume what she had prepared, and with thankfulness!

Our Thanksgiving meal,
simple but delicious.

But the pie was extravagant!