Time Is Flying

Myself with President John and Sister Nancy Rappleye of the Chile Osorno Mission

Sister Cardon a temple missionary telling a story as we wait for nightfall and the New Year's Eve fire works at the bay in Vina del Mar, Chile 2012
The senior missionaries enjoying our Christmas Eve roast beef dinner 2011
Senior missionaries at the 103 year old working flower clock in Vina del Mar, Chile Jan. 2, 2012

Rt to left the Bowlers of Nevada, the Cardons of Utah, the Cahoons of Canada, the Workmans of Idaho, myself, Sister Abaris of Calif./Mexico, the Lees of Washington.

View of the volcano and the lake from the Hamilton's home in Llanquehue, Chile

Erupting volcano near Puyehuey in southern Chile

The months of November and December seem to have flown by. One of the traditions here in Santiago is for all the north Americans to meet at the Chile Santiago North mission home for Thanksgiving Dinner. The mission home was at one time the Swiss Embassy, so it is a big beautiful home with some features that look like a Swiss chalet. We didn't want for any of the traditional Thanksgiving foods. Although some dishes didn't taste the same because you can't find some ingredients such as brown sugar. I am not certain how many people were there, I suspect around a hundred. I met a number of people for the first time such as a doctor who works for the US Air Force and the comptroller for the huge new olive orchards and olive oil company the church is developing south of Santiago. It was an afternoon of good food and good company.

Dr and Sister Welch and I had planned to go to the farthest north mission the first part of November, but had to cancel those plans because of an unexpected visit by general authorities. However, we were invited to go give short presentations and spend two days at the mission president's conference on November 30 and December 1. I was grateful to be invited to go. I know it was an expense, but every minute of my time was well used, to the point I only had about 5 minutes to dash to the gift shop to buy a couple of postcards just before the shuttle came to take us to the airport. I was able to meet three mission presidents and their wives that I had talked with a lot on the phone, but never seen face to face. I also appreciated setting in on some of the presentations by the area presidency.

The conference was held in the southern most mission at a beautiful, rustic resort called Puyehue which is in the mountains near a lake. Every thing is either some beautiful hue of green or a brilliantly colored flower. Most of the views are breath taking. The color of the lake is an amazing turquoise color they say is created by the volcanic ash that falls in the water. There are three high snow covered volcanoes nearby. We could also see another volcano, I am guessing it was about 50 miles away, that was having a major eruption. Because of the ash the airline was not certain we would get in or out. The day we left, the airline consolidated three flights into one, which was our scheduled flight, so we got out as planned, but the flight was absolutely packed.

When we got back from the conference I was scrambling to get all the appointments in I had rescheduled from the two days we were gone. I was also packing in appointments for the next two weeks in anticipation of an eight day visit to the Osorno mission, again in the farthest south parts of Chile.The volcano was still erupting on December 16, the morning of our departure. Luckily our flight was only delayed, not canceled. When we got to Puerto Montt my luggage was not with us. Lan airlines put the luggage on another flight that was leaving at the same time, but that flight had too much weight so it was transferred to an afternoon flight which meant an extra trip for the President Rappleye, the mission president, to get my luggage.

The first two nights we were in the south we stayed at the Hamilton's home in Llanquihue. As I understand the story, the home was built by a couple from the US who served a temple mission in Santiago then, without even going home, asked to serve another mission, specifically to run the office in the Osorno mission. During that mission they decided to buy property so they could live in Chile a part of every year. They built the home immediately after completing their second mission, but are now in the US for a year while he is doing some special job related to his profession. They only lived in the home a couple of months before going back to the US, but are such giving people that they allow any senior missionaries in Chile to use the home free of charge.

That area of Chile has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. I had no idea how beautiful it was. It is a very rural area with miles and miles of rolling green hills and forests, huge lakes and snow capped volcanoes. There are beautiful flowers everywhere. In fact, they grow the plant the produces canola oil which flowers with a bright yellow blossom. So as you look out over the rolling green hills you will see huge fields of bright yellow blossoms. The thing that I still can't believe is the cleanliness. The government infrastructure for the highways and freeways seems better than some places in the US. All the Freeways and highways are in excellent repair and they have crews of men out on the road sides with weed wackers trimming the grass and weeds and then hauling it all away in trucks.

Sunday night we stayed with President and Sister Rappleye in the Osorno mission home. On Monday I attempted to meet with the psychiatrist that has been found in Valdivia to work with the missionaries I refer for medication. I wasn't able to talk with her due to her busy schedule. We then drove to a beautiful mountain retreat, Villarica, where we stayed for the night. I actually had elk steak for dinner.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we attended three different zone conferences where Dr. Welch and I did presentations. Dr. Welch presented on managing common illnesses. I presented on how to grow from stressful situations. The Rappleyes, Welchs and I then has a chance to experience a stressful situation. Early Wednesday morning as we were beginning the second zone conference the president got a call from a zone leader in an area about four hours drive from where we were. The zone leader was out running with another missionary who collapsed and shortly after went into full arrest. Luckily the ambulance arrived in three minutes, was able to quickly get him on a respirator and transport him to a local hospital.To make a long story short, after rearranging the schedule for the next day's conf. We did our presentations the morning and then by car and ferry made our way to the island where the missionary was hospitalized. He was still on a respirator. the decision was made to transport him by ambulance to the nearest airport four hours away and then he was flown by air ambulance to Santiago to a very nice state if the art hospital. Now, about a month later, the missionary is going to be taken to the US. He is up and walking,but a reason for his collapse is still in question and he has a great deal of memory loss and confusion.

The Welch's and I flew back to Santiago late Friday December 23. A friend from home, Hehwon Fordham, had sent me some money for Christmas with instructions to take some missionaries to dinner. To make the money reach as many missionaries as possible, I decided to buy enough roast for a roast dinner for all the senior missionaries. On Christmas Eve the senior missionaries had a very nice roast beef dinner, gift exchange, sing along and reading of the scriptures. Between those of us who work in the area offices and the temple missionaries there is a total of thirty. Christmas Day I had two young sister missionaries come to my apartment to Skype their families, then another two young sisters joined us for a Christmas dinner. It was really fun to spend time with them. I had a wonderful Christmas

Over the New Year's weekend I went to Vina del Mar with five couples and one single sister who are all temple workers. They invited me to go so the single sister who is from Mexico would be able to afford to go. So, that worked out nicely for me. We left on Saturday morning and returned Monday afternoon. We had a good time together and I appreciated the chance to get to know everyone better. One of the couples is from Canada, but the rest are from the western US. Of course we had to go down to the beach to claim a spot many hours before the fire works began. One of the most memorable experiences for some of us women was standing in line for over an hour to use the one hole toilet off the oil changing bay of a gas station across the street from our spot on the beach. We had to all be a little punchy to find such an experience so hilariously entertaining.

I considered it a small miracle that my phone didn't ring New Year's weekend from Saturday morning when I got in the van until after I was out of church on Sunday. Many of the mission presidents and missionaries knew I was going to Vina. I think they were trying to be considerate and let me enjoy the weekend because it was like someone opened the flood gates on Monday and Tuesday. So, I am off to a running start of the 2012.