Rosende Ward, Santiago Chile Zapadores Stake

We had the great privilege of visiting Rosende Ward on Sunday to speak about the Perpetual Education Fund.  It was a special assignment for us because Bishop Duque was a missionary companion of Scott's.  Scott was his trainer, and he told us that 3 days after Bishop Duque arrived in the mission field, his father passed away.  Scott said he had come on his mission knowing he would never see his father again in this life.  Scott has tremendous respect for Bishop Duque.  Here is a picture of his family with us.

Imagine this, you are about 30 years old, you have a young family, you work, you are going to school with the help of the Perpetual Education Fund, and you are a bishop in a poor neighborhood.  We saw three people on crutches and one in a wheel chair in this ward, and half of them were gone because January is vacation month.  Bishop Duque started Sacrament meeting on time, and 5 minutes before the meeting the people in the chapel were reminded to seat themselves, be reverent and prepare for the meeting.  There were more people on time to this meeting than we have seen in other wards.

The chapel is at the end of this street, you can see the people coming out.

Horse Travel

This is one of our favorite sights in Chile, people traveling in horse drawn carts down the highway and in the middle of town.

This horse decided to rest in front of the church.

Trip to Concepcion

We spent four exhausting and great days in the Concepcion area, presenting PEF training to the priesthood leaders in 8 stakes and districts.  This is our favorite part of our calling.  Not only do we get to see other areas of Chile, we get the spiritual strengthening that we receive every time we watch the light come on and we see the leaders understand the PEF.  They realize what a blessing it can be for their people, and the gain a greater testimony of their part in the program.

This is Blaine presenting his part of the training, the doctrine of the Perpetual Education Fund.

Independencia 2

Finding the best, true, Chilean horse (we certainly didn't know what the judges were looking for, because the judges all picked in the reverse order of us).

Demonstration of Mapuche control of their horses.

Chilean horse & huaso (cowboy) dancing with the Mapuche's (Indians from southern Chile).

Cueca (Chilean National Dance) on horseback.  Notice the white handkerchiefs the riders are waving around the horses heads, didn't bother them at all.

We had a great time watching all the horses in this program, made us homesick for ours.

Chilean Independence

Blaine finally got to see a Chilean Rodeo in real life.  This is what the rodeo consists of--hazing the bull until you can push him up on the padded wall with your horse.  This is the only event in the rodeo.  The object is to get all four feet off the ground and you are scored accordingly.

Blaine got a good picture of Presidente Pinera, the president of Chile, when we were at the Parque Padre Hurtado celebration last Saturday.  The ponchos are the ones worn by the huasos, cowboys, of Chile.

These beautiful little girls are Alicia (the younger) and Laura Ovalle, all dressed up for the ward Independence day fiesta in their cueca (Chilean national dance) dresses.

Training in Parral

Blaine is teaching the doctrine of the Perpetual Education Fund to the leaders of the Parral District, about 3 hours south of Santiago.  We love these teaching moments where our spirits are renewed as the leaders finally understand the blessing the PEF can be to their congregations and the individuals within.

The Coast

We had worked so many weekends in
August that we took a day off this week and drove with 5 other senior missinaries to the coast.  This is a beach town called Papudo. 

Valdivia

Early this month we made another trip south for a presentation at a Young Single Adult's conference and to train some more priesthood leaders.  Everyone said August was a bad month to go south, but we actually had better weather than they did in Santiago while we were gone.  We made 4 presentations at the YAS conference and trained the priesthood leaders in 9 stakes.  We also made personal visits to the homes of bishops who had been unable to attend the training.  It was a lot of driving, but worth it.  This is a picture of the conference.  We are on the right, towards the back.

Teclado Class

Here is my teclado (keyboard) class--only 10 out of the 14.  The feedback I get is that the students enjoy the class.  I am surprised at how much I enjoy teaching it.  Although we travel an hour one way on the bus and subway, and don't get back till late, I love seeing the kids and I forget how tired I am until the class is over and all of a sudden I feel really drained.  I am so grateful that Blaine is able to help me, not only with the Spanish, but with the piano part.  The students are patient with my Spanish and they get a few laughs out my attempts.  

Elders for Dinner

It has been a long time since we cooked for a house full of boys.  It was fun having the elders over.  Elder Chapman tried very hard to do the dishes, serve me first, etc.  I told him I would tell his mother he was very polite, so if she ever reads this she will know she did a good job teaching him manners.  They are all great kids, it's a pleasure to associate with them.

Cerro Santa Lucia

Cerro Santa Lucia is a hill of rock that sticks up in the middle of town.  The mayor decided to make it pretty, so they built steps, fountains, plazas, etc. all the way up.  We have been wanting to climb it but were waiting for cooler weather.  Last Saturday the weather was perfect so we climbed it with the Mason's and the Kimball's.  There is a great view from the top.  It would be even better without the smog.

Southern Chile

We made a trip south last week to train priesthood leaders in their roles with the Perpetual Education Fund.  This group is the priesthood and Relief Society leaders in Puerto Montt Stake.  We had training meetings for 4 nights in 4 different towns, training 6 stakes on this trip.  We enjoyed meeting the people and seeing where Scott had served his mission.

There is a lot of German influence in southern Chile, this is the Lutheran Church in Frutillar.

The volcano, Villarica, is active, that is smoke coming out of the top, not a cloud.

Claudia Montiel and her husband, Miguel Provoste, knew Scott.  We met them in Temuco.  They said they had Scott over for dinner often, including Christmas.  Claudia said he was good friends with her kids.  She also washed his clothes.  We didn't have much time to talk. but it was great to meet them and hear them say that Scott was a good missionary.

Blaine's Birthday

Blaine with Brother Luna

We celebrated Blaine's birthday with the PEF Service Center.  That way I didn't have to make a birthday cake in a Chilean oven.  I did make Blaine a walnut pie (they don't have pecans here), though, it turned out pretty good. 

PEF 10th Anniversary

Thursday, March 31, was the 10th anniversary of the announcement of the Perpetual Education Fund by President Hinckley.  There are 3,500 participants here in Chile.  In the last 2 years 19 currently serving bishops have graduated from school with the PEF.  President Hinckley's prophecy of this benefiting the church by developing leaders is being fulfilled.  It is humbling to be a part of the fulfillment of prophecy.

We had a party with the volunteers in the Service Center.  PEF could not function without our volunteers.  We could use many more.

El Portillo

We rented a car with the Macdonald's and drove up to El Portillo, a ski resort in the Andes.  We were hoping to get a great view of Santiago, but El Portillo is in the middle of the mountains.  The Andes are pretty barren, mostly rock. 



 We missed the turnoff and had to turn around at the border checkpoint--they just laughed at us.  They are working on the road there and the signs were down.  We expected a huge resort, but it is just one hotel, a few private homes and a lake, Laguna Inca.

We saw several chairlifts, but no defined ski runs.  I guess the skiers just start at the top and come straight down.  I'm assuming the lake freezes over in the winter.  It is over 9,000 ft elevation.

This is a picture of the road coming down the mountain from El Portillo, the curves are numbered and there are no truck escape ramps until you get to the easier part of the road.  They all showed signs of being used.  I wonder how long the brakes last on the trucks that go over this road to Argentina regularly.

Relief Society Birthday Party

Friday night we went to the Relief Society Birthday party for Pocuro Ward.  It was supposed to start at 8:30, so we figured if we got there at 9 it would be about ready to start.  They started at 9:15.  We had a devotional in the chapel.  The R.S. President talked about each woman was a link in the chain of Relief Society, and each link was needed to make the chain strong.  If one of the links was missing, it made the chain weaker.  Then the bishop talked about R.S. helping women strengthen their faith and he gave Mary Fielding Smith as an example of a woman of great faith.  After the devotional we adjourned to the cultural hall where we had great food...

played fun games like this one, where couples had to dance together keeping a tennis ball between them.  The last one dancing with the tennis ball wins.



and danced....



and danced.



All the women who didn't have a partner danced in a big circle, even Sister Hoppe who is in her 70's.  Since Elder Dahlstrom was a stick in the mud and wouldn't dance with me, I had to join the circle of single women!

We left at 11 and they were still going strong.  We were told that last year it wasn't over until after 1 a.m.  We had a lot of fun and I told Elder Dahlstrom that he was not going to get out of dancing with me next year!



Cobblestones

We spent last week in the office contacting PEF students.  I sent out about 1,000 emails for various purposes, and Blaine was trying to contact them by phone.  A friend said he thought that would get old soon, and sometimes it does, but then we make a contact with a young person who tells us how the PEF has blessed their lives, and how being obedient has helped them overcome their challenges.  Sometimes we are able to help them solve a problem, and it makes all the minutae worth it.  As Ricardo Gonzalez, the Chile PEF coordinator, says, "one by one, we reach them one by one."  Saturday we needed something to do to relax our brains, so we walked up to downtown Providencia.  Along the way we passed a street repair where they were replacing the cobblestones. (Providencia has cobblestone streets, it makes if very noisy when you are trying to sleep at night.)  Blaine took this picture to show how big the cobblestones are.

San Felipe

Last weekend we ended up driving through San Felipe because the road we wanted to take was closed.  Here are a couple of fun pictures we took in San Felipe.

Check out the axle on the wagon.

We've been told that you can still see horse-drawn wagons in the outskirts of Santiago.  We haven't seen that yet, but they certainly have them in San Felipe.  Driving through the country side we have seen farmers plowing with horses, next to a field being plowed by a tractor.  We haven't been able to get a picture yet, but we're still trying.

Our detour led us to a small town near La Ligua.  In Chile you don't go to a mall and get all your shopping done at once.  If you want shoes you go to the street lined with shops that sell shoes.  If you want fabric, you go to the street of fabric shops. If you want car parts, the same thing.  Here is a picture of a street of sweaters.

We came to this man's shop, he said he had woven everything in the shop.  When I went up close to see how he was working his loom, he posed me at the loom.

Work

Kristi told us she thought we were on a perpetual vacation--so here are a couple of pictures to prove we show up at the office occasionally!

I just finished preparing my first powerpoint presentation.  Blaine told me what he wanted and I figured out how to do it.  It turned out OK.

Do you want to hear something really scary?  I am the resident computer expert among the missionaries here at the office.  That is an indication of how low everyone else is.  They have IT people here at the office building, but the missionaries are at the bottom of the list.  If they don't want to wait a couple of weeks for help, they call me.  I usually don't have an answer right away, but I can figure it out in a few minutes, so it's quicker for them.

Nicole

Most of the work we do is office-related and we don´t get a lot of direct contact with the participants of the Perpetual Education Fund.  However, Jane sends birthday greetings to all the participants and from time to time we have assignments to email the participants.  We love getting responses from the kids.  They are always expressing their appreciation for the PEF and frequently bear testimony as to how it has helped their lives.  Many have problems and we work with them and with the other PEF staff to get them the help they need.    We get a lot of email responses that start with “let me explain the situation”.  When we do, we know they need help. 

Blaine was asked to follow up on several participants who had no ward or stake listed and who seemed to have disappeared.  They did have an old email address so emails were sent out to all of them.   Soon a response came back that started:  Let me explain my situation…”  It was from a sister who had been having some very difficult challenges in her life and was ready to quit church and her studies.  She had only been a member 5 years.  She had tried to get a PEF loan for the last part of her studies but her Bishop wouldn´t approve it because she hadn´t been coming to church.  She felt like everything had come crashing down on her, even though she had been helping a family who had lost their mother and her father who had been hospitalized and wasn’t expected to live in addition to her studies.  I wrote back to her trying to strengthen and encourage her and let her know that her Father in Heaven knew her situation and would help her get through these difficult times.  She was encouraged enough to try to talk to her bishop again (in the meantime we were working to get in touch with the Bishop and to fill him in on her situation).  She went to church during a Young Womens activity and there she was approached by the first counselor.  Usually he greeted her and then went on with his business but this time he stopped and spent some time with her asking her about her studies and her father.  He helped her get in to the Bishop and she was able to have her burden lifted by those priesthood leaders.  Then she expressed her extreme gratitude for my follow-up and encouragement and expressed how she had lost all hope until she had received my email.  

It is amazing how the Lord works.  He knows when each of his children is having difficulties and places different individuals in their path to help lift and sustain them.  How important it is for us to be sensitive to the Spirit and to be ready when He calls.  This experience was a wonderful blessing in our lives.  It was topped off when she came into the office to pick up her check for the school.  We were called down to the PEF Service Center where she was waiting for us.  She was so excited and happy to meet us.  She wanted to give me a big hug but knew she couldn´t so she gave Jane two hugs and said one was for me.  So, Jane turned and gave me a big hug for her.  She was so overjoyed to see us.  It was a wonderful but humbling experience.