It has been a wonderful week in Viña del Mar. They are getting ready for their Independence Day Celebration on the 18th. We live across from the Sports arena and can watch them set up for it. I am told from Sister Hugie that it is kind like a little carnival with rides and food and crafts. I hope to go over and see what their crafts are like. I am also told that the ward will have a barbeque on the 18th. They start by cooking hotdogs (I do not like their hotdogs) then sausage and then later they do pork etc. So I guess that they start out with cooking for the children and progress to the men. I learn new things every day.
We worked two days and then this last Wednesday was Zone Conference. It was pretty much an all-day event. We met and the President gave a talk about why we should try to teach families instead of individuals. Two sister Missionaries gave a presentation from Preach My Gospel. Then Sister Kähnlein gave a talk on the five talents. She then went around and asked everyone what one of their talents were. She spoke to me in English and I was not sure what to say so I said my family. I had not understood what she had said only guessed and did not know what she wanted until she got to me. I am not a fast thinker.
We did end up reading some scriptures and Dad said to try when it was my turn. President Kähnlein later told me that he was impressed. I had the pronunciation down. Now if I could understand what I was saying. I do seem to be able to understand more of what is being said but I need to give myself time. As Dad keeps saying.
Then we took a break and when we got back President Kähnlein talked again. Then we had lunch and I guess that they always serve pizza. They let the sisters go first as after the elders go there is usually not any left. I do believe that they did have some left.
We then met again and they brook into Zone’s and they did some training. We talked with several of the missionaries. One missionary was interested in talking to Dad because he was a pilot in the Air Force. He asked Dad a lot of questions about the B52’s and then we needed to get back to work.
After Lunch, Sister Hugie, the Mission Nurse did a presentation. She asked who had not exercised this last week. 4 missionaries stood up. Everyone else received a snickers bar. Then she had them split up into districts and two from each district came up and competed in exercise routines. Sit ups, then another group did Wheel Barrel races, and the last group did yoga. Yoga she had them stand on one foot and put their other foot up to their knee and their hands were together over their heads. It was for balance. Only one elder got out in that one. It was fun to watch and everyone was laughing. At another zone conference she had them do the hula. She told them that they could not do the hula with shoes on. Then she said that wait you cannot do a hula with socks on. They then did the hula and then she had them put their feet up and she did a foot inspection. She gave one some clippers, another a bar of soap, etc. She told them that they needed to take better care of their feet. She then sprayed the room with air freshener.
After Zone Conference we had a picture taken with President and Sister Kähnlein. She keeps a Viña del Mar Missionary blog. You can find it on the web under Viña del Mar missionary blog. She does it in Spanish. The last time I looked she did not have the current pictures in there.
We found out Saturday morning that the mail is up and running again. It is good to know. I am sure that the missionaries are happy to be getting mail again.
We went back to work for the next two days and on Thursday our Chilean coworker showed up with his son. He said that they were rioting in Santiago and so he kept his son home from school. He stated that he would be back on Monday to pick up the shuttle to mail to Salt Lake City. Then we will see what we have done right or wrong.
On Saturday our schedule is usually as follows:
7:00 am we walk with Sister Hugie
About 8:00 am Sister Hugie and I go start our laundry.
8:30 am we go back and she gets her laundry and I put mine in the dryers.
9:15 I go back and get mine and put it away
9:30 we go shopping.
Yesterday we decided to go to Jumbo because they had an electronic department. It is an international store. It is a lot like Walmart but they have it from all over the world.
I was teasing dad about how much pasta we had been having with just something on it like tomato sauce. I told him we needed to at least get some macaroni and cheese for me so I could have it differently. He said good luck with that one, you won’t find it here. I found some yesterday.
Sometimes we go to the fruit market, but we did not yesterday. We took a taxi back with all of our groceries. It was a little more than we thought it would be. We ended giving him 7 mil. Which is about $14.
We sat out on our park bench on the back porch yesterday for a little while, as the weather was so nice.
This afternoon we went with the elders to a dinner appointment as it was a widow lady and it is best for the elders not to go by themselves. This sister spoke in Sacrament today. We enjoyed our visit with her. She lives really close to the cemetery. Within a block. She has an inactive daughter and she came for dinner but when she found out that the Elder's were there she left. It was sad.
She asked me to give the blessing on the food. I only know a very simple child's prayer in Spanish but I gave it. Ken had taught me it for our blessings at the apartment. I then read 1 Nephi 3:7 for our scripture. I feel just like a little child when it comes to learning the language.
I am grateful to everyone for their prayers and thoughts. I am grateful to the Lord for mission cll. We are enjoying the work.
May the Lord bless you all.
Well, I guess that I will get this sent. Love you all.
Love,
Colleen
I am sending two pictures the first is of the walk way we take when we go to lunch. As you can see the trees are blossoming and it looks like Spring. The second one is the low walls that we sit on to eat our lunch.
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