A Little of this and that from a nice Fall week in Santiago

The view from the fourth floor (where missionary couples live and where we do laundry) looking at the church office building and the Cordillera (lower Andes).

We rode the new gondola up Cerro ("hill") San Cristobal along with 100's of others, last Monday, May 21,  holiday celebrating naval Battle of Iquique, leading to Chile's eventual success in the War of the Pacific. It was a little clearer than usual and if you look closely you can see the higher snow-covered mountains where there are ski resorts.

 At the top is the 14 meter high statue of the Virgen de la Imaculada Concepcion with chapel and church and various other shrines and religious objects, whose message is peace.




Below is the view looking the opposite direction (northwest). Santiago is a huge city.
Cable car runs on the east side of the mountain in the center of the city and the large Parque Metropolitano covering 3 square miles, built between 1903-27 and reforested with native plants; it includes a zoo, swimming pool, etc. Many bike or walk up, as we did last time.

Centro Costanero (tallest building of Latin America) is within walking distance of us. Below is one of the many campuses of State University of Chile, near us. (close as it is aholiday, but usually filled with students.

Santa Rita, one of large churches in Santiago center, where there are always worshipers. 

   

Colorful old buildings, and colorfully painted pedestrian streets, were created in 1977 when 12 blocks were closed to motorized vehicles.

 I was attracted by the beautiful French neo-classical architecture of the (exclusively men's club until 2006, when women were allowed to join) Club de la Union, finished in 1925. I walked in and started to take photos, which I was politely told were not allowed. A Chopin concert had just ended and I was definitely under-dressed! It has private art galleries, dining rooms, and the longest carved oak bar in the country!

       The University Library downtown

Most everyone has a cell phone.
Most ride the bus or metro. Kids come home around 1:30 for lunch and all seem to wear uniforms. I miss teaching, but will soon. I appreciate extra time here to read and study in my small cozy apartment, with fewer distractions than at home.

Wonderful President Marty and Sister Lydia Morgan  from San Diego (with their two daughters, older one in photo

below) have been serving for 3 years as Santiago East mission president and wife. They have accepted a call to serve immediately upon their finishing here July 1, 2018, as director of CES (church institute for college age+ and seminary for high school age students) in Salt Lake City. His message at our recent stake conference was to go where we can feel the spirit of God, even when we are not feeling it.

                                                   

These persimmons (mancaqui, which means "fruit of the gods" in latin) remind me of my tree at home, which is laden with fruit in late October to Thanksgiving. Friends and neighbors fight over this healthy fruit! It is hard for my brain to realize that the end of May, by the reverse of seasons here, would be Thanksgiving. It feels like California Thanksgiving weather now with leaves covering the ground sticking to everyone's                                        feet, pomegranites, etc.

Scott and Nina Isaacson, Sister Umber and I were delighted to be invited today to the lovely home of the Jimenez-Reid family to learn to make delicious, popular Chilean sopadillas.

Hermano Jimenez made the dough by mixing cooked orange squash, a little yeast and flour to form a soft but firm dough, shaped into balls and flattened in a tortilla maker. Some make a regular flour/ bread dough. Their cute daughter Carolina (who will leave soon to work in Vancouver) speaks English as she spent six months in Bountiful, Utah, where she learned to roast pumpkin seeds. She'll cook the squash seeds the same way!

The dough is fried in oil until crisp. And then her dad plopped them in a delicious syrup he made with water, cinnamon, chanchaca (a hard brick of molasses- tasting brown sugar, which is like the Ecuadorian panela I've been looking for) for a few minutes before serving. We enjoyed them with herbal tea or hot chocolate. Yerba mate (a nationally consumed hot beverage made from leaves and stems of a powerful rain forest tree of Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina) was originally, and maybe still is, sipped through these spoon/straws to strain out the leaves.

                                           
                           What a delicious snack and fun afternoon! Being invited to a home is one of the best things in missionary life!
There are things I miss from home, like driving (this car parked outside my window, reminds me of my first car, a 1960 vw bug, and a later version that most of my kids drove), but public transportation is great and cheap enough.

My life for 18 months is filled with wonderful and energizing experiences, and hopefully what I am learning will make me a better person, more aware of how blessed my life has been.

Family, friends, health, education, travel, good medical care, freedom to worship, express my opinions, vote, drink clean water eat an amazing variety of delicious and nutritious food, electricity, appliances, heating, air-conditioning, all the technology available to communicate, research, learn, and so much more, are not a given in much of the world. 
I know our Heavenly Father wants us to have all these things in order to enjoy life, to live abundantly. But where so much is given, He also wants us to generously share.  In the temple one of the covenants we make is to consecrate our talents, means, and time, and all we have, to serve Him and our fellow beings. And we each can do that even if we have very little. Throughout my life I have been the recipient of so many opportunities, much service and love. If we listen to the promptings of the Spirit we will know best how to love, help and minister to others.

New Beginnings

                          New Beginnings and Promising Futures
It's nice to have a glamorous and lovely ceremony at this time when the world often seems to be falling apart! We have BBC, as our only English language channel, so of course the coverage was spectacular! The Royal Wedding of Prince Harry (fifth in line, I believe, to the British throne) and Meghan Markle (American actress in Hollywood, and of multi-racial parentage, was a historic and beautiful event much anticipated and watched throughout the world on a beautiful day, May 19, 2018. The African American bishop who preached a message of love, and Gospel music were part of the ceremony in Windsor chapel. 

They left the chapel in a horse-drawn coach, flanked by thousands of spectators from around the world.

 Meghan Markle and Prince Harry (often emotional) are called a very "modern couple." Both have been engaged in charitable work, she is older than he, divorced, very poised, Hollywood actress, American, and with an African- American mother.

 Prince Harry's father, Prince Charles escorted Meghan to the altar, as her own father was unable to attend. In attendance with Queen Elizabeth II was Harry's grandfather Prince Phillip, 97, recovering well from hip surgery. The radiant, much in love couple will be known as the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk.

Even the gorgeous cake was less traditional, lemon rather than fruitcake, and decorated with beautiful English flowers.

Another productive meeting bringing together black and white Americans took place this week as our new LDS President Nelson and other leaders met with NAACP president Johnson and others, calling for greater civility and racial harmony.

As children of God we all have a divine heritage. As has been said, we are divine beings having a mortal experience, to see if we will prove ourselves worthy to return to our heavenly home one day. So it really does matter how we live our lives! As my circle of friends grows, my knowledge expands, my world view and perspective grow, the more I treasure my old friends and family. As I serve in the temple, my faith in the eternal nature of family (my own ancestors and descendants) as the basic unit of society is confirmed, as well as the knowledge that we are one large human family, asked by God to be united in love and compassion. There is no room for contention, hate, intolerance.

We all love babies like my new grand-daughter, tiny Phoebe Carlston, who has succeeded her little cousin Cordelia as our family's youngest. Phoebe is blessed to join a loving family! And mom Julie says one newborn is easier to care for than her 2 sets of twins!

I am meeting so many wonderful families like the Guerras: he is a temple sealer (performs marriages and the uniting of families for eternity), son just returned from a mission, mom (Guille) is the ward primary president, temple worker and a student in the 
English class I will inherit in June.

The tree of life is a common and important symbol in Mapuche culture. We are all one huge and interconnected human family.

Sister missionaries Whitaker and Phillips, Sister Umber and I were invited for lunch with the Poulsens. Missionaries become like family, as we work and serve together.
This week I have been able to use my language skills to help twice with French-speaking Haitian sisters and with another in Portuguese. I sat by a young Indonesian-American woman and helped her in English. The world is small, and feels even smaller when we recognize we need others and learn from each other. In former days the Mapuche "longuin" (that's all one long horn) called the tribe together. I'm glad to have the internet!

 Sisters Whitaker and Phillips and a friend Gabriela and Alma came for lunch after church today. The crock pot I borrowed quit during the night, but everything turned out well food wise and we enjoyed conversation in my small apartment. Later that afternoon, Gabriela, who has been investigating the church, decided she wants to be baptized in June.

The Primary children came in to Relief Society (women's organization) today, sang and gave a rose and candy to each of us. The little boy, Alfonso, on the stool, gave a very confident little talk about mothers and shyly came up to me (not sure who I was with my white hair) and offered me his candy and flower.

I'm enjoying having so many experiences right here in the neighborhood. Finis Terrae University in the next block celebrated its 30th anniversary with the arrival of permanent exhibition with photographic replicas of the Christ's Shroud of Turin "Who is the Man (Christ) of the Holy Shroud? The story is very well documented and authenticates this relic with amazing and detailed explanations.

School groups waiting to see the exhibit

Finis Terrae began on the site (with the original building) of the English Granger School founded in 1924.

 Special photography techniques are used to replicate the imprinted cloth which was stained with Christ's blood and points of pressure from bones and wounds. It covered his body when lowered from the cross and placed in the tomb. Grains and pollens from about 58 species of plants native to the Middle East have been identified in the cloth. A map shows the route of travel from Jerusalem, through Constantinople, from where it was taken to northern Italy by the Savoy family. It eventually ended up in Turin and then at the Vatican. There are many details; this is simplification of a treasured relic.

 A replica of the crown of thorns

For centuries there were no paintings of Christ, and there are no descriptions of Jesus in the New Testament, so it was not really known what he looked like, except from Roman coins. Eastern Orthodox Catholics started making icons according to the coin images.  After the  Edict of Milan in 313 AD, and greater religious tolerance, Byzantine icons portrayed these images. From the 6th century there began to be many frescoes, mosaics, and icons throughout the Mediterranean, similar to the image and body of Christ on the Shroud.

One of my favorite places is the National Library, where I have been enjoying free university student concerts: sometimes piano, this week a chamber orchestra that played some student and Chilean compositions as well as Grieg and Mahler.

Tomorrow, May 21, is a national holiday, a commemoration of the Battle of Iquique, [part of the War of the Pacific] fought by Peru and Bolivia against Chile, off the coast of the then Peruvian port Iquique, eventually won back by Chile. The Peruvian Huascar (commanded by Grau) sank Chilean Esmeralda commanded by Arturo Prat (great naval hero). Nothing much happens in Santiago, but everything will be closed on our preparation day. It's too bad so many of our biggest holidays celebrate war victories! May you have a peaceful week. Maybe it can be the beginning of something wonderful for you!