Around and about Santiago in June (it might look like summer but it is almost winter!)

 Looking east the mountains are mostly bare . Like California, with the usual 6 months here without much rain (until yesterday), everything is very dry. Looking east the mountains are snowy and more so today. They are now covered...A friend said it all reminds her a lot of Salt Lake City. Unfortunately a blanket of smog covers the city much of the time.

 I was excited to hear that snow was predicted for today or tomorrow, but the weather forecast is now for cold temperatures and only rain alternating with sunshine. The leaves are almost gone. I bought some boots and a warm coat at used clothing stores which abound in Santiago, and tights, which along with hats, scarves, gloves, etc. are sold everywhere along/on the streets. Below is my window on the far left, right near the "emergency exit and gate, which makes it easy to leave the temple grounds. I get sun most of the day when it is sunny, which is very cheerful! I love it! The plane (saone) trees have been shady with their HUGE leaves (bigger than my head), all around Providencia. They are named after the River Saone in France.

 Every week I take my recyclables down to the bins a couple blocks away (no regular pick-up as we have at home, but I think many people participate, though it is appalling how many millions of plastic bags are given out every day in Santiago alone (in California we have to pay for them, so most people bring their own reusable bags). 
Apparently only about 10% of plastics get recycled (some are not recyclable anyway). The above is a plea to not pollute the oceans and rivers where they endanger sea life.

 Marnie and Alan Enke are finishing their missions (his legal, hers "temple, family, Pathways" English teaching). I'm sad to see them go but am very excited to inherit Marnie's wonderful English class, starting this week on Friday mornings at our church building. I have been sitting in her class for a few weeks and love these students already, some of whom I know from Pocuro ward and the temple. What a blessing! Below at Marnie's good-bye party. 
                Nelly, Guille, Cecilia, Marnie, Mateo, Gema

On Cerro San Cristobal....
 I hadn’t noticed the Plaza Vasca (with shields of each Basque province above a bench) with a plaque on the church which said that the cutting from which the oak grew was brought from Guernica, Spain, and had long symbolized the struggle for liberty. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-40) the small market town of Guernica just east of Bilbao, and considered the spiritual capital of the Basque people. commemorated by Picasso’s painting, was completely destroyed. Read below for more info.

Guernica was also the location of the Spanish weapons manufacturer Astra-Unceta y Cía, which had been a supplier of firearms to the Spanish military and police forces since 1912. At the time of the bombing, the population of Guernica was 7,000 people, and the battlefront was 30 kilometres away. The German bombers appeared in the skies over Guernica in the late afternoon of April 26, 1937 and immediately transformed the sleepy Spanish market town into an everlasting symbol of the atrocity of war. Unbeknownst to the residents of Guernica, they had been slated by their attackers to become guinea pigs in an experiment designed to determine just what it would take to bomb a city into oblivion.

Spain was embroiled in a convulsive civil war that had begun in July 1936 when the right-wing Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco sought to overthrow Spain's left-wing Republican government. It did not take long before this bloody internal Spanish quarrel attracted the participation of forces beyond its borders - creating a lineup of opponents that foreshadowed the partnerships that would battle each other in World War II. Fascist Germany and Italy supported Franco while the Soviet Union backed the Republicans. A number of volunteers made their way to Spain to fight and die under the Republican banner including the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the United States.

Hitler's support of Franco consisted of the Condor Legion, an adjunct of the Luftwaffe. The Condor Legion provided the Luftwaffe the opportunity to develop and perfect tactics of aerial warfare that would fuel Germany's blitzkrieg through Europe during 1939 and 1940. As German air chief Hermann Goering testified at his trial after World War II: "The Spanish Civil War gave me an opportunity to put my young air force to the test, and a means for my men to gain experience." Some of these experimental tactics were tested on that bright Spring day with devastating results - the town of Guernica was entirely destroyed with a loss of life estimated at 1,650. The world was shocked and the tragedy immortalized by Pablo Picasso in his painting Guernica.

Since serving a mission in Spain I have been moved by this story, and especially recommend the book entitled Spain in our Hearts by Hochschild about several Americans (including Hemingway) helping the Republican cause during the civil war to remove Franco and oppression from Spain.

This is a typical sidewalk in Santiago selling winter ware, but what I love are the "Trees of life" carvings in front. I have collected several. This motif is very popular with indigenous people but also plays an important role in Christian theology: Christ is the tree of life and the path we take to return to Him is narrow and mostly straight, though life does throw in lots of unexpected curves for us to negotiate. Through obedience to basic commandments and attention to personal revelation and guidance from the Holy Spirit we can travel safely and joyfully.

Schultzes, me, Downers, Sister Umber, Muntzings, Sister Poulsen (Brother Poulsen and Isaacsons had left already)

Families can be happier and more united. The Schultzes were so happy to have their two daughters visit this week. They are both nurses and left husbands and three kids each at home to spend time with their parents. They spent lots of time in the temple, and we all loved being with them. Last night they invited us temple missionaries (a few missing for the photo) for root beer floats after our shift. We all work hard but feel blessed for our efforts.

I enjoyed this exhibit "The Spirit of Wood" in the nearby sculpture park. Chilean Roberto Pohlhammer is considered one of the world's best in taking natural wood from many different native trees and creating amazing sculptures. He was mostly self-taught but studied philosophy in Chile and art in Berlin.

Mother Teresa

Roberto Pohlhammer (1926-2003) 

Holy Family

 The Park has many other sculptures such as these stones and sculpture honoring literature (so do I) below by a Croatian artist...

 

I had been told this Costanera Center was the tallest building in Latin America, but was corrected this week by Argentinians on the teleferico that Buenos Aires has one quite a bit higher. Why are we so competitive? It's impressive anyway, but I am much more thrilled with the snowy Andes behind it!

Today was our Pocuro ward ( local congregation) conference. Our stake (like diocese) President Campos (speaking) was followed by our Bishop Ovalle. Our ward choir sang two hymns (after a lot of practice, but that was fun). I am getting to know wonderful people in the ward and in the temple. They even put up with me and my poor Spanish.
The missionary training center is almost full to capacity, with still more North Americans than Latinos, so there are lots of headsets in temple sessions so the new ones can listen in English. They soon transition to only Spanish. We are sad that all the missionaries (including friend Stephen Watts, who went from working with poor Latinos to a wealthy town in Texas) have been evacuated from Nicaragua to safer places, but sorry that at times when the victims of so much violence need spiritual strength, the missionaries are no longer there. We love these young and faithful men and women. From my ward in California, friend Jameson Welch just entered the Provo training center before beginning his service in London. His brother is serving in Toronto, Canada. (I hope the Welch family doesn't mind).

Stake President Dow Wilson, Elder Welch, Grandpa Everson and dad Jim Welch, who is bishop of the Stanford student ward.

(I had to throw this photo in!) I look forward to being with my daughter Anne and her fiance Neil (pictured here in amazingly beautiful Kerry, Ireland) for their wedding in England in July, where I will be with my children and their spouses and a couple of other family members. The days mostly fly by, but I do miss family and friends. I do hope that my service in Chile will serve as an example to my grandchildren that the Lord loves us, and wants his Gospel lived and spread to the whole world, and that life can be a wonderful adventure, even if in just small ways.