Last Week before Temple's 2- Week Closure for Maintenance

Last Week before the Temple's 2- Week Closure for Maintenance

I didn't know I was supposed to be striking a pose with Chris and Mariange after a fun lunch with them and Cecilia, their sister and mom and my English student.

Chris just turned 14, plays lots on the piano, is an avid soccer player, and has attended a bilingual school since kindergarten. For the first 7 grades everything is in English, and then it is half English and half Spanish instruction. He and his mom and aunt then tried to teach me the cueca, the national dance. It basically imitates and mimics the flirtation and courtship between rooster and hen, and has rural and urban versions, and is danced mostly during patriotic festivals which are coming in September.

 A Sunday walk around Providencia along the River Mapocho
 

Lots of graffiti on the river walls

There are many bridges across the River Mapocho

We have been asked by President Russell M. Nelson to always refer to ourselves by our full title, rather than by nicknames (most commonly "Mormon" which refers to an prophet ancient only; often just LDS or Latter Day Saint). We are to use the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or at least the Church of Jesus Christ, because it is His church, He is at the center of all our beliefs. The following is the official statement:

The official name of the Church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The full name was given by revelation from God to Joseph Smith in 1838.

· In the first reference, the full name of the Church is preferred: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

· When a shortened reference is needed, the terms “the Church” or the “Church of Jesus Christ” are encouraged. The “restored Church of Jesus Christ” is also accurate and encouraged.

So here we are, missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving in Santiago, Chile. A last lunch with the Poulsens at Mamud Restaurant.

The Poulsens have now gone home to Oregon after 18 months.
Ulf and Elsa Muntzing have been very close friends.

Some interesting sculptures made from tires!

From the wanderings of Latin-American emigrants and immigrants (leaving and returning to their origins) is born and reborn a cycle of creative and destructive forces...that is a very rough idea of this exhibit!

 

Another exhibit: The effects of edges/borders (when two very different natural habitats collide, by 16 sculptors from differing parts of Chile, using different techniques and materials: metal and various kinds of wood). Weird, but interesting!

 

Luco Nulos II

Seed

Soldered metal such as nails, bolts, etc.

Guardian

Volcano

Capsule

A Full Week from Start to Finish

A Full Week: Winners from Start to Finish

Margarita Faundez has been an inspiration to all of us! She is a gold medalist for Chile in the 1,500 m in the 2015 Toronto Para-Olympics, and has won many other medals. She runs with a guide (wrists are attached). She began going blind at age 5, went almost completely blind at 8, and has had her struggles, but has come out on top. She says her hands are everything, but it seems, so are her feet and her heart. She knows how to read voices. We love having her in the temple. She would like to be a temple worker with us. There is a wonderful video of an interview with her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3xPXISGmGw

 Nancy & Norm Poulsen, Fabiola Torrejon, Hermanas Cheka  & Horrocks

We enjoyed Sunday lunch together

Monday four of us took the bus to La Vega, in Recoleta, a barrio called Patronato, heart of the immigrant population of Santiago. It turned into a commercial district in the late 19th century when Middle Easterners immigrated here. In the early 20th century there was a massive influx of Christian Palestinians and Lebanese fleeing the Ottoman Empire due to religious persecution and later economic situation and the outbreak of WWI. These immigrants were followed by Korean, Chinese, Peruvian and others. Now there are many Haitians, too. If it's grown in Chile you'll find it in La Vega. Everything is cheaper, but the price may not always be worth the chaos and hassle? It's very colorful and Santiago's principal produce market; there are blocks and blocks of shops selling everything imaginable. I love it (once in awhile)!

We started at the meat market

Chiles (though it seems like Chilean food is not very spicy), kelp seaweed (wrapped up like a rope), and much more.

 

watched over by the cat

Chips of every flavor and shape. I haven't figured out what the sacks contain...some kind of root?

 

Carts of potatoes weigh a ton! And are pulled by strong men.

Sisters Umber, Muntzing, and Poulsen enjoying fried empanadas, which were delicious! We each had a different kind.

These little girls' dresses are being
sold for Sept. 18 Independence Day.
The dogs have their own wear.

Santa Philomena church built in 1884, used by Josephite Fathers from Italy, has beautiful chiaroscuro walls (painted to look like marble, wood, and other materials with the play of light and shadow having a beautiful effect) and lovely painted  glass windows from France, and is a Chilean Heritage site.

This area is crowded and rough but filled with shoppers during the day. I wouldn't venture there alone especially at night.

Barbed wire...

Another old church

And another old church used by the homeless now.

The carabineros were making vendors pick up their wares and leave. 

The Mapocho River is fuller now but still muddy.
We ended the day with a potluck and farewell for the Poulsens

     Norm & Nancy Poulsen finish their Santiago Temple Mission

Muntzings, Blacks, Sister Umber, Schultzes, Isaacsons, Poulsens, Atkins, Carmacks, President Wilhelm, Sister de Schweinitz, Pdte.Dinamarcas.

Listening to President Wilhelm thank the Poulsens for their service as temple missionaries, are the Atkins (heath missionaries, Carmacks, MTC missionaries, and Ray Schultz, temple. The Poulsens also served together in Osorno, and Elder Poulsen served as a young missionary in Chile. They return to their home in LaPine, Oregon, on August 20, 2018.

Ulf and Elsa Muntzing have been close friends of the Poulsens

Nancy and Norm give short talks about their temple mission. We will miss their dedication to the Lord, their service to Chilean members, and friendship as they have worked with us.
From start to finish, they have been great!

Watching all this hustle and bustle at the market, I thought this quote a propos:

"As the world gets busier and noisier, it becomes critical for us to carve out time for those things that are of greatest importance."
—Sister Michelle D. Craig

The temple is the house of the Lord, a place of comfort, peace and learning, a place to make covenants and seal families for eternity, a shelter from the world. 

A quote I completely endorse, from our recent prophet Gordon B.Hinckley, that was shared by Elder Welch from my PA2 ward, serving in Cambridge England, is a great motto to live by:

  "Believe in yourself. Believe in your capacity to do great and good things. Believe that no mountain is so high that you cannot climb it. Believe that no storm is so great that you cannot weather it. … You are a child of God, of infinite capacity. Stand a little taller, rise a little higher, be a little better. Make the extra effort. You will be happier. You will know a new satisfaction, a new gladness in your heart. Sometimes it is easy to get down on ourselves when we are unsuccessful, or when things do not go our way. However, if we believe in ourselves and work hard towards our goals, we can achieve them without fail!"

Life is about taking on good causes, learning from failures, enduring well all our trials, and finishing happily and successfully. Good luck to us all!

I finally finished a wonderful large volume: London, the Novel,and have started a new book by a friend George Handley, BYU English professor and environmentalist, called American Fork, which spans "the mountain landscapes of the Utah Basin and the coastal valleys of Chile", and "explores enduring themes of family and culture, nature and religion."
"Everything is connected and everything is significant in our world." From start to finish, everything IS connected.

Primroses are for me a reminder of spring and the chance we all have been given to start again fresh, if things have not been going our way. We can change and others can change with our encouragement and help and with faith in God's mercy and love.

Hermana Miriam