Shortest blog so far

Summer vacation is winding down. Students of all ages return to class in the next two weeks, depending on the school and level.
What this has meant is : no one showed up for my English class this week; the streets of Providencia have been almost empty, but will again be filled with students, skateboards, food vendors; buses and metro and sidewalks will be jammed; this first week of temple re-opening after 2-week maintenance break saw fewer workers and more patrons/visitors, so we worked very hard all week. I can't complain, as I relive my fabulous trips and chance to relax and catch upon paperwork, medical appointments, etc.

The sister missionaries are a threesome for this month, as new Sister Isaacson from Alpine, Utah, was reassigned from Portugal to Santiago East to join dynamic duo Araya (Chile) and Gallego (Colombia). They and Sister Umber and the Wallaces came for lunch yesterday. Sister Gallego is really a very polite person! They are teaching 18 people at the moment...that is a lot!

Xiomena, my Pathways English speaking partner from La Paz, Bolivia (who comes to practice English with me every Sunday afternoon) has joined them to help teach occasionally. She is a returned missionary, and an architect who designs McDonalds buildings in Latin America...she loves her job,and is a wonderful person and just called to be in charge of activities for the Relief Society (women's organization) of our ward, Pocuro.

Sunday night as we were out walking, we saw
an interesting sunset (smoke from a fire?)

...and Rappi deliverers (one of many delivery companies)

The angel Moroni beckons to all the world, and maybe to those waiting to live across the street when the crane has finished its work. Hopefully they will feel the spirit of the temple.

Monday afternoon I was so delighted to find Anny and Jorge Olmos ,with whom  I spent a few days in Antofagasta (n. Chile) last September, waiting for the hostel to open. Her mother with Alzheimers passed away in January, so they are now free to come work at the temple. Among the group (above) are Christian and Norma (Relief Society president in Antofagasta, who came to stay with Anny's mom so we could get out to see the city). Norma is receiving her endowment in the temple as I write this. So many special people in this country!



Book recommendations:
I have been reading a vividly told memoir "Across the Mekong River," by Elaine Russell, which has taught me so much about the Hmong who fought, and then fled from Laos as the Pathet Lao communist regime made life unbearable, especially as American troops withdrew, and came to the US, where the culture was extremely foreign. Most had never used a stove, a toilet, a bus, a fridge, attended school, lived in an apartment with bolts and locks on the door, seen a TV or phone, and all had lost family to war or in their desperate attempts to escape. They left behind a warm land of green hills, rice paddies, trees and streams, and family, dead or alive, for poor sections of cold concrete cities.
In Chile the largest immigrant group is now Venezuelan, as the violence, tyranny, and unemployment there make life impossible. They are so willing to work hard in this, their new country.
I also just read "50 Children: the Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus," about the daring and courageous rescue by an American Jewish couple, of 50 Jewish children, from 1939 Vienna. Most countries, including the US, refused or were very reluctant or cited laws that opposed acceptance of most refugees at this time. 
All of God's children need the basics: a safe place to live, food and water, and a future. How can any of us turn our back on them, whether of our own or another culture, when we have the means to help? One of our missionary couples adopted 17 young children to give them a better life. Many still struggle, but the alternative could have been much, much worse. We need to get creative, be more generous, or at least more aware, and open our hearts a little wider. We can't take material possessions with us to the next life, and I believe we will be judged eventually, by the love and kindness we've shown, and the service we've given to others.