Home again!

Home sweet Home: I was grateful to find all well in my own home in California 

and had lots of help from friends moving furniture and household items, loan of a car until I bought one (with help from my neighbor), purchase of phone, set up of internet, etc., etc., food, a lunch invitation from my friend Monajo.



I have been able to feel the peace, inspiration, and comfort of the beautifully renovated and re-dedicated June 16, 2019 Oakland Temple, the House of the Lord. It was first dedicated and opened in 1964. Workers are getting used to new floor plan and procedures. I will return to serving there as soon as I am settled and finished visiting with family...

The Oakland California Temple, which stands on a hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay, serves as a beacon to planes landing at 3 international airports, but is also a place of peace and covenant-making.

As part of the dedicatory prayer, first counselor to President Russell M.Nelson, Dallin H.Oaks said:

We pray for the Youth, the rising generation, that they may take the truths of the Gospel into their hearts and manifest them in wise choices and in pure efforts in the work of thy Son. We pray for our missionaries young and old. We pray that thou wilt give all they servants power to prevail over every obstacle and go forward to fulfill they purposes for all thy children. We pray that thy way may be opened for thy servants and thy work to be established and blessed in every nation and among every people to fulfill the gathering of Israel and the fulfillment of thy prophecies and promises for thy people.  ....

In this day of selfishness and wickedness, when men's hearts fail them in perplexities and turmoil, we pray that thou wilt blunt the powers of evil against thy work and thy covenant people with protection and strength to persist in the works of righteousness."

The young people of the church and many others are a great example to me. The first to show up at my house to help me move furniture back in were the 2 young missionaries serving in my ward. I wish I had taken a photo of one climbing horizontally through my bedroom window where much of my stuff was stored by removing panes of glass, because my key didn't work. I think fondly on all the young men and women who served as missionaries in Chile, too.
There seems to be no ethnic or racial or class divide among our young adults. I'm thrilled with the diversity of the five lovely single women who have just moved in with me: 2 sisters born in Ghana, one in Korea (who served a mission in Zimbabwe), 2 in US (but having served in Argentina and Texas Spanish-speaking).

We are a world-wide church: Kuwait officially recognized our church. Nearly 300 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints live and work in Kuwait; they come from many countries around the world. Formal recognition from the government allows local leaders to better serve the needs of members in Kuwait.
The Ministry of Awqaf gave the Church this recognition, Mr. Fareed said, based on the teachings of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that focus on the desire to live in peace. “Our religion taught us how to deal with others and how to respect others,” he said. The formal recognition of the Church strictly prohibits the proselytizing to and baptism of Muslims in Kuwait.

It is great to keep in touch with friends in Chile. Ximena on the right was my Pathways English speaking partner. I learned asmuch from her as she ever learned from me! Pathways is a 3 semester on-line program which allows students to reach a certain level of English, math, and study skills that they can begin an online university program with BYU Idaho.

I braved the increased San Francisco Bay Area traffic and all the new technology of my new car to visit my brother Roy, sister-in-law Julie and niece Olivia for dinner on the gorgeous new deck Roy is about finished building. The view of San Francisco and Bay from their Oakland Hills home (not far from the temple) is wonderful, but doesn't show up in the photo.

I'm enjoying all my little reminders of Chile up in my home.
Friday I will fly to Boise Idaho, buy all the food for 27 hungry people for our family reunion, drive with friends to the lake where I will finally get to see my children and grandchildren after 18+ months. 

Leaving on a Jet Plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

Fond farewell to Santiago and wonderful friends

At church, the Isaacsons and I, finishing our missions, each shared our thoughts and testimonies,  and gave and received lots of hugs.
A few of the wonderful people I said good-bye to today:

Ximena (my Pathway speaking partner) and Sariah (whom I first met in the Guayaquil Ecuador Temple) 4 years ago.

Herberto and Jacqueline (a member 1 year); he has been a bishop.

Nunezes (he served until several months ago as mission president in Buenos Aires)

Cony Pardo shared her testimony as she will be changing wards when she gets married this next weekend.

I enjoyed lunch with the Ramirez Mauna family (I had my first meal with them, a wonderful Chilean family, 17 months ago) Dad is in our Las Condes stake presidency, and before that served as bishop of our Pocuro congregation. He works for Hewlett-Packard, so the family has visited my town Palo Alto, California. Isidora was awarded the only scholarship from her school, to BYU (where her older sister is a student) when she graduates from high school in March. Benjamin is only 14!

Silvana loves to cook and made a traditional Mapuche dish (potatoes, squash, corn, beans) "charquecan"

In the afternoon the missionaries gathered to wish the three of us well

Scott and Nina Isaacson and I leave our wonderful Santiago, Chile temple mission tomorrow. They fly to Utah and I to California. This after a great week in

Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls

The Andes were snow-covered, but even more so on the return trip. Buenos Aires is a huge, vibrant, and interesting city of about 18,000,000 people with a great range of affluence to poverty, grand European buildings down to the "villa" shacks. It is filled with parks with ancient gigantic trees.

The "Casa Rosada" is home to the president's offices as well as the balconies from where Evita Peron preached to her thousands of fans from 1946 until her death from cancer in 1952, at age 33.

The city cathedral contains the tomb of the great Argentinian General Jose de San Martin, who first liberated Argentina, then Ecuador, Peru and Chile. I watched the changing of the guard at the tomb.

Also on Plaza de Mayo is the Cabildo, the town hall, where in May 1810, independence from Spain was declared.
I was grateful for the obelisk to keep track of where I was!

The Teatro Colon (first venue opened in 1857) is reputed to have the best acoustics of any opera house in the world. I was fortunate to get a ticket for the superb Mozart and Schumann symphonies concert by the Irish national chamber orchestra the first evening. Photos are not allowed inside so the below is from the internet

The Libertad Street synagogue is magnificent. It has a great organ and wonderful museum of Jewish traditions, culture, history in Argentina. My hostel was just down the street from the above two buildings, as well as the Cervantes Theater, and across the street from the National School for Intelligence! The area is called Recoleta, with embassies, shops, restaurants, and a beautiful cemetery where most of the elite (presidents, generals, Evita, etc. are buried. 
Soccer is everywhere (the next day I took a hop-on, hop-off bus to the see all the important sites, including the famous River Plata stadium)

Church by the cemetery

Cultural center of Recoleta

Congress at opposite end of Avenida de Mayo from Casa Rosada

The Ateneo, formerly a magnificent theater, is now an incredible bookstore with books in every former balcony, box, orchestra on all levels!

Unlike Chile, where education is very expensive at all levels, with its tiny school vans, Argentinian school buses are all red with white tops. Schools all the way through university are free and excellent. And there seemed to be school groups everywhere I visited.

La Boca is an area of brightly colored buildings, lots of restaurants, bars, and street art

Most of the 1000's of skyscrapers are so tall I couldn't get photos once I moved inside (it was freezing on top!)

This is the very interesting "Fishermen's club"near the domestic airport.

The River Plata Stadium holds 60,000 and venue of the 1978 World Cup, and also of many concerts

Evita never held political office (though her fans hoped she would be vice-president to her husband during his second term,but she preferred to put her theatrical skills (she had been a successful actress) and her love for the workers and common people in championing unions, the vote for women, schools.

I took a fun boat ride on the Rio Plata in and out of the world's largest river delta, with islands not connected by bridges. All food, services, schools (10-2 PM) are by boat. An Argentinian President, Saramiento's house is enclosed in a cube of glass. He used to own many acres. Homes range from poor shacks to mansions. we ended at the resort town of Tigre and took a bus back to Buenos Aires.

And what they claim to be the world's largest amusement park.

And of course the TANGO show in the Viejo Almacen (a small but old authentic venue) 

was spectacular! And I enjoyed some great Andean musicians, especially reminiscent of my mission in Ecuador.

I enjoyed some fabulous museums, but will save those for a separate photo link when I have time. I found the Argentinian people very friendly and helpful, the crowded streets energizing, the architecture beautiful. I left Buenos Aires in a pouring thunderstorm, with flooded streets, to visit a dream destination, the spectacular Igauzu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil. I was not disappointed! (most of the photos will be in a later link, but here is a sample..) We started at the Iguazu River on top (little train and walking along metal board walks), came down to a second level, and then took a very exciting boat ride on the rapids and right under these gigantic and very wide powerful falls...

Except for the Japanese in our boat who were wrapped up tight in plastic, we were totally drenched, but thrilled on our "Great adventure!! From Iguazu I flew back to Buenos Aires, passing the Obelisk (red in early morning) and Buenos Aires Temple, and then the next morning on to Santiago over the very snowy Andes (it apparently rained all week while I was away). The Brazilians next to me had never seen snow before.

After 18 months working side by side with and among wonderful Chileans and missionaries in the most sacred place on earth, the temple, I have a new perspective on what is of lasting worth and importance to me, my family and friends, and for those who have departed this life. I hope I can keep this spirit of service, this focus as I return home tomorrow. My suitcases are too full, but my heart is even fuller with the love I feel for others here and at home; my mind is filled with lasting impressions of a beautiful country, and my eyes are able to see more clearly the good, the joyful, the positive in what life has to offer. If I listen to the counsel of our inspired church leaders, I will, with the soft voice of the Holy Ghost, be more able to discern God's will for me in my everyday personal life; and I can be a light to others, my friends and family and those I meet, and be truly happy myself despite the challenges that come to us all.