October 4, 2010

Sunday night Oct 3, 2010, after conference back at our apartment.

Hello fellow earthlings. We greet you from the other side of the planet where it looked like winter was over until we walked home tonight. The wind from the ocean was cutting and cold. Sunny 57 and clear in the day. I see that Beth has included the Santiago weather report on our new blog—thanks for the blog Beth. (www.blairandbetty.blogspot.com) This time of year there is a pretty consistent west wind and the youngsters love to fly little square kites way up in the sky. They do battle and try to cut each other’s strings, then the victim drifts away into oblivion and someone somewhere gets a free kite if they can get it out of the trees or the wires. It is against the law but some villains use glass coated strings, which are very dangerous to people’s necks, arms, ears, etc. This is true cutthroat competition.

Another thing that is interesting is the ubiquitous graffiti. In our old town, on every fence, post, light pole, public wall, bus, truck, any accessible surface there is something written or painted (someday, I promise, photos will document the things I describe). Across our street is a very pretty one, like a mural completely covering the walls of a corner yard. Houses have walls, but no grafitti because the yard is also walled. It has much graffiti. We don’t know what it says, (mercifully I suppose), but some of it is actually artistic and appealing in an urban sort of way. Some appears to be angry and political, perhaps some is romantic, some gang related, some just to deface and destroy, some to get your name in public. Where ever we walk we see it, but we’ve never seen anyone doing it. I suppose it is one of those things they mentioned in conference today that happens late at night and is not a worthwhile and uplifting activity.

We’re still on foot, using the taxis more, and I got to drive once. Friday we learned that we can walk at least three times as far as we thought we were capable. They were teaching us where and how to get name “placas” engraved. It’s about 7 or 8 blocks, he said (I counted at least 20) through a beautiful neighborhood near the temple, slightly uphill, old mansions, schools, ballet, theater, etc. to reach a busy commercial area with tall buildings, lots of cafes, a large Paris department store, but NO parking. So the elders walk. We took a cab back to the church offices and may not walk it very many times in the future. It was well worth a million pesos (two bucks more or less—the dollar has been losing value since we got here; can’t get as much bang for your buck these days.) We ate at KFC, but they didn’t send the secret recipe here with the franchise and the Colonel would have been disappointed. I was.

The driving experience on the other hand was exhilarating and enjoyable. We drove the mission van, a Kia, automatic trans with AC – a first for our 5 weeks in Chile! It was cool. They just got it fixed in time for summer. I learned that I am also the mission fleet manager. I am responsible for all three vehicles. One of them needs brakes. There is a brake shop in every block and three tire repair shops in between the brake shops. There is a big Goodyear shop on our way to the office, but many are shade tree operations, literally. The front yard or carport makes a good store or place of business.

It doesn’t seem to take much to get into business here—spread out a towel on the sidewalk and sell whatever you can make, buy or steal, or provide a service like washing windshields at stoplights or helping people get their car into and out of a parking space. It’s actually pretty tight and it helps to have someone stand in the street and divert the 60kpm traffic while you maneuver. It could be worth a buck. I like the speed limits here. You can go 100 on all the freeways, but it feels like 60, because it is. Metric, you know. That’s how the rest of the world measures things. The U.S. is the last holdout. It’s hard to figure how much gas costs: 620 pesos per liter today and rising. We buy a quarter kilo of nuts and it fills a ziploc bag.

Oh, by the way, I got initiated by a flea or three this week, too. Mom’s arm has hurt all week, worse on Friday when she tried to make the bed by herself, but today it seems a bit better. Did you know that flea bites itch like the devil for a few days? Worse than mosquitoes, which they say are coming with the warm weather. We live on the first floor, don’t have AC or window screens, and wouldn’t like to leave the windows open anyway, so I’m not sure how we’ll handle the warm weather. They say it gets pretty hot here in the summer. We’ll survive, we have two small fans. Maybe we can find a car with airco and auto. How do you say fat chance in español?

Thurs nite I had my first branch presidency meeting. In Spanish. I was drowning the first thirty minutes, but when they got to my responsibilities they shifted down to quarter speed. They talk a million words a minute and read even faster. We think they skip half the words when they read. They threw in a few English words (they have been sandbagging) for my sake. They know more English than they let on. I am assigned to find a Sunday School teacher for the youth, two counselors for the Deacon’s Q pres (and start teaching the lessons in a few weeks), a magazine rep, 20 new Liahona subscriptions, look after the 4-5 young adults/institute, and also be half of the activity committee. I also conduct Sacrament meeting in two weeks. The stake president says he is thrilled to have a man of my experience in the branch. We’ll see how that pans out. Experience may not count for much without communication. I need the gift of tongues and they need the interpretation of tongues.

One of our language problems is that we are both green. We can’t teach each other, and everybody who can wants to speak English with us. Yesterday we watched General Conference at our stake center in English, but in the halls all the joking and banter was in Spanish. I didn’t know when to laugh, but they laughed when I said it’s good to meet you when we shook hands goodbye. I think half the jokes they are laughing at are on me. I really question how much good we are doing. We’ll keep on doing, and trust that our effort is worth something we can’t see.

Yesterday we got two “missionary blessings”. The Lord watches over us. We went to a mall food court between sessions to get a bite to eat. It was HUGE and had every American fast food you could imagine, so of course we got Chinese. As we were leaving a young man caught up to us and returned my passport copy we use for ID in order to use the Visa card and do any business (no visas yet, will take a couple of months or more). He could have stolen my ID, but chose the better part. He had a wife and baby, and I didn’t even have the presence of mind to give him a Families Can Be Together Forever card. I hope he finds some missionaries soon who will teach him and put his goodness to proper use. When I came home from Priesthood meeting, our house keys were in the door where anyone could have come in or taken them for later use. They had been there over 4 hours. Andres Toledo says Americans operate on trust but not so in his country. I saw two blessed exceptions to his opinion today.

However, every window in the church is barred with 1 inch square steel, placed in six inch squares, behind a ten foot steel fence with barbed wire on top and two pound padlocks on the gates. The exterior door knobs are epoxied all around so they can’t be pried loose and every door, closet, kitchen, cabinet has a lock on it. I was naïve to leave my computer for two hours in an unlocked office even with someone in the adjacent room. Live and learn, not to trust. Now the mission pres has instituted tighter policies about other missionaries coming into the office, office hours, self-locking doors, etc. There have been many other things stolen lately. The horse is out of the barn but maybe we can prevent further loss.

By the way, Thanks to all who helped to replace our stolen computer. Kevin tells me the mule should arrive in about a week, and that the duffel bag is stuffed with pantyhose and candy, two of our essential needs. Now we hope to get internet in our apartment. I’m composing this on Windows Word and will attach it to the email when we get to the office tomorrow. We have an early meeting with the Pres and his staff. They are getting ready for the new missionary couple who arrive on Tues.

We had a nice dinner and evening of Spanglish conversation with the Toledos on Friday nite. She fixed fajitas, chicken and beef, with tomatoes and palta (guacamole), no cheese, lettuce, or chiles. It was very good. Then she brought out bread and apricot jam she had made. I went pig over it. She sent us home with a huge jar of it. I’ll enjoy it for a year. Their little Sandrita, 2, is our subtitute Ella. She is a hoot. She loves Gramma Pack and her placa, pin, glasses, scarf, and noises. We haven't taught her “Creep –O-Bug" yet, but she knows UH-OH. We think we could teach her English easier than we could learn Spanish. It was a fun night with a real Chilean family in a real Chilean home.

I've said many times that things are smaller here. They are also less comfortable. These people are not comfort creatures and don't have many creature comforts. They get along just fine, BUT the one thing I miss most of all is COMFORT. I love our bed and our hot shower and spend as much time as possible in them because they are the only places I feel totally comfortable. I am really spoiled by our decadent American (I mean North American) lifestyle. Some rich people here have it all and the nation is probably gaining weight as they get more cars and fast food, but for us peasants it's pretty much small and/or hard. The second most missed thing is fresh cold milk. They have tons of yogurt, cheese, ice cream and butter, but the milk is hard to swallow. I think I tell you this in every letter, eh?

An advantage is that we get to bed early and talk for two hours. At home that would be TV time; me in the recliner; she in the bed, separately and singly. I like the pillow talk and the snuggly time. We also get lots of other talk time as we walk and work in the office. It's a good thing. I recommend it to y'all couples, too.

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Now it's tomorrow. We are in the office alone, the office staff and the Kings are working in the new couple's apartment getting it ready for them. Outside there are about 20 missionaries and friends playing p-day soccer and basketball. I'm going out to get a foto. Celia has just cleaned up the weekly mess. We hired her to clean our place twice a month, not that it needs it, but for her benefit. She also cleans the elders apartment upstairs from us. After she cleaned last week I understood her to say our apartment was very clean before she got there and the elders place was nasty dirty filthy gross and other spanish words I didn't quite catch. While I write, mom is diligently studying her Spanish. She is going to learn it before I do.

Hi, this is Mom. I am not going to learn before he does. The Lord is going to help us both, I know that. It is awesome being a missionary and hard also but we can do it with a positive attitude and study and prayers then the Lord will take over. I love each of you dearly and miss your closeness with lots of hugs and kisses. You are the dearest ever. We love skyping to see each of your sweet faces. Thanks for modern technology. Dad wants me to l

I want her to learn how to use the computer. It's been a long time since she used a typewriter and the computer feels different. LUV LUV LUV the pizza man is here. Got to go.

Editors note: When asked, “Really, a pizza man?” The answer was, “Yes, Dominos. 2 for 10mill <=$20. Pretty good stuff. Candian bacon, shrooms, and olives.