December 16, 2010

Dec. 12, 2010- Imagine what it would feel like. Missionaries come to your home and teach you, your spouse and your young children that you can be together forever. Jesus Christ has made it possible. He has restored the authority to seal your family together on earth and in heaven for time and all eternity. There is a temple where this is done less than a day's drive away. WOW. Tell us more. This is the best news we've ever heard. Let's do it!

You and yours are baptized and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The missionaries go home. In time the faithful father is ordained to the priesthood. Children grow and are baptized. All of you get on a bus and drive overnight 9 or 10 hours to the only temple for a thousand miles in any direction to be sealed together forever by the power of the Priesthood. Sweetness.

How can you ever adequately thank those missionaries? You will always remember them. You will love them as if they were part of your family. You will thank God every day for those boys and the parents who prepared and sent them to you. You will send your sons and daughters on missions in return.

Then the parents of one of those missionaries come to your country on a mission. They are serving in the same city where your family was sealed. Your ward is taking a bus full of people to that temple you love so much. Is it possible? Is there any way? Could we somehow find and meet HIS parents? Of course. Our missionary has continued to love us and teach us and be our eternal friend. We have his phone number and email. We have been in touch over the 26 years since he first knocked on our door. We call his parents, who don't speak Spanish or even recognize our names, and tell them when we will be at the temple. Can you please come to the temple so we can meet you and hug you and kiss your necks and thank you from the depths of our souls? Please? Please? Please?

NOW……….Imagine what it would feel like to be the parents of that missionary. On your p-day you dress and drive through the city traffic to the temple and pull into the visitor's parking space. From across the empty parking lot (it is Saturday and the Church Area Offices are closed) a woman and her teenage daughter run towards you waving and calling to you. Madre de Kevin! Madre de Kevin. So begins a day of joyous connection with three families your son taught and baptized and loves to this day. Some from each family have come 9 hours on the bus to the temple and will return tonight to be home in time for church in the morning.

They walk by faith and endure (the bus ride) to the end. You drove your car a few miles through the city in air conditioned comfort; they have no cars. All are faithful Latter-day Saints; one is a branch president (he is a hoot); one is the Relief Society President. Who knows how much service they have given over the years and how many others have come unto Christ by their influence.

They would have had a wonderful day at the temple without seeing you. They would probably understand that you are busy. They would have missed you; but you would have missed one of the highlights of your mission, indeed of your life. You are now welded, although not sealed, to those families for eternity as surely as if by priesthood ordinance. They are yours and you are theirs and all are God's. Hallelujah! Thank God for calling you to this place at this time. How great shall be your joy if you(r son) brings one or many souls unto Christ? How precious is a soul? What is it worth? When does your mission end? I have a feeling this one will stretch into eternity. We have tasted the fruit of the tree which is to be desired above all others. Heaven couldn't be much better than this.

Next day. We were so tired this morning, sunburned and worn completely out. After the day at the temple we went Christmas shopping at the mall along with a half million other Maipuians. Looks like a lot of kids are getting bikes this Christmas. Or else the three main mall stores, Fallabella, Paris, and Ripleys will be left holding a big inventory. We ate ice cream—a requirement when you go out on the street here; we bought some stuff; BJ found some outfits for her and gifts for her friends here. We came home and collapsed.

It's a good thing one of us has a conscience. I would have slept all day. BJ finally got me up in time to rush into Sacrament meeting late (11:35) just as the Stake President was releasing me and others and creating a new branch presidency. ABPC is now the official branch president with Erasmo and Pablo, two unmarried college student returned missionaries as counselors. Either would make a fine president, but I told BJ that which ever one gets married first will ascend to the office. I won't say this to them or neither of them will get married. They both have girlfriends and vague plans. . . someday. These changes are good, but the best is yet to come.

As BJ walked to the organ my two deacons on the sacrament bench turned around and gave me a big thumbs up. Across the way was their father, mother, brother, sister. On the stand were the older brothers--the new branch mission leader and one of the priests. The whole Cerda family is back! Maybe they were never gone, but we were afraid. Oh, ye of little faith. Next Sunday BJ and I with their family will sing Christmas music in church, maybe go caroling together. They are such dear friends. If God sent us here just to befriend them at this time I am satisfied with our mission. We want all of you to meet them, just like Kevin wanted us to meet his friends. This is a neat thing. We want to take them a family gift, maybe a game.

They live in the upstairs of a little Chilean double-house in a crowded, less than great neighborhood, all 9 of them. He works as a machinist, making metal parts on a lathe for who knows how little money, but they are all nicely dressed on Sunday and give no hint of not having (little Tommy just told me he uses the computer at school and at home). Typically, people do without cars and fine houses, but have the latest electronics and decent clothes. We comment often that they have what they really need to be happy. Family values and love and togetherness are evident all around. Ignore the other stuff.

After the hugging and the setting apart of the new leaders we had a baptism. A sweet older lady who has been in the Gospel Essentials class was baptized by Elder Madsen, a newbie from Oregon. His first baptism. Another sweetness. I was asked to be a testigo which I learned meant witness and required no speaking, just a nod of the head. I missed (not really) my turn to conduct the meeting. I learned how the Liahona is delivered without home mail service. Simple: South American printing center (Argentina) to distribution center (Santiago) to stake to branch to member. No addresses or postage necessary.

I can cobble together some simple sentences and spent two pleasant hours reading the Liahona in Spanish, but don't yet understand what is being said, even simple conversation. Yesterday at the temple grounds must have sounded like a comedy act. Don't overestimate our Spanish abilities, but each week when we go to Bristella's house for almuerzo (lunch) we can understand and participate a little more.

She is getting me a Santa Suit and I will do the act in their ward Saturday pm, IN SPANGLISH! Thanks to Beth I have the hair and whiskers. I'm also booked for the mission wide party on Dec.23rd. I hope word doesn't spread too far too fast. My Christmas tie was a big hit. I brought the red one with the cut-out Christmas tree. I told them my nietos did it. Everyone wanted to see and touch it. The boys all want one like it. Maybe for next year.

Another sweetness. Under a big white convention tent on the temple block the church has the most amazing display of Christmas craftsmanship. No cute table decorations, aprons or gift ideas. This is all Christ centered, 3-d sculpture. No idea how they put together such a stunning collection. Dozens of creches of every description from artists all over the world each on a lighted pedestal. World class art. A 60 foot long diorama of Chile, its peoples, places and customs. No paper mache and tempra paint. First class work in wood, ceramic and stone of every description, in different artistic styles, by native craftspeople, all to the same scale, obviously carefully coordinated and controlled, not willy nilly, do your own thing, show and tell. A national treasure apparently made just for this occasion. But the centerpiece: a U-shaped, walk-through, double room with about thirty 6x6 tables, each in turn showing and telling the story of Christ's birth from the Book of Mormon and the Bible, from prophecy to ministry. Again, scale model buildings, figures, landscapes, meticulously crafted from thousands of pieces, detailed down to the eyelashes. It was not obvious if this was the work of one artist or another coordinated masterpiece (I think it was this) done to perfection. Who did all this? Where? When? Were they paid or is it from thousands of hours of donated talent? Is it thus at every one of the 139 operating temples around the earth? What a marvelous witness for Christ by people who truly love Him, testifying mightily by the labor of their hands and minds. And they had cold water dispensers. The only place in Santiago. What a church we belong to. It never ceases to amaze me. Because it is early summer, although you wouldn't have known it by the cold front that moved through later in the day, the temple/church office/MTC/etc. complex is ablaze with color. It must be the thinning ozone layer above Chile that lets in special rays to produce such natural splendor and then spotlight it with such a unique quality of light. I hope my photos do it justice. This was the first time I had my camera with me at the temple grounds.

I ignored the sun to my discomfort today. We've been warned to wear sunscreen all the time, but I'm not in the habit. I wondered why there were so many bottles and tubes of spf50 in the storeroom. Why are these missionaries sunbathing so much? Not. It's a natural hazard. Mothers keep their babies under stroller, umbrella or blanket shade when they go out. I thought people wore long sleeves to keep warm, but I may have to join them, even wear a hat if I can find one I love. I usually can.

BJ is awake from her nap, so I'm going to pop some popcorn and make some peanut butter sandwiches. You'd expect that wouldn't you? It's Sunday night at the Packs.

Wednesday, pm at the church: I embarrassed BJ (again) in public, but this time she is obligated to forgive me. The amazing is compounding. The Christmas tie I brought is bright red with a green cutout Christmas tree making up the bottom half. It is eye catching-- just what BJ wants to avoid. We already stand out; white Americans in Sunday clothes with little black badges to help us remember our names, usually carrying boxes or pulling our little red trolley through the crowded streets of Maipu. She hates when I get out my camera and make like a tourist. This is why so many of my fotos are taken from inside the car.

So I wear the tie to town and people stare, heads swivel, smiles appear, kids point and laugh. Embarrassing? Hardly. Because within minutes we have had two amazing missionary moments, the kind you pray for. A little girl about 9 or 10 pulls her dad by the hand to intercept us and ask to have the missionaries come to their home, soon. They talk excitedly and say they are familiar with los mormones, and again ask for the missionaries. She seems especially excited, but he is too. I get him to write his name, address and phone. He does, but wants to say more. I wish we could understand every word. They seem filled with the spirit. We have to go.

We step into a store and while waiting for some sliced ham a nice looking woman introduces herself, Elizabeth, and asks what time our church starts. She knows where it is. Are you a miembro de la iglesia? No. She walks by the church every day and wants to ask, but the gate is locked and she never sees anyone. She is so glad she spotted my tie and our name tags. What time does it start? Other questions I don't understand. If you will write your name and number we will have the young missionaries call you and answer your questions. She seems to understand and agree, hugs BJ and happily goes her way. Us too. We're walking on clouds and nothing more is said about the tie drawing attention, at least by BJ.

When the mission pres saw it I told him these stories and that the tie was a referencia magnet. He said I should wear it every day. I will. This is too exciting. This is the mission experience I was hoping for. Now we pray for these people to receive the missionaries and the messages and the blessings. If they agree to be taught we're going with the elders. I know that not everyone does. I've been disappointed a few times in Mississippi, one time thinking we were going to baptize about 20 black college girls I visited with the missionaries. Nada, nunca, ninguno, ni uno ni dos.

By the way, in one of my first long emails I grossly over-exaggerated ( I seldom under-exaggerate; my father told me a million times not to stretch the truth.) the number of baptisms in this mission. I may have said the words hundreds and thousands. Reality is more like 5-15 per week mission wide. This month the goal is 70, a mission record, and we are on track to make that happen. The number 90 was used in our Monday staff meeting. Looks like a white Christmas in the forecast.

I doubt they have ever had snow on Christmas—it's like June and July and feelin' it. Watermelons appeared in the market ($6US) this week. Bristella is taking us to a better market on Saturday. Better quality produce; a little higher prices. She doesn't like the street vendors, and she is a professional cook. OK. Hope I can find a nice red and green sweet juicy Christmas watermelon. Is that weird or what?

Finally--- Here's how it feels, from one of the Temuco saints in an email to Kevin (used without permission):

Here's what Elizabeth Obreque said:

Hola Kevin; ayer conocí a tu mamá, sabes de lejos cuando la vi, le dije a Darlyn la hna. que esta allá parada tiene que ser la mamá de Kevín y miro al estacionamiento veo a tu papá, fue espectacular, tu mamá es muy muy muy especial, sentimos un gran espíritu de amor al abrazarnos, tus padres son igual a ti tiene mucho amor por los demás, tienes una familia fantástica, ellos están muy bien, se ven bien y están muy contento de estar en Chile ha y están esperando Marzo para verte. Tu mamá ya tiene dos arbolitos de Navidad armados y tu papá tiene clarito que el padre celestial sabe el porque esta Navidad no estará junto a Ustedes, tus padres son gigantes en el evangelio y es hermoso.

Cariños a toda la familia

TRANSLATION:

Hello Kevin: Yesterday I met your mother, guess what when I saw her from afar, I said to Darlyn, "the sister that is standing over there has to be Kevin's mother and I looked in the parking lot and I saw your father, it was spectacular. Your mother is very very very special, we felt a great spirit of love as we embraced. Your parents are like you, they have much love for others. You have a fantastic family. They are very well, they look good and are very happy to be in Chile and are waiting for March to see you. Your mother already has two Christmas trees decorated, and your father is sure that Heavenly Father knows him because this Christmas he will not be together with you all. Your parents are giants in the gospel and it is beautiful.

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We love these people, but not more than we love you. This is a LOVELY experience. I have the best companion in the best mission in the (second) best country in the world. We are really into it now. It's almost four months since we left home. Can you believe it? Well, yea. But in a good way. Thanks for all your love and support. We got a great Christmas package from our dear family which we are dying to open on Christmas Morning. We will not be alone. You will all be with us and we with you.

With all the LOVE we can cram into these words and more that we cannot find words for. . . .

Mom and Dad