Get on Your Walking Shoes

Monday, October 10
Yesterday evening, Mallory started to feel bad and then she developed a cough, which lasted all night, so by the time morning came she was in no shape to drive out to the coast. Since our cell phones are non-functional here in Chile, I had to go find a public phone where there was not too much background noise so that I could call Hno. Body to reschedule our trip. He was going to pick us up at 9:30am so I made sure I called by no later than 8:30. Fortunately, he  had not left yet and was very understanding; we'll try again on Wednesday. Today is a holiday in Chile, it's the day they celebrate the arrival of Cristobal Colon to America (that's Christopher Columbus in English). Columbus is revered here in South America as a great explorer/discoverer and the one who brought the Spanish/European culture to the continent. Since it was a holiday, EVERYTHING was closed and no one was on the streets, kind of strange for a Monday. In the states, we're used to retail establishments being open to take advantage of those who want to shop on their day off, but here the only places open are fast-food restaurants (yes, they are here, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut) and an occasional ice cream shop. Since Mallory was going to be spending the day in bed, Margaret and I (mostly me) decided to go for a good long walk and visit my old mission home which wasn't too far from our apartment, what's a couple of miles? With our walking shoes on, we set out to find #360 Alcantara, in the most affluent part of Santiago, Las Condes, where the avenues are wide, tree and grass-lined, and where the most expensive homes, businesses and foreign-country consulates are located. One block away from our destination, we bumped into an ex-Chilean missionary and his wife, Jonathan and Debbie Jarvis from Jacksonville, Florida. Come to find out that Bro. Jarvis served in Chile the same time I did, we just never crossed paths because we served in different cities/zones and Chile may not be very wide (200 mi. Across at it's thickest area) but it is a very long country (if you laid Chile across the map of the US, it would stretch from San Francisco to the State of Maine). The Mission Home is a grand looking edifice, a tudor style home that is kept in immaculate condition. The grounds that surround the property are well manicured with grass and rose bushes adorning the front yard. The building is still owned by the Church and it continues to serve as the mission home for the Santiago West Mission. After a pleasant exchange of conversation and photos in front of the Mission Home with the Bro. And Sis. Jarvis, we trekked back to our apartment to check on Mallory. One of the goals I had for my trip to Chile was to eat an "empanada" every day I was in the country but up until today, I had not fulfilled that goal. An empanada is either a meat or cheese filled turnover. The meat empanada is called "de Pino" and baked, the cheese empanada is fried. Either one is yummy! On the way home, we stopped by a panaderia and picked up some empanadas and some pasteles (pastries). The minute we got home, I warmed my empanada in the microwave and chowed down. Ahh, that tastes was the taste of Chile to me. After enjoying that mid-day snack and taking break to regain our energy, we off walking again, this time south down Pedro de Valdivia to the corner of Pocuro to visit the Santiago Temple. The temple sits on a lot with a chapel, a building that houses temple apartments and the Chilean MTC and a large three story building which serves as Church Headquarters in Chile. Everywhere there is free space there is beautiful landscaping. We were not able to attend a session in the temple today because all temples are closed on Mondays. After we got back to the apartment, we decided to eat out at Pizza Hut that evening because all regular restaurants were closed because of the holiday.

Our Long-awaited Reunion with My Convert

Sunday, October 9
This was a very busy day. I had called Hermano Body the day before just to confirm his coming to get us; it was so good to hear his voice and better yet, he could understand my Spanish! We got up early since he was going to stop by at 9:00am. As we were getting ready, around 8:15, the phone in our kitchenette started to ring, I picked it up and was surprised to find it was the guy at the front desk telling me that there was a Juan Body waiting downstairs in the lobby (which consisted of a open space with different person behind a counter every day with a telephone, security monitors, papers and notebooks all over) Fortunately, we were almost ready so after about 20 minutes we were walking out of the elevator. Emerging from the short corridor into the open lobby, I caught glimpse of Hno. Body and I recognized him immediately after over three decades of not seeing him. With the exception of a few wrinkles, a larger waistline and thinning gray hair, he looked the same as I remembered him. Hno. Body was accompanied by his grandson, Carlos, age 15. In spite of the language barrier and their age difference, he and Mallory enjoyed one another's company (I guess she finally had someone close to her age to relate to). Juan Body is 73 years old but acts 10-20 years younger, he is steady-even agile on is feet, drives a car with great skill (a absolute must in Santiago where cars weave in and out of traffic, stop on a dime without warning, honk their horns incessantly, and never slow down for the hapless pedestrian who doesn't obey the green lights). The one thing about Hno. Body that I found difficult is to understand him when he speaks; besides the typical dropping of the "s" at the end of words, which is typical to all Chileans, he has a tendency to speak very fast and run his words together. I estimate that I pick up about 50% of what he says, But he has a wonderful sense of humor, quick to laugh and to make others laugh as well. Once in the car, we were on our way to Conchali, a older community north of downtown Santiago. We drove through a tunnel that passed through the Cerro San Cristobal, an elevated hill directly northeast of the downtown district, it was made to cut down on the traffic that flows around the crowded metropolis of Santiago and shortens the travel time to the northern communities. As Hno. Body overestimated the time it would take to travel to and from our apartment, we were way ahead of schedule so we went on a tour of the many chapels in Conchali (how great was that to see, since when I was there, we met in a house and had to travel to Nunoa to baptize our converts) Come to find out that the work in Independencia grew so fast (because of our foundational work, no doubt) that they built a large number of chapels; then in the years that followed, due to people migrating to other parts of the city, they didn't need that many chapels and a few around town aren't even used. Well, I say, the missionaries need to get going and fill those chapels! We stopped by his stake center and the door to the stake office was open so he pushed open the door and we met the stake presidency, I can't recall any names but they were all gracious men and seemed very pleased to meet the missionary that baptized their good friend, Juan Body (that would turn out to be the phrase of the day as we were introduced to one and all). Hno. Body told us that he was made bishop of the ward six months after his baptism and later he served as a counselor to another one of my converts, Juan Castro, and then as the stake president (for a missionary, that is the sweetest news one could hope to receive and more than compensates for all the hard work and sacrifice we do, as that means great numbers of lives will be influenced by our convert). After a tour of this clean, up to date, two story structure, we were off to another chapel for our Sunday meetings. We arrived on time to find very few members in the cooler-than-comfortable chapel. As the little, older ladies of the ward arrived in knit caps and heavy jackets, we were envious in our regular church clothes (someone didn't turn on heater that morning). The music for the Fast and Testimony Meeting was furnished by a young man playing a very simplified version of the hymns on an electronic piano, I suggested to Margaret that she get up and offer her excellent skills as a pianist, but she refused (as she does every time I mention it). During the time dedicated to bearing of testimonies, I got up and introduced myself and family and told them that I was a "Missionero Historico", had served in this area during my mission to Chile and had baptized Juan Body and his family. Among other things, I said that we had come from San Diego California to join in on the celebration of the 50 years of the Chilean Mission, and that there were very few days in the past 36 years that I didn't think back on my mission because it had had such an impact on my life. Hno. Body also took some time and bore a very powerful testimony and thanked the Lord for the fact that he had been sealed to his beautiful wife by the priesthood in the temple and would have her for all eternity. He said that it was a good thing for me that he wasn't a jealous man because up until the day she passed away, she always carried a picture of me in her purse. That warmed my heart to know that we as missionaries have such an lasting effect on our converts. For me, the three hour block went by very fast, for Margaret and Mallory it went by slower because they didn't understand the language (Margaret says that after awhile her head starts to hurt trying to translate what she hears). I was impressed at the level of sophistication in the teaching of Gospel Doctrine. Not only did the teacher use a power point presentation, but the participation and comments of the members showed a maturity in the Gospel that wasn't there when I was a missionary. Above all else, the love and sense of family I felt in their ward reminded me of my home ward. After church, we drove by Juan's address to see the old homestead. It's a duplex and he keeps it looking nice with recent paint and lots of roses as part of the landscape in the front yard. He doesn't mind living alone, he has good neighbors some of which are older, like himself, and he kind of looks out for them. Besides, even though he's retired and receives a pension, he still works 6 days a week in association with his two son's business and needs his own space as a base of operations. Next, he drove us over to his oldest daughter, Poala's home to spend the afternoon, eating, getting to know one another after all these years, and reminiscing about old times. The table was set with all kinds of fresh vegetables, a kind of potato salad and four kinds of meat: a pork roast and lamb , spare ribs and beef from the outside grill. The food was so good that we ate until it was uncomfortable to continue and then they served dessert! Juan has four biological children, Juan Carlos, Patricio, Paola, and Ana. He also has unofficially adopted another daughter, Karen. They are all married and have provided Juan with 13 grandchildren. I was most impressed by the way the oldest son, Juan Carlos, greeted me, he said I looked the same and he hugged me for longer than is traditional and kept saying "Gracias, Gracias". Everyone hugs in Chile and the women give each other a kiss on the cheek as a greeting (at least at church) and when you want to really show great admiration, the women kiss the men on the cheek, and that's what I got from most of Juan's family. Patricio, Juan's second son, who currently serves as a stake president, sat us down and directed a few thoughts to Margaret and Mallory and wanted me to translate what he said word for word. What he said was that they, as a family, were so happy that the Lord had sent me to them, that they don't just consider me as a missionary, to them I was as if the Lord, himself came to their home and brought the gospel into their lives. He said it with such sincerity and emotion that I was moved to tears, it was a very touching moment. Hno. Body would tell us that although he missed his wife terribly, he had two daughters, one that looked just like his wife (Paola) and one who had the personality of his wife (Ana); and from my observation, it was true. We ended the evening taking pictures, exchanging email addresses, connecting on facebook and giving hugs. They were so generous, I happened to mention that we wanted to take a tour to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar and rent a car to drive to Rancagua and Hno. Body said why don't you let me drive you to Vina and Paola offered to let us borrow her second car! They really treated us like family and I was amazed at how quickly we seemed to bond. The day ended Hno. Body driving the circuitous route back to our apartment, parting hugs were exchanged and it was  agreed that he would drive us to the coast the next day.

Let the Celebration Begin!

Saturday October 8, Today was the kickoff of the 50th Anniversary of the Chilean Mission because on this very day, 50 years ago, the Mission began. Since our first meeting, which would be a reunion of the "Misioneros Historicos" (those who served from 1961 to 1975) didn't begin until 2:00pm, we hungout in the apartment until it was time to go. All dressed up in our Sunday-best we caught a taxi at 1:30 headed for the first chapel ever built in Chile, in Nunoa. I kind of knew where we were going, having found on the map that we would pass by the temple, so when the taxi driver took an unexpected turn, I questioned him; I think he either didn't know exactly where he was going or else he did know where he was going and was trying to get a higher fare; I'll chose to believe the former. We got to the building at 10 minutes before the hour and from the locked gate out in front, our first impression was that there was no one there. But upon further investigation, we discovered an open gate for the driveway for church parking on the side of the property. Entering the building, we saw people in the Cultural Hall so we knew we weren't the only ones there. We were first greeted by a Bro. Steven Warren, ex-missionary from Utah, then a couple from San Marcos- of all places- the Fifes, interesting that we had to travel so far to meet someone that lives so close to us in San Diego. The only people we knew before our arrival were Rodolfo Acevedo, my former missionary companion, his wife, Soledad, (they are Chilean natives that live here in Santiago) and Gary Davis, the head of the Chilean Alumni Association. The couple we most enjoyed meeting was President and Sister MacArthur, who currently preside over the Rancagua Mission, the city south of Santiago were I first started my mission. They were at the reunion because Sis. McArthur is a former Chilean missionary herself. Pres. McArthur has a very bubbly personality, easy to laugh and very self-depricating. His wife was short, sweet, soft-spoken, the perfect balance for her husband and she is a mother of TEN children no less, that includes two sets of twins!! In the course of our conversation, Pres. McArthur asked if I might be related to a mission president with the last name of Jesperson that is currently serving in the Guadalajara, Mexico Mission. YES! I said, that would be my cousin John! Pres. McArthur said he knew John and his wife very well, that they were from the same stake in the Provo area, and that he had emailed John's wife, Dianna just the day before. It's a small world when you belong to the Church. He said he was glad he was in Chile, not in Mexico where people are routinely and randomly shot as the drug wars continue. He admitted that he had struggled his first months in the mission on account of not having used his Spanish for the past 40 years since he served as a Spanish-speaking mission to Texas. The calling of a mission president is a very complicated calling and when a language barrier is added to the mix, it's very humbling. Pres. McArthur seems to have weathered the storm and has hit his stride. He jokes that the Chileans speak very fast and drop the "s" from many of their words which makes it doubly hard to understand them. When he found out that I was serving in the California San Diego Mission Presidency, and that I had maintained my Spanish all these years, he proclaimed loudly that I would be called to be a Chilean mission president next. "They are probably calling your home now to interview you" he said "this is the time of the year that they call new mission presidents". He prophesied that when the current mission president of the Vina del Mar Mission finishes his mission next year, I would take his place. I admit that all this talk had me very excited, there would be nothing more that I would enjoy than to return to Chile to serve a mission, but it must be in the Lord's time, of course. We met Bro. and Sis. Cardon who are in Chile as temple missionaries; Bro. Cardon was one of the missionaries that opened Chile in 1961, so he was one of the ones that got it all started. After 60 minutes of glad-handing, meeting new people and reminiscing about the good ole days, we passed into the chapel where Rodolfo, who is the church historian for Chile, reviewed the history of the Church in Chile. Come to find out that it was he that had supplied all the historical data to the Area Presidency and organizers of the various presentations that would take place during this week-long celebration. Some of the tidbits of history that  I found interesting were that when the pioneers were going to the West, some of them, following a Samuel Brannon, chose to sail around the tip of South America rather than trudge overland (they were hoping that Brigham Young would bypass the Valley of the Great Salt Lake and travel on to California). They sailed on a ship named the "Brooklyn" and when they got close to Chile, a sister that was pregnant died. Before she passed away she begged them not bury her at sea. They intended to stop at Valparaiso to repair the ship, take on supplies and bury this sister, however, a storm kept them for landing in Valparaiso so they stopped at the Island of Juan Fernandez (a Chilean possession). Rodolfo made the point that before the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, the Saints arrived to Chile. Also, when the Gold Rush was on in California in 1847, many Chileans went there seeking their fortune, they all lived in a small community together. Apparently, they were attacked by a gang of "Bigoted Claim-jumpers" and the only ones to come to their aid were.....the Mormons, former members of the Mormon Battalion, no doubt. Following the excellent presentation by Rodolfo, we went back into the cultural hall for a quick bite to eat which included ham and cheese sandwiches, potato chips, cookies and soda. The bread was not the sliced bread we are used to but rather a hefty-sized, rather solid bun. Mallory liked them so much that she had two. After we finished, we piled into Rodolfo's car and his son, Toby, drove us to the La Reina Stake Center for the Devotional that was to kickoff the week of celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Chilean Mission. The stake center was a beehive of activity and you could tell that this was going to be an important meeting as the entire building was wired for to broadcast the meeting via satellite to all the stake centers in Chile as well as a select group of stake centers in the States. We received word late that the meeting would also be broadcast on the internet for the whole world to see (I'm sure there are a lot of ex-Chilean missionaries that didn't come to Chile that are glad for that). We were treated like VIPs, they ushered us into the chapel and had us sit in the third row right behind the Area Seventies and their wives. The Chilean Mission Presidents and their wives were seated in the front benches on the side of the chapel. As we entered, there was a young lady playing the violin accompanied by a young man playing a grand piano as a prelude to the meeting. The choir seats were filled with well groomed young people, wearing church dress, smiling pleasantly and with an obvious excitement to be part of the program. This meeting was presided over by the Area Presidency of the Chilean Area and up until the young lady at the door of the chapel handed me a program with the pictures of the Area Presidency on it, I didn't know who they were. The President is Lawrence Corbridge, who I remember giving a great talk in General Conference no too long ago, 1st Counselor is Jorge Zeballos, a Chileno, and I was surprised to find that Kent J. Richards, who visited our mission not too long ago as a newly called General Authority, was the 2nd Counselor. The meeting consisted of talks given by the members of the Area Presidency along with singing by the choir and the congregation. The music by the choir was inspiring, I felt a surge of the Spirit as they sang. Elder Richards spoke about the rising generation of Chilean youth, Elder Zeballos covered the highlights of history of the Church in Chile and displayed a timeline of all the major events that have taken place since the beginning of the restoration, and specifically in the last 50 years in Chile. He then unrolled a blank length of paper and declared that the next 50 years of history has yet to written and said it was up to the rising generation to write that history. Elder Corbridge's talk, although very doctrinally sound, was above the heads of the average member of the Church in Chile and was too long for the event, I thought. All in all it was a great devotional and I'm hoping to get a recording of it to review with some time to fully absorb it. Following the conclusion of the meeting, I made sure to greet Elder Richards and remind him of who I was and when we had last met; he said that he had just seen Pres. Donaldson in Salt Lake the week before when they were up for General Conference. We made our way walking to the Metro, talking about how much we enjoyed the meeting.  We met and chatted with a couple from Canada on the Metro, the husband was an ex-missionary to Chile, the wife was Chilean. After connecting with another Metro line, we eventually got home.

Visit to the Mercado Central

Friday October 7, The major tasks to accomplish today was to exchange more Dollars for Pesos, pay the balance of our housing (as I had already wired the equivalent of two days rent to the real estate agent in charge of the property as a downpayment) buy some groceries and get a "BIP" Card (pronounced "beep" because that's the sound it makes when you pass it over the entrance). The BIP Card is a magnetic card that you can electronically charge with money, everytime you use it to get on the Metro, there is less money on the card until it's time to recharge it at a nearby cashier; a very effective system. There's a subway entrance near our furnished apartment so we decided to go on our first adventure downtown with our newly purchased Metro Cards. It was a learning process to figure out how to ride the subway, come to think of it, everything we do here is for the first time so there is a learning curve that makes us look like foreigners. We visited the Plaza de Armas, the central cathedral and the Mercado Central. We decided to eat our "main" meal of the day (which in Chile is mid-day) at the Mercado. The historic building was full of mostly seafood stands, seafood restaurants and one or two fruit/vegetable stands. The seafood was of every possible type of sea-creature and then some; the smell was overpowering for Margaret who admitted that her stomach wasn't feeling well after the experience. There were "hockers" out in the narrow passageways giving out business cards and trying to get us to dine in their restaurants. We passed up a Jamaican guy who spoke to us in Jamaican English in favor of a guy named Julio who was newly moved to Santiago from Talcahuano (a town where I served in the South). Mallory ordered the Chilean seabass (Corvina), I ordered the Congrio (eel) and Margaret ordered fried chicken (how Gringo can you get?) After our meal we visited a panaderia (bread store) and picked up dessert, 3 galletas (cookies). Walking back to the Plaza de Armas we stumbled on to a three story indoor mall with a huge food court full of people. The Plaza was also full of people when we returned. There was a huge group surrounding a guy that was doing, what we later found out was a comedy routine; with the donations from the audience, I guess that's how these people make their living. Off the Plaza is the main cathedral of Santiago, classic architecture, stained glass, and statues of every imaginable saint adorn the dark corridors that surround the main central sanctuary. From what I could tell, most of the people in the cathedral were just tourists checking things out like us, there were less people actually sitting in the pews of the central sanctuary having a spiritual experience. Along the perimeter of the sanctuary were booths set up where priests would sit to take confessions or otherwise give priestly advise. To alert people that the priest was available, they would turn on a red light that sat on top of the booth (I wondered if there was any symbolism of the color-scarlet as sin?). From there we got back on the Metro and felt proud of ourselves for having made it back to Providencia without getting lost. Santiago has a very elaborate mass-transportation system, starting with the 5 subway lines that crisscross the entire length and breadth of the city (when I was in Chile as a missionary, they were just beginning to dig the first line), next is the bus system both of which take the "Bip" card for payment. The other way people get around the town is by taxi, usually small black sedans with yellow roofs that can hold up to 4 passengers. They are very reasonably priced, unless you get one who is trying to take advantage of you being an out of towner. The taxi drivers honk at you if they are looking for a fare and you happen to look foreign (Margaret and Mallory blend in with their dark hair and olive complexion, but I stick out like a sore thumb - it's gotta be that Danish heritage; but I speak Spanish and they don't). The other two changes that I noticed in terms of transportation around the city relate to the growing economy of Chile. Because of their robust economy (based on their huge exports of copper and agriculture products) people who once couldn't afford to buy cars, can now afford them. Back in the mission days of 73-75 when I would tell adults that  I owned my own car back home, as a 19 yr-old, they were blown away. With all these extra cars on the roads, the highways needed to be upgraded, which they have, they are modern and efficiently move people around town at peak traffic hours of the day. Everywhere you look in the downtown and business sectors of Santiago you see new construction, high-rises and skyscrapers (currently the tallest building in South America is being built in Providencia - the business / financial district where we are staying). All of this is attributable to the solid economy of Chile (are we just a bit envious living here in the US?)

Our Flight to Chile

Thursday Oct. 6 @ 12 Midnight: The ride to LAX a from long-term parking garage was crazy, the driver drove so fast that I nearly flew off the bench-seat on which we were sitting; it would have been good to have had a seat belt on, but there was none to be found -probably because it was wedged in the crack of the seat- and since it was dark and he took off like a jack-rabbit, there was no time to get buckled up.  The terminal at LAX was torn up as part of a major remodel of the airport; construction workers were apparently going to be working all night, with loud sounds of power tools, hammering and guys yelling Spanish at each other. Finding our gate was by following a maze of make-shift passage ways which changed without notice as the workers needed to expand their work space. There were Hispanic-looking people (and one Asian family with a kid that was wound up like a top) spread out all over the black airport seats, many of them slumped down trying to sleep. On the plane, we tried to sleep as best we could even though our knees were just inches from the seat in front of us. Thursday Oct. 6 @ 9:30am Arrived in Panama City Panama. Intense, green-house hot! We weren't there for more than an hour, just enough time to to get a "Pepsi Light" (the Hispanic version of Diet Pepsi) and some assorted donut holes for Mallory. I have to say that Copa Airlines was an excellent choice to travel to South America, the first plane was brand new, really nice interior, great indirect mood lighting, it would change from white to blue and then to peach depending on the stage of the flight (take off, landing, etc.) They fed us a hot breakfast, lunch and a snack. Everyone got a pillow and a light blanket and received a pair of headphones to listen to music or watch TV/movies (Green Lantern and Transformers 3- WOW!) I wonder what the 1st Class people got? Most of the 13-14 hrs. in the air we spent flying over the Pacific Ocean. We tend to think when you fly from the west coast of North America to the west coast of South America you just fly south, but in reality you have to fly southeast, Chile is on the same longitude as Nova Scotia, a four hour difference. 7:45pm Chilean time we arrived in Santiago, the airport looks nothing like it did when I was there last (what would you expect after 30 years?) The first thing we did before getting our luggage was pass through immigration. We got in line with everyone else who arrived from international flights, got up to the counter of the immigration official and was told that we had to go to another counter to pay our Reciprosity Fee, to the tune of $140 a piece (this is the fee that people have to pay when they go to the US, so Chile asks for it back). By the time we got back to the line, is was HUGE! It took us forever to get back to the front of the line, so long in fact that the airline was looking for us to give us our luggage after we got through; I guess they thought we didn't arrive with our bags or something. By the time we made it through Customs it was close to two hours from the time our arranged taxi was supposed to have met us. As we walked out of customs through the doors into the open area, there was a mob of people outside waiting (we later found out that there was a popular rock band arriving that night and these were their adoring fans). Emerging from the crowd there were men holding up signs with different names on them, I scanned them nervously looking for my name and thankfully I found one. I identified myself to the taxi driver and apologized for the delay, he said that they normally don't wait more than an hour so we were very lucky that he was still there. He was surprised that there were three of us, I wondered why when the agent that made the arrangements for us knew it was me, Margaret and Mallory. He was concerned that the luggage wouldn't fit in the trunk of his...Hyundai Elantra (imagine that!) but it did. I asked him if it would be ok to pay him in US$ since I hadn't had a chance to exchange my money. He suggested we return to the main terminal where there was a Casa de Cambio. I exchanged $100 and only got 502 Pesos per Dollar, from the internet, I was expecting close to 640/1. With that rate, everything just got more expensive. We arrived to our accomodations and I gave him a pretty good tip for the extra time, baggage and the conversation during the ride. We received the key to our room, got settled in and slept like logs that night because we were so bushed. Mallory and I have to use earplugs to block out the loud city noises.

Preparations for our Trip

For the past twenty-four hours, when people find out that I just got back from a ten-day vacation, they always ask where I went and it's amusing to see their reaction when I tell them Santiago Chile. "Why Chile?" is invariably their next response, so this is what I tell them... Thirty-eight years ago, when I was 19, I lived in Chile for two years serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For me, this was a trip of a life-time. It was a chance to re-connect with old friends and visit locations that have tremendous sentimental value for me. During the past near-four decades, I have wanted to return to the country that was the seat of some of the most profound experiences in my life; experiences which have shaped my life for the better and forged me into the person that I am today; experiences that contributed to the type of husband, father, church leader and business-man that I have been throughout the intervening years. In 2010 it was announced that the Area Presidency of the Chilean Area of the Church had plans to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the first Mission in Chile (which took place in 1961) and they were inviting all missionaries who had ever served in Chile to come back to the country and join in the celebration. So, with that powerful invitation and a healthy (and unexpected) tax refund, We made plans to make the pilgrimage. My first task was to find reasonable prices for airfares because it was not going to be just Margaret and me going. In order to give my single, youngest daughter, Mallory, a feel for the mission field (since she has talked about going on a mission) I invited her to come along. Over the course of the next eight months I made reservations for our air flight with Copa Airlines, a Panamanian airline that had the cheapest air fares. I was able to secure our housing with a Chilean real estate agent for a furnished apartment.

Two weeks before our trip to Chile I got out my old Missionary Journal and started looking at some of the names of my old companions and people I had baptized. I must admit that my journal was "hit and miss"; I started out great recording my mission experience, but as I settled into the routine of the work, it became less of a new experience to me and I, unfortunately, stopped writing over long stretches of time. The other thing I regret about my journal is that it has some pretty sickening tributes to the girl I had been dating before my mission and which, of course, in the long run never worked out (thank goodness!). But, as we were encouraged to look up our old converts and try to go out and visit them while we were in Chile, especially on Fast and Testimony Sunday the 9th of Oct., I determined that I wanted to visit the last area where I served, which was the community of Independencia in Santiago. It was the area where I served as a zone leader and the area were I had the most success as a missionary. When I left Independencia thirty-six years ago, the members and new converts threw a going-away party for me and I took several pages of my journal for them to write their name, address and a short message. I took those names and got on the Internet to see if I could match any of them with the leadership of the various wards that comprised the Conchali Stake, the heart of the activity when I served in that area. (Where there was just one ward when I served in the area, there are now 4 stakes) I didn't see any familiar names listed until I looked at the leadership of the stake itself and there, at the bottom of the list, I found the name of Juan Humberto Body, the Stake Patriarch. I had baptized a Juan Body, his wife and oldest son when I was in Independencia and I knew that this was him because, lo and behold, the address listed on the webpage was the same as he had written in my journal, thirty-six years before! Since I had his address, I wrote him a letter telling him of our plans to visit Chile and of our desire to see him and his family. I also inserted a recent picture of myself so he would maybe recognize me. The postman told me when I mailed the letter that it would take 5-10 days to get to Chile, and within that timeframe I discovered three emails in my inbox, from Juan's two sons and 1 from Juan, himself. In Spanish they told me how excited they were that we were coming and how much they looked forward to seeing me after all these years. Juan shared some sad news in his email however, he informed me that his wife had passed away 13 years before. I felt better for him when he wrote that he knew that she had been called to something greater on the other side of the vail. I responded to his email, letting him know how excited I was that we were able to make contact, expressing my condolences for the loss of his wife, and asking which ward he belonged to and what time did their meetings begin so that we could make arrangements for transportation to be there. I was happy to get a return email from him telling me that he would come and pick us up, I sent back the address of our apartment in Providencia and told him I would call the Saturday before to confirm. So, with great expectations we made final preparations to fly to Chile.