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.