Sunday

Today was a turn back the clock to missionary days. I got all dressed up in short sleeve white shirt, tie, and bag over the shoulder. I left early in the morning took the hour subway ride to the southern most part of the east mission, Puente Alto. When I got off the metro, I did not recognize the plaza or the area at all. So much had changed, but this left me with the challenge of finding the right colectivo to take me to the church (A colectivo is a taxi that runs a specific route). It took a little bit to find it, but finally I was back in the sector Nocedal (or Maipo as it was called way back when). There were actually a lot of the same people in this ward, which was very nice. The best surprise was that Christian Huerta came to the ward to visit too. He was the branch president’s son when I was a missionary. Since then he served a mission in Concepcion Sur, and returned, got hitched and now has a three month old son.

I also ran into my old mamita Reyes. We live in the smallest room possible behind her house. She now is getting ready to send in here papers to serve a temple mission.

After church I had lunch at Hermana Leon’s. For any missionary who passes through Nocedal, being fed by Hermana Leon is a common occurrence. She is so nice and helps the missionaries so much. In fact, the missionaries were there with us eating lunch. (I was there a while, as were the missionaries, and I wanted to ask them “what are you still doing here? Don’t you have some work to do?” (I am now going to get on a soap box) I talked with the missionaries about the missionary work in the East mission, and it is very different. But one thing I noted as I met with several missionaries who are serving now, is that they spend a lot of time “painting monkeys.” At the end of my mission, a lot of people were being baptized. And I feel like it came as a direct result of the mentality that we had and the way in which we worked. (I now step down)

I then made my way to the Barraza family. While walking to their house, some lady asked me why I was walking alone. I told her my companion gave me permission to go on exchanges by myself. Visiting the Barraza family was great, they have two sons on the mission in Argentina. We talked about how it is to raise a family and the fun it is to see the kids grow older.
To finish the night I made my way back to La Reina to visit the Torres family. Julio was the best fake convert that I had (he served a mission with joey and so we thought we would have some fun. We dressed in white and took a picture next to his pool. I then wrote joey a letter saying that this guy was a missionary but since had left the church. We were now re-baptizing him). They have one of the most amazing homes with exotic plants and a lot of antique decorations. But even better is that they are such a great family to talk about. Julio is now married and has an 18 month old son. The other kids is Julio's nephew.

At the end of the night, Julio dropped me off at the metro, which subsequently was closed. So instead of a 15 minute subway ride, I had to take a 45 minute bus ride. But I was able to get home safely and talk to the kids and wife on the computer. I then went to sleep for the last time in Chile.

Oh, Marv and Karen, this next one is for you. It is more the one on the right than the one on the left. See they even have muscle cars in Chile.