¡Mi Misión!

This blog was initially intended for Chile-only related posts. But, since Chile cemented my desire to serve a mission, I suppose this is entirely appropriate. In the months since my return to the States, I’ve submitted my papers and received my mission call. And so (drum roll please), I report to the Provo MTC on June 23 to begin my 18-month mission for the Norway Oslo Mission. That’s right. NORWAY. No joke.

My feelings on this? I think surprised sums it up pretty well. But, I love it. Honest. I’m so excited and I feel good about it. But, Spanish was no cakewalk, so I must admit that I’m terribly nervous about this Norwegian language business. I don’t know how to count to ten, or how to say “hello,” or even how to say “Jesus Christ” in Norwegian, but I do know the Lord qualifies those He calls. Entonces, me voy a Noruega. Woop-yeah!

Right: Eli and I with my call. Surprised faces all around. Left: The "Where in the WORLD is Sister Stevens Serving?" guess poster. (Pun off of "Where in the WORLD is Carmen San Diego, and a sweet alliteration if you ask me.) The closest anyone got was Germany, and when I initially saw that guess I thought to myself, "you jerk! Don't write anything in Europe!"

There and back again

The day I've been both looking forward to and dreading finally arrived: my return date. So many emotions crammed into one day. Opposition in all things, right? I'm just glad I got to say all my goodbyes and enjoy one last day in the Chilean sun with friends y familia.

'Twas my last Sunday as the Agua Santa Ward Pianista. This is also the ONLY picture I have with the entire family. Entonces, esta foto es tan precioso.



Fun in the sun with my ham hermanita Dania. Que tierna!

Las tres amigas para siempre.



Waiting in the Santiago Airport to leave Chile. It was a good time to reflect and think on my experience. At this point I wasn't too excited to leave.



I have a proclamation for the world: Air Canada is the best airline! It's by far my fav, largely because of the personal TVs. These TVs include FREE music, movies and TV. They help the ten hour flight go by much faster.



It was such a blessing to be on the same flight to Toronto, Canada with a fellow UVM student, Lauren. We got to sit next to each other and we watched "UP." The movie was perfect closer to our time in South America as well as a great pep talk for our next big adventures. But regardless of future adventures or no, ten hours on a plane gets pretty long (left: before; right: after)



But of course, the layover and 14 hours on a plane were definitely worth it in the end. My wonderful dad picked me up at DIA and I must say, it feels good to be back.

Splits with the Sisters

Yesterday I finally worked out a time I could go on Splits with the Sister Missionaries. One of the Sisters was sick and I went out with her companion so she could get some rest. May I please explain why this is so cool? We set it all up via phone conversations (meaning I can talk on the phone in Spanish), I figured out which Micro to take to get to a town I'd never heard of (Quintero, about an hour away), and then I did as Sister Missionaries do for almost five hours. If that's not progress from four months ago I don't know what is. Okay, well, don't think my Spanish is bomb, but it was fun to help out and get a taste of the Missionary work in Chile.

Mi nueva amiga, Hermana Rivera de Honduras

Southern Chile

It's a well known fact to Chileans that Southern Chile is beautiful. It's not a well known fact to everyone else. But now that I know I'll share it with the world. Southern Chile is incredible!!! I wish I had more time to go into detail, but the pictures will have to suffice for now.

Bike ride in the rain

Penguins on Chiloe Island
(which turned out as tiny white dots in the pictures)

Trekking

Saltos Rio Petrohue

Canopy

Volcanoes - the one pictured is Osorno

Another bike ride in the sun

Sights in Puerto Varas

Lovely (of sorts) bus ride back to Vina

Family: isn't it about time?

My mom came down to visit me en Chile for eight fun-filled days. She served her mission in Concepcion 30 years ago so Spanish is not a problem for her. Glad that makes one of us. It was so good to see her and I enjoyed showing off Vina like a pro (and I also really liked how she was my fall back translator). We traveled down to Southern Chile and I was amazed by the beauty of Region X. Picture this: Ireland-like rolling green hills, huge lakes, and gigantic mountains/volcanoes. Simply breathtaking. I would often stop and try to take in all the beauty and I seriously felt like my heart could just sing because I loved it so much.

Me & Mom in front of Vina's icon: el reloj de flores (flower watch).

**Pictures of Southern Chile are on the way...they're all on mom's camera! Pucha!**

Mendoza

I traveled over to Mendoza, Argentina a couple days this last week with eight other international students from UVM (Universidad de Vina del Mar). It was a short, two day and one night trip that was rather relaxed, but still fun.

The most I probably have to talk about are the bus rides. Uuuuuuugh. Both times we left at 10 p.m. which sounds like a good idea on paper: "leave at 10 p.m. and arrive at about 8 a.m. refreshed and ready for the day." Ha! I forgot to take into account crossing the boarder and going through customs and such at about 2:30 a.m. Not my fav. But, I did have some things I really loved about my bus experience...like my face mask for my eyes, the Presidents of the Church lectures on my iPod, and staring at the stars when the rest of the world seems to be sleeping. Priceless.

This picture was taken before we even started to move. This face only got better as you can imagine.

Plaza Independencia

Meet Alfie: the Hostel dog. I was struck with puppy love.

Seven of our group decided to go paragliding. A-ma-zing. It wasn't quite the adrenaline rush I was expecting, but I definitely enjoyed it all the same.

Life is wonderful.

Congreso

I toured the Congress building in Valpariso last Friday with UVM. I don't have much to say about it other than I enjoyed the architecture.

The group.

I thought these doors were neat.

Santiago

This weekend I went to Santiago with Holli and Emily for a couple days. It was such a nice little getaway trip complete with culture and new experiences. We went to Santa Lucia (kinda like a big garden), a Contemporary Art Museum, the Moneda, the mall, a market, a Don Quixote Ballet, and also figured out the different Bus and Metro system. The three of us had lots of good laughs and enjoyed our stay in the capitol city, rain and shine.

I had my first Hostel experience with our stay at the "Hostal Forestal." It was actually pretty nice.


Making a wish on a peso at a fountain in Santa Lucia...I believe that wish is only worth 1/200th of a penny. Pucha.

The Ballet: incredible everything. It was a gorgeous building, I was amazing by the grace of the dancers, I loved our seats (yea for being a student!), and I got just as much out of the show as everyone else (yet another universal language). Did I mention that it was beautiful?


The Moneda, which is like the equivalent of the White House.

I must explain this picture. We left Santiago on a Saturday night; a Saturday night in which there was a World Cup soccer game on. Yikes. Everything was closed and it felt like a Ghost Town without any cars on the road. There were carabineros (police) lining every street in armored buses for crowd control, and we felt a bit anxious from the sight. To make matters worse, a couple Metro Station entrances were barred shut and we didn't know how to get home without it. We managed to fine an open entrance, but the Red Line to leave was not to be found. What! After a nice lady showed where to go we glowed with satisfaction upon finding it. That feeling didn't last long. The Metro intercom announced something about Pajaritos (the Station were we going to) a couple times and made us nervous. What was going on? They made it sound really important. In the end, all they were saying was to exit on the left rather than the right. Oh boy, this is when knowing Spanish would help out a lot. Anyway, this picture is when we finally reached Pajaritos and were joyous beyond words.

El Campo

I had this entire week of of school off in celebration of Chile's Independence Day this Friday. I made plans to travel up North to San Pedro with my friends, but what I'm assuming was food poisoning made me miss that bus. Fortunatly my incredible family took me to the beautiful campo (countryside) with them to Abuela's (Grandma's) house for four days. It was wonderful. We didn't do anything spectacular, it was one of those things that was great for no particular reason. We played UNO, watched "Platera Tierra," hiked up the green hills, and made tons of empanadas for the 18th. I loved my time in el campo.

Sights en el camplo.

My special drink en el campo. Since I don't particuarly like Ecco, pop, or juice this became my "healing" drink. Abuela would go outside and clip some "menta" (mint) to put in my mug. It was kinda fun drinking something with leaves in it...kinda.

Taking empanadas out of the huge oven with Abuela. We made more than 50 Pino Empanadas.