Last week was September 18 or the day of
Independence for Chile. They refer to it
as dieciocho (18) or las fiestas patras.
I’d like to describe our experience and hopefully you can picture your
missionary taking part in a similar celebration.
This was our third and last time to
be here on independence day so we had a hard time deciding where to go since
nearly every ward or branch has an activity.
A sister we had seen the week before invited to the Peralillo branch
activity so we went there.
It is a small village surrounded by
vineyards, with one of the most attractive plazas we have seen in Chile. We arrived at 2:30 p.m. because we began the
day with a trip to Santiago for a hospital visit—a young boy we know, not a
missionary. The members had already been
there for awhile starting the fire, etc.
We visited until the meal was ready.
It is called parillada or grill and we ate steak, pork, and chicken with
various salads and pebre (pebrā) which is just like fresh salsa without chiles.
After the lunch we visited more,
several danced the cueca (kwākâ), the national dance of Chile. After a couple of hours all the sisters
disappeared back into the church to start preparing the next meal! At six we ate fresh empanadas—they made sure
that President ate the one I made. Let’s
just say I need more practice at that plus various breads, a fresh cheese,
sopaipillas, and a cheesecake. To say we
were full is a definite understatement.
We only have one set of elders in
Peralillo but they were great to participate and even brought in a few
investigators. About 35 people were
there at various times, and it was definitely an all day affair. We left at 7:15 and everyone else was still
going strong. It was a real honor for us
to be there and they were so gracious to include us in everything, as you’ll be
able to see from the pictures;).
It was a great day and we hope all the
missionaries had an equally pleasant time.
It’s a great chance for them to interact with members and investigators
in a more casual yet still productive way.
 |
| egg race--good thing they were hard-boiled |
 |
| the second meal |
 |
| making empanadas |
 |
| four missionaries and the branch president |
 |
| mother and son dancing the cueca |
 |
| the traditional cueca dress and the wonderful sisters of the Peralillo branch |
No comments:
Post a Comment