Carnets and P-Days

For this week’s report from sunny, hot Chile, we are going to talk about a very exciting subject or two.  Ok, at least maybe interesting.  We finally got our carnets so we are officially official.  I am going to describe the process for us and all missionaries to be able to stay in the country.

As soon as a missionary arrives the secretaries apply for a carnet or identity card.  After a couple of months, the missionary has to travel to Santiago to fill out papers and keep the process going.  A couple  months later, another trip is required for the government to collect fingerprints and another application.  These trips require a whole day of travel each time, including riding the metro system in Santiago, a lot of walking and a great deal of waiting for your number to be called.  Between six weeks and three months later, the carnet is issued which includes a RUT number, which is like a social security number.  It is required everywhere including the grocery store and the doctor’s office.  Since we hold the missionaries’ passports for them for security reasons, it is good to have the carnet for ID purposes.  The trouble is, it is only valid for one year and then the process begins anew.  For the sisters who are here 18 months, they have to do it even though they only need six months extra, and of course the elders need the second year.  When we apply again we will be allowed to apply for permanent residency which is valid for a period of five years.  That will save us from applying for a third time.  You wanted to know that, right? 

The second subject of interest for today is P-Day or Preparation Day.  For those who are not familiar with the missionary schedule, I am going to fill you in.  Once a week, usually Monday,  the missionaries have a day off, so to speak.  They are supposed to do laundry, clean their apartments, shop for groceries and other necessities, write the president and write their families.  They still need to have regular study time and P-Day ends at 6:30 in our mission and then they are supposed to head out and work a regular evening schedule.  Often, though, they have time for some kind of recreation such as futbol, basketball, or other sports.  They are allowed to wear casual or sports clothes depending on the activity. Sometimes a zone will get together for an outing to a local tourist spot, although in our mission we don’t have very many.  Still the day is a good change from the regular hard work the missionaries do each day and allows them to gear up for the week ahead. 

This week’s picture is of the office elders whom we invited to our house for their P-Day activity.  They put together the new ping-pong table and had a mini tournament.  We fed them completos or hot dogs for lunch and a good time was had by all.  Even the president has sport clothes on--a short sleeved shirt!  Until next week . . .

Traveling in the Misión Chile Rancagua

This is the first week of 2014, but here in the Chile  The only concession we made was to have our missionaries return home by seven p.m. on December 31 for safety reasons. 

Ruta 5 that runs through our mission

Rancagua mission we worked right through the holidays.

Today we wanted to describe some of the cities in our mission since we spend many hours each week driving to and from each of them.  If you have looked at a map of Chile you have seen it is very long and narrow.  Our mission boundary starts about one-half hour south of Santiago in a town called Buin.  We have two zones there, plus a wonderful senior couple.  Ruta 5 is a toll road we use every day.  Traveling south to Rancagua takes about 45 minutes and includes passing through several small towns with branches.

 

We have four zones in Rancagua, which is a city of about 200,000.  Further south is San Fernando, 45 minutes with one zone and kind of a gateway to Santa Cruz, one zone and one-half hour, then San Vicente, one zone and one-half hour in the other direction.  Going west toward the Pacific brings you to the beach town of Pichilemu with a beautiful chapel up on the hill.  Back on Ruta 5 we head for Curico, two zones and one hour from Rancagua.  One more hour south leads to Talca and two more zones. 

The chapel in Pichilemu-on the hill. 

The furthest point in our mission is Constitucion, a little pueblo also on the ocean.  It is four hours from Rancagua by car.  The missionaries from Conti, as we call it, travel two hours by bus to Talca each week for district meeting. 

 

Today we drove to Linderos branch for church which is close to Buin.  Afterwards President Warne dropped me off at home and drove to San Fernando for a meeting.  This month we will do special training and head straight into interviews so we will visit every town with a zone listed above at least twice.  It is a lot of driving!  We have time to do a lot of planning for and thinking about our missionaries.  We love being together so much.

Christmas Day in Chile

We've had another week of lots of activities in the Chile, Rancagua Mission so here is your report:  what we did on Christmas Day.

We wanted to contact as many missionaries as possible and also deliver a treat, if possible.  Since our new ovens were not delivered until Christmas Eve morning, we were not able to start baking until that night.  Of course I had to do some last minute shopping first!

We made several different kinds of cookies, although unfortunately some of them did not work out.   Apparently it is more humid in Chile than I thought (meringues were soggy) and also Chilean brown sugar does not make crumb toppings hold together (oatmeal carmelitas crumbled), just in case you ever do any baking in Chile.  We got up early Christmas morning, finished cooking and assembled the trays.

Since Wednesday is the normal day for district meeting, it worked out great for us to visit the missionaries during that time.  We were able to cover a lot more territory than trying to meet them individually.  We started 45 minutes north of Rancagua in Buin and greeted the two zones there.  45 minutes back and went to all four zones in Rancagua, which involved driving to three different buildings.

Next we drove 45 minutes south to San Fernando and ended up in San Vicente for the last group.  They waited at the church for us for about half an hour which was very kind. 

In total we were able to shake hands with or hug 180 of our 270 missionaries, or 8 out of 13 zones.  We would have loved to see everyone but the distances made it impossible.  We hope that we made a small difference in their day by greeting them.

  Of course we always love to see our missionaries so it worked out great for us.

We thank you for reading the blog and hope you enjoy this entry.  Please have a wonderful and safe New Year celebration. 

 I have also included a picture of the beautiful countryside we are driving through.

Christmas devotionals

Christmas week is here!  As if you needed a reminder!  We are ready to breathe a sigh of relief that we survived December with all its activities and enjoy the day at least.  We are planning to spend the day seeing as many missionaries as possible, so you’ll see a report about that next week.

This week I wanted to tell you about the devotionals we have attended.  In our mission we have three districts and four stakes and each had a Christmas program.  We managed to go to seven of the eight; but the eighth overlapped so it was impossible.

Each one was very different of course but also very good.  Our missionaries were in charge of the one last night in Talca and they did a great job.  We have so many talented young people, of course including a certain famous one.  They all did very well and we also enjoyed hearing the choirs from the various wards and branches.

The songs were a combination of American carols with Spanish lyrics and a few traditional Spanish carols.  We especially enjoyed one called Los Pastores de Belén.  If you would like to hear it you can look it up on the internet, because it was performed in Santiago two weekends ago.

We would like to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas.  Thanks for reading our blog and caring about us.  We bear testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that he was born in Bethlehem, and that he lives today.  This is our purpose for being in Chile far from our family: to bring people to Christ so they may share in the joy that we feel and in the eternal promises to which we look forward.

Christmas concerts

Last week in the Chile Rancagua mission we had three Christmas zone conferences and four concerts in Santiago, so I hope we can be forgiven for this late post.  Christmas time is always busy ; we have discovered it is no different in the mission field.

The church has a Christmas concert on the Temple Square in Santiago each year.  This year they decided to have three nights instead of one plus an additional performance with an evangelical choir on the plaza in front of the presidential palace.

Those who performed included a youth choir, a small orchestra, dancers and soloists.  What a great missionary opportunity for the church.  The seats were filled to capacity and people were standing each of the three nights.

We were fortunate to be able to attend all three performances and thoroughly enjoyed each one.  We are including the link in case you would like to check it out.  Also we enjoyed looking at the nativity display some of which were very unusual although of course all were beautiful.

It was a great chance to be behind the scenes a little bit and meet some of the performers.  One of the soloists actually lives in Provo and came down to sing.  Another is only thirteen but gave a wonderfully polished performance.

On Tuesday we have one last zone conference so we will make that the subject of the post next Sunday. Stay tuned!  

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/languages/chile-christmas-concert/2013/12?lang=eng

Decorating for Christmas

                We are deep into the Christmas season here in Chile as all of you reading this blog are also wherever you are.  However, it is different from the norm for us in every way except the most important one.

                The day after Thanksgiving four of the office elders came over and put the tree together and then decorated it.  They loved doing it and we were glad for the help.  It is patriotic for both the colors of Chile and the United State—how fortunate.  The ornaments are very different because they are only the unbreakable sort and the elders had to tie strings on each ornament so we could hang them.

                The local shopping complex has a huge lit tree outside but none of the houses are decorated outside.  I see people buying Christmas decorations at the store; in fact they are mostly gone even though they only appeared about three weeks ago.  Fortunately I have found decorations here in the mission home, thus augmenting the few we brought with us.  The stores are playing American Christmas music but it was still a little strange to hear Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer in the local version of Home Depot.  I planted petunias in theporch pots on the same day I decorated the fireplace mantel. 

                The weather has been gorgeous here and we send sympathy to those who have been enduring the intense cold.  Next week it is supposed to reach into the nineties!  It does not rain in the summer here which is an interesting fact because of all the great produce here in Chile most of which is imported to the US.

                This week will be busy holding Christmas zone conferences for the missionaries and attending devotionals so hopefully you will look forward to that report next week.  Thanks for reading—Presidente and Hermana Warne

Thanksgiving 2013

What a great week to be serving in the Chile Rancagua Mission.  We are grateful for the Gospel, our missionaries, the work of Salvation, the beautiful late spring weather, and again, our missionaries.  They work hard, get along with their companions for the most part, love to serve and do the Lord’s work.

This week we held consejo or the monthly leadership training meeting.  With the new coordinadoras and office elders, we served lunch to 64 people.  The sister who cooks for the mission did a great job with lasagna, salad, bread and marshmallow brownies.  As usual, there were very few leftovers.  Those missionaries sure can eat!

Also this week President and I went to Santiago for a dinner with senior missionaries serving there.  It was wonderful to have a chance to get acquainted with them since we have so much in common.  The dinner was held in a great old house which was purchased by the church in 1961.  It served for many years as a mission home, but currently is used as a satellite MTC (mission training center) for housing missionaries and other meetings.  The food was also delicious, since we didn’t think we would be able to have typical Thanksgiving food here in Chile but we had turkey, ham and all the sides.

On Thursday we had another dinner with all the senior couples in our mission.  Again, the food was delicious, grilled beef and chicken with salads and desserts.  After dinner we each took turns verbalizing what we were grateful for including our spouse and in Chile.  It was a special, spiritual experience and definitely proved we are in the best mission in all the world.  If you had been able to hear these missionaries list the blessings of serving missions, you would all be getting ready to put in your papers!

As I review this post I see I mentioned food in almost every paragraph.  But when people share food and the gospel, good things happen.  Thank you for reading and see you next week.  This photo was taken from the roof of the building where we had dinner.  Wonderful views of the city!