Two weekends ago I had the great opportunity to stay in the city of Ovalle. Ovalle is where I made many strong friendships, and where I grew the most on my mission. I had been wanting to return ever since I left.
I stayed the weekend with the Vega Ibañez family (Raul and Claudia) and their three daughters (Yanara, Paloma, and Anastasia). One morning I got up early and made them French toast, which was completely new to them. That same day we did a BBQ together and invited over others with whom I became good friends. We grilled up some chicken and chorizo (sausage) and made choripan (chorizo and bread) with pebre (onion, tomato, garlic, and cilantro).
The following day I saw many other friends at church, one in particular named Gerald. After church I had lunch with the Olivares family who always provides an outstanding meal. We had empanadas, salad, mashed potatoes and roast beef, fruit, and strawberry cake. We spent the whole afternoon laughing about past times and experiences.
Olivares Family
In the afternoon I went out "canuteando" with the Elders to visit two other converts of mine. They have since struggled with attending church regularly, but have their goals set and are working towards being better with hopes to go to the temple someday. I also visited another friend who started investigating the church when was first in Ovalle. The missionaries have contacted her again after three years and continue to teach her.
We watched the Joseph Smith movie at Karen Alfaro's house in Ovalle
The last two weeks have been busy ones. We began work with
Cruz Verde, which is a large national pharmacy chain in Chile. We are in charge
of providing training workshops for their employees three days a week in different
parts of the country. Two weeks ago I stayed in Limache for one of the
trainings, and then went to Santiago for the other two. I am what they call an
“Outdoor.” For half of the time the group of about 25 employees receives a
presentation and training on customer service, business culture, and sales
techniques and then I take over to direct different games and dynamics outside
that illustrate what was taught inside. Each seminar is held in a place where
there is plenty of open space outside so those who come can get some fresh air.
The first two days I observed how it is done and what is said, and then on
Thursday I did my part alone. It was intimidating, but fun to use a different
gringo style of running things. Although this part of my internship does not
exactly have a lot to do with what I am studying, I am grateful for the
experience.
Last week the “outdoor” adventures continued. Last Tuesday I
was on a bus at 6:00 AM on my way to Santiago to do another workshop. The spin
on the outside part this time was that it was pouring rain. We all got wet, but
the activities were still effective. After the workshop, I was one bus and two
taxi rides away from boarding a plane headed for city of Antofagasta in the
north.
Our plane took off about an hour and a half late, which sent
me off at about 10:30 PM. I had assured my mom that flying in Chile would be
perfectly safe, but it’s been quite some time since I’ve been as scared as I
was on that plane. The take off was great, and I even snagged an exit row seat.
But not much later after take off the pilots must have started walking a slack
line in the cockpit as they steered the plane. We went back and forth and up
and down. The wind had picked up and this little jet was all over the place. It
was one of those times when you try and keep your cool on the outside, but
inside you’re wondering where you’ll be in 15 seconds. I did however meet a new
compadre named Alejandro who is from Viña del Mar. He offered to drive me into
town to my hotel, which was very fortunate given that there were no taxi’s
there after midnight when we arrived.
Five hours of sleep later I was up and off to another
workshop. The curve ball this time was that only six people showed up! At first
I thought it would be easier, but group activities are lame without the group,
and smaller groups are more difficult to captivate. We did what we could, got a
little bored, and wrapped up the workshop earlier than usual.
I didn’t get to see Antofagasta much, but just by passing
through it looks like an okay place. The only green is what has been planted in
the city, and the rest is nothing but brownish-greyish dirt everywhere you
look. The city is right by the ocean with mountains on the other side. I was
told by the people at the workshop of some of the problems here. Many come here
to work in the mines in the north of Chile and make good money. The problem is
that the workers typically don’t have much education and don’t spend their
money on meaningfully. There is a lot of prostitution and drug traffic that has
entered in from neighboring countries.
That night I got on another plane headed back to Santiago to
spend the night. 4 hours of sleep later I was up at 5:15 AM and later on a
plane at 7:00 AM. I was headed back north to the city of La Serena, which is
the furthest city north in my mission. I feel asleep during the flight and woke
up as we were landing. I looked at the window and knew that we were in fact not
in Serena. The anxiety really settled in when the flight attendant said over
the speaker, “Welcome to Copiapo.” I thought that I had really screwed up and
got on the wrong plane until after we landed and the pilot told those who were
headed to Serena to remain on the plane. I arrived very late to the place where
everyone was for the training workshop, but things went well.
The whole week I had been carrying extra luggage because I
had planned to spend the weekend in a city where I served for the last part of
my mission. The city, Ovalle, is about an hour and a half away in bus from
Serena so I thought that I would just miss my flight from Serena to Santiago,
and hop on a bus ride to Ovalle inside. That was the plan the whole week—hence
the extra luggage—until I found out after I had already left home with extra
luggage that I would be charged if I missed the flight. The new plan was to
take the flight back to Santiago to hop on a 7-hour bus ride back to Ovalle
during the night. When I got to the airport to head back to Santiago, they told
me that due to the fog, the plane wouldn’t be leaving, and that they would
return the plane ticket back to Cruz Verde who had paid for it. I could not
believe my luck (however “luck” isn’t what we call it exactly), and I hopped on
a bus to Ovalle.
Again, not the most entertaining video, but these places are incredible.
This past week I have been working a lot on putting together
a presentation on strategy for Surmount, the company I am working with. They gave me a very broad task of coming up with new ideas and methods to improve the customer experience that the
companies we work with provide. It’s been a bit of a challenge taking on such a
broad project, but at the same time it’s been great to use my own ideas.
This week has also been full of amazing food. On Friday I
went with the Guajardo family (who I’m staying with) to Ramón Páez’ house to
make tacos. I have never eaten so much good food, and ate about eight tacos.
It’s easy to keep eating when there is an endless supply of fresh guacamole, beans, salsa,
meat, chicken, and cheese. I also experienced more of the Chilean culture I
hadn’t known before as a missionary. Apparently it is typical to stay out really late with friends.
We got home at about 2:30 AM!
Tacos con los Páez
The following day we fired up the mud oven in back and
cooked up some ribs, steak, potatoes, chicken, and fresh bread (pan amasado).
Despite the fact that I ate enough to carry over until the following day, I am
still just as thin.
Pancito amasado, goat cheese, butter, and ají pebre (salsa)
On Friday I put some shops skills to practice in cutting
about 50 PVC pipe pieces for an activity we will be using this week as we train
the regional managers of a pharmacy called Cruz Verde.
Cutting with Pablo using a little table saw
My greatest accomplishment this week was finally breaking a
light bulb with my head. I liked to think that it was something that only happened to
my old man, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t think this day would one
day arrive. It was the classic stand straight up right into a light fixture.
In Santiago last week
The golden hour in Limache
This video shows some clips from a stake primary activity I helped out with a couple weeks ago. Not the most exciting video, but you get the point.
