Rancagua After One Month

Elder Oakes´s birthday party at the mission home, with Elder Casper, Pablo Resek (President Resek´s 12-year old son), and Hermana Mason. Elders Casper and Oakes are the Assistants to the President.
Our apartment is directly across the hall from the elders, we have become like "family" and often host late night treats in our apartment. A favorite is nachos with guacamole.
Another birthday party - this time for Elder Casper (far left). He is the grandson of the famous golfer Billy Casper. We were at the only Mexican restaurant and cantina in Rancagua. The food was good but not quite like in Mexico.

We live 2 blocks from the main city plaza (Plaza de Los Heros). Here is the large statue commemorating an important revolutionary battle in the 1800s. The beautiful Catholic Cathedral is in the background. Hermana Mason is bundled up because July is mid-winter in this part of the world.

During our first month here in "La Mision Chile Rancagua" we have experienced four zone conferences ALL in SPANISH, several teaching appointments (some with the elders and two on our own with a recent 75-year old convert named Maria), a trip to the church headquarters in Santiago (Elder Mason got to go while Hermana Mason was hard at work in her little cubicle in the oficina), and we have met many amazing young Elders and Sisters. We are so impressed with their proficiency with the Spanish language - we have many miles to go before we can communicate in Spanish. We seem to have established a weekly routine - Monday to Friday we are up by 7:30 am, at the office by 10:00 am, go to lunch from 2:00 to 3:00 pm, work until about 8:00 pm and go to bed by 11:00 pm. Our P-day (day off) is Saturday. Sunday church is from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm. Some evenings we go with the elders on teaching appointments. On the personal side we have survived a few days with no water (much less hot water), frequent power outages (which is still a problem), a bad cold (Elder Mason) and our first Chilean haircuts. After one month our apartment has become home. We now have reliable hot water, a washer and small dryer, adaquate furniture, a comfortable bed and several electric heaters that are working hard to keep us warm. We are happy and feel blessed to be here.

Rancagua, Chile - June 2008

We arrived in Santiago, Chile on June 20th. Rancagua is a city of about 200,000 people and is located about an hour south of Santiago. We were warmly welcomed by President & Sister Resek and the elders associated with the office. The Reseks are from Buenos Aires. The President is a lawyer who has been working for the church. Sister Resek had her 40th birthday last week. She is very outgoing, fun and adds lots of spark to the mission.

Our 5th floor apartment is in a 15-story building in downtown Rancagua. Our apartment consists of 2 bathrooms (one that is being changed into a laundry room), a small kitchen, a spare bedroom with a set of bunkbeds, a small utility room, a nice living room and our bedroom. We have electric space heaters but with no central heating we've had some very cold days and nights.

The church office is directly across the street in a similar building on the 7th floor. There are four cubicles with computers. The President's Office is in an adjoining room. He isn't here much. Last Saturday we did a major clean up of the office. We're working with some great Elders. One is from Argentina so lots of Spanish is spoken and we're struggling to understand.

We have a great view of the city from our balcony. Here is the view looking east, note the Andes Mountains in the distance. We live two blocks from the city square. We haven't had time to do much exploring yet. We're looking forward to getting more acquainted with the lay of the land here.

The Assistants and the three office Elders live in a similar apartment directly across the hall from us. They are frequent visitors. From left to right are Elders Sappenfield, Oakes, Casper, Latimer, and Arevalos. they are patiently trying to train us to take over some of their responsibilities.

We have been to President & Sister Resek's home several times. They live the mission home with their four sons ages 14, 12, 8 and 5. The Mission Home is located in a suburb about 15 minutes from downtown.