I can´t believe I will only do this two more times...

Today I think it really hit me that in two more weeks this will all be over. I think this time leaving Chile will be harder than it was in the mission...I have been there for more low points and helped more people reach high points. I really can´t believe its almost over.

The last day of class was good. We had two people land jobs, one of them actually had several job offers and had to decide which one was going to be better for her. Several others had interviews and it just seemed to be a very successful day. I don´t know how to explain how great it feels to have our workshop attendees just throw their arms around me and thank me for the workshop. I am going to miss that more than anything.

Tonight I went to the temple for the first time in a few weeks. I think with all my planning for Peru I got caught up and I wasn´t on the ball, so it felt good to get there. I am always amazed as I sit through the session that different things stand out to me as if I had never seen or heard them before. What stood out to me most this time was the principle of being obediente as it pertains to the specific blessings we are seeking. It amazes me how sometimes I will pray and pray for something, only to realize that Heavenly Father can´t bless me with what I want because I am slacking in that exact area. As I make those small yet important changes I can always see that specific area opening up in my life. I read President Monson´s talk this afternoon about Joy in the Journey and one part really stood out to me that was also along these lines. He said that there are two parts to our lives, the things we have and the things we lack. If we focus on what we have and not what we don´t, it minimizes the feelings of inadequacy and maximizes the happiness and love we feel and show for others. What an amazing concept.

We stopped by the institute building on our way home since it is on the way and hung out with our buddies. It seems like just in the last few weeks we have been making more and more friends. What luck! Ha ha no matter, we are still grateful for the friends we have and the things we have been planning with them. It will be so strange to be gone...

Second verse same as the first little bit louder and a little bit worse

Day two of this week´s workshop was a little frustrating today. We started almost twenty minutes late because no one was there until then, so we had no one to start teaching at the appointed starting time. Because we waited, we didn´t have as much time to do a lot of the activities and were kind of rushed. This coupled with the fact that they had a hard time with the power statements and actually writing things down instead of telling me that it was ´in their head´ made for a long day. By the time we got to the finishing time I was ready for a break! We didn´t get as far as we would have liked, but we still got a lot done.

The interviews today were interesting. We have two professionals and then a room full of not so experienced workers. It was almost a struggle to keep them on task because they would analize things to the point that the conversation would go in all sorts of crazy directions. The joys of being a teacher. On a good note, two of our alumnos have job interviews tomorrow. This means they won´t be in class, but they promised to stop by afterwards and let us know how it went, so we are excited to hear about it.

After work Sarah and I did divisions with the sisters and for the first time, we actually had lessons to teach with them. Ha ha, we usually do the temple grouds tours with them or walk around doing contacts, so it was exciting. The first lesson was to some investigators that I had met in the church. They come every once in a while and have been investigating for quite a long time. We sang Joseph Smith´s 1st Prayer (Hermana Webber has an amazing voice and we have plans to start a studio and do music in spanish together :) I love the power that hymns have. After that we did a new member lesson with their most recent convert a man named Manuel about the priesthood. He is really an amazing man and as we talked about him soon receiving the preisthood, he kept asking questions and essentially said, ´Are you sure I am ready for that big of a responsibility?´ I shared with him what President Monson said a few years back about callings, ´Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.´ and explained to him that even though we may not know everything, the Lord calls us and then gives us the attributes needed to complete with the calling if we are willing to do our part and trust in him. After that we taught a peruvian couple Andres and Janet about the Plan of Salvation. They have a little baby, and when we got there the baby was kind of fussy and so I was worried about the lesson, but as we taught, the baby sat quietly, giggled and smiled the whole time. Little children are sometimes so much closer to the spirit then we think.

Its been a few days...

This is us at the dance on Friday. Sarah, Natali, Gustavo, girl I don´t know, Alan, me and Elder Quezada from my mission.

I have been slacking off with my blogging, so here is a catch up update.

Sunday I had a really amazing time at church. We happened to sit down next to some investigators in church and so I spent most of sacrament meeting teaching the guy I was sitting next to about our church. He had so many questions and I was so grateful the Lord had put me there to answer them. I felt like a missionary again and it brought back a lot of really tender memories for me. He is a really smart guy and was quite shocked about the word of wisdom, but he was impressed by it. He came to the YSA class with us and the lesson was on missionary work so myself and another return missionary talked to him more about the service that we give in the church as missionaries. He said he really liked church and that he was going to come back next week, so I am excited about that.

Sunday night we of course had FHE and the lesson was really awesome. Victor played this video of a graduation that Steve Jobs (the owner\creator of Pixar) gave that was amazing about goal setting and never giving up. I set a few long term and short term goals that I am really excited to complete. One of them is my upcoming marathon challenge in September. I doubt I will be ready for it, but each week I am putting in a few more miles so I am excited to actually complete it. The other two were kind of random, but ones that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I really want to start some sort of scholarship program to bring latin americans to the U.S. to study english. I don´t know why, but one day Sarah and I talked about it, and ever since then I have been thinking about how much that would help them, just to be able to learn english and then take it back to t heir country and use it. I am sure this won´t happen for many many years, but it is something that I really want to do. The other goal I have is to write at least one song in my life time that makes it to an EFY CD. That would mean a lot to me.

Monday I went running. It almost killed me but I did it and I am glad I did. I cleaned the house and then met up with my friend Gustavo for lunch. He took me all around and I had a really good time chatting with him. I feel like I have been really blessed in my time here to come in contact with some amazing people. Monday night was of course our FHE with the senior missionaries which was really interesting and about the Mountain Medow Massacre. I had never really heard anything about it so it was pretty interesting to me. Then of course we watched 24 with Todd and went to bed.

Yesterday´s workshop was AMAZING! We have a group of nine and they are all really energetic which makes it so much fun. Sarah and I were at our best (we are stoked to be teaching together again) and it just flowed so well. We had a few that were a bit skeptical of our methods, but over all they were just thrilled with what we were teaching them and were just feeling so good. They love us, we love them, life couldn´t get any better.

After the workshop I seriously put the pedal to the metal and I wrote three papers yesterday. Yeah, I am that cool. I am feeling good about what I am doing and I think I will be able to get everything done well before their deadlines. This is a good thing.

I also started calling people down south to let them know I am going to be down there. I am so excited and I really can´t believe this is going to happen. I am so excited to be there with my dad and show him the most beautiful places on earth!!

I met up with Sarah after her shift in the temple and we were going to go grocery shopping, but we ended up going out to eat with our ward that had just gotten out of Institute. It was fun and we laughed a ton which is always good...My time is going by too fast!!

Another great day

I feel like my time left here in Chile is slipping by. I still have about five weeks including the time I will be down in my mission with MY DAD! WOOP WOOP I just found out he is coming and I am so excited about that. But I really have loved the past couple of days. It feels like I just got off the plane from Utah a few days ago and now, in a few weeks, I will be getting on that plane again, and maybe for the last time...

Today was awesome. I went into the office in the morning to get some homework done. I am one paper away from finishing two of my classes and then I just have my big research paper to get done before May 7th. While we were there, one of the missionaries that was in our ward that finished his mission last week came in with his parents and a convert so that she could get some help finding work. I had a great chat with his parents about the programs of the church and what not. They brought up a good point that here, people become very creative in t heir ways to earn money when they are out of work, whereas a lot of times in the states, people just go on welfare. I had never thought of it before. The thing that they don`t do here at all is plan for the future which is something I am not that great at doing but that I am trying to be better at seeing all the hurt that it causes families down here.

After homework I came home and read some more for one of my classes. My life is so interesting sometimes :)

Sarah got off work early and we went exploring down town a little. I had been to quite a few places, but she hadn`t so we walked around. I bought a really cool little Don Quijote figurine made out of nuts and bolts. It sounds really dumb, but it is really cool. I have started buying things to decorate my classroom with after I graduate. It sounds weird I know, but I want to have cool stuff to put on the walls, so I am trying to buy stuff like that now. Sarah got some cute stuff for her family too.

After that we went to an institute dance. This one was even better than the one I went to before I left for Peru. The place was JAM PACKED! We danced with our friend Gustavo most of the night and he saved us from some creepy guys. There was this guy that was dancing with our friend Natali that didn`t belive I was American until I spoke to him in English. I was having a lot of fun dancing and they said that they had never seen a white girl `tan suelto`or let loose basically. I laughed. When there is more people in the dances, it makes it less uncomfortable for me to have fun, so I was grateful for that. Gustavo invited us to a fireside on Sunday so we are going to try and go.

Hold me closer Salsa Dancer!

I can't wait to explain the title.

Today was an AWESOME end to the workshop. We started with the phone calls and two of my workshop goers landed interviews. They were so excited and so was I. The spirit in the room was just so different from the way it had been on Tuesday when they got there. We had a really good time in the last few hours and I even ended a little early so that the two that had interviews could run home and get ready before they went. At the end of the workshop, each of them took the time to thank me personally, I got a big hug from each of them and I just felt SO great about how the workshop had turned out.

After the workshop, I stayed behind and helped one of my alumnos in making her very first resume. She was so cute but I had to pull some of the information out of her because she wasn't sure what to put down. It was fun to work with her one on one and know that this was a big deal. She came into the workshop today so excited because she had found two job offers that were specifically for LDS youth and she was just bursting with the possiblity to work there. I am excited to hear how it went.

After the workshop I went home and did homework. Part of that was doing an interview with one of the guys from our ward a guy named Victor. He is a thirty something that works in computer programming. It was really interesting to learn about how he got to be working in what he is working in and his views on Chile and politics and what not. I asked him about the economic crisis that is happening here in Chile (and everywhere else for that matter) and he said something extremely profound. He said that the church has always told us to not live beyond our means, to save up and to not have any debt, so he had always done that and even though his job hasn't been affected by the crisis, the raise in prices and costs hasn't affected him at all. What a faithful guy!

Okay, now comes the good part. Sarah and I went to salsa lessons tonight where that guy had invited me earlier. We got there about 10:30 because we were helping our friend Nell with her spanish homework. Nell and I had gone earlier but the lessons were starting later because there weren't enough men. While Nell and I waited the bartender made us each some alcoholic drink without asking us so we had to turn him down which was pretty funny. We looked for a place to secretly dump it, but there wasn't a plant in sight so we had to explain that we didn't drink alcohol. When Sarah and I got there they had just started and there was an exact number of girls and guys counting us. So we are dancing and practicing the steps and training our body to move in ways our american bodies have never moved before and then it was time to pair up. Well the closest man to me happened to be this 50 something old man who had had a few pisco sours in him. He was absolutely uncoordinated (which baffles me, shouldn't all Latin men know how to dance??) and kept trying to get me to tell him where we lived and when we were leaving. I just kept saying in this neighborhood and soon so he would leave me alone. The teacher, Jesus kept using me as an example which was embarassing considering there were a billion latin women who could dance way better than me, but we had SO much fun. Afterwards I thanked Jesus and he told me I danced really well, which was a lie, but coming from a good looking latin guy, I took the compliment. My creepy dance partner tried to get me to stay, but I ran out of there with Sarah as quick as we could. We are going to go back next week because they are going to have a live band!

Recovery

Well I must say it has been a tough thing getting back into the teaching mode. I have been so tired this week from my weekend travels with literally no sleep, but it was worth it. I got home on Monday afternoon and went right to doing homework and unpacking. I fell asleep on the couch Monday afternoon and Lautaro came over for a minute. I was so sleepy and out of it that I answered the door and spoke in english to him and then didn´t know why he couldn´t understand me. It was funny.



This week it was my turn to head over to the other center to teach, so I headed over Tuesday morning. The feel of the other center is very different. It is two stories and was built in the yard of a church building. You kinda feel like you are entering a forbidden fortress when you get to the door because they have a doorbell with a camera to see who comes in. In the center they have three girls that are doing internships as secretaries and then one missionary couple as well as the center manager a paid employee of the church. They get a lot more traffic than our center does mainly because this is more in the area where people need jobs. The center in Vitacura is in the richer part of town and people have to travel a long way to get there.



I started out Tuesday with six alumnos. Three are members and three were not. In the introductiongs, it seemed that everyone was having a hard time, and that they were all passing through difficult moments in their life. It was as if nothing more could go wrong in their lives. I saw the need for uplifting so I tried as hard as I could to be happy and positive and just help them see that they are not alone nor are they without hope. The Lord provides for those who are willing to do all they can to have success and the fact that they were there in the workshop shows that they are willing to do anything! I had one man, a member, who had a hard time with some of the techniques we teach in the workshop. He especially had a hard time with the networking concept because he said he had tried it before and it didn´t work. I tried to explain to him how it works and why it works and he just kept saying no, so finally I looked at him and said, ´It is really easy to say it doesn´t work, but this is a program developed by the church, by men who were called by prophets to do so. I know it works, I have seen it, have some faith!´ He didn´t come back wednesday...



Yesterday (wednesday) was still a really neat experience. Alex, a non member who has this rare disease that only 60 people in the whole world have came in Tuesday so down. Wednesday he was literally a different person. He was smiling, he was laughing, he was joking, it was AWESOME! I pointed that out to him and he just smiled and said, ´I know.´ Angelica, who had to quit her job because of depression issues (her husband left her) came in yesterday with three different job interviews set up! She had been really shy and sad on Tuesday, and she just blossomed over night. I think this might have been the first time that it was physically evident the difference in the workshop attendees. It was awesome.



After work I interviewed a restaraunt owner, his son and th eir head chef for a homework assignment. It was kind of cool to talk with them about their business how it came to be and how well they were doing 16 years later. The son teaches salsa lessons and invited me to go tonight, so Sarah, Nell and i are going to go. I am excited.



Sarah, Nell and I had an adventure tongith trying to find this concert in the park. We met up at an ice cream place and had some real food while watching a special on Michael Jackson. He was an amazing dancer...Then we went out looking for this park that had to be in the some neighborhood we were in but we weren`t sure wehere. We looked up directions on the internet and then hopped on some buses taht should have taken us there. When we got to one of the cross streets we were l ooking for we just started walking and then kept asking people who each pointed u s in different directions. It was really funny. I kept saying `It`s an ADVENTURE!`and we laughed quite a bit. At one point these men in a car honked at us to which I turned around, pointed and said ´Thank you!` really loud. This happened one more time. The last time it happened, all t hree of us turned around pointing and shouting, `Thank you!` at the same time, it was so funny! WE got to the park as they were taking down the concert, so we didn`t actually see it, but it was really fun! :)

So you don´t forget what I look like :)

Here are some pictures from my recent adventure in Peru. Some of the pictures are out of order, but they are pretty cool I think!

Hill and I in the car right after getting off the airplane in Tacna

Some amazing desert pictures

So they put these little catus like plants on hill sides in forms to advertize for things. Cool huh?

Some more desert.

A very strange fruit that looked like cotton on the inside and had a strange consistancy, but was SO good...I wish I could remember the name...

The inside of said fruit.

This is what happens when I fall asleep because I am so tired from a night without sleep on airplanes.

Yup, I was that tired.

Hillary with one of her converts. She just sobbed when we left and kept saying, ´Don´t go Sister Lowe.´It was so cute.

This is the entrance to Arequipa...Its missing the a.

People working in the fields. This was intriguing to me for some odd reason.

Susan driving, these pictures are out of order, this was on the drive from Tacna to Arequipa.

This is us in the car at 4 a.m. heading to Juliaca...I was relatively awake.

Hillary on the other hand...

This is a beatiful lagoon that we drove past. There were flamingos, but we didn´t see them until we had already gotten back in the car.

A cool hut by said lagoon, I am quite proud of this picture.

This is the mist rolling off the highlands. Cool huh?

I spent half my trip trying to get a picture of these ladies in their typical garb. The teeny hat means she is married as well as the little one colored pom poms hanging from her hair.

The boats we road on out to los uros (the floating islands)

Yeah, we played sing along on the boat ride out, it was so fun!

View from the boat.

The look out tower from the island.

The island from the boat, this is the island that the talked about in conference called Apu Inti.

Gillermo, our guide and the husband of the first member on the island.

His mother in law doing her typical weaving stuff, it is SO cool!

Guillermo, his mother and law and his wife Alicia, she has a STRONG testimony!

And of course, us on the island. This is just a sample of the pics, but they are great!