Conception, Chile

Nicole and I finally made it to Valdivia! We arrived at 6 am on a bus from Conception. We were pretty tired from our over night bus, but we are happy to have made it to Valdivia.

We have now been in Chile for a week. We have already had some wonderful experiences with the people here already. The first night we stayed in a hostel that was pretty nice (but also expensive) in Santiago. We didn't really know where to go, but we got a map and walked around the city ourselves for a couple hours. The next day was Sunday and we called the mission office and found the local building. It was actually right next to the temple! You could see the temple through the windows in Sacrament! Plus there were 2 members of the seventy in this particular ward! One of them gave a talk, but we didn't understand of course. One of the sister missionaries would translate for us everyone once and a while, and it sounded like a really amazing talk, just wish I understood it. Then we asked if any members could help us out, and these 2 ladies that live together and were in charge of the young adults let us stay the next 2 nights in their house. Then Monday some of the young adults that spoke english took us on a tour of Santiago. The next day we took a 9 hour bus trip to Conception. Here we stayed in a really cheep hostel the first night. It was horrible! There was mold everywhere. We were so grossed out we slept on our sleeping bags on top of the sheets. So we called the mission home in Conception and the missionaries helped us find someone we could stay with. We stayed with this older couple, named Fernando and Patrica. They were so kind to us. We stayed with them 2 1/2 days. In the mornings we would go exploring the city on our own with a map, and in the afternoon when Fernando came home from work they took us to places father away that were fun to see. We saw 2 beaches, and they introduced us to a lot of new food. I love duche de leche now! We have been practicing spanish when ever we can. Not many people speak english, but we have survival spanish that keeps us afloat. We were very sad to leave both places (Santiago, and Conception) because we grew close to the  people there in such a short time. 

Now we are in Valdivia. I'm not exactly sure how everything is working here. We were met by Dr. Jara and his wife at the bus station and they took us to Carmen's house. (Dr. Jara is going to leave on Monday to go somewhere with another BYU student apparently. I don't really know anything about it.) I think Carmen's house is actually a pension. We have met Carmen, her granddaughter, grandson, her mother, her husband, her ex-husband, and I think her bother. There are a lot family here!  The church is only a couple blocks away but the University is not close. We're going to have to learn how to use the bus system here. 

My mom has been worried several times already, like days I don't have internet and can't e-mail her.