This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to finish packing and to shower and to get ready for breakfast at the church. We packed up and went to the church to serve breakfast and to say goodbye for a few weeks at least. Breakfast was a success- there were surprisingly many people there despite the swine flu, and banana bread was all gone way before breakfast was even over! After cleaning up, we said our last goodbyes or "see you laters" before we headed back to the apartment to finish cleaning up and to wait for the remis (hired car). The cars came to pick us up around noon, and me KT and Jenn were in one car and the luggage and Joel (missionary) were in the other. Because of recent events, we frequently make jokes about how we have the worst luck ever. Nothing is ever really a surprise to us at this point, so therefore the next events didn't even really phase us at first.
We got nailed from behind and were in a car wreck. Ha... my first thought was SERIOUSLY?!?!?! but then I realized that this is our luck... and the fact that anything can happen at this point. This pretty serious wreck didn't even end up being a big deal, because wrecks in BA are like Honduras... everyone's immune to them. They just exchange information, and then everything is eventually taken care of. Anyway, after that we rushed to the airport, fearing we wouldn't make our flight or something if traffic was bad. FALSE. We made it there in plenty of time, and sat around for about an hour before our flight started boarding. We made it to Santiago in a little over 2 hours, yet they served us a meal? It was strange... but the azafata (stewardess) successfully managed to spill hot coffee on my ivory/winter white scarf. COOL. I just couldn't do anything but submit to her in that moment. I mean seriously... anything that could go wrong, will. I'm not being pessimistic by any means, but I am just trying to ready my mind for it to be rocked 20 times a day like it is being.
We had some issues paying for our hefty entrance tax ($131 american dollars to enter Chile) because we only had Argentine pesos and they man at the money-exchange place wasn't where he was supposed to be, therefore we payed on credit cards because the missionary had been waiting on us already for like 35-40 minutes. Then once we wandered around the entrance to the airport forever since we had no idea of where we were going, the name of the church, or what the missionary looked like... until he finally figured it out that we were the 3 USA looking girls wandering around looking lost. We shoved all our luggage into his little car, which meant Katie had to hold her bag since it was the smallest. We drove BASICALLY IN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SCENERY I'VE EVER SEEN aka- the Andes Mts. in my whole life!!!! I took some great pictures of the mountains, and I can't wait to be able to see that scenery every day. I can guarantee it won't get old!
Then we arrived at the church, and the group prior to us briefed us on all the basics, most of the readers, and we got a tour of the church too. The working facility here is awesome. HEAT INSIDE THE BUILDING! After leaving the church, we dropped Katie and Jenn off at the missionary's house (Jeff) and met his precious kids and beautiful wife. I can tell I'm gonna love their family. Then we went to MY HOME for the next 2 weeks, which is also awesome. It's very close to where Katie and Jenn are staying, so it won't be difficult to meet up. I'm the 5th of 4 kids for the next 2 weeks, and they're all under the age of 10. This will seriously be so fun. I've always wanted little brothers/sisters. I am currently sitting on the couch with the wife, Tay, while the husband, Zane, is skyping their friends/family. They both grew up in missionary homes, so the longest they've ever lived in one place has been 7 years (which is how long they've lived here in Santiago). Crazy!! I've loved picking their brains for the past hour or so, and I can tell I'm really going to love getting to know them and their kids. After we dropped off all our luggage, Jeff took us to dinner. We had some fabulous quesadillas and DESSERT at this close cafe next to my house. We had so much fun at dinner getting to know Jeff, and I know that this is going to be an amazing 3 weeks. They're are a TON of english-speaking people here at this church, and I think like 6 missionary families in all. We're going to make great friends here and learn a lot.
Well I'm beat, and I have not slept over my usual 6 hours every night in quite some time, so I'm heading to bed. I'll try to upload pictures on my next blog, since I just learned how to do that from a friend in Buenos Aires- shout out to Bob. Muchas gracias. Anyway, keep praying for us. We love you all and are excited to keep you posted on this loco journey we're currently living in called life.
God is good-
Annie
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