My favorites in Chile

AHHHH!!!   We made it here to CHILE!!!  It is soooo good to be back.  I am LOVING  it being with the people I love again.  

This is Ximena.  When I had only been here two days as a missionary, we went to her house and taught her family.  It was raining so hard and we had been walking all day.  Her family let us in and fed us and then we taught them.  She is like my sister.  She started coming to church and later in my mission she decided to go on a mission.I I was so excited for her! When my parents came she went to the temple and they totally loved her.  They helped her with the money so she could go.  She went to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I am so happy for her, she is so rad!!!  

Anyways, she came to get us at the airport.  So good to be with her again.  She was the only one that knew that we were coming. It was a surprise for everyone else.

Here is the hostel we are staying at.  We love the hostel!  We got a private room and bathroom and free internet. What's not to like?   Of course we took the micro(bus) and got sick.  Only once though!  There is a metro now in Santiago so we have been riding that...it's SO nice! Typical Chile.  Dogs in the streets looking like they are dead.  Random things, store signs etc. The smells and the feeling and the streets are just the same. Ah!  Just eating it all up! Of course we went straight to Ramon's house.  I LOVE HIM!!  He was so excited and surprised.  to see us.  This is  a mug that is for 'HERMANA HUGHES ONLY!'  I always drank herbal tea with him out of this cup.  He had it all clean and ready to go waiting for my return.  In his fridge he still has my water bottle..from 5 years ago!   CON FUERZA RAMON!!

AHHHH!  I have many memories here in front of his house.  This is were we taught him the gospel.  It was about this time of year (summer in Chile) 6 years ago!  When my parents came to pick me up after the mission, he painted his whole cute little house blue for them.  He borrowed dishes so that he could have MATCHING dishes for when they came to eat with him.   He was so excited about this and my parents loved it.  He is just so sweet and my 'Chilean dad'.  

Of course he still had EVERYTHING (the photos and notes) that we had given him up on all of his walls!

We then went to see FLOR and GENARO GENARO, Chitymoya, mura, crema! They were so cute and excited and surprised!

Then she fed us a HALF of a watermelon each.  Oh boy, back to the mission eating again.

They have all their stuff we gave them up on the walls too.  This is their sealing document that they got when they were sealed about 2 years after I left. Genaro was freaking out, so excited.  "It is such a blessing to receive you here in my home.  I give thanks to God. "  He ran to the store and bought this big chicken and fries to feed us.  They are so hospitable here.  It reminds you of that we should be more like them.  

Then to Jesana's house.  This is her patio where we met for the first time.  An amazing story.  She was praying all night long for God to bring her the true church. She was in the shower the next morning when we knocked on her door. She threw on some clothes and ran out all wet with shampoo still in her hair crying and said "I've been waiting for you."  It was amazing. 

Her kids are so  big now!!  She was pregnant with this little one when I left Chile.  

I love these people and this country!  I'm having the best time ever.  So grateful to be back here again...and the weather is PERFECT as well.  

Day of Love

How did I spent my 'dia de amor'?  This is what they call St Valentine's day...day of LOVE.  Sorry to worry you Kels and Rose ...and also my parents I'm sure.  But they are in Russia, so they have no room to talk.  Well, we DID go out into the dangerous city of MEXICO CITY!    Don't worry, we took a cab from the airport and tried our best to be safe.  This city scares me a bit too..especially after the movie 'Man on Fire'.  A boyfriend snuck this movie in trying not to let me know it was Restricted (R)...and it will scare your pants off about this place!

Alot of Mexico city is just what you think it would be:  Smells just like you think it would.  No one is exaggerating on this...promise.  

Of COURSE there's random naked people driving around in VW bugs.

Of COURSE there's floor food displays on the street with random man banging the drum.

Of COURSE we stopped for some road side tacos.  Diarrhea anyone?  Por favor!
HOWEVER, there were some really great things we got to see.  Like this Cathedral in the center.  

Very pretty.  Lots of gold.
A Valentine's day dinner with our amigo Victor.  He was our driver.  Very nice, took good care of us.  This food was way good.  Can't beat fresh Mexican, straight from the source. 
We met these Chilean teenagers in the Mexican airport.  Chilean teenagers are the best because they don't have that attitude of 'too cool for school'.  They just do funny things and don't care about being cool.  They had been in Mexico for the summer doing like a service mission.  They were way funny and of COURSE we danced the Cueca with them in the airport (a chilean dance).  Good times. 

We finally got on the plane to head to Chile...safe and sound.  This is the thing that I wanted MOST out of Mexico city.  No robbing, no shooting...safe and sound to the airplane.
Ok, more updates later....I am loving life having a blast!!!

What does SNOW in ATLANTA = ?

Let me tell you that snow in Atlanta = ALL FLIGHTS ARE CANCELED!  

This is my old mission companion and tight friend Tracy and I all ready for our flight to leave this morning to CHILE!!!  Yes, that is right.  I was putting my time machine to good use and trying to get back to Chile.  We were all packed and ready to go this morning and low and behold..canceled!!  EVERY time machine has it's proper troubles.  I.e.  Back to the future.   

We waited for hours in this long line waiting to get rerouted for another flight to Chile.  Everyone was bugged and not happy about the situation.  

No worries, we met this lady in line who did the honors of befriending us.  We even got double stuffed Oreos out of it.  Wasn't half bad!

This is Dan the man at work frantically searching for a flight for us.  They said we couldn't leave till WEDNESDAY  now.  GOOOD ONE...nice try.  Dan was looking all over the globe to find us a flight but so many were booked and canceled.  We were freaking out when he mentioned

"Well, let's see.  We could send you to PARIS and then go to Chile tomorrow from there."

We were FREAKING OUT!  Please bless we get to go to Paris!!!

I think he liked us because we were laughing and taking pictures of him instead of mad and cranky and yelling at him :)

A little video of the airport...

Well, no such luck.  The Paris flight was sold out.  So the solution ( a close 2nd to Paris of course).... MEXICO CITY!!  

We leave tomorrow morning to Mexico city and then go down to Chile.

So what should we do to kill time on our 'Stay-cation'?

How bout the best french toast ever at...THE OTHER PLACE RESTAURANT!  

It is so good.  Check it out on 5th east and 3rd south.  

Oh I know what we should do!  Why don't we highlight your hair?....with a home highlighting kit..smart!
BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:

Ok ok, it didn't turn out as bad as the movie makes it look :)  I actually am WAY proud of her.  She is like a professional!  Loving the color and the free du!  Just the front was a bit of a challenge but then it turned out just fine.."it's fine everybody"!!

Ok ready, set, go....we are ready for the plane, Mexico city and then FINALLY CHILE!!

Mother Russia

My parents left this week to RUSSIA!!!

They were called on a 3 year mission. No, they will not be in Russia the whole time. They will spend the next three years traveling the world, spending about 3 weeks in each country they go to.
My dad will be teaching Neonatal resuscitation training to the doctors and the nurses to the countries in need. My mom helps get the seminars set up, get the medical supplies into the country, give out tests, organize things, etc. My dad will do the teaching. Don't worry, he has a translator in each place:)

I was so excited when I found out they were going to Russia. With due reason I have quite the interest in the country of Russia. I love listening to the wild stories that some of my patients have from fighting the war in Russia, prison camps, etc.

We went to lunch at a doctor's office for work and he had just returned from Russia and serving as a mission president in the Ukraine. I quizzed him for 45 min about what it is like over there now, the people, the church, the new temple (in Kyiv). He said "The people are such good people. It is D&C 110 unfolding right before your very eyes" (the gathering of Israel). Very exciting.

I am so excited for them. Ironically, the day before they left, the church called them and asked my dad to go to Haiti when they get back from Russia. He will go for 2 weeks and will be on a ship off shore. They will bring people in need to see him on the boat. What a wonderful opportunity.
Thank you mom and dad for serving! You are an example to us all!

Time Travel

I'm in to it.  Yes, I am into time travel.  As you may know, LOST started up last week.  I got sucked into watching LOST a few years back and it is a good time.  The only problem was that in the last few seasons it has looked like this whole LOST thing just boils down to time travel.  

Conversation with Cathie my sis-in-law:

Cathie:  "BUG!  Why does it have to be about time travel?  I'm so bugged.  That is not even believable."

Me:  "I know....good one!  Nice try."

This is how I felt until I started listening to this book on CD.  My dad lent it to me and it is all about Einstein, black holes, time travel etc.  I know people, it's totally NERD ALERT (Kels) but it is SO GOOD and INTERESTING!   Turns out that Einstein concluded that there has to be a God and everything is specifically designed in Science by him.  That is the only way to explain how everything fits together in Science.  

Also, time travel is possible.  Yep, it is.  If you catch up to the speed of light then time is stopped and to go faster than that would conclude in time travel.  Wait a minute, we believe this anyways.  We know that time is irrelevant to God and it is a way for man to have a measure of our reality.  So there you have it.  

I'm also into black holes.  I know, I know.  I used to space out quickly as an x boyfriend would blab and blab about black holes and I would think 'nobody cares'.  Oh how your interests can change over time !  ;)
So today if I could time travel, I would go to:

Summer of 2001 where this was my home.  
And this was my back yard where I ran, swam, sun tanned and talked for hours eating cherries with my best friend.... 
Or back to winter of 2002 when THIS was my backyard...
I LOVED waking up to the sound of the ocean.

Or maybe I'd time travel back to New Zealand and feed some more random animals....

or maybe I'd go back to that day that Trace and I finished the yoga challenge...so hard!  

Or maybe I'd go back to Europe with Angela...

Or any fun time at the cabin with my family...

Or any Jazz game with friends...

But the thing that i want to travel back to most is to go see the people that I  love in Chile!!

and go 'tomar once con Ramon'.  (have dinner with him).  I miss him sooo much!

So where would you travel to if you could time travel today?  To the past or even the future for that matter....?

Blizzard City!

This post is a little overdue but hey.  So, below are my girls that I cheered with up at USU.  We were all brand new to the cheer squad as freshmen and we were pretty much inseparable.  As a result we called ourselves

THE FEARSOME FOURSOME!  

We were supposed to get together last weekend for a little sleepover/cheer reunion.  We were going up to Linsey's who lives in Logan.  We were all SO EXCITED!  Here's the catch.  I'm sure some of you have experienced Sardine Canyon on the way up to Logan.  Well, we experienced it that night.  

This is what my windshield looked like as I was driving.  Goood one!  Alana felt early on that we should turn around.  I was pulling a little 'It's fine' action at first.  The second Andrea said "Yea, I really think we should turn around too", I started flipping a U-turn.  She had her brand new baby girl in the back with us.  Gulp.  

We spent the rest of the time driving home talking about listening to your gut and listening to the Spirit and how sometimes you never know what might have happened.  Better safe than sorry, that's for sure!
The next night Beccs and I went up to Sundance.  We were lucky enough to get into the VIP lounge at the snowboarding half pipe event and got free dinner.  It was awesome and so fun to be covered in a heated tent with food while it was a down pour of snow outside.  

It was fun seeing this outdoor concert after of 30 minutes to mars.  We both hopped on people's shoulders for the full effect since we couldn't even see the stage.  

It was a blast until we had to drive home and THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE!  But worse.  I was like "Did I not learn anything yesterday?"  AAAHHH!!!  There were cars sliding off the road everywhere, blizzard city, so scary.  

Don't you just LOVE driving in a blizzard?  Oh boy.  So here's to driving in a blizzard for 8 hours last weekend (literally!)  So glad we made it home safe!