A surprise from Chile
Monday, August 25, 2003
This week I got an extra nice surprise in my inbox. Luz, a friend of mine from Chile, found my name on an old mission website, and sent me an email. Her son, Mario Aarón, also sent me an email. She’s living in La Florida (a suburb of Santiago) with Mario, and says that things are going well for her.
It was really great to hear from her. I’ve been lax in writing to my friends in Chile, mostly because I can never find their addresses when I have the time to write them, but I hope that now we can keep in touch a little better.
I suppose I should tell you how I became acquainted with Luz, and how her son’s name is Aarón. Here we go:
My dad was a photographer for the LDS Church for many, many years. The summer after I was born (if I’m recalling the story correctly) he was sent to Chile to photograph the life and times of members of the church there. I assume that he was chosen because of his ability to speak spanish, but then, that’s neither here nor there.
The assignment was a rather long one, and my dad got to spend some time in Punta Arenas, where he met the Sánchez family. He showed pictures of me to everyone, somehow he and Luz became pen pals. They wrote letters to each other a couple of times a year, and when Luz had her baby, she named him Mario Aaron after me.
Fast forward to 1996: 19 years had passed since dad’s trip to Chile, and I’d been called to serve as a missionary in the Santiago South mission. Dad told me about the Sanchez family, and said that I should look them up. About the week before Christmas that year, I got a call from Luz, who came to visit me in La Pintana. She brought me a tie as a Christmas present (which I wore throughout my mission). I met Mario Aarón, who was a crazy 7-year-old boy, and who liked it when I made faces. Luz and I kept in touch on and off until the end of my mission, and I hadn’t heard anything from her since.
Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Chile, and all the wonderful friends that I made there. Those two years hold a lot of fond memories for me, and I’m so glad that I’ve been able to renew at least some of the ties that I have with that wonderful country.
So, now that I know that there are persons in Chile who may be reading this, I will be working on a Spanish version of the site. I hope to have it ready by next week.
Thanks to Dean…
This week’s post was written with Textile by Dean Allen. It seems like a pretty cool tool. I’ll be trying it out for a little while, and I’ll let you know how it goes.
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