Training is over! Time to celebrate and relax!

That's right folks, my three weeks of cultural immersion training here at Moreau Seminary is over! Now it's time to just hang out here in the Bend, waiting for Tuesday to come when we start our 22 hour journey to Santiago at 6:30am.

This week ended on a great note. On Wednesday, I had a great lunch with one of my best friends Amy Kelley (who is starting Indiana University School of Law on Tuesday - good luck Aims!) and one of my all time favorite professors Patrick Pierce of the Saint Mary's College Political Science Department. Conversation was great as we got a chance to catch up on life and new and exciting things for all of us (earlier that morning, Pat sent his youngest child off to attend graduate school at Columbia University). I completely forgot to take a picture of all of us while at lunch, but Amy and I made sure to take one when she dropped me off at Moreau after lunch:















Later that night, Director Steve made good on his promise and spent a night out with us. Too bad Patrick could not have been there - he flew back to Los Angeles to spend his last weekend here in the States with his family and friends. Anyway, Mark (Assistant Director), Steve, Natalie, Katie, and me went to Mazatalan, an awesome Mexican restaurant. After some great enchiladas and a few Maragritas, Steve, Natalie, Katie, and me went to RumRunners, a dueling piano bar here in town. Lucky for us, RumRunners Wednesday is the place to be in town AND they have .75 cent well drink specials. Now now Grandma, I can hear you know - I am not always drinking nor do I always have to drink to have fun...but at a place like RumRunners, you simply cannot resist. My choice of drink for the night: MONAS. That's right, my specialty drink that I created and the American Legion Post 318 has officially named after me :-P It's pretty much a shirley temple with vodka, or a sprite, vodka, and grennadine combination. Anyway, it was a fun time and I have posted a few pictures of us below:

Me, Katie, and Natalie

Katie and Natalie
















Natalie and Steve
















Thursday morning, after waking up with a bit of a headache (hehe), we listened to Fr. Paul Kollman, Professor of Theology, talk about the ultimate question: ARE WE MISSIONARIES??? A lot of people have asked us this, but it makes sense why they would ask: we are going to another country to do service via a Catholic organization and sponsored by the Catholic Church, we are all Catholic, a major pillar of this program is spirituality, we spend three weeks of our training in Moreau Seminary living with Priests, Seminarians, and candidates for the priesthood, AND when we get there, the Chilean community's label for us is "missionary." So are we missionaries?? This is a very hot topic and something that all four of the Chilean Associates deal with both in our own identity and as we describe our experience to our family and friends. Patrick has a great portion of his blog dedicated to this issue, check it out and see what he has to say (it is his August 2nd blog entry). Fr. Paul Kollman told us that the answer to this question is both yes and no - which is what I expected. We are missionaries because Christ calls all Christians to serve others in any way we can, thus serving in any capacity is a mission from God. Additionally, Christ's work calls us to support justice, health, education, etc. for all - which is the type of work we will be doing while we are in Chile for two years. BUT, we do not, however, fit into the missionary category that comes to mind when we think of a Mormon or Evangelical Missionary - we are not in any way attempting to convert others to Christianity while we are down there. BOTTOM LINE: We are overseas volunteers who are giving up a portion of our lives to serve others because we feel that is what we are called to do, both morally and spiritually. If that is what you call a missionary, well fine by me and I accept that title proudly.

OH MY GOSH - I am writing way too much and I have got to leave now - I have an appointment in 10 minutes to get my Yellow Fever, Malaria, and Typhoid Vaccinations, haha. When I get back, I will use my sore arm to add another blog and tell you about the rest of my weekend.

Much more to come, hope everyone is having a great day ~ M