Click For Chile Map Click For South America Map I served in the "Mision de Chile Santiago Norte" from July 1977 to August 1979.
My mission president was Berkley Spencer, a great man who lived and taught by the Spirit. By way of background information, I served first in the Recoleta ward with Elder Emiliano Leiva. It was in a pension' on Avenida Santo Dumont that I went through the intensive process of learning the balance of the discussions and struggled to learn enough spanish to recognize my full complete sentence of that beautiful language. We served in a small ward which was led by Obispo Chacon'.
A transfer some four months later took me to "Renca," another area of Santiago where I served with Rick Carpenter for a month, then with David Shipp of Conyers, Georgia, for about six. Renca brought the most painful period of my mission with homesickness for Recoleta and the carefree days of being a Jr. companion. As a Senior companion and as a trainer the added pressure of being responsible was a difficult adjustment at first. Nevertheless, the Lord blessed us greatly. Some of the more powerful conversion stories took place in this area. Time doesn't permit me to go into detail in sharing all of those stories in this format. When I boarded the train for the transfer to Villa Alemana, I cried I think through the entire hour and a half trip toward the coast. It was during the period in Renca that I began to unselfishly serve others and the Lord. I began to "lose myself in the service of others" and was blessed accordingly.
The four months in Villa Alemana brought trials as the Lord tried, chastened, but ultimately blessed me as well. The caliber of converts that Elder Hunt and Elder Potter were blessed to be associated with was outstanding.
The last seven months of my mission were spent way up north in a remote town of Tocopilla. I served as a branch president. So mid-week, but particularly on Sunday's I split time between prostelyting and organizing and supervising the Branch. I served with Elders Cofre, Vera, and Maxfield. Tocopilla was up North and the people were much more distant and cold compared with the warm hospitality shown by those down south. Those first few days and weeks no one would return a smile and hello on the street. With time, however, that changed somewhat. By the time I left people would greet us openly on the calle.
I've rambled on about where and with whom I served, without coming close to sharing the heart ache, the joys, the trials, the intensity, and the power of the experience. I left Chile a better person two years after arriving because of the daily and constant interaction with the combination of a beautiful and humble people and of the interaction with the Spirit of the Lord on a continual basis. When all is said and done, when all the dust has settled and the smoke has cleared (it has now been over twenty years since I left Chile), I would hope that my meager efforts to serve the people and the Lord would have accomplished some good; but in reality I realize that the greater good that was accomplished may very well be the change that was wrought in my heart and inner being. I received a phone call some months ago from one of the daughters of a family that we had taught and baptized. She is married and living in Chicago with her husband. Her parents have come up to live with her. She simply asked if there was any chance that I remembered them. I honestly answered that not a month goes by that I don't think back to her family and to the many others that it was my privilege to know and love during that special time of my life.
Monte Alan Nevitt April 3, 2000 BACK
