Southern Cone Retreat - January 2007

Every 2 years all the missionaries in the "Southern Cone" or Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay come together for a week long retreat and time of fellowship. Our retreat this year was from January 5th-11th and took place at Termas del Corazón, a hotel about an hour outside Santiago, Chile. It was absolutely gorgeous and reminded me very much of California. Here is a picture of the entrance of the hotel.Since our hotel was just along the base of the Andes Mountains, I went hiking one afternoon with a large group of missionaries...a group that dwindled the further up we went. :) In the end, only seven of us went all the way to the top (of our trail, that is). Here I am with Lance Abate, Kim Babcock, and Michelle Ellis at the peak of our journey. Here's the view looking back down the trail. Heading back down...hopefully not TOO fast. :) It took us a couple hours altogether and had I known how strenuous the hike was going to be, I would not have ventured up at 2pm in the blazing sun. Or perhaps I would have at least put on some sunscreen!! As it was, I ended up very burnt by the time we got back down...but it was well worth it having made it all the way to the top.
On January 9th we had a banquet and celebrated Don Exley's birthday!! Below are some of the missionaries from Argentina that I know pretty well.
Rocky & Sherry Grams Flynn & Sherri Clanton Renay West Dave & Carol Ellis And here I am with Renay & Sherri being absolutely crazy! :) Yes, it's Charlie's Angels!! On our last full day at the retreat, the MKs played their Dads in American Football...the MKs won. :) Here Sonia, Debbie and Shari watch the game and try to cheer their spouses on. As soon as the game ended, most of us headed straight for the pool to cool off and try our hand at a little water volleyball...which was actually more of just water volleying, but it was fun. The services throughout the week were really wonderful...here we are during praise and worship one night. Finally, on January 11th we all headed home, which meant a flight over the Andes Mountains for me. :) They were so gorgeous and still had so much snow for the middle of summer...here's a pic from my window. It was an amazing retreat and I was so thankful to be here for it since they only come along once every two years.