Welcome Home Joseph!

Joseph arrived home on Saturday afternoon after spending a few weeks in Santiago, Chile. 

Walking by our old apartment building home sweet home in Chile. It was on the way to church.

It was his decision to go. In January, when Corey started toying with the idea of Brazil, he and Joseph talked about him going to Chile if he wanted, and after receiving a blessing that counseled him to learn Spanish, he decided that if we did go to Brazil, he'd choose to spend some of the time in Chile if he could. So that is part of how this whole thing was arranged. So Joseph stayed with some friends of ours who were in our ward when we lived in Chile - Victor and Paula. They took good care of Joseph, and their kids go to the same school where our kids went when they were in Chile - Maria Luisa Bombal. So Joseph went there with Santiago and Lara ~ yes, back again four years later. He wasn't enrolled as an official student, but just sat in and participated so he could learn Spanish. Also cause he's taking Spanish 4 at Skyline this upcoming school year and he wasn't ready for it before this. So on his first day at school in Chile, the students remembered him. And remembered the girl that he liked back then. And then the teacher put Joseph in the desk next to her (oh the pressure!). We had Joseph come prepared with pictures of his "girlfriends" here in Utah, so he could flash those pictures around and say "Tengo polola!" and hopefully keep the girls at bay. Kids at school during a brief recess break~

Now he feels ready though, after these past 3 1/2 weeks of Spanish immersion! Here are a few of the pictures he took:

~kids in his class doing work~

This was at a mall or something, Joseph went and put money in a dish that was in front of this guy, and then he moved and it totally freaked him out.

At a stake dance, he was a little disappointed that no one was dancing, so he went out and danced and grooved by himself for a while, but no one humored him by joining in. So after 30 painful minutes they left. He wishes they could all come to a dance in Utah to see what Stake youth dances are supposed to be like!

A few of the texts we got - July 3rd "We're going to the circus" and two hours later "And let me just say that this is weird. Really really weird." I told him to take some pictures and he replied "I took some videos because pictures and words can't describe it. I was laughing really hard because it's been the weirdest thing I've seen in Chile so far." And then on July 4th, he got to watch the big final soccer game between Chile and Argentina. So he celebrated the red, white and blue with us in the US, just the Chile version of it!

After the game, he got to see the country go nuts when Chile won in penalty kicks and took the title of Copa America champs.

A few texts after the game "I know what car horns are for now... to make as much noise as possible in situations like this" I replied "Chi-Chi- le-le-le!" He said "You have no idea how many times I've heard that today"

He had a great experience, although not the experience he or Corey thought he'd have. They thought it would all be pretty positive, but there were a few hard things too. Corey kept saying he wanted Joseph to be stretched but not to tear. Joseph said he didn't get torn or broken, so that's good. He brought us back some yummy treats. The Morocha cookies by McKay were our favorites.

Ethan photo bombed my picture, and I told him I'm gonna keep it and post it, ha! He's usually so worried about the pictures I post, making sure he looks as handsome as he feels. Your photobombing has backfired!

I'll try to get Joseph here to share a few more things about it later. :)