Dear Family (Sent October 12, 2016 from Antofagasta, Chile)
If you want to view the photos you will need to go to the blog. Thanks to Mackenzie!
We appreciate the phone calls and emails we have received over the past while. We have been ever so busy and the days go by so fast, we hardly can keep up. Just knowing we have a little over four weeks of actual missionary work we are really now in high gear as we have so much to do, in working with our current contacts, and what we still do at the office.
We surely appreciate your prayers and feel the help from those prayers as well as help coming from our Heavenly Father with little miracles here and there that we never anticipated. Just like yesterday we invited Monica and Ben and Monica's father over for lunch as she had helped George translate at the recent fireside he did on the Book of Mormon (more on this next week). Well, anyway during the lunch Monica said she and her mother had recently visited Valiiprasio and a stake president (speaks English and Spanish) there had showed them around. She is going to call him to see if he will take us around when we go there in the upcoming future. What a nice surprise for us.
We do hope you are all WELL and doing whatever you are doing with the least amount of conflicts or problems, of which those kinds of things seem to always be in all of our happenings, and probably in yours too. George wrote the following stories for this week, and I added the titles. ENJOY!
Story 330: WATCHING GENERAL CONFERENCE (Oct. 1 & 2, 2016) We enjoyed watching conference with many of the missionaries. In the chapel they have a large screen in the Chapel area where everything is translated into Spanish. Naturally all of the Chileans navigate to that room to hear the messages in the native tongue. Sadly it is only a translation of what is being said by those speaking. They miss the inflections and presentation given directly by the General Authority. They also have what they call a "Gringo Room" where those who go who would want to listen to the messages in English. A number of the missionaries go to that room to watch conference. We joined the missionaries in that room even though we had investigators in the much larger chapel area. I took a picture of the backs of the missionaries who are standing watching the conference on TV. Since we were sitting in the back, the picture shows what we were seeing when they stood up. We had Mary Elizabeth and her daughter Melissa at the conference. We have pictures of them as they were scheduled to be baptized on the 8th of October.
Story 331: CLEYDE VISITING from OVALLE (Our son, David, served in Ovalle when he was on his mission) We were happy to have Cleyde Colome back in Antofagasta to visit her sister. She was one that we helped teach and see that she was baptized in April 2015. She seems to be doing well and active in the church. We have pictures of both Margaret and I with her. She is single, Margaret is trying to line her up with a man in the MIramar Ward who is also single and about the same age. She just graduated in nursing and he is a medical technician at the Antofagasta Hospital. Margaret is pretty excited about getting those two together. We will have to keep you posted as to how that turns out.
Story 332: TWO BAPTISMS from MY OPENING MY MOUTH (Sept. 2016) Mary Elizabeth and her daughter Melissa were baptized on the 8th of October, 2016 They were really excited about their baptized and so were we along with the missionaries who taught them. Elder Holland indicated that the missionaries were to open their mouths at the last devotional at the MTC in Provo. We have tried to do that while we have served in the mission. While waiting in line at the bank, (they have chairs to sit on while you wait in line) I started talking to the person sitting next to me. She was not overly interested in talking even though I was trying to practice my Spanish. Just before she left, the person behind me could tell I was not Chilean and asked me where I was from. I told him and then he saw my name tag and called me Elder. I knew he was a member of the church, but apparently not active. He said his wife was not a member. She was up being helped. When she returned I started talking to her about the church and got their names and addresses. They said they would be willing to listen to the missionaries. I went with the Elders to meet with them the first time and we invited them over to our home for dinner. The missionaries continued to teach them and they were baptized on October 8, 2016. This is a picture of the Mary Elizabeth, Melissa, the missionaries, and Margaret and I just before their baptism. It was a happy day.
Story 333: CHILE and CHILEAN PROTESTS ( End of Sept. 2016) There is always something going on in Chile. I could hear a band playing and lots of noise and look out and there is a march going on in the main thoroughfare through Antofagasta. Cars were backed up behind them as they are protesting something. I took took a picture out of the window of the protest.
Story 334: MORE PHOTOS on CHILEAN FOOD "CONCHA SHELLS" We have had some interesting food in Chile. Some of it I have really liked. Some things are not quite as attractive. We have had Octopus a couple of times. If I didn't have to think what an Octopus looks like while I ate it I would be Okay, as it is not too bad. It is the Thought that makes it hard to eat as you see the tenacles and suction cups on the food you are eating.
The other night at Ideide's home she and Wilson had made Concha shells. They buy them at the store, break them open and scrape out what is inside and then cook it. After it is cooked, they put it back int he shell and put some seasoning and cheese on it and serve it. Margaret and I both thought they were potatoes. She picked it up to eat it and bpth her and my teeth clanked on a shell I took this picture of them so you could see what they were like. I probably would not order them in a restaurant, but they were not bad. I also took a picture of the Pizza that they fixed. They are pretty attractive, have a whole wheat crust for health, and are not bad. We have learned about a lot of new kinds of food in Chile.
Story 335 CONTINUING the PIANO LESSONS for DANIEL (no photos) We will have to send some photos next week. But thanks to Julie, Stephanie and Bryan we have received beginning music so we could teach Daniel beginning piano. It is SO different in teaching when you do not have a piano book to work with. We cut large squares of Card Board and then glued a piano song on the front and then on the back. When he learns a song he gets a sticker on the piece. Then each day he plays ALL of the cardboard songs, one after another about one time each.
Bryan sent some "folk songs" that were one liners and we added some CHORDS for his to play with both hands. He is really starting to enjoy the piano and jumped up from supper last night and went to play his songs. We told him he was playing our dinner music. The little keyboard he has has a "window" like place that shows a music lines and spaces and shows the PICTURE of the note he is pushing on the keyboard.
This has been a fun experience, and actually the father WILSON is so proud of his son (age 10) for learning how to play the piano that he even consented to come to church with us last Sunday. We do not know where this will all go, as we only have FOUR more weeks. We teach him a new song each time we go to their home which is about three times a week. A different approach to teaching piano but it is working. We have RUN out of music again, and hope to receive some more BEGINNING songs. Stephanie sent us alot but the file was TOO big to send over to the office to have it printed. She is in the process of sending those again as they looked really fun. Bryan may send us some more FOLK songs too. The mother actually went looking at pianos this past week.
PS We will take photos of the cardboard songs this coming week to send next week.
LOVE to all MOM and DAD
Dear family,
We provided lunch for Monica Cruz (left) her father George, next to her Margaret and I and Ben Cruz on the left, Monica's husband. Monica translated for me at my presentation and her Father is very interested in Book of Mormon geography and is leaving to go back to Columbia on Thursday, so we had them over to our home. It was a nice visit and we learned some things we needed to know about Buenos Aires. Also she knows someone in Valparaiso that will help us there.
Love,
Dad
We watched conference with some of the missionaries. This was the English speaking room. When the missionaries stood up, this is what we saw.
Cleyde Colome came back to Antofagasta for a visit. It was nice to see her again. She was baptized April. 2015.
Another Foto of Cleyde with Margaret
Melissa and her Mother Mary Elizabeth at Conference. I Met the Mary Elizabeth at Banco Estado and referred her to the missionaries. We had them for dinner as well. As you can see they attended conference.
Elder Perez and Elder Burnthorn with Melissa and Mary Elizabeth. They were the Missionaies who taught them.
All is well that ends well. Melissa and Mary Elizabeth were baptized Saturday, October 8th.
Elder Burnthorn, a member of the Quito Ward who baptized Melissa, Elder Perez who baptized Mary Elizabeth and Margaret and I. It was a happy day.
There is always something going on on the street where we live, which is the Costenera. This is a demonstration of sorts and was playing music and making noise.
We had dinner at Wilson's and Ideides. These are Concha Shells They break open the shells and cook what is inside and then put it back in the shell with cheese etc. That was very interesting to eat.
Wilson and Ideide also made a Pizza. They use whole Wheat crust for health purposes. The Pizza was very good.
