Dear Family,
It has been a very busy week for us, as well as everyone in the office. On MONDAY June 1, we were saying goodbye to the twelve new missionaries who were leaving for home. Many came in from their respective cities and stayed overnight at the mission home. We prepared a lovely dinner for them and also fed them lunch. I spent most of my time doing dishes and Mom was helping preparing the food. By the time we got back to our condo it was midnight. The next day, TUESDAY June 2, we had five new missionaries come into the Antofagasta mission and we provided lunch and dinner for them. Again, we were preparing food for the five new missionaries. Another late night was in store, but not quite so bad. On WEDNESDAY June 3, we all met at the office, and new missionaries were assigned to their companions. They have the trainer companions come in to pick up their new companion missionary. The mission presidency has a training session in the morning with the new missionaries. In the afternoon, (we had pizza for lunch) they have a new companion ceremony. No one knows who their companions are going to be. They have a ceremony with the new missionary sitting in the middle of the circle of missionaries. They are then given a letter telling them where they are being assigned and who their new companion is going to be. Their companion then comes out and they embrace and then the trainer companion gets down with a shoe brush and a picture is taken as they pretend to be shining the new missionaries shoes. It was quite tender to see all of this taking place. Following this new companion ceremony, the missionaries leave for their assignments.
On THURSDAY June 4 was the leaders conference in the mission office. We had 42 missionaries come in for the day. It was nice to visit with many of these missionaries. There were quite a number from Utah. We have missionaries from Argentina, Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile as well as the united States, They had pizza again for lunch, so we had two days of Dominos pizza in a row. That was another busy day. Some of the missionaries that came from Arica in Northern Chile had an all night bus ride to get to the office for the meeting, and then had anther all night bus ride back. I could not do something like that any more. Those that came were a really nice group of missionaries. I cannot believe the amount of work that President and Sister Dalton are required to do to manage all of these missionaries. I am glad I only have the responsibilities that I do.
Finally, on FRIDAY June 5 we had a break but still went to the office. Mom spent two hours cleaning the side street in front of the office church building and she and the missionaries watched the FUNERAL for Apostle Lee Perry. I dealt with a missionary who had an appendicitis attack and was taken to the hospital to have his appendix out. Trying to arrange for that took much of the afternoon on Friday. I have been trying to learn the system to become the financial secretary and Mom has been learning how to do the mail and handle the baptismal records. This is quite a chore for both of us.
Our P-Day is Saturday, whereas the other missionaries have Monday as a P-day. They want the office open on Monday in case the missionaries on their P-day need to contact us. Therefore we are taking care of laundry, some Spanish study etc. today. The Mission President and his wife are having the office staff over to the mission home today for lunch and they want to thank the office staff for all of the work this past week.
We did try our hand at shopping on Wednesday evening. It was quite an effort to find everything that we needed. We had not been shopping for food since we had arrived. Fortunately we ran on to a couple of missionaries from the office who helped us find what we needed. We find that everything is quite expensive here and purchasing food is also quite different. Mom tried to find some baking powder and some baking soda and it came in little small envelope type packages. We didn't seem to purchase that much, but our bill was over $100 or over 660,000 Chilean pesos
On Friday PM (date night) we walked down to the beach - sent photos to Amy to put on the mission blog, Today SATURDAY June 6 we are washing cleaning working at the condo and hope to go to the GYM here in this condo building (sent photo of building we live in on next to top floor (floor 20). On Sunday we are supposed to talk in church in Spanish since no one speaks English. The elders at the office helped Mom and I write out a brief talk too give in church in Spanish tomorrow. Should be interesting to see if they understand us.
HOPE all is well with all of you we hope to worK hard on SPANISH this upcoming week at the office having the missionaries help us. LOVE to ALL Mom and Dad
Chapel turned into the mission office
Mom settling in at her desk for office duties
Plaque outside the mission office
Getting ready for zone conference
Their apartment building
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