First send-off of missionaries

The view from their bedroom window

 You can see their tall apartment building in the background

Dear family,

We have been very busy since we arrived.  Twelve missionaries were going home and we have five new missionaries coming in today. The send off of the twelve missionaries took a great deal of effort.  We went over to the mission home at 9:30 a.m. and we did not get back to our apartment until midnight last night.  We will be back to the mission home today to receive the new missionaries.  I also have a meeting at 8:00 p.m. tonight to meet on the financial area with a regional auditor.  With the new missionaries and that meeting, I can tell it will be another long day.  We have not had time to go to the grocery store to buy groceries or anything else since we have been here.  This week end is zone conferences, and we will be driving from one end of the mission to the other in the next few days.  The mission covers 900 miles.  We will be driving through the scenic desert.  We will go all the way north to Arica, which is on the Peru border, and going through the Atacama Desert, which is the driest desert in the world.

We went to a ward for church, but it was difficult to understand too much.  They speak very fast and there were many words used that we did not understand.  The people were very nice, and we enjoyed seeing them.

For those interested in football, Tanner Mangum, the BYU Quarterback to be, was one of the missionaries leaving the mission to go home.  He left 6 weeks early so that he could begin getting in shape for BYU Football this fall.  He was an AP and seemed like a very good missionay and a fine person.  We had fun visiting with him.

Time to go, so will close for now.

Love, Mom and Dad