Cake Mix Contacts

This is one of the oldest Catholic Churches in Antofagasta.  We stopped by to go in, but it was closed.  We will have to visit it another day.   We gave away a book of Mormon to a neighbor and got his name and address for the missionaries.  

The Central park in Antofagasta is enjoyed by the dogs

 his dog tries to attack us every morning as we walk to the office.  I find that he is not nearly so brave if he is outside the bars where he is protected.  He is then wimpy.

Mom walking around the sleeping dog to get to our apartment.

This is Luis and Allie Salis (father and son) who work in the wood shop.  The owner of he wood shop is Leonel Nunez.  We are going with the missionaries tonight to his home.

 This is a picture of he wood shop where they make and refinish furniture.  While there, note the missionaries were able to pick up another contact.

 We walk past this wood shop each day to the office.  We have become friends with them.  We picked up the owner as an investigator for the missionaries.  We will be going with the missionaries to see he and his family this evening. Luis Solis doing his job in the wood shop.

 We are in the dead of winter here now, but note the people on the beach outside of our window.  Note the people on the beach and the people in the water trying to catch some big waves from the Pacific and ride them back to shore.  The store you see in front (Its name is on the front is Liders,) but is owned by Walmart.  You can see the walmart insignia.  That is where we do our shopping.

Mom enjoying p-day and studying the scriptures by osmosis.

Raul and Jennifer Merino came to dinner tonight,  They speak very little English and our Spanish is not very good.  They were going to help us with English and us help them with Spanish.  We gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and they agreed to have the missionaries come and teach them.  We felt a wonderful spirit in our home this evening.  I believe they are Golden contacts.

He works at Liders (Walmart where we shop for groceries) and Margaret was trying to find a cake mix.  We had such difficulty communicating that and him understanding what we wanted that we about had a tour of the store before we finally were able to get the cake mix..  When we finally got the cake mix, mom invited him to dinner with his wife and 3 month old baby.  We had a veery enjoyable evening with them and have invited them back along with the missionaries.

Mom wanted me to take a picture of her new plants and send them.  The yellow is the remainder of her birthday flowers and the plants on the left are new.  We need a little greenery in this country of so much desert.

Dear Family,

     This was a much lighter week of work in the office.  We did not go to Copiapo for that conference as originally planned, and the Mission President and his wife and then returned and went to Arica (nine hours north) for a week.  As a result, the office was quiet and we were able to learn our duties in the office and catch up on some of the work.

     This also gives us an opportunity to share some of the missionary experiences that we have had.  Obviously, until we learn Spanish, we will not be able to do much teaching, but we can do finding.  We visit with people along the street and make friends with people there as well as in the store where we go shopping.  I sent pictures of the men working in the wood shop.  Their employer is Leonel Nunez.  We began visiting with him as we passed by on a couple of occasions.  We learned that he has a son who served a mission in Columbia and came back and is now a doctor in Calama.  He and his wife have not joined the church, however.  He is very friendly to us, and agreed to have us come this evening to his home with the missionaries.  I asked him why he was not a member of the church if his son was a missionary, and he said it is not too late.  We brought the missionaries to his shop and introduced them to him.  We will see how it goes tonight.

     While shopping for groceries the last couple of times, we picked up three or four more investigators.  Margaret always invites them to our home for dinner.  If things turn out well, we will have the missionaries begin teaching them.  One girl went to BYU, but is now engaged to a non-member of the church.  She went on a mission and is trying to teach he Fiance the gospel.  We invited them over to help with that process.  Another man was at the store with his two young boys.  We learned that he is separated from his wife, so we invited him over next week when he has his boys again.  He has heard of the church, but that is about it.  He is a very nice man, and could certainly benefit from church membership.  He was pleased that we wold invite him over for dinner.  Yesterday, another young man was an employee of the store and helped us find some things that we needed.  He was super helpful.  He is married and has one little baby.  He is coming over Sunday with his wife for dinner.  That should be interesting, as he and his wife speak no english and we speak very little Spanish.  Hopefully we will be able to communicate that we care.  One other contact we made in the store asked us to be sure and call him.  We have not made contact with him yet.  W still have several others along the street that we have visited with, but have not had the missionaries go see them yet.  Until we can do more teaching in Spanish, we will have to be content with finding and turning them over to the missionaries.  They are always happy to receive good referrals.

      Since we were not so busy this week, we spent quite a bit of evening time working our Spanish.  We get a little overwhelmed with all that there is to learn, but have made some progress.  We have worked on the computer with Duolingo, which tells me on am 26% fluent in Spanish.  I do know quite a few words, but putting them altogether with correct conjugations has been tricky.  We are determined to learn the language, however.

       I had one of the computer guru missionaries help me get my computer up and running again.  I dare  not use it for any private information, as I do not know what "egg they laid in my computer" but I can use it to catch up on the news and work on my Spanish, which is useful.  I use mom's laptop to access the banks and other personal information.

      We are sorry we were not there to make Root Beer for the 4th and 24th of July celebrations.  That had become a tradition.  Also I loved to barbeque for family on those holidays, but didn't get to do that either.  Most people here "gasp" when we tell them we had nine children and have 32 grandchildren.  When they come to our condo we are always so proud to show them the pictures on the calendars that you gave to us before we left.  Obviously, we are very proud of all of you and the lives you are living.     You are often a good example to us and how we can be better.  We appreciate all that you have done for us in helping us get here.  We could not be here without the many services that you have provided.

   

Much love to all,

Mom and Dad

Elder Zeballos visit

Thirteen new missionaries just arrived.  We are serving them lunch in the back yard of the mission home

 Sister Randell (center) just arrived.  Since she is from Grantsville, Mom was excited to talk to her since Margarets father (Merrill Fawson was born in Grantsvile.

 We are serving lunch for 88 missionaries etc. in Iquique.  Elder Gonzalez to the left and Elder Hortua to the right were a big help in helping serving the lunch.  Note table decorations.

 The only other couple serving in the Antofagasta Mission is Elder and Sister Lawson.  They have become good friends.  They serve the church in Iquique

Once the conference ended, the missionaries were ready for lunch.  They were anxious to eat what we had prepared.

 Mom beginning to work on cleanup.  We served lunch to all of the missionaries you see in the back.  This was a mission conference which was held with Elder Zeballos.

July 18, 2015,

Dear family,

It seems this past week was the busiest one we have had since we have been in the mission field.  It started out on Sunday with us beginning to prepare for the outgoing Elders and Sisters.  We had nineteen missionaries return to their homes on Monday.  Getting them in from their sectors, handling their luggage, providing lunch and dinner at the mission home, preparing food, doing dishes, and waiting until they finished everything at the mission home made for a very long day.  I think it was near midnight when we finally went to bed.  Unfortunately, it was a short night, as we had to be up and preparing for 13 new missionaries arriving in the field.  Also, they have the companion trainers come in to Antofagasta from their sectors to pick up the new missionaries as companions.  We were busy driving to the bus depot to pick up these missionaries and shuttle them to the mission home.  After getting them all there, we served them lunch and cleaned things up and then returned to the mission office to prepare for the next day.  We hosted the new missionaries at the office and served lunch (this time it was easy since it was Dominoes Pizza) but continued to do the things necessary to prepare for the Elder Zeballos visit.  There was a lot of things that had to be done.  In the afternoon, we began taking the Elders and Sisters to their sectors.  I had to make serval trips to the bus terminal taking elders and sisters to the bus so they could travel to their various points of assignment. Following all of that, there was to be a conference with Elder Zeballos in Antofagasta the next day (Thursday).  We worked until really late trying to clean, purchase food, clean cars and everything we could to prepare for a General Authority visit.  We finished quite late and it was another near midnight before going to bed.  With the Elder Zeballos visit, we were to be to the church at at 7:30 a.m.  and then had the conference for four hours.  Immediately following the conference we loaded the van and headed to Iquique for the conference the next day, which was  to be on Friday.   We shopped and prepared food for 88 missionaries.  We cleaned up afterwards, loaded the car and returned for a six hour ride back to Antofagasta.  We took six elders in the van along with all of the supplies we needed.  It was pretty cramped.  We arrived back in Antofagasta around 8:30 p.m. and had to unload the van and take care of a few things before going to our condo.  We were dead tired.  Fortunately, President Dalton called us this morning and told us that we did not have to go to Copiapo for that conference.  We were so relieved, as the weeks work and events was enormous.  We now can return to normality.  We did go over to the office even though it was our p-day to get everything organized for the elders to make their trip too Copiapo.
     That was our week, and it was a big one.

We hope all of you are doing well.  Since we have been gone and so busy, we have not talked to any of you this week so do not know much of what is going on.  With my computer down, I also have not been able to check the news or look at any e-mails.  We feel kind of lost as to what is going on in the world.  We are now back in Antofagasta and don't have much else scheduled for another month, so should be able to be in touch more.

We pray for you each day, and try to do so in Spanish, but I am certain he Lord knows our hearts, so whatever we say that may be wrong will be understood by our Heavenly Father.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Dogs of Antofagasta

I get a kick out of the dogs here.  You find them dead asleep in the middle of paths where people are walking, in the gutters, sides of the road etc.  It seems they are able to sleep while people walk around them and almost have to step over them.

Dear Family,

It has been a crazy week trying to get everything done before the transfers take place tomorrow.  I will lose Elder McComb in the financial area and gain Elder Gonzales.  He will be good, but I will miss Elder McComb.  He was such a great help in teaching me what I needed to know.  He is going to still be working in Antofagasta, so can still be some help, but Elder Harris is being transferred all to Calama, and Elder De La Pena is going way up North to Arica.  Elder Orribe is going to Alto Hospicio by Iquique so we will have some new faces in the office to work with.  Elder Erickson and Elder Horta will remain in the office.

The office has been a little frantic with all of the transfers coming on Monday.  We have 13 new missionaries coming and are sending 19 missionaries home.  Monday we will be at the mission home all day feeding the missionaries that are leaving and preparing for the new missionaries that will be coming in on Tuesday.  Wednesday is the meeting at the office where the trainers pick up their companions etc. so that is another big day.  After we serve them on Wednesday, we quickly prepare for Elder Zeballos of the Seventy who arrives on Thursday.  We will have to be all ready for him in Antofagasta.  We serve the food for 50 plus people to the mission conference on Thursday, and at noon jump in the car, pick up some groceries that we need and drive to Iquique which is a six hour drive North.  We then have to set up the church that evening for the missionaries in the North.  We will have mission conference there on Friday and again after cleaning up, return to Antofagasta, a six hour drive back.  Fortunately we have Saturday to recuperate a little, but Sunday afternoon we go South six hours to Copiapo for the missionaries who are in the South.  Are you TIRED yet?  I am, and the week has not even begun.

As you know, I was hacked on my computer, so have had to cancel all of my credit cards, and try to block all of my bank accounts. It was a terrible mess.  Also I no longer have a computer until I can get it looked at.  I will not be able to do that for a week.  Had I been in Utah, this would have never happened, but I was confused with the problem thinking my internet problem was in  Chile.  If I had thought, I would have known better.  A short lapse of sound thinking caused me an enormous problem.  Hopefully I will be able to recover everything next week when I can have my computer looked at.

We had all of the office missionaries over for dinner yesterday, and have to young couples coming to our home for dinner today.  Having them come, and talking in Spanish helps us.  It also helps us get acquainted with people.

Since it is now winter here, the weather has been slightly cooler.  Not much, as I still see people swimming at the beach here in Antofagasta.  When we go south, we noticed it got colder.  When we went North to Arica, it was quite warm and nice.

We wish we could have been with you in East Canyon.  I hope that worked out for everyone.  It is always fun for he children, but we will have to make certain we schedule it so that we can get two condos.

Our Prayers are always with you.

Love Mom and Dad

Desert Flower Garden and Vallenar

Swimming pool at Copiapo that was filled with mud during the flooding in April

Beautiful town plaza at Taltal

Mom fixed dinner for the office elders:  Beginning right front Elders Orribe, Cloward and McComb peeking out  - Left Front Elders Hortua, Erickson, De La Pena and Harris

Our walk from the church to our apartment.  the Apartment is on the right 20th floor

Our walk from the condo to the office.  The tree in the way distance on the right is just beyond the church.  We walk to and from the church that distance each day.

This is Mom's desert flower garden that she is very proud of.  Flowers from the dry dry desert caused by unusual rain that Mom dug and bought back.

Here is mom digging up her flower.

Flowers in the arrid desert tha sprouted up as a result of the heavy rain in April

 Here we are.  See all of the colorful flowers in the background

Breakfast served at our hotel in Vallenar

General living room at our hotel in Vallenar

 Patio at our hotel in Vallenar

Reception area of our hotel in Vallenar

 Front of our hotel in Vallenar.  Our room was the upstairs window in the center right.

Church on the Plaza in Vallenar

 Mom and I by an old Pepper tree at the Plaza at Vallenar