Shining Shoes

Dear family,

Here are some pictures taken by the mission that they have on file.  I don't think I have sent them to you before and thought you might enjoy seeing them.  The top left is the mission home with outgoing missionaries, next is our arrival in the mission and I am getting ready to shine the shoes of my companion.  The next is the shining of her shoes.  This is the custom in the mission that when new missionaries arrive and their companion to which they have been assigned shines the new arrivals shoe for a picture only.  When we arrive, we stopped at La Portada for a picture with the mission president and his wife.  Lastly, the farewell dinner for the missionaries leaving.  Notice Tanner Mangum almost front right, except for the mission president's wife.

Love,

Dad

The famous BYU Quarterback Tanner Mangum!

Chilean Parade

We had Mark Reddick, his wife Maria, Rodolfo Gabrielovich and his wife Martha over for dinner.  Mom is standing with them.  We want to turn them over to the missionaries soon.

Elder Cordova, Myself, and Elder Fakahafua.  His plans are to play football for Utah State unless I can persuade him differently.

The mission got a new truck.  I had just washed it and was driving it home and it got repainted by a big bird or several smaller birds.  I had to clean this all off.  the top was bad too.

The Quito ward had a party.  This little boy was dressed in traditional Chilean dress.

Claudio Villalobos with Margaret.  We met him at Liders store and he and his wife Monica and their daughter Gabriela had their first lesson with the missionaries.  We invited them to the church social and he came.  He is a good friend as well.  He has a hot air balloon.

View from our window at the beginning of the parade

A little boy at the parade in traditional Chile costume dress

Military marching in the parade.

Dancers doing the Quaka, a typical Chilean national dance.

The military band in the parade

Parade in Antofagasta similar to July 4th.  It was pretty impressive. 

A man was selling funny things.  A cats tail hanging out the bag and he would beat the bag and it would make a funny noise,  We discovered he was doing it with his mouth.  Pretty crazy.

Sales  to a girl with a parade dress

Another Wall Painting

Celsa, her daughter Karla and son Pablo.  We hope to be able to introduce her to the church.

We got everything set up for the Antofagasta Zone conference

The Elders favorite part of the conference.  FOOD.  Mom keeps them supplied

The Sister missionaries.  Sister Veibell and Sister Caballero are on the right and are in our ward.

We love Elder Fakahafua.  He is from Tonga but his parents have moved to Salt Lake.  He has a scholarship to play football for Utah State.  He may change to BYU if I have my way.

September Fiesta

Our condo office is decorating for the Septiembre 18 Holiday.  It is like the 4th of July

 Paintings on buildings and fences is big in Chile.  They are everywhere.  Here are some samples.

 Another sample where they are just beginning to paint the fence.  Very colorful.

You can hardly see the dog in the shadow, but the little puppy always excited to see us come as we always have some food for him.

Chilean fiesta day for our ward in Origines.  Bishop sitting on the table and his councilor in Chilean dress making some announcements.

 Margaret with some little Chilean children.  Gustav on the right is the son of one of our investigators.

 Completos available.

 Rodolfo helping Gustav with the fish pond.

 Our investigator, Mark Reddick, playing ping pong with some of the young boys in the ward.  He seemed to have a really good time.

Rodolfo, their boy Gustav and Martha dancing at the fiesta.  They are our investigators.  Wonderful people.

 Luis Zapata spinning a top for the missionaries.  They could not do as well as he did.  The elders are Elder Figuroa from Chile and Elder Plowman from Utah.  The per between them is Jorge Castillo who served a mission in Brazil.

Mom visiting with the two women who we brought to the fiesta.  They are investigators.

 Jorge castillo, his mother who teaches gospel doctrine in the ward and his sister with her twins.

  Mark Reddick and his wife Maria Gomez at the Fiesta.  They are really some fun investigators.  They resulted from me needing a watch battery

 Martha Gabrielovich, Mark Reddick, Maria Gomez  (who are investigators) with Margaret at the fiesta celebration of the Origenes ward.

 There is even a dog at the party

 Performers at the fiesta.

Dear family,

This past week starting with Sunday Sept. 6 (2015) to now Saturday Sept 12 (2015).  We had company over for dinner last Saturday PM and after they left I felt so tired I went right to bed, and woke up Sunday  am feeling even worse, so I didn't go to church and stayed in bed  most of that day but  was able to get up long enough to have the man Claudio and his wife and 3 children over for dinner. This proved to be helpful to us in ways I cannot go into at this time, but we will have more to do with him starting in 2 more weeks when we help at an English Class for Spanish ward members who want to learn English. This man and his wife are the 1st couple helping  (the class teacher) and we will be the 2nd couple helping for 1 1/2 hours every Thurday PM starting the last week of September.

Then Monday things got worse and I could hardly even move in bed from one side to another or even turn over. George went to the office and came home at least twice to check on me. He called Sister Lawson the other missionary couple (wife) and she is helping as mission nurse even though she is not a nurse. She told us of a FLUE medicine that has proved to be helpful in the past (perscritption) Tamiflue.  George went to the pharmacy at Liders and they didn't have it but a little tiny pharmacy did and fortunately a woman was at  that store store at the same time as George from our WARD and she vouched for the fact that the "mission nurse" is qualified to tell us what to take. Even without a perscription the druggist gave the pills to George for the fee (or course).

I started the Tamiflue pill Monday PM and the lower back pain left almost immediately. Then on Tuesday further improvement happened, and I also had George and the Elders give me a blessing. By reading the complications associated with this medicine it got me so worried that I called my brother Norman and he calmed my fears saying that he had perscribed it in the states and it was a reliable medicine (even though it was under a different name here RIMIVAT 75 mg. I consider it a miracle that by   Wed I did go back to the office, but did rest for some of the day on a bed in the storage room that was on the floor (a mattress).

This meant we had a SHORT WEEK and I went on Thur and Fri too.  I also cleaned the office refrigerator Friday afternoon (took 3 hours) and it was not a fun job. But I had to do it and the throw a way PILE got bigger and bigger as the event went on and on.

Saturday was today and we invited our FOUR new friends Rodolpho and his wife Martha and son Gustave and Rodolpho's half sister  Maria (my spanish helper) and her US husband Mark to attend the WARD FIESTA. George took some photos and we certainly cannot tell it all but even though it was outside, they wanted a tour of the building where we attend church. They were impressed with the church and the site and said the property alone would be worth over a million dollars now. The site has the Institute building plus a large parking lot, and the church building. Then another unoccupied lot. We had such a FUN time with them and their little boy (age 3 1/2) did not want to go home. They are all (5 of them) coming for dinner tomorrow. Then they said they would attend ONE session of General Conference with us at another church to see what it was like. They are wonderful Christians, and yet are not ready to start formal missionary lessons  We have given each couple a Book of Mormon.

We keep MIXING missionary work with our office work which gives us PLENTY to do, and we are certain the Lord must send these people to us.  We do not know the end of their stories, as to whether they will accept or reject the gospel message. Currently three of our contacts are with missionaries receiving lessons. Two will probably be baptized sometime in the future. We have at least 6 other situations that we hope to turn over to the missionaries.. Then one couple started lessons and now has stopped, but we ran onto him (the husband) at the store and he will come to dinner in a week and said he has questions about the Book of Mormon that he needs some answers for.

Our SPANISH is progressing but not as fast as we would like. The lady Maria and her husband Mark come over every Wed PM for 2 or more hours and as volunteers help us. They are terrific. ( same couple that went to the ward party on Saturday.) We enjoy them so very much. They ask us very interesting Church related questions it is obvious Mark is getting stuff off from the Internet  Some of his information is not too accurate or reliable.

We continue to have our PROBLEMS mainly due to being 73 and 75. I cannot go into these problems, but rest assured, we so far have not determined how NOT to have problems, of which over half are of our own making.

We LOVE all of you and MISS you each  of you one by one. We plead with the Lord to help each one of our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren, as we cannot be there to help you. We have been promised that  "He" will help each of you with your problems and concerns. We are so impressed with the daily sacrifices you each make to provide for your children and to give them opportunities to bless their lives. We also know he will bless you with answers to your daily concerns, even if answers do not come as you would like they do come in what is best for the long haul.

MUCH LOVE

Mom and Dad

A Farming We Will Go

Edwards came to our home for lunch and then took us to his lettuce and vegetable farm.  He sent us some pictures that he took at the time.  He was very nice, but really had no interest in religion.  He is coming again to our home this Sunday.

Dear Family,

Sorry for not writing sooner, but we were gone doing audits over the weekend of Independent Branches.  We went to El Salvador, Diego de Almagra, Chanaral, and Tal Tal. They are small branches, but mission is required to do audits of these branches every six months.  We had to stay overnight in Chanaral, as these places are south of Antofagasta and are about six hours travel time away.  We had one audit on Saturday, but spent most of the day traveling, and did three audits on Sunday.  We had one at 8:00 a.m., another one at 2:00 p.m. and another one at 6:00 p.m.  We attended church at the branch in El Salvador.  There are only two priesthood holders in the branch, one is the Branch President, and the other one was his 1st Councilor.  Both of them spoke, which they must do each Sunday.  Their families, the missionaries, a senior single sister who is 85 years of age and Margaret and I and Elder Gonzalez were the only ones in attendance.  They had me bless the Sacrament (both bread and water in Spanish) and Margaret said the closing prayer in Spanish.  Let us say we did the best we could.  We arrive back about 10:00 p.m. on Sunday night.

We are sorry we did not send any pictures this time.  My Ipad indicates that it is disabled.  Apparently I need to connect to a computer with my IPad and update some things, but I did not bring the cord with me.  I can probably find one here in Antofagasta, but my next problem is I do not have any money.  My credit cards have not yet arrived, and I have no way of purchasing anything.  I have never felt so helpless.  I borrowed 60,000 pesos from a missionary, which is about $80, but we had some essential things we had to purchase (mainly food) today, so we do not have much of that left.  We keep thinking that any day our credit cards will arrive, but each day we are disappointed.  They were mailed on the 21st of July, and tomorrow we will be into September.   We did have Elder Gonzalaz take some pictures, which hopefully he will get forwarded to me this week, and then I can send you some pictures later in the week.  We need all of your prayers that we will soon have the ability to purchase according to our needs.

Driving in Chile is quite an experience.  The roads are very narrow, they drive very fast, there are tons of one way streets, but many times there is no indication that they are one way, and most people are switching lanes regularly without ever signaling.  Sometimes there are arrows on the road indicating direction, but apparently laws have changed because people are ignoring them.  I have been on a two lane street in town signaling to turn left, and about the time I am to turn, someone passes me on the left side.  I try to drive very carefully so as not to be in an accident.  People park everywhere and it is very common to be driving down the road in the right lane and have the car in front of you stop and turn on their trouble lights while they let someone in or out of the car.  Sometimes they park for several minutes while you are stuck, not being able to get in the other lane because of cars whizzing by in the next available lane.  Parking stalls where we live are very narrow.  Sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to park, as I go forward a few feet and then back a few feet and forward a few feet and back a few feet while trying to negotiate into a very narrow parking stall with cars in the front and sides with only a foot or two to spare.

We are still working with the missionaries on teaching families.  I find it very frustrating in this country, as we give away a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon, but getting someone to read them is extremely difficult.  They seem interested, you commit them to read it, but the next time you meet with them, they have not read even a paragraph.  They say they didn't have time.  I told the office elders this morning that there was a war in heaven which has now moved to the earth.  The missionaries are a war with the adversary.  If the adversary can keep people from reading the Book of Mormon, he has won.

I will see if I can get some of the pictures we have sent to you during the week.  I have to wait until they are sent to me.

Love,

Mom and Dad