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
No comments:
Post a Comment