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