Thanksgiving in Chile

Dear family,

We missed all of you at Thanksgiving, but sent you some pictures of our Thanksgiving day events.  Margaret the office elders some dinner, and then we went to a Thanksgiving dinner with some non-member friends.  They told us they could not see us here without having a regular Thanksgiving dinner.  It was lovely, and they could not have been kinder to us.

We seem to keep very busy.  We work in the office during the day and try to do missionary work in the evening.  One of the big problems in Chile is that people work long hours trying to survive.  In most cases, the husband and wife both work.  Their hours are long and often they are also working on Sunday as well.  When we went to the baptism on Saturday, Sandra Dias, the mother of Javier was there.  She is a lovely lady, but works all day Monday through Friday taking care of an elderly woman, and then works in the Farmers market on Sunday from 7 in the morning until 6:00 p.m. at night.  How do you teach someone the Gospel who never has time to read the Book of Mormon or go to Church.  They are sincere honest good people, but are burdened trying to support themselves.  Sometimes I feel the adversary is winning by keeping people so occupied with making a living that religion is not something they feel they need to worry about at the present time.  Many people are in the same situation.  both husband and wife work, they work many Sunday's and trying to survive and get ahead is more important than being a member of the true church.

We are still working with Hugo Rivera and Alfred Yanez.  Hugo we met at Turbus and Alfred we met at Liders.  They are both being taught by the missionaries, are attending church, but have not committed to baptism as yet.  They have both been invited, are moving forward, but a little slower than the missionaries would like.  We are having both of them over for lunch today after church.  We really enjoy them as friends as well.

The weather here is getting warmer each day.  I find wearing a long sleeve white shirt during the day is a little uncomfortable.  It is hard to believe that you are having snow, cold and ice in Utah.  I check the weather periodically in Utah, and it sounds like you are getting some snow and cold.  Hopefully, you will get plenty of snow in the mountains to alleviate the water problem that has gone on for several years.  I would like to have some water in the streams when I return.  Hopefully my Talbot cousins have not caught all of the fish.  I want to take Zach fishing.  He said he has not gone since we left.

we are receiving a lot of mail now in the mission.  All the missionary Christmas packages are arriving.  Mom and I were downtown on Friday so picked up the mail and we had 15 packages, some of them being big.  They gave us a big sack at the Post Office to deal with the packages, but even then, not all of them would fit in.  It was almost more than Mom and I could deal with.  Fortunately, however, we also received a package from Jon and Melanie, so picking up the mail was worth it.

It is time for us to go to church, so I better close.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Margaret prepared Thanksgiving dinner for the office missionaries.  This how it looked, even with a menu

 This is a picture of the office missionaries.  Talbots Hart, Childs, Gonzalez, Maki, Ortega, Morales and Hortua.

 Surrounding the table - Elders, Ortega, Hart, Gonzalez, Maki, Talbots, Childs, Morakes abd Hortua

 We were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner with non-member friends.  Left to right - Able from Spain, Rodolfo, Maria Antonette, Genevive, Mark Reddick, Margaret, and Martha,  In the front is Gustavio, son of Rodolfo and Martha.

A birthday party for Felipe, son of Monica and Claudio. We got some members of the ward to help him celebrate.  None here are members of the church

 These are all members of Monica's family, mother and sister and children who attended the party

A beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean from our balcony.

Maria Antonette with her grandchildren

Rodolfo with his two sisters.  Genevive on his right and Maria on his left

Marias son Rodrigo and his live in girlfriend and daughter,  The doll is the craze here now

 A picture of all of the women at the dinner.  Carolina, Rodrigo's wife (?) Genevive, Connie, Martha, Maria, and Margaret.

 Maria antonette hosted the Thanksgiving dinner.  She is not a member, but a very lovely person.  The family goes to the Evangelical church.

  Mark Reddick, Maria's husband holding their granddaughter and her doll.  These dolls are a craze  in Chile.  He said this doll cost $35.

 Genevive and her cat.

 Saturday we attended a baptism for Javier in the white shirt.  We met his mother Sandra at farmers market and talked to her.  She is not a member of the church, but a lovely person.  Her problem is she works Saturday and Sunday.

Sent from my iPad

Elder Quinton L. Cook Visit

Dear Family,  November 15 (Sun) through November 21 (Sat)

This has been an extremely busy and difficult week.  We knew it would be, so kind of braced ourselves for it, but it still took its toll on us.  We are now back in our apartment and it is 8 am here. (I am listening to the BYU game while writing this.)

TRANSFERS: (Combios take place every 6 weeks)
On monday we were sending missionaries home that have completed their missions.  That isn't too bad, as we have to do some driving and picking people up, but not too much more to do with them, but we also had to get ready for Tuesday when the new missionaries come in.   Here it is called (Combios) which means (change) in Spanish. In English they generally call it (Transfers), but they do not call it that here. We received eleven new missionaries,  for whom I also had to do driving and picking up, etc.  Also we had to prepare purchase and prepare food for them on Tuesday at the mission home and then prepare the office for the meeting on Wednesday when their companions arrive and they leave for their sectors.  Again driving  people around and food. prep. On Wednesday the new missionaries meet their trainers and the two of them depart after lunch for their new areas of service. This is always a three day process: Mon (old ones leave), Tue (new ones come), Wed (new ones meet their trainers) and after an orientation and lunch, they go out into the field. The next combios (changes) will be two days after Christmas on Monday 28, Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30. We will have over 20 missionaries leaving for this one. Every six weeks this takes place and there is a lot of work and preparations that take place to get ready for this three day process. As there are 52 weeks in a year  this process takes place 8 times each year. This means we will work with 12 of them (three day process) during our mission.

ELDER QUINTON L. COOK: (Apostle)
Elder Cook was to arrive on Friday with two other general authorities, so we had to make certain everything was clean and in order and then shop and prepare food for 120 missionaries to be served in the office on Saturday and prepare 60 lunches for those having to catch a bus and leave right after the missionary meeting on Saturday to go back to their sectors.  That was no small chore.  Mom and I were both worn out every night   Serving 120 hungry missionaries right after going to a conference for two hours in the morning was a real effort.  Unfortunately we did not have the help we needed, as the office missionaries were tempted to go and see their former companions and visit with other missionaries.  We found ourselves in the office alone trying to do everything for a while, but fortunately some of the other missionaries offered to help us and we made it through the day.

ELDER COOK'S TALK:  (to the over 200 Missionaries)
We enjoyed his talk particularly as he spoke in English and had a translator for those who speak spanish.  It was interesting how they did it. He talked only in very short sentences, so it flowed right along (English) then (Spanish). He told the missionaries to write the four things down that he wanted them to hear.  He told them:
First  1- They are to be ward and branch builders by -- Baptizing, Retaining and Activating. He wanted them to be friendly, smile, know names of ward members, and be a big support to the wards or branches they are serving in. He wanted them to make a differences in the wards or branches they are serving in.

Second 2- He told them they succeed when they invite  people to learn about the Mormon Church - the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regardless of the outcome, meaning whether they join the church or not.

Third 3- He told them that they are the message. Their smiles, their cheerful faces, their attitudes.  He told them to Be righteous and Follow the Savior.

Fourth 4- He told them to focus on their spiritual power on teaching, planning and purpose. He bore his testimony, and said even though they  (general autorities) are advised to not share in detail their spiritual experiences, he said he knows the Savior's voice and he has seen his face. But he did not elaborate on this.

Tomorrow (Sunday Nov. 22), Elder Cook will speak again in a special  multi Stake Conference here in Antofagasta.  Fortunately, we do not have have any more responsibility regarding his visit and we can rest now with not the pressure, for the upcoming week.

INVESTIGATORS:
We are pleased to report that we have had some good experiences with investigators this past week.

----Hugo Rivera (age 40 not married), who I met at TurBus four weeks ago, has now been to church three times and is planning on going to the conference tomorrow.  The elders working with him are very excited about him.  It had to be a miracle that we met him. He has only had 1 or 2 lessons so far.

----We also met with Claudio, Monica, and children Gabriela (age 7) and Phillip (age 20) and went with two young single adults in Katherin's car ( she is the wife of the area 70) up to see them.  We were received very well and had a good time helping Phillip to meet some of our young single adults.  We hope that perhaps Phillip (who is on break from his University studies until April) will make some friends in the church. This is a start in the right direction, but the Young Adults will have to do their part.

----We also have Alfred Yanez, who we met at Liders four months ago, taking lessons from missionaries and is possibly looking towards joining the church.

--- We went to only 1/2 hour of Edwards's Rugby game. However, he was on the bench so we didn't get to see him play. For some reason his mother or siblings do not come to watch him play, but he likes it that we come. He wants to get back together with us.

----We have a number of other investigators we are working with, but have not had time this week to do much with them, but I did call several of them on the phone.

We don't keep track of how long we work daily, we just work until we start feeling exhausted. We are staying healthy and are generally  refreshed after a nights rest for the next day, even at ages 75 and 73.  Fortunately this next week there is nothing major, so we can get back to our regular tasks. The MAIL room is packed with packages that are coming in for the missionaries and more come daily, but they all have to be  picked up at the Antofagasta post office which is a long detailed process (one package at a time, could take way over 1 hour to pick up 20 packages). We plan on having the missionaries pick up the packages, we we cannot carry them to the car (two blocks away from the post office.)

LOVE TO EVERYONE:
Please know that we are missing everyone and wish that we could be with all of you for Thanksgiving.  I started thinking of the holidays and they are going to seem kind of empty without being with all of you.  We do hope we can TALK to each of your families on Thanksgiving day. We get home from the office around 5 PM. So that is 1 PM your Utah time. We will be here the rest of the evening as we have nothing planned - we just want to be home to talk to our children and have them sing to us  the chorus of COUNT your MANY BLESSINGS in Spanish.

Nevertheless, we find our mission time passing quite fast because we are so busy, Since the past 6 months went by so fast, the next 12 months will go by equally as fast and we will be home again for  at least Christmas of 2016.

SPANISH PROGRESS:
We are using the new materials Bryan sent us and appreciate his help. He also gave us the book of John in spanish and english and it is helping us alot too. Every little bit helps. We are making process an inch at a time!

Love to you all and we Count Each of You as a Blessing in our Lives,

Mom and Dad

6 month Mark - Short Stories

Dear Family    Nov. 8, 2015

Another week of our mission past by so very fast it seemed. On the 18th of Nov we will reach our 6 month mark and 1/3 of our mission has taken place. It all goes by so quickly. Highlights of this week include the following short stories. We literally can only do so much. The Lord will have to give added help if any of these contacts have their hearts softened and want to eventually baptized. Antofagasta is like being on a Scavenger Hunt looking for WHO might be interested out of thousands  and thousands of Chileans and many Columbians who live here and who are not members of the Church. It is really quite the experience we are having.

About JOSE:  Our Monday evening Spanish session with Jose, after an hour and a half of Spanish work, turned into a big discussion about marriage. He is looking for a girl to marry, but his idea is more like ....... try it out and see if it works and get married later if it does.  We wonder if the LDS concepts we discussed with him will sink in, but we did present them. and he did listen

About CATHERINE:   On Thursday we went to the Institute at 7 pm to wait for Robert (whom we are trying to activate and Ivan Zuniga who was coming from Calama and neither of them showed up). However, Catherine Jimenez visited with us for over an hour. She is a  first cousin to Ivan, and asked us why we were waiting to see him. As it turned out she wants us to come to their home this coming Monday for home evening and show them George's Book of Mormon power point presentations. Her husband is the Area Authority over Antofagasta's 2 Stakes and 8 others. They attend our ward. This could prove interesting to say the least.

 About CLAUDIO,Monica and Jennifer: Last time we met with Claudio at our home (two weeks ago)  he was very down and said Monica wanted him to move out and they were separating. Then on Friday he called George and said he had been in an accident, went to the hospital, but was ok, and said for us not to come by. However, we purchased a large juice drink and did stop by. He answered (at their home) and had a bad black eye and other bruises. He was so glad we came and we visited for probably two hours. He was born in Chuquicamata (where we had pictures from last weeks excursion) so he was very interested in the photos of the deserted town by the Copper Mine. Then Monica came down and it appeared they had patched things up. Hopefully we can get the missionary lessons going again soon. Claudio is the same age as David and he calls us Mom and Dad as his parents are both deceased.

About JAVIER'S Graduation: This is the young man who is a member of the Church, but is sort of inactive. We have made friends with him, his older sister and younger brother and the parents. Diana called and invited us to his graduation party at the grandmother's home that is located about 8 blocks from our current apartment. We bought him a gift of a bottle of Juice and a box of Chocolates and went to the party. We felt impressed to start taking photos of all kinds which was a big service to them. Then we MET Javier's cousin Edger and his wife Anna (who is from the Ukraine in Russia and both speak fluent English. We spent the better part of the evening speaking to them, and have invited them to dinner next Sunday. More on this will come later, but we stayed till 11:00 pm and the party was still really going strong with all kinds of relatives and friends and tons of food.

About RAUL, Jennifer and baby: We were going to go take supper Sat. but he had to work, so we hope to work with them again this up coming week.

About ERNA and husband: She is the lady who called George during Priesthood meeting last week, we went to her home and she consented to come to our home, but after taking to her husband (later) I guess he said NO so she called and cancelled the dinner appointment and said she was happy being a Catholic.

About HUGO (who George met at the Tour Bus Station). He is the one who went to Quito Barrio (Ward) last week and George wasn't there so he went home. We drove all around to find his place (after we heard what had happened). Two of our missionaries were walking on the street and he called them over and said he went to church, but could not find Elder Talbot so he went home. We finally found his street (but only after two city workers told us not to go in that area as their are a lot of robberies and they grab watches off your arms, etc. But we did persist and found Hugo. We invited him to church this Sunday and he did come. More on that miracle below.

About ALFRED He was suppose to come to the Caliche Barrio (ward) so we went there to meet him, but he didn't show up due to a water leak in his apartment, so we then drove to the Quito Barrio (to catch the end of Sunday School and Priesthood looking for Hugo).

More About HUGO:  We got there to the quito Barrio and no Hugo. George called him and he said he would come right over. He did and they went to Priesthood together but the real miracle part of the story is that a man walked in and sat down behind them from Santiago. This was not his ward. He served in the military with  Hugo so they made a fast good connection. We invited Hugo, Carlos to dinner at our place, and Alfred was already coming so we had the 3  (40 to 50) year old men for dinner. Carlos told us that he was in church at the Angamos Barrio and a voice came into his mind two times to leave that ward and go to the Quito Barrio. He acted on the prompting and arrived just in time for Priesthood and sat behind George and Hugo. He was a BIG hit with Hugo and the dinner at our home with the 3 men was really something else. We needed Carlos (from Santiago) and the Lord sent him to us. The continued stories for Hugo and Alfred will be tied to the new Carlos who was extremely helpful at the dinner conversation as he spoke both English and Spanish.  Come to find out, Hugo and Carlos served in the military together in Chile.  Hugo drove a tank and Carlos fired the weapon.  To have them meet the way they did was a miracle.

About ANNA (from Russia): This was a tender story she told me at the Graduation party for Javier. Anne was the only granddaughter for her mother's parents and they all lived in Ukraine. Now their is one more grandchild. However. Anna's grandmother sacrificed to give Anna either English lessons or Ballet lessons.  The grandmother decided on the English lessons and thought they would be more beneficial so paid a lady to come twice a week for seven years while Ann was growing up. Then Ann met Edger in Antofagasta and they married. She has a good job and she mails her grandparents money each month as she saw how much they sacrificed for her buying her dresses and things she needed and they went without, plus paid for the English lessons.  They do not have much money to live on and the Ukraine has so many problems. Anna said it brings her great joy to give back to a wonderful grandmother in appreciation for all she sacrificed for her.

About ANNE's husband EDGAR: More on this next week. They are coming to Sunday dinner and that story will be big as he is not too hep on the Mormon religion.  I am certain we can hold our own with him.

These are just SHORT STORIES but we hope you will enjoy them. We put in our office hours Mon to Friday and spend as many other hours as possible working with our past contacts and then finding new contacts. We are juggling about 20 or more different households at the moment. These stories don't tell it all either.  There is much more we can't tell. All we do know is that we can only do SO much and if their hearts are to be turned to want the gospel and to make the necessary changes in their lives, the LORD will have to give added help. We saw a miracle today with Carlos being told to go to the Quito Barrio, and he didn't know why.

We love all of you and know you are praying for us just as we are praying for you and each of your lives and children's lives that all will work out the best for all of you with the individual challenges and struggles you are dealing with. SO glad the PACKAGES we sent arrived. We do feel healthy and eat really well with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables that we purchase at the Farmers Market. We feel our immunity has been increased and our bodies are stronger. Example:  I had two cold sores that started on my top lip and both of them just (did not grow) and went away.

Much Love  Mom and Dad

Hot Tub Pools and Copper Mines - Calama

Dear family  

We went to Calama this past week and your father did his Evidences of the Book of Mormon fireside (he sent a photo earlier from that), also went to Valley of the Moon, the largest Copper Mine in the world, to San Pedro de Atacoma, the Geysers. See the BLOG photos for the captions and many photos.  You will enjoy seeing them, so I will not go into details. But we won't be able to write captions, and send photos untill later today or tomorrow as we have a SERVICE project this morning, dropping off Halloween treats to some of our families, and meeting EDWARD to see his Rugby Game and (plus) meeting CLAUDIO  (another investigator) who is coming to sit by us at the game, We never have a real PDay as we do missionary work all day every Saturday. We get the laundry and house  clean up work (washing all of the floors etc) work done on Friday early in the morning or Thur PM (generally but not on Thur this week) so our Saturdays can be open.  We went to the Origines Ward HALLOWEEN party last night --- it said it would start at 7:30. We went at 8 and helped with final room prep, then waited until 9:30 before the people started coming and we were the PHOTOGRAPHERS for the photos of which we will send some, but we had to leave at 10:30 PM when more started coming. Chilean time is different then in the States. Another pair of missionaries told us they invited investigators to a Ward Function and the investigators came and no ward members showed up and after waiting a half hour they left. Our investigator who said she would come did not come and we were glad as no one else had arrived at 8 pm. They have great parties, but people come from 1 hour to 2 hours later after the start time, and I am sure the party went to well after MIDNiGHT!

Hope the grandchildren all have a fun Halloween trick or treating or Treating others as what most of you do,

Love AND Prayers for all of you, Mom and Dad

The strange plant.  Note the flowers on the side.  It is really prickly.

 Young people loved swimming in the hot tub pool.

 Source of the hot water for the hot tub pool.

 An interesting place with dressing rooms for changing and then swimming

 Interesting Place

Photo was the Chuquicamata open it copper mine.  Note the big trucks, they look very small.  The small trucks can barely be seen on the roads below.

 Another view of the mine.  Note the backhoe in the bottom loading a big truck.  Also you can see the big and little trucks operating.

 One more view of the mine with all the trucks operating in the mine.

 Another view of the mine that 1 1/3 mile long and very deep.  An earthquake fault line goes through the mine, which makes the mine somewhat dangerous.

A large volcano that is not active.  However, smoke is coming out of the active one to the left.

 A river valley with volcanos.  This area is know as the "Rim of Fire."

 Notice the Vicuna out of the bus window on top of the hill.
 The small village of Machuca

 Mom in front of one of the homes at Machuca

 The church at Machuca

A deep canyon as we returned to san Pedro de Atacama

 This is the Quechua Hotel in San Pedro de Atacama.  We stayed in the furtherest room to the back.

Antofagasta Halloween Party

Members of the ward dressed up for Halloween

 Margaret with Jimena (I guess)

 We attended the Halloween party.  Some people dressed up, I dressed down from a white shirt and tie.  Mom dressed up a little, but nothing like some of the ward members

Trip to Calama

Dear family  

We went to Calama this past week and your father did his Evidences of the Book of Mormon fireside (he sent a photo earlier from that), also went to Valley of the Moon, the largest Copper Mine in the world, to San Pedro de Atacoma, the Geysers. See the BLOG photos for the captions and many photos.  You will enjoy seeing them, so I will not go into details. But we won't be able to write captions, and send photos untill later today or tomorrow as we have a SERVICE project this morning, dropping off Halloween treats to some of our families, and meeting EDWARD to see his Rugby Game and (plus) meeting CLAUDIO  (another investigator) who is coming to sit by us at the game, We never have a real PDay as we do missionary work all day every Saturday. We get the laundry and house  clean up work (washing all of the floors etc) work done on Friday early in the morning or Thur PM (generally but not on Thur this week) so our Saturdays can be open.  We went to the Origines Ward HALLOWEEN party last night --- it said it would start at 7:30. We went at 8 and helped with final room prep, then waited until 9:30 before the people started coming and we were the PHOTOGRAPHERS for the photos of which we will send some, but we had to leave at 10:30 PM when more started coming. Chilean time is different then in the States. Another pair of missionaries told us they invited investigators to a Ward Function and the investigators came and no ward members showed up and after waiting a half hour they left. Our investigator who said she would come did not come and we were glad as no one else had arrived at 8 pm. They have great parties, but people come from 1 hour to 2 hours later after the start time, and I am sure the party went to well after MIDNiGHT!

Hope the grandchildren all have a fun Halloween trick or treating or Treating others as what most of you do,

Love AND Prayers for all of you, Mom and Dad

I now have two tomato plants in my garden.  The other ones are beginning to show as well.

Just so you get a better idea about the dogs of antofagasta.

Margaret standing in front of a very unusual tree   Very interesting.

 Raul and Jennifer Merino moved to a new home.  They are the cake mix contacts at Liders.  We helped them some with he move.  He posed to tell us goodbye.

 Elder Goff (tall) and Elder McComb in front of our office.  Elder Goff was going home for health reasons.  He just arrived, but hopes to come back.

 A Street scene in Calama

 We rode from Antofagasta to Calama on this bus.  We were in the very front top.

 Posing by a huge rock filled with copper from the Chuquicamata mine near Calama.

 Mom and I are getting ready to board the bus to the Chuquicamata Open pit copper mine.

 Getting ready to board the bus to the Chuquicamata open pit Copper mine.  By far, the largest one in the world.  Doug and Nancy Lawson with us - the only other senior couple in the mission.

 The city of Chuquicamata, which has totally been abandoned because of the health hazard coming from the mine.

Another picture of the city of Chuquicatama.  Mine tailings from the mine are behind.

 An abandoned playground in the city of Chuquicamata.

 An abandoned church in the city of Chuquicamata.

The bus that took us to the mine.

 These trucks are huge and hold 90 ton. One tire costs $40,000 lasts nine months and is taller than most of us.  Notice the size now and how little they appear down in the mine.

 Another view of the abandoned city of Chuquicamata and the mine tailings behind.

 Copper rocks in the museum near the mine.

Snow capped Andes mountains beyond the desert

 Valley of the moon near San Pedro de Atacama.

 It was kind of eery to be among the geysers and boiling water everywhere

I made friends with some birds by feeding them.

 A large geyser shooting up water

Mom made friends with some Koreans  They were a fun group

Here are some videos of one of the geysers.