Dear Family, Diciembre 13, 2015 Sunday (Domingo)
Another week and today is Isaac Talbot's 8th birthday, Spencer comes home this week, and Christmas is just a few weeks away. We miss all of you very much and particularly as Christmas draws closer, and do appreciate the packages that have arrived, and your phone calls. It is harder to talk to any of you now that we are 4 hours ahead of your.
MISSIONARY STORY of the WEEK
George and I go to the (Correo) Post Office in Antofagasta at least once a week. One of the ladies has been particularly helpful. George asked her if she would like to come to have supper with us (supper or dinner is called Cena in Spanish). She wanted to, so we got the dinner ready and she came. We were enjoying the meal when George asked her if she knew anything about the Mormons as she has prepared so many packages for the Elders (processing them) as this lady had worked for the Correo for over 30 years. Andrea said, yes I do, my mother was a Mormon. Our jaws dropped! Then she said her mother died in 2006, at age 86 and was baptized a member of the church when she was 80. However, this daug. (at the meal) told us she was not interested in learning more about the church (she had 5 other siblings but 3 are deceased), but it was an interesting evening. She spoke ONLY (so so) English, so we had to really give our (limited Spanish) a work out. We plan to have her over again in January
VISITING our CONTACTS with CHRISTMAS SURPRISES
We purchased 26 big red round bells (metal) and some strawberry jam, and a few kitchen (cocina) towels to wrap up to give to our contacts families. We FIND the Chileans have SEVERAL different customs associated with Christmas ----NO no, and I mean no, you will not find any CARDs (Christmas cards) being sold in the stores. I brought a box of cards with me that we are using to give to contact families. The Chilean children also have hardly ANY toys in any of the homes we have visited who have children. Bedrooms are almost devoid of anything except a bed and a chest of drawers and a few little things, but NOTHING like what we have seen American children have. We have enjoyed visiting our contacts a few each week in December. We have learned that in Chile the NIGHT before Christmas day is the big event. A big dinner, put the baby Jesus in the christmas (nativities), and open the packages around midnight. Then they sleep in and have Christmas day to visit family members. Christmas Eve is the big event.
STAKE CONFERENCE in CHILE & PAST MEMORIES
When I was a little girl and growing up in St. George I loved to go to Stake Conference and we always sat in the balcony at the St. George Tabernacle. In Provo, we loved taking the children when they were being raised to the Provo Tabernacle for Stake Conferences. We hear that the Provo City Center Temple will have their open house starting in a few weeks. It is hard to believe. However, even though we work on our Spanish (every day) we still do not understand the speakers at Conference (in Spanish) as they talk VERY FAST, and run the words together, but we keep listening for words we know. However, we love singing the songs and feeling the joy of worshiping together with the Chilean people. They are so loving and give hugs to all of the women, and air kisses on their cheeks, and handshakes to all of the men. A loving culture.
A CHRISTMAS STREET PARTY for the CHILDREN
We were invited to attend a party held in one of the neighborhoods where our contact family the Layton's live. Their older children 29, 26 and 22, along with some of their friends, were participating in a small music group (guitar, drum, electric piano, and a singer). We arrived at 5:30 and it started at about 7 and we thoroughly enjoyed the event, and were invited to share a meal afterwards. George took several photos. The girl (age 20) who did the vocal singing was truly talented and felt the music with her heart too. She was born when her mother was nearly 45 and at the time of her birth she had two older brothers 20 years older than herself. Her name is Ann (Anna or Annie). She sang Feliz Navidad, and we just could not get enough of that Christmas song. George also played (Star Bright) for them on the piano. WE NEED OUR daughters to scan and mail us the copy of the music so they can learn the words, and George will accompany them, next week IF we get the music by email (scanned). The Layton's love to have us participate with their family events but are not currently having the lessons, even though one son (Javier) is a member. Javier is 29 and is borderline (inactive) and has never wanted to receive the priesthood.
OUR PAST CONTACTS WITH the ANTOFAGASTA MISSIONARIES
We made a list and we have over 10 our our past contacts with missionaries who are working with them, but the contacts are moving (slowly) towards baptism. It is possible that none of them will even be baptized. However we PICK up new contacts almost weekly, but it takes "opening our mouths" and asking people if they have friends who are Mormons. This has been the best way for us to start a conversation about the church. Most generally they say YES, that they have a friend or someone they know who is a Mormon. Then the conversation just goes from that to whatever we feel we can say to find out if they would like to know more.
FOUR NEW CONTACTS came about THIS WEEK
We will have to keep you posted, but we did pick up one lovely mother and her daug at the Birthday party we attended a week ago, and we stopped by their home to talk to them this past week - a full family with a husband and another son. We have planning an evening at their home to share talents next week. We found another boy (David) who was outside our building and lives in our complex, along with his sister, plus two women at the Christmas party on the street who want to have the missionaries come to their homes. Also, we finally got VANESSA on the phone who we met several weeks ago at Edwards' home when we were there for dinner. We find that it takes having a Missionary Attitude of wanting to find people, then lots of follow through with phone calls and visits.......they are out there, but we do have to talk to literally everyone we can, to even find the few who are interested, and even then it is a long process to reach final conversion.
A YOUNG ADULT "PURiMISEA" and her NEW BOYFRIEND
Several months ago we had dinner at her (Purimisea's) parents home (members) and the parents were so sad because this daug. was seriously dating a non member. The parents so wanted her to be married in the temple, but this could not happen as he was not interested in the church. We encouraged her to break up and pray for the Lord to bless her. She got brave and broke up, then returned to him again. However, at Stake Conference she came and said she finally broke up with the past boyfriend the 2nd time, and was now dating a young adult from the ward they are in. She introduced us to him. They are both above age 26, and it looks like there will be a wedding in February. It truly was an answer to her parents prayers that she could break off the earlier relationship that had been going on for several years, and NOW this daughter has been blessed and can be married in the Temple in Santiago. A wonderful story with the daughter and the parents all so very happy.
STUDYING the BIBLE CHRISTMAS STORY in SPANISH
A young man from the Quito Ward who we met 3 weeks ago has been coming every Sunday PM to help us study Spanish. We chose to read the Christmas Story about the birth of the Savior in Spanish. We have to discuss every word that we do not know and only cover about 6 to 8 verses a week, but it has been truly a blessing to both of us to read and understand the story (from the scriptures) in Spanish. I wish we could explain all we have learned but just know it a wonderful experience to read the story in another language. Bryan, Jonathan, David, Laura, Julie, Debbie, David Stuart and Matt Grant, have all had this experience as they all know and have studied Spanish. If they haven't read the Chapter 2 in Luke, it is a very spiritual experience. We are so glad we are doing this.
MUCH LOVE to each of you and we pray that your prayers for us will be answered with a blessing upon the heads of our many investigators who are such lovely people, but most of them are not particularly interested in reading the Book of Mormon to find out if it is really true. This mission is going to take ALL of us, your prayers, our prayers and lots of effort on our part, plus continued blessings from our Heavenly Father. Thanks so very much for praying for us and for our contacts.
Love MOM and DAD
Adrianna on the left was baptized in March. Her grandson Eric is home from his mission from Japan temporarily for health issues, and Anna Marie, a sister who joined the church years ago.
Monica, Gabriela's mother serving her sisters
Sister Missionaries with President Dalton at the Antofagasta
Zone Conference
Marcela Nelson and her son Matias with Hermana Talbot. We picked up her as an investigator at the Christmas Party.
DEAR FAMILY, (Sun (Domingo) Nov 29 to Sat (Sabado) Dec 5, 2015)
OUR EFFORTS TO LEARN & SPEAK SPANISH
We keep pursuing the learning of Spanish, and are making headway, thanks to the books Bryan and Lisa sent us, and the other book we had Julie purchase for us. Plus we have a few Chileans who speak Spanish who are working with us. I (Dad) find, however, that even though I have my vocabulary the words that they are saying, I do not recognize them when I hear them because they talk so FAST. Margaret and I are very determined to be able to speak better and understand Spanish better over the next few months. Mom is still working with (MTC) Skype plus a Kitto ward member (Jamie) is starting to come and help her. It is a hard and tedious process, but we just keep working at it daily, and appreciate your prayers in our behalf.
TRYING OUT OUR NEW GOSPEL CHARTS (Sun Nov 29 & also Tue)
We had Alfred over for dinner (after he attended church in another ward - not ours) and we showed him our new chart pages. He liked it a lot and wrote down a list of the scriptures we showed him from the Bible. He has been going to church and wanted to know what the Doctrine book was they talked about in Sunday School (D & C). We had earler bought a large roll of brown wrapping paper and cut it up to large sheets and then made xerox photos plus cut some from old Liahona magazines to tell the gospel story one page at a time. We have about 20 pages. Alfred said it really helped him better comprehend what we have been trying to share. Our main GOAL was to get people to read the Book of Mormon. We also shared the chart (s) with Hugo. He gave a different comment and said "he didn't remember hearing that Christ came to America." He promised to read but we will have to see. Both of these men are working with missionaries, we are just support.
VISITING JUAN LOPEZ (Tue Dec 1)
We had an investigator that I met at TurBus (Hugo) who has been wanting to take us to the little village of Juan Lopez. We asked the Mission President if it would be OK to spend a day with him at Juan Lopez, and he gave us the approval.
Therefore, on Tuesday Dec. 3, he drove us and his dog to Juan Lopez (which is about 25 miles away from Antofagasta). However, first of all he came for breakfast and we gave him a lesson on the Book of Mormon. We had a fun day with him at this little village, which is empty of people during the week, but on the weekend people go there to sunbathe, swim, fish, etc. There was hardly anyone there on Tuesday. We watched people fish and enjoyed the quite little community. They have no water, so potable water has to be hauled in by truck and the people who have houses have big containers for water on top of their houses,. Some men were spear fishing and had quite a few fish in bags. They also had an octopus that they had gotten. We also went to another very small village (named Constitution) and spotted a lot of fish in the ocean. I did not have a pole. It was a very interesting place. On the drive to return home when we came in view of the ocean, we saw literally hundreds of "Pelicans" diving in the water after fish. Apparently a school of fish was traveling by, and they were all getting dinner. It was quite a site to see hundreds of Pelicans dive bombing into the water with a big splash to catch the fish. Hugo will come to dinner at our home again next Sunday.
MISSION LEADERSHIP COUNSEL (Thur Dec 3)
Wednesday was a catch up day since we were gone on Tuesday, and Thursday was leadership counsel where all of the Zone leaders come in for a meeting. We had earlier prepared the mail plus worked with more mail that day for zone leaders to take back to the missionaries in their sector. Also I had to work with and provide reimbursement for the missionaries who have had to travel or pay bills that are paid by the mission. It took me all day to do those and also help Margaret get the mail ready to go for 50 people. Also, their is an unusual amount of mail this time of year being as Christmas is so close.
NATIVITY SETS FROM CHILE (Sat. Dec 5)
Several of you have asked us to purchase a nativity set from Chile. We went down to the Centro Mall today and purchased all the store had in stock. Unfortunately there was not enough for everyone (purchased 6), but we will keep looking to get two more so each family will get one We will wrap and mail these six on Monday when we go downtown to get the mail and hope they will arrive by Christmas. The box lables did say "made in Chile."
TWO NEW CONTACTS (Sat Dec 5)
We met one young man (Richardo who speaks fluent English) at the Mall book store - where we stopped in to see if they had any Christmas books made in Chile - however found none). He is coming over for dinner tomorrow, but said he is an agnostic. We told him we would change that. Then we met (Caroline) while shopping for a headset that Bryan recommended we purchase to listen to the scriptures in Spanish. She is coming over for dinner next Monday PM. We try to find people who might want to listen no matter where we go.
TWO BIG PARTIES (Fri PM and Sat AM)
We were invited to a graduation family party (buffet) and also to a birthday party for Gabriella who turned 8. We will highlight these two events next week, and we also found two more contacts at the birthday party, but we will have to see what happens. It is all about asking people if they know any Mormons. This seems to be the easiest approach and when they say yes, we start talking more.
MERRILL'S HAUS FINE FURNITURE FIRST SHIPMENT (Dec 2 Wed)
We were very pleased and impressed with the picture of the couch Merrill's new company had constructed and shipped (20). Although he has had quite a few set backs, it looks like he is going to make a success of his new venture. We were so pleased for Merrill. Hope all of you take time to look at his photos.
WE MISS ALL OF YOU VERY MUCH
ALthough they do not have Thanksgiving in Chile, they do celebrate Christmas. We see Christmas trees and Christmas lights everywhere, but NOT like in the states. When we went to the mall today to find nativity sets, the Mall was full of people and the stores were very busy. It seemed almost like home at Christmas time, except most everyone speaks Spanish so that we do not understand too much of what they say. Nevertheless, it is Christmas time, and a wonderful season of the year, and at this time family is very important to us. We miss all of you and wish we could sneak back and be with you for this season, but know that that is impossible. Nevertheless, please know that we love and miss all of you and hope you will all have homes filled with love and kindness, as you celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The only gift we want is the gift of tongues,
Love
Mom and Dad
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