Big Brazillian Dinner and Bug Bites

 DEAR FAMILY  (News from Saturday Feb 13 to  Tuesday Feb 23, 2016)

The days just seem to literally FLY by. We keep very busy however, but we are older and we do get tired by the end of our long days. But we have had some interesting experiences over the past eleven days. I do hope that our children and grandchildren are reading these stories and looking at the photos we send as these accounts really have some worth. During the past while we loved talking  to Laura about what is going on in Centerville, to Stephanie about her new baby and the boys, to David about sports and family news,  to Merrill about his work and he talked in church last Sunday, to Hannah about her mission preparations she is SO excited, Ethan about his piano solo he is working on, Jonathan with news that Kristin made it into BYU, Jennifer about her teaching the health classes at the high school every day, James about his trip with the band, Bryan and Lisa about the snow finally melting in Virginia, Julie about what is going on with her life. Sorry we did not get to talk to anyone else. We are four hours ahead and it makes it hard can't call anyone in the mornings, and in the evenings sometimes we are not at home.


STORY 76 WARD BAPTISM A YOUNG COUPLE (Baptism at our Ward Sat. Feb. 20, 2016)   We went to the ward because they had announced a High Priest dinner, but that got cancelled and a baptism was going to take place in a half hour, so we stayed.  It was really nice. This young couple, living together earlier started the lessons in October. Then they got married in January and were baptized in February. It is amazing how they come in jeans and tee shirts to do this event. But when dressed in white they look so beautiful. You can always see the LIGHT in their eyes of happiness. Then on Sunday they were confirmed. George was surprised as they called him up out of the audience to assist with both of them. This couple still wore their jeans (holes in them) to church. What is amazing is that within a few weeks they will start wearing better pants and perhaps a skirt.

A recent baptism in the Origenes Ward.  Elder Monsalve baptized Sylvia and Candido.  His companion Elder Wild is in his suit.  He is from Fort Collins, Colorado

STORY 73  ONLY ONE NINE YEAR OLD SAID HE WOULD READ B of M (Feb. 13, 2016)  We have the camioneta (truck) on the weekends. Diana had called and invited us to come to their home, but when we arrived we sort of felt like they had forgotten we were coming. We were surprised that the FAD here is now to cut half of your heads hair shaved clear off and the other half is regular. Diana had done this. We did not get a photo, as we did not want her to think we were making a big deal out of it. But to us it was awful. She is such a pretty young woman, and to do this was beyond belief. We sat down at the oblong table and wanted to read the Book of Enos with them. Two of Diana's younger cousins were there too, Alexander age 12 and Benjamin age 9. We had brought some Books of Mormons so each had a copy to read from. We went around the table with everyone taking turns. The little 9 year old was so adorable and he also read very well. Afterwards, we asked WHO would read this coming week something in the Book of Mormon every day. ONLY the little 9 year old would commit to this. George took his photo.

 We stopped over to see the Leyton family and read the. Book of Mormon with them.  Benjamin. Was a really good reader of. The Book of Mormon, so we took his picture.

STORY 74 BIG FAMILY BRAZILIAN DINNER (Valetines Day Dinner Feb 14, 2016)  We had been invited to the home of Rodolfo and Martha for dinner. We took some apple drinks and some Brownie Gifts for Martha and Maria (but Maria did not come). When we got there it was a BIGGER affair than we had realized. Martha's mother had prepared BRAZLIAN black beans especially for us. They were cooked with bacon and onions, and were really delicious. Spencer must know about this kind of beans. Then we visited and played the game from ISRAEL  (dem dem dino sucka lucka tino) where we had everyone put out their fists and George went around and knocked them out on at a time. They all enjoyed it. We couldn't discuss religion at this time, but the TAC word always comes up No Tea, No Alcohol, No Coffee at the dinner table.

 Guga, Magdalena Beto and their boy Ephraim. Dinner at Martha's and Rodolfos.

 Abel from Spain, and Jenno, Rodolfo's sister.  Active in the Evangelical Church.

 Margaret Helping Rodolfo learn English, cursive and small and large print.

 The group who came to dinner.  It was a lovely dinner and we enjoyed being there.

Martha and her Nephew.

Maria, the mother. In the center with her two daughters.  Magdelena to her right and Martha to her left.

We took Elder Wild and Elder Monsalve to meet some of our new contacts.  Ideide is to the left, her sister Claire is to her left, then Elder Wild and Elder Monsalve.

 Pizza That Idiede served us.

 Ideide served us some pizza and some dessert she had made.  They plan to go to church with us this Sunday.  They are a special family.

STORY 77 THE  NAME and BLESSING a CHILD (Blessing a Young Child  Sun. Feb. 21, 2016) At the ward on this Sunday was the two confirmations (talked about in story 76) and also giving a name and a blessing to a young child about age 1. Here again to George's surprise they called him up out of the audience to come and help in the circle. It was really special. The parents here do not dress the children up for the blessings, they just wear ordinary clothing. However, the Chilean babies and young children are so beautiful that they do not need expensive clothing. They all have the darker skin, the dark eyes and dark hair. I told George I think if they lined them all up in the same clothing I would think they all look alike.

STORY 78 TAKING CHURCH PROGRAMS TO TWO HOMES (After Church Sun Feb. 21, 2016)  We left the church and drove up the big hill to the place where Claudio and Idedie (another family) both live. We had brought left over church programs to put in their mail boxes to tell them we had stopped by. We did find Claudio home, but he and his wife were having a deep discussion just inside the door so we didn't want to bother them, and just left the program on the front seat of the car since the door was open. Then we put the other program in the mail box. What you have to realize is that this is a GATED place, you cannot just go down to some of the homes. You have to call and someone will open the gate.  Then after we got back home Idedie called George on the phone and said for us to come back over at 6 PM.

STORY 79  THEN DRIVING to FINDING A HOME IN THE NORTH (Driving to the North Sun Feb 21, 2016) It is utterly amazing to me that it is so hard to get people to want to be interested in the church. We had met this family at the Food Court two weeks ago, the wife was a member (baptized at age 8) and the husband and three children. She told George she wanted her children to be baptized into our church, even though she was inactive.  We sent the missionaries to their place as we could not find it, and when they arrived they opened the door a crack and said they did not want them to come in. Therefore, we got the missionaries  (picked them up) and they showed us where the house was. We left a note as no one answered. Then these missionaries showed us the way at the TOP of the hill where they had some families interested in the church,  (the poorest peoples homes),these missionaries told us that this a r e a  where they had been serving had not had a baptism for a full year NONE. We are literally shocked at this, something has to be wrong in how the missionaries are teaching. We are going to have to come up with another plan of dealing with our investigators to get them interested in what we have to tell them.

STORY 80 FINALLY SOMEONE WANTS to READ the BOOK of MORMON  (Still Sunday now for the 6 PM Appointment Feb 21, 2016) This was an amazing story. I had not been feeling too well, so told George to go without me. He was going to pick up the Two sister missionaries to take them to Idedie's home. We had also arranged for the Two elders to go to as the sisters only spoke Spanish, and George could not communicate too well with them. Then when he arrived with the car to pick them up they said they could not ride in a car with a male man, unless his wife was with him. So instead he could only take the two elders, and the sister missionaries could not go. The problem here is that the place Idedie lives is the sister missionaries a r e a.  But the three elders went and to their surprise Idedie's sister was at the home visiting and they gave her the lessons (as Idedie was fixing food for everyone) and she was so willing to open and started to read the Book of Mormon. They all plan to go back this next Saturday. This family all came about because WE OPENED our mouths and introduced ourselves to the lady at the birthday party for Gabriella way last December the 8th. George sent some photos of the food and them teaching the sister.  This was a great day for us.

STORY 81 SUPPER TO RODOLFOs & BIG SCRIPTURE DISCUSSION (Now Monday Feb. 22, 2016) Today is my mother's 106th birthday, and Jacobs 14th birthday. I was not feeling well again so stayed home from the office today and George went without me. We were sorry we did not get Jacob called on the phone. In the evening we had  told Rodolfo and Martha that we would bring supper over for them and her mother as the mother is leaving. I was feeling better so fixed the supper and put all in a box and we drove to their home. After the meal we bought out the chart we had made and printed with the pre earth life, earth life the place we go when we die, the judgment and the three degrees of glory. They were TOTALLY surprised at what we were telling them. They wanted to look up every scripture. The mother Maria was also into it too. It went on and on and on for way over an hour.  They said "Can we keep these pieces of paper?"  We then told them we would come back in a week and bring some more scriptures. This was probably OUR best religious discussion we have had since we have arrived. They could NOT thank us enough. They told us they had read things they did not even know existed. Martha goes to the Evangelical Church where they preach all you need is a good "heart." Everyone will go to heaven if they have a good heart. We did not get home until nearly 11 pm.  We learned it is better to TAKE the meal to their home over serving them at our home as the little boy as to go to bed, and  then we could stay and talk longer. We told them we would bring Soup and Crackers for the next Monday pm visit and talk more about the scriptures.

TORY 82 THE LITTLE BOY GUGA'S SWOLLEN EAR  (Guga's Ear all Swollen Feb. 22, 2016) George took this photo of his ear to send to my brother Norman. It was all swollen and red. They did not know if a spider had bitten it or what. it looked so strange. I told Martha we had nine children and I never remember an ear swelling up like that. We will have to tell you next week more about this little boy's red and swollen ear. See the photos. Guga is the nick name for Gustable. 

 Guys must have had a spider bite on his ear.  It is big, swollen and red.

 Now you can compare both ears.  Parents were somewhat concerned.

Go to bed, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite?  These are my bites, mom has not had any.  I guess they like me better.  Maybe they are not bedbugs, but they like me.  My back.j

STORY 83 A FULL MOON PHOTO (Now Tuesday Feb. 23, 2016) There was a FULL moon last night and George took a photo out of our balcony this morning. We do LOVE being here in Chile and have only 9 more months. The first 9 months have gone by so fast, that we hope the next 9 months will slow down. We have SO much work to do with our investigators. Now we are going to make little Charts on plain type paper as that was SO effective, last night. Just asking people to read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true is simply NOT working. We must go at this another way.

 When I awoke this morning, we had a full moon shining from the west over the Pacific Ocean

STORY 75 STREET CONSTRUCTION (Street Construction replacing pipes way way down 10 to 12 feed down) George took a photo of the Chilean work taking place on our street. We have no idea how long on the street this is going to take place, but it is certainly a very deep and large project. We walk past it daily to the office. The Chileans have a lot of workers standing around and some doing the work. We think it is like How Many People Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

Bellavista street where we live is under construction.

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean from our apartment.

MUCH LOVE and we PRAY for all of you DAILY,  Mom and Dad Talbot

Funny Companionship and Tomato progress

DEAR FAMILY   Sent Thursday Feb. 11, 2016

We wanted to send this email now so perhaps Amy could post it with the four photos before Valentines Day, which comes on Sunday. We do love all of you very much. They celebrate valentines here, but it is not as big as in the States. We have been invited to a Valentines dinner on Sunday at Martha and Rodlphos home.

 We are sending only 6 photos this week:   1) The Office Van photo,    2) Two ladies Adrianna and Anna Maria (sisters) eating at our home,   3) Same two two ladies up close (he may have sent these last week SEE Story 57,    4) Claudio going to church for the first time in Origenes Barrio,  5) Map of Guatamala showing the scriptures and place you all went- Elder Gonsales wanted this map photo before he went home, 6) progress on George's tomato plants, three out of the four have tomatoes, but they are size of  very large marbles.


Mission car

 Adriana talking to Jonathan on the telephone.  We had them over for dinner.

 Adreana to the right and her sister Anna Maria to the left posing with their fans.

 Elder Olsen to the left.  He went home last Monday.  Claudio Viallobos to my right.  He went to church with us for the first time last Sunday.  Elder Monsalve is to my left, and will be getting a new companion.

 A look at my tomato crop.

 Another plant is now producing

STORY 64   CLAUDIO WENT to CHURCH It was a really special Sunday (Feb. 7, 2016)  as Claudio came to church. He had even gone out and purchased new shoes to wear to church. He had on nice clothes but not a suit, something of course he does not have. He is about Bryan's age and calls us Madre and Padre. Both of his parents are deceased. He sat with us through Sacrament Meeting, which was a testimony meeting, and through Sunday School. I sat and made little English Words from the lesson paper to give him as he likes to keep learning English. We have been waiting for this day for a long long long time. We hope it happens again. He then left for Santiago, but he called George on the phone from Santiago and again tonight. He likes both of us a lot and we like him too. (See Photo)

  EVERY ONE OF THE 400 MISSIONS HAVE THESE 4 BIG DAYS SIX WEEKS

STORY 65  MONDAY  (Feb. 8 2016)  the day 14 MISSIONARIES WENT HOME  George's office financial assistant Elder Gonzales went home too. He still had 6 more months of his mission, but has been suffering with back problems. He went home to have any surgery that might be needed and will not return back. If a missionary has served 18 months, they do not send them back, but call that their mission. He was a very bright elder (smart), but the elder who replaced him Elder Walker, is turning out to be just as good, but has a kinder way about him.

STORY 66 MONDAY PM 12 midnight (Feb 8, 2016) (Granddaughter) HANNAH KLEIN GETS HER  MISSION CALL  (Monday PM)  It was opened at 8 pm Utah time, but 12 midnight our time on Feb. 8.  George was so tired after a long day of driving missionaries around that he went to bed at 10 pm. I stayed up and waited for the phone call from Laura telling me that Hannah was about ready to open the call.  Here I was sitting on the couch thousands of miles away and was so thrilled to be apart of the opening, even if it was only by the phone. I was simply thrilled that she is going to  Orlando, Florida and will be teaching in Spanish. Laura has had 3 years of Spanish and this will be someone in the family for Laura to practice her Spanish with. In the KLEIN family they have: Mike speaks German, Hunter speaks Ti,  Laura and Hannah will speak Spanish,  in the school immersion program Robert and Grace are learning Chinese. We wonder what James and Michaela will be speaking .... perhaps they will learn Japanese. French, Italian, or Portugues.

STORY 67  TUESDAY (Feb 9, 2016)  was the day "18  NEW MISSIONARIES ARRIVE". This makes this mission have around 195 missionaries.  We had one come in from St. George too. There were about 7 Sisters and 12 Elders.  It is SO refreshing to see their wide eyes and feel of there excitement to be on a mission. This is the meal the office staff puts on. What that means is the meal I put on. I have to get everything ready and in boxes to transport to the mission home. Then the elders have ordered ENCHALIADA which they go ad pick up and then bring back in three types: cheese, chicken, and beef..  I stay and cook the rice and set out all of the other needs for this meal, plus we serve canned peaches and spray can cream. It might not seem like much, but it takes a lot of prep, work at the home, clean up, going back to the office and put away - all takes 5 hrs.

STORY 68  WEDNESDAY (Feb 10, 2016)  "NEW MISSIONARIES ASSIGNMENTS" takes place the day after they arrive. This means 18 missionaries have to come in from all over the mission but when they arrive they do not know who they will be assigned to be the trainer for. We purchase all of the food for the buffet breakfast  and leave it ready the night before, then we prepare the Lunch. Not a big deal, but it is a lot of work anytime you feed 47 people. We order PIZZA for this day and then I cut up carrots, bananas, plus pop flavors, and they have ice cream for dessert.

STORY 69   A VERY FUNNY STORY  "One of the new male Elder missionaries was assigned to a Sister missionary by mistake" This was a real funny happening. When the office Elder makes the 18 letters for the assignments, he uses a template and just changes the names, somehow he had the elders name, and then had a sisters names (from the letter he had printed before) left on the letter he printed. When the Elder got up to read his letter to the whole group he stopped suddenly and said "I think there is a mistake here." He showed it to the president, and they quickly got it fixed. I was in the office at the time, and three elders came charging in at full speed, laughing too as elders would, and printed the right letter. They won't forget this experience, nor will the elder who had the letter.

STORY 70 THURSDAY(Feb 11, 2016) is the "MISSION LEADERSHIP TRAINING DAY" This generally comes the first Thursday of the month, but last Thur the president was out of town which moved it to this Thursday.    All of the zone leaders (2 companions are zone leaders for 11 zones = 22 elders), and the sister training leaders (this is what they call them) come from all over the mission on buses. I again prepared the buffet breakfast the late afternoon before we left and the Elders put it out when they arrive at 7 am. This breakfast consists of Bananas, Granola Bars, Yogurts and Juice Boxes drinks. Then the lunch 1:30 meal is back to serving ENCHALIDAS and I cook the rice and do all of the other preparations, setting up the buffet table, etc. toppings, carrots & banannas (cut up) and then toppings for the rice (tomato sauces:  mild, hot and medium ), plus ice cream. It may sound easy, but to serve 47 people anything is a big job, and the clean up is big too.

STORY 71  LAST MTC SPANISH LESSONS  They end this week. We have really appreciated the "one on one" help.  However, we now HOPE Jonathan, David, and Bryan will call  us up and talk Spanish with us for 15 to 20 minutes weekly now that we do not have the MTC program working with us, as they had been over  lining up people to talk to us in Spanish. George talked to the wife of a stake president in Uraguay last week for a half hour. George is doing much better and studies the books Bryan sent him whenever he can. I study too, but I am a slower learner. The other couple in this mission purchased us  a SPANISH PROGRAM they got at Costo when they went home in December for the man's mother's funeral. They sent it to us today. It is called INSTANT IMMERSION SPANISH (in a yellow box, with four CDs, a dictionary, ad a good map, etc.) We will add this to our Spanish instruction materials and try it out later this week.

STORY 72  PROSPER SPIRITUALLY  Scripture of the Week. I just finished reading the Book of Mormon and I am starting over to read it again. George is close to finishing it.  We both want to read it in Spanish too.  It would be a wonderful goal for all of our children and grandchildren (who can read) to read it again while we are on this mission but I know that several of the families are already reading out of it daily.  Here is the scripture we have been pondering this week.

In Alma 48: 15     This scripture reminds usl that if we increase our faith, that by so doing God would prosper us, and if we are faithful in keeping all of the commandments of God that his promises are sure ....he will prosper us.  

We know that we along with every one of our children's families have issues they are dealing with. We want all of our children, their spouses and grandchildren to prosper in whatever they are working on, but mainly to prosper in the area of having testimonies grow stronger,  prosper in having more love in our families, prosper in having grand children honor and respect and obey their parents. Sometimes we think of prospering financially, but in truth we all want to prosper spiritually and prosper that way every day.

We love all of you very much. You are always in our prayers. We do appreciate your continual prayer for us and for the investigators we are working with.

Love Mom and Dad

76th Birthday and 53rd Wedding Anniversary

DEAR FAMILY - Children, Spouses, Grandchildren and Anyone Else who Reads this.

Each week just flies by but we do have some stories and photos about Chile towns that you might enjoy. We so appreciate Amy creating and managing the blog as that is WHY we take photos and write stories. This past week we celebrated out 53rd Wedding Anniversary here in Antofagasta, Chile. The #1 to #5 are the order in which we went to the different branches in the different cities, even though the photos and stories may not be in that order.

STORY 41  OUR TOMATO PLANTS PROGRESS  Trust your father to purchase Chilean tomato seeds at a store and plant tomatoes. Finally, they are up and coming, and to our surprise (bees) bees mind you came up 20 floors to fertilize the flowers! Now what do you think of that! Truly, we have never seen any bees around here.  In 30 more days we may have a few tomatoes. We had a investigator family (Carlos & Marseta) for dinner who sell tomatoes at the Vega Market, he said George was competing with him!

STORY 42   #1 TOCOPILLA (city) BRANCH AUDIT (up and back same day)  Sunday Jan. 24th  This is a city to the North of Antofagasta. George drove the van with myself and two Elders to go and do the Audit at that branch.  A branch here, is where they do not belong to a stake, they belong to the Mission. Therefore those over the mission finances perform the audit every six months. While there, we took a photo of the TALL elder. He is 6 feet 7 inches tall. He said his mother is 5 " 4 " and his father is 6 ". We have another Elder who is 6 feet 6, the son of  former BYU basketball (Timo Saarelainen) player from Finland. See other photos. At the church we took a photo to show the church building. However, it was sad as the attendance was ONLY 70, and they have a membership of over 800 people.  We were told they used to have 100 attending, but it has dropped as people have moved after some of the flooding.  There is SO much work to do for the church in all of these towns.  The missionaries and the branches are cooperating to try and clean up the membership list by calling on every member on the list to see if they still live there or have moved.  It is a big job.

Elder Delamare, myself and Elder Dinocio at the chapel in Tocopilla

Chapel in Tocopilla

Sisters in our District.  Hermanas Garcia, Caravel, Lorenzo, Veibell, Scolise and Machacbo

STORY 43  GEORGE'S  BIRTHDAY SURPRISE  BASKET (Friday Jan 29, 2016) George was so surprised to receive the very large fruit basket at the office on Friday from some of the children, plus cards and gifts in the mail from other children.  Trivia: George was born Jan 31, 1940 and Jeffery Holland was born Dec 5,1940. The basket had apples (manzanas), pears (pera), pineapple (pina), oranges (naranja), mango (    ), bananas (platanos), grapes (uvas).  It was simply wonderful. We have had such wonderful breakfasts (desayeuno), lunch (almuerrzo), and dinners (cena). Hope you can now start using spanish! We keep working at it daily. George is doing quite well speaking.

STORY 44    FROM BIRDS - WHITE TOPS on the ROCKS  This photo was taken Pomposa. This little village is on the Pacific Ocean shores near Taltal (if you want to look it up on the Internet). The gulls, pelicans, and many other birds have dropped their waste onto the rocks for many many years, and it has built up to turn the tops of the rocks white.  This is a fishing place and is the reason so many birds like to hang around, and obviously they like to go to a higher place - the rocks. There is also a photo of the little box like dwelling places where the people live in Pomposa. This village is just WEST and SOUTH of the big observatory called Paranal, where we visited a week ago.


STORY 45   #3  EL SALVADOR  (town) This town of about 3,000 is a Codelco Company Mining town. The company owns all of the property and has built many of the homes for the employees to live in. The church built a church that they own, but they do not own the property. Two sister missionaries (one of them is from Grantsville - Hermana Randall) had the first two male baptisms (of men) spouses of women, of any convert baptisms in this place for the past three years. It was a nice Sunday with only 28 people at the service, George blessed the sacrament for them, and helped ordain the two men to the priesthood. When men are older and are baptized, they are also ordained a Priest, and do not start with deacon and teacher offices in the Priesthood. The PHOTO is of me (Margaret) with Hermana Randall and one of the five families in this branch. The family has four little girls. We were there for George and the two other office missionaries to perform an audit of the finances on Sunday Jan. 31. The people sang Happy Birthday to George after the meeting.  This branch has about 120 people enrolled as members with an attendance of about 25.  They are also trying to contact all of the members who are on the rolls, but not attending.  Also if they have moved, they want to send the records out from the branch.

A family at church at El Salvador. Sister Talbot with Hermana Randall, who is from Grantsville.

STORY 46   BIG COPPER FIST MONUMENT  On the way driving to (El Salvador) this big monument had been erected by Codelco (the mining company) showing their strength Mining is the big industry in the Atacoma desert. Antofagasta is the product of the mining industry. The church members (males mainly) have a hard time staying active in the church in all of the upper Chile cities and towns, as many of the men work in the mines 7 days, then come home for 7 days, therefore attend church very irregularly.

Iron fist monument (new) to minors at Diego el Almagro

STORY 47   #4 DEIGO DE ALMAGRO (town) (Sun Jan 31, 2016) This is another town, but bigger than El Salvador. It has a nice Mormon church that has been built here.  It is also a mining town. The statue you can see in the photos is in the center of the town's recreation area is of two miners. See several photos. There is also a photo of a (flower) that came from the bush. It is a beautiful flower, something you may not have seen before. While they were doing the audit, I worked with the branch president's son (Elias)  teaching him some English words. This  boy had a hat that said CHICAGO, the Windy City. Since that is where George went on his mission, he took his photo.  Now you can get the significance. They have about 700 members of the church, but only 15 attended on Sunday.  They said sometimes they only have nine.  They are working on their membership records as well.

Monument to miners at Diego el Almagro

Another monument to miners at Diego el Almagro

 An unusual flowering plant at Diego el Almagro

 The church at Diego el Almagro

 The branch president and his son at Diego el Almagro

 The branch President's son Enzio.  Chicago is where I served m Mission.  The Windy City.

STORY 48   WIND SWEPT BLACK TOPS ON ROLLING HILLS.   On the way driving from Deigo de Almagro to Taltal we passed by a place that is very unusual. The tops of all of the hills are kindo jjagged and dark black in strips like patterns. We have seen this before and wondered how they got that way. We had to turn around as we missed the right road, so George got out and took this photo. It is hard to see, but black volcano rock is underneath, then the SAND blows and blows all over the rolling jagged hills leaving only the top endges black where the WIND blows off the sand. It is really something to behold while driving, something we have never seen in a landscape before.

Nothing quite like the scenes of the desert.

STORY 49  (#5) TAL TAL (town)  (Sun Jan 31, 2016) This town is located on the shores of the Pacific Ocean too. It is a lovely little place. The Elders love working in Tal Tal. This is where Ted and Wendy's nephew served before he came to the office, and then went home. We  have showed photos of Tal Tal before, but NOT of the inside of the Catholic Church across from the main park plaza. We arrived about an hour early so George and I walked two blocks to where the church doors were wide open. Soon we realized that this was the day they were honoring the VIRGIN MARY and the big celebration was about to start. See photos of the inside of the church and of the people  dressed in brightly colored costumes. Normally, our missionaries do  not go inside churches. But this time it was OK as it was not a service but a holiday. One of the ladies gave us a small tour. Then George talked to some visitors from Calama (a mining town by the Chilean mountains to the EAST). We had a connection to a Dr. Nunez who they knew so started a conversation. We ended up with two contact names. addresses and phone numbers.
Later at the Tal Tal Mormon Church while the men did the audit, I saw a need and cleaned up their three class rooms, swept floors, cleaned white boards, plus cleaned the nursery room. I hope it helped some.  No one will know who did all of this. It made me feel good to take a "Cleaning the Church Assignment," even though it was self initiated.

Inside the Catholic Church at Tal Tal.

Statue of the Holy Family Inside the church at Tal Tall

 Celebration at the church to the Virgin Mary.  A young boy dressed for the occasion.

 Two women dressed for the occasion as well

 The celebration begins

STORY 50   (#2) CHANARAL  (city) (Visited here on Sat. Jan. 30)  No photos  were taken here. This city that got flooded pretty badly during the last rain storm in April. Here you would think people would love rain, but they hate rain storms, as all of the water runs off the hills and down into the cities. The damage was immense. We stayed over night here. We also met two NEW CONTACTS on the street by the church while we were waiting for the branch president to come and open the doors. We gave out two copies of the Books of Mormon and set up two appointments for the sister missionaries in Chanaral. Literally, you just have to have a mind set   --- Who can I talk to today?. If someone is riding a bike close by, you stop them and talk to them, which is how this all came about. There will be more on this story in the future if they continue to take the lessons and are baptized.

STORY 51  HEARD ABOUT THE NEW BABY "MILES"  (Born Jan 30 Sat., but we didn't know until late at night Jan 31 Sun., as we were out of town.)  We arrived home at 10:30 and immediately called Amy and heard about the baby being born on Saturday morning at around 8 am. That was 12 noon our time and we were driving in a car to Chanaral. We were so happy to know both Amy and the baby are alright. We love the name Miles Thomas Densley. We also loved seeing the photos of this little "smiley baby."

STORY 52   SERVED BREAKFAST for two ELDERS and their MESSAGE (Feb. 1, 2016 Mon 8 am) We had Elder Jolley and his companion for breakfast as Mondays are their PDAY. (Sat. is our Pday)  We served pancakes, juice and eggs.  Afterwards we asked them to share a message: Elder Jolley asked us to turn to  2 NEPHI Chapter 14: verse 12, and  then READ:

         "And it came to pass that I  (Nephi) beheld the Church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were FEW because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore that sat upon many waters, never the less I beheld that the Church of the Lamb, who were the Saints of God, were also upon all of the face of the earth, and their dominions upon the face of the earth was SMALL because of the wickedness of the great whore that I saw."
(Capitol letters added to few and small)

Elder Jolley then said" " That even though our Church numbers may be few (in comparison to the world's numbers), and even though we find it hard to find and to teach people who will accept the gospel, and even after finding them and some are baptized  less than 20% who are baptized, end up remaining active in the church here in Chile. But in spite of all of this, we have to keep working as missionaries and try to build up the wards and branches as best we can, teach repentance and baptism, and testify to as many as we can about the church, until the time comes when the Savior returns.

STORY 53 ANNIVERSARY and ANTOFAGASTA DISTRICT  MISSIONARY MEETING  (Feb. 2, 2016 Tue) Photo is of the elders at this meeting (sisters left and are not in the photos). Elder Jolley (neighbors son of a family who lives close to Stephen Fawson in LaVerkin) was the district leader. After the meeting we asked Elder Jolley to take photo of us. (see photo George is 76, I am 73 date Feb. 2, 2016).  We have been married 53 years as of this date. The church we are at sits high on a hill right next to the Antofagasta City Cemetery. I told George this place  would be a nice site for a temple someday, but a BIG train came by during our meeting, and made a very large noise, so it may not be such a good place for a temple after all.

Elders Gonzalez, Marascal, Walker and Saarelainen, son of Timo Saarelainen who played basketball for BYU in the late 80's.

 We had Elder Kazden Jolley and his companion Elder Jolly for breakfast again.

 Elders Anderson, Olsen (from Hennifer and going home next week) Leon, Maraziegos, Jolley and Monsalve.  These are the elders in our district.

 February 2, 2016 - Our 53rd wedding anniversary.  The picture was taken at our district meeting by one of the elders.

STORY 54 ELDER WHO  HAD HIS CAMERA STOLEN & FINGER BIT NEARLY OFF (Feb 2, 2016 Tue) After the District meeting the elders told us of two elders who were jogging early in the morning and asked someone to take their photo. The man instead started to run off with his camera, they caught him and started a fight to get the camera back. The elder pushed towards the robbers face in the struggle and the robber caught the elders little finger in his mouth and nearly cut it off with his teeth. The elder not only lost his camera and all of his photos, but also nearly lost his finger. He had to go to the hospital.

STORY 55    NEW CONTACT  WHILE SHOPPING ON OUR ANNIVERSARY DAY  (Feb 2, 2016)  In the afternoon George took me shopping for some summery blouses as. It is very hot here and I have only two cotton blouses.  We went to the main Central Mall and to a store called FABELLAS, a big department store that is located all over Chile. We found some things on sale and then went to the cashier to pay for them. The girl there had to take a long time as they could not get the (plastic hooky thing to prevent shop lifting) off from the skirt he was buying me. It took at least four different people to work on it and took over 30 minutes. During the wait, we talked to the cashier about the church. She is now coming to our apartment for lunch on Sat. at 3 pm. She even asked us when our church service was on Sunday. Her name was Stephanie. We try to take every OPPORTUNITY to share the gospel. It is on our minds constantly as we are in a non-LDS environment. We know that when we are back in Provo, it won't be this way again.

STORY 56   CAMIONETA - OFFICE TRUCK FLAT TIRE (Feb. 2, 2016) We left the mall store after shopping and walked to the parking garage to go to our apartment and maybe watch a movie with the money Bryan and Lisa sent us on Amazon. Instead, we miraculously noticed one of the  truck (in Chile they call a truck with a camper back a Camioneta) tires was nearly flat. Therefore, we drove to a place where they filled the tire with air, but after measuring it again in 2 minutes the air pressure went down. George then found a nail in the tire. We were at this Shell station for over an hour as they had to find the tire jack which was no small chore. Then two men put on the spare tire. We felt blessed as if it had of gone flat in our parking place (under the 20 stories) we may have had to hire a tow truck. So do  appreciate this tender mercy at this time. Today George went and got the tire fixed. We will send  photos of the 2 office vehicles next week  (a van & a camioneta.)

E N D    Well this weeks news came later than usual. (Wed Feb 3.) We are sorry it is more of travel log. Please read STORY 52 for a MESSAGE.  We will have a lot to tell next time as after office hours today:  two ladies will come for supper WED pm, we are in charge of the English Class on THUR pm, we are visiting the family we met at the Food Court on FRI pm, we are having Stephanie from Falabellas for lunch on SAT, and Johann and his wife and two daug. on SUN after church for dinner, plus two elders. We do keep a very busy schedule.  We are so grateful for your prayers and for our health so that we can wake up and just keep going, and also for your prayers for our investigators, and also for your prayers for us to have help with our constant efforts to learn and speak Spanish.

     SO GLAD the PACKAGES WE SENT, ARRIVED for the TWO NEW BABIES
          Russell David Stuart  Born January 9th, 2016
          Miles Thomas Densley Born January 30th, 2016

     WAITING for NEWS of HANNAH KLEIN's MISSION CALL ( Will come in February)

     HAPPY FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS to:
       Grandson Lincoln George Stuart  Feb. 4 age 2
       Grandson Jacob Kimball Grant Feb. 22 age 13 or 14
       My mother's 107th birthday would be on Feb 22 too ( born in 1910)
              Hazel May Hall Fawson
       (Robert C Taylor's mother lived just a month shy of age 107 before she died.)
       Uncle Jay Youngs birthday (around Feb. 25)  Call Glenda if you have time.


 Much LOVE  Mom and Dad