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
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
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
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.
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
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