Book of Mormon Presentation

Dear Family   June 11  to June 21, 2016 Tuesday

          I do believe we missed sending our news last week due to being gone to Calama, so we cover our news as  briefly as possible. George sent the below photos 1 to 21 a few days ago, but here are the stories to go with them. This has been a real cultural experience being in Chile along with being a missionary experience. We certainly need all of the help from our Heavenly Father, who knows all things and what is best for his children in Chile, as we have done our very best and simply have to rely on his blessings IF the people we have been working with are going to even have a DESIRE to know more about the true gospel message, and then read the Book of Mormon, obtain a testimony and desire to be baptized. It is a long, step by step process, and some of these steps are "baby steps" for them. We so appreciate your remembering us and our contacts in your daily prayers. This mission is MORE about them than about what we are doing and the photos we send.

STORY 163 (Jose Helps Us get the Presentation Ready)  Monday June 13,  We had help from our weekly dinner friend Jose who set up the slide show feature in my MAC, but then we used the slide feature at the office. But it was all a ton ton ton of work but turned out pretty well. We had about 140 frames of either a picture, text in English and Spanish, or a divider page for his presentation on the Internal Evidences. George had three Review I, II, & III sections to show that lasted 5 minutes each, and then 10 areas from the Internal Evidences that he thought would be the most interesting to them. One of the areas also had 8 parts. Then it ended with the testimony photos. (no photo except display table)

STORY 164  (Seeing Hermana Randall again)  Thursday June 16,   She is from Grantsville, Utah  where my father was born on August 27, 1909, and since she was called to be a "trainer" of a new missionary I got to see her again when she came to the office for the meeting where the new missionaries received their companions.

STORY 165  (Arriving to Calama and staying at Veronica and Dadiens)   Friday June 17 It  is very COLD in Calama, but not at cold as in a Utah winter day after a big snow, etc. But it was cold to the Chilean people. They do NOT have central heating. Not so cold that pipes freeze but cold. This couple let us stay at their home they are renting. They own a home in Antofagasta but doe to a job change they rented that home and moved to Calama. The wife is 40 and husband is 35. They have been married 8 years, but have never had a baby for one just never came for which they are very disappointed. The husband joined the church 3 years ago which was very joyful for the wife who had always been a member. He is the ward (barrio) executive secretary (they just call him the secretary) and he is utterly delightful. The wife was from Peru and is an excellent cook. They have a dog named Willie who is in the photos. We wanted you to see him in his pajamas. 

STORY  166  (Making our Gold Plates and other Book of Mormon Records) Saturday June 18 (morning)  We brought all of the materials, paper, tape, wire, etc. with us on the bus and then in the morning at Veronica's apartment we worked on them from 8 am to 2 pm making the below list different kinds of  plates that are mentioned in the Book of Mormon. We covered boxes with silver paper or for the Gold plates had gold special paper that was really nice. The Gold Plates were the right size and turned out really well.

1.`the Gold Plates mde with four different part -

     small plates, words of Mormon, large plates and sealed portion - turned out nice

2.  the Brass Plates of Laban

3.  the small plates of Nephi

4.. the large plates of Nephi that Mormon condensed

5.  the Plates that Mormon added to the Gold Plates are part of (1.)

6.  the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc. (rolled up brown paper

7.  a Bible  . made a black box like a Bible

These  plates were all put on two tables and George used them one by one during his presentation. They were quite impressive. They all fit in a large box.

STORy 167 (The Dinner Veronica and Ivan's wife put on for Us) Saturday afternoon.   They invited the Barrio Obisbo (Bishop) IIvan and his wife, and two children and the husband's  (Ivan's) parents. His father had been a former Stake President not only in Santioago, but also here in Antofagasta. But not in the Stake area in Santiago that Jonathan served in.  These put on a lovely meal and the photos show what we had to eat. Veronica sliced the chicken breasts and then filled them with something and then rolled them up, tied them with string, and baked them and then CUT them into pieces. It was very tasty. They always ask what our favorite American dish is, and we generally say American's eat Meat Potatoes Vegetable and a Roll and a desert, but not fancy dishes like they make.

STORY 168  (At the Church for the Presentation) Saturday Evening June 18 We arrived early and set things up. Probably 50 people came. The translator was a professional translator and did a very good job. We had a lot of the text also in Spanish on the slides. It went really well except for when we named Noah's son Ham (Jamon) instead of Cam. The people really laughed. I told them it came from Google!  It was a nice presentation. The primary president wanted to keep the Gold Plates for their primary, but we could not leave them in Calama.  

STORY 169  (We met a young return missionary from Spencer's mission in Brazil) Saturday after the presentation.  A young man came up and introduced himself as a missionary from Spencer's mission in Brazil. He said Spencer was his Zone Leader. We had a good visit with him and were surprized that he knew us. He said Spencer had told him his Grandparents were in Antofagasta, and he recognized the name of (Elder Talbot), same name as Spencer (Elder Talbot). We wrote his name down, but will have to find it later.

STORY 170   (The Dog Willie's Pajamas)  Saturday night. After we got home from the presentation, since the small homes in Calama do not have central heating we saw for the first time, a Dog Bed, with blankets that went over the dog, and also the dog pajamas. Our granddaughter Ally would love seeing this photo as she loves dogs. He was a silver terrier and was really playful with George.

STORY 171  We heard the conversion story of a young return Chilean missionary. Sunday at church in the Rio Loa ward in Calama. This young man was in the hall way and I started talking to him. He was dressed in a suit and told me he had just returned 2 months ago from his mission in Argentina. He said he only joined the church 3 years ago. Then he showed me a photo of himself with long hair. He said he smoked, was into drugs, etc. but had one Mormon friend. This friend introduced him to the church. Not only him, but his mother and father and another sibling joined. His father is now inactive, but his mother is the Relief Society president. This young man met another female missionary on his way home who served in the same mission. They corresponded by email and now he wants to go and see her in Argentina. But he is looking for a job, so if he gets a job he will not go right now at this time. It was NICE to see the end result of a baptism....and such a changed life for this young man.

STORY 172  (Impressed by the Dedication of Veronica to her Church Calling) Sunday afternoon.    Veronica is the young women's president in her ward. She sat on her couch and we asked her about her church calling. She told us how she wanted to get all of the inactive girls (who are young woman)  back active again. She had at least 10 to go and visit. Some were not interested in returning to the church. One family she visited the mother said they had NEVER had anyone from the church visit them before. She said she drives and picks up three different girls each Sunday to brings them to church and then drives them home. IF every church member was doing what Veronica is doing it would really make a big difference to the missionary effort of the church all over the world. We were very impressed.

STORY 173  (We returned back to Antofagasta on the TOURBUS)  Sunday PM June 19    They have a big bus station here in Antofagasta. NO trains take people any place. The train tracks that run the full length inside the city are used  by trains to take the copper plates and other materials to other destinations. Chile is LONG and the trains run the full length of Chile. Maybe near Santiago trains are used for people, but not up in where we live in Antofagasta. The BUS station is a very busy place with many different companies and many different buses coming and going all of the time. Also buses are used all over town that are just ONE level buses. The Bus station buses are TWO LEVEL buses with a Top area to sit and a bottom area to sit.

Hermana. Jimena, Margaret and Hernana Randall from Grantsville.  They cane to the Antofagasta Zone Conference

Brother Marquez who is a volunteer in the mission office.  He served a mission in the Santiago North Mission at the same time as Jonathan.  His brother served in the Vina Del Mar mission at the same time as David.

 Picture of Jose Marquez alone.

 Brother and sister Zuniga.  They are looking at my Book of Mormon map.  He was the first stake President in Antofagasta.  He was also a stake president in Santiago.

Ivan Zuniga's wife and Darien at the home where we stayed in Calama.  They are preparing for Sunday Dinner.

 The Chilean food prepared for Sunday dinner.

 Margaret seated at the dinner table.  The Zuniga children Matias and Kathlina.

My dinner plate with vegetables wrapped up in chicken.  It was very good.

Me, a missionary in Spencer Talbot's mission, and Margaret.  Spencer was his Zone Leader.

 A missionary in Spencer's Zone.  He said Spencer was a very good and obedient missionary.

 We stayed at the home of Veronica and Darien.  They were wonderful people.

 We spent Saturday in Calama preparing this display for my Book of Mormon presentation.  The plates in front of the picture of Jesus represents the Gold Plates received by Joseph Smith.  We prepared them according to size but not to weight.

 Veronica and Darien had a dog named Willie that was like a child to them.  He was a fun dog.

 Another picture of Willie in his pajamas.

 Margaret with the Relief Society sisters in Calama.

 These are called Membrillo in Chile.  They are like an apple, but very hard and full of sugar.  I found the name in English is Quince.  We had a Quince tree in our orchard in Oak City.  Glenda tells me that my mother used to put them in with pears to sweeten the taste of pears.

 Marta gave Margaret some towels that she had made into roses.  They were quite attractive.

Recipes and Surprise Party

DEAR FAMILY  June 4 to June 15, 2016 (Stories 149 to162)

    This week surely went by in a hurry: we had company at our apartment for 4 different dinners, watched the Journey of Faith CD again, attended 2 dinners at other people's homes, worked many evenings and at the office on the presentation (II Internal Evidences),  had a dermatologist doctor appointment for George at the Military Hospital, and found out the recommendations from that appointment, plus told about my fall a week ago, but I am OK. 

                  George took and sent 12 Photos for this week

1-Hummingbird photo at Richards home

2-Blowing out the one candle Laluna (Downs syndrome child)

3-Sol (email friend for Madison) and her cousin  daug. of Area 70

4-Katherin's mother (the Area 70's wife Katherine) their two children Richardo (gd son)

5-Gabriell's family for Sunday dinner and Journey of Faith CD showing

6-Journey of Faith CD

7-Photo of one of the dogs we feed on the way to the office.

8-A Chilean home decorated for Father's Day for Rodolfo

9-Margaret showing their dog "Bee Doo" in his "Winter Clothing" outfit

10-Photo of Marta and Rodolfo and Goga, our dear friends (also) Investigators

11-Four power point presentation COVERS- working now on No. II Internal Evidences.

12- Photo of school lady Raquel and girl studying at Harvard 

STORY  151(My parents 80th Wedding Anniversary) Married June 5, 1936 in the Salt Lake Temple. My father Merrill Pehrson Fawson, died October 8, 1985, but if he would have lived longer, they would have celebrated their 50th Wedding anniversary  8 months later on June 5th, 1986. That was such a sad day for the whole Fawson family. He was only 76 years old, and the same age George is at this time. Plus my father also died on  our daughter Amy's 8th birthday, as she was born on October 8th in 1977. My father died a month or so after the Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, who also died in 1985.

 STORY 149  (Ricardo Sr. and his Hummingbirds) Saturday June 4  We went to their home for  lunch at 1:30. If you recall this Ricardo Sr. is the father of the former Area 70 who left Chile and moved to Ely, Nevada. His daughter Carolina is the one who sat and listened to George tell about the Book of Mormon lands in Guatamala for over an hour "rapt with attention" and who is also a baptized member, but inactive.  When we arrived we went to see if the hummingbird was there, and sure enough it was. George took some photos. This Chilean house has a long kind of hall way in the back about 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. They have a clothes line and a high wall in the back with a row of Chilean kind of trees and bushes, plus TWO hummingbird feeders. They said they have about 4 to 5 different hummingbirds coming weekly. This was a red throated hummingbird (photo) but the red does not show. (See Photo 1 bird)

Ricardo has hummingbird at his home.  Of course he has a feeder as well

STORY 150  (The Chilean Birthday dinner and the Yahtzee Game)  The Chileans love to barbeque. They had Chilean big kind of hot dogs, chicken legs, and steak. Then on the table was also cut into cubes potatoes, tomatoes with onions, cut up corn, avocado mashed up. These were all in small cereal bowl size dishes (serving 10) but people only took small portions. Then they had rolls purchased from a bakery (not the grocery stores) and they were really exceptional. Then they had a purchased lemon and apply pie that they put ONE large candle in and sang Chilean birthday song, and the American birthday song. The little girl  Aluna who is a Downs Syndrome child blew out the candle. (see Photo 2) Then we showed the 4 children at the dinner the Yahtzee GAME and gave them 5 dice. The grandfather joined in and they loved it. Throwing the dice and laughing and having fun. Many and all children are on the phone or game pads constantly so we told them this was a good BREAK away and fun family time together. The parents were very pleased. We are warming these two families up to get ready for serious church discussions. We invited them all to our apartment next Sunday. We will be serving 12 counting us. (See photos 2, 3, 4)

 Birthday dinner for Ricardo. La Luna helping him blow out the candles.

 Sol with her cousin at the dinner.

 Ricardo and his grandmother at the birthday dinner

STORY 152 (2 PM Gabriella's Family and the Spanish Investigator) Journey of Faith CD showing. Gabriella is the woman (who incidentally served at the same time as Jon and  in the same mission as Jon). She has been helping us with our Spanish so we invited her family (husband and 2 children Ben and Vania). She did not marry until she was 37 and had only these two children who are now ages 14 and 16. Then we also had a woman who cleans in our apartment building MERCEDES who just happened to come by our door area cleaning when Gabriella was leaving so we also invited her to dinner. She is from Columbia and said she would like to learn about the church and infact will attend church this coming Sunday at the Quito Barrio. After the meal she left but the family stayed and wanted to watch the CD Journey of Faith. (see photos 5 and 6) Thanks again to Laura for purchasing and sending us the CD)

STORY  153  (6 PM Marta and Rodolfo and Goga return for Sunday dinner)  Sunday June 5, 2016  We had committed them to read the 1st Book of Nephi, so this evening will be particularly important to see if they did it.   They came and we had a nice supper together and then I left George at the table with Marta and Rodolfo,  and I went to play with Goga (Gustabo) while they talked. George had a very meaningful discussion with them. We were both surprised that Marta had read 9 chapters. He asked them if they had received the Holy Ghost at the time they were baptized into the Evangelical Church. They said no, they were just baptized. They also did not understand the Atonement, so they had a big discussion on that. It was a very good evening.  We both have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book again in depth this past week in preparation for this evening together.

 Gabriela Trigo and her family at our home for dinner on Sunday.

 Another picture of Gabriela Trigo and her family.

STORY155   (My fall out in the street in front of our Apartment last week)  This took place last week and George took a photo of the big street covering that my foot got caught on a handle deal that literally threw me to the ground face first). I thought I was knocked out, but could not believe I didn't knock my front teeth out. It did skin up my nose and it was bleeding. The construction worker (Edwardo) rushed over and took my pulse, and other ladies came and handed me a wet rag for my nose. I just laid face down in a pile of loose dirt for about 10 minutes and then told them I was OK and I got up and walked to the office, and didn't notice my yellow shirt top was covered with dirt too. It was a scare but I am OK. A big blessing, not far from where I fell was a broken bottle and sharp glass pieces, I am glad I didn't land on that! George had gone to the office early, that is why I was walking alone. He was surprised when I arrived, bleeding nose, puffed up lip and dirty clothes.

STORY 157 (Lunch with Edwardo who is a Constructor Worker) Monday June 6  George  then invited this man (now this week) who came to help me when I fell, to lunch. He talked such fast Spanish that neither of us could understand him, but he loved the lunch and we enjoyed having him over. We never walk home for lunch but did this day so we could feed him at 1 PM. 

 Margaret wanted me to take a picture of a place similar to what she tripped and fell on

STORY 154 (Dog who now doesn't bark at us) He comes and finds us if he is out of his gated area and wags his tale. George drops food on the sidewalk. He has 3 dog friends now who really like him a lot. We buy dog food and he keeps it in his black carry bag. These dogs will really miss George when we go home. (see photo 7)

 The dog that used to growl and bark at us every day now is our friend since we feed him.  Here he is waiting for us to come.

STORY160  (Fathers Day supper at Martas and Rodolfos June 9)  Marta called and invited us to a Surprise Dinner for Rodolfo. She is flying with Goga to Brazil on Monday and would not be here for Father's Day so wanted to celebrate it early. She had really decorated up her living room. It was so wonderful to be in their small condo home. She had taught her son (Goga age 4 in July) about four sentences to say to his father when he walked in the door. He did as instructed, then came back and said "Do I say any more?" Rodolfo loved it. She had "Subway sandwiches" a lovely drink, avocado drink for Goga, nuts, cookies, salami and cheese. Chilean's eat so different than we do. She said if you take an (almond, a piece of cheese and salami) and roll it up together it tastes so good and this is how Brazilian's eat it. (see photos 8 and 10) 

        Photo 9 is of me and their dog"Bee Doo" in his "Winter Clothes". Chileans have NO central heating, so they dress up their animals in clothes. 

STORY161 (Four Chilean and Brazilian Recipes from Marta) Marta is an excellent cook. She is from Brazil and is flying with Goga on Monday June 13  for 17 days (returns July 1) to visit her mother in Brazil with their son Goga. I watched her make the following drink for her son and he drank his whole glass. ALso are other things she makes.

1st Recipe  Avacado Drink 

2 Big and ripe avacados

1 cup coconut milk (fresh coconut blended with milk)

1/4 cup brown sugar

another cup of milk

BLEND this all together in a blender until thick almost like a thin milkshake. It will be light green color. It tastes very good. It is a favorite in Brazil.

  2nd Recipe. Black Bean (get them in a package at a store)

Soak them in water (half a bag) if a normal size small bag and not only cover the beans but add two times more and leave soaking over night. In the morning  boil the beans until they are tender (takes about 30 to 40 minutes)  Then cut up one very large onion and brown it in butter along with cut up green or red peppers, and add some copped up garlic and some cilantro cuttings. Then chop up some ham. Then all all of this to the beans and simmer for about 15 minutes. Then put in containers in the refrigerator and eat at evening meals, etc. It is very very good. Black beans are used almost daily in Brazil.

   3rd Recipe. Coconut Milk

Purchase a coconut. Drill two holes and drain out the watery part inside. Saw = yes saw the coconut in half and then cip out the coconut. The coconut will come out easy and then in small pieces put it in the blender and add  1 1/2 cups milk and blend for each 1/2 of the coconut. It will be a thick kind of paste (coconut and milk). Then add it to pancakes, drinks, or pies or whatever. It is very good.

  4th Recipe. Tomatoe Salsa

This is also used in the states (USA) but very common here at almost every meal I have been too where a Chilean woman prepared the meal. They chop the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, very very fine. Plus the juice of a lime (not a lemon).  They mix them together and sit in the refrigerator and then bring out in a small cereal bowl (not too large). It is very very good. I have made it too, and George has too, the cutting is the hard part, but we both like it a lot.

 Marta leaves for Brasil on Monday so she celebrated Father's Day early.  She invited us over for the surprise party.  This is how she had decorated the home.

 Margaret is holding their dressed dog Bidoo.

 Gustav hugging his dad for Father's Day celebration.

STORY 162  (Raquel from the Elementary school and USA Harvard Student Akriti Bhamb)  Friday evening June 10  We invited Raquel and she brought a student (from Harvard University in Boston) with her who is living in Chile for 4 months and volunteering at a high school teaching English. This person Akriti was born in California but her parents were from PUNJAB in India. (see photo 11) A very pretty girl, age 28 who is working on a Masters degree in International Education Policy at Harvard. Her father is a medical doctor at Bakerfield Hospital in California. Her brother is studying medicine at the Rush Medical School in Chicago. Another brother is studying someplace else. Very nice people, but let us know they were not interested in religion. Akriti said she was raised with NO religion at all in her home. She also learned Spanish in high school and speaks very well.   We asked about the excellent PIANO student who attends the elementary school where Raquel is the assistant principal. She said he has a scholarship to a music school and attends it part of the day (4 hours) and practices the piano at this school, but he does not have a piano at his small home. We found where Sergio lives, and he lives in the same area as Marta and Rodolfo. We told her we want to go to any program where there student plays.  She invited us to more school programs and also will invite us to her home but said "NOT to talk about religion." (see photo 12)

        CLOSING  Well this is our LIFE for the past week. Missionary work  report - 1) Still working with Marta and Rodolfo, 2) picked up Mercedes as a new investigator,  3) George picked up 3 more names that he gave to the office missionaries,4) we had two people reject our message (Raquel and Akriti), 5) are still friend shipping Edwardo (construction boss), 6) have 4 dinner appointments for past investigators coming up for Sunday through Thursday of next week, and leave for Calama on Friday. We LOVE sharing the gospel, and just wish more people would care about learning about the restored church. It seems to be the poor and humble people are the ones who want it.

  

 Raquel and Akriti at our home.  Neither religious nor interested in religion.

STORY 158 (A Different Kind of Story about Alonda and her daughter who speaks English) We had their names on a three by five card and had not written where we found them. We emailed them and invited them to dinner.  They emailed back and said they wanted to come. We sent them instructions on how to find our apartment and said we were across the street from the LIDERS grocery store. I got the meal all ready. They called George on the phone and said they could not find out apartment. He gave more instructions, even walked down and outside waiting for them. Then he walked over to Liders store and waited in front. Then after several more phone calls he found out they were in IQUIQUE and we were in ANTOFAGASTA both at a Liders store, in two different cities. A lot of running around for both George and them, and no dinner guests here. Many apologies and told them we would entertain them when they come to Antofagasta in the future.

STORY 159 (No Company - so we Worked on the slide show presentation this evening).  The bishop friend Evon, who lives in Calama called and George  to do another presentation in Calama June 18th, the evening before this ward's Ward Conference. Therefore, we are spending every spare minute trying to (revamp) his earlier power point presentation so it be in SPANISH plus add more photos. We have our bus tickets to leave the office next Friday at 4:30 and the bus leaves at 5:30. We will send more on this next week. Evan called from Calama and is working on getting a translator for George. We are excited to go and do this.  (See photo 11 of the four cover pages that will be scanned to start the presentations. We are now only working on II Internal) We worked on these here and  at the office, but it took away from our Spanish study.

 Things we are getting ready for the Calamari presentation.

 We have enjoyed the journey of faith documentary.

    Sending much LOVE and Prayers that we say for all of you and for All you are doing. We know Hannah is counting the days until she enters the MTC. We are so THRILLED for her to go on this mission and so PLEASED that she has such a strong desire to serve. We also are so pleased about her jump start on SPANISH, something we are still struggling with. Also Happy birthday to Nathan Talbot on June 15th. We LOVE your emails, and hope to hear back on any dermatologist advice on the cream treatment. We truly do appreciate your prayers.

Mom and Dad in Antofagasta, Chile

PS  Did any of the grandchildren want to read a book in the Book of Mormon this summer?

Yahtzee and FHE

Dear Family  May 31 to June 4, 2016 (MONTH of JUNE STARTS) Stories 141 to 148

         Another busy past week just became a memory.  Amy and Landon arrived back from Hawaii with the family. They are moving into our basement in Provo, until they can close on their home the end of June. We are so glad we can help them out in this way. They will probably help us out too by watering our bushes and trees. It is winter here in Chile, but summer in Provo. We also appreciated seeing the photo of Stephanie and her three children who took flowers to Robert's grave on Memorial Day. This is always a sad day for us. Also we so appreciated having Stephanie pick flowers from our yard to take to the cemetery. The big rose she sent us a photo of, was simply beautiful.Merrill's rose bush gift given to me many years ago for Mother's Day is still giving  us yearly gifts, and this year it went really overboard. (see photo if we can take and send it to you)

       Our SPIRITUAL THOUGHT for this week would have to be - "To just keep trying to work at anything you are trying to change or perfect in your life. We have found that a more extended daily personal scripture study time has really changed our thoughts and attitudes plus has increased our knowledge. Also it seems to have increased our being in tune with the spirit so we can receive the little still small voice promptings. This is something you would not have to be on a formal mission to obtain. Just takes a larger block of time."

PHOTOS Sent  (June 3rd Friday)
Sent a photo of the school that goes with last weeks photos
Sent a photo of Lucy and Sergio and their son.
Sent a photo of the pineapple cake they brought to us
Sent a photo of Gabriella who helps to teach us Spanish served in Jon's mission at same time.

    Sent Past Trip Photos
Sent a photo of the sunset while walking on the beach
Sent a photo of our hotel taken from the beach
Sent three photos of the Brazian dancers in their costumes

    Sent these (June 4th Saturday)
Sent a photo of Graciano and family from Origines Ward
Sent a photo of Hermana Casseros from Bolivia
Sent a photo of the new booklets on Serving and Temples

STORY 141  (New Church Booklets)  Monday May 30 at the office.    Upon arriving to the office two new boxes of booklets arrived from Church Headquarters (see photo) showing two new booklets that go with missionary lessons. These are called "Service in the Church" and "Temples and Families".  The ones that came were in English.  George took a photo for you to see them. The church is trying to KEEP the people who are baptized, in the church and teach them that being baptized means they now SERVE in taking a church assignment and doing other things. It is a long long process from baptism to full conversion. Chile will really benefit from these two new lesson booklets.  (see photo)


STORY  142  (Jose Came to Dinner and Ship Discussion)  Monday May 30. We had our friend to dinner again and had soup, salad, and a fruit cup. No photos. But his hobby is following the Chilean Ships and other historical ships. We brought him a booklet back from Iquique on the Ship Esmeralda and since it was in Spanish during the meal he proceeded telling us all about the photos and translating the captions into English. After this discussing he took us to the computer and asked for SHIP BUCKET LIST and then clicked on Chile. He showed us some more ships. We then told him we wanted him to watch Journey of Faith and learn about the ship that Nephi built. He was agreeable, but it was 90 minutes long and he could only stay for 45 minutes of it so we will finish it next Monday with him. George and I watched the rest of it and the SHIP portion was done really well. The JOURNEY of FAITH CD is well worth the cost. We so appreciated Laura mailing it to us for Christmas. Our mission is all of your missions too, we are in this all together as a family, and so appreciate your prayers for us and for the people we are working with.

STORY 143  (Dice Family Came to Dinner and We Played Yahtzee)  Tuesday May 31 No English a full Spanish husband, wife and son age 8. We determined from comments made this was their first time being with Mormons. But they told us they were Catholics and that they attended the down town central Cathedral for church. After the meal we played the dice game, as you recall this was the couple who purchased the dice for us and brought them to our door. They very much enjoyed the game. We FIND that the Chilean parents have small laptops for their children or phones and they are constantly playing games with them, or doing other activities. We introduced to this family the concept of a "Family Home Evening" where those things are not allowed and they do something together. We had our two lists (one in English one in Spanish) with:

         FAMILY HOME EVENING (one page charts)
    One in English                 One in Spanish
"Family Home Evening"     "Noche de Hogar"
Opening Prayer                   Primera Oracion      
Sing a Song                         Cancion      
Share a Scripture                Compartir una Escritura
Have a Lesson                    Tener una Leccion
Play a Game                       Jugar un Juego
Enjoy a Treat                      Disfrutar un Postre
Closing Prayer                    Ultima Oracion

So we did just this. Instead of reading scriptures or having a lessons we bought out our (Spanish and English) Proclamation to the Family and wanted them to take turns reading it. To our surprise the little son age 8 in 2nd Grade (segundo is second in Spanish) wanted to read too. His reading was fantastic. He could sound out all of the works and had proper pronunciation. We were certain he may not know what some of the words meant but he could read them. It was a very lovely evening and we set up another date the end of June to have them come for another meal and another game for another home evening together.  (see two photos one of the family one of the cake they brought)

STORY 144  (Made Brownies for the Office Staff)  Thursday June 2     One of the office elders (Elder Morales) from Conception Chile has helped me a lot with making our hand outs into Spanish with words here and there. So I promised him some brownies. The office elders love treats like this and made a big deal out of it. I purchased the regular brownie mixes in boxes, but then instead of water, use grated Zucchini that they sell in Chile, plus another egg. It seems to work well and makes them more nutricious.  We have really enjoyed working with the office young elders. The new elder from Alabama  (Elder Huffstettler) is one of the nicest elders we have had yet. He will make some young woman a very nice husband some day.

STORY 145  (Gabriela  Hermana Trigo)  Wednesday June 1    This is an amazing story.  We met Gabriela at the last General Conference session at the La Portada Stake building. We had gone to that building to meet up with some investigators but they did not come. On our way walking out we met this man who spoke some English. He said his wife spoke English too. We met her and their two children. She was SO wonderful and wanted to help us with Spanish and then we would help her children with English. She started coming to our apartment once a week. We went to her home too, to work with the children. We purchased THREE Spanish books on how to learn English. (Spanish Text) English Words. Then she said she wanted to come to our apartment three days in a row. On this day we found out that she served a MISSION in the same mission as our son Jonathan and during the same time (Santiago Chile North 1990-1992). The next day she brought 6 photos from her mission. We sent an email to Jon about this and then George sent the photos to our son Jon. Jon sent them on to his mission president's wife. The photo sent to you is only of Gabriella. Jon did not remember her, nor her him, but they served in the same mission and at the same time. She was 26 when she served and the president used her to help with the younger sister missionaries. She did not marry until she was 36 and had two children one at age 38 and another at age 38. She is now age 53. Gabriella has been wonderful to help us with our Spanish.

This Gabriela Trigo who has been helping us with our Spanish.  Interestingly enough, she served in the same mission as Jonathan, and at the same time.  They do not remember each other, but had the same mission president.  It is a small world in the church


STORY 146 (Origines Ward Family came to dinner at our apartment)  Thursday June 2   We met this family after church last Sunday. The husband (Graciano) and (Camila) told us that they were leaving Chile to go to Utah in the United States in August, and he is studying English. We felt impressed to invite them over for supper. We were able to tell them all about Utah, Deseret Industries etc. where they can purchase things at a very cheap price, plus about the Front Runner train system, and many other things that they really appreciated. This man told us that his father and mother died when he was young (mother at age 4 and father at age 8). He was then raised by a grandmother who died when he was age 13, and he then went to live with an Aunt. He met his current wife (a member) and was introduced to the gospel and joined the church. They have two children. The little boy enjoyed our toys (over 25 cardboard ends from printer refills for ink and about 20 plastic dressing tall skinny bottles). We have big boxes of both that we have for children to play with. Parents are shocked how much their children enjoy playing with this (no cost) toys. The family left so glad they came and were so appreciative of the information we gave them.  (sent a family Causiano photo)
Gaciano & Camila and children Donato And Josefina.  Members moving to Utah in August.


STORY 147  (Last Leadership Council Meeting for this President and Wife)  Friday June 3  We are doing our last last last things with this current leadership as their mission ends in 25 days and the new president and his wife arrive.  The new leadership are Chilean and both only speak Spanish. Elder Morales (office elder) is from Conception and he gives us this kind of information. We worked all day long for this monthly event associated with serving 49 people lunch the food prep, the clean up and then taking down all of the long tables and chairs (which you know George always does the lions share) plus putting everything away associated with the days events. We were both tired when we walked home at 5:45 pm.  This LAST meeting for this mission leadership, consists of the missionaries (zone leaders, district leaders, and sister trainer leaders who all come in on bus from all over the mission for:  1) bringing in the original baptism records, 2) for instructions and 3) mail and magazines are put in their luggage and missionary supplies, to take them back to their zones, and districts. These missionaries all BRING letters and packages that they are sending to former companions so it is really a big day handling all of these kinds of things.  They start arriving at 7 am and leave on buses between 6 and 8 pm to go back.  

STORY  148  (Hermana Caseros from Bolivia)  Friday June 3   She has been particularly friendly with us and returns to Bolivia in two weeks. She came to the leadership training meeting and hugged and said goodbye. We took her photo with her by the map and she is pointing to Bolivia. (see photo of her pointing to map)
Hermana Caceres from Bolivia who goes home next week.  She is pointing to Bolivia.


        We love all of you so very much. George may be able to get Ooma fixed this week, but also again he may not. We do LOVE and READ your emails. We do appreciate hearing from any of you and loved the emails from Laura, Merrill, Stephanie and Amy, and Dallin.

Love Mom and Dad

  On the beach in Iquique at sunset.

 Iquique on the beach before sunset.  We stayed in the Diego Del Almagro Hotel that is directly behind the orange and blue and the standing couple in the center of the picture

We had the Brasil folklore dancers pose for us.

 A lovely person from Brasil and special pose.

 One more couple pose of the Brasilian folklore dancers.

Chilean School Visit

Dear Family     Week of Tuesday May 24 to  Monday May 30, 2016)  Winter here!

           This has been a very busy past week (semana)  for us with lots of evening (tardes) dinners (cena) in our apartment (dormitorio). We feel like we are filling two missions at the same time, 1) our work at the office and our  2) evening and weekend work with investigators. We do keep a very busy schedule with lots of work, but we have had some very interesting experiences.  We also appreciate your prayers in our behalf and  in behalf of our investigator families to have their hearts softened so they will not only want to actually read the Book of Mormon but to also to have the desire to really want to know if it is true.

PHOTOS  George sent for this week.

- Photo of Andre (we call him our grandson)

-The public school by our apartment "children's performance"

-Piano solo by an age 13 Chilean boy Sergio  "an utterly fantastic performance"

-Meeting the school children and the school administrators

-Wednesday Maria over again for dinner and a lesson

-Thursday Dinner for Claudio and Hugo

-Friday Lesson over at Martaa and Rodolfo's home

-Saturday  Baptism at Quito Ward (George is in this photo)

-Saturday Wilson and Idedie and two children  Daniel  10 and Pascal 6

-Sunday Dinner for Marta and Rodolfo, and son Googa (Gustabo) almost 4

STORY 133  (Andre from Columbia at the  apartment front desk came for supper)  Monday May 24  Andre, not married, only speaks Spanish but we worked through the language OK. He and all of the desk clerks people live in the same apartment in our building. They are all from Columbia. We also played Yayhtezz with Andrew and had a page teaching English Words to do with the game. We had a nice evening with him, but did not share the gospel at this time. 

Andres is from Columbia and works as an employee in our apt. Building.  I tell him he is my Nieto in chile.  He calls me his Abuelo.  Nieto is grandson and Abuelo is grandfather.

   

     Stories to do with Marie's Visit for Dinner and a Home Evening Lesson (134-135-136)

STORY 134  Maria -   (More On the Three Degrees of Glory)   Wednesday pm May 25    To our dismay, we had Maria in tears (crying actually) last night saying she cannot believe that only the Mormons are going to Heaven, and quoted just 5% of the population (wrong on this statistic), and that there is only ONE true church.  But she believes is that she loves Jesus Christ and he loves her and she feels his love in her heart and his help daily, and believes that what is in your heart is what matters and it doesn't matter which church you belong to, and that all good people will go to heaven to be with Christ, and that she knows she is going to heaven and will be with him after she dies. She does not feel we have a (corner on the market) so to speak. These very good good good people have been so deceived and it is SO hard for them to change their beliefs. We felt so bad to see her in tears, and finally calmed her down, but gradually George again challenged her to READ the Book of Mormon, and asked her to really want to know if it is true. We will just stay on this theme as we only have six more months here. We were thrilled that she pulled her book  (Book of Mormon) out of her purse, and said she was reading it. We told her since she is out of work now she could probably read the whole book in 2 weeks.  We will be meeting with her again in 2 weeks. She is one of our MOST special people that we have met here.  We have been here a YEAR and so far none of the people we have met or worked with have read the Book of Mormon clear through and prayed about it to get a testimony that it is true. Not very good statistics!

STORY 135  Maria -  (The HE Lesson was the  Home Evening - Teaching Part)   Wednesday May  We had Maria say the prayer, and then we gave her a Liahona and showed her the children's section and told her to have her older grand daughter read and give one of the stories, then we had Maria read a scripture from a Spanish Bible, then George did the lesson on (reading the book of mormon). We then had the games and did all of the above three, then we had a discussion and a treat, and a closing prayer before she left to go home. We have FOUR more times this week when we can try out this new approach to TEACH (1) About Family Home Evenings, and (2) Teach a lesson of some sort.

STORY 136  Maria - (How Chilean's Pray and Hearing Maria's Prayer)    This was a real spiritual experience. Her prayer was so beautiful.  Here in their tradition all of the members of the family hold hands around the table when they pray, forming a circle of hands clasp one to another. Then Maria said the prayer. That prayer was so wonderful that I can hardly express it in words. They do not end prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen, but just say Amen. But we say Amen and they say Amen with an A like in Father.

We had Maria Antioneta over to our apartment for dinner again.  She is a lovely person but pretty tied to the evangelical church.

 STORY 137 (Attending a Public School Program by our apartment)  Thursday May 26 On our way walking to the office Monday morning at 9:50 am we saw several children walking to a school that we pass right by with their parents and they were all dressed up in Chilean costumes.
        After arriving at the office we left and went back to the school to see if we could go to the program. We arrived and knocked at the front entrance and were met by one of the administrators who invited us in. This lady spoke fluent English and we had a nice conversation. She made us very welcome and invited us to sit on the seats (actually behind the dignitaries who were coming to give out computers to some of the students). Camera people came too so we were probably on TV that night.  This is a PUBLIC school, not a private, and the public schools are required by law to teach the Chilean (the Quaka). This is why some  the children were dressed up in costumes. One of the Chilean students age 13 (Sergio) played a piano solos - a long long rendition of a spanish composition that was utterly fantastic. We loved seeing the children dance the "Quaka." and we loved their singing the National Chilean song.   After the program several of our own church children plus many of the other young school children made us feel like we were the dignitaries as they all hovered around us. School children all wear the same style of clothes.  (see photos) We also made several contacts for future missionary discussions with the school people -those who speak English.
          There are many photos from this event for you to view to get a real idea of a Chilean public school.  Also we picked up TWO new contacts for dinners in future for Alanda and Raquel.

This the Ecuador public school that we went and visited.  We now have one of the administrators coming to apartment for dinner tomorrow.  We will see how that goes.  You can see on the very left part of the building where we live.  The school is about one half block away.

We went to the Ecuador School for a program and were treated well as guests by the administration.  The children also loved having us there and liked us taking their pictures.

Pretty young Chilean girl by the name of Tihare.  She dance the Quaka, the national dance in Chile.

These are the administrators at the school who treated us as guests.  We have invited the person in the center for dinner with her husband.

 Young Quaka dancers.  Margaret loved the boy on the left.

Dancers ready to do the Quaka

  The school children are all singing the Chilean National Anthem

 This young man played the piano extremely well.  He is standing by his mother.  He started playing the Piano when he was four years old.  He was very impressive.

 Margaret was anxious to talk to the piano player, and posed with him and two young girls.

 Margaret is serving dinner to Hugo Rivera and Claudio Viallobos.  We gave them the plan of Salvation lesson.  This was part of a Home evening night.

STORY 138  (Dinner with Hugo and Claudio)   Thursday PM  May 26    These two men have come to our place man other times, Hugo stopped the lessons 3 to 4 months ago, and Claudio is now separated from Monica. It was good to have them together. We had a home evening lessons and gave them the Plan of Salvation lesson and afterwards played Yatzee. It went well and the two of them will return in 2 weeks. It was good to have the two of them at the same time. I did the clean up from the meal and dishes, while George gave them a lesson.

STORY 140   (Goal - to have a Family Home Evening with our Investigators)    This pas week at the office we made two different lists one in English and one in Spanish (see Spanish and English photos) and wanted to have these with our people who come to dinner.  We then purchased some little colored (cubes) at the store and made up some short games to play with them. Monopoly is just TOO long - we have done that one, Chilean CLUE was long too, and ROOK is an adult game. We wanted something for the young children. We think this will be a hit. We have SIX colors and 30 cubes for each. We then made up three new home evening games for families using the colored cubes:

 (1) GAME 1    shake the dice and you can put in a jar the number of cubes on the dice. If you roll a five you have to put five back. This was fun too. Takes about 10 minutes per game. The little blocks could represent the good choices choices you need to make daily.

 (2) GAME 2     take your 30 cubes and made four letters of the alphabet, we have six colors and it almost goes to the end. We did this and it was fun. 

 (3) GAME 3     take the cubes and have TEN on the bottom for the ten commandments and then build something. We then started to recite the commandments before playing this game.  Maria said she liked this as it was relaxing to do it, even though hers fell down. She thought her grandchildren would like this game. (see Photo of the cubes)

 Gujara, the son of Marta and Rodolfo.  We gave him some small colored blocks and this is what he used them for.

 Margaret explaining the Book of Mormon to Marta.

 Elder. Walker. And Elder Huffstutler.  It was happy day for them as they had a baptism.

 Wilson, Daniel, Ideide and Pascal at our apartment for dinner.  We love this family, and keep hoping for them to accept the Gospel.

 A little Chilean girl at church.

STORY 139  (Showing the Restoration Video)  Sunday May 29      We had Marta and Rodolfo over for dinner. It was really strange as we had another family coming for dinner at 4 and they didn't show up, so decided to use that dinner for Marta and Rodolfo (see photo) tacos spread, alot of work but they loved it.  George showed the restoration video and they were very attentive, but during the afterwards conversation Marta told him what a hard time she was having even thinking about changing churches. She even said she even didn't want to know if the book was true. After more discussion we finally were able to commit them to reading JUST the book of First Nephi and then next sunday they will return for dinner (cena in spanish), and we will discuss what they read (leer). That book of 1st Nephi is loaded, so they will have lots and lots of questions (preguntas in spanish).  Missionary work surely needs the help of the spirit and the softening of hearts, plus all of your prayers.

 Rodolfo and Marta at our home for dinner.  We love them.  She is steeped in her religion, but is willing to listen.  Rodolfo would make a great Bishop.

Much Love to all of You   Mom and Dad