Only 90 Days Left!

DEAR FAMILY,   Sent August 21, 2016 Sunday morning from Antofagasta, Chile.
                            (See blog for13 photos and here are the Stories 241 to 251)

          This has been another busy week. We so enjoyed hearing from Julie who was staying in our home while attending Education week in Provo with her daughter Heidi, and appreciated their watering some of our trees, etc and sending us some photos.  We were also glad they could attend the wedding reception for Gary Wulfenstein's daughter, and also stayed one evening at Amy's new home in Highland.  We also got to talk to Merrill, David and Amy, had a phone message from Bryan who we need to call back. We have been  much "busier" now particularly, at the times we would generally talk to our children and are rarely home at those times.

          We DO appreciate coming home and FINDING and READING emails about what you are doing, and ENJOYED the photos posted from the "Time Share at East Canyon." (http://www.kohlerkin.blogspot.com) We also loved the emails from "Laura and Merrill" about their families,and the ones from missionaries Dallin and Hannah. We enjoyed learning that Natalie Talbot had been awarded "Student of the Year" for her class at school. We are so proud of all of the grandchildren and WISH them well now the new school year is starting. SO here is our WEEK's stories and see the BLOG for the photos.  We so appreciate Amy and Mackenzie for doing this for us.

STORY 241 - CHILE HAS THE FALL TIME CHANGE TOO - UNEXPECTEDLY
First we went to our (Barrio) and found we were an hour late! Then we left and went to the Las Rocas Ward in northern Antofagasta because we were wanted to attend church with Carime who is was going for the first time. We were late for that meeting too due to the time change.  People told us the President of Chile had arbitrarily changes the time forward an hour some years but not other years. Since we do not have a TV or news paper or that no one told us, we did not know about this.   After church we met Graciano and Camilla (same couple from the Origenes Barrio)who are moving to the United States since this was the ward the wife's parents lived it. It was good to see them, so took a photo of them with Karime.


We attended the Cerro Moreno Ward with Karime on the right.  We met Graciano (left) with his wife Camilla(second from right) and their two children.  The young lady next to Graciano is a member of the Cerro Moreno ward and is preparing to go on a mission.

STORY 242 -
 We took a picture of the Bishop of the Las Rocas ward with Carime and Gabriela.  Gabriela has helped us with Spanish and is a member of the Las Rocas Ward.  This is the Bishop  (Ebispo) of the Las Rocas Ward that had earlier given Carime a blessing the other evening when we met with her because she expressed some concern about not being ready to be baptized.  He was a very nice Chilean Bishop (Ebispo) and gave her a lovely blessing.

Photo 2 Bishop and Carime
Karime with the Bishop of the Las Rocas ward.  Gabriela has helped us with our Spanish and is in the Las Rocas Ward.  The Bishop gave Karime a blessing.

STORY 243 - ALFRED HITCHCOCK ENDING to a LONG TEACHING SESSION
This is a photo of Pedro Zambrano, who we invited to our home for lunch.  He stayed for three hours.  Margaret helped him sign up for family history.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon and let him watch a video on the Restoration.  He seemed very interested in all of it and we thought we had someone who would take all of the lessons.  After all of that when we asked him if he wanted to learn more about he church, he said "no."  When we asked him if he would like to take a copy of the Book of Mormon and read it, he said "no."  We were both shocked that he would listen to everything intently for three hours and was in no hurry to leave, but then say no to learning more and reading the Book of Mormon.

Photo 3 Pedro holding up a Book of Mormon
Pedro Zambrano.  We met him at the mall and invited him for lunch.  He stayed for 3 hours, read in the Book of Mormon, watched the restoration video and we taught him about the church and answered his questions.  We asked him if he wanted to learn more about the church and he said "no."  We asked him if he would like to have a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said "no."  He acted very interested during all of the time with him, but then received a no.  Strange!

STORY 244 -  A CHILEAN CATHOLIC  HOLIDAY (Monday Aug.
Margaret and have not gone to a restaurant in Chile very often.  We have usually had people to our home eating.  Marta and Rodolfo invited us to go with them to the restaurant near the fish market for a fish meal.  (We each paid for our own meal.)  Marta recommended and ordered the crab cake, so I ordered that.  Rodolfo order the Octopus, which is good, but the though of eating those makes it not too enjoyable.  Margaret asked if there was something like "fish" so they ordered here the Swordfish.  I took a picture of our meals.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo of Margaret's plate before she shared it.  It fish portion was very very big and she gave me half. It was very delicious.  After coming out of the restaurant I couldn't resist taking a photo of the"THREE DOGS" sleeping just outside. Look up swordfish on the internet. It is a very very large fish - huge!

Photo 4 At the fish resturant - plate of food."Swordfish"We went to lunch with Marta and Rodolfo.  This was my food - Crab cake.

 A foto of Marta at the table.  She ordered the same as me.

 Maragret's plate was Swordfish.  She shared it with me, but the piece of swordfish was huge and very delicious.

When we came out of of the restaurant I couldn't resist taking this foto of the Antofagasta dogs.  They are laying around everywhere.

STORY 245  SOCIABANK LADY and her DAUGHTER SAME AGE as MAC
KENZIE
This coming weekend the mission is holding their first OPENHOUSES meaning they have sent each mission large pull up signs for different displays that go in several rooms and wards members and missionaries talk while investigators come to learn about the church. We spent two days going around to our investigators telling them about this and inviting them. Going to the Sociabank was one of our stops. Claudia had her daughter with her this day. This daughter, we did not know she had. Katalina will be 14 on November 27. Claudia had this baby 14 years ago by one man, then they parted ways, and now she is now living with another man and had another daughter nearly age 4. In neither case were these marriages. Even so, she is a lovely person and George has had hopes she would finally take the lessons, but our time here is running out. She said that  she and the daughter would come on this coming Sunday. We also hope our granddaughter Mackenzie would be an email pal with the 14 year old, "Katalina."


ScotiaBank employees, except Katalina the daughter of Claudia on the right, in case you couldn't tell.  Claudia is a lovely person we are trying to get interested in the church.

 Katalina.  We are hoping she can communicate with Mackenzie, since they are the same age.

STORY 246    BIRD CAGE STORY  On Friday night George went down the 20 floors to wait for the missionaries and the investigator family to come to dinner at our place. To his "SURPRISE" when he got to the lobby area he found MARTA there setting up a "BIG" bird cage that she had just purchased for the "cockatiel" bird that the people who work at the front desk had purchased. Marta saw the bird a week ago and felt sorry for it because it was in such a SMALL cage. She told us it is against the LAW to have a "bird" in Brazil, in a cage in a home area. She felt very sorry for this bird. Then to our surprise she actually went and purchased at least a "$75 dollar" new "very large" cage and brought it to give to the office clerks at our apartment building, so this BIRD  would have LARGER accommodations. George took a photo of the new cage.  We have never heard of such a "story" and you probably have not either. Therefore he invited (Marta and her son) to come UP to our apartment to have dinner with us and the others.

Photo 8  The new bird cage

STORY 247  A DINNER for NINE and the OLD MAID IS A HIT CARD GAME   We had invited our contact Carime and her parents and sister (Marilyn) for dinner, plus the two sister missionaries. These were the people George went down to the first floor to  wait for when he met Martha setting up the cage for the bird. Therefore we had 9 for the dinner:  (2 girl missionaries) (3 from the family - mom and 2 daughters) (2 Marta and Guga) and (2 us). I had prepared tacos and they were good but the HIT of the meal was the celery soup I had just made. The celery in Chile is HUGE with tons of green leaves sticking out of the package. I CUT them up, and they fill a big pot, add chopped onion, garlic, a chopped potato and then cook. Then add a package of "chicken soup mix" and "asparagus soup mix", some whole wheat for thickening and then BLEND in a blender. For some reason the women all LOVED this soup! We sent some home for the husband who did not come.

Left to right.  Karime, Guga, Marta, Hermana Randall, Hermana Guzman, Mother of Karime and Merilyn, sister of Karime.  Karime is to be baptized on August 27th.  We invited the missionaries over for dinner along with Karime's parents.  The father was not able to come.  Marta and Guga showed up unexpectedly.   They had dinner, played games and had a spiritual message.

STORY 248  THE GAME of OLD MAID   We had told the two sister missionaries this was a "get acquainted night" as it was a FIRST time for the mother and other sister to be with us. After the meal of "tacos - salad - soup" they literally had so much FUN playing (1) Old Maid - pick up to see if you can find a match, and then the (2) the real Old Maid game. The Chilean women cheered!!! every time anyone got a match! It was SO funny. Our daughter Julie had purchased the card game for us at Target in the states and mailed it to us. These women here have LOVED "Old Maid". After the game the missionaries played the "New 3 minute clip made by the church on the Savior" and the women enjoyed that too. Marta even pulled it up on her phone.

       However, back to the Old Maid card game. We both literally just chuckle inside as Who would have thought Old Maid would be such a hit. But to our knowledge Chilean's do not have card games in the stores, and they do NOT play games at tables (remember they do play video and phone games), and they have LOVED this American game. The one missionary young girl (from Equador) who is an only child, does not know who her father was, and her mother died before she came on her mission was so thrilled with it, that we will probably give it to her when we leave.

Playing Old Maid.  Marta and Guga on the left and Hermana Randall trying to disguise her cards.



STORY 249 MALL LOOKING for INVESTIGATORS - STORE WINDOW CLOTHING
      We go to the "Mal" to find investigators every week and generally sit at a food court table and look for people we can talk to. George met young man from Sweden this past week (speaks English) and we had a good conversation and invited he and a Chilean girl to dinner to discuss the church.  Then while walking out, mom could not resist having me take a photo of two of the mal store display windows with (clothing for "little boys" and "little girls").  She thinks that Chilean little clothes are SO adorable. It is a wonder people can afford hem as they are very "pricy". But the windows with the  baby dolls dressed in clothing made us think of our two "new grand baby boys" that we are anxious to see in December when we arrive home.


Margaret wanted me to take a foto of the store window advertising young girl clothes.

 This is the picture in the same store advertising young boy clothes.

STORY 250  LOTS of DRUMS and MUSIC DOWN BELOW our 20th FLOOR. (Sat. Aug. 20, 2016) Never a dull moment in Chile. Here in Antofagasta. One day you can be out on the main Costanera high way and half of the road will be closed for runners or bikers. Then on another day the road will be closed for a DRILL for emergencies.  Then today we heard all of this music and below was the "Army men, Navy men, and Other men playing instruments, and marching. We live only 1 block from the Municipal Building for Antofagasta, and big events take place in FRONT of that building. We did not know what the occasion was but the road was closed again. Poor "Liders" the grocery store as NO one could drive into the parking lot, so no "customers" on a Saturday morning is a big "Loss" to this retail store. This event took place from 9 am to 12 noon and ended at 12:30. Road was closed for 3 1/2 hours, with cars being (routed) to a detour route.

When we got up this morning there was a parade going on below us on the Costanera.  They close the road.  The military is up on the left and students are preparing to march below.

STORY 251  AN EARLIER "MALL FOOD COURT" CONTACT  "BARBIE" BARBARA
This girl actually "met" us. She heard us talking to another young man at the food court in English a week ago and came over since we were "American Gringos" and she also spoke English and she wanted to meet us too.  We scheduled this lunch with her and this was the day she came and she was an utter delight. The day we found her at the mal we  had prayed before we left the apartment that we would be sent anyone who was ready to hear the message. She had to be sent to us!
         Today (Sat. Aug 20)   At lunch she told us she is the only child of her parents, age 22 or above, attends the University here, and told us that her mother's cousin's daughter is paying for her education costs. She told us what a great blessing this was for her.  She told us her parents said she could come and listen to us too.  Then she ALSO listened very attentatively (as she speaks fluent English) to everything we had to tell her about the church (our 1st session) and left with a Book of Mormon in English and one in Spanish and a commitment to READ  1st and 2nd Nephi books, and to return back to see us in less than two weeks. We were so pleased with her at the lunch we shared together, and she also helped us with some  Spanish word pronunciations. A very lovely young lady. She had to have been sent to us as we did not find her, she FOUND us.

Photo 14 Barbara who came to have lunch with us. Lots of dark hair. Red top.

ENDING THOUGHTS

        We feel our mission closing in on us. But it truly has been a wonderful experience to share this period of our lives together in this way. Now that we are basically doing missionary work FULL time it is really different. It seems we feel the "still small voice" more and often wonder why we do things the way we do them. George is still wondering why I asked him to go down stairs and meet out dinner guests, and that is when he ran onto Marta setting up the bird cage. If he had not have gone down stairs at that exact moment he would not have seen her doing this. We just are so amazed at things like this that happen. We just hope we can FIND and WORK with as many people as we can in the next 85 days. It all will be over so very soon.

       We do go to the office every Tuesday to help on the baptism records, and obviously will HELP on the "food and feeding missionaries days."  However, we DO see a big difference when we return to the office,  since we are not at the office as much. These things are more in the "taking care of things" and "putting things away," the elders went for supplies, and sacks were sitting in piles on the floor, the kitchen clean up not getting done, floors needing to be cleaned, etc. (white tile gets blackened fast)  etc." These are the  kind of things a "mom and dad" would do for their children in a home. We always remind ourselves "these are just 18 and 19 year olds!" They are fine fine young men serving missions, but they are still very young, when it comes to attending to details such as the ones we always took care of when we were in the office full time. We never say anything, but just GO to work when we arrive.

     We try daily to read one of the the "past" Conference talks and have so enjoyed hearing them again. When READING them you actually get more out of the talk than when you HEARD it for the first time. We hope you all find snatches of free "moments" which we are sure are HARD to find, when you can read some of the talks from the past APRIL conference.  As we read them we FEEL the inspiration coming from these inspired men for OUR day. We hope we will be able to improve in the many areas they mention. We are looking forward to the coming up October General Conference broadcast.

      Thanks for being such wonderful children, and appreciation to your spouses, and for the fine children you are raising. We simply are so very grateful. These 34 grandchildren have a whole LIFE ahead of them. We  each have a "foot so to speak" in the grave. We are not young being ages 76 and 74. We hope these children will continue to LISTEN to your teachings, and PRESS forward daily KEEPING the commandments, and reading in their own scriptures before they go to bed daily, on their own, above and beyond what you do with your Family Scripture reading.

Love to You all   Mom and Dad  (August 20, 2016)   Only 90 days left on our mission!

Party of All Parties

                              STORIES 223 to 231  and PHOTOS
Dear Family    Happenings from July 30, and August 1 to August 6, 2016

         This was  another  "very busy week" as it was the FIRST "COMBIOS" changes with "Leaving Missionaries and Arriving Missionaries" for this new president and his wife. We worked hard all week covering lots of bases here and there. You would have thought we were playing baseball and running around the bases.  There are many photos we would like to show you. The days are winding DOWN, and our missionary efforts are winding UP as we have only a little over three months left on this mission.  Enjoy.

Photos  in THREE parts
 A  Birthday Party
B Mission Office & Home
C Missionary Work


                               S T O R I E S  to go with the  P H O T O S

STORY 223  The Four Year Olds Birthday Party
    We really cannot go into all of the details about this party, but basicly the parents here in Chile (who have the funds) make a "BIG DEAL" over birthday parties for their children. We do not know if they do it every year, but whatever they do it is something we have NOT seen in the states. We have heard about great parties for children, but very few like we have seen that the Chilean parents put on for their children. We know we never DID anything like this for any of our 9 children. The photos from this party, will have to explain, most as I cannot write all of the details, but it was a VERY nice FAMILY party and friends of the child from the school he attends. Parents never SEND their children to parties, but the mother comes with them. The food they serve is "tons" and not just cake and ice cream. Then they have some kind of "present" for each child who attends. There are MANY places in Antofagasta where people can rent this or that place to hold a party. At this party the parents rented: 1) a room o the 23rd floor of a building with a kitchen facility, and bathroom and large meeting room, 2) brought in their own food to serve, 3) had a big picture frame to take photos of the guests, 4) hired the Avengers to come and they stayed for at least 1 1/2 hours, 5) hired a photographer.  George and both thought the party must have cost at least $900 dollars (or more). We were shocked, and the child is only 4 years old.  Enjoy the photos.

 Birthday party for Gustavo, son of Marta and Rodolfo.  Party of all birthday parties.

 Marta with her Brazilian friend at the party.

 Rodolfo taking a picture of Guga, his mother and a friend.  Notice is leg boot injured fishing

 Marta and Margaret at the birthday party.

 Marta and Margaret and I at the birthday party for Guga

 Maria and her granddaughters at the birthday party. She is a half sister to Rodolfo.

 Guga with his friends at the party He has on a white shirt.

 View of Antofagasta from the 23rd floor of the rented birthday room.

 Guga receiving an avenger award at the party.

 Marta, Rodolfo and Rodolfo's sister Genevive watching Guga enjoy the party.

 Look who showed up at the party to Guga's great surprise.  Guga loves the Avengers.

 Guga's birthday cake.

 Poster honoring Guga.

 Guga excited about the whole event

 I made some new contacts at the party.  Maybe they can help us in getting people to read the Book of Mormon.

 Maria's daughter came and tapped me on the arm and wanted to sit on my lap.

STORY 224  The  Antofagasta, Chile Mission Home    
      This home is located in the South where there are many lovely homes, with big yards, and many different kinds of trees. It is the area where the "wealthy" people live. The home was purchased many years ago but now other homes have been built in front of it that now block the view of the ocean from anywhere on the property.  The big wall surrounding the home was built after the president who served from June 2012 to  June 2014 got robbed two times.  It is a nice home, but no necessarily fancy.  After the front entrance it has a long hall way with stairs going down stairs where there are six sets of bunk beds for arriving missionaries. Then on the main floor by the stairs (going down) at the end of the hall way is a living room with a large balcony (sliding doors), and dining room area combined as one long room, then a kitchen - of moderate size, and a back door going out to the back yard. By the front door on the opposite end is the master bedroom and bathroom, another bathroom and another bedroom There are two gates, one at the front and one at the back, and two at the front and a gate to let people in, and two large gates, one in the front and one at the back to let in vehicles.


This is a foto of the mission home in Antofagasta. Everyone here is always walled in.

 Inside the wall and entrance to the mission home.

 This is the back yard at the mission home.  That is fake grass.

STORY 225 - MONDAY August 1  Helping with the Leaving Missionary Dinner
       This was a new experience for us as the menu was way different. The mission presidents wife wanted to make "Lasana". When we arrived she had big trays (huge trays) filled with this food made from "15 minute lasana.  Here the wide noodle comes in packages, you soak it in a milk like mixture, and then layer the wide lasana with peices of cheese, meat and sauce, and then bake for 15 minutes. It was wonderful!  The elders helped in the kitchen as well as ourselves, which made the whole evening appear as being in someones home and helping in the kitchen. We used the BEST dishes, etc. and George and I washed a lot of dishes, plates, etc. etc. The salad was different too.  She has very fine cut up luttuce then a roll of turkey meat with mashed avocado inside, then two tomato slices. We wish we would have taken more photos. A wonderful evening and each leaving missionary bore his testimony, the copper gifts were passed out, and the group photo taken.

Photo of George and Elder Hart in the kitchen helping with the food.
Photo of the leaving dinner room and tables arrangement.  (Served 19)
Photo of the group of missionaries all leaving at the same time.

 Departing missionary dinner at the mission home.

 Elder Hart and I at the mission home as we has leaving for home.  He was a fun Elder and we enjoyed him as an AP.

 Picture of the departing missionaries at the mission home.

STORY 226 - TUESDAY August 2 Helping with  Arriving Missionary Lunch  (Served 21)                      This was another new experience for us. We were not sure what the menu was. When we arrived to the mission home they had ordered baked empanatas. Now these are different than the deep fat fried empanatas. Then inside is either ham and cheese, meat and cheese, chichen and cheese, or hot dogs and cheese. We didn't know which one we picked but I got the hot dog one, and George got the meat and cheese. They were very filling, and then we served two different kinds of chips, cookies and juice to drink.

Photo of the new missionaries at a table with Elder Montgomery at the end.

New missionaries having lunch behind the mission home.  Helped prepare lunch and Margaret is serving.

 Elder Montgomery with his new companion.  Elder Montgomery is a Grandson of David Yarn who taught religion at BYU.  I knew him well.  Also his brother just married Marion and Deanna Bentley's granddaughter.  He was very surprised that we had so many connections to him.

 Elder Santos and Elder Anderson teaching Juan Carlos Castro.  We met him at Liders and invited him to our home with the missionaries.  He as accepted to be baptized the end of August.

STORY 227 - WED  August 3 Helped  New Trainers coming and Missionary Assignments (Served 40)
      This means the 13 trainers come in on buses from all over the mission to be the new companions for the new arriving missionaries. Their is a lot of work to do to be ready for this day that is behind the scenes.  We serve a breakfast buffet, and a lunch meal. This time the new leadership wanted the Pizza ordered again. This is quite pricey here at $20 a pizza. Since this day comes on Wednesday George told the president's wife if she reversed the MENUS and served Pizza on Tuesday and Empanatas on Wednesday the mission would save $5,000 over a three year period of time as each new president has (24) times when new missionaries arrive, etc. She was glad for the information. The bill for the pizzas for Wednesday came to $300, which would have only been $150 on Tuesday. It appears they will reverse the menus next "Combio" changes period.
        After the lunch the missionaries all SIT and letters are held up for someone chosen to choose a letter with a name, then that person (new missionary) comes up and opens his or her letter, and reads WHERE they will be going and WHO is their companion. There is lots of cheering and smiles, and photos taken.
       We purchase a new pillow for each new missionaries and he gets materials, two water bottles, and two packages of cookies. After the meeting they get their many bags of luggage, and are driven to the bus station to go to their area of service.

Photo of Elder Montgomery getting his shoes shined by his new companion.

Photo of Elder Clark from Urda, Utah (by Grantsville) Probably from same ward that Emma Welling Frazier's husband is from, as her husband was from Urda.

STORY 228 - THUR Helping with Leadership Day (trainers from  all over mission) (Served 49)
This day just happened to be the Thursday of Combio week. Therefore there were FOUR days in a row of meals and a real "work out" for us. But we LOVE being around the going away missionaries and hearing their testimonies, and seeing the new missionaries arrive so full of "anticipation and excitement."  The FIRST Thursday of each month the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders come in from all over the mission. This mission has (12) ZONES. This means 24 are zone leaders, and there are another 15 to 20 sister training leaders. This mission has approximately 190 missionaries, making over 1/4th hold some kind of leadership, and then their are District Leaders but they do not come in.  This day has SIX purposes:

 1. To have missionaries mingle with each other and pump each other up
 2. To receive instruction from the mission president, his wife, and the APs.
 3. To have training sessions on how to train the missionaries in their zones
 4. To bring their luggage, and take back the MAIL for missionaries in their zones.
 5. To each a breakfast buffet together and a lunch meal and then return back via bus.
 6. To enlarge their testimonies of the work they are doing and then go back and enlarge the other missionaries testimonies.

We were so busy helping we forgot to take any photos. The missionaries LOVE seeing each other, old companions, etc. At end of the day George even drove some to the bus station, and one elder left his bag on the couch, and he returned on a city bus and George drove him back to the bus after he came back to pick it up. George also went to the store to get some medicine for a sick elder to take back with the Zone Leader. All in all it is a very very busy day. You name it, we did it.


Elder Prada pointing his picture on the missionary board in the Presidents office.  We are on the right, third from the top.  They move them up after each transfer.

The office elders go into the office on Saturday to write letters home.  We had the office clean and tidy when we left on Friday night.  This is how we found it Monday morning. Since we are no longer in the office, they will have to deal with it.

Bodega mail room

 This is the mail boxes in the office for the various sectors.

Photo of George & Elder Walker his assistant who left the office to go as a Zone Leader 

Photo of Elder Walker (from Utah) & Elder Olivios from BRAZIL live by  where Spencer served his mission in Brazil.  

                                                                                            

STORY  229  Just a Reminder to "Help your Sons Learn to Clean Up after Themselves."
         Each group of office missionaries are different. We have had very responsible groups, and some less that way. Therefore, over the past 14 months we have tried all kinds of "JOB LISTS" to encourage office clean up after the young elders do their cooking and eating food at the office. This past group has been the hardest for us to train. Finally we have just given up, took the job chart down and most often just cleaned it all up ourselves.  Last Friday we cleaned it all up washed dishes, put away things, mopped the floor, etc. Then on Monday when we arrived I told George to take a photo of of how kitchen area looked when we arrived in the morning after the weekend. Friday. This time we decided to just leave it.


STORY 230   Having Drew Codero over for Lunch -  Went inactive, but returned to church on August 7.
        Missionary work is more than just FINDING new contacts to teach, it is KEEPING those who have been baptized in the church. Next week we will send you a few statistics about HOW many names are on some of the wards and branches, and how many are attending. We have heard that less than 20% even stay in the church after being baptized. This even got down to 10% when Elder Holland came and was the Area President for two years.  If it is at 20% retention, his means that if 500 are baptized in any given year, that after about two years only 100 will stay in the church. It is a constant battle to "nurture" and "keep" new converts in the church. Whose responsibility is this?
        Well here is a quick story. This young man named DREW was so helpful to us when we arrived in June of 2015. He had just married, was very much in love with his wife, and helped George with the  office automobiles problems - where to get them inspected, new tires, etc.
        Then over a year later we found out that they had separated, Drew went to Canada, she went to Santiago, and then when he returned back from Canada, he went inactive. We talked to a family member, and they said he was very depressed. We went and found the place he was living and knocked on the door. We found him and visited with him for over an hour and told him how much he had helped us and how much we appreciated him, and asked him to "come back.". Then we invited him back to our apartment for lunch. He accepted the invitation readily.  When he came we let him talk, and talk, and talk, and tell his life story. We can't tell it here, but it is really something.
            We told him each DAY is the first day of the rest of his life. No matter what the past was he can start now and change everything. We told him his wife loves him and we hope they can get back together. YES he did come to church on Sunday (today) and we were so pleased. But it all takes seeing, caring, visits, giving love and  encouragement to "come back." before the "away time" gets so long that they "never will" come back. The missionaries tell us it is easier to get a new convert than to get someone to come back.

STORY 331  An Evening at the Origenes Barrio Culture Program  Sat. Aug. 6, 2016
        We had seven non members come to our ward function from two different families. We were so shocked, but we have loved these two families for so long and they came out of love for us, and probably due to the promptings from our Heavenly Father.
         We can't go into all of the details here, but we SO appreciated the ward couple who spent over an hour talking to Wilson and Idiede. I stayed with the  3 children to see that they had a good time. Then more ward members talked to our other family after the meeting, and all of us and them were the very very last to leave.
           Then before they left  (remember I said they were last to leave)  Marta said...... "I do believe we want to start coming to your church."      This doesn't mean she wants to get baptized. But it is certainly a beginning.  She liked the friendship and the way their child Guga had so much fun." She even asked  earlier if they had to pay for the "treats" that the different ward members had brought for refreshments. I think it was a BIG shock for them to be around these Mormon people who were so nice.
         We will have to wait and see if they come next Sunday to church. We were near tears when we drove home, as we had worked so hard to get them interested, and then a little "Primary aged 4 year old"  and some "Couples" who visited with them, made the difference.  We met them, worked with them,and got them to the church, and then the ward members "made the difference."
          All we can say is NEVER no NEVER miss an opportunity to talk to the new people who come into your wards, and new members who are just baptized. Invite them into your homes and into your lives.

Marta and Rodolfo, our dear friends and investigators attended the ward party.  Their son Guga found a new friend in Renalto.  Guga is on the left.  They had a great time so we invited the two families to our home for dinner.

 The Origenes Ward had a party representing the different countries neighboring Chile as well as Chile.  They provided food from all of the different countries.  We had two investigator families to the party, and they loved it.  This is a dance from Columbia performed by members of the ward.

END
            Sorry this is so long. But so much to share and time is running out. We have only 12 to 13 more weeks. However, we are experiencing "MIRACLES" that we never dreamed could happen. We do not know what the results of all of our efforts over the last 14 months will be, but this past week we have seen:   1) Jose now having read up to Chapter 15 in the Book of 1st Nephi  which is the most anyone we have met  and invited to read the Book of Mormon has read and, yes,  he is still reading,  2) Having Marta say they want to come and try our our church, 3) Having Carenmay indicate she may want to be baptized, 4) Having Juan Carlos want to read the Book of Mormon and also said if he finds out it is true he wants to be baptized.  Truly, we may find that the "LAST 12 Weeks will truly be the best weeks of our mission for us after all. Have you heard the saying "Last the Best of All the Game."

Love Mom and Dad