76th Birthday and 53rd Wedding Anniversary

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

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

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

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

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

Chapel in Tocopilla

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Monument to miners at Diego el Almagro

Another monument to miners at Diego el Almagro

 An unusual flowering plant at Diego el Almagro

 The church at Diego el Almagro

 The branch president and his son at Diego el Almagro

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

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

Nothing quite like the scenes of the desert.

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

Inside the Catholic Church at Tal Tal.

Statue of the Holy Family Inside the church at Tal Tall

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

 Two women dressed for the occasion as well

 The celebration begins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


 Much LOVE  Mom and Dad

Paranal Observatory

DEAR Children, Spouses, and Grandchildren     Sat. Jan 23, 2016  6:15 pm

This has been another busy but eventful week Jan 18 to Jan 23, 2016.

Story 30   SUMMER in CHILE  Here in Antofagasta, Chile is in their FULL hot summer and the beaches are loaded with (sun umbrellas) and people and their children. We can see the beach from our South deck and it is really something, day after day, as school does not start here again until March 1 (Dec, Jan, Feb) are  the summer months here. However, we get the "sea breeze" and if we open our doors and windows to the outside, it is cool inside our apartment even though we do not have fans or air conditioning due to this cool sea breeze.  I did put up sheets to cover the windows to block the sun as best I could and it helps, plus I also hung some black plastic trash bags.

Story 31  CHILEAN CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY PARTIES  We went and visited Edwards family last Saturday and George took photos of the "plastic fun house" that people order for parties (anyway the more wealthy people do). Edwards said the party was for one of their friends families, and they told them they could have the party at their house. We arrived when they were setting up the fun house, and left before the party. We had gone "home teaching" to this family, and had caught them all home. We are still just friend-shipping them at this time. (see photos)

A birthday party at Edwards home.  They go all out.

We stopped to see our friend Edwards Galdames

Story 32  THEIR PDAY - CAME for BREAKFAST  (Mon Jan 18) for two missionaries. Elder Kazden Jolley who lives about next door to Stephen and Timandra Fawson in LaVerkin, and his Latin companion who does not speak any English. Kazden has a twin brother who is serving in Peru. He said the two of them are as different in looks and personality as night and day. He is the grandson of Janet Hafen who I went to school with. Janet's sister Penny Hafen is the girl who beat out Jeff Holland for Studentbody President. (just some trivia). There mother sewed and dressed these two girls and a younger sister in high fashion for our day. Velma Ruth just died recently at about age 98. At the breakfast we talked about how to get people to read the Book of Mormon. We are looking for any missionary who has actually had someone from Chile read the whole Book of Mormon clear through and so far (NIL). (see photos)

We had Elder Jolly, from La Verkin, son of Margaret’s classmate and his companion for breakfast

Story 33  FIRST ALL CHURCH MISSIONARY CONFERENCE  (Wed Jan 20th) This was broadcast all over the world starting at 10 AM in Salt Lake City, but it may have been broadcast from Provo at the MTC. The Seventies put it on. Apostles who spoke were Elder Anderson, Elder Bednar, and Elder Oaks, then Elder Clayton from the 70s and the Young Women's president Sister Oscarson, and a member of the Presiding Bishopric. It was all focused on FINDING, TEACHING, RETAINING and ACTIVATING. They had a panel of missionaries (Sisters and Elders) who answered questions, they had charts, TV screens with statistics, a church video showing people helping one another, youth bringing in other youth, etc. and then ended it with Elder Oaks talk at the MTC to the missionaries in the audience who were taking notes, etc. It also stressed working with Ward Counsels to get contacts names.  AFTER the meeting we drove the missionaries back to the office and here are some of there comments they were making:

"I have only had one referral from a ward member in all of my mission"
"The branches I have worked in don't even have a Branch or Ward Counsel"
"We have never seen anyone in Chile do the things like the video showed us."
"People here don't even know there neighbors, and won't let them in their homes."
"Being a missionary in Chile is a lot different then being one in the USA."

George and I came to the conclusion unless the Church has a big push to have the ward and branch members help with giving the missionaries referrals it won't help to tell the missionaries to get the referrals from the ward members, as the Church no longer has the Elders and Sister missionaries knock on doors.

Story 34  DINNER for JOHANN & his WIFE ROSIO  (Wed Jan 20)  This was the 2nd dinner and George gave the lesson. We have a chart that we made up about the Plan of Salvation using scriptures from the Bible and some in the Book of Mormon. I tended the two children ages 1 and 5 while he taught. They are a special family, not married, but said they would get married, when George told them they would have to get married if they wanted to be baptized in the future. We are teaching them how to pray and the little girl is now folding her arms, bowing her head, and can say AMEN.  We feel we are making progress, and they are planning on coming again to our home for dinner, next week for another lesson. (see photo from last week)

Story 35  PACKAGE from STEPHANIE  for DAD's BIRTHDAY  It arrived on Thursday (Jan 20), and came in two weeks. We were so surprised, and she had purchased him some binoculars that he immediately opened and used. It was such a surprise. We will NOT be home on Sat. Jan 30 and Sun Jan 31 as we are driving to the South for George and two of the Elders to do "Church Audits" in four of the mission Branches. A Branch is under the Mission and not the Stakes, here in Chile. We hope to be back towards early Sunday evening so perhaps we can still talk to some of you on his actual (76th Birthday) as we are 4 hours ahead of you. Appreciate the cards from Bryan and Lisa and Laura that came too!

Story 36 AMAZON GIFT CERTIFICATE   MOVIE from Bryan and Lisa. (Friday Jan 22) We had called them and they said they wanted us to watch a movie about the Paranal Observatory in Chile, so sent us a gift certificate and we got the MOVIE right in our apartment within 30 minutes. It was really something. The first movie (really a documentary) we have watched called "Nostalgia for the Light."  Then we got up early on Saturday. If any of you want to watch this you can order it from Amazon for $2.99.

Story 37  TRIP to PARANAL OBSERVATORY  We picked up the Elders at 7:30 am and drove South 75 miles. We arrived and parked and gave them our permits filled out for each person attending from our car. While waiting for the gate to open George met two couples and we got their names, and another family with the wife a member but husband not. We are always LOOKING for contacts and are rarely disappointed. It was a very interesting day. We went from sea level to 8600 feet above sea level. There were FOUR large observatories (look up Paranal Observatory in Chile) on the Internet if you want  to know more. Inside was incredible. The size of the telescope was monstrous!  One of the Elders fainted as he has had a history of low blood pressure. We also talked to one of the staff members while getting a medic for the Elder. He was from Santiago, but born in Evanston (suburb) of Chicago the same town that George served in on his mission, where his father worked for Northwestern University. Then the family moved to England, and he got a degree in Physics, and ended up in Chile. Married at age 42 and has a 3 year old daug. He works 4 months each year at the observatory the night SHIFT as the work is done at night.  George asked him if his work helped him religiously. He said no, as he is an agnostic.  He said they have Christians, Agnostics and Atheists working there. We were SO fascinated by the equipment all run by computers. Wish we could explain it all but it would not be possible here plus we heard most about it in Spanish, but loved the tour. We also went to the UNDERGROUND Hotel. George took lots of photos. We hope you enjoy them. (see photos)

Site of Paranal, the world’s largest astronomy observatory.  Top of Cerro Paranal.

 Facilities at Paranal Observatory.

 The complexity of the observatory tower inside.  It was amazing.

 The group listening to our guide in Spanish.

 Our guide teaching.  Notice the ring on the floor.  It was rotating.

Complex computer equipment at the site.

 A good look at the actual telescope.

 A good look at the reflecting mirror.

 One of the scientists from England examine the results.

 Waiting for entrance to the hotel at Paranal.

 Inside the Hotel at Paranal.

 Entrance to the hotel, which is underground.  Part of the James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solice was filmed at this hotel.

 Inside the hotel at Paranal.

 Left to right - Elder Spanbauer, Gonzalez, Morales, Walker and Hermana Talbot.  Elder Walker, in blue, fainted because of the 8600 ft. Elevation while inside the observatory.  That was a scare.

Margaret wanted me to take a picture of these trees.  You never see trees in the desert here.

Many European countries are participating and funding this project.  They have welcome written in the language of the countries participating.

The had many pictures on display at the museum of pictures taken of the night sky

A view of the Pacific Ocean from the Paranal Observatory.

 I posed for a picture atop Cerro Paranal.

 The tallest hill in the center is where they are putting a much larger telescope.

Margaret and I standing in front of Cerro Paranal Observatory.

 On top of Cerro Paranal, one of the several large observatories.  Notice how it can rotate.

 Smaller observatories that on tracks so that they can change position.

Story 38. BIG HAND in the ATACOMA DESERT We also visited the HAND that is out in the Atacoma Desert (about 7 miles south of  Route 5 road going to Paranal). There is not a paved road to it, you just drive over the desert up and down sand etc. The hand was HUGE. However the wind was blowing hard and blew my hat away but George caught it. You can look the hand also on the Internet.   (see photos)

A hand in the desert sculpture.  Elder Spanbauer in front.  The wind was very strong here.

 I let the elders take a picture of Margaret and I at the Hand Sculpture in the Dessert.  In addition to taking our picture, I found this picture on my camera.  It was a "selfie" of Elder Spanbauer, Elder Gonzalez, Elder Walker and Eder Morales.  They were excited to put this photo on my camera.

 Picture of Margaret and I at the Desert Hand Sculpture.

 Elder Walker couldn't resist getting one more picture of himself on my camera.

 Elder Morales posing in front of the Hand Sculpture.

Story 39.  READ BOOK of ABRAHAM 3-4 about the WORLD  The experience at Paranal sparked me  to re-read what it has in the Book of Abraham. We are so grateful for the restored gospel and the additional scriptures we have. The man at the Paranal who we talked to said there are "BILLIONS of GALAXIES" out there.  We are both so humbled to know that the God we worship created these. It is simply bigger than any of us can comprehend. I wish we would have shown you the photos from the MOVIE they showed us at Paranal of photos that they have taken, that were simply incredible with full colors, etc.

Story 40. FAMILY NEWS FOR THIS WEEK   (Jan 18 to Jan 23) Amy finding her diamond that fell out of her ring, Laura and Mike flying to Canada and noticing her passport expired the day she returns, Stephanie and baby are doing well, Waiting for a new grandson to be born this week, Zach's 7th birthday on January 28, Ethan being called to a Senior Patrol leader representing their Stake for a Scout Event in New York, Hannah's mission call went in on Monday Jan 18 (looking for her call before Valentines Day in Feb), worried about Bryan and Lisa in the big snow storm in the east. David (senior contest) and Drew (grandchildren contest) each won $20 for winning the bowl picks this year, We learned a lot about our son Jonathan on "Linkiden  Internet site) other of our men are on this site too,  and last news we heard is that Matt, Julie and family helped with Tornado cleanup in Texas. We Love  One and All!

WE LOVE the emails and phone calls from each of you and appreciate your prayers, particularly for our investigators and that we can learn and speak Spanish.

Love Mom and Dad in Antofagasta, Chile.

Christmas Tree Topples Down

Dear Children and families    January 17, 2016 Sunday

As usual, we have had another busy week here in Antofagasta. The days and weeks just seem to fly by. We work at the office and then work doing the dinners, and the clean up.

Monday  JOSE


Story 18 -PACKAGES MAILED for NEW BABIES (Mon Jan 10, 2017)   We returned to our apartment on our way to the post office and wrapped the two packages for the TWO new (wawas) means baby in Chile Spanish. We mailed the two packages on Monday the 11th of January so they should take at least 3 weeks to arrive.  We are SO relieved to have Stephanie and David's baby here safe and all going well. We pray for Amy daily that all will go well with her delivery too in the very near future.

Story 19 -  JOSE RETURNED to HELP US with SPANISH   (Mon Jan10, 2017) Our Spanish helper Jose, who lives in our same apartment building) returned after the Christmas holiday break. He thought he was flying to the states on a stand by pass, as his mother is a pilot for a major airline here in Chile, but he got to the airport and discovered to his dismay that his passport had expired. So his mother and brother left for the USA and he returned to Santiago to spend time with his father. His parents are divorced and his father married again and had had another child who is about age 1. His mother has not married again but has a live in boyfriend. Jose is extremely polite and very good to us. He is age 26. We had a good visit catching up on the holidays but (manana) means tomorrow (Monday-Lunes in Spanish) we will present the Gospel display chart and see what he thinks about our presentation.

Story 20  OUR ANTOFAGASTA ZONE MEETING  See Photo of the group  We (us and the elders from the office) drove to the zone meeting that we belong to. This meeting was held in a church (Miramar Barrio). Barrio is Ward in Spanish. This particular church is built on a very prominent hill overlooking the whole city of Antofagasta. If Antofagasta ever gets a temple I think they will convert the church on this site to be the temple. Anyway, there were about 25 elders and sisters at this meeting. The new Zone Leaders did a terrific job of introducing all of us as many new elders were now serving since last week was transfer week. Then they had the sister missionaries take some time, and they had a bag of candy and every elder or sister who answered a question got a piece of candy. Then they talked about the Zone statistics. They are hoping to have 20 baptisms during the next two months. The WHOLE Mission only had 426 baptisms for 2016. This Zone has not had a baptism for two months. There are 7 Wards in this Zone,. and the average attendance for all 7 of these wards was 700 for the month of December.

Recent La Portada Zone meeting in Antofagasta.  Hermana Talbot is second from right in the front. She looks like one of the young hermanas.

Story 21  HUGO WANTS to STAY CATHOLIC.  We have sent photos of Hugo before. He is the single man George and Elder Lawson met at Tour Bus, and he wanted to learn about the church. He then came to church 3 times, and started the lessons. When the missionaries invited him to set a baptism date he said he would have to think about it. He is also the man who invited us to go to Juan Lopez for a day. He didn't answer his phone for the past 30 days and when George finally got hold of him, we invited him to dinner for Wed Jan 13 Jan 2017). During the dinner he told us he wants to stay Catholic and does not want any more lessons, but wants to be our friend. We felt badly but had to honor his decision.

Story 22 JOHANN WIFE and TWO DAUGS   See two photos.  Johann did not show up for church last Sunday so on Monday before we went to the office we drove to the street he lives on and left some candy for his daugs. and a note. He called George and we invited him to bring his wife and two daugs. to dinner. They came on a city bus and then walked several blocks pushing a stroller to our apartment. We had a nice evening and good discussion about the church. We hope they will keep wanting to learn more. However, it is really sad here in Chile as the men if they do not have a degree get paid very little. They do not own a home or a car. He is living with his grandmother and she with the two children with her parents. We know tithing would be a great sacrifice for them. We will have to keep leaving notes at the gate and having them over again in the near future.

Pia, the young daughter of Johann and Socio.  She had fun at our home.

Johann, Socio, baby Isadora, and Pia.  They were at our home for dinner.  They plan on attending church with us on Sunday.  We met him at the port.

Story 23  RODOLFO, MARTHA &  SON, Martha's mother (MARIA), and Rodolfo's sister MARIA all came over for dinner on Friday 15 Jan, 2016. We had a lovely dinner of chicken and noodles fixed with sauce. They loved the meal. Then we brought out the church Family History booklet and had the women fill it out at the table with names, etc. while George worked with Rodolfo on the computer in Familyhistory.org. The mother (MARIA) was born in Brazil. Her parents came from Italy, so she did not know any of her grandparents who lived in Italy. She said her parents were very poor and she never had shoes as a child. There were 8 children. She did not know their birthdays, but wrote all of their names in the booklet. She was a very lovely lady. She attends a major Church in Brazil, not Catholic, but something else. We pray that even ONE of these people will want to READ the Book of Mormon and get a testimony. It is going to take a miracle for this to happen.

Gustav (called Guga) Martha, Maria Antionetta, Maria (Martha's mother from Brazil) and Hermana Talbot. Margaret fixed a lovely dinner for them.  It was a fun evening as we read from the Book of Mormon, taught them the music "Star Bright" and played a game.

Story 24  THE MILK BOX CHRISTMAS TREE CAME DOWN in 15 SECONDS   After the dinner, little Guga was walking around by the table and accidentally pushed over a chair that hit the Christmas Box Tree that I had sent photos of earlier. The adults all "gasped." But George and I just laughed and  then he took a photo of little Guga standing by the tree. This is a must see photo!  We all had a major laugh and they were still laughing when they all walked out of the door to go home. It really was funny, but the box tree had to come down anyway. I just had a hard time parting with it so left it up as it had a lot of decorations Amy, Julie, Laura and others had sent, plus all of Christmas card photos that had come in the mail. I did love making that tree out of milk boxes.

Bye Bye Christmas.  Guga accidentally tipped over a chair on Hermana Talbot's Christmas Tree and the tree came tumbling down.  We all laughed ourselves silly over this picture

Story 25  HOME TEACHING SIX FAMILIES  Sat. Jan 16, 2016. Here in Chile they really do not have home teaching or visiting teaching like in the states and wards in Texas. People do not own cars, and would have to take a bus and to do it is next to impossible. So we decided to do our own VISITING. I got up and took the cake mix (spice) that Amy had sent me and made it into cookies. I used a banana, 2 eggs, some oatmeal, oil, and made balls of dough and cooked them. They turned out really well. Then I made 8 paper plates with cookies, and a church card taped to each plate.  We had NO appointments, but said a prayer and started out in the truck we have on the weekends to visit our contacts. The first home was that of (1)  CLAUDIO and Monica. They are now separated and we found Monica and the two children at home. We had a nice visit and caught them right before they were leaving. Then we drove to the next home (2) MARCELLA, and threw the cookie plate through the gated area and it landed by the doorstep as no one was at home, the next home was for the (3) LEYTONS. Only the mother was home. She invited us in and we asked if we could read the Book of Mormon with her. She said yes, and then invited us to dinner on Tuesday when all of the family would be there, and she wanted all of them to read in it too. The next stop was (4) RAUL but they would not answer the door, even though they were home, so we hung the cookies on a hook above the door so the dog would not get it. Then we went to (5) EDWARDS home and found them all home. They loved the cookie package and the mother Paula, said she would eat them all. We were so surprised to find them all home. Then we drove home and kept the other cookie packages to give away on Sunday at Church to a couple who were just baptized (6) THEY LOVED THEM, and called (7) ROBERT on the phone and said we gave his cookies to someone else as he didn't come to church.

Story 26  GEORGE WENT FISHING with RODOLPHO.  They went Sat. afternoon  (Jan 16, 2016) from 5 to 10:30 pm. George thought it was just he and Rodolfo, and had planned to really get serious about the church, but then the brother in law came too, so he could not talk as planned. The bro in law played the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the car from his computer and George asked if he was a member, but he only did it for George who was a Mormon. This is going to be a hard sell to get them out of the Evangelico Church. But we pray daily for a miracle. They also caught only two small fish, and George came home saying he is not as sure footed as he used to be climbing around etc. Glad they all returned safely.


Story 27  GEORGE'S TOMATO PLANTS.  See photo.  You have to know a "farmer at heart" will not give up his garden, even when on a mission. He planted them from seeds he bought at a store six weeks ago. Edwards family had a PLANT FARM in the far north. He is going to come and get the plants on Monday and take them to the farm as we do not have any BEES up 20 floors in the air. It will be interesting what happens to these plants after they leave us.

is an update on my tomato plant garden.  I have six plants growing.  The tallest one now has a blossom on it near the top.  ?Donde esta son las Abejas?

Story 28  A NEW FRIEND HUGO B. BRIAN.  We met him at church today (Jan 17, 2016). He is a Mormon from Louisana and is here working in Antofagasta for 2 months on a project. He is a chemical engineer and went on a mission in California (Spanish).  We invited him to come to our apartment after church for dinner at 5 PM.  During the dinner he told us he was named for a former member of the first presidency (Hugh B. Brown). We then asked him to help us with the Sacrament Prayers in Spanish. Come to find out he is an excellent teacher and explained word by word in the prayers. He knows English grammar very well and Spanish too. He will come back again for breakfast on a Saturday in two weeks. He was very, very nice to us and is the same age as Jonathan. He has a wife and six children in the USA..

Story 29  THIS WEEK on WEDNESDAY Jan 21 will be the FIRST ALL WORLD Missionary CONFERENCE from the First Presidency, the Apostles, and the Seventy. It will be broadcast all over the world starting at 10 AM Utah time, (2 PM our time). All missionaries are to go to their stake centers to watch the broadcast. We will tell you more about this next week. It is an historic event. Dallin will be watching it in California.

We love you all very much.  We want you to know that we are both enjoying this mission very much but feel so badly that it is so hard to get people to want to learn more about the church. We know that ONLY if we get divine intervention from our Heavenly Father it simply may not happen. We have worked so very hard, had so many many dinners, have had many many elders in our apartment for dinner too, sat through lesson after lesson, but so far after being here 8 months we have not had even ONE of our contacts request baptism. Now we know why we should pray daily to find the honest in heart who will accept the gospel. We LOVE our contacts so very much. The families we have made friends with are so very special to us.  We can see what the gospel would do for them and their families. We  read the Book of Mormon daily, work hard at the office daily, and then spend  any spare minute on Spanish, prepare and have  dinners at our apartment, plus try to find new contacts weekly of which we added two more this past week. We rarely spend even a minute for ourselves. We do hope the Windows of Heaven will soon open and pour down blessings on our contacts.

Love  and Prayers Always for Each of you.    Mom and Dad