New Mission President Arrives

Dear Children, Spouses and Families    July 8, 2016   9 am  Antofagasta, Chile

        The birthday flowers in a vase in our living room area are so beautiful. I wish I could FREEZE them in time, and have them last for the next four and a half months. The four roses are particularly beautiful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!  We miss all of you and enjoyed being able to talk with each one of our children either on my birthday or the day following. It was just short of a miracle that the phone had now started working just a week prior!  It was so good to hear your voices and catch up on the news from each of your homes and all that is going on in each of your lives in brief:  the move (Amy),  gardens (Stephanie), paw paw trees (Bryan),  trip to San Francisco (Laura), two children went to Kirtland (Merrill), he talked to Jose (David),  finding card games (Julie), scout camp out with Nathan (Jonathan). It was a wonderful evening to remember for many days since.   The 24 Photos  George took and sent are now listed following the story they go with to make it easier for Amy. We thank her again for posting them on the blog.

STORY 178  Preparations for the Arrival of New President (Wed June 29)
Photo 1. Table set that we took back down as dinner time changed

    We got the instructions we were having the dinner on Wednesday at 1 pm and then we learned the flight did not come in until 10 pm that night, so we had to take the tables down that we had set for the dinner to fix the large room for the big meeting where two of the zones would be coming to meet the president.

We had the table all set for lunch to welcome the new president, who was to arrive at 10:30 a.m.  There was a mix up on the time and it was actually 10:30 p.m. So we had it 2 days later

STORY 180  Retiring Pres. and Wife Leave, but not without problems.(Wed pm-no photo)

    The two APs were the ones assigned to drive the former president and his wife to the bus station Wed. evening as they are touring several other countries before they fly home. The APs told us they drove their car to the office to leave for the new president and then got in the other office van to have the APs (one of them) drive them to the bus station. Their bus would leave at 7 pm. But upon getting on the main road to the bus station a water line had broke and the traffic was all backed up. They waited and waited and finally finally got through it all. When all were "running" to the place where they would hope the bus had not left one of the APs dropped the house keys (that the president had just given him) to give to the new president for the mission home. They did make the bus (barely) but the APs could not find the keys one of them dropped when they returned to the van!

STORY 179  Leadership Council meeting, the New President (Thur June 30)
Photos
2. Hermanas gathered for leadership meeting and meeting new President
3. Elders gathered for leadership meeting and meet new President
4, The New President, his wife and their daughter (one of 4 children) others are older
5. Two or three Hermanas standing with the president
6. George and Margaret standing with the new president and wife

     The first Thursday of each month is the Leadership Council meeting where all of the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, come in on buses from all over the mission to attend a meeting where they receive instructions to take back to their zones and also to pick up the mail to take back to the missionaries. This was ALL of our first time to meet this new president as he had arrived at 10 pm the night before.

The President arrived and the Hermanas were posing for a picture together.

The Elders also posed together for a picture.

President Ferreira, his daughter Gina and his wife.

President and Hermana Ferreira with three Hermanas

Margaret and I with the New Mission President and his wife.  He served in the Cordova, Argentina Mission a year or two after Bryan.

STORY 180  Accidents do Happen to Missionaries, but this was a bad one.
7. Margaret and Hermana Carabine who cut her face 26 stitches walked into a glass door
8. Both of us with Elder Erackenback who is going home soon.

    We saw this sister missionary who is a sister trainer leader, but did not realize the reason for the bandage on her lower jaw. Come to find out she had walked into the glass door in her apartment and crashed through it and had to have 26 stitches. It was cut badly. Fortunately she got to the hospital and a very fine Chilean plastic surgeon worked on her face. When I was a little girl my mother had a friend who came to see us the "Carabine" family when we lived in St. George. I always remember them. I have often wondered if this young sister missionary is a great granddaughter of the Carabines we knew years ago.  She had a really good attitude about it all and said she was blest that it would not leave a scar.

Margaret and Hermana Carabine.  She walked through a glass door and cut her chin and had to have 24 stitches.

Margaret and I with Elder Ercanbrack who will soon be going home.

STORY 181  Dinner we Prepared for New President, Wife, Daug, Office Staff (Fri July 1)
9. Office staff and APs sitting around table for new president and his wife.
10. One of Margaret and Elder Huffstuttler from Alabama (Office Commissary)

   We worked hard to prepare a lovely dinner and it turned out really well. We had chicken breasts, a rice mixture, different plates of tomatoes, onions, avacado mix, etc., juice drinks, rolls, and ice cream and brownies for desert. Everyone love it.  George got raves on the meat as he had soaked it in his usual brew, before I cooked it.

We finally had the luncheon.  Left and around Joes Marquez and his wife Meriela, Elder Anderson, Elder Santos, Hermana Ferreira, President Ferreira and his Daughter Gina, My empty chair and then Margaret, Elder Huffstutler, Elder Walker, Elder Prada and Elder Roberts.

Margaret enjoying the lunch that she prepared for everyone.  She is always doing service.

STORY 182  A Flock of Chilean Turkey Vultures
11. Photo of the "turkey vultures" on top of 2nd pillar of our building after an event

    We live on the 20th floor of this apartment building that had two TWIN towers, a north and south tower. We live in the south tower.  When they have events on the top of the North tower the next day the "turkey vultures" come to pick up the remains of food that may be on the floor or in the trash cans. On this particular morning there were many, many vultures. Hope you enjoy the photo!

Mom got all excited about all of the turkey vultures sitting on our building.  We must be getting ready to go.

They were also circling overhead.

STORY 183     A Home Visit Results in Mother Wanting Lessons (Sat July 2)
12. Photo of Pricilla and Phillamina Isabella and Margaret at a home visit.

     We have this family that lives in a lovely home (they have rebuilt) that we walk by on our way to the office. The father is a member (joined at age 8) with his mother and brother, but now all are in active. Our church office space is where the mother of Jordan used to go to church, but when they combined (wards) and closed this church it is common for some of the families to quit the church. Jordan the husband has not been active for many years. We stopped by and the wife's mother was there too. We had a nice visit and talked about the church and had them read articles from the Liahona to us (plus let the children read). The mother of Pricilla now wanted to have the missionaries come to her home. We will be going there tonight. More on this next week!

Priscilla, Margaret and Filimina.  They belong to the 7th Adventist Church,  We keep working at missionary work, but it is slow and hard to get people to be interested.

STIORY 184  A Snow Ball Fight in the Gym "Missionary Activity Night" (Sat July 2)
13. Picture of the"snow ball fight" remains from a missionary activity
14. Nicholas is returning to Japan after an illness with his grandmother & Aunt

          The office missionaries planned a missionary activity for families they are trying to re activate in their barrio (ward) so we went to the Quito Barrio to support them. It was the first time we have ever seen a "snow ball fight" using wet paper pages wadded up and when they dry they are really hard so you can throw them. They laid down a volley ball net on the floor as the diving line, passed out the paper snow balls and if you got hit you were out. George was a "good thrower" and had one of the missionaries really dancing back and forth to miss his throws. Then the word got out that George was a former "baseball pitcher."  It was a fun activity. The new mission president and his wife came later, but missed the snow ball throwing activity. Adriana was there too waiting for the setting apart of her sister's grandson Nicholas who was going to return back to Japan the next day following being home in Antofagasta for the past six months. George also took their photo. Nicholas now speaks four languages, Spanish, English, some Portuguese and then Japanese. He is an ONLY child and very loved and doted on by his family members. He was so surprised to be sent to Japan.

The missionaries prepared an activity night for investigators and inactive members.  It was non-Christmas party.  We had a snowball fight with wadded up paper.

Maria, her grandson Eric and Adrianna,  He is returning to Jaan for his mission.  He came home temporarily for health reasons.

STORY 185  Three Zones Together for Dinner and Interviews  (Mon Jul 4)
15. Food table we prepared for the Zone Conference meeting 65 people attended.
16. Missionaries at the buffet table getting their food
17. Trying to get a photo together for all of these missionaries (not final photo)

     This was the biggest (largest number of people served) we have done since we arrived. The office elders did the shopping and pre preparations, but I left the meeting and set up all of the buffet table, and George and I did all of the clean up. It turned out really nice and we had such a good feeling that we can be of such a big help to feed this many missionaries, etc. The missionaries from Calama were bused down and that is why it was a bigger number, and then the new president did interviews to meet each of them. This PRESIDENT served in the same mission as Bryan (Cordoba and Salta) when he was younger, but served 2 or 3 years following when Bryan served.
The food table we had set up for the missionaries.

It didn't the missionaries very long to find the food.

STORY 186  Our Discussion on Faith with Jose  "He said he didn't have faith" (Mon)
18. Jose who comes to our home each month (following a "I don't have faith" discussion
19. Jose and his motocycle he just purchased. Licence plates stay from old person.

Jose with his new motorcycle

STORY 187  Uncle Afton's 88th Birthday in Hurrican, Utah (Tue)  (no photo)                   Phone number you can call  435 635 2980 (home phone)   George called his sister Viola's husband (Afton Fawcett) for his birthday. Hard to believe he turned 88. George's father Reed Talbot died at age 89 in January of that year, but would have been 90 in June had he lived.  George said when Viola married him, his parents were worried as Afton was often sick and they wondered how long he would live. However, he has lived a long long time. They had a nice visit. Viola  also commented to George on how much she appreciated a phone call from  our daughter Julie, several months ago. IF any of you have a minute and can call your Uncle Afton he would surely enjoy hearing from you. These Aunts and Uncles do not last forever on this earth.

STORY  187  Things we see, not very often (Wind from the East coming from Mountains)
20. Chilean flag in full size floating in the wind
21. Columbian stuffed potato lunch George purchased with Elder Prada (A Columbian)

The Chilean flag is huge and is on a pole we can see out of our living area sliding glass door. It rarely blows so it is going towards the ocean. Hope you enjoy the photo. The Columbian stuffed potato lunch George purchased when he was out running errands with Elder Prada (from Columbia) was good, but I would not go to all of that trouble to make it. It had an inside of rice, peas, boiled egg white cut in half white only, then rolled in mashed potatoes and then deep fried or baked. Maybe Jonathan, Bryan or David remember eating something like this. Each country seems to have the things they like and eat very often. Empanatas are the BIG thing for Chile.

There is a huge flag on the Costanera highway.  Usually it draped down.  We had high winds that kept the flag straight out one morning.  Margaret wanted me to take a picture.

We tried come Columbian food today.  It is a stuffed potato.  Filled with rice, chicken a boiled egg etc.  It was pretty good.  Margaret teased me that this was her birthday dinner.

   It  has been COLDER this winter (remember we are in winter here) this year over last year. we actually need our jackets. However, I would not have needed to have purchased a coat to bring, which I did bring. One morning the WIND was blowing so strong that the city flag pole flag was sticking straight out. George took a photo from our 20th floor window. We will really miss the "sea breeze and the flag pole" when we return home. We have a wonderful view of the ocean and the people here LOVE their ocean just like we love our MOUNTAINS.  George went to the Chile express office with a Columbian office missionary and he had him buy this "lunch" item so common in Columbia. It was a round crusted thing (heavy) and when cut inside it was filled with rice, a few green peas, the white part of a boiled egg, and flavorings, with it then being rolled in a potato paste and then deep fried.  Unusual, but filling!

STORY 188  74th Birthday  July 6, 2016 Phone Calls, Flowers&Chocolates (Wed) (Thur)
22. Margaret's flowers arrived to the office, posed with delivery man!
23. Anna Maria & Adriana (sisters) who came to our apartment to celebrate M.s birthday
24. Photo of the TOP of the flowers looking down
25. Photo of the vase of flowers on the table.

    Thank you all again for thinking of me on my 74th birthday. The flowers are SO beautiful.  can hardly believe I am this old. I do not like getting older each year. I wish I was 50 again. But no such luck. I hope you all enjoy the ages you are right now as they do not last. Adrianna wanted to come to our home "on" my birthday but we had her come the day after, she and her sister. They brought me a gift too. They are a real "hoot" and we will miss them a lot. They are the same sisters who decorated their house at last years Christmas time. We had them READ the new Liahona magazine articles for us and they enjoyed them (in Spanish) and we followed along in English (we had copies of both). They enjoyed the article about missionaries who return home early due to illness or other problems. Their grandson just returned back to Japan. Rule is if you have reached 18 months when you are sick or have a problem, you do not return and they call it an 18 month mission. If earlier they do have you return.

Adriana and her sister Maria.  We had them over for dinner.  Both are members, but Adriana was only baptized one year ago.

Adriana and Maria acting up for the picture.

Birthday flowers now in our apartment.  They look beautiful, don't you think?

 
FINAL WORDS  Well another week passed by.  We study Spanish every chance we get and I am working to learn 100 Verbs by the end of next week. I know I can do it 16 a day for 7 days. I learn them but then cannot recall them when I need to use them. It is a constant battle learning a second language.  I HOPE our families where someone speaks Spanish they will at least once a week PRAY with their children speaking Spanish. I so enjoyed the article about the newest apostle Elder Renlund who came from SWEDEN. I also enjoyed reading how the Renlund family made "SCRIPTURES" a biog priority with the four children. It also talks about how the family  always prayed and talked  in Swedish in the home when he was growing up. I hope you all read this article. My father's mother Charlotte, her parents were from Sweden and joined the church in Sweden, came to America in around 1860. I love know my heritage goes back to Sweden. We so appreciate your prayers and your prayers for our investigators. We pray for each of you too.

Much Love,  Mom and Dad

Peter & Paul Holiday Week

DEAR Families of Bryan, Merrill, David, Jon, Laura, Julie, Amy & Stephanie.      
                      For June 22 Tuesday to July 1 Friday

         George had over 20 photos to send and sent  them to Amy on Wed PM (June 29), and then will start today with the NEW mission president photos, etc. We know AMY is very busy with her family needs, the home closing, and moving preparations. We hope the photos and stories we send are not only informative, but build your faith. It takes us at least two hours each week to prepare and send what we do. We try to show things like the "octopus" meal we ate as very few of you will ever have the opportunity to eat octopus. We realize it is not a faith building topic!

         We got a nice email from Bryan this past week and surely enjoyed it. Plus  we also had emails from our family missionaries Sister Hannah Klein and  Elder Dallin Talbot. We love reading their emails so very much, and miss the emails we used to receive from Hunter and Spencer. We wish they would keep sending weekly emails to us!. We also received emails from Laura and  Merrill. Now that we do not have phone communication we obviously wish that each of our children would take a few minutes to even send one short paragraph weekly.

       We need to work out a schedule for SKYPE. We did Laura and Stephanie last week and feel we can only do two children per week as generally it is one hour each. WHO wants to skype this weekend. Probably Sunday evening for us but Sunday afternoon for our children is the best time. But we need to set something up sort of like a schedule. Sorry it cannot be spontaneous but that would not work too well.

        We miss you all so very much, but just keep doing our best to fill this mission the way that would be pleasing to our Heavenly Father. David Stuart asked if we give missionary lessons? Yes, we do but we would have to say we are giving lessons more in the "Gentle Persuasion" way of teaching.

         George did watch some of the Chile and Angentina Soccer game on the Internet on Sunday PM before we retired, but we stay up to see the ending but woke up HEARING all of the "horn honking" and "yelling and bell ringing" and whatever else that went  on for over an hour. Soccer is SO big here in Chile. No missionary work can  ever be done during a Chilean soccer game, rest assured, nill  none at all!  Chile won the World Cup that was played in New York City and Argentina's kicker "Messa" missed getting a point.


STORY 178  We Really Do, Do Missionary Work    Sometimes when we are sending all of the photos and writing the short story accounts we sometimes wonder what you think we are doing week in and week out, do we only go to "Fish Markets," and showing what we eat? We really do keep a very busy pace, particularly this past week getting ready for the new president and yet come home and have investigator friends over for supper makes a very full day. However, we try to write things for you and the grandchildren that will be of interest, and hope somewhere something builds faith too.  This getting ready for a new mission president reminds me of the work we have seen family members (such as Jonathan and Melanie) when they were selling their home in Longview......we didn't do it, but the mission home was painted all rooms inside and also the outside, and they said it is done every three years. The office cleaning was intense to say the least, without going into more details.

STORY 179 The mission TRUCK and the VAN (2 photos)  George took a photo of the purple colored Ford Ranger that was stick shift. The Area office said this mission did not merit having two vehicles, so someone flew in from Santiago and drove it back to Santiago. George had kept a booklet of good car records, oil changes, etc. and the man was impressed. Something that seniors do for an office. There were NO vehicle records when we arrived, with young elders being over the vehicles. The van is a Carnical Caravan (KIA) and seats 7. We thought you might like seeing these vehicles. One investigator commented on the (nice truck) and said our church must be rich!

This is the camioneta used by the mission.  Unfortunately the mission is limited to two cars, so this one was picked up ad drive to Santiago.

 These are the two mission cars.  We now only have the one on the right.  The mission president drives the other car.

STORY 180 CLEANING at the Mission Home   June 24 Friday (1 photo)  We all brought Pday clothes to work on Friday and changed to go to the Mission Home for lunch and then to help move rocks around in the yard. This is a photo of the office elders and the mission APs out in front of the mission home. The mission home is in the South in a very nice neighborhood, much nicer area than in the middle areas of Antofagasta. We will have to take a photo of the mission home the next time we are there, but there is a BIG wall all around it.  This president's wife told us the last president was robbed two times, so had the big wall put up. The maintenance department for the church, people who share out building  hired or did work on this home. It was painted inside and out, plus had a new roof, and then painted the roof red. The house outside paint is a soft yellow color. It is a nice home, but NO view of the ocean, even though it is close to the ocean. Many homes around this home have blocked the view.
President Dalton invited the office missionaries to the mission home for lunch, planning and moving rocks.  Left to right, Elders Huffstutler, Anderson, Roberts, Santos, Prada, & Walker.

STORY 181 RAINED in Antofagasta (2 photos)  June 25 Saturday  We woke up to a surprise by looking out our windows the streets were all WET. We knew it had rained. This is probably the third time in a year that we have had rain. It came as a surprise. George took two photos. In one of the photos the reflection of the building is duplicated. The people here do not like having rain as the roofs are not made too well for most people..

It has only rained twice since we arrived in Antofagasta.  This morning when we awoke we found it had rained ruling the night.  The city has no drainage system.  An employee of our building begins the cleanup.

 On our way to the office, there was a huge lake in front of the school from the rain.  The building is reflected again in the pool.

STORY 182 Chile's PETER & Paul Holiday & Dancers at Fish Market ( 5 photos) June 27 Mon This holiday is to celebrate Peter being a fisherman. We decided to walk down to the fish market and purchase some fish and since it was a holiday weekend we saw these dancers. Each (Catholic church) has these statues on long boards that they carry around and dance to, for the holidays.  One of the photos is of Peter holding a fish. There were many dancers at the fish market and we watched some of them. (This was our Pday) You might enjoy looking at them.

 We stopped at the fish market to purchase some fish for a dinner we were having for one of our investigators.  There were dancers performing for the holiday of St. Peter and St. Paul.

 The statute of St. Peter in a boat with fish hanging in front of him.

 A foto of some of the dancers and their costumes.  Very colorful.

 Dancers at the fish market

STORY 183 CLASSIC Photo of the Boats a puzzel photo  George took this photo of the boats all lined up that bring the fish in, each morning. It is really a classic photos. George said it reminded him of one that would be on a puzzle box. Hope you enjoy it.
Fishing boats in the port and Antofagasta in the background.  I thought this picture would make a good New Years puzzle.

STORY 184 FISH Market Photos    This is the first time even after being here 13 months, that we went to the Fish Market, even thought it is within walking distance of our apartment. This is the same day Saturday and here are several photos. The fish we purchased was called REINETA. You can look this up on the internet to see what it looks like. He did not get a photo of the fish, but I saw  them cutting the fish meat off from the fish itself. We purchased three large peices. This was the FIRST time we have purchased fish since we have been in Antofagasta. We did it because Rodolfo was coming to dinner, and we wanted to serve fish. We were glad, and it tasted good. The meat was pink, but when cooked it turned white. Hard to say exacted how it tasted, but it did not taste like Rainbow trout, more like a very mild tast, not like halibut, but was very good. Most Chilean's deep fry it with some kind of batter, but I just dipped it in a prepared flour mixture of different things, and cooked it in butter.

Inside the fish Market.  The filet fish in front at Reineta.  That is what we purchased and cooked.  It was very good.

 Picture in the fish market with part of a swordfish in the front.

STORY 185  Rodolfo coming for a FISH DINNER    (Sat PM  1 pm) George took a photo of the table set with the food for our first fish dinner. We invited Rodolfo, as his wife Marta was in Brazil for two weeks with their son Goga. We  had a lovely meal but were disappointned with the religious conversation we had in that Rodolfo seems to be backing off from wanting to know more about the church and seems to want to stay with the Evangelical religion. The saddest part is that he will not seriouisly READ the Book of Mormon.  We truly love Rodolfo, and they love us. We feel so badly that the GIFT we have to offer is being left unopened.  He told us the Catholic church required nothing of members, except to attend, and of course make donations from time to time. He said his mother became an Evangelical convert and her personality changed for the better after her conversion. We surely hope we get help with this family from above. "Gentle Persuasion" is all we can offer at this time.
Margaret cooked the fish and we had Ricardo and Laurita over to enjoy it with us.  They are not members of the church

STORY 186  OCTOPUS Dinner at Ideide & Wilson's home (Sat)  6 pm (see plate photo)  Saturday was a big big day for us - fish marking, Rodolfo for lunch and then we went to Ideide's for supper. She came and picked us up. Then to our surprise she served us "octopus."  See photo.  She told us you have to boil it for over an hour, and then freeze it, and then bring it out and cook it in butter. This was a very small octopus the size of our hand with long tenicales (spelled wrong). At first I didn't know if I could eat it, but I did and it did taste very good. But it just seemed so strange eating it. It is hard to say what it tasted like. it had its own taste. It was not like chicken. It was not like meat. It was just like something you had not tasted before. I know that does not help to describe it. We played YATZEE with the children, and they love having us come, so we invited them back to our home for Monday pm and that is when we had a full blown Home Evening with them. They loved it. We also had scripture time too. This was all so new to them.
We had dinner at Wilson and Ideides the other evening.  She served Octopus.  This was my plate.  I ate it all, and it tasted pretty good.

STORY 187 HOME Evening with Ideide & Wilson and children (4 photos)  Mon June 27 They came and we served tacos. This always takes me a long time to prepare all of the things they put inside, but I did it. Then we brought out the HOME EVENING sign and told them we wanted to have this with them. They agreed and liked the idea.
     PRAYER First we had the daughter do the prayer, and we could tell they do not pray vocally much in their home.
     SONG Then we said do you know a song you want to sing?. They said they did not know any songs. We thought for a moment and said lets sing Row Row Row Your Boat. Obviously we had to translate those words into Spanish and back to English. They liked it.
    LESSON Then we got a Liahona and had the boy read a child's story in Spanish. We did not know what he was reading, but they told us i was a story about a boy and his dad and the boy was missing his brother who was serving a mission. His father told him the brother would grow on his mission. So the younger brother planted a seed and it grew and grew and he got a big squash (but in the picture it looked like a pumpkin). They told us that in Chile they call a pumpkin a squash. They had never heard the word pumpkin.
     GAME  Then we played a game with little colored blocks we had purchased just for this purpose. Then we had the children build a tower and while they were doing this we brought out copies of the new testament in Spanish and wanted to all read.
    SCRIPTURES  We each took turns reading and the  parents actually really enjoyed this. We told them that all of our children's families read the scriptures with their children every day. They liked this concept.
    TREATS   We then served "Gummy Bear Treats" from the USA that one of the missionaries gave to us that his parents had sent in a box. They loved them!
    A PROBLEM  The boy knocked down the sisters tower and she was sad. This is typical of a family home evening night with something going sour!
     ENDING Now this  is not what you would was not a missionary lesson, but we certainly felt the Spirit guiding us as to what to do and I told George later, and I felt like Nephi in that we did not know beforehand what we were going to do, but it all turned out so well. We probably will try to do more Home Evenings with them.
Wilson and Ideide family playing games with us at home evening.

 Daniel and Pascal reading the scriptures at home evening at our home.

 Daniel and Pascal at our home for dinner and home evening.  They are children of Wilson and Ideide, who are some of our investigators.

STORY 188 Chilean PINENUTS from Ideide   (see photo) They also brought us a dish of these nuts. They were huge!  George really likes them. They are pinenuts, but Chilean pinenuts. They said you can only get them the end of June and early July. Then they roast them. You have to PEEL them and inside is a long thing like a pinenut, same texture, but tasts a bit different. George took a photo to show you.
Ideide brought us some pine nuts.  These are very big.  I shelled one in the center. The are very tasty.

STORY 189  VANESSA from Calama came for dinner with us (Tue) June 28 NO photo  This was the daughter of the translator man, who translated for George in Calama. She is a returned missionary from Paraguay, and attending a University in Antofagasta so we invited her to come for supper. She is also engaged to be married in December. A very lovely girl.
       She told us all about the Book of Mormon in the Spanish language, as she speaks fluent English. She said she LOVED her experience on her mission of reading the "Book of Mormon" in English because in Spanish the ideas do not come across as correctly as in English. She feels that the Spanish translation of the Book of Mormon is not too good, even after the New Translation came out a few years ago. She said it did not go far enough.  She told George how much she and her mother, and father and sister really enjoyed George's presentation in Calama a week ago.
        She told us how sad it is that the Chilean converts MANY of them do not stay in the church after their baptisms. The ward members do try to help but many do not stay. She said many of the church members are just SUNDAY MORMONS, this means they only go to church on Sunday and do not accept a church calling. Several weeks ago I had George take a photo of the two NEW missionary pamphlets that have just come out, and one was on Serving and Growing in the Church.
          Both of us feel so BLESSED to have been born into families that we were born into, plus being  born into the Church. We both  have SO much compassion on these people who have had NO concept of serving in a church, taking church callings, and contributing. Vanessa will come back again. She also wants George to do his presentations for the young adults who attend the Institute here in Antofagasta. We had a lovely evening and paid for her bus ride to go home. She lives to the North of us with her brother in an apartment her parents purchased for their children to live in.

STORY  190  TABLE SET for New Presidents dinner and then he didn't come. (June 28 Tue) The current mission president got "mixed up and thought the president was coming at 10 AM and instead it was 10 PM." Therefore the dinner we were suppose to have today (at 1 pm) did not take place. George took a photo of the tables (3 together)  set for 13 people, before we had to take it all down as the dinner will be on Friday and then we will set it all up again.  Today (Thursday) is the Leadership Meeting where we have 45 missionaries come in from all over the mission. It will BE theirs and our first meeting of the new president. We are very excited for this change.  We will tell you more about this in our next series of Photos and Stories.  Our current president l and his wife eft on the BUS tonight at 7:30 pm.

We had the table all set for lunch with the new mission president and the office staff.  President Dalton told us he was coming at 10:30 in the morning, Instead it was 10:30 p.m at night.  We had to unset the table and will have to re-do everything again on Friday.

        Tonight,  we read in the Bible together, in Acts about one of the church's greatest missionaries PAUL and some of his problems he went through while trying to do his missionary work. The trials and problems he suffered through were so hard, some accepted the message, other's didn't, some were trying to kill him, etc. etc.....we wondered how you get that kind of faith to just keep carrying on no matter what the circumstances are you are put into, as his trials were so FAR and ABOVE anything we have experienced. It made us want to continue working to develop this kind of attitude toward missionary service. We are always impressed with Paul and his writings and how he never gave up, but just carried on. After having the Peter and Paul Holiday it was a nice way to celebrate it, to read about Paul!

We pray that we will all develop this kind of attitude in whatever challenges we have to deal with.

Love Mom and Dad




Love Mom and Dad