Crazy Week in Anto

These first five pictures are totally out of sequence but I´m not uploading again. It takes me three times of trying before I get uploading right. So these pictures of an amazing cemetary were taken at the end of our trip to Iquique. Oh well.

This cemetary was right on the highway and I struck me as beautiful and weird at the same time.


Don´t know what this little house is except for a huge headstone or shrine to someone.

There are no real flowers to be found so artificial flowers adorn the crosses.

I know it looks like a bunch of sticks, but these grave markers are permanent.

Last week my sweetheart celebrated his 50th birthday on his mission. I got a few pictures taken of the celebration. I invited the mission office staff over for lunch since they are the only people we know here in Chile. It was a good time.

Should have been the perfect birthday for Leland because he doesn´t usually like big parties. Luckily for him we are in Chile, otherwise our kids would have thrown a huge celebration for his 50th.

Here is Presidente working in his home office before the lunch. We have since purchased new office furniture so both of our computers will fit in the office. Pictures to come when all the furniture is put together.

White cake with white frosting...Leland´s favorite. Sorry the cakes don´t seem to rise much here in Chile but they sure do taste good.

Lunch with the office staff from left to right: Elder Rahde, Elder Skene, Leland, Elder Mortensen, Elder Vergara, Elder Richardson and Hermana Richardson. Nery cooked the delicious meal of raspberry chicken, steamed red potatoes and asparagus.

Blowing out the candles. He wished for 114 baptisms this month in the mission.

Leland received some packages from home of some of his favorite goodies. Thanks Family!!! And we bought him an official futbol jersey from team Chile.

The day after the birthday celebration I got to go to the Beauty Salon to get these bad boy grey roots colored. I have been dreading this occasion but it turned great. Look at these roots!!!! One word...nasty. I brought my own coloring supplies from Jack Winn Salon for the colorist to use so my hairwould turn out just right. I showed them to the receptionist/manager and she produced a cabinet full of the same coloring supplies. I found a salon in Antofagasta that uses Loreal hair products. Things seemed like they were going to be ok.

This is what a Mission President does while his wife gets her hair done in a foreign country. He sits and waits for his wife and reads his missionary´s weekly letters on his IPad.

Sorry for the self portraits...I tried to capture the experience. Waiting in the chair for my colorist. They don´t use towels in this salon. Instead of cloth towels they use huge paper towels. Think of the paper ¨blankets¨they give you at the doctor´s office. It was weird but they worked.

Color is on and now the processing time.

I´ll spare you the rest of the self pictures. The color turned out great. And here is a picture taken two days later at our favorite restaurant, The Wagon. Good job on the coloring Denise. See you in 6 weeks. Maybe I´ll let her put a few highlights in next time. The jury is still out on a hair cut. I haven´t got the nerve to try that yet.

We had to visit Iquique this week so Leland could do some interviews with some Elders that needed a talking to. And we were told that the shopping was the best in Iquique because of a place called the Zofri, a tax free import shopping mall. Leland said the magic word ¨shopping¨and my bags were packed. Here are a few photos from our road trip. (By the way, shopping not so good. Lots of Chinese imports but nothing I wanted).

Saw this rusty stroller sitting in the middle of the desert and had to take a photo. The landscape doesn´t change for the entire four hour drive.

A 20 foot coke can. I can´t think of a better welcome to the city of Iquique. By the way, the missionaries love me because I reinstituted coke as allowable in the mission. It had been banned and I couldn´t see drinking the brown goodness without letting the missionaries partake. On the sad side, Leland took away movie watching privileges from the missionaries. We think it isn´t the best use of time for our missionaries.

Futbol isn´t the only pasttime here in Chile. Evidently golf is popular. The only problem is: there isn´t any grass. So the crafty Chileans just build their courses with dirt. Welcome to the Tocopilla Golf Club.

Here is the green for the 7th hole. It´s just darker dirt.

Another hole at this golf course. Notice the sand trap below the black green. I´m wondering what the difference is between sand trap and sand course???

This is the grandstand for the 18th hole. Be sure to stay off the course and behind the large rocks. With the ocean in the background I´m reminded of Pebble Beach (not).

Tee box at Tocopilla. Just stand on the box and hit away.

Some final shots of this course before heading off for our final destination. I wonder when all you golf fanatics will be visiting us for a round of golf? Just don´t bring your good clubs.

When you have to outline the sand trips and greens with white chalk you have a problem. This doesn´t
happen with grass courses.

We found the centro of Iquique one day after lunch. It was a cold cloudy day and not many people were walking around. But the centro was really pretty. This is the municipal theater under renovation.

Each city has a clock tower in the centro. I really enjoy the architecture of the old buildings. They remind me of New Orleans with a little more dust on them.

I think there was concert or something happening on this night at the theater. Plenty of chairs...hope everyone brings gloves and scarves. Iquique is becoming one of our favorite cities.