Random March Pictures

Because Leland received a new camera for Christmas, I haven´t been taking as many pictures with my camera and I haven´t taken possession of his pictures to blog. One day at a time...

But I have a few random pictures from my camera that I thought I would post to show that we are still alive and busy in Chile.

Last week we spent the weekend in Arica for a Stake Conference in the Los Olivos Stake. We arrived the day after the tsunami alert and found the city still under "quarantine". The streets were empty and all the streets leading to the beach, and to our hotel, were blocked by the police. We maneuvered around the city and tried to bypass the blocked streets to find a restaurant that was open. Our favorites were still closed so we had to get creative for lunch. Elder Brian had bragged about a local pizza place and it was our only choice for food. This storefront pizza place was nothing great to look at but the pizza ended up being great.

This is Pizza Mondin located across the street from our favorite grocery store: Lider. Let me point out a few things in the above picture. The wood fire stove was fed wood regularly. Fortunately the worker washed her hands everytime she touched wood or any other surface. That´s a plus. Notice the blue lighted fixture at the right side of the picture. This is a fly catcher/zapper. It was killing lots of flies; so many that the counter next to the catcher was covered in dead flies. That´s a minus. The bowl of cheese was covered with a cloth on the counter but not refrigerated; that´s a plus and minus. They were out of every drink except 1 1/2 liter bottles of regular coke; minus. The biggest plus was the pizza´s taste. It was really good, except that we didn´t notice canned corn on the menu. Choclo (or corn) just isn´t that great on pizza. I can´t get used to it.

Doesn´t that pizza look good or am I just getting used to Chilean flavors and forgetting my American sensibilities?

By Saturday afternoon the roads were opened and we were able to check into our hotel. We were the only guests for awhile. And this meant that the restaurants were opening up too. After Stake Conference we ate at a nice place on the water. The fish is tasty and the bread is fantastic. Our waiter took a pic for us.

Proof that tsunami evacuations are real in Chile. These people are serious about tsunamis.

We have hermanas that live in the apartments in the background. They look pretty nice in the picture, but they are typically Chilean. Nuf said.

On Tuesday we said good bye to a great group of missionaries. Interviews, testimony meeting and dinner were on the agenda for Monday and then a send off at the airport on Tuesday morning. We were able to get last minute pictures with each one before they went through security. This is Elder Yabarrena from Peru. He is a great missionary and we shared a love of Florencia empanadas.

Elder Diaz from Columbia. He worked as a clown in the circus before the mission. Needless to say we had lots of fun with Elder Diaz. He was always smiling and gave Presidente the biggest hugs before boarding the plane.

Elder Rolando from Equador. He always had a smile on his face and a shy demeaner. But he was an awesome missionary.

Elder Torres from Honduras is an angel and probably the kindest missionary here in Chile Antofagasta. He was a man of few words but a huge spirit.

Elder Abanto is from Peru and was a great leader in the mission. All of the missionaries looked up to Elder Abanto as an example.

Elder Castellanos is from Guatemala. He made me laugh and tried always to teach me Spanish. He is a leader with a strong testimony.

Elder Zuniga from Puerto Montt, Chile, served as an Assistant for 5 months. He is a strong, kind leader who is loved by all of the missionaries. When he hugged me he said "Adios" which is a permanent good bye. I said in between tears that it isn´t good bye, but see you later. Somehow we will see him again.

Elder Skene, from Ririe, Idaho, was our trainer when we arrived in the mission along with Elder Rahde. We couldn´t have survived the first few months without his constant care and attention. After leaving the office he became the trainer for two new missionaries, both of whom are future leaders in the mission. Saying good bye to him was very hard. We both cried when we hugged.

All of our Viejos from March 2011.

Elder Duerden, Elder Yabarrena and Elder Detrinidad, two assistants and a viejo and all great missionaries.

A few more pics with our leaving viejos.

Me and Zuni.

After we said our good byes we had almost two hours to wait until the arrival of our new missionaries. So we sat in the airport cafe with our assistants and planned for the busy day. Here are Elder Detrinidad and Elder Duerden with Leland. It´s 9:00 in the morning and we are enjoying Coke Light.

Here is a picture of the trainers of our new missionaries. We were waiting for the nuevitos to arrive at the Origenes chapel. Pictured are Elder Chavarria, Elder Cruz, Elder Recino, Elder Paez, Elder Soto, Elder Candia, Elder Vergara, Hermana Coppins, Elder Caris, Elder Christensen and Elder Leano.

They had been traveling all night from every area of the mission and then waited all day for the arrival of their nuevitos. The excitement was palpable in the chapel. We introduced the two groups to each other, ate dinner, had a little training and then put them all on buses back to their various sectors. Several had 12 hour bus rides to Arica and Vallenar.

This weekend we were again in Arica for the Stake Conference in the Costenara Stake. We were reacquainted with Elder Francisco Navarro, pictured below, who is reporting to the MTC in Argentina on Wednesday for his call to a mission in Uruguay.

We met Francisco 6 months ago at a Book of Mormon Symposium in his Stake and it was there that I challenged him to go on a mission. He gave me excuses like having a girlfriend (who was standing next to him) and school for not serving a mission. But I challenged him three different times to serve. Well two weeks later we were again in Arica for Stake Conference and Francisco was receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood. He had broken off with his girlfried and was preparing for his mission. A few months later he received his call and in two days he reports.

Interesting culture here: At Stake Conference all men being sustained for the Melchizedek Priesthood sit on the front row during the meeting for their sustaining vote.

I gave Francisco the book Believing Christ in Spanish and he started to cry. He felt so bad because he had no gift for me. But seeing him choose to serve a mission was gift enough. I put aside the rule of no hugging and gave him a huge hug and wished him well on the mission. Hopefully he will meet Elder Ryan Looney in a few months.

Today Elder Navarro came to our Leadership meeting with the Arica Zone and presented a framed picture like the one above to me and Leland. He wanted to give us a gift. On the back of the picture frame he wrote "Please don´t forget me and I Love You"

We have been having leadership training sessions all over the mission this month. Here is the group from Iquique and Alto Hospicio Zones. We were there at the beginning of the month.

While in Iquique we held an Investigator Fireside in the Alto Hospicio District. We intended on having just our missionaries and their investigators attend but the District President found out about the meeting and invited the entire district. We had a chapel full of people to speak to. It was great to see all of those saints who we haven´t met with since last August. Below is a picture with the District Presidency from Alto Hospicio. President Cabrera, standing next to Leland, is a watch saleman. He noticed Leland´s watch and asked him what kind it was. Then he asked if it was real. When Leland said yes, President Cabrera stated that he only sold imitations. But he knew it was a nice watch.

So this is what we have been up to the past month. There are so many more pics to go through on Leland´s computer. I´ll get to them soon. We love spending time with the missionaries and only wish we had more minutes with them at each location.