It has been awhile since I last entered items. A lot has happened. We have a rented house for our  church building. It is in need of repair but the Church does not want to put a lot of money in someone else's house. So we have to do some of the work ourselves. Here are a few pictures of a clean up day we had at the Building. Yes that is me washing the dishes and cleaning in the Kitchen. With me is the Branch President Cristian Catalan. We worked hard to clean everything including scrubbing the walls. It was an all day project but the end result was really good.

 

 

 

 A few weeks ago was the 221st birthday of the city of San Jose de Maipo. So there was a big celebration in the plaza. There was a parade, games, artistry shops and lots of people. It happened to be the same day as a National Holiday for one of the Saints. Traffic was unbelievable up the canyon. It is a 15 mile drive from the mouth of the canyon to the city of San Jose. We had a meeting in town so we were going the opposite direction as the traffic. The cars were bumper to bumper for 10 miles and a little space between them for the other 5 miles. It was incredible. Below are two pictures: one is in the middle of the Plaza showing the city flag and some of the People.

 

Here is yours truly mopping the floor in the multipurpose area. In the background you can see the heater. This is what is used to heat the room.

 

Below is interesting. You see the people sitting on the bench. They are having an empanada to eat and something to drink. The on looking dogs are just there begging, looking for something to eat. It is like this in the Plaza every day.

 

When you are in the mountains the snow pictures are really spectacular. I hope you do not get bored of them. Our last snow storm came in one day and dumped about 4-5 inches of snow. This is what it looked like out our front door.

 

 

When you look up the walkway from our front door you could see this picture. Our little car is at the end.

 

Up and over the mountain by our house is the "Ski Resort" of Lagunillas. Don't think of park City or Vail when you think of this. It is a poor man's answer to a Ski Resort. But the drive up is spectacular. About half paved the remainder is Dirt road. Here is one picture from the road on the way up.

 

 

As you approach the top you can look back and see the road you have covered to get to the Resort. It is quite amazing.

 

When you arrive at the top this is the view of the entire ski area. Small but if you want to ski, it is the only place for 50 miles and it is not expensive. Behind me here is the area to rent skis and snow boards etc. It is really quite beautiful.

 

Shopping is also very interesting here. There are various places to buy meat and other products. In the case the meat market behind me was receiving a delivery of meat. The guy in the picture is wiping his brow because he just finished carrying a side of beef the store on his back. They will put a towel over their shoulder to protect their clothes and then lay the side of beef on their shoulder and carry it in.

 

We do most of our shopping at a Leder Store. It is the Walmart Brand of Chile. You can get almost anything you want including crunchy peanut butter, double stuffed oreos, and pizza. The difference is in the packaging. We buy pickles, olives, peanuts, etc. in a bottle in the US. Here it is packaged in plastic bags. It is part of the tour. Also, if you want to buy paper plates, you can but the largest quantity is 10. Napkins are smaller, index cards (if you can find them) come in packages of 25. Some things are different.  

 

We had some rain two weeks ago. It was quite a lot. Anyway when we got out after the rain this is what the road outside our front looked like. It was a real mess. Slip Slide Away. But we had no damage or problems.

 

 

this is a picture up a different canyon towards the city of Maitenes. We have a member who lives up there. It is quite beautiful. I had Bonnie pose for this picture. I think the brilliance is coming off her, but some say it is the sun. I like my story better.  

 

The work is going very well. We have 4 people working towards baptism. They each have something to work on to be prepared. We have 6 couples who we are preparing to be married. Marriage is an afterthought here and we are trying to teach the importance of families and commitment. We have 18 members who are not active now that we are working with and they are close to coming back active in the Church. We are also working with the Church Humanitarian Aid Service to provide some help to the public hospital and clinics here. It is an interesting healthcare system. We do not want Nationalized Healthcare.

 

Thank you all for your support.