We have been to new places and had new experiences in this great land. We have seen the mammoth lake called Embalse de Yeso which provide all the water for the East half of Santiago, we have shared the Independence Celebration which is a 3 day holiday for most, we have taken missionaries to snow who have never seen snow in their lives, we have personally met one of the General Authorities of the Church who was here for training, and had some spiritual experiences that continue to convince us that Jesus is the Christ and his Gospel is true. Here are a few pictures of our experiences:

First, this is on our road to our house. It is a road that crisscrosses up the hill. We had a little traffic jam this day. You can see the wide road. The uphill traffic has right of way. It gets interesting sometimes. We are in the car taking the picture waiting our turn.

 

Embalse de Yeso is one of two large lakes extremely deep that provides the water to Santiago. The road up to see it is 15 miles of rugged rocky dirt road and in our little car it was lots of bumps. This first picture is on the road. The Water fall flows onto the road that we had to cross.

 

 

The road up the canyon is really beautiful. This is a picture across the canyon to a waterfall on the opposite side. It is quite spectacular.

 

When we got close to the lake the road narrowed because of the snow that was still there. At this point it was only about 4-5 feet wide and we had to leave our car behind to walk the balance of the trip. You can see it at the end of the snow. It is little because it is a little car.

 

When you get to the lake it is a huge area. What you see here is a small part of the lake it goes around the corner on the right for some distance. It is quite impressive. Bonnie and the Sister missionaries are in the Picture. They are about 100 yards from the lake. It is all fenced off and no motor or other types of traffic is allowed on the lake. The say the water is so pure that they do not need to filter the water. It is quite something.

 

 

If you want to see an impressive site. Here is 1/4 of the missionaries in our mission. They are from 10-14 different countries, mostly Latin and South America, and the US-Canada. They all pay their own way to come to Chile on assignment from the Prophet of the Church to serve and teach those who want to know about the Gospel of Christ. We have now about 265 missionaries here 90-100 of which are young women. They are all between the ages of 18-25. There are some from poverty families, some who left full scholarships to Military Academies to serve, others left their college studies. It is an amazing group and we have learned a lot from them. the young men serve for 24 months and the young women serve for 18 months.

 

 

This is Elder Cebellos and his wife. He is one of the General Authorities in the Church. He is located in Buenos Aires Argentina presently and along with two other Brethren direct the affairs of the Church in South America (not including Brazil) under the direction of the First Presidency I Salt Lake.. It is a huge responsibility that he and others do voluntarily.

 

The 18th of September is the independence day for Chile. It is a very large celebration. Most cars have flags on them, houses have flags, businesses are closed for 3 days. They are very proud of their country. There is some history the are not proud of but the country they are proud of. Here are some pictures of some of the members.

 

 

Our Branch President is on the right and one of the other leaders of the branch is on the right.

 

Chileans have lots of traditional folklore and the most often thought of is the Cueca Dance. The costuming is beautiful. This young girl made her own dress. It is very colorful and lively.

 

Here is another picture of them dancing the Cueca.

 

As mentioned the flags fly everywhere. We put one up outside our home. What do you Texans think of this flag? See any similarity.

 

We have completed 6 months now in Chile and it has been a wonderful experience. Bonnie is struggling with the language but she loves the people and they know it. Teaching the Gospel is fun and when you see people want to change their lives to make it better and follow the example of Christ it is that much better. If you are not familiar with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ, I invite you to learn.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are here and enjoying the work. Here are some interesting and beautiful pictures we took. First, our address is 19081 Cemetario (Cemetary) we live almost next to a Cemetary up on the hillside of the Town of San Jose. Here are two pictures inside the Cemetary.

 

The cemetery is about the size of 2 football fields. You can see each site is real close to the next. There is about a 18 inch walk way down each row of sites. There is no space between the sites on the side. There are some that are quite elaborate and other that are very simple. 

Here is a picture from a different angle of the Cemetary. The people are very good about visiting their family sites. Some of these accommodate more than one person but most are sites per person. They sell real flowers and artificial flowers on site and down the road from us at the bottom of the hill is a strategically situated flower vendor. Lots of flowers and color.

 

The next pictures are some views I took from our house. The First is looking over the valley towards Santiago. You wind down the valley towards the left and our of the Canyon to the suburb of Puente Alto and they to the city of Santiago. This is a picture in the daytime.

 

 

At night we sometimes see the following picture out our kitchen window.

 





 

 

How would you like that out your window. 

 

This is the same night looking in a different direction.

 

Yes it is beautiful in the middle of the Canyon. The people here are wonderful. There is sometimes a small town feeling to an outsider like ourselves, but because we are missionaries and most have some knowledge of the Church they are kind and receptive to us. They don't know much about the US but they do think we are all rich.

 

The Lord has blessed us greatly while we are here. Bonnie was able to give her first talk in the church meeting yesterday. She spoke of the blessings she has gained from being a missionary. I also spoke on the needs of every member. President Hinckley told us years ago that every member needs three things: A friend, the good word of God, and a calling in the church. That is so true. If members do not have those three things they feel either unwanted, not useful, or embarrassed for lack of knowledge of the doctrine and gospel of Jesus Christ. We are trying to help in each of those areas and make sure everyone has those three things.

 

We met a lady the on Saturday who is a member. We knew a little about her. I invited her to come to church. She said, I don't have nice clothes. I said, that does not matter. We love you anyway and want you to come back and join us. She was at church yesterday and had a wonderful experience. There were those there she knew and who welcomed her. We need a friend, the good word of God and a calling or purpose to be there each week.

 

We are blessed to be here and appreciate all the support we get from friends and family. 

July 1, 2013

 

I wrote this entry and then tried to post it and the system fouled up and so I am writing it again. I hope I can do it twice.

 

Time is going by and we are having some interesting experiences: Below is a picture of one of them:

 

This is a picture of Bonnie and Sister McKinley, who is one of the sister missionaries serving with us in San Jose. They are holding their newly issued Carnet cards. These are like SS cards in the US. They are used for everything for identification. If you use a credit card, you must give them your carnet number, if you want to enter into a contract with someone or a business you must use your carnet. Since I did not have a carnet I could not purchase our car. We had a friend purchase the car and we are using it until I get my carnet, then we will transfer ownership. I remember all the people who did not want to give their SS# in the states for privacy. Here you have to give it for everything. Bonnie now has her card, I am waiting for my temporary visa to come through and then I can get my carnet. We don't know what is the hold up but we must wait.

 

The next experience was our first Snow storm. It came Thursday this last week after it had rained for a few hours it began to snow mid day. This first picture is the beginning of the snow in our front yard.

 

The next picture is in our back yard. You can see the snow covered the ground except under the trees. We had a sister in the Branch call us this morning and asked if we could take her to see her 98 year old mother in the hospital. She lives about 1 1/2 miles away and she walks it twice a day. She is 70+ years old. Anyway, since we are the only ones with a car we gladly helped her. That night she walked home in the cold. We had offered but she went on her own.

Next is a picture of the next day. This is looking out our front door. It is looking west towards Santiago. When we go shopping or to Santiago we pass through this canyon beyond these mountains to get to the suburbs of Santiago. It is really beautiful

Below is a picture overlooking San Jose de Maipo. On the far side of the valley is the River Maipo which comes out of the mountains. This look is to the east. On the other side of the mountains is Argentina. It is a small community. Here all the roofs are covered with snow. They are all tin roofs and no insulation in the houses. It gets cold. One day our temperature was more than 75 degrees colder than in Dallas. It was about 25 degrees that day, but it was beautiful as you can see.

 

 

This wonderful little street is about as wide as a full size pickup. It is the road from down in the city to our house. It zig zags up the hill like switch backs, and they passes a cemetery and then we get to our house. What makes the drive interesting is when someone is coming the opposite direction than you are traveling. The rule is the driver coming up the hill has the right of way. So, if you are coming down you have to pull off the road enough to let them by. No there is not much room. In this picture you cannot see a driveway on the right that goes up the hill to a house. The driver coming down will pull up the driveway, let the person pass, back down the driveway and they move on. Some of the areas are not as convenient or as quick as this one. We are glad for a small car.

 

 

This picture is of the sisters who serve in our zone. The mission is geographically divided first into congregations (called wards or branches depending upon the size). Then we combine some of these units into Districts. These districts are supervised by one of the missionaries who is called to be responsible for the missionaries in their district. Then some districts are combined into a zone with missionaries as leaders. There is some wonderful leadership training opportunities for these young people. Anyway, there are fewer sisters in the mission and they will have their own zone. Last week we had the sisters for the zone our sisters are in to our house and fed them lunch and they had some tine to play and relax. Here is a picture of the sisters that came. The sisters that work with us are in the back row third and forth from the left side. They are really good young girls. 

 

 

Once a Month Bonnie and I go to Santiago to the Temple there. It is great to be able to go there to serve in the sacred work of the temple and have the peace and solitude of the Lord's house. We are blessed to be able to go.

 

That is our pictures for this time but we wanted to share with you a fun experience we have had. We have been meeting with Luis and Maria who are 60+ years old and members of the church. They have both been divorced and now have been living together for 27 years. They have son. They did not want to get married because they did not want to get divorced. (Don't ask the logic) Anyway we have been working with them to understand the blessings of marriage vs. not being married. In our church marriage is very sacred. In Chile the sanctity of marriage is secondary. It really effects the children as you can imagine. We believe in the fidelity of marriage and no relations outside of marriage. Anyway we have been working with them and become very good friends. Anyway this last week we were discussing principles of the gospel and she asked, "How much more do I have to learn in order to marry this man." That was wonderful news for us. They are now preparing and it will be a wonderful day for us and them.

 

Anyway we are doing well and enjoying serving the Lord 100% or our time. We are together all the time and it is really good. Our relationship is growing and I can tell you Bonnie is better now than 3 months ago when we left. The gospel is true and we love serving.

 

 

We have been two weeks since our last post and time is really moving along. We are maintaining seeing about 10 people each week in quality meetings. We teach gospel principles and look for service opportunities. Last week we met with the Alcalde of the city (city mayor/city manager) and offered our services to help in community services. We hope something comes from the offer and we are able to provide some service to the city.

We have now met with almost every member (missing 6) of the church in the area. We have about 100 members. We have personally visited with each and had beneficial experiences. Probably our most disappointing though is a lesson for all. We met with a man (about age 55) who was active and enjoyed the gospel until about age 18. He was preparing to go on a mission for the church. Then one day he saw a member of the church who was in a responsible leadership position doing something that is very much against the teachings of the gospel. Anyway that man's poor example caused this man to rethink his membership and his participation in the teachings of the Savior. He has not been active since.Our example and our living what we preach is so important. In this case the leaders example influenced the lives of 5 young men who were otherwise on a good path to follow the Saviors teachings. Bonnie and I have thought long about the example and life we live to make sure we are who we say we are and we represent by our lives what we teach.

We have some new pictures to share also:

 

This is a picture in the downtown plaza. We are looking west at the cathedral. It is a pretty landmark. 

 

How would you like to have this view out your front door each morning? This is late fall. The mountains in the background are the Andes and there are about 8 peaks at 16-18,000 feet in this area. The town is at about 3,000 feet.

 

Her is Bonnie on the town square. On weekends the square is full of people and two sides of the square are filled with all kinds of local vendors, from candied apples, empanadas, handicraft, trampolines, home made jams and everything in between. Vacationers come from Santiago every weekend and pass through the city on their way up to vacation homes and hot springs sites. The city is quite busy on weekends.

Our efforts to see people take us to all kinds of places; Dirt roads, houses on hillsides, multifamily compounds, etc. This set of steps is from the house of a member. We are looking up towards the street where our car is. We walk up an down this to see her. As representatives of Jesus Christ we are in a suit and dress each day so it makes the venture more fun.

We have had some additional wonderful experiences. We want to share what we are doing and some pictures of places we have been and people we are with. Our assignment as missionaries is twofold, (1) seek out those who have joined the Church in the past but are not currently active and fellowship them as best as we can back into activity, and (2) to work with the leadership of this little branch of the Church to train them in leadership, organization, and growth for members in the church. Our belief in the Church is that everyone needs three things, (a) fellowship with friends, (b) a calling/responsibility in the church organization, and (c) learning the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to follow its precepts. Those three things are what we are endeavoring to do with those who are currently less active. Below you will see the pictures of us with two young sister missionaries who are here on a proselyting mission from their homes in Utah. We are working together in San Jose de Maipo.

 Sister Amanda Tibbetts from Riverton, UT and Sis. Ciera McKinley from Orem, UT.

 

We are part of a district of 8 missionaries and our district is part of a zone of 16 missionaries that covers about 5 total congregations. Here is a picture of our zone.

You can tell from the picture that many are from other countries in Central and South America. In fact these missionaries represent 6 different Latin American countries. They are all here at their own expense to share our message.

 

So our days are full. We have about 2 1/2 hours in each morning to study, learn the language, and prepare for the day. We are out of the house about 11:30 and return home usually about 9 to 9:30 at night. There is some free time but when we are seeing about 10 to 12 different families each week it does take time and it is very enjoyable. To watch them change their lives and see joy it is very beneficial.

 

We also take some side trips on Mondays as that is our "free day". Today we went east from our town through the Canyon of Maipo and deep into the Andes Mountains. These mountains are the biggest we have ever seen. Not the tallest as we have been to Mt. McKinley in Alaska, but the size of the Mountains are massive. Here are some pictures on the road we followed. In the Pictures you will see another two couples. The two men were companions of mine when I served a mission as a young man here in Chile. They are currently now serving missions as we are. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I don't think they do justice to the size but you can see the idea.

 This is the river that runs down the canyon. We are at the bottom here.

 This is the dirt road we traveled on up the canyon for about 15 miles.

 This is a gypsum mine where we stopped and turned around. We are about 25 miles from the Argentine border.

 Here is one of my companions,Van Layman and his wife along with Bonnie.

 Look at the size of these mountains. Is this not magnificent.

 These trucks travel up and down the canyon daily delivering gypsum to the processing plants in Santiago.

 Here we are close to the top of the canyon and you can see the river flowing down.

 This is a bus stop at the city of Volcan. There are 22 families that live in this city almost at the end of the road.

A church in the city of Volcan.

 Sorry this is sideways. It shows the telephone poles and power poles. Pay attention to the telephone pole on the top. Real sturdy.

 

These final pictures were taken as we left Church yesterday after our normal Sunday Meetings.

 

 There was a festival for recycling in the town. These dancers and band are traveling the city streets to announce the effort.

 Doug Pulsipher on the left, Van Layman in the center and myself. 45 years has changed all of us but still good friends and servants in the Lords kingdom.

Here we are the three of us with our wives. Sally and Doug, Van and Millie, Bonnie and Greg. Doug and Sally are serving in the Concepcion Mission.  Van and Millie are serving as temple missionaries in the Santiago Temple.   It was a wonderful weekend with them and our mission is wonderful. 





We have been here for 3 weeks and we are very excited. We had several first for us which I will share in a minute. First let me show you the beauty around us. We are settled in the middle of a mountain valley with tall mountains all around. There are about 6-7 mountains within 10 miles of us which are between 9-13,000 feet. We got some snow and here are some picture of the view out our front door.

 

 

I don't know if you can appreciate the beauty but it is spectacular.

 

As for our first experiences:

1.       We had our first earthquake. We were sleeping one morning and felt the bed shake a little and then shake a little harder. It stopped then. It was a weird feeling but everything held together and we are quite fine. That was the first time at all for Mom and it was a surprise experience for her. I am sure we will feel more as there are 7 Volcanos here in Chile, so to have an earthquake is not abnormal.

2.       We had our first rain. It was a really nice rain throughout one evening. Not a gulley washer but a steady rain. On our roof it is a composition roof but it does not have any decking or insulation, so when it rains if sounds like we are in a tent. So all night it sounded like rain on a tent. We did not get any rain inside and so we felt quite protected.

3.       We had snow in the mountain tops. We are surrounded by mountains, big mountains. All around us are 9-12,000 foot high mountains. It is beautiful so with the recent rain there was snow in the mountain tops and you talk about a beautiful view. I included two picture out our front yard of the mountains. One is at sunset and the other during the day. We will try to get more.

4.       Walmart has stores down here. They are called Lider and just like home they are everywhere. There is one in Puente Alto where we go that is absolutely mammoth. It is bigger than any Walmart we have seen in the States. It has almost anything you can imagine and just like the states the store is full. Yesterday for example we went to the Lider store that is a little closer and there are 44 checkout stands full. We were in line to check out for 15-20 minutes.

5.       Internet is still a challenge. We have the modem stick but it is slow and not the best reception all the time. If we were down in the city of San Jose there would be cable in the homes but not here on the mountain as it is really difficult to get cable to the homes on the mountain so we have to use airwaves. We think we have found the solution though. The church is going to let us use their carnet number and have the service billed to them. We will include our internet service on our housing cost. Then I will use my I-phone as a wifi hotspot and we will be I business. Tuesday we will be checking into it and if it works we will have a more reliable and consistent system. We will see.

6.       We had our first parking ticket. We went to the Puente Alto 2^nd ward for our Zone meeting. The church is in a commercial area and has a fence around the building. A nice building. There is parking along the street in front of the church. Because the church lot was locked we parked in the street. The block is pretty long. Anyway at one corner is a sign indicating 30 minute parking limit which we did not see because we came from a completely different direction than the corner the sign is on. There is another sign 2/3 down the block which we did not see because we did not get that far. If you park for more than 30 minutes you pay 50 cents per minute including the first minute. We were there 3 ½ hours.

7.       We had our first Labor Day. Just like the states there is a Labor day and the same people get off work. And like the states it is a day for shopping.

 

Our next Post we will share more of what we are doing.