Penguins!!!! February 2015

We visited Chiloe, an island in the middle of the mission.  There is a penguin colony there from December to March.  It was such fun to see the penguins fairly "up close and personal"!  You had to load on a boat on a wagon that rolled us out to the motor boat that took us to the three islands that the penguins called home.  The Pacific ocean was choppy that day which made the ride exciting!

Which one am I?

Pancakes for the Hermanas!

We had the six hermanas over for pancakes and fruit for our cambio get-together.  Once ever six weeks I try to have the sister missionaries over for some North American food so this cambio we had pancakes and I showed them what to use as Bisquick in Chile!  We also make Mug Brownies and Blueberry Crisp, both in the microwave.  The ovens here are hard to use and every missionary house has a microwave so I tend to go that direction.  We had a great time even if our dining table is a little small for six sisters!  (It is made for four.)  It was fun to have them here -- talking and laughing.  I had them sign the apron Carolyn Follett sent me so I would have all their names after the mission.

Osorno Volcun - November 2014

We went on a viaje (trip) with her elders and hermanas from our zone to the Osorno Volcano last week.  It was a very cloudy day and we were worried that the volcano would be covered with clouds but we came out of the clouds a little before we got to the volcano and it was beautiful!  Very windy!  We stood on Osorno volcano and could see the Calbuco Volcano across the valley.  There are 7 volcanoes in the upper half of the mission and you can see three of them from La Union where we live.  The missionaries went in a chartered van and we drove as there was not room for us in the van.  We  had time on the way home to take pictures.  It was fun!

Huilo Huilo December 2014

Preparation days are Mondays.  As senior missionaries we have a lot more freedom to visit other missionaries in the mission.  The Biggs live in the northern-most part of the mission. Huilo Huilo is a gorgeous area in the their area, lots of water falls.  We went with two other senior missionary couples, the Biggs and the Beecrofts.  Chile is gorgeous!

Christmas 2014

Our granddaughter Allison Duffin, entered the MTC in Provo, Utah, December 17, 2014, preparing to go to Kansas on her mission.  Here is a letter we wrote her about Christmas and life in the Chile Osorno mission where we are.

Allison,

We hope your Christmas was wonderful.  Did you get to Skype with your family?  We Skyped with your family but it didn't work too well so we talked on the phone for most of our conversation.  It was fun to see everyone even if we could not hear them!

We had a good Christmas, very quiet, except for Christmas Day from two to six when we had four elders here using our Skype.  So we had three different elders talking with us for four hours!  We learned a lot about them. It was fun but tiring.  

I went to a Relief Society party the Saturday before Christmas and brought two gifts, one for another RS sister and two for the elders which I thought the RS was gathering.  I found out that I was wrong about the elder gifts (my Spanish is frequently mistaken!) so I brought home the ties and socks that we bought for the elders.  We had a white elephant gift exchange with the missionaries in our district the Tuesday before Christmas and we gave the socks away with some caramels.  Unfortunately an hermana selected our bag and got the men's socks!!!  But an elder got a ladies wallet so I think there was some exchanging going on!  Grandpa got two wide-toothed combs which got a laugh!  I got a "family de oro" which turned out to be three chocolate Santas dressed up like a mother, father, and son, so I lucked out!  One elder got a pair of crocs, but this missionary is 6' 7" tall so the crocs didn't fit!  Another elder got a large rock! (This was a white elephant gift so a rock fit the definition.)  It was fun and some gifts were very funny.

I kept the ties we bought and gave them to Grandpa for Christmas!  So everything was good.  He gave me a necklace which I really like. But that was all so unwrapping gifts did not take long nor was there a high level of excitement and surprise!  It was good.

I actually found a small roast (meat) that we bought for Christmas dinner -- our first roast since we got here.  It was delicious!  I haven't figured out the meat here so we don't eat much other than chicken, pork chops and hamburger -- all visually identifiable!  Karen and Susan sent us a package for Christmas with some things that we don't find here so we had bacon (from a plastic package, not raw) with our eggs Christmas morning!  Delish!  It is the small things that please in a foreign country!

We are currently without a car due to a minor fender bender that the insurance company has not resolved yet, so it is hard to get around to do our visiting.  Today we did a house inspection and attended sacrament meeting in San Pablo and we went by bus!  There are fewer buses on Sunday so we ended up waiting for 30 minutes and then boarded a bus to Osorno (which is twice as far away as San Pablo) but we got off at the side of the road at the edge of San Pablo.  This is how it is done in our mission.  You get on a bus that might be going where you want to go or it might be going beyond where you want to go and you get off when you need to.  So we walked to the hermanas' house and did the inspection we needed to do and then walked to Church.  The way home we had a 30 minute wait for a bus to La Union (where we live) and the bus driver left us off on the side of the road that was near our house. Tomorrow we go to Rio Bueno for two house inspections and a meeting with the family history director to create an agenda for our next meeting.  Without a car we try to do at least two different activities per bus ride!  The ride to Rio Bueno will end at the bus terminal and we will have to walk from there to Hermana Figeroa's house for the agenda and then go next door for hermanas' house inspection! They happen to live next door to each other.  (When Grandpa called Hermana Figeroa to make an appointment with her, she said that she knew we were coming to Rio Bueno because she had talked with the hermanas at church.)  After the hermanas' house inspection, we will take a collective to the elders' house for that inspection, then a collectivo back to the terminal for the bus ride home.  Our missionaries smile when we tell them that, yes, we walk to the meetings at the El Centro chapel (about a half hour) but will be taking home a collectivo (a kind of taxi that is cheap -- $1 per person -- but only goes to certain neighborhoods).  We are willing to walk down the high hill that is between our house and the chapel before the meeting but not willing to walk up it after the meeting! Transportation is pretty good here if you only need to travel within the immediate area.  It is hard to get to some of our areas that are over an hour and a half by car, but several hours by bus with a transfer.  Will you have a car?  Is there a good bus system in Kansas?  I guess you will find out! 

Do you have an address yet?  All of our mail goes through the mission home.  Does yours?

We are interested in hearing about your MTC experience as it will be different from ours (ours was only a week long).

Your quote for today is one I found on the internet and liked:

"No matter if your fail or succeed, you will have people against you.  So you might as well succeed!"                        --DaniJohnson.com

So have lots of successes!

Love,

Grandma and Grandpa

Singing Christmas carols at a government meeting

The Hermanas and Sister Stott

Our zone at the Christmas caroling 

Missionary work at the plaza --
talking with people about the "The Gift"
a DVD about Christ's birth.

Relief Society Cultural Event October 2014

The District Relief Society had a district wide cultural function with all of the wards participating with a different culture.

Elder Stott got roped into participating at the last minute!

El Centro Rama (Branch) -- a complicated inter-weaving dance accompanied by a drum

Caupolican Rama - a Mapuche (native Indian tribe in Southern Chile) dance with a drummer and a speaker

San Pablo Rama - A Columbian dance 

I love the costumes!

Halloween in Chile

Party Time!!!  Halloween has been celebrated only about 7 years but we had a great party with the 3 branches in La Union.  Most people came in costume (Elder Stott and I came as senior missionaries!).  Some were very creative as you see below!

Our angelic hermanas (sister missionaries)!

Two little cuties!

Creative Costumes -- and gory!

A new game involving moving chairs while standing on them!