Winter in La Union

Lots and lots of rain and fog!  Today was more than 24 straight hours of rain.  I don't know where it goes!  Chile has a law that requires all drivers use their lights all the time.  I understand why now.  Fog.

Missionary Casas Inspections

May -- We finished our inspections in Rahue (a stake in Osorno) and now have only 8 more houses to inspect.  Houses range from very nice (only a few problems and mostly for hermanas) to too small and old and dirty (for some of the elders, but they did not make them dirty -- or old and small either).  Of the 10 houses in Rahue, two need to be left and new housing found.  That many problems!  I won't even try to describe them.  One of the hermanas live in a clean, very small, very cold house.  They have one room that fits their bunk bed, two wardrobes (the tall skinny kind with two drawers at the bottom), one table for eating and studying and whatever, and a small bookcase.  The kitchen is the width of the stove (very narrow) and the sink (very tiny), and the bathroom is the width of the square small shower.  Anyone else have these kind of conditions in their mission?  This would be fine if they could keep it warm.  They had only a gas heater which will heat the room but will take a long time. So Bro. Poulson brought them an eletric heater which gives immediate heat and should help tremendously.  If only all their problems were so easy to correct.

Dessert Party in Rio Bueno

May -- Tonight Elder Stott and I got to judge a desserts contest in one of the branches. It was interesting because Chilean sweets are not as sweet as we like them.  Too bad!  The young women's entry won, a lovely parfait.

The Winners!

Runner-Up!

New Missionary House in Lago Ranco!

July -- We traveled to Lago Ranco (about an hour and a half away and the farthest branch in our district) to check out a new house for the missionaries.  Their old house was a disaster with a crumbling bathroom and unsanitary interior.  The new place is very nice and we told the owner that we would take it.  It has three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, and nothing in the kitchen but a sink.  The mission will outfit the kitchen with all the missionaries need -- stove, frig, cupboards, etc. and supply all the furniture the missionaries need, beds, dressers, tables, etc.  It will serve them well for many years if they keep it up.

Elders for lunch

July -- We had all 10 of the elders here for lunch today.  WE were feeling like they were being left out because we had had the hermanas twice already.  So we had chili dogs, chips, brownies and ice cream -- US food which pleased the gringo elders greatly.  You do not find chili in Chile.  You have to make it.  So many of the elders had not had chili since they left for their missions.  We all had a good time.  It was interesting that the house felt smaller with the 10 elders here than with the 10 hermanas here!  Sorry, no photos, but see below for a different lunch by the elders.

The elders had a P-day lunch with a couple of members, cooking meat on the member's back yard bar-b-que.  Very different from the lunch at our house!

Volcanoes!!

 In April we went on a paseo with the other senior missionaries down to the Volcan Osorno.  There are at least 5 volcanoes nearby.  We went to the snow line so we can say that we have been on the volcano!  Of course we drove there!  They have a ski lift that runs all year but it was cold and I didn't want to go any higher/colder.  I am finding that I don't like to be cold.  I guess that is too many years in Arizona.  It is beautiful there.  We took a boat ride out on the lake at the foot of the volcano.  It was lovely.  A nice day.

Family History in Chiloe

We went to Chiloe, an island to the south of Osorno, for a family history conference in Castro, the capitol of Chiloe.  The conference was about general (not Church specific) family history put on over two days in the public library for anyone who wanted to come.  It was free to all.  Those involved were the Church's Family History Center, the Castro public library and the Registro Civil, the government statistical branch.   It was very interesting. The directors of Indexing and the Family History Center talked about genealogy in Chiloe, a fellow who has done much genealogy with the Maipu Indians spoke (fascinating), and the director of the Registro Civil in Chiloe spoke about the Catholic Church records and Chilean records.  The program was very well done.  

We went to Castro about 10 days ago to the Family History workshop they were having in conjunction with the pubic library.  It was fun event and we learned a lot on how to do a workshop.  They had a speaker on what genealogy is -- names, dates, and places -- and how family history is more than just data but is stories and pictures what make your ancestors more alive to you.  Then a fellow who has done genealogy for 30 years on the island talked about his information and that he uses PAF and showed people a variety of names of their relatives!  The second night we have the Registro Civil (the birth, death, marriage records portion of the government) talk about Chilean records, both the Catholic Church records and the government records.  Then the Family History Center director spoke about our Church's family history program and even mentioned the Spirit of Elijah!  It was a non-church meeting but he fit it in.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the crowd grew from Thursday to Friday.

And it was fun to stay in a hotel for a night!