Last week of June and winter is officially here

     Sunday the 23rd, we attended church in the Los Toros ward in the Vicuna Mackenna Stake.  We have 53 wards and 2 branches in our mission.  So far we have visited the 2 branches and 25 wards.  We hope to visit all of the wards before we end our mission.  I was thrilled to be able to play the piano for Sacrament again this Sunday.  We came home and took a much needed nap.  We then went to the office and unloaded the truck from the Capilla Abierta on Saturday evening and finished getting things ready for the pouch run on Monday.  The Acevedo's are still in Argentina so we have been helping the office Elders gather the items that the missionaries have requested and sorting the mail to be put into the pouches.  Then we walked home.  Winter began here on the 21st of June but it feels like beautiful fall weather in Idaho, cold mornings and warming up in the daytime to the 50's and on sunny days even into the 60's.  We see windows open all over the city and we have decided that they are letting the cold out of the apartments and letting in the warmer air.  Concrete apartment buildings with no insulation can be a bit cold!
     We had a wonderful time on our shift in the temple on Tuesday morning.  What a tender mercy to be able to serve here one day a week.
     Tuesday afternoon it started raining.  It was one of those good rains where the rain splashed up from the sidewalk so hard that your skirt is wet from the rain coming up off the pavement.
     Wednesday we headed out to do some service calls for the young missionaries.  One call for help from a set of Elders said that the neighbor was wanting us to cut down a tree cause it was blocking the sidewalk and someone has been hiding behind it?  Well, we drove out and found a bush that was blocking the sidewalk so we trimmed it.

Elder Thompson stomping down the branches to make room for more.  

This bush had thorns an inch long all over it.

The branches were intertwined into a big ball at the center of the bush.  We took the truck load to the office and cut everything up so it would fit into bags to be hauled off.  What a dirty job!  

It is amazing that the house has one roof, but it is two homes.  You can always tell cause they each paint their half a different color.

A different looking church

As we drove home tonight (Wednesday) the sun was shining off the snow capped mountains.

We should get even more snow in the mountains on Saturday as rain is predicted again.

The days are already getting longer for us.  It's 6pm and the sun is just setting.

We have been trying to clean out our bodega (our DI) in the basement of our office.  The Acevedo's are not here so we can actually throw things away.  They won't throw anything away and when the missionaries are heading home, they bring everything that they don't want to the bodega.  Most of the clothes are worn out and no one else would wear them.  We have filled 4 huge garbage bags full of clothes and given them to the poorer wards.  We filled one with coats that look like they have been in the bodega for 20 years, they are so outdated.  We found 34 cases of old Liahona's and Ensigns!  We even found 4 cases (200) cans of bug repellent, which is not needed here as we have very few bugs to contend with.  They expire in December so we sent them out to the pensions to be used this coming spring.  Then they can be thrown away without feeling so guilty that they were going to waste in the bodega.  We found 17 cases of envelopes (remember snail mail?) The sad thing is that the office missionaries had just ordered envelopes not knowing that we had so many down stairs.  

Friday we were doing some service calls for the missionaries and got to visit with these two.

I think almost anyone would look short compared to Elder Matthews but Elder Lainez is shorter than I am so they really looked almost comical!  Two very good Elders!

     Friday evening we were getting ready to leave the office to go to dinner with the Hughes for our date nite when we noticed Hermana Hughes ready and waiting for us to go.

  Hermana Hughes is always the last to turn off her computer and we are always waiting for her.  This is the first time in 8 months that she has been ready to go by 5 so Elder Thompson had to get a photo of her.

Also the first time in 8 months that Elder Hughes didn't have his computer off before Hermana Hughes.  

We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner, The Tortilla Factory.  We love our Friday night dates with these two.  

We ended the week as usual, at a Capilla Abierta.  This time we were in the La Reina Stake at the Tobalaba 1st Ward.  

This is the final ward in the La Reina Stake to have a Capilla Abierta.  

Zone Leaders, Elders Westover and Ramirez

It has rained on and off all day so the missionaries came prepared for the worst.  Elder Thompson told them to just have faith and all would be well.  Sure enough, just as we started, the rain stopped and it was a beautiful evening.  The Capilla Abierta was from 4 - 6.

This Sister is making sopaipilla.  It reminds us of scones.  She fried them all evening.  They were great with salsa or peanut butter and jam!  She kept bringing us some and even made sure we had some to take home.

It was a wonderful evening.  We had 11 non-members come to learn more about their Savior and had 22 members go on the tour to fortify their testimony of their Savior.  The members were excited to share their testimonies with all who came.

This Zone has really become experts at putting on a Capilla Abierta.  The ward fed them at the end of the evening.  I should have gotten a photo of the sandwiches, a big hot dog on a bun with guacamole.  The missionaries then spread ketchup and mayo on top of that.  I don't know how they got their mouths over it to eat it.  We just kind of faded into the background and loaded the truck and headed home. 

Another week has come to an end.  We send our love to all.  You are always in our thoughts and prayers.  We are enjoying serving with these young amazing missionaries.  It is fun to watch the growth in them from our first encounter at our sleep over with them when they arrive to watching them teach others about their love for their Savior.  Enjoy your week.  Chao