Cambio Week

     We attended the special conference with Elder Uchtdorf on Sunday in the La Reina Stake Center because it is close to home and has plenty of parking.  We were thrilled when Victor and Selva attended with us.  They have been on vacation but got home in time to come.

Rudolf, Selva, Victor at the beach

  We had to explain why Elder Uchtdorf could not be there in person.  This conference was broadcast to all of the Stake Centers in Chile.  Victor and Selva really enjoyed it and hung on every word.  It is special to watch them as they understand a new doctrine of the Gospel and then be determined to live it.  We are hoping to get them to the temple to do some baptisms for their ancestors when vacations are done.  They left again for another week to a different beach on Tuesday.
     We did the pouch run on Monday.  We delivered the foods for the 72 hour kits and the new inspection reports for each zone.  It was transfer Monday so each zone was waiting for the phone call to let them know what changes would be happening in their zone.  Elder Greer texted us after we had left their zone to let us know that he was being transferred to San Jose de Maipo.  He is one of the missionaries that we took there 2 weeks ago.  He is so excited!  He asked if we would take him and his new companion there on Tuesday evening after their meeting.
     Monday evening our one and only American going home came to the office and asked for a photo with us.

Elder Belnap heading home to Georgia

     Tuesday morning we headed to the temple at 7am.  We are so thrilled that it is open again.  2 weeks without a temple visit just is way too long for us.  We had a wonderful day.  We got to the office about 4 and met the new 10 missionaries who arrived Monday night and Tuesday morning.  We didn't have them stay at the old MTC because only 4 of them arrived on Monday night and they stayed with the secretaries.  We only had 3 missionaries go home so we had to make sure that our empty houses were ready for the influx of 7 new missionaries. Transfer weeks are always full of surprises for us and lots to do to make sure everyone has a bed to sleep in.  We left the office Tuesday evening about 6 to take Elder Greer and his new companion Elder Lentz from Florida to their new home in San Jose de Maipo, and hour and a half drive one way.  We got home at 10, just in time to crawl into bed.  It has been a really long day.
     We spent Wednesday on the road doing some inspections and service calls.  We invited the assistants to the President over for arepas so we came home early to get supper fixed for them.  We think that they liked them as Elder Meek ate 4 and Elder Lozano had 3.

Our office secretaries are always eating something, usually something that is not too healthy

And drinking their "mote" One Elder explained it this way, put some dry hay in a cup and pour boiling water over it and sip the juice through the metal straw.  And no we have not tried it and have no desire to!

Thursday we let the secretaries have the truck so they could deliver the snacks to the meeting with the new missionaries and their trainers, and they had to deliver the pizza for their lunch.  We drove with the Potters to the meeting to present our Limpieza (cleaning) power point and the Potter's present their training about visa's and finances.  We spent the rest of the day doing computer work at the office.  Friday was a normal day with inspections and service calls.

Saturday started out normal; we needed to pick up 2 mattresses from two different apartments and deliver them to the new zone leaders house.  We now have 8 beds in their house in case we need to move Elders to a safer place when the demonstrations begin again in March.  We then went to two more pensiones to pick up chairs and blankets to deliver back to the zone leaders. While we were out picking up the chairs, the zone leaders called and asked if we would be able to go to lunch with them to the home of a single sister.  She is not active right now and they wanted to be able to sit down with her and talk about the restauration of the gospel.  Without us, they would just have to pick up the meal and take it home to eat.  We went with them and had a wonderful lunch and a great visit with a lovely lady.  We are so impressed with our young missionaries when they are teaching and bearing their testimonies about their Heavenly Father and the mission of Jesus Christ.  They teach with so much conviction and power.  They have an amazing spirit with them.  We dropped them off at about 4:30 and realized that we didn't have time to drive clear back home before the baptism that we were invited to beginning at 6:00.  So we just drove to the church and waited for the other Elders to arrive.

We were invited to attend a baptism at the Castillo ward where we attended two weeks ago.  We asked them if it was the mother or daughter getting baptized.  They replied the daughter.  But when we arrived and I was playing the piano for the meeting, I didn't see the daughter or the mother anywhere.  And when the young lady came in that was getting baptized I didn't recognize her at all.  The baptism was not for the people that I knew!

Elder Anson, Camila Paz Salas, Elder Schroeder

It was a nice baptism and I did get to see my mother and daughter and give them a hug.

Hopefully we will be invited and be able to attend when they decide to get baptized.

We enjoy being able to support our young missionaries.  It turned out to be a very long day but a very wonderful day as well.  And another week has come to an end.  We survived yet another cambio week and only have one more.  Time is marching forward very fast for us now and we are trying to get everything prepared for when we are not here.  We send our love to all.  Chao!