We lost our beloved truck!

We attended church in the Grecia Ward in the Nunoa Stake on the 8th of March.  Gloria and her son Ignacio were there.  Gloria is now teaching in the Primary.  We just hope she hasn't jumped in too soon after her kidney transplant but she is loving the children in her class.  Children just love to share germs so we worry about her health.  Selva and Victor are still gone on vacation so we missed seeing them.  This ward has a Capilla Abierta planned for the end of the month so we presented the Power Point Presentation to them to hopefully get the ward excited about the event.  We have had 3 wards cancel because of the demonstrations so time will tell.
     We did the pouch run on Monday morning.

This intersection seems to have demonstrations nightly

The flags of the rebellion

With summer break over, the street performers are back

Dancing in the streets

Never a boring traffic light in this city

 Traffic has been horrible this weekend.  We have been spoiled these past two months with summer vacation and people out of town.  

Tuesday-temple day-!  We are so thankful for this temple and the opportunity to serve here.  It always calms our souls and gives us the needed boost to face the rest of the week. 

Wednesday we had an office meeting and then took the assistants to the President out to Puente Alto and then went on to Vicuna Mackenna and did two service calls.  By the time we got back to the office, the notifications of the various demonstrations were coming in right and left.  We have demonstrations taking place in Cordillera, Gabriela, La Florida, Puente Alto, Alicahue, Nunoa and La Reina.  We are sure more are happening in other parts but these 7 zones are seeing some pretty violent and destructive demonstrations.  It has not been a good day in Chile.

We got the truck washed and emptied and tomorrow will exchange it for the new van that has been assigned to the mission.  

This pickup has served us well.  We have hauled beds, mattresses, luggage, people, tools, and the pouch mail.  It has a few scrapes and dents from us, Elder Gonzalez, Elder Greer and Elder Petersen.  Elder Thompson will not miss the stick shift!!  That is hard in this kind of traffic here.

Elder Petersen and Elder Cloward brought the Potter's van to the area offices next to the temple on Thursday morning and turned it in along with our pickup and left us with this to drive home.

It is a 2019 brand new Hyundai H1 Gildemeister

It is a 9 passenger diesel van

The Elders left the keys in the jockey box for us but the doors were all locked when we got out of the temple.  Evidentially it has a safety feature that locks the doors after so long if you forget to.

The Potter's new van is exactly like ours.  The seats do not come out or fold down so you can carry cargo.  Evidently there is a law here in Chile that you have to buy a permit to haul furniture?  No one told us about that before so for the last 16 months we have been breaking the law!  The van is an automatic.  The plastic is still on the seat belts and sun visors and the van smells new.  We were hoping that this could wait till we left cause we don't want to be the ones that put the first scratch on it.  The Potter's had to bring us the spare key so we could drive back to the office.

We had to drive out to the La Florida Stake Center later this afternoon to practice with this zone who will be singing at our Charla Fogonara on Sunday evening.  We only had reports of demonstrations in 4 of our zones and La Florida was not one of them so we felt we could go without trouble.  We had a good practice, taping the parts so the missionaries can practice their parts at home.  We only had a week notice to prepare so it will take some at home work to pull this off.  

AND OUR WORLD HAS BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, As promised in our letter of March 11, 2020, we continue to monitor the changing conditions related to COVID-19 throughout the world. We have considered the counsel of local Church leaders, government officials and medical professionals, and have sought the Lord’s guidance in these matters. We now provide the following updated directions. Beginning immediately, all public gatherings of Church members are being temporarily suspended worldwide until further notice. This includes: ·         Stake conferences, leadership conferences and other large gatherings. ·         All public worship services, including sacrament meetings. ·         Branch, ward and stake activities. Where possible, leaders should conduct any essential leadership meetings via technology. Specific questions may be referred to local priesthood leaders. Further direction related to other matters will be provided. Bishops should counsel with their stake president to determine how to make the sacrament available to members at least once a month. We encourage members in their ministering efforts to care for one other. We should follow the Savior’s example to bless and lift others. We bear our witness of the Lord’s love during this time of uncertainty. He will bless you to find joy as you do your best to live the gospel of Jesus Christ in every circumstance. Sincerely, The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Wow, our Capilla Abierta's are now cancelled! Our Charla Fogonara is now cancelled!  Our Power Point Presentations to the wards are now cancelled!  

We only have 23 cases of the Coronavirus here right now and we have not even worried about it as of yet.  We have been more focused on the demonstrations and riots so this really kind of hit us on the blind side.  We have been so thankful that we have not had to have the missionaries locked in their apartments because of the unrest like we had to in October and now we have a second enemy to fight.  We are prepared though!

Friday morning we did one inspection and then went shopping for items for the pouch run.  We pick up things that the missionaries need in their apartments like frying pans, bowls, silverware, toasters, irons, blenders ect.  We only had one demonstration today so it was a nice quiet day here.  We came home to bake some raspberry/blackberry pies for tomorrow and received the worst news of all; our temple is closed!!!!!  We haven't received any notice from the temple yet.  They will only be doing live ordinances so maybe Elder Thompson will have the opportunity to serve on one day as a sealer.  We'll let you know next week.

We were planning on visiting with President Barrales and his family Saturday for lunch.  Saturday morning we received word from them that President Barrales woke up with a fever!  He has been home from New York for 2 weeks?  We drove out to Pirque and delivered one of the pies that we had made for the lunch to them and then visited with the 4 Elders who serve there.  They needed help with some bike pedals and then we took the scenic road home and enjoyed the fields and orchards.  We do love this section of the mission and will probably not get out there again with all that is going on right now.

John Deere tractors

no high rises here!

Enemy Number 1

     Santiago, March 14  Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Chilean capital of Santiago to protest against the government and inequality, rounding up a week marked by a feminist strike and student demonstrations.

     Banging drums and saucepans, the protesters on Friday sang songs such as "The united people will never be defeated", "Chile woke up" or "The dance of those who are left over" by the rock band Los Prisioneros, in Santiago''s Plaza Italia, reports Efe news.
     Demonstrators also paid tribute to Cristian Valdebenito, a 48-year-old protester who died on March 7 after allegedly being shot by a tear gas canister during another protest in Plaza Italia.
     Friday''s gathering was mostly peaceful, although there were clashes around the plaza when police tried to disperse protesters with tear gas and water-launch trucks, as the latter responded by throwing stones.
     A dozen hooded men also attacked an abandoned bus and blocked a street with it while a group of students demonstrated in Plaza Nunoa, another roundabout in the capital, and damaged public infrastructure.
     The protests in Chile have killed at least 30 and injured thousands since it erupted last October.
     They decreased last month following the summer break but resumed in March following the return to work and classes.
     This week began with the Monday feminist strike to mark International Women''s Day and continued with student protests countrywide.
     The week was also marked by the first public appearance of Gustavo Gatica, a young man who lost his sight in November 2019 after he was shot by pellets on his face
   
      We now have 43 confirmed cases of Enemy Number 2 here in Chile.  We are sure that there are more as the poor will not be able to go to a hospital to be tested.  Our missionaries have been counseled that they can have baptisms with no more that 8-10 people in attendance and they can still have home evenings and lunches with members.  They are to participate in the sacrament and Sunday School with a ward family.  Their spirits are high and all are well at this time.
     We are going to battle with prayer and fasting and we are determined to conquer our 2 enemies.  We pray that you are safe and determined to conquer your enemies as well, whatever they may be.  You are in our thoughts and prayers.  We pray that you can stay safe and have a wonderful week filled with love and laughter.  We send our love to all.  Chao till next week!