Christmas with Katie & Carly . . .

December was a fun and busy month for us in the mission. Darin, Mike, Katie and Carly were able to come down to Chile and spend the month with us. We had a wonderful time and they brought so much life to the Mission Home. Mike served his mission in Argentina so he was excited to be in South America and he enjoyed going out with the missionaries a couple of times. Katie fell in love with so many missionaries and warmed up to each of them immediately. She was so funny in the mission office looking at the mission board pictures saying: "That one´s my favorite. No that one´s my favorite." She never could make up her mind as she loved them all so much. It was clear that the missionaries loved them as well. Carly was a trooper and we loved meeting her for the first time.

We were grateful to have them here and were able to take a few days to show them the wonderful beauty of Southern Chile. We miss them now that they are gone, (I especially miss Darin´s homemade bread) but there is a lingering light in the mission home that reminds us they were here.


First Weekend in Chile at the District Conference in Castro, Chiloé


Visiting the Saltos de Petrohue below the Osorno Volcano


The rapids below the Saltos de Petrohue


Swimming at the Termas de Puyehue at Aguas Calientes

Ocean overlook on Chiloé before our visit to see the Penguins

Member children at District Conference in La Union with Katie and Carly

Resting while Susie and Darin shop in Puerto Varas

December Cambios

We had eight new missionaries arrive in the mission last month. They include (front row l-r) Hna Demers from New Hampshire, Hna Moemai from Utah, Hna McClellan from California, Hna Porter from Arizona and Hna Wade from Arizona; (back row l-r) Elder Aguilera from Honduras, Elder Uceda from Florida and Elder Cuesta from Ecuador. My two assistants, Elder Vergara and Elder Ruesta are next to Susie.

This looks to be a wonderful group of missionaries and we are excited to have them. We were able to open one new sector for Hermanas with this new group.


As always, some of our missionaries completed their service and returned home in December. Pictured below (back row l-r) Elder Matos, Elder Ortoguerin and Elder Gonzalez from Peru, and Elder Munns from Utah. Seated (l-r) are Hna Diaz from Panama, Hna Halling from Virginia and Hna Bond from Oregon. I can't tell you what an excellent group of missionaries this is and it was so hard to say good-bye to them. As we serve longer and get to knows these missionaries better, it is becoming harder and harder to see them leave. We love them so much. The saving trade off are the new ones that arrive to take their place in the mission.

Six-Week Life Cycle . . .

Prior to the mission, it seemed my life was built around weekly and monthly planning. In the mission field, everything revolves around a cycle of six weeks. It begins with the arrival of new missionaries, the departure of missionaries completing their mission, the zone conferences, then interviews and finally preparation for the arrival of the next group of missionaries. Days and weeks fly by and zone conferences and interviews seem to follow each other so closely. Sometimes it is all a blur, but we are enjoying the ride and the opportunity to be of service.



We have now been through 4 different "cambios" or transfer cycles. I thought you would like to see the group photos of the new missionaries as they arrived. The first one was covered in an earlier post and included only Hermana Aguilar from El Salvador. Here are the groups that followed:

This group of 9 arrived on August 12th and included 6 from North America (the six we met while in the Provo MTC - Elders Haun, Noble, Davis, Cook, Sonntag and Darrington) and 3 (seated - Elders Zhunio, Castelo and Campozano) from Ecuador. Susie and I are also in the picture with our two assistants, Elder Ruesta and Elder Wanner.



This group of 10 arrived on September 23 and include only two from the United States (Elders Shumway and Haderlie) and 3 from Chile (Elders Aracena, Opazo and Bourboze) , 2 from El Salvador (Elder Montano and Sister Rivas) and 1 each from Argentina (Elder Aspitia), Panama (Sister Valdez) and Nicaragua (Elder Salguera).


This large group of 15, all from the U.S. arrived on November 4th and includes: Elders Adlard, Batemen, Cottle, DeGroot, Hogan, Larsen, Morey, Moser, Nash, Robinson, Seager, Simons and Sturm; and Sisters Biggs and Harper. The picture also includes Elder Ruesta and our new assistant, Elder Vergara.

Some of the sites in Southern Chile . . .

In our travels throughout the mission, we have seen some beautiful sights. Southern Chile is truly an incredible part of the world. Below are a couple of pictures we've taken:

The town of Villarrica and the Villarrica Volcano
The view of the Villarrica Volcano from Pucon
The mountains near Coyhaique.

The Osorno Volcano looking out over Lake Llanquihue.
From the plane flying to Coyhaique.
The Pacific Ocean from Niebla.

The Mission begins . . .

Three days after our arrival on June 28th, we received our first new missionary, Hna Aguilar from El Salvador. She went through training and then was assigned her first companion, Hna Tropple. The will serve in the Rio Bueno sector of the La Union Zone. We will always treasure Hna Aguilar as "la primera".

Transfers start for real in August when we send 10 missionaries home and get 9 new ones. Every six weeks there will be transfers. In between we hold zone conferences, training and interviews with each missionary. With a mission 1,400 miles long, this means a lot of travel and many nights in hotels. Below are some pictures from a few our first round of zone conferences.

The Osorno ZoneThe Punta Arenas Zone
The La Union Zone

The Rahue ZoneThe Coyhaique Zone
The Puerto Montt Zone

Arrival in Osorno, Chile

Sorry it has taken so long to post anything to this blog, but we've been so busy. We've been here a month and barely had time to catch our breath. We've now completed our first round of interviews and zone conferences and we love the mission and our missionaries. I'll try and post additional information once we get our feet on the ground.

View of Osorno from the plane as we are landing at the airport. It is a wonderfully small airport, but is closed for renovations until November. So for now, all flights go in and out of Puerto Montt which is an hour south of Osorno.
Frome left to right: Elder and Sister Allen, our senior couple from California (they are wonderful and so much help), Elder Bustamante, from Chile-the mission historian; Elder Shallenberger from Utah-the mission secretary; Elder Cabezas from Argentina-the mission commisary and computer whiz; Elder Wanner from Utah one of the Assistants to the President; Elder Ruesta from Peru the other Assistant; Elder Wohlfart from Germany-the mission financial secretary; and Susie and I. We felt so welcome, it was really like coming home.
First night at the mission home leaving to go proselyting with the two Assistants. These guys are so great and have been such a help to me.
First night in the mission home and Susie leaving to go proselyting with Hermana Davey from Washington and Hermana Ruiz from Panama.

We've been busy this past week getting ready for our mission departure. We were blessed to have family here for the weekend and enjoyed it very much. On Friday, we were set apart as missionaries by Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was assisted by Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge a member of the First Quorum of Seventy and a new member of the Chile Area Presidency. We were so grateful that our children and grandchildren were able to be there with us.

After the setting apart we enjoyed strolling through temple square and the beautiful weather. (Its snowing in Heber as I write this). What a great way to spend the day with family.

On Saturday morning we met with a photographer to get one last picture of the family as it is today. Obviously, this photo will be out of date soon with two new granchildren due in July to Darin and November to Karen. When we get back, we'll need to take a new one.
That evening our wonderful neighbors surprised us with a farewell neighborhood barbecue. It was so nice of them and we truly enjoyed the evening. My Dad was also able to come up from St. George to spend the weekend with us.

Susie and I spoke in church on Sunday and we were so grateful that many friends and family made the effort to be there. It was great to see everyone. We will truly miss you all.