General Conference

Sep 29th - Oct 5th, 2025

To start out the week, we wanted to share a cute story from a video call with our family last Sunday night. At the end of our phone calls with our granddaughters, I always ask them, “who is your favorite person,” and they always reply “Babo,” which is the name they call me as their grandpa. I may or may not have brainwashed them into giving that response. Well, this time our 2-year old granddaughter, Jane (Megan’s daughter) answered that Jo (the name she calls her aunt Jessica) was her favorite person! I was a little sad to hear that and told her that just because I’m in Chile helping the missionaries and Jesus doesn’t mean I should be replaced as her favorite person. Well, upon hearing that we’re here helping Jesus, Jane said “I want to see Jesus!” It was really sweet, and we told her we could show her some paintings of Jesus throughout our house since he isn’t actually physically here with us. 

We had our missionary leadership council meeting on Monday to review our goals from September and set some goals for October. We ended up with 44 baptisms in the month of September, and our goal for October is 63, so it will be a significant increase if we can get there, but we’re ready to work! Tuesday I attended a combined district council meeting in Los Aviadores. Wednesday and Thursday we wrapped up interviews with the last two zones, Los Aviadores & La Cisterna. 

MLC

Friday we held our dia de honor (day of honor) for 14 of our missionaries who are heading home, and 1 senior missionary, Hermana Bensfield joined us too. We went to the Santiago temple with them first thing in the morning and did an endowment session together. We took some photos outside of the temple afterwards and then went back to our house so I could interview them. While they were waiting for their turn to be interviewed they visited with each other, played some games and just enjoyed their last Friday on the mission. We ended the day with a final testimony meeting with all of them which is always so powerful. It’s definitely getting harder to say goodbye to these missionaries as they go home since we’ve now spent more time with them and have really gotten to know each other well. One sister in particular, Hermana Plasencia, has done a lot of translating for Monica during the past few months and they’ve created a strong bond, so it will be hard to see her go next week. In this group we had missionaries from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Canada, Bolivia and the US. Chances are we might not see some of them ever again so as you can imagine, lots of tears were shed. 

Friday evening we also went to the airport to pick up a new missionary, Elder Jorge. He’s from Peru and was originally assigned to serve in Venezuela, but was having trouble getting his visa so he was temporarily reassigned to serve in Nicaragua. We’re not 100% sure why (possibly more visa issues), but we got notice on Thursday that he was being permanently reassigned to our mission. We dropped him off with his new companions and we’re hoping everything goes smoothly with him here. 

Saturday and Sunday were filled with listening to messages from our church leaders during General Conference. We both agree that General Conference takes on a whole new meaning when you’re serving a mission. All the messages shared were really powerful and centered on, obviously on Jesus Christ and on his gospel, but also many focused on missionary work which was neat. We ended up having the office staff come over to our house on Saturday to watch the first session (at 1pm Chile time) and eat some waffles. After they left I finally got to start working on our upcoming transfers. I used the time in between sessions, and then once the last session ended at 10:30pm I stayed up until 3am working on it. 

Conference with the office crew

On Sunday morning we attended a baptism service for 4 people in the Los Alerces stake. There were 5 others that got baptized in other parts of the mission during the weekend which was wonderful. We made it back home right in time for the first session of conference to start at 1pm. Afterwards, the APs came over and helped me review the upcoming transfers. It’s always helpful to get their insights and help making decisions. For whatever reason this time transfers felt particularly challenging and it took a lot of extra time, prayers and revelation to decide who was going to be with who, which missionaries would be training and who we would assign as district, zone and sister training leaders. It was great to be with the APs, especially Elder Sanchez who has been AP for 10 ½ months now and will be going back out to the field for his last transfer. We will miss him serving closely with us and are so grateful for all he’s done since we’ve been here. It was great to have dinner with them and watch the last session of conference together as well. We finished the evening with a mission wide devotional over zoom. 

Watching conference with the APs

This week also marks a year since the passing of Monica’s mom, LaVern. We miss her dearly and enjoyed being able to talk to her dad over the phone for a bit on Sunday. We’re grateful to know that we will get to see her again, and in the meantime, we’re grateful for the chance to be here in Chile helping the missionaries to share that same knowledge and peace with God’s children. 

We Thank Thee, O God for a Prophet

September 22nd - 28th, 2025

Monday morning we had our regular weekly meeting with Shane Littlefield. Afterwards we went to Cerro San Cristobal and climbed up the hill to the statue of the Virgin Mary. We went there with Brandon when he was with us in July, but it rained over the weekend leaving us with clear skies, so we went again to see the views. When we got to the top we stopped to buy some mote (dried peach & wheat drink), we were surprised when all of a sudden some of our missionaries came up behind us. There were about 16-18 missionaries there that were there for their p-day, so it was fun to run into them.  

Cerro San Cristobal from below

View from the top

There are many beautiful crosses like this one on the way up

That evening we took Hermana Perez to the airport. She got approval to go home for 3 weeks to care for her mom who is sick and needs surgery. She doesn’t really have anyone else that can help during her recovery, so we’re glad Hermana Perez can go be with her. That night I had a  mission presidency meeting followed by a meeting with our AP’s. 

Tuesday we joined a weekly district council meeting in San Miguel. Wednesday I had interviews with the missionaries in the San Miguel zone all day, followed by a meeting with the president of the San Miguel stake that evening. 

The missionaries enjoyed their Dunkin donuts this week during interviews. 

Physical evidence of a hard-working missionary.

Thursday we had interviews in San Bernardo, followed by a meeting with the stake president for me, so Monica got to join 2 of our sisters for the evening. We recently added sisters to that area - it had been 8 years since sister missionaries had served there. In that zone we typically only have elders serving there since it's the most dangerous part of our mission, however, there are a couple areas that are safe enough for sisters so we put them in this transfer and things are going great so far. Monica accompanied Hermana Jensen and Hermana Lobos for the evening and spent lots of time knocking on doors and chatting with a few people. They also visited a part-member family and had a brief message on their doorstep, and ended the night at the house of a recent convert who was baptized 6 months ago. She was going to have an interview the next day in English, so Monica got to help her practice her English a little bit in preparation for that. 

Friday I wrapped up interviews in Los Alerces. Afterward, President Sandoval’s daughter, Elisa turned 14 so we stopped by to celebrate her birthday with a little gift and our classic off-key rendition of happy birthday which they get a big kick out of every time! Later that night President Miranda’s ward was having a 18 de septiembre party, so we joined in on that. I somehow got roped into being a judge for a food competition to see who made the best salsa. We’ve been really impressed by all the ward parties we’ve attended here - the Chileans go all out!

Feliz cumple Elisa! (second from the left) Also, notice their youngest daughter, Pia who fell asleep on the couch during the celebration :)

Winner of the salsa competition!

On Saturday morning, I got a phone call from some Elders while I was working out and found out that one of them got bitten by a rat. They were participating in a service project with their ward in connection to the church celebrating 100 years in South America. They were cleaning up the banks of a river in a super dirty area where people just dump all their trash. The ward members told the missionaries to avoid the rats, but one Elder decided that it would be “cute” and “cool” to catch one and take a picture with it. Luckily, one of the members there was a medical professional, so they immediately took him to the hospital to get a rabies shot. Moments like these just reminded me that these missionaries are still very young and don’t always make the smartest decisions. 

Saturday night we attended President Sandoval's ward party for 18 de septiembre and it was so impressive and very over the top. So many people wore their traditional clothing and performed dances from lots of different areas of Chile. At the end they opened it up to have everyone dance the national dance the cueca. It was a blast!

That night I also stayed up late to watch the BYU football game over zoom with Brandon, so by the time I was going to bed I got the news that our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson had passed away. We were obviously sad to hear the news, but we also felt peace and comfort to know where he is, and are joyful to think of his reunion with the Savior, his first wife, all the past prophets and other family members. I took the time to write a message to the missionaries to let them know when they woke up. President Nelson lived an incredible life and left behind quite the legacy. He passed away at age 101 and served as the Lord’s prophet for 7.5 years. During that time he announced the construction of 200 new temples, and overall did all he could to help us all focus more on Christ in our lives. At church on Sunday many tears were shed by us and the congregation as we sang “We Thank Thee, O God for a Prophet” and “God Be with You Till We Meet Again.” We love President Nelson and will miss him!

After church we attend baptisms in Hospital (the name of the ward, not the actual hospital), and Paine. Monica helped the sisters teach Maria a few weeks ago so it was great to attend her baptism today. As a mission we had over 20 baptisms this week which was incredible! We love being able to attend baptisms at the end of each week. It really reminds us why we’re here, to help God’s children come unto Him. 

This little friend wandered into the chapel - reminded us of the scripture about the hen gathering her chicks (Matthew 23:37)!

Las Fiestas Patrias

September 15th - 21st, 2025 

This week we experienced our first “Fiestas Patrias” - celebrating the independence of Chile from Spain. September 18th & 19th are the official independence days, but most people have school and work off for the whole week. When I was a missionary I always joked that they needed 2 days to celebrate because most people got so drunk on the 18th they needed the 19th to recover! Overall it was still a normal week for us, and we did get to join in on some of the celebrations which was fun. Before we jump into the week, enjoy some pictures around Santiago showing off some Chilean pride (including some of our missionaries in their red, white & blue). 

To start off the week on Monday, we had the chance to meet up with Monica’s great-nephew, Elder Walter Browne (her brother Roger’s grandson). He is serving in the Santiago West mission and we got permission to take him and his companion out to lunch in their area, which was only about 40 minutes from our house. Walter and his family live in Florida so we haven’t seen them much throughout his life, so it was fun to connect with him and hear about his mission here in Chile before he heads home in a couple weeks. 

On Tuesday we attended a district council meeting in San Miguel. Afterwards we bought a cake and went to the office to celebrate Hermana Clark’s birthday (one of our senior missionaries). 

Wednesday we had a very special experience at the temple with a couple of our missionaries.  Elder Nuñez from Argentina had reached out to us a month ago and let us know his grandpa had passed away. His grandpa wasn’t a member of the church, so after he passed, his family wanted to do his work in the temple and decided to have Elder Nuñez be baptized by proxy for him. We of course gave him permission to go to the temple an extra time and I felt honored to have him ask me to perform the baptism. In addition to the baptism for his grandpa, we were able to help another lady that came to the temple that day with a list of 40-50 family members who needed their baptisms performed as well. It was wonderful to be a part of helping these individuals receive this essential ordinance. 

As we were in the temple, one of the workers shared his testimony of temple work and a story about his great grandpa with us. This brother was baptized in 2006 after meeting with the missionaries. Years later when he was learning about his family history, he came across the records of his great-grandfather and found out that his temple work had already been completed by someone else in a temple in Utah. When he checked the dates he realized that the day his great-grandfather was baptized by proxy by someone in Utah, was the same day that he had received a copy of the Book of Mormon from the missionaries prior to his own baptism here in Chile. He said he knew that was no coincidence and that he felt a very powerful connection to his great-grandfather and was grateful for the temple blessings in his family. 

On Thursday, I started our next round of interviews with each missionary. We went to 3 different areas; Buin, Hospital, and Vi Luco, and interviewed missionaries at each. It was nice to break up the day a bit by driving between each area instead of just staying in one place and interviewing all day long. 

Friday we had a meeting with all our district and zone leaders to help them standardize their weekly district meetings so they look the same across the mission. Historically these meetings have focused more on reporting the numbers and key indicators for each companionship, but I wanted them to start counseling more about the needs of individual people the missionaries are teaching and how to help them keep their commitments and progress toward baptism. 

Afterwards, we came home and changed our clothes and then took the metro together for the first time to meet up with President Miranda and his family for an independence day celebration (called a “fonda”) at a park in downtown Santiago. They had live music from a Colombian Band, games, food and dancing. We had some traditional chilean dishes including completos (hot dog with avocado, tomato, mayo), empanadas, and mote (a drink made from dried peaches & wheat that have been boiled). We tried our best to learn the national dance, the cueca, and overall just had a wonderful night immersing ourselves in the culture. 

Our new favorite drink, mote!

Completos

Saturday was a catch up day filled with groceries, working out and then watching the BYU football game with my son Brandon over FaceTime. We miss going to games in person together, but this is a fun substitute for the next 3 years. 

Last Sunday after we spoke at a stake conference we were introduced to a young man named Brian who the missionaries had met 3 weeks ago. He had attended church every week since meeting the missionaries and had decided to get baptized. In chatting with him last week he asked if I would be able to baptize him and I said yes of course. The elders texted me on Saturday night saying that Brian was super excited to have me baptize him, and I felt so honored. Today, before the baptism I realized that I had forgotten to bring an extra white shirt to change into after the baptism, but luckily Elder Berrett was about my size and their house was close by so we rushed over there to grab a shirt. As I changed I realized there were 3 buttons missing and when I showed Elder Berrett he just laughed and apologized for grabbing that shirt. He said he’s been meaning to fix it, but figured his tie hides the missing buttons when he wears it so it wasn’t a big deal for him. I was grateful nonetheless. Brian was pretty nervous before the baptism, so I talked with him a bit in the hallway right before to try to calm his fears. Everything went great and it was a neat experience. It was my second time baptizing someone here and I am so honored and grateful every time we get to witness or assist with these special ordinances. 

On our drive home this evening, we got to listen to our niece, Haili Bartholomew’s farewell talk. She is going to Mongolia on her mission, and we know she’ll be a wonderful missionary and a great blessing to the people of Mongolia and especially to her mission leaders! 

Last week we mentioned Elder Rhoton who had to return home to fix his torn labrum. Well, he reached out after arriving home and shared with us that on his flight home he was seated next to an older gentleman that had served a mission when he was young and also had to return home for a torn labrum. So that was a great experience for him to have God place that man in his path on the way home, and again another evidence that there are no coincidences in the plan of a loving Heavenly Father. We testify that he is aware of each of us and sends other people to help us out along our path back to our heavenly home. 

Dropping off Elder Rhoton last Sunday