No Unhallowed Hand

 September 1st - 7th, 2025

This week was filled with lots of opposition as you’ll read about below, but it was also filled with lots of manifestations of how God really is in charge of his work and that “no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing” -Joseph Smith.

We started the week with Mission Leadership Council (MLC) on Monday. We had the highest number of baptisms in August this year compared to any other month over the past year at least. Obviously it was a very exciting month to be here and we’re looking forward to witnessing how the Lord continues to hasten his work in this part of the world! 

By the time we got home on Monday evening, I was not feeling well at all. I laid down for a nap and ended up sleeping for 6 hours straight. I woke up to eat briefly and then immediately went back to sleep again for 15 hours - by far the longest I’ve slept since being here. I figured my body was just trying to catch up on the lack of sleep. When I did finally wake up on Tuesday, Monica and I got to work on preparing for zone conferences for the rest of the week (Wednesday - Friday). That evening, after finalizing everything, I started to have chills and aches - basically I just felt terrible. I didn’t understand what was going on with my body. 

Wednesday on our way to zone conference Monica sent out a message to all the missionaries to pray for me to feel better. Our family back home was praying too. I asked a couple of Elders to give me a blessing when we arrived at the church building, and I felt a lot better right away and was able to deliver my message. 

Thursday I was feeling okay physically, and the conference went well overall, although we had quite the hiccup before it started. When we arrived at the chapel in the morning, the elders met us at the door and told us the water in the building was not working - nothing in the bathroom, kitchen, etc. Turns out there were some robbers the night before who had taken a rock and wedged it into the slats in the fence so someone could slip through so they could steal the water meter, likely with the intent to sell the brass. We had to quickly communicate with all the missionaries to take a city bus to get to another building nearby. That building was a bit of a construction zone with crews repainting/fixing some things both inside and outside, but it worked out. 

I helped with a training that night at another church building for the ward mission leaders of a few wards in the stake. While I was there, Monica got to go out with the hermanas serving in the area and spend an evening accompanying them. She was with Hermana Reed & Wistisen. Here’s a little bit about her experience: 

We went to the sisters’ house first - it’s pink on the outside so they refer to it as the “Barbie house.” There’s a stray dog that hangs outside their house that they’ve named “Ken.” He is the only friendly stray I’ve encountered so far in Chile. Ken tried to get on the bus with us as we were heading out to visit some friends, so the sisters had to tell him to stop by name and then he reluctantly stayed behind. First we visited a single mom and her 9-year-old son and had a great lesson about prayer. We headed back to the house briefly so Hermana Reed could go to a meeting with another sister training leader, so I was left with Hermana Wistisen and Peterson, while their comps were in the meeting. These two have only been on the mission for 7 weeks. They did great, even though collectively we don’t speak much Spanish, they still knew more than me! We tried to visit a few people but no one answered, so we just started talking to people on the street. I have never served a mission before, so it was my first time using the “talk to everyone you see” approach as we walked down the street. Most people ignored us or only talked for a bit before kindly rejecting us. We went back to their house and then I took our car back to the church where Brent was for his meeting. It was my first time driving on the highway, so I was a little nervous, but I made it safely. Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening being with the sisters and experiencing what they are doing all day every day. 

Friday we found another building for our last day of zone conference, and it all went well. Friday night I was still not feeling great again. I ended up sleeping for 10 hours that night and when I got up, I felt like I wanted to go workout, but I realized I really didn’t have enough energy to go do that. I decided to go take a shower and I noticed a red area on the inside of my right calf - it felt warm to the touch, and was tender. I went to show Monica who was downstairs working out and we started googling my symptoms (always a good idea) and cellulitis came up. After talking to our area mission specialist they recommended that we go to the hospital to be seen asap. We went to Clinica Las Condes and luckily there wasn’t a big wait. It took less than an hour for them to examine my leg, draw my blood, do an ultrasound of the skin, and get the results back - and I did indeed have cellulitis. It's a bacterial infection that gets under the surface of your skin, and strangely it only affects one limb on your body, and it's accompanied by flu-like symptoms. It can be pretty serious if not treated quickly, so I got the prescription and started taking it asap. Luckily the treatments are working and the rash is all gone. We’re not sure where the bacteria was introduced from, but given that we were in Argentina last week I’m going to blame the Argentines haha. 

Sunday I had a 5.5 hour long coordinating council meeting with some local leaders and our area seventy, Jaime Brace. It was long, but also very productive. That afternoon, we attended a baptism for Magali, a 60+ year old lady that has cancer and had to overcome lots of health challenges to get baptized. She’s been receiving lessons from the missionaries for about 2 months, and we were so happy to support her. The other baptism we attended was for a woman named Tonya. Her brother actually lives in Utah and has been a member for many years. The last time she visited him, she finally felt like it was time for her to listen to the missionaries and get baptized. Her brother was able to join the baptism via video call without her knowing. It was very special for her to talk to him afterwards!

We’re ending the week very tired, but grateful to have received the medical care I needed to get back up on my feet. We know we are doing the Lord’s work here in Santiago, and with his help we will try to keep up and help it progress forward. 

Airports, Asados, and Amazing Missionaries

August 25th - 31st, 2025

This week we had transfers - another great group of missionaries left to go home and another new group arrived this week! We sent out the transfer news on Monday so they’d all knew who’d be staying or leaving their current areas. Monday and Tuesday we made a few trips to the  airport to drop off the 6 elders who were heading home. 

Wednesday was our big transfer day with all the current missionaries going to their new areas, and our new missionaries arriving at the airport. We received 21 new missionaries - with 20 of them coming from the Mexico MTC (all native to the US), and then 1 sister from Colombia came from the Brazil MTC. It was a hectic day at the airport since there were also 27 missionaries arriving for the Chile Concepcion mission, so even though we had memorized the pictures and names of those arriving to our mission, we had to sort through lots of name tags to find our missionaries. 

Our first transfers in the mission (6 weeks ago) were a little crazy and disorganized, in part because we were new so we really didn’t know what we were doing yet. This time around we made more detailed plans ahead of time to help things run a bit smoother. Instead of having our new missionaries and their trainers all just waiting around at the church building with not much to do while I interviewed each new missionary, this time we provided a bit more structure so everyone had something to keep them busy and focused during what can feel like a long, crazy day. First, I asked my APs (Elders Sanchez, Harris and Bray) to provide training for all the trainers. Then, we kept the new missionaries rotating through 4 different activities including and interview with me, and then meeting with our senior missionaries to do the following; get an ATM and bus card, fill out a questionnaire, and review some fundamental teaching skills. 

At 1pm we had our trainer reveal meeting where each new missionary introduced themselves and then we would tell them who their trainer would be. The energy in the room was palpable and it was fun to see their reactions and emotions as they are just getting started here in Chile. After lunch we sent them on their way to their areas to jump right in and get to work! We’ll get to see them again early next week for an orientation day to check in and see how things are going. We’re excited to get to know this new group. It’s interesting that even after just meeting them, I can get a sense pretty early on which missionaries will likely be leaders in our mission later on. This is a high caliber group with strong testimonies, and I’m so impressed by how prepared they are to serve at this time. 

On Thursday we actually went to a baptism service for a man named Brando in La Cisterna. Due to his work schedule, he couldn’t be baptized on a Sunday afternoon as is customary here, so the missionaries helped make it happen on Thursday. 

That evening we went to the airport, but this time for us to go on a short trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Area Presidency from the South America South Area (composed of the missions in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay & Uruguay) invited us and all the other new mission leaders from the area to come have a training at the area offices in Buenos Aires. It was great to be reunited with our dear friends we had made at the MTC back in June. After checking into our hotel, we went out to dinner at an authentic Argentine asado restaurant. We ate a lot of meat to say the least! Friday morning we got started early and had training all day from Elder Costa, Elder Walker and Elder Gavaret from the Area Presidency. That evening we took the short 1.5 hour flight back to Santiago, so it was a short, but enjoyable trip. We really enjoyed the spectacular view from the plane flying over the Andes.

Saturday we used as a catch up day, running errands and preparing for our new missionary orientation day next week. On Sunday we attended a few baptisms; first for a sweet 9-year old Camila, and later for Mateo, Gerolin, Yanera & Clara. Mateo is the young man that Monica visited with the missionaries a few weeks ago, and she was the one who invited him to be baptized, so it was great to accompany him on this day!

Sometimes it feels like we’ve been here for 2 years already - but just over 2 months is a great accomplishment too ;) 

The Field is White!

August 18th - 24th, 2025

This week we finally received our crate of belongings from home that we packed and shipped a few months before leaving. We had the things we’ve needed for the past 7 weeks in our suitcases we brought down, but now we have a few more things from home such as our family photos, books, Monica’s favorite throw pillows and blankets, clothing donations we collected for the missionaries, etc. It definitely helps our house feel more like home. 

On Tuesday Monica went with Hermana Bensfield (one of our senior missionaries) to get hair cuts from a member in one of the San Bernardo wards. While they were there, I stopped by a few district councils that were happening in the nearby chapel and enjoyed being with some missionaries.  

Monica's new peluquera!

In the evening, we went to Carolina Sandoval’s bday celebration (wife of my counselor Jaime) at their house. They have 4 daughters - ranging from 5 -14 years old. I sat and chatted with the parents, while the girls surrounded Monica and loved hanging out with her. Thursday night we were back at their house for their 3rd daughter, Tamara’s 9th b-day party. We’ve introduced our mission to our Bartholomew family tradition of singing Happy Birthday off-key on purpose. The Sandovals thought it was the best thing ever and jumped right in to participate with us. We also call each of our missionaries on their birthdays to sing to them and they’ve loved it too. It’s fun bringing a bit of our family back home to our mission family! We also stopped by a church building on our way home on Wednesday for the birthday celebration of Elder Gutierrez, one of our service missionaries which was great.

With the Sandovals on Carolina's birthday. 

Tamara's 9th birthday!

Birthday celebration for Elder Gutierrez (to the left of President)

Our power went out briefly on Thursday evening due to a strong rainstorm - that eventually left a light dusting of snow in Santiago too. It was beautiful to wake up to a familiar sight of snow, even if it was in August instead of December! 

First glimpse of snow in Santiago!

Making a snowman to show the nietas (granddaughters) 😁

On Friday we hosted our 6 elders who are going to finish their missions next week for a “Day of Honor.” It was a very spiritual and fun day filled with final interviews, lunch, games and a testimony meeting. It’s always rewarding to hear about the growth each missionary has experienced during their time in the mission field. 

Left to right: E. Iverson, E. Juad, E. Hawley, Presidente & Hermana Bartholomew, E. Nelson, E. Ditto, E. Hoch

Saturday morning I had an appointment to get my car serviced, and after dropping it off I walked home and took some photos of the snow capped Andes with the rare clear skies from all the rain and snow this week. Reflecting on this week, I sent a message to our missionaries encouraging them to keep working even when the days are hard (or just really wet). I included some of these photos and reminded them “the field is white already to harvest” - a common phrase from scripture to describe missionary work - meaning that there are people here in Santiago that are ready and waiting to hear the message of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel from the missionaries - they just need to be found! 

Saturday evening we went to the stake center in Los Aviadores to participate remotely in the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square concert that was held in Argentina celebrating 100 years of the Church in South America. In 1925, Elder Melvin J Ballard dedicated the lands of South America for the preaching of the gospel, and it was amazing to be here to celebrate 100 years later and see all the growth and progress of these dedicated followers of Jesus Christ. Before the broadcast started, local members showed off the decorated chapel with displays and dances. The theme of the concert was “Canciones de Esperanza” (Songs of Hope), and we loved hearing the Choir and seeing our dear friend from Draper, Vanessa Crowshaw play the violin in the orchestra. They had some special guest artists, including our good friend from our daughter Megan’s mission in Argentina - Julian Mansilla. He played the bandoneón and also helped arrange many of the numbers for the choir and orchestra to accompany other artists. Overall, it was a beautiful night full of culture and music. (Check out this link if you want to watch the recording)

Throughout the week I probably spent about 30-40 hours working on transfers when possible. Everything needed to be done by Sunday, so Saturday night we finished working on transfers really late - Monica went to bed at 2am, and I finally followed at 3:30am. While It’s a very long, time consuming process to consider the needs of each missionary and try to make the best assignments, I’ve found that I’m really enjoying this part of our calling. I’m constantly amazed at how God is directing us and helping us make these changes.

On Sunday we attended the Jose Miguel Carrera ward, and Monica enjoyed making friends with Elena, a sweet 90-year-old lady and convert of just 2 years. She and her daughter shared a blanket with Monica during sacrament meeting since it's often pretty chilly inside the church buildings during the winter. It's been fun to see how quickly Monica makes friends with the members here without speaking much of the language still. We truly all are brothers and sisters in Christ and can feel that shared love no matter the language we speak! 

We got a kick out of seeing them leave church in their motorized scooter.

We stayed after church for 3 baptisms. Then we headed to Paine to see Elder Dangl & Wilson’s ward where they had 8 people getting baptized! The bishop in their ward has only been a member for 4 years himself, and he and the other members do such an amazing job at rallying around the missionaries and all the people they teach and bring to church - it really is a group effort. We ended the day with one more baptism service in another area for Paula, so in total we got to see 12 people be baptized today! Sundays are quickly becoming our favorite day of the week as we get to go support our missionaries and their new friends that are choosing to follow their Savior and be baptized. The field truly was white today!