This week can best be described with one word - interviews! Tuesday - Friday this week I had the chance to start the process of individually interviewing every missionary in our mission. As a Mission President, I’m asked to do this once a transfer (every 6 weeks), with the purpose of checking in on each missionary and seeing what Monica and I can do to help them. The previous mission leaders (the Rosenlunds) planned these interviews for about 15 mins each, so I figured that would be enough for me, but let’s just say time got away from me many times and after spending 20, 25 or even 30 mins with some, at the end of each day I was running a good 2-3 hours behind schedule. We’ll figure out a better system for next time, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each missionary one-on-one. I got through about half of them this week, so we'll finish up next week with the rest. We have an amazing group here in Chile Santiago South!
That doesn’t mean that they come without their own challenges and struggles though. There’s a variety of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual challenges they are going through, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to meet with them to be aware of each one. This week, Monica was able to personally call all the new missionaries that arrived last week and chat with them and their companions to see how they are adjusting as well. There’s a few that are understandably homesick, but overall I think they can feel our love and concern for them as they are just starting out their missions.
Friday evening my mission presidency counselors joined us for dinner with their families, and we had a lot of fun! The Miranda family has 2 daughters (and Hermana Miranda’s sister joined us too), and the Sandovals have 4 daughters - so we loved being surrounded by all these sweet girls. We fed them waffles, served with ice cream on top as my mother, Barbara, has taught us to do, and they loved them! Before they left, Monica asked them if they would sing the Primary song Gethsemane for us. It was one of her mother’s, LaVern’s, favorite songs - in fact when she passed away last October, it was one of the last songs she listened to in the hospital. Monica felt very close to her mom as they sang. It was tender seeing the youngest of the daughters who is 5 years old and imagining our oldest granddaughters, Jane and Lily being that same age (or almost) when we return home from serving in 3 years. Time is definitely going to fly!
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| The Sandovals, The Bartholomews, & The Mirandas. |
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| All the chicas 💜 |
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| Dinner with our chilean family :) |
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| All squished into our elevator after dinner. |
Today (Sunday) for church, we were invited to attend the ward conference for a ward called Viluco - in a small countryside town called Maipo. The ward has been growing there for the last several years, and the church recently completed construction on a new church building that they are waiting to move into, so right now they still meet in a house they rent for Sunday services. They invited Monica and I to share a short message with them. They were very grateful that we would take the time to go visit this area and we really enjoyed being there. During the ward conference we met a guy named Samuel who is actually from Otavaol, Ecuador. He’s been living in Chile for a long time though. He used to live in a different part of Chile called Quinta Normal which is an area next to where I served at the start of my mission back in 1989. He said he recognized me from when I served here as a young man! Sadly I don’t remember him - I don’t remember much from the first part of my mission honestly, but it was a fun connection to make.
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| Brent & Samuel |
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| We enjoyed seeing the missionaries that serve in the Viluco ward during ward conference. |
This evening, we went to a baptism for a young man named Benjamin. Here’s a little bit of his story: He works at the local grocery store, Jumbo, and he has a coworker there that he noticed was always super upbeat and happy. At some point they started talking about religion and she told him she’s a member of our church. She invited him to attend sometime, and 3 weeks ago, he showed up on Sunday by himself. He found the missionaries at church and asked to be taught, and now 3 weeks later he got baptized. It was touching to hear him share his story and testimony at the end of the service today. He’s a very impressive young man, and he may even decide to serve a mission one day.
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| Benjamin's baptism |
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| Benjamin & Elder Bunker |
The baptism was extra special today because it was two of our office missionaries’ last day in the mission - Elder Bunker and Elder Sheppard - and they were the ones who taught Benjamin along with Elder Miles and Berrett. So tonight we took them to the airport to send them off. Elder Bunker was supposed to leave last week, but he arranged with the previous mission leaders to stay an extra 10 days to train his replacement in the office. And Elder Sheppard was going to hit his 2 years at the end of August right in the middle of transfers, so he got to end just a couple weeks early. We are so grateful for all their help as we’ve been settling into our new roles here.
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| Left to right: Monica, Brent, Elder Sheppard & Elder Bunker (returning home), Elder Miles & Elder Berrett (replacing them in the office). |
Hard to believe it’s already been a month living down south. We’re excited to see what’s in store next!
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| Beautiful view of the Andes from my morning walk. |
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| Another week, another trip to the feria for produce! |
