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

Building a Powerful Mission, One Week at a Time

September 8th - 14th, 2025

Oftentimes at the end of the week we have to look back through our photos of the week to remember what we even did - the days all blur together! Monday we prepared for our new missionary orientation the next day. We had 21 new missionaries arrive last week, and we loved getting the chance to see them again this week and help them start to adjust to life here in Chile. Previously we held this orientation 2 days after the missionaries arrived, but we realized the new missionaries in our past groups were pretty exhausted and didn’t get as much out of it as we wanted. Switching it to week 2 felt much more effective. Our main focus of the day was on the 4 pillars of a powerful mission: living our missionary purpose, having the faith to baptize, expecting miracles, and working with diligence.

Tuesday evening we went to the airport to drop off one missionary, Elder Hoch, who stayed an extra couple weeks. Then we waited there at the airport to pick up Shane Littlefield who is our Area Mission Specialist. He is employed by the church to provide training and insights to mission leaders in our area, and more specifically he helps us monitor performance metrics. Shane served as a mission president in Mexico 20 years ago, so we definitely appreciate his expertise and were looking forward to his visit. His niece is also serving in our mission, so it was fun for him to connect with her. 

Goodbye, Elder Hoch

Brother Littlefield & his niece, Hermana Clegg

On Wednesday Brother Littlefield conducted focus groups with some of our missionaries and put together a report that we reviewed with him and then brought to our MLC group on Thursday. He put together 4 key things to focus on to increase the output of our goals. One thing we specifically talked about was how to help people we are teaching to want to come worship with us in church on Sundays. 

Brother Littlefield with our MLC group

Saturday is our preparation day, and I finally had the time and energy to work out for the first time since arriving in Chile. I even felt sore the next day, which was a great feeling to have again. Hopefully I’ll be able to get into a regular workout routine soon. We had some random missionary needs come up throughout the day, including sending one of our missionaries, Elder Rhoton, home to get his torn labrum taken care of.

We spent the rest of the day preparing remarks for our first stake conference in La Cisterna on Sunday. They asked us to take 10 mins total, so I translated for Monica while she introduced our family and shared her testimony and then I filled the remainder of the time. They had a choir of children sing during the meeting which was beautiful. On Sunday I also had the opportunity to set apart my first and second counselors - President Sandoval & President Miranda. Their families joined us and we had lunch together afterwards. That evening we went to a baptism back in La Cisterna and ended the day with our Sunday night devotional over zoom with our missionaries. 

Children's choir from stake conference

President Miranda, President Bartholomew & President Sandoval

Mirandas, Bartholomews & Sandovals

The Miranda & Sandoval's daughters... or as we like to call them, our chilean daughters :)