October 6th - 12th, 2025
For transfers this week our total number of missionaries didn’t change since we had 14 missionaries go home and we received 14 new missionaries!
Monday and Tuesday we took several trips out to the airport to drop off the missionaries going home. For one of the trips as we were about to leave our house we got a call from Elder Miles (one of the office elders) telling us to not come to the airport. Apparently the police were doing a check-point just outside the airport and were choosing random cars to pull over to check their licenses. Unfortunately, the missionaries had been selected and because they didn’t have a Chilean driver’s license the police decided to confiscate the mission van. It was a little hectic for the missionaries to have to unload and then flag down a bus that could take them the last kilometer or so with all their luggage to the airport entrance, but they all made it okay.
For a little bit of context, the previous mission leaders and any missionaries that have driven here in Chile have always had international drivers licenses and typically have been just fine. However, there technically is a requirement that if you have been here longer than 90 days and have a visa, you need to have a Chilean driver’s license to drive legally in Chile. The US Embassy is working with the government here to hopefully allow us to just use our international license, but until then we need to be cautious with driving. So needless to say, we were sad to not make it to say goodbye in person to some of our missionaries. Elder Miles video called Monica so we could see them one last time, which was nice. It’s definitely getting harder to say goodbye to these missionaries we have grown to know and love.
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| FaceTime goodbye with Hermana Plasencia, one of Monica's favorites who helped translate for her often. |
The elders felt so bad that they had lost the van and were stressed not knowing what we were going to do. They took an Uber to the area office and got a different van to use temporarily. The next morning we were having transfers and typically these office elders are the ones who help drive missionaries around to their new areas. However, because we were nervous about the license situation, I had to scramble and make some last minute changes to a few companionships and pull Elder Borquez into the office since he is our only native Chilean missionary with a driver’s license. So he became the chauffeur for the rest of the week, taking the missionaries to their new areas and us to the airport.
Wednesday morning we picked up 12 of our new missionaries arriving from the Mexico MTC. We brought them back to the office and split them into groups, rotating between interviews with me, calling their families, getting their bank cards set up, and having a little orientation. We ended all together with our meeting to reveal who their trainers would be, followed by lunch. Later in the day, we went to pick up the last 2 missionaries that were coming from the Brazil MTC. We brought their trainers with us in the car and took them out to dinner on our way back before dropping them off in their new areas.
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| Ran into the Kilgores at the airport this week. |
Our exciting news from back home this week is that our 4th granddaughter was born! Our daughter Megan started having contractions at home on Friday morning and we ended up talking to her on FaceTime for a bit. While we were on the phone with her, her water broke! So she quickly hung up and rushed to the hospital. Everything went smoothly and we were so excited to meet little Maggie Kay Baker over the phone. Monica will have the chance to go visit and spend a week back home in November to see them, and as you can imagine she’s very anxious for that trip! We also spoke to Monica’s dad this week to celebrate his 98th birthday. Maggie is their 100th great-grandchild - what an incredible life and posterity!
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| Our daughter Megan with her husband Austin and their two little girls! |
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| FaceTiming with Jane and Maggie. |
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| Our 4 granddaughters! |
This weekend we attended a Stake Conference in Los Aviadores where we spoke in all 3 sessions (leadership and adult sessions on Saturday, and general session on Sunday). The choir sang beautifully and we loved seeing our missionaries serving in that stake during the weekend as well. We also attended 2 baptism services on Sunday which is always a highlight for us.
