Our New Zone

We had zone meeting today and, as always, we took a picture of the zone at the end.  We're serving with another great group!!!

Front row:  Elders Mariscal/Bolivia, Rodriguez/Mexico, Wanderley/Brazil, Medina/Paraguay, Barrington/UT - WOW!  They're all from a different country!!
Middle row:  Elders Solis/Chile, Knutson/UT, Los Lawson/CO, Silva/Argentina, Beltran/ID
Back row:  Cable/CA, Martins/Brazil, Lopez/UT, Phillips/NV, Reid/UT, Walker/UT, Joos/UT

Holidays, the little town of Mamiña, and Doug's birthday

Time is moving on with our great mission. We want to share some pictures of events and places. May 21st is a national holiday in Chile. It marks the anniversary of the great naval battle of Iquique that took place on that day in 1879 during the War of the Pacific. The war was between Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. This particular battle was between Peru and Chile. What is fascinating is that Chile technically lost this celebrated battle and had to leave Iquique, which was then part of Peru. The great ship Esmeralda was sunk with significant loss of life along with her Captain, Arturo Prat.  So while this battle was lost, it became a great rallying cry for Chileans and the memory of Prat's heroism encouraged a surge in recruitment. This enabled Chile to ultimately win the greater war and claim a large part of land that is today the extreme northern part of Chile.  Prat is now considered a national hero and at least one street is named after him in almost every Chilean town and city.

We were able to tour the reconstructed Esmeralda, saw Iquique from the ocean view via boat, and enjoyed being with the Chileans on their special day.  It was a unique moment to be in the city where the battle took place.

    The Esmeralda is now a museum and we loved touring it.

 These are the cannons that didn't have enough power to overcome the Peruvian battleship.

                                    Some views of Iquique from out on the ocean.

We went back to Pica, which is part of the Pozo Almonte Branch, for a Family Home Evening.  We took the elders - a threesome with us. Pictured below are Elders Aquino/Argentina, Barrington/UT, and Sargent/UT.  Next are Victor and Taciani, Brother Varela, and Mikki.  It was a small group but we enjoyed spending the evening with them.  On the way back to Pozo Almonte, we stopped to look at the stars.  Pica is at least 35 miles beyond Pozo Almonte and with no lights around us we were amazed at all the constellations we could see. It was easy to see the Milky Way. Truly amazing!!

The Vera's invited to their home for lunch as Cecilia's parents and aunt were visiting from Santiago. They'd also invited another couple from their ward in Iquique to join us. The Vera's daughter, Anita, will leave in a few weeks to serve a mission in the Argentina Posadas Mission, which is in the northeastern most part of the country. It includes Iguazu Falls, which on the Brazilian side was included in our daughter, Nicole's, mission.  She'll be a wonderful missionary!

On Doug's birthday, May 25th, we drove up to the little town of Mamiña, which is northwest of Pozo Almonte, up in the mountains.  It's a town of hot springs and we're sure it's a bustling community during the summer but May is late Fall and it was a quiet day except for the Catholic church, which was having some sort of celebration.  It was Memorial Day up in the States and when the people in the church were asked to remember their ancestors we felt like we were able to have a little Memorial Day of our own.

                                            Even our car celebrated Doug's birthday!!


Mamiña is a town where legend has it that the waters of this place cured an Incan princess of blindness.  The name means "the little girl of my dreams" and is known for its healing hot springs.

Here are some views of the town.

The little church, tiny plaza, and inside the church.

We celebrated Doug's birthday that night at the home of Oscar Rozas and his wife Olfa Montenegro (the wives usually keep their maiden name after marriage). They'd invited the Hernandez-Pino and Aldunate-San Francisco families over for pizza and birthday cake.Olfa is a fantastic baker and has a business from her home for bakeries and private orders.

Starting from the left:  Nancy, Melisa Hernandez, Alexandra holding Melisa's new baby, Julio Hernandez, Ivan Rozas, Joshua (Alexandra's boyfriend), Oscar Rozas, Ismael Aldunate, Angelica San Francisco, Ema Pino, Mauricio Hernandez, and Olfa Montenegro.

 Olfa made darling cream puffs into the shapes of swans. She also had a lemon pie plus the other treats on the table. Yum!! Then at the end she brought out her Tres Leches cake. Double yum!!!

                                 The next day we celebrated with the elders in our zone.

                                             Doesn't this look like a happy group?!!

From the left (back): Elders Silva/Argentina, Mariscal/Bolivia, Medina/Paraguay, Campbell/CO, Modawell/MI, Barrington/UT, Sargent/UT, Aquino/Argentina, Balmeceda/Peru-Chile, Wanderley/ Brazil, Cable/CA, Martins/Brazil, Childs/CA, and Lopez/UT. In front: Elders Herrera/Chile and Solis/Chile

A Baptism, The Santiago Temple, and our Wonderful Zone

Cute little Bruno was baptized by his stepfather, Pedro.  As you can see, he was quite excited for this special event.

His mother, Miriam, is a very enthusiastic person.  His sister, Francisca, was also excited for him.

We always need to get a picture outside in front of the chapel!

We loved seeing and being able to attend the Santiago Temple. It's a small temple, situated on a very busy street.  Behind the temple are beautifully maintained grounds and a hostel where we were able to stay.

Our mission in Antofagasta is in the driest part in the world so we marveled at all of the beautiful greenery, flowers, grass...and so well groomed, as are all temple grounds.  The building behind all the greenery is the hostel where we stayed.

A beautiful night scene of the temple.

We had zone meeting this week so were able to take a picture of our great zone.  Please notice that the Argentines are sitting on the front row with us.  That was planned...by them!  

Front row:  Elders Silva/Argentina, Los Lawson/CO, Aquino/Argentina, Childs/CA

Middle row:  Elders Herrera/Chile, Solis/Chile, Wanderley/Brazil, Balmeceda/Peru-Chile, Lopez/UT, Mariscal/Bolivia, Modawell/MI, Martins/Brazil

Back row:  Sargent/UT, VanNetter/TX, Carpenter/CO, Barrington/UT, Medina/Paraguay, Cable/CA

This is quite the international group!

The Pacific Ocean, The Golf Course...again, La Portada, A Cemetery, the Tropic of Capricorn landmark, a Baptism, and our District

How's that for a title?  We drove down to Antofagasta last weekend for Doug to attend a Coordination Council meeting for all stake and district presidents in our mission, the mission presidency, and  led by the Area Seventy, Elder Gimenez, who's from Antofagasta.  As Doug's the 2nd counselor in the mission presidency, he was invited to attend.  We loved the drive down - our first since driving up here 3 months ago.  It still amazes us to drive along Route 1 with the Pacific Ocean on our right/west and the Atacama Desert on our left/east.

See all that white on top of the rock?  It's bird droppings.  As rain is a rarity among rarities, it just never gets washed off.  But isn't the ocean gorgeous?!!!

Our two-lane road, Route 1, with the Atacama Desert hills right next to the ocean.  So amazing!

Heading south we saw more of our little barren golf course so had to stop and take a few pix.  We've never seen anyone actually swinging a golf club but the course is there for their enjoyment.  And today in Iquique we found another golf course....brown just like this one (that's why we recognized it...)!

La Portada, meaning The Gateway, is a national monument and is located just north of Antofagasta.  The Daltons, our mission president, take the missionaries there the day they arrive and we wanted to go again to see it when we weren't so tired from our traveling from the states.

                                             You can see Antofagasta in the background.

                                               Now there's a very handsome young man!

                                             The panoramic view is so picturesque!

                                Out in the middle of nowhere we passed by this little cemetery.

Also just north of Antofagasta is this landmark, marking the Tropic of Capricorn, which is the southernmost latitude reached where the sun is directly overhead.  As we have the ocean to modify the heat and humidity, we don't suffer from a tropical heat. It's very fascinating for us to pass by this landmark. 

The Chileans love flying their flag near their homes.  We enjoyed seeing this little, remote pueblito with the very large flags of Chile.  Notice the dog?  There were about 4-5 of them and boy did we have a hard time getting away without hitting one of them!  They kept running in front of our car.  Fortunately, we didn't hit any of them!  Whew!!

        Sebastian was baptized earlier this month by Elder Modewell/MI.  He's a great new member!

The Sunday evening before transfers, the Rodriguez family had a little going away get together for Elder Anderson/ID who was transferred to Vallenar, a city in the southern part of the mission.  Our little district consisted of Elders VanNetter/TX, Herrera/Chile, Anderson/ID, and Balmeceda/Peru and Chile.  All great, hardworking missionaries!