We had lunch with Dante and Viviana and her daughter Brenda and Nahuel. Delicious!!

Wilson (Wilsito) Castillo leaves this week for his mission. He'll start in the Santiago West Mission then once his visa arrives will serve in the Utah Provo Mission, Spanish speaking. He'll do great!

                 Alejandra, Wilsito's mother, is wonderful. They were recently sealed in the temple.

                                   All these darling girls are in their branch in Pozo Almonte.

The branch president, President Martinez, with his daughter, a blind sister, his wife Marian in pink, and Yubiza next to Wilsito.

More pictures of unique things in this region of Chile

We went back to the beach/ocean south of Iquique a few weeks ago to spend more time at the ocean.

Victor and Taciani stayed down at the beach all summer. Victor got tired of people leaving used diapers and cigarette butts so he put up this sign. It says: cigarette butts and diapers are also trash. In your house, where do you leave them? After that he said no one left their trash around.

                                      They stayed this close to the ocean - so magnificent!!

                        I love the rocky parts of the ocean and all the creatures that exist there!

As we drove further south we came upon another golf course. 

Our branch president, President Efrain Quispe, gave us a pen from his company. See that little hole at the top? It has a seed in it! So when we're through using the pen, we're to plant the pen and grow something. We'll have to do that when we return!

Last week we traveled north to Arica, 185 miles north of Alto Hospicio. We stopped to see this geoglyph outside the city. Due to their very dry climate, they last for centuries.

This meal is called pischanga. It has french fries on the bottom then is covered with hot dogs, chicken, veggies including an avocado. We skipped the beef (too tough) and the fried egg wasn't on top this time. Doug wanted to go again so he could get a picture of it. The little white spoons have various sauces you can add to it. The white ones are a mayonnaise base, the green is chimicurri (Argentine), and the red is tomato based. This sandwicheria is owned by Ramon and Isolina of the La Pampa Branch and we go there from time to time. Normally we just get a small chicken sandwich (kid's size).

Our Wonderful Zone - The Best in the Antofagasta Mission!!

Front row:  Elders Aleluya/Bolivia, Lloclle/Peru, Pezo/Peru, Faúndez/Chile, Rincon/Columbia, Duke/CA, Whibley/Canada, the Lawsons/CO
Back row: Elders Fernandez/Peru, Herrera/Columbia-Chile, Shill/FL, Mendoza/Mexico, Melim/Brazil, Christensen/UT, Francis/UT, Oakey/ID, Childs/KS, Burnthorn/TX
Way back: Elder Chang/Chile

Branch Luau, a little farewell, a wedding, a missionary send off, a talent show, and more Pacific ocean views

Our branch had a Luau in January for adults only. As no one has babysitters, the children were invited to watch movies with the Young Men and Young Women in another room. We had Hawaiian-type food and they had pizza.
Jennifer Coronado and Leo Reinoso with their children Elizabeth and Camila.

Alejandra and Jonny Catalan

Carolina Maya and Gabriel Gonzalez just before they moved down south to the Concepción area.

                    The wedding of Carlos Soto and Pilar Unión. She was baptized the next day.

                                     The food at these receptions are always so pretty.

Miriam Tapia, Jessica Barraza, and Mitzy Sepulveda. Miriam served a mission in Honduras and Mitzy served in Paraguay. Jessica is now serving in Argentina.

   Our last Sunday with Jessica before she left on her mission.

Dancing the Chilean Cueca - Andy Campusano with her son.

At a beach south of Iquique

Christmas in Chile

Christmas is a big celebration in Chile. Many, many homes are decorated - inside and outside, most homes have artificial Christmas trees (no place to grow real ones in the desert), and nativity scenes are common in the cities.

This is our next door neighbor's home.

This is in within our condominium community & they were about the first to put up their tree...outside.

At this mall in Iquique they have this beautiful display for the children to visit Santa. The tree is two stories tall, and the area is so festive for the children.

                                   Even we had our little tree to enjoy throughout the season!

                                                         Our stockings hung with care!

This is at another mall - there are 2 in Iquique. Another large tree, a place for Santa, and a mailbox for the letters to Santa.

Over by the food court in one mall we discovered this little nativity/Bethlehem scene and loved it!

     Off in a corner was the nativity scene. You can see the camels/wise men working their way down.

                                       Some of the youth and young adults in the Los Aromos Branch.

    Elders Acosta/Peru, Palpa/Peru, and Adams/UT were the live wise men in their nativity program.

One very fun tradition that happens only in Iquique and Alto Hospicio is where the big businesses travel throughout the city throwing candy to the children. They go to their employee's homes and take gifts to those children. We had several entourages come down our little alley-way street. They were still coming as late as 11 pm!

The main vehicle - sort of like a float in a parade - comes first and is decorated with a theme. This one was a Star Wars theme. Many cars follow...honking (so fun at 11 pm)...their cars are decorated or at least have Feliz Navidad painted on the windows...and enjoying being part of the party! Sometimes there was an additional float-type vehicle behind the main one that had several people on the float in costumes and they'd be the ones throwing candy to the children. The elders told us they, too, had candy thrown to them. They'd yell "Misioneros" and toss them candy.  'Tis the season!

                                            Christmas decorations in Pozo Almonte.

                           We loved their lights down the middle of the main road through town.

These lights & decorations were at the roundabout we always use when going to Iquique each week.

We spent Christmas Eve with Rene and Silmara Lopez and their sons, Joao and Vini (3 months old and sleeping). The turkey was delicious and we enjoyed many different foods from Brazil as that's where Silmara is from. Yum!!

                               Several apartments were decorated as well and it was fun to see!

Finally, Alto Hospicio has quite the lights! We loved driving past them throughout the season!!

Of course, they, too, had a beautiful nativity scene. While Santa and elves were popular decorations, it was so wonderful to see a nativity scene in every city and town!

On Christmas Day we had the zone over, in groups, for pulled pork sandwiches, chips, watermelon, and cookies. This is one of the groups.

 Elders Jara/Chile, Reyes/Nicaragua, Pezo/Peru, Masariegos/Guatemala, Ercanbrack/UT, Shill/FL.

 Elders Duke/CA and Barrington/UT spent a little time relaxing before leaving for an appointment.