We have reached the halfway mark in our mission service. We can hardly believe a year has passed. We are finding great joy in our service and feel an urgency to accomplish all that we were sent here to do before our mission ends next June. As our mission Presidents wife Sister Bohn always says, “Adalante Santiago Este!”
FOURTH OF JULY FESTIVITIES
After a Monday in the office, we joined the US senior missionaries from the Santiago North Mission for an Independence Day dinner. Lindquist’s and Ruiz were also invited. The North Mission office is always so kind to include us in their celebrations. We love President & Hermana Simpson, Hermana Mendez, Elder y Hermana Cook, Elder y Hermana Grange, and Elder y Hermana Esmiol.
FANCY BREAD
A sweet Peruvian sister, Virginia, in our ward has a baking business and gave us a delicious loaf of ham & cheese bread filled with olives and raisins. Delicious combination!
FUNNY STREET JUGGLER
Never a dull moment at a red light in Chile
FULFILLING CONCEPCION CEREMONY
We had a 4:00 am wake-up call on Wednesday morning for an early fight to Concepcion where we enjoyed a ceremony for the CESFAM O’Higgins project. This municipal family health center has more than 35,000 attributed lives in the city of Concepción as well as supports the neighboring rural community of Chaimavida which serves 10,000 people. A large percentage are immigrants. The introduction of immigrants into the health system dilutes the funds to care for their assigned population.
As a result of expending so many resources on COVID-19 issues, they did not have money in their budget for the requested equipment: fetal heartbeat monitors, pediatric scales and blood pressure cuffs, a dental chair, and other dental equipment. They are required by law to send out dental handpieces to be sterilized with a turnaround time of 24 hours. The small number of handpieces they had limited their ability to maximize the number of patients they can see. The new dental chair and handpieces allow the dentists to take care of 90 additional patients each week.
Five midwives see a total of 300 women each week. Before the donation of fetal heartbeat monitors, nurses were using a pinard horn to examine expectant mothers.
We braved the rain, wind, and hail and enjoyed lunch at our favorite restaurant before we flew back to Santiago.
FABULOUS SUNSET
Love a good sunset view from above the clouds.
FOOD & FRIENDS
We always enjoy our Friday night dates and Sunday dinners with Elder y Hermana Lindquist.
As we reach the halfway point of our mission we reflect on the passage of time. In some ways, the year has flown by. In some ways, the days pass slowly as we long to be with our children and grandchildren. Neal A Maxwell once said, “Time is clearly not our natural dimension. Thus, it is that we are never really at home in time. Alternately, we find ourselves wishing to hasten the passage of time or to hold back the dawn. We can do neither, of course, but whereas the fish is at home in water, we are clearly not at home in time- because we belong to eternity.”
Abrazos, Élder y Hermana Lamb, (aka Ed & Debbie, Mom & Dad, Pop Pop & Tu Tu)
Lambs in Central Europe 