TWO OF EACH

TWO VISITS

We started our week with a visit to the mayor’s office in Vina Del Mar. The mayor and her staff are working hard on many projects to benefit their community. The project we met to discuss was rebuilding homes after the December fire. Local church leaders attended with us and volunteered members from their congregations to help in any way possible.

It is forest fire season in Chile, and we have had Zoom calls this week with local government and church leaders in the middle part of the country where the fires rage, to see how the church might be of help.

On Tuesday we flew 400 miles south to Temuco. We met with foundation leaders that have a home for the elderly. Their dream is to relocate these elders to a property they own in the country and use the city home as a place where women from rural areas can stay when they have family members in the hospital. A Ronald McDonald House concept. We await both solicitudes.

TWO ENJOYABLE MEALS

While in Temuco we had lunch with Elder and Hermana Thurston. His brother and wife live in our ward in Utah. What a small world!

Alex and Shelley Hawks invited the Lindquists and us to dinner at their home on Friday night. We appreciate their friendship and kindness. Alex works in the U.S. Embassy here.

TWO PFJ’S

The main reason we flew to Temuco was to attend another PFJ session. Elder and Hermana Salgado were our traveling companions. This session was held in a school in Traiguen, about an hour outside Temuco.

Here the marvelous youth in the Concepcion South Mission assembled 500 school kits.

While there we held a small ceremony because the week before the young adults (ages 18-30) from our church had their conference at the same place. For their service project, they painted student dorms at this boarding school. Our church provided paint for this project.

In the past the humanitarian missionaries have only facilitated the service projects for the PFJ sessions held at the camp close to Santiago- that’s six sessions. We felt that the four other locations (Antofagasta, Osorno, Concepcion, and Concepcion Sur) also should have the opportunity so we included them this year. It has made our schedule a bit crazy during the last couple of weeks, but it has been well worth the extra effort to include all the youth in Chile.

On Friday we were back in Casablanca with the Lindquists and Acevedos as our helpers.

The remarkable youth in the Vina Del Mar Mission assembled 700 school kits.

We gathered outside after the project for a drone picture. We wish you could have heard the youth singing “Traeremos al Mundo se Verdad” (We’ll Bring the World His Truth) It was a special moment we will always hold dear in our hearts.

Impromptu Cueca (Chilean Folk Dance)

Truck loaded with a type of local beans on our drive back to Santiago

We send our love from Chile!

Abrazos, Élder y Hermana Lamb, (aka Ed & Debbie, Mom & Dad, Pop Pop & Tu Tu)