Chile Trip Post 2 - Update on the People

Chilena = carinosa = kind/loving. One thing I learned on my mission about Chilenos is that they are some of the kindest and most loving people. They will give you food when they have none or their own bed to sleep in if you did not have one yourself. Our last Sunday in Chile, a woman I never met as a missionary sat next to us at church, shared her hymn book with Mandee and asked if we would like to eat at her house that afternoon. We did. She served a mission 20 years ago in Chile, so I think this pose must have been popular back then (she requested it).

This is the Batuco gang. My last area was Batuco. There are 2 main families here - the Roldan family and the Morales family. We helped reactivate the Roldans; a few are still going. It brough great joy to see them and catch up. The Morales family joined the church a few months before I arrived, but we visited them often. The dad found a Book of Mormon on a dumpster, picked it up, read it and desired to be baptized!

This is part of the Laundeta family. The mom and brother weren't home at the time, but we had some good laughs with the dad. He is a clown. Mom and Dad were inactive when we met them and the children had not been baptized. None of them are going to church now. It's hard to see people set something aside that means so much to you. I still have hope though.

This little lady is Iris Galves Bacho. I used to think her name was "Idis", but when I handed her her baptismal certificate she said, "That's not my name! My name is spelled with an "r"." I thought to myself, "Yes. Iris is a beautiful name and one I recognize. No wonder I had never heard of Idis." Anyway, Iris is an evangelical preacher now. It was wonderful to sit in her dinning room again and get to know her family better.

Daro, Daro, Daro... Well, needless to say, this visit was the must adventurous of all of them. My companion Elder Ramsay and I once prayed that people would find us instead of us finding them. Daro's mom stopped us in the street several days later to inform us her son wanted to be baptized. However, things were not what they once were at Daro's house. He remained faithful 2-3 years, but then his grandfather died, the most influential person in his life. He went off the deep end for the next 2-3 years. Sounds like he's starting to do better, but he's still involved with gangs. He hinted several times that he would like some money. We gave him none.