Elder and Sister Smith November 24th

Ken and Colleen Smith	Nov 24 (1 day ago)
to 1aKen, 2aKenneth, 2Danielle, 3aDennis, 3Shawna, 4aRichard, 4Tanya, 5aWarren, 5Marsha, 6aJohn, 7Natasha, 8aMatthew, 8Debbie, McKenna, 2James, 3aJim, 4Del, 5aTerry, 5Becky, 6aGlenn, 6Connie, 7aPaul, 8aDell, George, 1Cherri

Dear Family and Friends,             24 de noviembre de 2013

We would like to thank each of you personally for your prayers on our behalf and let you know that they are effective and are much appreciated on our part.  The week has flown by and we have had some beautiful days and some not so beautiful days.  The weather has been in the mid 70s and we have enjoyed it a lot. Most mornings are cloudy, as typically coastal areas are, but then, usually, it clears up to a clear beautiful day. We have to thank the Lord for blessing us with this experience every morning.

The work at the cemetery is progressing at the pace of about three books a day.  These books are very difficult to do because there are different size within each book.  When I say book, you probably visualize in your mind a book that you take off the shelf – such as a novel and read. The pages are all of uniform size and makes for easy turning the pages.  Well, the books we are imaging are pages of different sized paper sent to a binder to be made into a book. So you have letter sized pages, legal sized pages, half pages, third pages, etc.  So it’s a challenge and normally takes us anywhere from2 to 2 ½ hours to do one book.  The average image count per book would be around 380 to 450.  The largest book we’ve done so far had over 600 images.

We had a visit from the Mission President and his wife last Wednesday.  They had come to see what it was that we are doing. In reality, he hasn’t had a clue as to what we do because he’s never had Record’s Preservation Missionaries before. We took them step by step through the process, focusing, white board (balancing of light), Gray scale, etc (which doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, but basically is the calibration of the camera prior to begin imaging). Then we began to do the imaging slowly so they could see the process.  I think it was very highly educational for the President.  He asked how much time we spent each day doing this and I replied 8 hours Monday through Friday.  I think it was also an eye opener for him.  Sister Kähnlein took lots of pictures and will put them in the Mission blog (misionvinadelmar.blogspot.com). It was a good visit and I think the President has a better appreciation for what we are doing.

We’ve had a couple of interesting experiences this week.  A couple of weeks ago we met Julio while we were walking up to the cemetery.  We had tried to contact him to set up a time to visit with him, but he wasn’t home the day we went. We tried calling, but our phone said we weren’t authorized to make that call.  So Tuesday as we were walking to the cemetery, we run across Julio again.  He was talking to his friend Antonio and asked us why we hadn’t come by.  So I explained that we had tried knocking and ringing the bell but that he wasn’t home.  He said that he had been really busy and that this week wouldn’t be good but to call next week.  So we will try again.  He’s a very likeable individual and so it will be fun talking to him and explaining a little about the church.

The other experience I will relate happened yesterday when we went to Lider (supermarket) to get our weekly food trough full.  As we were walking down the “egg” aisle, a young lady dress in full western regalia noticed our name tags and began talking to us.  She was enchanted with the missionaries she had seen in her town of Quilpué, dressed in their white shirts, ties, clean shaven and short hair and had been duly impressed.  We talked about how she had never known that the Messiah was actually Jesus Christ and how she had felt good in her heart when she learned that.  I told her that it was the Holy Ghost that was testifying to her of this truth.  We also talked about where she came from (before her mortal existence), what is her purpose for being on this earth, and what happens to us when we die.  I told that these things were explained in a book that God had given us that answered these type of questions. I explained that we had a prophet that receives inspiration and revelation from God directly so that he in turn can pass God’s will is concerning us. I explained that I if she would give me her name, address and phone number, I would have two missionaries come to her home and explain all of this. It was an interesting experience and only goes to prove that the Lord puts us into situations so that we can share the gospel. I’ll be interested to here from the missionaries how Vielka received the message.

Well this is a short one.  I just wanted to share those experiences with each of you.  I want all of you to know that the Church is true, that we have a living prophet that guides and directs the affairs of the Lord’s kingdom here on the earth. We are grateful and blessed for the opportunity that we have to be on this mission and be in Viña del Mar.  The country is great, the people are wonderful and we enjoy both. Besides, I have the best looking companion in the mission.  She is doing great with the language and is improving every day.  She’s even saying her prayers in Spanish.  I understand her and the Lord understands her and that’s all that counts. Soon she’ll begin to understand more than me and that’s a scary thought.

Happy Birthday to Lexi.  You can expect a call from your grandmother tomorrow. To the rest, hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving and all the fixin’s that go with it.  Enjoy each other’s company and enjoy your friends and families. May the Lord bless you and keep you safe.  Love y un abrazo a todos.

Elder y Hermana Smith

P.S

Here is my little wonderful experience.  We went to the Farria and Lider with the Daniels and Sister Hugie.  They did not have some of the things I needed at Lider for some of the things I want to fix for dinner this week.  You cannot find canned soup here.  Most of my recipes call for either cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup.  We were told that sometimes you can find them at Jumbo.  (They did not have them this time.) So when we got back from our shopping I asked Dad if we could go to Jumbo.  We decided to walk.  There is a sporting complex just down from us and you can walk through it without cost, but to drive through it cost money.  It is a large complex and we usually go around.  We decided to go across the complex.  It was a beautiful walk actually.  There were many soccer games going on.  On our way over to Jumbo it looked like teenagers playing.  When we came back it looked like older men playing.  Anyway, we walked out the other gate and then went though some subdivisions.  It was beautiful and we saw some new flowers and the homes looked like they were more expensive and mostly very well kept.  It was a nicer neighborhood.  We were away from the main traffic and it was peaceful and much quieter.  It did not seem to take as long going this way and we walked both ways.  We did stop and watch the older men’s game for a few minutes.  It was a nice peaceful afternoon and very relaxing.  It was my favorite time yesterday. 

I guess that Chile has fireworks for New Years.  We have been invited to the Daniels to celebrate New Year’s and watch the Fire Works.  They have a wonderful view and they will be moving into a new apartment by the 1^st and that apartment has an even better view.  We hope that they are in the new one but they both will have great views.  They live right across from the beach.  We look forward to celebrating with them. 

We love you all and appreciate all that you doing for us.  We know that the Lord is blessing us here in Viña del Mar.

Take care and may the Lord bless you with all that you need.  Love Mom