Elder and Sister Smith

Dear Family and Friends,                   14 December 2013
            I’ve attached 5 things for your enjoyment and also to justify the shortness of this letter.  Four pictures, a sunset on the 9^th of December, Colleen studying Spanish with her Christmas tree, a picture taken at a museum of scorpions of Chile, and a Moai stone head (one of two in all of Chile of the extinct Rapa Nui culture). The other attachment is our Christmas letter in PDF format so that we could include pictures and keep the KBs down to a manageable number. Hope that you enjoy all of them.
            This Friday last we celebrated our 4^th month anniversary of being in Chile.  We celebrated by working at the cemetery and imaging four more books.  That will bring us to about 70,000 images since we been doing this work. We are enjoying the work and it is starting to get a little warm in our little “office” especially around three o’clock. But so far, it’s been tolerable and not too bad. It really feels good to walk home in the afternoon especially when there’s a slight breeze off of the ocean.
            Today we went to the Museum Funk. It is a natural history museum and has, as I mentioned above, one of two Moai Headstone Statues from the extinct Rapa Nui culture. The other one up north in La Serena is about 30 feet tall. The museum also has some very interesting artifacts, some dating back before Christ. There was also one mummified man that was found up in the Antofagasta area, which is one of the driest areas on the earth if not the driest. We could have spent a whole lot of time in the museum because there are some many displays and a little description about what you were looking at. Upstairs, they have a pretty extensive “bug” display.  Shows some of the many bugs (insects) of Chile and also some taxidermy animals/birds of the area. 

            After we came back to the apartment, I worked a little on a power point for a Family History presentation I’m putting together, using myself and by predecessors as the focal point.  It’s been an education for me and educational. For example, I wasn’t aware that my Mother’s Mother was born in 1885 and that she died when she was just 37. Anyway, it’s been fun to do the animation, transition, and timing with the various slides.  I’m trying to make them interesting so that if and when I do a Family History

presentation, it won’t be just a boring lecture.
            Well I guess that is all for this week.  Hope all have a wonder time leading up to Christmas. Again, we want each of you to know that we do appreciate your prayers on our behalf.  Thank You. Love and abrazos a todos.
Elder and Sister Smith, Grandpa & Grandma, Dad & Mom, Uncle & Aunt, etc