A party was in town with it being Chile’s Independence Day celebration this last week. Since it’s impossible to do normal missionary work when the world is celebrating with barbecues, parades, etc., we went and enjoyed ourselves a bit at some of the member’s homes. We played the board game the Settlers of Catan with a few members and ate an unusually large amount of barbecued meat. VIVA CHILE!
Saturday we had an all day activity at the church where we enjoyed MORE meat and traditional Chilean dances. It was fun to see some real Chilean culture.
On another note, I was talking to a member about how her family history work is going, and she shared with me a very powerful story about her grandmother.
She had been searching for information about her grandma for years with no luck. One day, to fix her broken glasses, she went to an optometrist and was looking at the photos on the walls while she waited. One picture caught her attention because it looked very familiar. She asked the doctor if he knew about anyone with a such and such last name and he said yes.
His store was a family business for many years and once there was an immigrant lady who worked there and became practically a part of their family. The member broke down in tears because the only thing she knew of her grandmother was that she immigrated to Chile. With more investigation she was able to find this lost branch of her family tree. She said as she typed in her new family information on the computer to start their temple work, she felt a group of people standing behind her so strongly that she felt like she was being pressed into her computer. She had a very clear impression there were many family members waiting for her to begin for them the sacred work we do in the temples, a work that we believe gives everyone the opportunity to accept or not to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I was strongly touched by her story and sad I didn’t do more family history work before I left on my mission.
Have a great week!
Elder Phillips
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| Happy Birthday Chile! |
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| Viva Chile! |
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| This I Have Seen Before :) |
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| Barbeque! |
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