July 31, 2022 We are about half done here.

Our good friends and co workers the Esmiols finished their mission and went home. We cleaned out their apartment to remodel it.  Now we need to clean out our apartment.  

This is our local junk collector. He lives halfway between our apartment and the office. He has a tricycle cart and two dogs. He will come to the office and pick up anything resell able or recyclable.  We take him food scraps for his dogs.  Last time we did he said his dogs were fat and he is skinny hinting that we should bring him food.  He is skinny.  Some times we see his dogs riding in the cart and he is pedaling. He seems like a sweet guy 

We just rented this brand new apartment for young missionaries.  It is small probably 40 sq meters. Two bedrooms, washer in the bathroom.  It is just right for missionaries. Easy to clean, enough room, secure. 

Jackie and I took the subway to Los Dominicos.  It is a small cultural arts shopping area. Many things are made there.  She is ordering some carvings of Mary and Joseph similar to these. 

There is a man that makes musical instruments as well.  

I have wanted to document all the different makes of cars here. They are from India, China, Korea, Europe, US. Many makes that I haven't seen before.  I was walking home on a nice day and started taking pictures of the cars parked along the road. One of the car owners came up to me and was very concerned about why I was taking pictures of cars and their license plates.  I tried it again in a store parking lot and had the security guard come and ask me the same question.  I think I won't pursue it any further. 

Here is the apartment being renovated.  It is identical to the apartment that we are in. The big opening in the wall is new.  It joins the living room to the kitchen.  Previously you would enter the long skinny kitchen from a door on the left end. They will close up the door.  It will make the kitchen much nicer to be in.  

We went to Colina to buy some cabinets.  The cabinets weren't done but the cabinet maker had 8 new puppies. We didn't get puppies either. 

Today was warm and we took a nice walk in the park.  We sat and enjoyed the sun a while. We had some 70 degree weather last week.  Pretty good for the middle of winter. 

Jackie is busy with the apartment renovation, renting new apartments, and rewriting expired contracts for apartment.  I spend a lot of time furnishing apartments and making repairs.  We had a lot of electrical problems during the cold weather.  The missionaries use electric heaters.  The apartments aren't built to be heated so the heaters only heat the missionaries when they are sitting by the heater in a chair.  The missionaries try to heat the apartment and dry their clothes with the heaters and the electrical system can't handle it.  

We had a good time at church today. Lots of happy people, good talks, and sacrament. 

 

It has been two weeks since we posted.  

I did a Grange pruning job on this fig tree. It hadn't been pruned for a long time and one of the two main branches were dead.  I promised that it would be looking healthy in a year.  She said she would hunt me down.  

We piled the branches and other stuff in the driveway. 

We had to drag all the branches and trash through her house to the driveway in the front.

I went to see this missionary apartment in the rain.  The rain that hits the front step runs inside so they put up a couple of shower curtains to keep it out.  It has rained for several weeks. We are excited to see it as it hasn't really rained in a year. 

We just refurbished the apartment of these two elders and I hung the mirror back up in the bath room.  When I took the mirror down there was a picture of Emma Smith behind it. 

Last Saturday we got a call that the power was out in an apartment so I went to fix it. It was very wet. I replaced a breaker in the house and it still didn't work. Finally I found a short in a junction box and pulled the wires apart and the lights worked. 

This is the box with the short. 

My niece Michelle Dray and her son Payton came to visit this week.  He served his mission here in 2019. They came to visit people he knows here.  It was fun see him meet his old friends and introduce his mom. This is on the way from the airport to Curacavi where we were setting up a missionary apartment. 

This is Michelle cleaning the apartment.  It is an A frame and she saw a big birds nest in the peak.  She and Jackie worked hard to get it down and cleaned up

On the way back from Curacavi we stopped in San Francisco to visit Nora.  She is a landlord of 2 of our apartments.  Jackie bonded with her when we first arrived.  Peyton lived here for a while and she knitted a sweater for Michelle.  She is 80 years old and spunky and loves missionaries. 

There is a good fast food place next to this missionary apartment.  We were close by so we stopped for Payton to buy a completo(fancy hotdog).  I delivered a clothes drying rack.  The electricity had been out in this apartment for several days.  I didn't even open the door but left the rack by the door.  On the way back to the car I remembered the power was out.  I went to the meter on the left of the window and flipped the breaker and I saw a light come on inside.  I was proud of my electrical skills.  We told the sisters to do the same thing.  

We went to Lampa on Friday night to check out some missionary apartments.  Payton had some friends there.  This is the road to their house.  It was wall to wall water in several places.  They all have tall brick fences around their property.  

This is the kitchen in Paytons friends house.  It was large and open.  They had a wood stove and had it fired up.  We really liked it.  Most buildings aren't heated and we freeze. Church buildings are marginally heated. I wear 3-4 layers of clothing. 

This is Paytons friend starting to BBQ a nice roast.  It was about 10 PM. We said we can't stay until it was cooked.  We were an hour from home and it looked like it would take an hour or more to cook it. We had some good ribs and grilled sandwiches with them before we left. 

Today we went with them to another friends house for lunch. She is a good cook and loves Elvis. 

There is a sister missionary here that we thought looks and acts like Michelle. She is serving in the ward we attended today so we got a picture of them together. 

This is the lady that cooked the good lunch and her son. 

This is the sunset we saw tonight as we left our building. 

This is the fire we saw tonight as we got to the road outside the apartment. It looks like several homes burned up completely.  These are cheap homes up on the hillside where the roads don't go.These cheap homes seem impossible to stop from burning once they start.  The firemen do a good job of keeping other homes from catching fire. 

Time here goes fast. We are renting new apartments, refurbishing old apartments, looking for more apartments.  Jackie spends a lot of time writing up rental contracts and seeing that rent is increased per the contract and seeing that utility bills are paid.  

We are sending home about 16 missionaries tomorrow. I am amazed at their maturity after 18-24 months here.  Contacting people and sharing their beliefs with them.  Living in place where they may not speack the language well, they get robbed, they live in dark cold apartments.  They spend 24/7 with a companion.  I have hope for the future when I think of them being our future leaders.  

 

July 3, 2022

 Looks like we missed last week.  Lots of pictures to post. 

The backyard of the Lo Marcoleta apartment was overgrown. You couldn't see the white and orange gas bottle on the left.  I did a real Grange prune job. See the next picture.  Stuff grows back fast.  The tree on the left is a nice lime tree. 

Gigi and Sister Roberts are dress twins.  The dress came from Tootie. 

This is a new missionary place in Curacavi.  Its a nice A frame out of town a ways. We were lucky to find a place there.  

Jackie and I got some Chilean sports clothing for my birthday. 

This is a tall elder in a short apartment.  He hasn't had a concussion or complained yet. 

We had lunch at Cecelia's last Sunday.  She is Gigi's artist friend(if you can't tell)

Freemans gave their mission farewell talks last week.  We zoomed in.  They were good speakers and will be great missionaries. 

Gigi and Cecelia went on a bike ride. 

We went to the temple with Cecelia. 

We met Ross and Sachico for lunch after the temple.  

We bought Chinese take away for the second time at the corner restaurant. It looks scarier than the picture shows.  The food hasn't made us sick yet.

We loaded up a washer, fridge and other stuff for the new place in Curacavi.  Curacavi is half way to Valparasio on the coast so we spent the rest of the day there.  

It was a clear but cold day.

The houses and many other buildings are made from old shippping container metal. I am not sure who the photo bomber is .

This is the sunset tonight from our apartment building.