It's Colton's Birthday!!

Dear Colton,

Happy 4^th Birthday!!

 Your birthday party looked like a super great time!!!  Greyson and Ellie were so happy to be there to help celebrate your birthday, and they really liked your party.  We loved the look on your face as you sat in front of your cake of the subway trains of NYC.  Your face shows that you know you are loved; and that you love and care for others!!   It was very nice of your family to have your cousins visit while your Aunt Angie and Uncle Darin and Gavin came to see us.  Thanks so much to Sadie and you and your Dad AND A BIG SHOUT OUT to your Mom for all her hard work with having 5 children to love and care for...

We saw that you were in NYC a few weeks ago.  Did you see any tugboats in NYC?

23rd Annual Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition

6 Sep 2015 on Pier 84

 We know you go to the beach in California, but do you ever make it to the Pier?

 The Delta Deanna Tugboat works in the San Francisco Bay area.  She is a hard worker.

So Colton, guess what?  Saturday morning we woke up and saw a big cruise ship in our port.  It is the first one this season. We watched a tugboat help bring it in though the ship had side-thrusters so it could move sideways.

Those tugboats are small, but they are very powerful – kind of like train engines.  

Do you remember in our city of Valparaíso that we have hills like those in San Francisco?

Valparaíso Cerros (hills)

San Francisco Hills

Our longtime friends, the Reynolds, were on that cruise ship from San Diego to here for 18 days.

They have served 4 missions:  two in China, one in Texas and one in Samoa.  Brother Reynolds also sang in the Tabernacle Choir and he was able to sing with the choir in Israel.  They brought us some presents from the United States.

We got to show them some cool things here, and we also showed them where we work (in the big cemetery).  Jim and Marianne went to church with us

Marianne, Jim and Bro. Munoz

 and then we put them on a bus to Santiago so they can fly home to the USA.  One thing they said in an email to us was:  “Dearest Faithful Missionaries for the Lord,

‘Elder & Sister’ is such a special greeting....our Samoa Mission President told us to honor that name...as there is only one time you use that title of ‘Elder’, on your Mission as a young man/woman or on your Mission as a Senior Missionary or as a General Authority.  So with just a short time more for your mission in Chile....we shall greet you this way.”

Hey, Colton, do you know how we know YOU are already being a missionary?

We know because your Mom said, “A little shout out to my Colty – he is the best errand buddy around.  He never complains about being dragged anywhere and just rolls with the punches…. Today we walked into the lab [blood test for Hunter] and he sat right down, pulled the New Yorker off the table and started ‘reading’ it out loud until it was time to go.  Then when we headed out of the elevator in the parking garage he turned back to the elevator and said, ‘Bye ewevatow!  Have a nice day! Hope youw doows cwose!’….”  Your Mom said that you are “a best brother” and have love and concern for others –

We know you are already being a missionary:

Because you can ride a bike –

Because you help others –

Because you work hard –

Do you know this song?

I want to be a missionary now.

I don't want to wait until I'm grown.

I want to share the gospel while I'm young,

For I have a testimony of my own.

 I want to tell my friends about our church

And the happiness it brings to me.

I'll tell them how the gospel was restored,

Tell them how the Book of Mormon came to be.

Then I can be a missionary now.

I don't have to wait until I'm grown.

I'll live each day the best that I know how,

And they'll see I have a testimony of my own,

A testimony of my very own.

On Saturday, we and the Reynolds went to the church for a surprise “Welcome Home Party” that the ward threw for an Elder recently returned from the Argentina Córdova  Mission.  They served  ‘Completos’.

Cesar “Returned with Honor” from the Argentina Córdova Mission.  We told him that your Mom also served at the top of Argentina where it was very hot

and that your Dad served down to lowest point of Argentina where it was very cold.

Set apart as a missionary in 2003

Elder Gibson "Returned with Honor" in 2005

Colton and his Dad 

 We love to read the weekly emails of Elder Heflin and Sister Stringfellow and Hermana Stringfellow.  They are being good missionaries.

We are also trying to be good helpers, hard workers and care about others –

so we can be good missionaries too, and “Return with Honor.”

 

Visit from Bishops

15 November 2015                                                                Valparaíso, Chile

Dear Dad,                                         

Sorry to miss writing you last week, but we were “on vacation”.  We took a much-needed break to be with Angie and Darin and Gavin (9 yr).  Loved every minute of our time with them.  Here is a brief account of our adventures:

-Sun:  Just after our 10 am Sacrament Meeting we caught a bus to Santiago and met the Bishops at their hotel where they were resting after being “on the road” for 21 hours – including flying to San Francisco to drop off their two youngest, Ellie and Greyson with Brett and Kristi-Lynn.

-Mon:  Took the Metro to city center to see La Moneda, Plaza de Armas, etc.

Found all the museums to be closed on Mondays.  We enjoyed riding the Santiago Metro and used our bip card again.

Darin had previously booked a private, English-speaking tour of the city, including San Cristóbal Hill and parts below.

We found out that Santiago’s “tallest building in South America” has been unoccupied since it was completed 2 or 3 years ago (awaiting street upgrades to accommodate the 3,000 people who are expected to work there…), but it is a very impressive addition to the Sanhattan (Santiago—Manhattan) financial district.

-Tues:  AM bus trip to Valpo – where we were “greeted” with a drawn-out protest by the local fishermen who were marching/blocking the two main streets of town.  That PM spent in Viña del Mar and a bus ride up the coast 6 or 7 miles to Concón. Enjoyed the blue water, white waves and foam from water dashing upon the rocks.  Walked the Viña boardwalk. Home very tired, but happy with the day.

-Wed:  Sights and sounds (and hills) of Valpo.

Two highlights were a tour of Pablo Neruda’s Valpo house, “La Sebastiana” (he was a Chilean who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971).  He furnished it from antique shops and acquisitions from around the world in the 60’s, and it was strange to realize how “old” the 60’s seemed to Carol and me.  Highlight #2 was a “tour” of Valpo history – all set in a restored house built by the guy who later founded Viña.

-Thurs:  AM tours of Cementerio 1 and Playa Ancha to show our work environs.  The Bishops thought the lunchroom looked pretty interesting, but we couldn’t stay for lunch.  Barely had time to see Sea Lion Rock (we actually saw a big one “jump” 4-5 feet and drag itself onto the old concrete pier “rock”.

Then in early PM we put them onto a bus to the airport – headed for four days on Easter Island.  Those guys know how to vacation!

We took a last trip in to Santiago to meet Darin, Angie and Gavin after they returned from Easter Island and toured two museums, ate a typical corn pie and went to a beautiful bldg that now is a fish market and then to see the workshops of artisans at Los Dominicos....

Happy Birthday, Patricia

Dear Patty,

FORTY?  When did that happen??  Let’s see, if you are 40, then that would make us, …!!  Oh well, we won’t go there!  It is a beautiful night here in Chile, but we are missing family tonight as we think of your birthday tomorrow.  We love you, Patty!!!

  

You are a sweetheart and have the kindest heart and the bluest of eyes.  We are thinking of little Hunter who we haven’t hugged yet, and the missing of events –

most recently of Aaron’s baptism.  But it is all OK.  We’ll be home before we know it!  And in the meantime, please have a super birthday celebration.  Thanks for your good life.  Thanks for your example.  Thanks!  We love you.

We look forward to seeing the Bishops – at least three of them in less than a week.  Recently, it was especially fun to see the pictures taken of the reunion in St. George.  That hike at Zion National Park was quite a tough looking one – somewhat of a “type” of  this mortal life….

 

Here are some quotes from President Uchtdorf’s talk:

The Gospel is Simple!!!

Exaltation is our goal; discipleship is our journey.

As you exercise a little faith and begin your walk

as a peaceable follower of our Lord Jesus Christ,

your heart will change.

 

 Your whole being will be filled with light.

 Matthew 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

God will help you become something greater than you ever thought possible.

And you will discover that the gospel of Jesus Christ

is indeed working in your life.

  

It works.

… our Heavenly Father sees us as who we truly are and who we can become.

He sees us as His sons and daughters, as beings of eternal light with everlasting potential and with a divine destiny.”

“It Works Wonderfully!”, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, General Conference October 2015

A few quotes from Elder Clark’s talk:

Whatever level of spirituality or faith or obedience we now have, it will not be sufficient for the work that lies ahead.

We need greater spiritual light and power. We need eyes to see more clearly the Savior working in our lives and ears to hear His voice more deeply in our hearts....

We do not have to be perfect,

but we need to be good and getting better....

“Eyes to See and Ears to Hear”, Elder Kim B. Clark, Of the Seventy, General Conference October 2015

And what you already know AND do,  from Elder Scott:
If you want your children to recognize, understand, and act on the promptings of the Spirit, you must study the scriptures with them.

"Make the Exercise of Faith Your First Priority", Elder Richard G. Scott, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles General Conference October 2015.