Visit to Concepcion and Concepcion South

The month of February flew by. I was as busy as in January. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened. Although, I do have to say, I never see a boring case. One missionary I saw every week for over eight months completed a successful mission and returned home. An accomplishment for all involved. In fact, the mission president and his wife took me out to dinner the following week.

On March 12 the Welch's and I flew to Concepcion to work with the missionaries in the Concepcion and Concepcion South missions for the week. The president in the Concepcion mission is Pres. Neal Humphrey and his wife Leslie. The Concepcion South president is Pres. Osvaldo Martinez and his wife Adrianna. They are the parents of children ages 11, 8, and 5. We spent two days in the Concepcion Mission and one in the South Mission. Since the Martinez speak little English and the Welchs and I speak little Spanish we were all challenged, especially when the five of us were traveling in one car from city to city, but we had some good conversation and got to know each other better. What a blessing it is to work with such dedicated people who love the Lord and love the missionaries. I did seven presentations and talked with many missionaries during the week.

It is such a small world. The Humphreys are from California, but have some real estate investments in Utah which happen to be with Knight-West, one of the companies my brother, Bill, is a partner in. Neil remembered meeting Bill.

Thursday afternoon we visited a fabric mill that makes some of the most beautiful fabric I have ever seen. It is custom made for high end companies around the world. Much of the fabric is wool and retails for hundreds of dollars a meter/yard. Your can buy mill ends that retail for $500 a meter for about $25 a meter.Some of the other fabric which would costs around $100/yard is sold at the mill for $6.

That part of Chile reminded me of Salmon, Idaho, mountains and a lot of trees. I am very impressed with the way the Chileans care for their forests. They have certain areas that are designated as native forests that are like national parks. Other large areas are designated for trees that are grown specifically for harvesting. They rotate the areas. They grow a pine and a eucalyptus tree that matures in seven years. As you drive through the forests you can see trees at varying stages of maturity as well as freshly cut and newly planted areas. To me that makes a lot more sense than all the fighting between the environmentalists and industry.

Tomorrow will begin a busy week of catching up with some of the missionaries I didn't see last week due to being out of the office. So, I had better get to bed.