Another Mission visited and progress with the apartment

The middle of March seems like yesterday and yet ages ago. As predicted, I was very busy with appointments through the end of the month and into April. General Conference was wonderful and seemed to have a calming, reassuring effect on most missionaries. However, some of those who were really overwhelmed seemed to come to the end of their endurance and in the past six weeks there have been four elders and two hermanas who have returned home early due to mental health concerns. Because the usual rate is one missionary every one to two months, the number is extraordinary. One mission president's wife jokingly told me she thought I had decided I needed a break, but the only way I could do that was to send everyone home. Today there is another elder in crisis. He will travel about six hours by bus to see me tomorrow. Hopefully, we can figure out a way to stabilize him so he can stay in the mission field, but given his symptoms, that doesn't seem likely. It is a sad situation in many ways when missionaries need to go home for mental health reasons. However, it would not be right to keep them the field and have them continue to decompensate.

Dr. and Sister Welch and I spend April 18, 19, 20, & 24 doing presentations and giving flu shots at zone conferences in the Rancagua Mission. Jim MacArthur is the mission president. So, it was fun to be with him and his wife. Our travel to that mission was different than usual. Two of the zone conferences were only a forty-five minute drive from the area offices. One was 1 1/2 hrs away and the other 2 hrs away. It was a bit expensive, but less than motel rooms, so we had a driver take us back and forth each day.

That area is known as the fruit basket of Chile. There are many beautiful orchards and vineyards. The fruit stands along the freeway are so picturesque they look like a painting. We saw many large packing houses from which the fruit is shipped all over the world.

It is fall here and the weather is quickly turning cold. The outside temperature is in the low 70s or 60s during the day which is nice. As I have mentioned, because many of the buildings are made of cement and have no insulation, the temperature inside is often 10degrees lower than outside. Last winter the only heat I had in this apartment was a little electric heater that only warmed my bedroom if I had the door close. Well, this winter I am hoping for a better quality of life :) A man in the temporal affairs office negotiated with the landlord to let the church arrange to fix the windows to shut tight and install a gas wall heater in the living room. They also replaced the old stained carpet. The cost of all that will be taken from the rent over the next several months. In addition, I am having the shredded sheer curtains replaced. The contractor finished his work yesterday and the curtains are coming Thursday. I feel like I have new lease on life knowing I can stay warm and have a much cleaner apartment.

Recently three senior couples have left the area. Two couples , the Dahlstoms and the Kimballs, because they completed their missions and one couple, the Masons, because he was transferred to Buenos Aires to be the auditor for the new consolidated area. It will only be another five weeks and the Welches will be completing their mission. there is a constant coming and going of senior couples. Within a little less than six months. I will be the one going home.

Well, this entry brings me up to date. I will be in the office for one more week and then will spend most of the next week visiting the Antofagasta mission. It is the farthest north mission and covers a very large area that includes the worlds driest desert. Shortly after the time I reach the one year anniversary of my arrival in Chile I will have been in all nine of the missions.