Christmas Day Basketball and Futbol

Christmas was a Preparation Day for the missionaries so they had time to join us for basketball and soccer. Leland received two new basketballs from Santa so he and Trevor were ready for some "serious" b-ball. Last month a sports-like park opened down the coast from us with two soccer field, basketball courts and a sand volleyball court. We invited missionaries from the Antofagasta Zones to join in the games. The weather was perfect and the views were great. And the Elders had fun playing ball with the Presidente and Trevor. The Gringos were ready for some serious ball and the Latins joined in with the mad futbol skills.

Not much commentary, just pics of our great missionaries. Look closely to find your sons.

Tired Elders. But always ready for some futbol.

I love the cargo ship in the background. The harbor is so deep that the ships are anchored really close to shore.

The Latin team beat the Gringos 10-8; but both teams played well. Although tired from their workouts, all the missionaries were ready for their phone calls home. It was a very Merry Christmas.

New Missionaries for Christmas

We received an early Christmas present this year. Five new missionaries arrived in Antofagasta on December 21st. Presidente Bruce and I couldn't be more excited for these wonderful Elders and Hermana to come to our mission. Our day was busy with interviews, pictures, dinner and proselyting. Let me introduce these new additions to the Chile Antofagasta Mission:

But first: our wonderful Assistants. We have two new traveling assistants who arrived on Monday. 

Greeting our Latin missionaries as they arrived from the Santiago CCM.

Later in the day we received our gringo from the Provo MTC.

Getting ready for their first photo shoot.

On Wednesday morning the new missionaries were introduced to their trainers. It's another opportunity for a picture. 

Zone Christmas Celebrations

During December we travel the zone from North to South and celebrated Christmas with all of our missionaries. We had Leadership Training each morning with Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Trainers and then at the lunch all of the missionaries joined us for lunch, cookie decorating and a gift exchange. The following are pictures from each party. There is no order and there are lots (probably too many) photos but I wanted to get as many missionaries in the blog as possible.

The Hermanas of Arica showing their best Charlies Angels poses with their new Hoven sunglasses.

We enjoyed tacos for lunch and they were delicious. 

The line for tacos seemed endless to some of the missionaries.

Posing for pics in the lunch line.

In Copiapo we were delighted to have Copiapo North Zone portray the Christmas Story, complete with costumes.

Three angels from Caldera.

Four missionaries serving in the south who represent Utah County.

Elder and Hermana Richardson have moved out of the office and down to Vallenar (the southern most city in the mission) to serve as Branch President in the Baquedano Branch. We miss them in Antofagasta.

President Bruce enjoying Pizza with his missionaries.

Elder Z. loves his pizza a la pobre (with an egg on top).

Here I am with two lovely hermanas from Antofagasta

We love our missionaries.

This month I ate pizza twice, had empanadas from Florencias and homemade tacos in Arica. Is it any wonder that my waistline is expanding? But eating lunch with the missionaries is wonderful because we share time together. Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad to all the missionaries in the greatest mission in the world: Chile Antofagasta.