Sometimes you never know what and when your next assignment will be. That happened to Lance and Margie Willis. They arrived here at the Santiago Chile Temple in January for 18 months. Or so they thought. They received a phone call from Salt Lake changing their call. They were to return to Mesa, Arizona their home on July 1st, 2013 and then report to the Missionary Training Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 1st, 2014 for 2 years. They have already served as mission president in Guayaquil, Ecuador South mission for 3 years in the early part of the 2000-2003 timeframe. They were surprised and excited at the same time. So we had a despedida for them. A going away of sorts.
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| Lance and Margie Willis at their Despedida |
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| Van, Millie, Margie and Lance Willis |
Lance and Margie leaving the 4th floor at the Hospedaje on the way to the airport!
On the same day, our very close friend Gary Davis, returned home after some 3 years living on and off again in Chile. It was very difficult to see him go. But it was time and his good wife awaits him so they can move on in their lives. It was a combined despedida with the Willis's. Not sure why I didn't have more pictures but sometimes you get overcome by events.
Gary and Van leaving the 4th floor
Gary at the airport getting his last minute computer update done
At the despedida giving the group last minute instructions
Last Saturday at the temple was probably the hardest day this year. There were 10 buses here from around the country and all the ordinances were full to overflowing. Not having quite enough temple workers made the work a little harder than needed. Millie and I came home exhausted. But that isn't anything new. We seem to be tired all the time!! Monday we went to a Mexican restaurant called Lime. It is a chain from the East Coast and just opened up here in Santiago. It was pretty good. It was serve your own drinks with real crushed ice all you wanted. Wow! In Chile restaurants don't serve ice unless requested and then give you cubes and very few. So food was pretty good and we had a good time with the Turleys and Willis's.
