Back to the Chilean life....

Hello there!
Hope everyone is doing well. Surviving the winter and cold? Well...we are officially back in Chile. Things are settling down a little bit more. We arrived in Arica by car...crossed the border of Peru and they thankfully let us back in the country! It was ideal because we got to travel with 2 Japanese sisters that we met in Cusco...and then a Peruvian bethelite sister. We had a great time...even sang some Kingdom melodies simutaneously in different languages. Our poor driver. :)
We spent the weekend in Santiago and got to stay with Yuri and Gaby again. We spent a day with the Sign Language congregation at the pool...swam..relaxed..played some soccer as well. I made the mistake of playing barefoot. My toe is still recovering...but well worth it! We also got to spend some time with Janel which was nice...eat lunch and catch up on everything while at the mall. I was gravely disappointed to see that this mall didn't have a Starbucks. The airport Starbucks was closed when we landed in Santiago..and then...this mall didn't have one! :( I will survive. I'm growing accustomed to the instant coffee stuff again. Just think of me when you are having your cup of coffee in the morning. Thats all I ask. You can even put a cup aside for me if you would like. :)
Now...we are back in Donihue with the Ponce family. They surprised us with seperate rooms too!! Its nice being back to our "homebase". We have been supporting the group for service everyday and have had a couple good experiences. We have been making grammatical errors still of course. Lets see if I can recount some: In one village Jenesia was preaching to a woman and paraphrased the scripture where it talks about "Jehovah knowing the count of the hairs on our head."... instead she used the word "Caballo" for "hairs"... essentially saying that "Jehovah knows how many horses we have on our head." I keep getting the words "Cutting" and "Courting" (dating) mixed up.. I'll say "Oh yes..that couple is CUTTING.." instead of dating. Also...the word for 'dead' and 'moved' are similiar...I kept talking about someone who in my mind had 'Moved'..but I was asking "Where did they die? Where are they now?" thoroughly confusing the sister I was working in service with. The words 'Dolores and Dolares' are very similiar..but one is Pain...and the other is Dollars. Jenesia told a joke about a man asking for a million PAINS.. by accident. Too funny. :)
In one village in Peru, Tierza was talking to 3 young boys. She showed them the scripture that Gods name is Jehovah and asked them "So..is Jesus God?" They all stated firmly "No!" She then asked "So who is Jesus?" and one of the boys proudly replies "I'M JESUS!" (his name was Jesus) Cute story. In the same village of Sama, Wade encountered a man that had talked to witnesses in the past and had seen the Bible teach book and was very interested in having a copy. He asked Wade for one and Wade didn't have any other copies other than his study copy. The man was desperate to have it and since Wade knew witnesses weren't going visit again anytime soon, he gave up his prized study copy!
Tomorrow Jenesia and I are going to attempt to cook again. A really sweet sister in Peru gave us her recipe book..so we are going to try out some Peruvian recipes. Hope all goes well! People keep asking what Typical American Food is.. and I never know what to say! I want to make something typically american..but all I can think of is BBQ items. Hot dogs..Hamburgers..French Fries. Any ideas or great recipes? Email us!
Thanks to our loving parents...we don't have to worry about going to another CyberCafe! We now have Wi-Fi! Yahoo!! We can use the laptop from the comfort of our home! So..now we don't have as many excuses not to write!
Saludos from the Congregations: Vista Alegre, Sama, and Bourgaina! Jenesia and I had another talk on Thursday nite...it was nice...they all even applauded saying it was my first talk in the congregation and in Chile. I hope they don't have high expectations for future talks!

Okay that about wraps it up for now. I'm sure there are more things to cover... but just not enough time to do it! I uploaded more pictures...a whole album dedicated to Peru. It should all be up-to-date with photos now! More things to add later. Miss you guys!

Steph