Buenas Dias a todos!
Hope everyone is doing great! Currently Jenesia and I are still in the south of Chile..but now we are in a city called Cochrane. The Penquins and Torres del Paine was amazing. We took a ton of pictures as always which hopefully I'll get around to uploading soon. The internet just isn't the greatest connection here...it trys my patience to do anything! So..the pictures will have to wait a little longer. :)
The days are just flying by! Its either because they are packed with spiritual things or just because it takes longer for things to get accomplished here! Jenesia and I to go to 4 different grocery stores to find ingredients we were looking for... and still didn't find everything! Travelling here is more of a breeze than Peru though. I even got my Starbucks fix in the airport. Hopefully my 1 lb bag will last me a little while...
So lets see...a little on what we are up to now. Like I mentioned we are in the city of Cochrane which is 8 hours from the nearest airport. We had the option of taking a long crazy dangerous bus ride or having some friends pick us up. I have had enough bus adventures! We opted for the friends picking us up. Freddy and Juan. Juan is Vanessas (who is travelling with us) older brother. They are serving as Special pioneers down here. On the way to the house the boys told us about their farely new assignment. They live with another Special Pioneer couple..who Jenesia and I already know..such a coincidence! It is the same exact couple we stayed with 3 years ago in a different city when we were with the Construction Group. Its the same hospitable couple thtat gave us their bed while they slept on a mattress in the kitchen! Here we were reunited. We knew we were in good hands. As of now..there are 8 of us staying in this house/Kingdom Hall. 3 Bedrooms, one bath. It feels like a mini-missionary home. We all take turns cooking every 3 days its us girls turn and we all eat together as a big happy family. My cookies are actually turning out too! Its refreshing to see the brothers playing a big part in the cooking and cleaning too...aprons and all! They are putting our cooking skills to shame thats for sure! Service meeting is here in the morning and afternoon here at the Kingdom Hall/Living room and our meetings are on Sunday @10:30 and Thursday. 14 publishers in the congregation, but attendence of about 23 with us visitors and others.
How is the Campaign going for everyone thus far? We have been working the territory here in Cochrane for the majority of the week- handing out the invitations. Freddy/Juans assignment also includes other villages. For one week out of every month they will be living in Tortel which is atleast 3 hours away. Tortel looks like it can come from a storybook. Its a tourist hotspot during the summers. Driving there we got this tropical forest Hawaiian road to Hana feel. Chiles National Geographic-like TV series were actually there the same day we were...we even placed magazines with them! Looks for us on TV! :) The actual city of Tortel can be almost likened to a Chile Venice. The city is essentially surrounded by water..to get to each house there are wooden planks to walk..or you can go via boat a greater distance. Beautiful views. At one point we all stopped in the Main Plaza to wait for some others in the group and we encountered a very nice couple who were waiting to use the phone. She was Chilean..and he was from England. Finally! I could talk to someone in English! We smiled and started conversing with them and they told us their story. They are newly married and pretty much live on a yacht the majority of the year...travelling around to places they haven't seen. Jenesia was able to give a good witness to the wife (Catalina)who said she really appreciates spiritual things. She appreciated receiving the latest magazines and Bible teach book. She said after she was done reading the material she would tell other people what she learned to help further our cause! Wow! The rest of the day was just as good. We were invited into almost every house we encountered someone. Only thing is that our extensive conversation skills are still lacking...and its such a rarity in the states to get invited in...so the encounters were a little awkward! :) People even want to share their Mate Tea with us..(sipping from the same straw)...I haven't got used to that idea yet!
What else? Its been fun learning little Chilean sayings...and teaching them our English sayings. The most popular one at the moment is "Sorry Charlie" Everyone goes around saying "Sorry Charlie" for everything.
As of this Saturday we will be traveling back up Chile. We will be staying in Concepecion for a week or more working with the Construction Group there and attending the Memorial there. We can't wait! Its unbelievable that we have almost been here 3 months!
Miss you all. Hope everything is going well for everyone! Great hearing from you...but sorry about long reponse time...Talk with you soon!
Un Abrazo-
Steph
Hope everyone is doing great! Currently Jenesia and I are still in the south of Chile..but now we are in a city called Cochrane. The Penquins and Torres del Paine was amazing. We took a ton of pictures as always which hopefully I'll get around to uploading soon. The internet just isn't the greatest connection here...it trys my patience to do anything! So..the pictures will have to wait a little longer. :)
The days are just flying by! Its either because they are packed with spiritual things or just because it takes longer for things to get accomplished here! Jenesia and I to go to 4 different grocery stores to find ingredients we were looking for... and still didn't find everything! Travelling here is more of a breeze than Peru though. I even got my Starbucks fix in the airport. Hopefully my 1 lb bag will last me a little while...
So lets see...a little on what we are up to now. Like I mentioned we are in the city of Cochrane which is 8 hours from the nearest airport. We had the option of taking a long crazy dangerous bus ride or having some friends pick us up. I have had enough bus adventures! We opted for the friends picking us up. Freddy and Juan. Juan is Vanessas (who is travelling with us) older brother. They are serving as Special pioneers down here. On the way to the house the boys told us about their farely new assignment. They live with another Special Pioneer couple..who Jenesia and I already know..such a coincidence! It is the same exact couple we stayed with 3 years ago in a different city when we were with the Construction Group. Its the same hospitable couple thtat gave us their bed while they slept on a mattress in the kitchen! Here we were reunited. We knew we were in good hands. As of now..there are 8 of us staying in this house/Kingdom Hall. 3 Bedrooms, one bath. It feels like a mini-missionary home. We all take turns cooking every 3 days its us girls turn and we all eat together as a big happy family. My cookies are actually turning out too! Its refreshing to see the brothers playing a big part in the cooking and cleaning too...aprons and all! They are putting our cooking skills to shame thats for sure! Service meeting is here in the morning and afternoon here at the Kingdom Hall/Living room and our meetings are on Sunday @10:30 and Thursday. 14 publishers in the congregation, but attendence of about 23 with us visitors and others.
How is the Campaign going for everyone thus far? We have been working the territory here in Cochrane for the majority of the week- handing out the invitations. Freddy/Juans assignment also includes other villages. For one week out of every month they will be living in Tortel which is atleast 3 hours away. Tortel looks like it can come from a storybook. Its a tourist hotspot during the summers. Driving there we got this tropical forest Hawaiian road to Hana feel. Chiles National Geographic-like TV series were actually there the same day we were...we even placed magazines with them! Looks for us on TV! :) The actual city of Tortel can be almost likened to a Chile Venice. The city is essentially surrounded by water..to get to each house there are wooden planks to walk..or you can go via boat a greater distance. Beautiful views. At one point we all stopped in the Main Plaza to wait for some others in the group and we encountered a very nice couple who were waiting to use the phone. She was Chilean..and he was from England. Finally! I could talk to someone in English! We smiled and started conversing with them and they told us their story. They are newly married and pretty much live on a yacht the majority of the year...travelling around to places they haven't seen. Jenesia was able to give a good witness to the wife (Catalina)who said she really appreciates spiritual things. She appreciated receiving the latest magazines and Bible teach book. She said after she was done reading the material she would tell other people what she learned to help further our cause! Wow! The rest of the day was just as good. We were invited into almost every house we encountered someone. Only thing is that our extensive conversation skills are still lacking...and its such a rarity in the states to get invited in...so the encounters were a little awkward! :) People even want to share their Mate Tea with us..(sipping from the same straw)...I haven't got used to that idea yet!
What else? Its been fun learning little Chilean sayings...and teaching them our English sayings. The most popular one at the moment is "Sorry Charlie" Everyone goes around saying "Sorry Charlie" for everything.
As of this Saturday we will be traveling back up Chile. We will be staying in Concepecion for a week or more working with the Construction Group there and attending the Memorial there. We can't wait! Its unbelievable that we have almost been here 3 months!
Miss you all. Hope everything is going well for everyone! Great hearing from you...but sorry about long reponse time...Talk with you soon!
Un Abrazo-
Steph
2 comments:
Glad your having fun! Miss you!
Sorry Charlie...so funny! I am loving reading your adventures, Steph! I am glad you are safe, happy and doing so well with your preaching work. It was so nice IM-ing you the other day. Let's "talk" again soon! love and a big hug! -jen
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