!Mas Construction y Cosas Nuevas!

So here we are in June already! Can you believe it? I sure can’t! Time has flown by for sure. ½ of 2009 has come and gone…and we have spent it down here in South America! District Convention season is here for you guys…how is the campaign going? Any great experiences? The convention here is not until November..so there is still a lot of time to make needed preparations. Did I mention that Jenesia and I will be going to the Int’l Convention in Santiago AND Concepcion? We changed our tickets to return home December 1st. Both of the International conventions are in November. We will be going to Santiago to get the most out of it… and then we will be going to Concepcion to help with the translating for the delegates!! Anyone going to be here? It’s such a privilege… we will be acting as tour guides more or less…in charge of 25 English speaking people..helping them throughout the convention. We can’t wait!

Ok. So now we are in the City of Chillan! We completed the Kingdom Hall project in Concepcion…start to finish. It’s a beautiful hall! Everything went well…I even got to work primarily with all of the Finish Carpentry for the last week of the project! It was hard saying goodbye to all our new friends in Concepcion …but towards the end of the project we all got to spend even more time with everyone. Last month our comments @ morning worship went well…but as for the Safety Discourse we had to give…not so much! Unfortunately I tried to have a funny/creative/original introduction to my discourse and it didn’t go over too well! My topic was: Protecting Your Hearing. What I wanted to do was talk very softly so that no one could hear me and then emphasize the importance of protecting your ears. For some reason I whispered very loudly in a raspy voice saying…”I’m trying to help you all protect your ears today!” Jenesia started to laugh while everyone was wondering what I was doing. They figured I was just incredibly nervous. I got through the rest of the discourse and tried not to laugh over my bad introduction as I could see everyone feeling sorry for me! I’m surprised they are letting me give the discourse again! The topic this time: Earthquakes!! I had some pretty funny ideas for an introduction…but I think I’m just going to stick to the information. Maybe the screaming “Earthquake Earthquake!” and running around the room should be left out. I can’t be creative in Spanish. People are just left confused over my sense of humor! For this reason I think that’s what they call me the “Gringa Loca” (essentially crazy American girl) It started with just a couple people calling me by this name…and now the whole team doesn’t even say Stephie anymore…its “Hey! Gringa loca!” I don’t know whether I should feel honored with this name or offended…so I try not to think about it too much! It works out perfect because there is another Stephanie with the construction team so it lessens the confusion. Even still..when I hear the name “Stephanie” I turn to look and I am told “No..Stephanie Chileana…not Stephanie Gringa Loca!” Conable is not easily pronounced in Spanish…so there goes that option!

The other day after lunch I decided to show off the “WhipCream trick.” Not many of you have seen this. We were introduced to this phenomenon somewhat recently and now everytime I see a whippedcream bottle I have to take advantage of the opportunity. First of all…I was just so excited to be even eating Whipped cream. Second, I figured it was a great moment to teach people the necessary skill of whipped cream flying in the air and landing in your mouth. In my mind I had it all planned out. Unfortunately the plan didn’t materialize correctly. I could see the whipped cream flying in the air as I opened my mouth to receive it…only the whipped cream got closer and closer to the wall. I started to panic as I pressed my face against the wall with my mouth wideopen…but to my dismay…the landing was in my eye. RIGHT in my eye. I heard laughter roaring as I started to wonder how many people actually saw the whole thing. Our small group of 5 had grown to 10 or more. I carefully removed the whipped cream while laughing and trying to explain what my intention was. Maybe next time.

The nice thing is.. Jenesia and I are getting more comfortable with the Construction team. In Concepcion..everything was new. It was like the First day of school…meeting new people..seeing them everyday…trying to understand their personalities. Plus with the language gap I always feel like I am missing something. It was nice being a quiet observer for a little bit…but that’s just not me! Now we are bonding more with ones on the team and having a good time! Chillan is about 1 ½ hours from Concepcion and its super cold here. They say Chillan has some of the most extreme weather conditions. The project here is a remodel…so thankfully we are under a covered roof now..and we have walls up! The hall is really nice…wide and antique looking. The first week we came we were organizing a lot of the stuff and ended up even working until 10 o clock at nite unloading materials. 15 hour work day. Yikes! I enjoyed helping build the back school…putting all the metal framing up, etc. I have used my share of heavy machinery! Its great! Think my favorite thus far is the JackHammer. A brother asked me if I had used one before. I said no. He asked if I was scared of using one. I said no. He asked if I had the strength to use it. I said yes and went for it! I had to level out some concrete in a corner of the Kingdom hall. I had a blast doing it! I’m surprised they are entrusting me with some of these tools…but I love learning all that I can! I hardly recognize my hands now. I’m pretty sure every finger has a Callous, scratch, scrape, or bruise. My fingernails are as short as can be, but I still manage to have dirt under them by the end of the day!

Last week, we had a special visit from the Brazil Construction overseer of all of South America. They travel around and visit construction groups periodically to see how the work is coming along. Very nice couple. We had the privilege of being at their table for Morning worship/breakfast. They both speak English as well. He let us know a little bit more about the KH constructing that is going on worldwide. Here are some statistics for you number lovers: First of all there are 133 Construction Groups worldwide that are part of the program of countries with limited resources getting financial aid from the Society. 6 new Kingdom halls are built everyday. 20,000 KH have already been constructed thru this program. Worldwide 8,000/9,000 are still needed. 66 Kingdom Halls in Chile are still needed. Your contributions go to this cause!! Chile pays for about 35% and the rest comes from the worldwide contributions. Because of the declining economy, more economically effective materials are being purchased as we try not to waste anything! We are utilizing a good amount of the materials that were already in the hall. All The doors for example. Taking the paint off and sanding them down bare to refurbish and use again. The project here ends July7th and that’s when we will be saying our goodbyes to the team. One more month of construction!

Yesterday we had our day off and we spent it preaching in a little village called Puertozuelo. Back in January Jenesia and I had met a sister from Mexico that was with us on our tour of Bethel. She told us she had moved down here to support a small group of 17 publishers. Little did we know we would keep running into her throughout our stay here! The village is only 45 minutes from here …so we decided to meet up with the group and do some Rural territory with them! We were out of the door by 6:45am and stopped our activity by 6:45pm. A full day for sure! The territory was beautiful! We walked all day..(a little freezing in the morning)…brought our lunches and had a great time! At one point I was describing a little boy and said that he had “Elephant tears” and explained that this was a saying in English. Everyone looked at me and said “Oh..we have a saying like that…but it’s CROCODILE tears in Spanish.” Oh yeah. Ooops. Looks like I’m having trouble speaking both languages! Overall…Puertozuelo was a success…we had some great conversations with people and said we would return.
Okay…think that’s about all for now. Well..I am certain there is more… but there is no possible way I can add more at the moment! Until the next time.. miss you all! Thank you for staying in contact! I REALLY appreciate the updates on everyone even if I cant get back to you sooner. Our schedule is going to get EVEN tighter the next few months as Jenesia and I are striving to make our time for the year! Yikes! 3 More months…crunch time! Hope everyone is doing well and not dying from the California Sun. Can you send me some of the Sunshine? I miss it!! Love you all dearly!!

Carino-
Steph