Winter Officially begins!

Hello again!

I'm writing in less than a month!

How is everything up North? How did the convention go? I appreciated hearing some highlights from the convention. Its hard to believe it is the first convention I have missed in English in 25 years and to think we are waiting until November to receive the latest spiritual food! My hope is that by November I will be able to understand the majority of everything! A sister we had met in Peru told us about the English Convention in Ecuador that is the first weekend of August. SO tempted to go...but don't think we can! Too much going on! The fact that we don't have to leave the country every 3 months is somewhat of a relief. Our temporary missionary visas are still in the process...but when they are done....we get these neat Chilean-type licenses with our own ChileanSocialSecurity number...good for a year! Yahoo!

So...this past weekend we had the Circuit Assembly in the city of Los Angeles. Thankfully we had this same assembly in January. January seems like so long ago huh? The irony of it all was that their assemblies are held in the gym of ...get this..a Catholic school! They have been meeting here for years! Seemed a little weird to me. Interesting. Saturday had to be the COLDEST day ever too. We left incredibly early...took a bus 1.5 hours to Los Angeles and had our backpacks packed to the full with our clothes for the next day and our lunch. We huddled onto the bleachers for the program as our teeth chattered. The sound system was not working all that great, we were far away from the stage, and there was a screaming yet entertaining 4 year old sitting below us running through the aisles wreaking havoc... so needless to say I did not get much out of the program Saturday. Saturday night we went to the mall for Chinese food! Not bad at all.. Saturday night we stayed with some friends of Vanessas in Los Angeles...11 of us in an Apartment...sharing 1 bathroom! It actually worked out quite well...very comfortable too! Sunday went a lot better. We sat closer to the stage and the sound was better...and there were not any screaming children close to us. Not as freezing either!...Altho I didn't dare take my jacket off. We met some sweet Japanese girls who have lived in Chile 1.5 years..and some other Gringos. Out of curiosity..I asked people if they call Los Angeles "L.A." and said that we have a LA in California too. They said they NEVER say LA. Ok.

I think Jenesia and I have too much of construction on the brain. For one...Jenesia had a part last week..and instead of saying "Clave" which means "Key" she said "Clavo" which means "Nail". Its kind of sad actually..now that I FINALLY feel like I am getting the construction terms down...we wont be needing the construction words after next week! Thats right...the project ends next week! Very hard to believe! We have been working away. This project has been SO different from San Pedro. So many different details. Jenesia is officially a professional Door painter/sander. I'm not sure what my profession would be. For like 2 weeks I was breaking windows and cleaning the panes out of any left over residue...sanding..and then painting. I'm starting to become a little of a perfectionist these days. Its weird! We had the other 9 servants join us recently...all the tables at mealtime are FULL of people. I was a little disappointed because this past Monday I was assigned to give the Morning Worship comment..and wouldn't you know...no more Mondays of work!...so no comment for me! But then...Tuesday comes along and the brother says "Stephanie will be giving the comment today." I felt my face turn bright red as I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head no. The 22nd! My comment was supposed to be the 22nd..not the 23d! Did I misunderstand something? Its quite probable. Everyone turned to look at me as I thought of how I could easily just run out of the room dramatically. After breakfast I went to talk to the brother explaining to him that I had checked the list multiple times and I'm not sure what happened. He got the list out and saw that I was NOT assigned for the day. It was a different brother that had left the group for a new assignment. Whew! I asked if he could make some sort of announcement saying I wasn't crazy... No announcement was made. Everyone probably thought "Poor gringa loca...she just doesn't understand her days of weeks and numbers yet.." :)

I was able to get a nice Return Visit a few weeks ago on a lady at a newstand. I had left a tract previously with her. Came back a week later to leave the magazine on Depression with her. She greatly appreciated it saying that she struggles with depression. We were able to share some encouraging scriptures with her. She asked about our meetings..and we even told her about the construction...and a few days later she passed the site to see what was going on and Jenesia greeted her outside and got to give a witness! I plan on going back to her Sunday. The project here has given a good witness to all the neighbors/businesses.

This saturday is a Congregation type party to say goodbye to the construction team...I think it will be a sad occasion. We have been like a family the past few months!! I'm really going to miss the new friendships we have made!

Our next plans?! Puertozuelo! You may have seen some of the pictures of the rural territory there. Its beautiful. Jenesia and I plan on staying there with a sister from Mexico that we met back in January. 17 publishers in the group I believe. We are pretty excited to be doing straight service for the rest of the service year!

Well...I better get going for now. Hope all is good with everyone! We are past the halfway mark now! Mucho carino y amor!

Abrazo!

Steph