Its Primavera! Ready for Flowers, Sunshine and Greener Pastures!

Hello Hello!

Another month has flown by quite rapidly! How has September treated everyone?! Happy New Service Year! Its now Spring here. I'm SO ready for warmer weather. 2 Months from tomorrow until we come home! December 1st. I'm sure the next couple months will fly by!

So... the rest of our trip with our siblings went quite well! La Serena was not quite up to our expectations unfortunately...but in the end it became quite comical how things were NOT working out. Our Cabana was in the middle of nowhere for one. Hot water was nonexistent. Cooking in the kitchen was less than ideal. One morning Brad and I decided to make breakfast and I couldn't understand what was happening to my banana pancakes!...I looked in the pan and there was burnt plastic from the cheap-o spatula. I tried to convince everyone that it isn't all that LETHAL to eat plastic pancakes...but the idea didn't sell and the pancakes were doomed to the garbage can. :( We ended up getting a rental car and touring around the city. Our favorite day there consisted of Wine Tasting, Pisco Sour Tour, and Stargazing. La Serena is famous for their papaya so we were able to see what all the talk was about...and its true the Papayas are delicious. My highlight of course was the Stargazing. La Serena has multiple Star Observatorys..most of them are only open during the day b/c the Astronomers work/study at night. But...honestly..who wants to go to a "Star Observatory" during the DAY?! Sounds ridiculous to me!! We found one that had tours during night..and tours in English at that! We got up to the hill at dusk and had a full view of the sky. Only bad thing...Full Moon that night...couldn't see quite as many constellations..but still...absolutely amazing! We saw Jupiter as well as many more constellations. Some stars that appeared to be only 1 Star were actually clusters that one could only see thru a telescope. There were also colored stars...Orange, Red.. One cluster of stars they call "Jewelry box" and it looks exactly like that. Jenesia, Jenelle, and I decided it was one of our favorites. Did I mention they have different stars here?! I think I might have. California is in the Northern Hemisphere...Chile...Southern Hemisphere..so a completely different set of stars!! I asked our tour guide if she has studied any of the Northern Hemisphere and she said that its not as interesting because Chile has more to offer as far as the Night sky!

After a few days in La Serena we returned to Vina. Brad and I had a fun experience in the bus terminal/mall. We had 15 minutes or so to spare and decided to run over to the nearby McDonalds at the Mall for breakfast sandwiches for everyone. We jogged the whole way...even in the mall thinking we would make good time. Well...McDonalds took FOREVER..(first time i have eaten there this trip mind you) and we proceeded to run like mad with our bags of food as everyone stared at us. I never felt so out of shape in my life. We were huffing and puffing, running up stairs and made it to the terminal thinking our bus was going to leave within seconds. We find the girls STILL sitting with our lugguge saying the bus hadn't come. The bus didn't come until 30 minutes later. Ridiculous. Should have known better!

We enjoyed our last few days with Brad and Nel in Vina del Mar and were able to relax and catchup on everything. The left September 7th...seems like a lot more time has gone by!

Jenesia and I are now currently in Donihue again. Right when we got back it was CO visit and the CO actually stayed here at the house too..so it was really nice to enjoy all the meals and recreation time with them. We got to go to the Pioneer Meeting too. During the meeting of course there was audience participation. I thought the brother asked the "Disposition" of the Ethiopian Eunuch...but he asked the "Position" of him. I answered wrong for the hundredth time! After the meeting he asked if Jenesia and I understood everything. I said "Yea...pretty much everything!! Well..except for the question you asked!!" He said "Really?! I didn't think you were understanding anything...you had a look of Confusion on your face the whole time!" Hahha...I then started asking him "What face? Did it look like this? Thats me agreeing and thinking deeply!" I don't think he believed me. hahaa.

Unfortunately our schedule got to us and Jenesia got a cold...and then I got a touch of something..and it filtered to the rest of the family! We climbed a mountain recently...it was beautiful..I came running down the hill uncontrollably and fell...my elbow landing directly on a big sharp rock! Thought I broke my elbow...probably just internally bruised...and A new scar! Now we are good and healthy! Last week we travelled again to go help with Kingdom Hall construction for 3 days with the crew. Jenesia and I got to work on the Platform...it turned out pretty nice..but for some reason I just have this visual in my mind that a brother will go up to give a part and the whole thing will just collapse!! We'll see if we hear anything... :)

So the days now have been full of service service! Getting some good calls. Getting to work with some amazing sisters/brothers from the congregation. I wanna tell their lifestories, but maybe the next time around! Next week Jenesia and I will be returning to Vina Del Mar where we will be renting a place for a month...on our own! We are planning on helping with the English group for the month...getting out in service..and enjoying the city. Plus...we have visitors again! Getting really excited! Then November of course...full full of Convention stuff! Time is gonna fly by.

Thanks for the emails of encouragment and updates on your lives! When I get back I don't want to be completely ignorant of everything! Miss everyone!

Talk with you soon!!!

Carinos para todos!

Steph