Hello todos!
Hard to believe we have been back in Chile almost 2 months! Yesterday Juan & I celebrated our 7 month anniversary as well. My, does time fly!
Lets see....the past few weeks have been pretty full. We had our Circuit Assembly here last weekend. There are 311 in the circuit with 35 pioneers. Probably like 12 of those pioneers are special pioneers and they are serving in isolated groups all around the Patagonia. I think the furthest distance is 8 hours. Only 2 actual congregations in the circuit, the rest are Independent groups. It was definitely a social week. Brothers came trickling in from everywhere and plans were made for lunch, dinner, dessert, any excuse to get together! Juans MTS instructor was the sub D.O. for this assembly so we got to spend some time with the brother and his wife. A great couple with great experiences! The pioneer meeting was a treat as always...smaller than I am used to (35 people)..but nontheless the singing was powerful! I told Juan ¨We have to get there early, all the seats are going to be taken!¨ That was not the case. :)
The assembly took place in a nice Movie Theater. Wow. No aroma of popcorn, the seats were so comfortable, the low lighting, the warm atmosphere. A little too comfortable. We sat close to the front row, but by mid afternoon I got sleepy like everyone else. I could see the CO sitting behind the stage looking out into the audience during the talks. He told us after the assembly that he counted atleast 30 people dead asleep. He thinks we will no longer have the assemblies in the Movie Theater because of the affect it has on everyone.
Juan & I had an interview in the morning. It was very nerve wracking b/c the brother told us about it like less than a week before the assembly & told us it was for the Pioneer meeting...on Thursday nite he mentioned it was for the assembly! I was stressed, but to no avail b/c my interview ended up getting cut short. 1 sentence & I was done! The brother probably sensed my nerves!
The baptism talk was a highlight b/c it was so personalized. 1 got baptized-my 10 year old English student Pavel! I looked around for a pool for the baptism. Nothing. I asked what they were going to do and a brother said that the baptism was going to take place in a home. Really? Yep! No joke. Around the corner from the Movie theater a family opens up their home for the baptism. They have a nice big bathtub. Juan & I met the family and some close friends at the house while Pavel changed his clothing. We all crammed into the bathroom as the bathtub began to be filled with warm water. Flashes of cameras started as Pavel stepped into the tub. Pretty crazy. I was convinced I needed to return to take a bath in that holy tub! Afterwards we had lunch at the house....Sheep and rice. Everyone eats sheep here...its called Cordero. Poor little lamb. I have tried it just to appease the crowd...but I usually give Juan my portion. I have tried some other things that I´m not going to mention...I atleast try everything once! Better if they dont tell you what it is.
I drove for the first time here in Chile! Not too bad. We went to pickup some friends from the airport. The drive is gorgeous...about 45 minutes. In the city there are no stop signs and the stop lights are very scarce. All yields. Its gonna take a little getting used to...but I think I can do it!
Service has still been great...cultivating some good return visits. I have 2 studies as of last week! Still seeing Gringos everywhere. Was able to preach to a guy from Switzerland for 20 minutes on friday. Good conversations. Nice people. Its intimidating at first, but I just have to remember there is someone bigger and stronger backing me u, giving me strength. :) If we dont do it, Jehovah will see that someone else does!
The other day I got a cute little 3 year old boy named Alejandro at the door playing outside. I told him ¨Go call your mom!¨ He looked at me and ran inside. A minute later I hear someone shouting ¨No Alejandro! No! What are you doing? Dont do that!¨ Alejandro came running out with a cell phone up to his ear. His grandma followed and then looked at me and said ¨I dont know what he is doing! I think he is calling his mom!" I laughed and told her I was at fault because I told him to call her..but that I thought she was inside the house. What an obedient child! I left the magazines with the gramma and Im planning to go back.
Juan started work as of last week! Im a little sad just because it has been so nice spending so much time with him...and now he has an 8-4 schedule. That will last a month...then next month his schedule will change a little bit. As for me, I have more English students! I have close to 20 students! I am breaking them up into 5 small groups. We will see how it goes!
Okay...well thats all to report for now. Thanks so much for the personal emails! We really appreciate hearing from everyone! Really! I will be getting back to you all soon!
And...I´ll try to put up some more photos soon! Im like a month behind!
Cariños!!
Steph & Juanito
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