Springtime & Sunshine

Hello Everyone!

Sorry so much time has gone by! 1 1/2 Months. Oops!

Man..it has been gorgeous here the past few weeks! The other day it was a scorching 86 degrees! It doesnt get too much hotter than that here. I tell people that I lived in a city where it is 100+ and they didnt believe me. I told them I love the heat. They didnt believe me. Haha. I guess its one thing being in an air conditioned house and air conditioned car. Nonetheless I have been loving the sunshine. A lot of brothers and sisters that were born and raised here can't handle the heat. Oh! Also...it stays super light outside until 10:30 at night. The sun rises at 5. Sets at 10:00ish. Its crazy. They say in the summer it stays light till 11:00. One family in the congregation did return visits on a Monday night until 10:30pm. Yikes I cant imagine knocking on anyones door at 10:30! But they do it here!

Wow...a lot has been going on these past few weeks!! As of December 18th...Juan and I have been in our new house!!! 3 week anniversary tomorrow. The house is amazing. Its perfect for us. 2 Bedroom, 1 bath. Good size kitchen and living room. Vaulted ceilings. A big backyard. A shed in the backyard for storage. Its sooooo nice! It kind of has a rustic look with a lot of wood..and yellow walls. Nice and bright! Juan likes the colors. I'm getting used to them. :) There is still some work to be done..things to purchase... but slowly we are getting things done. We recently got a refrigerator and washing machine. The first week and a half was hard because our dirty clothes were piling up and we were trying to eat food that we didn't have to refrigerate! Didn't work out so well. A family gave us their dining room table. We have a little sofa....some chairs....so we are set! Finally got internet on Monday so I feel complete again!

The location of the home is perfect too. It takes me 15 minutes walking to get downtown, 15 minutes to get to the Kingdom hall. And there are taxis and buses that go right by my house so I can always get to the territories somehow. These past few weeks I have been getting lost and taking the wrong taxi...so I have been walking a whole lot more! Its all a learning process though! I'm sure I'll get it down sooner or later. Nonetheless its good excercise! Juan is like a 5 minute drive to his work...so its good for him too! We really feel like the home is a blessing from Jehovah. It pays off to be a little patient and just trust that he will take care of you. We had been looking at places to rent and everything was SO EXPENSIVE and TINY and FAR. One woman that owned a home was super persistent when we came and looked at her house...she asked "So when are you moving in? The house is very clean. Its big. Its perfect." It was none of those things. I remained silent as Juan answered "Well...we just wanted to look at it. We have to count the cost." She said "Well..if you can't afford it, you can live with me in the house in the back. I can cook and clean for you both and you can pay me cheaper rent. I have extra beds. I live alone! You can live with me!" Juan looked at me and told her "We really have to go now. Thanks for the offer." We were both creeped out!! I was very disappointed with the options and kind of gave up looking. Then, out of no where we got a call from Sebastians dad saying that he had a place for us to rent!! Yahoooooo!! It didnt take us much time to accept the offer. I think we accepted it without even looking at the inside of the house! Everything worked out for the best. Oh! And I have a kitty! Can you believe it? It kind of adopted us... it won't leave us alone actually. So, I bought it some food and gave it a name. "Alce" (All-say) Its "Moose" in Spanish. Named after a famous cat in California that we love dearly.

We have been having friends and families from the congregation over. Tonight Juan is going to make sushi and have a small group over. Our meeting times have changed from Sundays at 10:30am to Saturdays at 7:00pm...(there goes our social life! :) Haha. I went to my first Bridal shower last night. It surprised me to see that they are really not that different from California. I also went to my first funeral. That was VERY different. The other day I was walking to one of my English classes and there was a funeral procession going on(non-witness) ...and its like the whole city stopped functioning. Roads were closed...people were walking down the middle of the road with some things venerating the dead loved one. There was a line of 100+ people, no joke. Cars stopped. People stopped on the streets as they watched the long line of 100+ people walk slowly down the middle of the road. I was late for my English class and I didnt want to get caught up in the procession so I did some power walking on the sidewalk to the right of the group. I could feel everyones eyes on me as I took the lead. I would look back every so often and see this group of people lagging behind. I was happy when I got out of sight and to my class!

Right now we are in the Invitation Campaign for the District Convention. January 20-22th. We have had some good responses! I even started a study! I found a girl that was so sincere and nice and I told her if shes interested I could come back and we could have a conversation about a Bible topic. She said she would like that so I came back 2 days later not knowing what to expect. She invited me in and we started the study!! I go back on Monday @ 5:00pm.

Juan is in the drama at this convention so he has been practicing with the group a lot! Tons of work goes into these dramas. I told the brother I could help with something since I was tired of staying at home! Haha...he had me act as the photographer. Got some nice action shots! Oh! And another blesssing: The drama group here was very worried about the costumes. There aren't very many choices for fabric..there is no one to really make them. One sister was specifically praying for something to happen with the costumes because she was getting so stressed out about it! Juan and I started asking for pictures of previous dramas...and something better happened! We got sent an ENTIRE box of costumes! These drama costumes have traveled the world. Ecuador, Nicaragua, USA, and I think Honduras. A brother in Ecuador offered to send a box down here since Chile is the LAST convention of this year. We got the box almost a month ago and everyone is ecstatic!

So...yes...everything has been bueno!

Hope you are all doing good as well!!

I'll try to upload more pictures soon!

For now..you can click on the icon slideshow above and it will take you to my Picasa Web albums and you can see what we have been up to. I still have to take pictures of the house!

Miss everyone!

Love you!!

Stephanie & Juanito