December Activity

Another month has flown by here in the beautiful Patagonia. We are officially in summer now but the hottest it gets is around 70*. We got to participate in one campaign after another, 1st to distribute the special tract about "Can the dead live again?" and then to distribute the invitations to the district convention. The group of gringos from central and northern CA headed up to Vina in the north of Chile and a couple of friends from Southern CA arrived to help in the neighboring town of Aysen. We met up with them to do cruise witnessing in a town called Chacabuco, right next to Aysen...they're all very nice of course. It's the end of the school year here so all the young ones are extra relieved to be all done with their final exams. Just in time for the convention Juan's little sister, Vanessa, arrived and we also got to spend time with a friend from the States who is living with her husband in a little town  to the north called Puerto Cisnes. The convention itself was, as always, very encouraging and 3 from the local cong were baptized. Those are some of the main highlights from this month :)
(Link to photos for those who can't see them: Dec )

Too much fun!

  So the last several weeks have been packed with sooo much activity (as a warning there are tons of pictures this time...for those of you who can't see the pics on this page you can click the link: Oct-Nov '13) The CA girls & I went to Argentina to extend my visa. While on the Chilean side of the border we ran into witnesses and got to see the local KH & eat w/friends I hadn't seen in years. The cong here has been showing such great support for all the campaign activity. More gringos arrived & brought w/them the new Bible for Steph & I...so exciting!!! Got to do our 1st day preaching to a cruise ship w/the English group. It was a 4 month cruise w/a lot of people from Europe who speak English...we had many great experiences! They announced that starting Dec 1st the group here in Coyhaique will officially be an English "pre-group" w/a meeting every other Sunday. We had an up-building CO visit. And we got to preach on our way down to a glacier and some marble caves about 4 hrs south of here. Now the cong has been having all kinds of activities to say goodbye to the gringos (including a sister from southern CA & one from Switzerland) who are all heading to different places w/in this week. 
So those are the main highlights for now :)

Southern Bound

As I gathered photos for this post I realized that I've been doing a whole lot of eating lately...but I have to say it has been so delicious :) My last few weeks in Vina were great. The shift to focusing more on foreigners  is bringing great results and has added a lot of variety to the ministry. They also officially started  asking for volunteers to come help on the construction of the near-by assembly hall in Belloto...am hoping to get to help on it before I head back to the states.

A special highlight is that one of the progressive studies in the cong has decided to stop celebrating the holidays, which has been hard especially for her mom. So she is trying to start a new family tradition...she organized a delicious anniversary dinner for her parents w/gifts and everything...they loved it! And we had the joy of getting to go too...very fun! After that her mom even came w/her to one of the mtgs.

A couple of weeks ago I headed down to Coyhaique, where Steph and Juan live. I had forgotten just how beautiful it is here both in surroundings and in the people. Everyone has been so warm and welcoming. As we speak Steph and Juan are at the special assembly in Buenos Aires....such a privilege! And I got a special treat last week when two sisters from northern CA arrived. They're really sweet and have been a lot of fun to be around :)

So that's the latest from down here. Hope you're all doing well!

Back to Chile

From the moment I arrived back here in Chile it has been non-stop activity...literally! The night I got here was the 1st night of the CO visit. He and his wife are so nice. They're from the Netherlands but he has Chinese roots and she was born in Portugal so they know several languages...now they're both learning Chinese and are living in Santiago. It was a very encouraging visit & one of the main things he emphasized is that we should be focusing on foreigners. So now we spend a lot of our service time going to places foreigners visit and trying to start conversations w/them.
There's been a couple of accidents. The most serious was when one of our friends fell off of a tall roof. He is recovering well but it was pretty scary at 1st. Then Buffy had a little dog bite. And a couple of us sisters have tripped recently & have scrapes & bruises to prove it...but nothing serious :)
The friends have been so warm and welcoming as usual & it's been so nice getting to be back.