February Fun

It's been another extra busy month. A couple arrived here to visit from Norway & it has been nice getting to see another example of the bond that exists between our worldwide brotherhood. We had CO visit, which was very encouraging. One of the things I love about service here is that it covers such a large area so we end up getting to see so many of the touristic and artsy parts of town that most tourists don't have time to visit.

The girls and I just got back from a little trip...had to take advantage of their freedom before they start back at work at a local university. 1st we visited the English cong in Santiago. We got to stay w/a really sweet sis who used to live in Hawaii and Santa Cruz. It was fun to get to meet friends in the cong from all over the world. Then we stopped by the Ponce's on the way to a town that the girls used to live in, called Parral. It was nice to get to do some pueblo preaching and meet the friends there too. On what we thought was the last day of our trip we visited some friends from Brentwood CA and Australia who are living in Chillan. They told us that the next day the speaker at their hall would be Wade...Wade and Tirza are part of the reason I came down to Chile w/Jenelle in the 1st place. So we decided to to stay an extra day to see them and it was so worth it. His talk was amazing and we even got invited to hospitality afterwards and got to spend some quality time w/all the friends there.

So that's the latest from down here in sunny Chile :)

Vina Fun

Well I'm happy to say that Vina has continued to be such a boost. My roommates are amazing...always busy doing good things and going out of their way for others. In the month that I've been with them they've had visitors come stay from Argentina and a couple from Washington. We got to go help a day cleaning and cooking for the workers of the assembly hall & KH remodel project in the nearby town of Belloto. And the girls are helping teach some of the workers there English....I got to go to the class last week for the 1st time and it was a lot of fun. 

The preaching is so varied here which keeps things interesting ..there's pier witnessing, telephone witnessing, letter writing, evening RV's, and of course a lot of door-to-door censusing. Vina had their district convention this month too so I got to go again...you can never hear those good reminders too many times :) 
Something adventurous that happened was that a big fire one day headed towards the girl's neighborhood. The same thing happened last year and that time the fire reached just steps from their front door. So needless to say we spent that night at a friends house just in case. But they ended up getting it under control & we were able to return to the house the next day.
So those are some of the main highlights :)

A taste of California

This month I was able to have a little taste of California to keep me going down here :) 1st I was able to go visit Janel and Joel in Futrono which was so nice and encouraging. Even got to help one day tearing down a house on the site where they're scheduled to have a KH built around April.

After that I headed to Santiago to pick up Jenny. We went to Vina 1st and visited the English congregation which is always a boost...they have a congregation of 30 something publishers and 21 pioneers, so there's a very good service-spirit. While there a couple of fleshly sisters from Florida invited me to come live with them for a little bit which I feel like is a blessing from Jehovah.

Then we got to go to the "Safeguard your Heart" district convention in Santiago with the congregation from Donihue and returned there afterward to show Jenny a taste of a smaller pueblo. One of the days we went to see Bethel...had quite the adventure on the way. Got into a little car accident and then once we arrived in Santiago all the local taxis were taking the day off for Christmas so we ended up just catching the last Bethel tour of the day.
Now Jenny's up visiting friends in Peru and I've returned to sunny Vina on the coast. That's the latest from down here :)

Argentina and Back

                                                       
So I'm happy to say that the KH in Coinco was completed successfully and turned out really beautiful.

It was also a special treat to get to meet up with Steph and some friends from California...a very encouraging visit even though it went by way too fast.
Another treat was going to Bariloche Argentina to extend my visa. It was fast too but we got to relax a little and have a lot of fun.
Things continue to be very busy, but I wanted to at least be sure to give a little update with the main highlights :)