The title of this post pretty much sums up what we’ve been up to over the last few days and probably the next couple of months!!!
They meet for service every day so we’ve been out daily. We meet at 8am and walk the territory doing door to door until about 11am. By then you’re too sweaty and exhausted to do much more! I did my first return visit yesterday on a girl I met on Sunday. It went pretty well. And I did another today. We had a brief, but good conversation about what the Bible really teaches about the condition of the dead. So we’re getting to know the local brothers and learning the territory a bit. We’re getting the hang of riding the bus. It’s actually super convenient, and is only 20 cents to get from the house to wherever we meet for service that day. Whenever we do finally get the truck I don’t know if we’ll use it for much other than grocery shopping, getting to the meeting, and going to visit other congregations. Apart from that, the bus is probably easier since there aren’t too many safe places to park a vehicle in the territory.
We also had a nice surprise after the meeting on Sunday. They had the annual pioneer meeting with the local elders, and since we’d taken our letter of introduction, they let us attend too!! There are five pioneers, plus us two. One has been pioneering 15 years, another 11, another 6, another 2 and the last one I didn’t get to ask. They served us some soda (which they call gaseaosa here, which is appropriate I guess!!) and some sweet bread. And then it was dark by then so one of the elders took us home in his van which was nice of him.
I have to take a moment to talk about the young ones here too. Last time we came I was impressed with how spiritually advanced a lot of the young ones seem to be here in the congregation, and the young ones in this congregation where we are now are no exception. Here is a picture of the group we were out with on Monday.
The young girl in the front is Alondra, she’s seven, is a publisher and has given her first part in the school – not as householder, as the one giving the part. And this girl can preach!! She has a presentation complete with scripture and questions. And even when she didn’t use that presentation, she just talks to people and reads scriptures like an adult. I wish I could have somehow recorded her talking. It was beautiful. And the young one on the end near Charley, that’s Wilder. He’s 15 and been baptized a year now. His grandfather was in the truth but he died in 2008. He has some family of his grandfather in the congregation, but his mam, dad, and brothers – none of them are Witnesses. Just him. And he can hold down a good conversation in the ministry, and is also very good at conversing with people of all ages in the congregation. I got to work with him this morning and it was an honor. The whole morning talking with him between the doors, and listening to him talk to people, was so encouraging. And although you can’t see it in the photo, he has the most contagious smile on his face all the time – except for when he poses for a picture apparently!!
Not in the picture, but I will get one of them soon, are a set of 2 1/2 year old twins in the congregation called Lauren Andrea & Lauren Raquel (not sure why they have the same first name, but that’s how it is) and they are ADORABLE!!! They’re SUPER active too!!! With really loud voices!! But they are very well trained. Their mam is a regular pioneer and this morning I got to hear some of the results of her hard work with them. Keep in mind that they aren’t 3 yet. They can quote Genesis 1:1, Psalms 83:18, and Ephesians 6:1 word for word, they know the names of the first five books of the Bible, and Jehovah’s four principal qualities. I hope to get them on video doing all that to share with everyone back in Indy. I was VERY impressed!!
So, we spend our mornings out in service, do a return visit or two on the way home from the territory, then eat lunch, Charley takes a long siesta and I read or blog or something. Then we study some, eat dinner, watch a DVD or just sit about and chat. By about 8:30 we’re exhausted and off to bed, wake up again at 6, and do it all again. We’re LOVING the schedule. LOVE IT!!!!
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