Maybe I should have my own cooking show

Well, as you may have figured out by now I take Monday and Thursday mornings off, so here I am at home. Charley went out this morning. By the time he comes home at midday he’ll have 110 hours in for the month, which means he’s all caught up on his time. Not ahead, but no longer behind!!! So, the plan is to spend the first couple of days of February at the beach as  a reward!

We had a great time on Sunday. A sister from our hall, Sandra, came with us to La Banderas to visit Philip & Luisa. She knows them because they used to be in this congregation here in Piedra Quemada for a while when they were serving in Bethel. We got a bit lost along the way, missed our turn and drove 30km past, but it was a very scenic drive and we had plenty of time to spare! We finally got to Philip & Luisa’s just before 1pm and had a delicious lunch of spaghetti with them. And Luisa made the most fabulous banana bread that I indulged in two pieces of! This is their house. 

At 4pm we went to the meeting with them. They have two meetings on Sunday’s because the whole congregation doesn’t fit anymore in the hall but they only have two elders so they can’t split. About 40 were at the afternoon meeting. It’s the cutest little hall as you can see in the picture. Charley did a great job on his talk. So, it was a lovely day and we got home safe and sound without getting lost. 

The week has gone well so far. I’ve had a couple of studies, but quite a few of them were out when I called on them this week, so that’s a shame. But I was really tired in the afternoons the last couple of days so I didn’t cry about going home a bit early! Charley got a haircut this week from the sister who did mine. It took her all of 5 minutes I think! She only charged a dollar and did a fine job. I think we’ll have to bring her home with us!

Charley learned how to do laundry this week. Here is washing his socks! It was nice to share the job between us. I was happy to let him wash the socks, and I washed his shirts. I hate washing socks – they’re so small and tiresome! 

I have a recipe I thought I’d share with you all. We’ve been eating off this recipe for about three days now! It’s called, “What-Can-We-Make-Today Soup”.

Ingredients:

•          Any random vegetables that you find in the fridge (like the ones you bought out of the nearly spoiled box at the grocery store for a sixth of the normal price)
•          Any random spices that you happen to have in the cupboard
•          Enough water to cook them in

Cooking Directions:

•          Put water to boil in big pan
•          Chop all your random veggies up and throw them in the pan
•         Add random amounts of the various spices you found in the cupboard until it looks/smells/tastes good
•         Let it all cook for a while and serve it with bread that you bought from a lady carrying a big basket down the street yelling “Pico de pan y barra” or something like that!

We’re excited to discover we’ll be having guests as of this weekend – just imagine how delighted they will all be to eat “What-Can-We-Make-Today Soup”.  Aaron & Tasha from our congregation are coming for a month, which we already knew. They arrive on Sunday and were supposed to be staying with the Robleto’s (Mario & Wanda) who we stayed with last year. But the Robletos are having some serious plumbing problems (in the house, not their own bodies!) and they’re in the process of digging up the yard to find the septic tank – yuck! Not a pleasant problem to deal with, but while they’re working on that Tasha & Aaron will be staying with us for a bit. And Philip & Luisa will also be here Sunday night since they’re coming down for something on Sunday, and then need to be in the area Monday, so they’re spending the night here. So we’ll have a full house Sunday night! I can’t wait!!! So I guess we’ll be doing some sightseeing with Aaron & Tasha around here, which will be fun, since we haven’t really done any this time around yet. Now we’ll have an excuse to be tourists too!

Charley’s compost project came to an end today. I was tired of those little flies that seemed to find their way from the compost into the house, so he decided to throw it all away. Of course after he did that, the flies all came in the house looking for something else to eat. Hopefully by Sunday they will all have left or died in our orange juice mixed with dish soap trap! It works well. The termites seem to like it too! I just watched the trash collectors pick up that bag with all the compost in. I think they pulled a muscle or two getting it up into the truck.

Well, another post with not much of interest in it! After a while things start to seem normal and so I forget that they’d make a good story! We just had a cat in the house that mysteriously vanished when we tried to run it off.  I guess the getting rid of it worked. Either that or it’s quietly hiding somewhere under a bed or something! Maybe we should keep it around to eat the big spiders that keep getting in here. I can’t figure out if there are multiple spiders, or if it’s the same one that keeps coming in. I guess maybe we should kill it instead of just showing it the door. Or maybe we should keep the spider around too so it can eat the flies. You know, I once knew an old lady who swallowed a spider to catch a fly....

That’s all for now. Enjoy your soup!!

A Lesson I Never Thought I'd Learn!

As a few of you may know, we stayed home on Thursday all day which was a lovely break. So I decided to buy 12 hours of internet since it’s only about $2.50. I thought it was going to be awesome being able to be connected all day. I learned my lesson. I had a sore neck and shoulders the next day from spending too much time at the computer, and I felt like I’d wasted most of the day after 10:30am when I bought the 12 hours of internet. It was nice to have some conversations via email and Skype throughout the day, and download some stuff from jw.org, but I really came to realize that buying internet by the hour now a few times a week is much better. I never thought I’d find myself saying this, but I like not being connected all the time!

So, this week went by well. I can’t think of any outstanding stories. Had some good studies this week and started a couple of new ones, well, if they continue that is! One thing we did do with our 12 hours of internet was dial in using Skype to our meeting back in Indianapolis. It was nice to hear everyone’s voices, and we got to hear a happy announcement of a new ministerial servant. We’ve only been gone about 6 or 7 weeks I think, and in the congregation a baby has been born, a family has moved out, a brother has been appointed a servant, a brother & sister got married, and a new regular pioneer was appointed! Amazing how much can happen in a few weeks!

I got to be householder on Friday night which was a nice treat. And Charley did the demonstration in the service meeting of someone thinking out loud what his householder’s point of view was before replying. I was VERY impressed. It was very fluent, and he handled it really well. Good acting! Of course I have no video to share of it!

This week Charley went back to Managua with our landlord’s brother to get the plates for the truck. If you read that blog you may remember that they just gave him temporary papers for a month because they’d run out of plates or something. So they went back on Friday morning and even though everything was supposed to be ready to go, they now wanted some other paper that they had to come back to the house for and then go back with it. And then after all that they just gave them another month’s extension!!! That’s just a glimpse into how things work (or don’t work) down here! But at least it’s sorted out until we leave at the end of February so we’ll be leaving that in someone else’s hands!

Today we had a nice time out in service, and then in the afternoon we went to a baseball field in our territory to play kickball. There were about 16 of us in the end I think. It was a good time. We played for about 2 hours, maybe a little more, and I can already tell that I will be paralyzed tomorrow! I can’t cross my legs without lifting one of my legs up with my hands, so tomorrow will be worse no doubt!

We’re off to La Banderas tomorrow to the congregation that Philip & Luisa Robleto serve in. (That’s the oldest son of the family we visited for a month last year). So we’re having lunch with them and then Charley is giving the talk at the 4pm meeting. So many people attend on Sunday’s there, that they have to conduct two meetings to fit everyone in the hall. And there are only two elders, and one of them is very limited in what he can do because of his health. Shame we don’t know someone with a house near them that we could live in!!

Well, that was my boring post for today. I would like to have a great kickball picture to post but my battery died after one picture and it wasn’t a great one. And I would have had a great picture of the entire kickball crew in the back of the truck as we left the field to drop them off along the way. But I didn’t realize that the battery was so low.

Oh and in case you care, that English Circuit Assembly that we went to was a historic one. I didn’t realize it until I was reading the blog of a sister I met there, that it was THE first circuit assembly in English in Nicaragua! Before, they’d just had to go to Spanish, and sit there not understanding. The sister in her blog described it as going to a meal where they were serving your favorite food, and everyone else there is telling you how great it is, but you can’t eat it because your jaw is wired shut! That’s how one and two day assemblies were for those serving in English down here when they had to go to the Spanish one, but now they can go in English and enjoy the banquet and get nice and full. I thought that was a great way of explaining how it felt! So it’s exciting to know we got to be present for part of the first English circuit assembly in the country!

Ok, well that’s it. Goodnight, or Good Morning or Afternoon I guess.

Pali is Spanish for Aldi

Well, it’s been a hectic weekend so I’ve stayed home this morning to get a little rest. It also just started raining so I don’t regret my decision! Hopefully Charley is not getting too wet out there! Or it may be that nobody will be brave enough to come out and he’ll be home again before long.

So, the rest of last week went well. Had a good time out in service and a good meeting on Friday. I was hoping to have a video to share with you of a demonstration I did on Friday night, but we forgot to record it – despite having remembered to take the camera! I was the foreigner in the demo about using the Good News booklet. But the brother decided to have me change it up a bit and I pretended to be French instead!! I had to read the whole page in French, which I’m sure I did horribly, but it went off well and everyone said they liked it. The good thing is that the sister doing the demo didn’t say which language she turned to, so nobody could follow along in the booklet and see how I was butchering the language!

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but for the last couple of weeks I’ve really wanted to eat pizza. So on Thursday after service in the afternoon, we went to find a pizza place that I’d seen a sign for. We ended up at a different place, which for some reason I didn’t realize until yesterday, but we got a vegetarian pizza, but with sausage on it too. It was DELISH! It was the BEST pizza I’ve ever had – which I’m pretty sure it probably wasn’t, but it seemed like it at the time. And we bought some 7UP so that I could have a shandy with it. I was the happiest creature on the planet that evening as you can see by the photo!

On the way to this pizza place we spotted a Pali supermarket. All this time we were driving past it to get to La Colonia where we do most of our shopping. It’s cheaper than where we shop too, although it doesn’t sell as much stuff. So we went in there while we waited for the pizza to be ready. I was very excited to find 2% lactose-free milk! It was the same brand as what I’ve been buying, but the one La Colonia sells is Skimmed Milk – therefore it doesn’t taste much like milk! And it was also a little cheaper. I was THRILLED! (I hear you asking why I was wanting lactose-free milk when I’m about to eat cheesy pizza! I appear to perhaps not be lactose intolerant at the minute, but I don’t want to push it, so I still get the lactose free milk just to be safe.)

Anyway, so we got some milk, and some other things and when we got to the register we said “You do take credit cards, right?”. The answer was no. Apparantly Pali is Spanish for Aldi – cash only. So Charley said he thought he had enough cash. So they ring it all up, and it was twice as much as we had cash on us. It was rather embarrassing, because we had two more people behind us, and now we had to pick out the things we really wanted and run it all through again. We just got the essentials – which included a can of 7UP for my shandy of course! And a can of Coke to have a rum and Coke over the weekend! So, we learned our lesson. We probably won’t shop there much, because although it’s a little cheaper than La Colonia, it’s more expensive to get cash out than to pay with our credit card, so it doesn’t work out any cheaper really. I will be getting my 2% lactose-free milk there though – it was like having cream on my cereal!!!

Cute little story that made me appreciate that kids here live a simpler life than in more developed countries. The brother who is working on the house has a four-year old boy who we’ve sent an apple for a couple of times when apples were on sale (they’re a dollar a piece when they’re not on sale so most people here don’t eat them).  There was a day’s text last week about Solomon. So, this brother asked his little boy what he would ask Jehovah for if he could ask for anything like Solomon did. He thought about it for a minute and said, “An apple”. I just thought that was a story worth telling. Who of us in the States or England would ask for something so simple as an apple?! I learned a good lesson from that story!

This weekend the English congregations in Nicaragua had their circuit assembly here at the Assembly Hall in Ticuantepe, which is just 10 minutes around the corner from us. So on Saturday afternoon we went to hear the program, and meet some needgreaters. We met mostly those serving in English here, but also those serving in Spanish and Sign Language who took advantage of the chance to come hear the assembly in their mother tongue. They interviewed the new District Overseer and his wife. I don’t know how old his wife was, but I can’t imagine that she’s much older than me. He was a little older, but still relatively young. It was a really encouraging interview. And the English Circuit Overseer and his wife used to be in Brooklyn Bethel – Charley recognized them and we talked to him for a minute. It was VERY, VERY encouraging to talk to others serving down here. Some have been here 6 months, a year, two years. Some just got back from working in the States, others on their way to go back and work for a couple of months. It really made a deep impression on me. And then add to that the Watchtower study on Sunday, and I’m ready to sell everything and move down here! But that was probably a decision based more on emotion, so I won’t commit to anything just yet! Oh and the DO mentioned that at the pioneer meeting they had on Friday, there was a 6 year old and an 8 year old in attendance. They’re both regular pioneers!!!! They were sitting a couple of rows in front of us with their parents. AMAZING! I wish I had a photo to show you all. Here are a few pictures of some of the sisters I chatted with. Most serving in English, one in Sign Language, one in Spanish.

On Sunday evening after the meeting Mario & Wanda Robleto came over after being at the assembly down here. And we had a couple, and two single brothers from the congregation over too. Made good old pasta again! It’s not a meal people eat much here and so easy to make! Some homemade sauce, and some store bought sauce, a loaf of French Bread, and some fruit salad and you have yourself an easy dinner for eight! It was a nice evening. I wonder sometimes what the security guards here think of us. Here come two foreigners, who’ve been living here only about 6 weeks, and for the last 4 Sundays we’ve been bringing in a truck load of Nicaraguans all dressed up nice and then driving them all back out again a couple of hours later!

Our dinner guests

Well, it’s still somewhat rainy out. And I’ve had to go bring the trash in because apparently it has something delicious in it and I’ve already had to run two dogs off. One being a rather nice looking one, obviously someone’s pet around here. And the other being a sad looking creature with one blue eye and one brown one. He was a bit harder to run off! We need to get a trash can instead of just putting the bag out there I guess. Hopefully I notice when the trash truck comes by so that we don’t end up keeping the trash.

Since I wrote the above we went out to do some calls/studies this afternoon and I just had to add this note. Do you know when you really can tell that it’s time to study a new Bible Teach book for your personal use? When a page flies out and blows under a bush and your return visit’s daughter has to go and retrieve it for you. – I think it’s time.

And here is my favorite picture from the week. One of the twins in the congregation!

Take care everyone. Until next time…

Traffic Jams and Such!

Hello Everyone! So as I mentioned in my last post, Nicaragua wine leaves a little to be desired, but I would like to give a shout out to their rum – Flor de Caña it’s called. YUM!!!! Drinking a rum and coke as I type, so if I stop making sense half way through…….just kidding – it’s more coke than rum!

Well, all is well here. It’s been a bit warmer these last couple of days although we did have some rain over the weekend, but it usually just falls hard for a short time and then it’s over. We’ve had a good week in the ministry. Charley has an established study now with a young guy called Jose Luis. He’s a thinker – a pleasure to study with. And I have a few that I’ve been working on and hope to be able to inform half a dozen studies by the end of the month, but we’ll see. It’s nice to be able to go out so often. The group works territory for 3 hours in the morning, then we come home for lunch, then go back out for calls and studies. I was looking at my records today, and of the last 32 days, there are only 2 that I haven’t been out in service!

The house is having some work done it on it this week so there’s lots of drywall dust on the back porch although they did a really good job of leaving it clean. It’s the same brother that planted the lawn and trees and stuff. He’s a hard worker and so are the two young brothers who are working with him this week. I forgot that they’d taken the light off on the back porch and just tried to turn it on because I thought Charley needed some light out there for his compost project! I guess the wire was touching some metal, and I blew out the power and I think I fried the switch too because it won’t stay switched off now. Whoops! Just another of my brilliant moments.

I thought of quite a few little stories to tell but I’m forgetting them as I type. I should have made a note when I thought about it earlier. The lady that comes and does our washing was here today. It’s well worth $7 to have her do a week’s laundry, although this week I took out a few things that I think need gentle treatment. Not that she’s ruined any clothes, but Charley’s whites (socks and undershirts) seem to get a little bigger with every wash. So if you know of anyone out there that wears size 15 shoes and has a hard time finding socks that fit, I think we might have a gift for them by the end of February.

We have been having a hard time getting to the meeting for field service on time lately. I can’t remember if I mentioned that we’d been told they met at 8am, so we’d been pretty punctual for a couple of weeks. But then on the list of where the group would meet each day that they put on the board weekly, it said they were meeting at 7:45am now. I groaned a little, but then we found out that it’s always been at 7:45am, just that most people are late, and even the one taking the group out doesn’t arrive until after 8am!! So now we know it’s at 7:45, but it’s hard getting there by then!!! Seems like we move rather slowly on a morning even though we get up at 6:15 at the latest. Oh well, there you have it.

We were already running a little late on Tuesday morning, and then on the way there, we ran into a little traffic. 

Not much you can do but wait! Thankfully they didn’t take long despite us being in their path. I’m hoping to get a little video uploaded that gives you an idea of the quality of the road that leads to that brother’s house. And actually, it’s pretty much how most of the side streets are. I think you’ll get the idea if you watch it. I’ll try and upload it to the Picasa Web Album https://picasaweb.google.com/106831640947923575770/Nicaragua201112

I had my first demonstration on the service meeting on Friday. One of those you find out about during the Congregation Bible Study! It was the demonstrating how to start a study on Saturday with the January Watchtower. It went well. I was really nervous because we didn’t practice it! My householder said, I’ll just answer the questions that you ask me. She was a very good householder indeed, so that helped it go smoothly. I had one big swallow near the beginning. You know when you get nervous, and your throat dries up?! But once I swallowed I was fine!

Someone told me after the meeting on Friday night (after singing the song about the sisters) that I needed to give them all some singing lessons before we leave!!! Imagine me trying to teach anyone to sing?!?!?! I don’t know what you call any of the notes, and I don’t exactly have a good singing voice! But I guess if they’re tone deaf enough to think I’m a good singer, then maybe I can get away with it!

We had a couple over for dinner on Saturday. Here are the four of us after we ate. 

There was supposed to be another couple, but they didn’t end up being able to make it. I found out that Katya (in the picture) was born the day before me! Useless piece of information for you! We had quiche for dinner, with rice and zuquini (sp?) and fruit salad and yogurt for dessert.  The quiche was a recipe I found online. It’s a cheating one because you don’t actually make the pastry separately. But it’s wonderful because it’s super easy to make, and if I do say so myself, DELICIOUS!! So that will be a regular on our menu probably. Just something different than the same ol’ same ol’.

Claudia, the landlord’s niece, seems to be enjoying her study. She came with us to the meeting on Sunday, and then on Monday we had her study in the morning for an hour, then she came back in the evening for another hour and we finished the chapter! That was her idea, not mine. She’s keen indeed! Speaking of keen studies, I have another study called Brenda, who got called on in door to door on Saturday because we worked that territory again. She wants that sister to come back too because it’s on a different subject to the one her and I are studying! She’s really interested, and very quick to learn, so the more the merrier I say!! I’ll have to turn the study over at the end of February anyway, so she might as well get to know someone else in the congregation too!

Charley drove the truck to Managua last Friday morning, with the brother who is working on the house, to buy materials. They got pulled over (because we don’t have plates yet, although we do have the paperwork to prove we bought them but they’d run out of plates that day!), and it turned out that although they bought insurance, he didn’t have any proof of insurance on him so he had to pay 200 cordobas (about $9) to keep on driving!!! Oh well, we have the paperwork in the truck now (it had just got lost in the pile of papers) so we’re okay now. I thought we were getting pulled over today but it was the car behind us. It’s funny how they pull you over. They’re standing on the side of the road with their motorbikes, and they just walk out into the highway (50mph road) and wave their big, green glove at you!  No flashing lights or anything! Just a big, green glove! I think I used too many ( ) in that paragraph.

Well, I guess that’s all I have to ramble about. In a nutshell all is well and I was just thinking yesterday that I don’t know how I’ll ever get used to not having free time again. I love the schedule here. Being busy all day every day again back home will be tough. Now I know why needgreaters never stay long in the States!

Oh, and speaking of needgreaters, on Sunday for some reason I suddenly thought “I wonder if there will be an English assembly on while we’re down here”. And then I checked my email that night and I had an email from a sister who serves in the English congregation in Granada saying “Maybe I’ll see you at the assembly next weekend”!!! The assembly hall is just 15 minutes around the corner, so we’re going to stop by probably on Saturday after service to catch a bit of the English assembly and meet some of the people serving down here in the English field!!! Can’t wait!!!!

Take care everyone! Bye!!!!!

Mostly Field Service Experiences

Well, I was thinking I’d just type a bit each day and post it later in the week, but I think this was really long enough for a post, so I’m going to run to the store around the corner and buy an hour’s internet so I can post this. Be right back…..

Ok, I’m back, so this week so far……

Tuesday – went out in service in the morning, and did calls in the afternoon. I had a lovely study with Brenda, who I may or may not have mentioned before. We finished the article in the November Watchtower, and it turns out she already has the Bible Teach book so she chose Chapter 6 for next week. She’s about 19, and is really on the ball. She gets the point and explains the scriptures impressively. We had a great study. The other one I went to, Gabriela who others have tried to study with in the past, wasn’t home. So we’ll see what happens there.

Wednesday – I stayed home in the morning. Was feeling rather worn out. Charley had a pretty good morning and a good group went out. In the afternoon we went out to do calls for a couple of hours. I got to sit down and do half a dozen paragraphs from the chapter on prayer in the Bible Teach book with a young woman called Kristen.  I can’t remember what other calls we did, so I guess maybe nothing else outstanding happened. Charley made dinner that night because my two hours left me exhausted! And he made tostones, for the first time, and they turned out better than mine had the night before despite it being the third time I’d attempted them. Here's a picture. That’s why I married a chef!

Thursday – we went to the meeting place, but either they left before we got there (we were ten minutes late!), or they all came even later than we did, or we were in the wrong place, or nobody else came out! But we have such a collection of return visits now that we had plenty to keep us busy. I called back on a girl that I had left the Creation brochure with (can’t remember the proper name in English, but it’s the new one with the colorful pictures). She invited us into the big yard and we sat down and had a great call. We talked about the Rapture a bit, the purpose of life, and then covered the part in the Appendix of the Bible Teach book about 1914 – I’m not even sure how that happened!!! She goes to a Christian church in Managua, so I asked her one of the questions that the CO suggested when he was here and which is answered in Chapter 5 of the Bible Teach book. Why did Jesus have to be born of a virgin? I’ve used it a few times this week and it’s been great. It’s a basic truth, but so far only one person has been able to give me a partially correct answer, and it wasn’t this girl. So we discussed that too – she wouldn’t wait for the answer!! And so then I left the question, When did Jesus become the Christ? – another one of the CO’s suggestions. I refused to answer that one though! I could tell she didn’t want to give back the Bible Teach book that I had handed her to look at, so I let her keep it. She was very keen to have it. So, we’ll see what happens when we go back. So that was about the first hour of the morning I think, just at her house.  We spent another two hours doing calls before lunch. After lunch we went back out but only got one of four calls home. It was a good one though. I’d already done the Appendix about the soul and spirit with this young woman, Miriam, and today we did the first 10 paragraphs of chapter one, and made plans for next week.

So, we were done after an hour this afternoon, so I went to the hairdressers!!!!! Her name is Karla, she’s in the congregation and has a little salon in the territory. So she cut my hair REALLY short!!! I mean, I showed her some pictures from when I had it cut last, although it was hard to tell. But as she was cutting, I could tell she was really cutting a lot off!!! But I like it. It’s not THAT much shorter than I usually have it, and it’s going to be getting hot here now so short will feel good! Here’s a picture from the side to give you an idea how short it is. 

And guess how much it cost?!?!?!?! You’ll never guess so I’ll tell you. 30 Córdobas – which at the current exchange rate is $1.30 – yes, that’s right, she does a haircut for $1.30. And I don’t think that was a special rate because I’m a witness, because her sign outside says 25 Córdobas but I figured that was for a guy’s haircut. So I gave her more of course, and even then it was still a quarter of what I pay back home. And she did a good job too! So we won’t be taking Charley back to the barber shop we went to a couple of weeks ago – they charge 100 Córdobas (about $4.50) – extortionate!!!

Oh, and before I finish, have any of you heard of Nicaraguan wine, or Guatemalan wine? No, I didn’t think so – there’s a reason why you haven’t. Maybe the next bottle we buy will have less of a rotten smell and taste to it. Maybe the next bottle of wine won’t make me gag as I bring the glass to my mouth. Maybe there just won’t be a next bottle of wine.

On that note, I will close today’s blog. Take care everyone.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Hard to believe it’s 2012 already, isn’t it?! And with the end of December came the end of our unlimited internet access. But that’s ok, living without permanent access to the internet is a lesson that I need to learn.  I would like to start by retracting something from my last post. I just noticed that I said that Charley has ASKED to be chairman for the Sunday of the CO Visit. Any of you who know Charley well, would know that it should have read Charley has BEEN asked… He didn’t ask!! Hahaha, how embarrassing. Can you imagine him asking to be chairman?!?!!? Ok, so now I can move on.

It’s been so long since I last blogged that I’m not sure I can remember what’s happened over the last week and a bit. The weather has been very mild indeed, not too hot, and rainy for end of December/beginning of January. The end of the CO visit was great. We had the privilege of having them here for dinner after the meeting on Sunday. Here we are with them and a couple of brothers, Harry & Moises, that we invited along. Harry & Moises are both in similar situations in that they are the only ones in their household that are Witnesses. Not sure about Harry’s family, but I know Moises said his family weren’t too happy about it either when he got baptized. They’re both really good brothers. Moises is a Ministerial Servant and supports the group quite a lot during the week. And Harry works with one of the elders in carpentry, and is a good support on the weekends. It was nice to get to have them over here.

After dinner with CO & his wife, and Harry & Moises

The week following circuit visit is a bit of a blur. We went out in service every morning, except I took one morning off because I just couldn’t get going! We’ve been going out in the afternoons quite a bit, and had some great calls. I started a study last week with a girl called Gabriela. Ended up on the subject of Judgement Day on the first visit, so we went back this past week and studied that subject in the Appendix of the Teach book. She’s been called on before, already had the book, but nobody has managed to get her to study regularly. So we’ll see what happens. I’m supposed to go tomorrow to start the first chapter in the book. Hopefully she’ll be there. I also have a few other calls that I’ve sort of started studying with, they just don’t know it yet! One young girl in particular called Brenda I’m hoping to go tomorrow to continue in the article on page 16 of the November WT. We had a good discussion on the first two paragraphs last week. And we finally got a call home today that we’ve been hoping would study. His name is Jose Luis, probably in his early 20’s, and today we actually got to sit down and study with him. And Claudia (the landlord’s niece) is doing well. She came to the meeting yesterday and we had a really nice study today.  We’ve had a lot of very interesting discussions about hellfire this week with a variety of return visits. Seems to be a popular topic on people’s minds, because it’s them that have brought up the subject, not us. It’s been great to see how they come to the right conclusions after reading scriptures like Ecclesiastes 9:5, Romans 6:7 & 23, Genesis 3:19, Jeremiah 7:31 and 1 John 4:8. I also had a good call today using a question the CO suggested – Why did Jesus have to be born of a virgin? People say Jesus came to die for us, but a lot don’t understand what exactly that means. Made for a very good discussion with a young girl today, and she seemed to enjoy learning the answer.

I made my first fresco this week!!! That’s what they call homemade juice here. We bought a giant granadilla from the little stall that is just outside the housing division we live in, and some oranges, and the girl told us how to make it. It was rather good. We certainly won’t be buying fruit from the supermarket anymore. It’s WAY cheaper at the little market stalls that are dotted around. We bought a huge papaya (which didn’t have a ton of flavor but that’s ok because I think papaya tastes a bit rotten anyway!), a pineapple, 16 oranges, and the granadilla, and it only came to $4.50. And who knows if that was a good deal compared to the big markets!! But the papaya itself would have cost that much at the store. So we’ll see what we find this week to make a drink out of. Oh, but the granadilla, it has the weirdest inside you’ve ever seen. Here’s a picture below. I’ve never gagged cutting up a fruit before, but I came REALLY close on this one. It feels like, like……I don’t even know the words to use……like ugh, it’s so slimy and just UGH! But it tasted good!

UGH, it felt, soooooo UGH!!!!

Once again I didn’t have my camera the other day, but I wish I could have taken a picture. We were heading down a bumpy road to some calls, when a chicken crossed in front of us. And again on the way back it did. We’re still not sure why the chicken crossed the road, but we think we know what country the joke originated in! Maybe before we leave, we’ll find out the answer.

On Saturday we had a lovely, lovely day. We went up to El Crucero where we spent a month last year with the Robleto’s. We got there for field service in the morning, and man was it COLD!!! Well, it was really cloudy, not warm, and SUPER windy. I thought I was going to blow away! And I was dressed for warm weather, so that made it feel worse! But we had a nice time out in service and then we went to their meeting in the afternoon during which I was cold the whole time! But anyway, we saw almost all of the brothers and sisters there that we had such a good time getting to know last year. I felt guilty when they asked how long we’d been here, and I had to admit it had been a month already and we were just now arriving to visit, and not even staying until Sunday!! So there were lots of hugs, and a few photos mostly with the kids to show how much they’ve grown since last year. It was a happy reunion. Then we ate nacatamales with the Robleto’s after the meeting then headed home before the New Year’s celebrations got too crazy. That night we woke up around midnight I guess and were kept awake for about half an hour with all the loud fireworks and bangers they set off. It sounded like they were setting them off in the back yard, or the spare bedroom or something!

With my best friend Margarita

Charley & Adaya who about squeezed all the air out of me with his hug!

Patricia gave me a ring so we both have one that will remind us of each other.

I'm not sure what was going on in this picture! The nacatamales were yummy though!

Last night after the meeting we had a family over for dinner.  They’re a really sweet family. The mam, four daughters, and one son. The children range in age for 25 to 13 and all, including the mother, were baptized within the last five years, two at a time! They’ve gone through a lot from what they told us of their story. It was so encouraging. Being raised in a Christian household you take a lot for granted sometimes. We’re hoping to eventually invite just about everyone over, but time is flying by fast and we’re just barely getting started. Quite a few here seem interested in learning some Scottish Ceilidh dances that I mentioned so we’re going to see what we can organize to do that here one evening!!

With Sunday night's company

Well, for not being able to remember much, I managed to write a lot…again….as usual! We hope you’re all doing well in your respective cities and countries. We’re doing well down here. We will be buying internet by the hour now, so we probably won’t be connected daily anymore. It’s only 50 cents for an hour so that’s not bad. Take care and keep in touch. Hasta luego.