Actually we have visitors this next week…maybe!

Hello All!

It’s been a while hasn’t it?! Well, more than a week I mean! Hope you’re all doing well. I just haven’t had time/energy to type much lately, but here goes a blog post.

So, Aaron & Tasha arrived from Indianapolis. They had a smooth journey on a plane where everyone had a row to themselves it was so empty. I was rather jealous to hear that! Note to self: Travel on a Sunday next time! So, they ended up going and staying with the Robletos after all. And then Philip & Luisa’s plans changed so they’re not coming to stay until this Sunday night. So we ended up with an empty house after all! But Tasha & Aaron are coming to stay this week so we still get to have them for a bit. We’re looking forward to that.

On the way home from the airport the day they came we got pulled over twice in about 10 minutes. I’m pretty sure the second cop that pulled us over must have driven past us when we were sitting pulled over by the other cop! But anyway, the first one invented some new kind of insurance we were supposed to have and said he’d have to take Charley’s license away for not having it. But he couldn’t give us very specific details about said insurance, and after we didn’t offer him any money, he must have decided he had no case against us and off we went. Then the second cop found an error in the paperwork of the insurance but like he said, that wasn’t our fault, and we thanked him for noticing it. So we got away, after much repetition on the cops part, without paying anything. So that was a relief but made us late getting back to get lunch started. Anyway, it made for some early entertainment for Tasha & Aaron I guess since they were following us in the Robleto’s car and pulled over to wait for us each time!

The week went by pretty uneventfully after that.  We both had some nice studies this week. We enjoyed Family Worship Evening with a couple of young brothers from our congregation. They are the only two in their house that are baptized, although their dad is currently studying again. It's such a beautiful thing to see young men take such a stand for the truth. 

And then the highlight of the week was our trip to the beach!!!!

We spent a night at an all-inclusive resort called Montelimar. It’s on the Pacific coast, just about 2 hours drive from here. We got there at 10am on Wednesday, at which point they give you your wristband so you can start wandering around and have food and drinks, although there wasn’t any food available right away. But we got to look around and get to know our way around, which wasn’t easy with the map they gave us! But we figured it all out. Then we got our room at 2:30, after lunch. We had a lovely time. We played mini-golf on a course that looked like it hadn’t been played on in two years and had some absolutely impossible holes, and we had to retrieve the ball from a stream, and the middle of a pipe on one of the holes! We had a good laugh playing. They have a “zoo” there too. It has peacocks, deer and a monkey, oh and some geese. Very exotic animals indeed. But I did get some nice pictures of them. We also had a really good laugh at the signs that they had at the buffet at breakfast/lunch/dinner time. Amongst other things we ate married tomatoes, garlic popes, bycon, and crumbled beef!!!! The beach was beautiful. Not at all crowded, the water wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t too freezing! I almost lost my glasses in the ocean, but thanks to my right arm and a bit of coincidence I didn’t! We also spent some time in a cold Jacuzzi – that was a treat. So on Thursday we had to check out at noon, but they let you stay until 3pm, so we spent some more time on the beach and eating. I really only enjoyed breakfast on Thursday I think. Probably because it was the only meal where I hadn’t eaten for about 12 hours prior to it, so I was actually really hungry! But the food was pretty good. They had some really good mini-croissants at breakfast and their bycon (also known as bacon) was really, really delicious. There was what they called a “Variety Show” on Wednesday night that we went to. It started out with 8 couples dancing a traditional Nicaraguan dance. And then the same eight dancers danced another dance in different outfits, and then the same four girls danced, and then the same four guys, at which point we started to wonder what they think the word “variety” means! And then when one of the guys came out dressed as a woman pretending to sing, we left. At least it was all-inclusive so we didn’t pay to get in to the show. So all in all, we had a really nice, relaxing time. The room was nice, the whole place was clean, the food was pretty good, and the beach was gorgeous. It’s not the kind of place either of us would have lasted a week at, but we enjoyed our 29 hours of rest.

So, today we went out in service this afternoon for a bit because we were just too lazy to get up this morning! And tonight is meeting night. We think the other couple who used to go to Piedra Quemada, but who have been reassigned and are now back from working in the States, are going to be there tonight, so it will be nice to finally meet them. Everyone has talked a lot about them, and the District Overseer called them “the ex-missionaries” which we didn’t know they had been missionaries. It seems they’re having a going away part for them since they didn’t get to do it before they left for the States a couple of months ago. So we get to enjoy a get together with the congregation before we leave, we hope. One of the young pioneer sisters told me they’re practicing a traditional dance for it, so it’ll be nice to see that.

Charley says to tell everyone Hello. He’s at the table gluing together all the things he’s broken lately! Note to landlord: If you’re reading this he hasn’t really broken anything big, expensive, important, or that can’t be fixed with superglue.

We got lots of pictures at the beach, especially at the “zoo” and the sunset over the beach. If you click here you can take a look at them. Just scroll down the page until you see where the beach pictures start.  There are too many to put them into the blog. But here are a couple of my favorites as a sneak peek!

Well, that’s all from us. It’s hard to believe that we’re coming home this month. We have mixed feelings about it, but be assured that we’re looking forward to seeing you all.