About time, eh?!

I finally got in the mood to blog again! Be prepared, this will probably be a long one. Although I suppose that's no different to most of the other ones.

So, last time I posted any kind of blog in which I told stories about our theocratic activities was Sept 28th. Wow, I didn't realize it had been that long.

Hmmm.......what have we done in the last three weeks then!

Well, the highlight was the visit of the Circuit Overseer and his wife. They live in the apartment attached to the Kingdom Hall so we'd already met them briefly, but it was great to get to know them. They're both from Mexico, and have been serving in Nicaragua for 9 years now.

Eating lunch on Tuesday with the CO & his wife, and Veronica and her mam, Ana.
The other couple hadn't arrived to Masaya yet.

 But not only did we have them, we had another couple who until now have been serving as field missionaries in the northern part of the country, but who are now training to go into the travelling work. It was such a treat to have them with us. It was like seeing the birth of a Circuit Overseer! He's from Panama, but raised in NY. He graduated from MTS years back, and was sent to be a missionary in Nicaragua 12 years ago. He married a sister from Mexico about four years ago, and they continued serving as missionaries, although they haven't been to Gilead. He's been a substitute CO for quite a while now, but they came to Masaya so that he could receive three weeks of training from our CO. At the end of the week with us, they received their new assignment starting early November - Guatemala! They were surprised to be leaving Nicaragua, but excited about their new assignment in the travelling work. 

Pioneer Meeting Wednesday night. One of our pioneers was sick, so he isn't in the picture.

So we got to enjoy eating lunch with them, and going out in service with them, and I got to hang out with the girls on Friday night while the brothers were at the elders meeting. We went to the house where the other couple are staying. They were super hospitable. They have a nice house with a beauty salon at the front of it. They seem to always have full-time servants coming and going since they have quite a bit of room for guests. So we had a nice time there. They went out and got fritanga – that’s what they call all things fried or cooked on the grill. It was delish!

Eating fritanga at Anita's house on Friday night.
The couple sitting on the right side are special pioneers here in Masaya, also from Mexico.

We got to eat lunch with them on Saturday too, at Francisco & Maricela's house.
The girls in the middle are three fleshly sisters who all go to our hall.

The CO changed the way we work our territory too. Instead of sending us all in big old groups to the same block, he gave every couple a block to themselves. It's very true what he said. When we work in a big group, we spend more time walking than talking to people sometimes. And then you sometimes cut conversations short because you're worried that the group will leave you, or that they’re waiting on you and you don’t want to make them stand around waiting for ages. Everyone was a bit surprised at first, but I think we all saw the advantages of working it just in twos. 

In fact, the territory he gave me I have had for a week and a half now and I still haven't finished it! And it was just one city block, although it is a pretty good-sized one. But we had some great conversations. We did feel more relaxed, and we talked longer. Another advantage was that since they don't keep track of not-at-homes here, working your own territory you remember where you didn't find anyone, which is not many houses because usually someone is home in almost every house. 

I had a nice experience come out of working it this way. A lady at one house said she was busy, I asked if I could come back in half an hour, she said in an hour, so I went back and they told me she'd gone out. Well, the next day, we all went back to our personal territories again, and on the way to start where we'd left off, I saw that lady sitting eating outside her front door. So I talked to her. She didn't seem terribly interested, but she took a magazine. I almost didn't go back, but decided I should a few days later. Well, we had a GREAT conversation with her. We were there at least half an hour, sitting on her front porch. She said she really enjoyed the conversation, and that I can go back any time I like. So I'm going on Wednesday to consider a few paragraphs from the Bible Teach book.

I've been using the new brochure a lot down here and it's resulted in a number of bible studies. This month I made it my goal to switch at least four people over from the brochure to the Bible Teach book, and it's going very well. Including a couple of studies that were handed over to me from other people, I now have 7 studies established or started in the Bible Teach book, and 3 others that I should be starting in the book with this coming week. And then I have a couple still either in the brochure, or using the article on page 16 of the Watchtower. So, between us our schedules are getting really full. I don't think we'll be doing studies much together anymore because we're starting to have too many to go on them together!

I started a study with a little, old lady named Selina. She must be at least 75 years old, and she doesn't know how to read. So we've started in the Listen to God brochure. We've done the first three pages now. She's so cute! I'll have to get a picture with her soon. Just this year the doctor told her she couldn't work anymore! She was a domestic, which is someone who works in a house cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. So, since she lives alone, she had to come up with some other way to earn money. Then she remembered that when she was growing up she learned how to braid strips of palm that people buy to make hats out of. So that’s what she does now at home. But she puts it aside whenever we visit her.

We had really good meeting attendance the week of the visit which was very encouraging. Quite a lot of bible students came. We have about 80 publishers. On Tuesday 96 came, on Thursday 112, and on Saturday (we have Saturday meeting, not Sunday) 122 were in attendance. On Thursday we were very pleased, and surprised, when one of Charley’s bible studies showed up with his girlfriend! He’s a young guy that Charley started a study with during our second week here. So, that was a treat. I was already on a high that night because we’d been having such a good time in service, and good support for the groups, and then seeing one of Charley’s studies come was the icing on the cake!

So, we’ve started to have longer days out in service now that we have more studies and return visits keeping us busy. I can see that it won’t be a problem reaching our monthly goal of hours, so that’s one thing we don’t have to worry about which is nice. It’s actually more a case of trying not to wear ourselves out too much. You have to be modest and realize that you can’t do everything.

The power was out for a good part of the day today, which is unusual. And as I write this it went out again, which means our internet went out since it’s a modem that plugs in to a power supply! So I don’t know when I’ll actually be posting this blog! At least the laptop has a bit of battery time on it still.

Oh, here’s a funny little thing that people keep asking us about here. It’s been all over the news here that Obama is making everyone get a microchip inserted in them in March or April next year. And that if you don’t get it, you won’t be able to buy anything, or get medical care, etc. It’s a rumor that’s gone around before, and people are relating it with the mark of the beast mentioned in Revelation. The first time someone mentioned it, I thought it sounded odd, but I didn’t refute it. I looked online all over the place, and didn’t find anything in the American news about it. But people won’t believe me when I tell them it’s not true! They’re like, well, we’ll have to wait and see, or they say, but I saw it on the news. And they showed a video of Obama talking about it. So far, the only video clip I’ve found is one of Obama talking about everyone having to “chip in”. I think that must be what they’re translating into Spanish as meaning we’re all getting a microchip. Anyway, it’s getting to be humorous, but I don’t think I’ve convinced a single person yet that it’s not true, and I most certainly haven’t convinced anyone that it’s funny!!

We’re excited to be having visitors soon. A couple from the States are moving here, and will be attending our congregation. So, they’ll be staying here until they get a house to rent. We think we’ve already found them one, just about a 5-7 minute walk outside our territory, so we’ll see if that works out for them when they get here. In the meantime, we’re excited to be having guests!

Speaking of guests, I have another story to tell, but I’m saving it for later! Bye for now!

The power came and went during the night, but it's back now, Monday morning.