Random pictures from my phone!

Sometimes when I don't have my camera I try to take pictures on my phone. They are usually very poor quality, but they each have a story. I usually take them because I think I'll share them. Well, I'm finally remembering to. So, here are some random pictures.

Can you see the two guys on the bus near the window? They're both reading the tracts we offered them.
If I have a few, I like to let people choose which one they want. Often people here will read the whole tract right when you give it to them. Or at least they pretend to!

This is why a $5 meal seemed expensive to us the other day. This is a typical plate at our favorite eatery, El Turco.
You have rice, salad, beans, breaded chicken & fried plantain. How much?  A whopping $1.65. Or $2.05 if you get a drink.

A sister in our hall invited us for Beef Stew. Plus rice, plus plantains. I had to take half of it home!

Now THAT is a bowl of soup, eh?! I prefer to eat soup when it's 20 degrees out, but oh well, doesn't hurt to sweat a bit!

Where were we going? You might think we were off to dump this. But we weren't. We helped a study of mine move, and this was the last of four loads. This is what their house was made of, and what parts of their new place will be made of too. Maybe I'll get a picture of their new house sometime. It's nicer than what they had, but it's still just a dirt floor, about 12'x12', one room - and that's mam, dad, two teenage girls, and a little 3 year old. Keeping that in mind puts things into perspective for me when I want to start whining about something!

Fun in the Sun

Another good week has gone by, with some fun in the sun at the weekend. It felt like we were on vacation on Saturday, which was very nice!

A little story from my study with Mirna & Juliana this week. Juliana had to go out when I got there to pick something up, so Mirna and were talking. She's a Catholic and she said they pray for those who have died. She wanted to know if that was okay or not. So I asked her what the purpose of it is. She said so that God will forgive their sins. So first I had her read Ecclesiastes 9:5 and asked her what she understood. She said that the dead are conscious of nothing at all, as the scripture says.  So, then I had her read Romans 6:7. After she read it she said, "Oh ok, so when someone dies they pay for their sins with their death". So I asked her if she thought it would be necessary then to pray for God to forgive them and she got the point.

The funny part is, after that Juliana came back and asked what we'd talked about. Mirna said, I asked Rachel if it was right to pray for the dead and she said No. I laughed and pointed out that I didn't say anything at all! I just had her read two scriptures and she came to the conclusion herself!!! Her and Juliana laughed about that, and then I reminded them NEVER to say "Rachel said", but that "I read in the Bible with my own eyes"!! 

But it was nice to see that she had understood what she read. And then Juliana wanted to read the scriptures too and highlighted them in her Bible. I really have a good time with them. I was out in service myself that day because Charley was driving our landlady around on some errands. But Mirna & Juliana took care of me, for the second week in a row, and made me lunch so that I didn't have to eat alone. 

My little study, Laynori, did a great job this week playing "Preaching". We play it at the end of every study. Usually, we use a scripture that I left her as homework to learn the previous week. I do a presentation using that scripture and a tract, and then she copies it. This week, I decided to do a review and see how she did. So I handed her the Family tract, and asked her which scripture she could use. She thought for a second, and then said, ok, I'm ready. She introduced herself, asked my name, then asked me if I knew how children had to act with their parents. Then she read me Ephesians 6:1 and offered me the tract! So I handed her the Life in a Peaceful New World tract. That one took her longer, she couldn't think of the scripture. So I asked her what the tract was about, and did she know a scripture that described that kind of life. She was still stuck. So I asked her what part of the Bible talks about what will happen in the future, and she went right to Revelation, and then remembered Revelation 21:4 and did her presentation. Last of all I handed her the Who is Jehovah tract, and she used Psalm 83:18. She's an amazing little seven year old!!!

So, the week went by as usual for me. We haven't had to do much around the house because our landlady has a lady come cook and clean when she's here! We're going to feel really lazy by the time she leaves and won't want to do anything around the house! Laundry is the only job I've had to do. 

We changed our meeting this week because there was a Catholic celebration going on right outside the Kingdom Hall. Unfortunately, nobody told our coordinator that it would also be going on still on Sunday afternoon, so even though we met at 4pm Sunday there was still noise outside. Not as much as it would have been on Saturday, but noise nonetheless. I had a bit of a headache when I got to the hall Sunday, and so this music just drove me nuts. I wanted to run out of the hall screaming!! I had a really hard time concentrating, and at times it was hard to hear because of the fireworks and music going off. Things landed on the roof every now and then too. People just love to sit in the street and make noise down here! Here's a little video. I took it with my phone so it's not very good, you can't see the musicians, but you can hear them! This went on all through the meeting. Every 10 minutes they'd play for 5 minutes, then stop, then again, and again, and again... If the video doesn't show up in the email, click here to see it.

On Saturday we went out in service in the morning, then we went to the Laguna de Apoyo again, this time with Brenda & Caleb and two sisters that are visiting them from ND, and our landlady, Leyla. It was a lovely afternoon. Sunnier than last time, so the water looked much prettier. We also sat at a restaurant this time, and had some DELICIOUS food! Definitely going back there again. It's volcanic water so it's nice and warm too and there were more waves this time so it was nice to bob about in the water! It felt more like we were on vacation this time. I guess maybe because we were with a bunch of Americans this time, and we sat at the restaurant and ate their food instead of taking our own. 

It's funny too how your perspective of things changes after you've been here a while. Those of us who've been here a few months were like, man, this food is pricey. And everyone else was like, man these prices are really reasonable!!! Pretty funny when you think a full-blown meal for $5.40 is expensive!!!

Sitting in the back of the truck, off to the Laguna

One of the visitors from the US - I don't want to spell her name wrong so I'll avoid it

The other visitor, not sure how she spells her name either!
She was on the motorbike with Caleb (just bought it last week), but they didn't make it up the hill so she had to get off!

Everyone at the restaurant right on the Lagoon.

Our "expensive" lunch. Chicken with tostones & fries and rice. It was AWESOME!

Panoramic of the Lagoon

All done swimming

The girls

Brenda & Caleb on their new bike

Well, we have visitors arriving now so I need to go make myself presentable. I get lazy on my day off! Looks like we're going out to eat with the Robleto's - the family who moved down here from Indy and inspired our coming here too!

This week should be busy with more field service, our landlady's departure, and our congregation trip to the beach!! I'm SO excited about that!!! I'll make sure I take lots of pictures of our congregation.

Oh, and to finish up, here's another little video of us all at the Lagoon. Click here to see it if it doesn't show up below. (You didn't tell me I couldn't blog this Brenda!!)

Not a lot of pictures this time

Hello everyone!

It's been a busy week with lots of people in the house, but not a lot of photographs of anything that we've been up to!

I'll start with the wedding that I took pictures at on the 5th. It was nice to see how a Nicaraguan wedding is. It has some similarities to British weddings, like everyone sang one of the wedding songs, and the bridesmaids came in behind the bride rather than in front of her. Here are a few pictures:

Eunice & Abel

Abel with Jorge, Freddy & Alan

Eunice with Carla, Katia & Rebeca

If you look really closely you can see my white feet - proof that I have a tan, and that I wear short socks out in service!!

So the wedding was a success. I made a photobook for them at Shutterfly. Actually, if you want to see it click here. My mam and dad are coming at the end of the month so the photo book will be shipped to their house and they can bring it with them.

The week went well doing studies. It was nice to see how one of my studies, Mirna, has started using God's name, Jehovah, a lot more now. And her cousin Juliana who studies too was saying how they were talking about what they learned in Chapter 11 of the Bible Teach book about suffering. And she said they see now that they should stop saying that God wanted this to happen, but that it was a case of "time and unforeseen occurrence". It's so neat to see people applying what they've learned.

Carla & Javiera had both prepared for their studies this week like I'd encouraged them too. Javiera had even written notes on what the scriptures said. 

We had a construction project at the Kingdom Hall that unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of. They built a wall down one side of the hall where previously there had just been a chainlink fence. The work moved along really quickly and was all done by noon on Saturday instead of Sunday afternoon like originally thought. I was going to go on Friday but it was all just heavy work that they asked for brothers to go do, so I just did my studies in the afternoon that day. And then Saturday I was going to go help, but I decided it would be less complicated to do my studies first, which I'm glad I did because I found all three of them. But the work moved along so quickly that by the time I got there at noon to help, it was all finished!!! So I didn't get to do anything, but Charley represented the family!! He has a nice blister on his hand to prove that he did something! So now we'll be able to open the windows on that side of the Kingdom Hall without worrying about the noisy music of the neighbors! It should make the Kingdom Hall a little less sauna-like!

The sister whose house we live in arrived on Wednesday so it's been all go around the house. She has a lady here working for her so she does all the cooking, laundry and housework! Well, not my laundry, but at least we don't have to cook or clean this week!

We also received a new addition to the house which arrived from Honduras this week. Check it out!

It's an automatic so I can drive it too!!! I drove it around the block yesterday. I hadn't realized how much I missed driving so I'm really excited about going out in it sometime! I haven't actually gone anywhere in it yet, except round the block.

On Sunday Charley had the privilege of giving a talk in English at the Managua English congregation. I took a couple of pictures, but didn't end up getting any of the actual congregation. It was fun to hear all the accents. The WT study conductor is from England and his wife is from El Salvador. He was in Spanish in London so every now and then he'd pop out with a Spanish word. And there's another couple from the Czech Republic, two sisters from Italy, and a lot of local brothers and sisters who are doing very well in learning English. There was also a couple who just arrived from the States a week ago. And then there are those from the Atlantic coast who have a very Jamaican sounding accent. 

Here are the couple of pictures I took.

In Charley's first minute of giving the talk, he said "verdad?" which means, right, or true? He laughed and apologized to the congregation if he suddenly switched to Spanish. He managed to give most of the talk in English though! He did say "pues" which is like "well" and "aqui" which is "here". I commented twice and in one comment I suddenly found myself saying "sino" instead of "if not". Charley said he was thinking most of his talk in Spanish and had to translate it into English! I noticed every time he used the word "benefits" he hesitated. He said he kept wanting to say it in Spanish!

So, that's our latest news. Our landlady is here until the 24th, and then my mam and dad arrive the 30th. We also have a congregation trip on the 27th to San Juan del Sur which is a beach town on the Pacific Coast. So January will be over before we know it!

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to get our sheets and towels watched now while the sink is available. Have a lovely day!

Too much to tell!!

Well, we've been busy, busy since the last time I blogged. Let's see - where shall I start.

December 25th a trip to work some rural territory was organized. It's actually right here in town, just a 10 minute walk from our territory and you're in the country on dirt roads. The congregation there is called Vista Alegre (Happy View), which is also the name of the area. It's a small congregation with just one elder, but with a lot of territory to cover. About 30 from our congregation went and we had a great time. It was exhausting, but the hiking wasn't as difficult as some of the rural territory trips Charley and I have been on in previous visits.

We probably did more walking than preaching, but that's just how rural territory is. We began at 8am and then stopped around 1pm for lunch in a small town along the way, then continued on until almost 5:30pm. We just barely got done before dark. 

Here are a couple of pictures. To see the rest of them, click here.

So we all got home pretty tired, and were all sore the next day! But I had studies to do so we had to go out even though we were really tired!

On the 31st we decided to go to the Laguna de Apoyo for a swim. It turned out to be the coolest day we had in December and it even rained on us a bit while we were in the water! So it was a bit chilly (definition of chilly is 75 degrees!) but we had a good time. We took a few from the congregation. We also planted flowers in the morning at the hall before we left, but I forgot to take any pictures of that. Here are a couple from the Laguna. To see the rest, click here.

The girls - Escarlet, Carolina & Rachel

The boys - Charley, Pedro, Jorge, Edward & Hesvan

So those were two very different, but fun days we've spent lately.

Besides that, just been busy with field service. My studies are all doing well, and I'm getting to the point where I might have to give a couple of them away. I have more than I can keep track of it seems! I've been teaching a lot of them how to study their book, and I bought a bunch of pens and highlighters so that nobody has an excuse not to! Right now I'm doing a whole chapter together with most of them before I try to get them to do it by themselves. 

One of them, Javiera, got ahead of me and had prepared her study when I arrived this week without me even asking her to! And another, Carla, I'm pretty sure will prepare for next week on her own. She always does the homework I give her. A recent homework I gave her was to read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapters 5-7. She had taken some notes on it when I went back the next week, and she was saying how much Jesus advice about not worrying about material things had helped her. Here people celebrate Christmas on the 24th and midnight, and then on the 25th it's customary for everyone to wear new clothes. But she said that what she read in the Sermon on the Mount made her realize that it didn't matter what we wear, so she didn't worry about getting something new. It was really nice to see how she benefited from the Bible's advice.

Another study who I've talked about before had us over for lunch last week just to show their appreciation for having met us and for how we've helped them to learn more about the Bible. Here's a little shot of us girls after lunch.

Jessica, Mirna, and Juliana with Brenda and me.

Today I'm taking wedding pictures for a young couple in Piedra Quemada where we served last time we were down here. It's our first Nica wedding, so I'm excited to see how it all goes. From what I understand some things are similar to British weddings. I'll have photos to share of that no doubt, since I'm taking them!!

We had a lovely pioneer meeting last night with our local elders. They combined the two congregations for it, so there were 20 pioneers there - 6 from our congregation, and 14 from South congregation. The foreigners, Charley & Caleb, were chosen to conduct the meeting and they did a very fine job. And afterwards we had snacks and pop and got to socialize a little and get to know some of the South congregation pioneers.

Charley & Caleb conducting the meeting

San Sebastian & Sur pioneers

Snack time!

Well, that's the latest I guess. There are so many other experiences that we have on a regular basis here, but there just isn't time to relate them all. We really are enjoying our ministry here and have seen Jehovah's blessing on our efforts. Thank you all for your support - your emails are always a source of encouragement to us. Keep up the good work wherever you are too. One of my favorite scriptures was in this week's Bible reading - Malachi 3:10 - Bring all the tenth parts into the storehouse, that there may come to be food in my house; and test me out, please, in this respect,” Jehovah of armies has said, “whether I shall not open to ​YOU​ people the floodgates of the heavens and actually empty out upon ​YOU​ a blessing until there is no more want.”