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!!)