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!