Anybody want a mango?!

So, we had our Special Assembly Day yesterday and what a wonderful day we had. It went by so fast. We didn't have a visiting speaker but our CO did a GREAT job with the final talk of the day. He told a really great experience when he was talking about the need to meditate on what we study. I'll start a new paragraph for it.

A missionary made plans to take a sister on a Bible study since the missionary was still struggling with the language in the country she was serving in, so she needed some help. When the missionary arrived at the sister's house she apologized and said that she wouldn't be able to go with her. The missionary begged her to come, or for someone else to come with her to help her. So the sister said her son would go with her. The missionary looked at the 6 year old boy and said, "Well, better than nothing I guess"! So off they went.

On the study the missionary told the lady that if she had any questions to feel free to ask. The woman said she did have a question. Why didn't Jehovah give Adam five wives instead of just one. She said that if he'd had five, then maybe the others would have been able to persuade Eve not to eat of the fruit. So the missionary is battling with this question, trying to find the words, and figure out how to express herself in her new language, when the little boy who came with her put his hand up. The missionary looked at him and said "Do you want to answer the question?". "Yes", said the little boy. So the missionary told him to go ahead.

He said "Jehovah didn't give him five wives because that would have left Adam without ribs"!!! 

Turns out the night before, in their Family Worship, the little boy had learned about how Eve was created from Adam's rib. But he didn't just stop there, he'd obviously continued meditating on the subject, to be able to come up with an answer like that!!! We had a good laugh, but he also really made the point too. How important it is to continue thinking about what we study!

There were so many good points brought out about the conscience but since some of you maybe haven't been yet I won't spoil it by telling too much!

Our circuit in Masaya is split into two sections. 1500 were there on Saturday, and we had just short of 2000 on Sunday. 14 were baptized on Sunday, including 3 from our congregation. And I managed to do a pretty good job of taking pictures. Get ready - there are LOTS of them!

Listening to the music, waiting for the program to begin.

Assembly theme - Safeguard Your Conscience.

Josue, from our sister congregation, getting into the baptism pool

And there he went

Our new brother, Josue

Carla (with green towel) and her sister Tamara (behind her) waiting their turn.

They were baptized together. Tamara (left) getting ready, and Carla (right) coming out. A brother supervising stood right in front of me when Carla went under, so I only got her coming back out!

Tamara making a splash.

Our two new sisters, Tamara & Carla

Vilma getting ready

I think you know these two!

Our buddies, Brenda & Caleb

Noelia, Kitlis, Loyda, her niece & Laura from CA who serves in San Jose de Masatepe

Laynori (my little study who I play "preaching" with) and Noelia, one of our young ones.

Our new sisters Carla & Tamara, who are also fleshly sisters.

Interviewing our CO and his wife, Elizabeth & Felipe Olivares.

Interviewing Javiera who goes to our sister congregation. The brother giving the talk looks like a little boy but Charley said he was at the elder's meeting.

New friends Cynthia & her mam Ana. They are studying and sat in the same row as us.

Franci and I showing off our new dresses courtesy of mam.

William and Charley. Someone from back home sent him ties, but for some reason he chose his old "Century 21" tie for the assembly!!! Typical bachelor I guess!

The twins!!! Aren't they the cutest?!?!

Jaimy & Junior are always so coordinated at assemblies.

Tamara & Gloria with Abrahan & Jessica and their daughters Xiomara & twins ( I forget their names!)

Our other regular pioneer sister, Carolina, with her son Edward.

Julia, Tania, Raquel & Gema (Tania's progressive study). And little Jael and hmmm.... I've forgotten Gema's son's name!

Our other new sister, Vilma, with Raquel who studied with her. Raquel's mam was studying with Vilma before, but she died of cancer just less than a year ago. She was a regular pioneer who everyone remembers very fondly.

One of our regular pioneers Nelson (with glasses) and Eduardo our literature servant

Our beloved Rosibel & Domingo.

 It was nice to get to hear the CO and his wife interviewed. When asked how long she'd been in full-time service she said, "only 20 years"! And he talked about how when he became a regular pioneer he was a teacher in Mexico (that's where they're both from). He won a national prize for his skills, and they even wanted to put a plaque in the local park in his honor, which he wouldn't let them do. Then he was invited to special pioneer, so he left his job and off he went. His colleagues thought he was insane, but he's happily served in full-time service for the last 28 years now. He was a regular pioneer for a year, special pioneer for 6 years, then a CO 10 years in Mexico, and now 10 years as a CO in Nicaragua.

So, those are just a couple of highlights from our day yesterday.

And what about the title of the post? Well, it's mango season. And it's not hard to tell. There are mangoes everywhere you turn and it's time to figure out what to do with them! I like to eat them, but you can only eat so many mangoes in a day! On Saturday two people gave us about 25 mangoes between them, and then yesterday someone gave me two more! Some we've eaten, and today I learned a new skill. Jam making! I just used six mangoes to see how it would turn out, and well, YUM!

Home-made bread courtesy of Charley, with home-made mango jam courtesy of Rachel!

Afterwards I decided to strain it because it was a bit stringy. And then I had an empty jar to put it in. It made almost a full jar! I'm so proud of my very first jam!

I wish I could send you all some mangoes! I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg! Look out for more blog posts on ways to consume mounds of mangoes!

Oh, and I also finally went to the market in Masaya for fruits and vegetables this past weekend. I took a local with me to help me get good prices and not get lost! It went very well. I think I saved about 30% over buying them at the little stall near our house. Some things were a little cheaper, others were WAY cheaper, but nothing was more expensive. Check out what I got for $8.00.

One dozen tomatoes, 5 onions, 10 small green peppers (called chiltoma here), 4 heads of garlic, 10 potatoes, 4 huge carrots, 7 ripe plantains, 3 pineapples, 1 giant papaya, 13 oranges, 12 bananas, one cucumber & 15 super ripe bananas perfect for banana bread. Not bad eh?!

Ok, well, I need to go sweep and mop for the floor now. Bye!