So many precious gems

Well, it's been quite a week I must say. I did a Jillian Michael's 20-minute workout on Monday, man did it make me sweat. It's called the 30-day shed. Not that I want to shed, just work out. But then I ended up on Tuesday afternoon, and for the rest of the week, finding my own way to shed the pounds. I ended up stuck in the house with stomach problems, but I think that's over now. My shoes felt a little bigger yesterday!

So, yesterday was the much anticipated Zone Visit Meeting. It was broadcast from Mexico where just over 17,000 were gathered for the special program. There were three broadcasts (of the same program) throughout the day throughout the branch territory (Mexico to Panama) and at our hall two congregations came for each session. In total about 700 saw it at our hall throughout the day. A lot of brothers had to stand up, and it was a 3 hour program. 

The screen wasn't huge, but the sound was connected to the sound system, so that was the most important part. There weren't any demos or visual aids to look at anyway, just the speakers.

After song and prayer, Brother Quintero did a very good Watchtower summary. 

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Then Brother Joaquin Reyes gave a report on the work in the region with some figures, but then mostly some experiences about how the truth reaches hearts.

The region is from Mexico to Panama, and here are a few numbers he gave:

949,166 publishers. 140,080 regular pioneers. 2481 special pioneers. In March, 246,084 auxiliary pioneers.  1,347,627 bible studies being conducted.

He told an interesting experience about a family with two boys, a 6-year old who was very right, and proper, and obedient and then 2-year old David who was QUITE the opposite. At just 2 years old he told his parents he didn't want to be a Jehovah's Witness, he didn't like going to meetings, going out in service, studying at home. Whenever they watched dramas or read Bible stories he always liked the bad characters in them. His parents didn't know what to do with him, they even took him to a doctor. But then, along came another little boy who changed everything - Caleb! Yes, the Become Jehovah's Friend DVD. This video really struck a cord with him, and after watching it his parents could see him making an effort to change his ways. Now he is a completely different little boy. He wants to be like Caleb. Isn't that amazing how such tools of teaching reach little hearts?!?!

Another experience I liked was a special pioneer in Mexico, learning Korean. He met this young man who told him he wasn't interested. The pioneer, still learning the language, thought he said he was busy, so left the magazines. That happened about three times until eventually the young man used the little Spanish he knew to tell him he wasn't interested! But he was curious to know why the pioneer kept coming, so after further discussions he ended up accepting a bible study, but on the condition that he'd never become a witness. He went to a large convention in Mexico and was really impressed by what he saw, but still didn't want to become a witness. He went regularly to the meetings, but wasn't going to be come a witness. Then he visited Bethel in Mexico. That changed everything. He left that visit saying that he wanted to become a witness and made spiritual progress. Nice example of how even when you're learning a new language and don't speak it well, Jehovah can use you, and even use your limitations to his advantage to draw right-hearted ones!

The highlight for me though, was the talk Demostrando que tenemos la mente de Cristo en todo lo que hacemos - Showing we have the mind of Christ in everything we do.

This was given in English by Harold Corkern, one of the zone overseers, and translated into Spanish. It was tiring listening to it in both languages, and I think I was part translating it too with the brother, but it was an EXCELLENT talk. So many precious gems in this talk that it would take me all day to write it! The translator did a good job, that's tiring work, but I think those of us who understood English got just a bit more out of it. You just can't translate someone's speaking style, sense of humor, etc.

Brother Corkern and his translator. Two different camera shots, they weren't standing that close together!

(Side-note: the scriptures are all hyperlinked below so you can click on them to read what they say)

He talked about Jesus pre-human existence, how we can imitate him. The warm working relationship he had with his Father (Proverbs 8:30). Do we have that relationship with our brothers? Do they enjoy working with us?

Jesus did quality work. Jehovah declared it "very good". But despite that he always gave Jehovah the glory. In Matthew 19:4-6 Jesus didn't say "Did you not read that I who created them" he said "he", giving all glory to Jehovah. So, if we do well at an assignment, and perhaps receive praise for it, direct all honor to Jehovah.

Talking about Jesus being "The Word" he made an interesting point about being a good communicator. Daniel 7:10 talks of thousands of millions of angels. They are all powerful and fast. Yet Ezekiel and John talk of a rainbow being seen around the throne too, which represents peace and tranquility. Imagine what a good communicator Jesus is, directing all those powerful, fast angels, millions of them, and yet there is still a rainbow, tranquility in heaven, each one knowing what to do, when and how. I thought that was a fascinating detail.

Other ways to imitate Jesus. 

• Treat everyone the same, no matter how we feel. Jesus was as kind to the first person he saw on an evening of curing and teaching, as he was to the last person in line, even if he was tired. 
• If you say you're going to do something in Jehovah's service, do it. (Mark 1:38, 39). 
• Don't be righteous overmuch. Jesus worked hard, but he knew how to relax too (example of wedding feast in Cana). 

Luke 22:41-43 - Jehovah sent an angel to strengthen Jesus. Jesus didn't say to that angel "I'm older than you, I have more experience than you, I made you, how are you going to help me?" He was glad to receive Jehovah's help. So we should accept help from whoever it comes from. Don't look down on the brother or sister that helps us, view it as an answer to our prayers. I thought that was a really great point.

Speaking of anxieties, he quoted a writer who said "Worry doesn't empty tomorrow of it's sorrow, it empties today of it's strength". I liked that line! Highlights the truth of what Jesus said in Matthew 6:25, 27 & 34. Don't worry and fret. Be encouraging to others. Jesus didn't spend his time worrying about where he was going to sleep that night, or eat. And he didn't keep a countdown of how long he had left of his life during his 3 1/2 year ministry. 

And my favorite point because I couldn't figure out what on earth this scripture had to do with doing our best to do Jehovah's will. I was convinced the brother was reading the wrong scripture!! So it made me enjoy even more this point, being proved wrong!!

First, read Ezekiel 29:18 - now, think, tell me, what does that have to do with us doing Jehovah's will. Maybe it's obvious to you, but I couldn't figure it out!

He talked a bit about the Babylonians, how reportedly their siege on Tyre was 13 years long, so long that the soldiers helmets rubbed their hair off, and armor rubbed the skin off their shoulders as the scripture alludes to. But when they finally captured Tyre, there were no treasures to be had as the people had taken them away. So they got no reward for all their hard work.

What they were doing was Jehovah's will, although they didn't know they were doing His will, they were doing it for personal gain. But vs 19 shows how Jehovah gave them the spoils of Egypt as a reward for all their hard work against Tyre. 

The point is, if Jehovah rewarded the Babylonians for doing his will without knowing they were doing it, without having that as their motivation, how much more so will he reward us when we knowingly do his will. That point just warms my heart and proved to me that I need to learn to read the Bible like that. I don't think I would ever have drawn out that lesson from those two verses on my own!

The final talk was about imitating Jehovah's generosity, given by Daniel Molchen, the other zone overseer. He speaks Spanish so no translator needed for this talk. His most interesting point to me, was how generous Jehovah was when he created us. He talked about how people can live with just one lung, one kidney, with only small part of their liver, and we can still see pretty well with just one eye. Jehovah left a very large safety margin when he created us, which shows his generosity. Very interesting point!

So, that was our wonderful meeting. It was such a privilege to be down here for that and wonderful how it was made available to everyone this year. Technology is a wonderful thing when it's used in such a way!

Well, I'm sure you have other things to get on with. I hope you enjoyed those points. It was a nice way of reviewing them myself, writing about them. Time to go get started on some housework now I think.

This and That

First of all, I just noticed that the ingredients for the Cinnamon Roll filling didn't show up on the blog post. They showed up in the email, but in case you read the blog online instead of via email here are the ingredients again:

Smear

1 stick                   Butter

1 cup                     Sugar

1 tsp                      Cinnamon

Ok, now what? Shout out to one of the elders in East Spanish Indianapolis. Last night Brother Guerrero called us on Skype. They had their Special Assembly Day yesterday there in Indianapolis. And this morning, I'm listening to it!!! He recorded the whole program and sent it to me via Sky Drive. YAY!!

I've ended up staying home this morning, although my excuse for not going out in service in Masaya somewhat vanished on me, but oh well! Charley has a meeting at 11am today, then he has another one at 5:30 to practice setting up the Kingdom Hall for a Zone Visit meeting that we'll all get to enjoy next weekend. And then at the last minute he was asked to go give the talk in Managua English congregation this morning! I was going to go with him, which was my reason for not going to Masaya for service, but then I slept through the alarm and Charley didn't wake me up, so he went by himself to give the talk. He's leaving after the talk anyway because he has that other meeting in Masaya at 11am. But that's ok, I'll be productive at home instead. 

There's so much going on in the coming weeks that I know time is going to fly by. Yesterday Charley gave a talk in Las Villas congregation. We were at our meeting for the Public Talk, then left, got a bite to eat, and went to Las Villas meeting. It was funny because our speaker was from Las Villas so we listened to him give the Public Talk at our hall, then went to hear him conduct the Watchtower at his hall! 

This Zone Visit meeting is really exciting. They will be transmitting the video of the special program they're having at the Zone Visit via internet three times on April 28th, and since our hall has the advantage of the CO's apartment, therefore an Internet connection, they're showing it all three times, and two different congregations will come to each of the showings. Ours is first thing at 10am so hopefully we can get it all set up and working well. It's a three hour program that we just can't wait to see. So that's our meeting next week instead of the usual Public Talk & WT study.

Then two days after that our CO visit starts. I'm looking forward to actually taking the CO's wife on studies this time. Last time I only had return visits to take her on because we'd only been here a month, but now I can take her on a real study! I'm going to take her to Mirna & Juliana's. She actually met Juliana before I did and was the one that told me that she seemed really interested too. So it'll be nice to take her back there.

Then in May we have some rehearsals for the circuit pioneer meeting, visitors from England who've been in DR for two months. They'll be with us for a month. We have to go to Costa Rica to renew our visa and also to meet up with them since it was easier to fly from DR to Costa Rica than DR to Nicaragua. There's an English Special Assembly Day in June that we'll no doubt go to. And we'll be making a trip to Ometepe Island with one of our young sisters some time in the next few months. And we have our Circuit Assembly in July. There are also going to be three Pioneer Schools just here in Masaya in June, July & August and it appears that Charley is involved to some extent in organizing the food for that so hopefully we'll get chance to go serve the food to the pioneers. I just can't keep up with everything that's going on! It'll be the end of this service year before we know it!

Anyway, I think I'm getting a bit rambly and boring here. How about a couple of pictures.

We went to Jinotega on Wednesday to take pick up some friends and take them to the airport. Look how far off road we drove according to our GPS! The pink line over to the right is the road!

Didn't look very "off-road" to me though!

And here is how our poor friends had to travel for two hours with all their bags. They had pillows and sleeping bags though so they seemed to survive the journey. And no, that's not a shower cap Tasha's wearing, it's a scarf.

And here's me with my complete mango peel - do you think I might make it into the Guinness Book of World Records?!

So, now time for a service experience. One of my studies is Dulce (literally "Sweet" in English). She had studied before so we started the Bible Teach book in Chapter 6. So, last week we finished Chapter 9 about the last days. Since we'd studied about 1914, and in the Jehovah's Will brochure we'd studied about how the truth was rediscovered in the late 1800's I thought it would be nice to watch the Faith in Action video, Part 1. Dulce really enjoyed the video, and afterwards she was commenting on it, and although I forget her exact words, she basically said "Seeing all that work they did to understand the Bible accurately, it makes you realize that you've found the truth". I smiled, but inside I was dancing!!! Just to hear her say that, man, there's just nothing compares to the joy of teaching others the truth.

She is one of the studies that came to the Memorial and she says she felt such a peace there that evening. She could feel the loving atmosphere and she just felt closer to Jehovah. It really was a turning point for her. She's always enjoyed her study, but she seems like she's really serious about this now. This Saturday she had to work, but she said that next week I have to call her to make sure that she's getting ready for the meeting!

As a little reminder, this is Dulce next to me at the Memorial.

That was a lovely end to my long day in service on Tuesday this week. It was a really good week actually. We didn't go out Wednesday because our trip to Jinotega wore us out, and it was nice to get a little extra rest. But all five studies I had scheduled, or rescheduled, for Friday studied. I love those days. It's not often that every study I have scheduled actually studies, but Friday was one of those great days that just flew by. 

Well, if you made it to the end of this post, congratulations! Your endurance will be rewarded in some way or another!!!

Ok, No More Begging!

So, after pictures of Charley's cinnamon rolls were displayed people kept asking for the recipe. Charley doesn't work much by exact measurements, but here's the recipe that he typed up for you all this morning!

Charley’s Famous Cinnamon Rolls

Dough                                                                                                Smear

1 cups                   Warm water                                                      1 stick                   Butter

1 Tbs                    Yeast                                                                   1 cup                    Sugar

3 cups                   Flour                                                                   1 tsp                     Cinnamon

1 tsp                      Salt

2 Tbs                    Sugar

2 Tbs                    Oil

2                           Eggs

Start with a large mixing bowl. Add yeast to water, let sit 5 min. In another bowl mix 1 cup of flour and all of the salt and sugar together, and then add that to the water & yeast mixture. Mix. Add oil and eggs. Mix. Add the rest of the flour one cup at a time, mixing after each cup. The amount of flour is approximate. Just add flour, a little at a time, until it starts to look like bread dough. When the dough gets too stiff to mix, turn it out onto a floured counter top. Sprinkle flour on the dough and start kneading it. When the dough starts to get sticky, sprinkle more flour on it. Knead for 5 to 10 min, until the dough is smooth and firm, about the consistency of a very fat baby. Put a little oil in the mixing bowl, spread it around real good and put the dough back in the bowl. Cover it and place in a warm place for about an hour.

Now make the smear: Soften the butter. Mix butter, sugar, and cinnamon well.

When the dough has doubled in size, turn out onto the floured counter top. Sprinkle with flour and roll out into a rectangle. It should be about 18 in. long by 6 in. wide. There is no need to measure it, it doesn’t really matter. Spread the butter mixture over all the dough. Roll the dough into a long thin tube. Make sure the butter mixture is on the inside of the tube. Cut the tube into one inch sections. Place the rolls on a lightly greased baking pan, cover and put in a warm place. Preheat oven to 350* F. After the rolls have doubled in size, about ½ hour, place in oven. Bake for 15 to 20 min until the edges start to turn golden brown. Once they have cooled a little you can put icing on top, if you like, though I never do. Icing is just powdered sugar and a little water, with a little flavoring of your choice. Mix the water into the sugar very slowly, a little at a time, until the sugar turn into a thick liquid. Add the flavoring and drizzle on top of the cinnamon rolls. 

It's Shopping Time!

How quickly a week flies by. We had a good week in the ministry. Saturday Charley had security at the Kingdom Hall so I joined him for that. We're doing it during the day now too on the weekends since the neighbor kids have been climbing over and stealing fruit from the trees back there.

It worked out well though. We had two studies come to the hall for their study, and someone provided us with lunch, and the CO gave us a bag of bread on his way out in the morning, then his wife gave us a plate of papaya after they came home. We were going to have two other studies come, but since the CO and his wife came home to the apartment we went to our studies house and each had a study there. I think we'll do that every Saturday! Just sit outside the hall in the shade and have our studies come to us!!! It was hot out there, but we'd have been hot out in service anyway, so didn't make much difference!

Sunday we had Group #4 over to the house. We had good support in the morning for the ministry and then had a blast at the house. This was the biggest (and my I say loudest) group we've had so far!! So here are some pictures.

This is the only group that has even noticed Charley's pull-up bar in the corner

So they took turns showing off!

Getting everyone ready to play a game

Even Hesvan joined in. I couldn't read his writing though!

Giving Jorge his bible character - his little boy is whispering the answer to him!

Eduardo trying to figure out which Bible character he is

We laughed all afternoon and made lots of noise!

Kenneth trying to figure out that he's "Abel".

Hesvan, Xiomara, Wanda, Kitlis, Whitney & Jael watching all the latest "Become Jehovah's Friend" videos

Back to front, left to right: Back row: Charley, Scarlet, Jorge, Tania, Henyelman, Emanuel, Nelson, Rosa
Next row: Abrahan & his twins Wanda & Whitney, Maritza, Jael, Rosaura (a faithful blind sister), Julia, Kitlis
Front Row: Hesvan, Xiomara, Timmy & Eduardo

All ready to head back - we got five people on the back "shelf" in the truck!

And is that about 13 in the back. And I was in there somehow on the way to the house!

So, we had another great time with everyone. Unfortunately there were no cinnamon rolls or bread because when Charley put them in the oven the night before our gas ran out (you buy tanks of gas here that you hook up to the stove) and it was too late to go buy more. But we still had a couple of banana breads, cinnamon coffee cakes, and four dozen oatmeal cookies, so it was enough. Everyone seemed to enjoy the snacks and drink. And most of all we enjoyed the association.

I don't remember if I've ever mentioned this, and I've never got a picture of it, but the first thing that everyone does when they come here is sit on the sofa, even if there's no room they still all squash on. It's a novelty to have a sofa here. The things we take for granted, eh?

Today, we also had a fun day. After a morning of laundry and Family Worship, we went to PRICESMART!!!! YAY!!!! It's basically Costco, they sell Costco brand stuff there too. A friend has a membership so she took us, and Brenda & Caleb on a field trip. It was very exciting! We got some really good deals on dried spices, and a decent priced bottle of olive oil (it's expensive here and the regular oil is not that great), and a couple of other things. Then we had a little splurge and got a bottle of French Vanilla International Delight coffee creamer. I am SOOOO excited about waking up tomorrow morning and having that in my coffee. It was expensive ($3.70) but it's a nice little treat. Everything else we bought was practical stuff for cooking, baking or cleaning, so that was our little splurge! There was all kinds of stuff I would have loved to have bought, but managed to resist! We also enjoyed the free samples!

All done shopping, just eating some muffins and chatting while we waited for our friend's husband to come

We also went to Burger King on the way home to finish off the American experience! It was okay, but it was a nice reminder that I'm not really missing out by not going there!

Oh, and here are a couple of little videos from our Group visit on Sunday. Click here for the kids singing song 120 and here to see everyone piled in the truck!

Well, that's all for now. Time to head to bed, tomorrow is a busy service day. 

Little signs of progress

So, how time is flying by. We had our Special Talk this past weekend and Charley did a very nice job presenting the information. And a very exciting part of the day was that my study, Juliana, came!!!!! I was hoping a couple of other studies would be there, but they weren't. But it didn't really matter because Juliana came!!!!

I've talked about her before. I study with her and her cousin Mirna together and we always have a good time over there. They were both hoping to come, but Mirna had some family come visit so she wasn't able to. Juliana had an English class to attend at 4pm, but since it was right across the street from the hall, I managed to convince her that nobody would think badly of her if she just came for the talk and then left.

We were running a little late so I was still getting changed in the bathroom at the Hall (we don't go home between service and meeting on Saturday since it's 1/2 hour drive) when I heard her telling someone her name! When I came out she was sitting down and she told me that if she hadn't seen Charley when she came in, she would have left since she didn't see me! Thank goodness Charley was near the door!!

So, she seemed to enjoy the talk. I'll find out more about what she thought about it on Wednesday when I go study with her and Mirna. But when I was showing her the study Watchtower before the meeting, she said she was probably going to be changing her English class to Sunday so she would be able to stay for the whole meeting in the future. So that's a good sign! Her and Mirna have always lived in the area, and their families live near the hall so they're very well known. I'm sure people soon knew that she'd come to the hall so I was really proud of her for not letting fear of man get to her. Hopefully, nobody will discourage her from coming again, and hopefully Mirna will come with her next time.

I didn't have my camera so I have no photographic evidence, but you can imagine the big grin on my face that afternoon!

Juliana is the one in the middle with the white shirt on. This picture was taken at their house one day.

On Sunday we went to Ciudad Sandino which is about 35 minutes from the house and Charley gave the Special Talk again! It's a tradition here in Nicaragua to have a visiting speaker for your Memorial and your Special Talk. Not sure why! We didn't have visiting speakers as such, but the two foreigners (Caleb & Charley) gave those talks at our Memorial & Special Talk. So, one of our other elders had agreed to go to Cuidad Sandino to give the Special Talk. But he ended up having to travel Sunday so Charley went in his place. The congregation was very friendly and the hall was lovely with very nice parking and landscaping. Again I didn't take the camera! They usually have about 150 at meetings they said, but 210 showed up for the Special Talk! There were a lot of new ones there. They had to ask about 15 brothers to stand up in the back so others could sit down.

So, Charley did a nice job. On the way home I decided he needed a treat for giving the talk twice, and that I needed one for listening to it twice (hahaha j/k)! So, guess where we took ourselves for dinner?!?!?! TGI Friday's!!!!! YAY!!!!! We both had a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Man, it was GOOOOOOOOODDDDD!!!!! And then we had a Chocolate Malted Turtle for dessert (chocolate cake with caramel, pecans and vanilla ice cream). It was an American priced meal, but man was it worth it!!!! I'll be talking about it for weeks to come!

On to service experiences now!

I have a couple of nice new studies in the Good News brochure. I just LOVE that brochure. One of them is a young girl called Scarlet. I had called on her before, and I'm not sure why I stopped. But I talked to her again and got a doorstep study going in the brochure. She's only about 15, but man is she smart. She is really good at explaining the scriptures. I also discovered that they sell "helados" at her house. It's basically frozen juice in a bag! You just bite off the corner to eat it. And they're only one cordoba - 4 cents! We got one that was melon but we both thought it tasted like butterscotch for some reason! It was DELICIOUS! And she wouldn't let us pay for them either!

I also have a call where they sell frescos (fruit drinks, in a bag of course!). They're 3 or 5 cordobas depending how much you can afford and quite yummy too! And that return visit wouldn't let me pay for them the other day. And then yesterday when I was calling on another lady in that same house (who gave me two packets of crackers), the other lady there came home and gave me a fresco!! I don't just do return visits on those that give me stuff though, I promise! I've decided that every time I try to buy one and they won't let me pay, that money goes in to the contribution box since it's their way of contributing to our work.

Another nice new call I have is with Ruth. She goes to an Evangelical Church but she's happy to have us visit her too. She asks really good questions and enjoys using her Bible as we answer her questions. She also likes to quote things her pastor has said to her, then ask if that's right. We then read scriptures to see what the Bible says. At least once she's clearly seen that what he said didn't coincide with the Bible's advice, and she accepted it since she read it herself in her own Bible and came to her own conclusion on the subject. I really enjoy visiting her since she's very chatty and loves to discuss the Bible.

Charley and I are also managing to maintain our exercise routine. We're at about six weeks now so I think it's become a habit! I wish we could fit another day in, but it's hard to. But two days a week is better than nothing and I'm feeling the benefits of it. I had a nice jump start to the day this morning. After exercising I was chilling a bit on the hammock when I suddenly ended up on the floor! Gave me an instant headache, but it also got me on the move again. Hammock is now tied up again - hopefully with a stronger knot this time!

Well, that's all for now. Time to get some meeting prep done. Bye!

Meet Group # 3

We had our group over this past Sunday, Group Number Three. We had a great time with them, as we have with the other groups. The first thing everyone always does when they come is fight over who gets to sit on the couches and recliner!

Charley and I got a bit behind schedule and were up until midnight Saturday night baking, but it was worth it! Here's the food first of all:

I made two cinnamon coffee cakes (one of which didn't get cut into so it became a gift for other friends!)

I think I made about five dozen of these oatmeal raisin cookies

And here's Charley making the cinnamon rolls. 

The cinnamon sugar didn't quite reach the  end, so the rest became bread with a hint of cinnamon!

They fit so nicely before they went into the oven!

They did quite a bit of growing up though. 

So there's the counter with all the treats, plus two banana breads

And here is the best part - the people. We had a good laugh playing games and making fun of each other! As the sun moved we did too, from the porch, to the grass.

Tamara in her floor chair!

Francisco asking questions, trying to figure out which Bible character he is.

That piece of paper says Goliath - it took him quite a while to figure it out!

And Charley was Eunice!

Me, Veronica, Francisco, Domingo, Rosibel, Fatima, Frank, Noelia, Tamara, Raquel, Francis & Pedro

So, now you know most of Group #3. Time to get ready for the meeting so I'll blog more another day.