A busy week with the CO

Well, after a wonderful zone visit meeting, we had a day of rest and then it was full steam ahead with the CO visit. This was our second visit from the Olivares and we had a great time with them. 

Last time they came, we'd only been around for about a month, so I had no bible studies to take Elizabeth on. But this time, I got to go out with her twice and take her on three studies. They were encouraging us to make good use of the videos with our studies. So, on two of the three studies we watched a video. I have been using them quite a lot, but as it turned out the studies I took her on had only seen one or none of the videos!

So, it was a busy week full of long days in the ministry. Something very exciting also happened on Thursday afternoon - IT RAINED!!!!!! This will no doubt be something I'll be complaining about once we're a month or so into rainy season, but that day it was the most exciting thing ever! It hasn't really rained again since then, but this was a nice heavy rain with thunder and lightening. I've never been so excited to see rain before! I guess that's since I've never lived 4 months without rain before!

On Saturday we got to see the video that the Circuit Overseer's having been showing about the translation work and about serving where the need was greater. It was so lovely to see the interviews with families who are serving in a foreign land. I really admire those with children who do that. What a lovely way for their children to grow up too.

My study Dulce came to the meeting on Saturday. That's her first meeting besides the Memorial, so I was really excited to see her there. We were running a little behind schedule that day so she was actually at the hall before us and had saved us seats!! She seemed to really enjoy it.

We also did a really good job singing Song 92 at the end of the meeting. On Tuesday we were assigned the task of memorizing the song because the CO told us we weren't allowed to use our song books for the final song. We had 120 at the meeting (about 30 more than usual) and we sang that song louder than I think we've ever sang a song before! 

On Wednesday we had the pioneer meeting and the five regular pioneers were delighted to have 11 auxiliary pioneers with them. It also appears that two of those auxiliary pioneers filled out regular pioneer applications this week so that's really exciting! There's such a buzz in the congregation right now, it's wonderful. Two of our auxiliary pioneers just got baptized inn March, so this is their first time pioneering. I promised each of them one afternoon a week in service to support them. And another sister who I promised my other afternoon to is pioneering for just the second time. And that was her first pioneer meeting with the CO. And she's paid it forward by offering her support to another sister who was hesitating about whether she'd have enough support in the evenings since that's the only time she can go out. So she signed up too. So it's been a rather contagious month! Here's the only picture I have for you from this week!

The tall brother in the back is the CO. The four brothers in the front row are our regular pioneers, plus me in the back. The rest are the auxiliary pioneers, although hopefully soon two of those will be regular pioneers too!

We're having somewhat of a vacation at home because our landlady is here, and she always has someone come to cook and clean, so we enjoy a little break!! The only thing I've had to do is laundry, which is easy now that we have a washing machine!

So, it was a really great week, lots of fun in the ministry. We had a lot of Family & God's Word or Man's books in the hall, so the CO had us offering those this week because obviously they're much better being in the hands of people in our territory than in the cupboard. I had one woman whose eyes got really big and excited when I showed her the book, and she was delighted that I could give it to her. She told me that whenever we have books like that on offer to make sure we stop by her house! Quite a few of my studies this week told me about the criticism they've started to get for studying, but they're all sticking up for themselves, albeit sometimes tactlessly, but it's a learning process! I just have been seeing so many little signs in my studies that what they're learning is reaching their hearts and that's such a beautiful thing to see.

Well, one final piece of exciting news - Charley got invited back to Pioneer School!!!!!! I'm excited for him, though jealous too! They're inviting back all those that haven't been in five years. Unfortunately I went for the second time in 2009 so I don't qualify! I'll just have to be down here next year to get into the 2014 classes!