Welcome back...now get to work!

Well, it's hard to believe it but we've been back 10 days already. Time, as usual, is flying by.

For those of you who don't follow on Instagram (racharley1016) I'll update you on what happened on our trip home. We went to Indianapolis airport on Monday afternoon, August 11th. When we checked in the computer asked if we wanted to volunteer to get moved on to a different flight, since it was overbooked, so we said Yes. But you had to bid how much you wanted, and we bid $500 thinking they'd never give us that for a flight from Indy to Atlanta.

Anyway, we got our bags checked in and everything and off we went to the gate. To cut a long story short, they asked if we'd be willing to fly out the next day, since leaving any later from Indy that day would make us miss our flight out of Atlanta to Managua. So, they rebooked the whole trip for the following day and they gave us EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS Delta flight credit each for doing it!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost fell over when she offered us that!!!!!!! Especially since we'd said we'd do it for $500!! WOOHOOOOOOO!!!! So, now we have our next two trips paid, since we still have a credit voucher to use from last year!

So, mam and dad had to come back and pick us up again! We celebrated by going to the Claddagh Irish Pub for fish and chips, which we hadn't had chance to do on this trip. So that was a nice extra!! 

So, on Tuesday we really did leave, and the flights weren't full. The flight to Managua was so empty that we got to move to the exit row (mega leg room) and have a whole row to ourselves. It was an uneventful trip home. One of our suitcases had a bit more of an eventful trip than us though - see picture below!

We spent Wendesday unpacking and organizing and cleaning the dusty house! It wasn't too bad though since the substitute CO and his wife had stayed at the house for two weeks while visiting nearby congregations. Wednesday evening we went grocery shopping - why did we wait until the evening?! It's rainy season! So, of course it hadn't rained all day, but as soon as we got to the store it started pouring. We waited it out a while, then just went for it. Then Charley had to dress up in his waterproofs to go get my Pioneer School book.

So, pretty much Thursday through Tuesday I did nothing but stay home and study for pioneer school while Charley went out in service.

This was my view for six days!!

It was sooooo nice to go to our first meeting back down here on Sunday. Great to see our Nica family again, and they seemed pleased to see us. And in true serving-where-the-need-is-greater style, Charley was asked to give the talk that day! 

There hasn't been much rest since we got back, but we did lots of resting in the States, and that's what we're here for, to work! Charley also has spent this week overseeing pioneer school, making sure everyone has what they need, so that's been a nice privilege.

And this week we have CO visit, which is why I tried to get most of my studying done last week. We have a substitute, a different couple to the other ones that stayed here, but we've enjoyed the privilege of having them stay here and getting to know them better. They're special pioneers in a rural area not too far from here, and we've really enjoyed their company.

Here are a couple of pictures from the week so far.

These two brothers were interviewed Tuesday night about what it was like to preach here back in the 80's. They were both baptized while the war was still on, so they had to preach just with one partner, no literature, and a little bible in their pocket that they got out if they found real interest. Very encouraging interviews.

This is not too clear because I only had my tablet on me, but this is the pioneer meeting with the CO. A few had already left, but I think we have about 15 auxiliary pioneers this month, which is really encouraging.

It was raining after the pioneer meeting, so we decided to dress up Charley and the CO in our waterproof outfits that we just brought back (thank you Menards!) so that they could drive the bikes home and us girls would take a taxi. As it turned out, it was hardly raining much by the time they got dressed up, so we rode home with them too. I was hiding behind Charley as much as I could and managed to not get very wet at all!

Well, I think that's it for now. I will share something I noticed when I was in the States that I thought was funny. The first shower I took back in Indiana, I started scrubbing the bottom of my feet really hard, like I always do. And then I looked at them and realized that they weren't at all dirty. Just one difference between living here and there! I have to scrub them here! Anyway, just thought that was funny, even if you didn't!

Oh, and we enjoyed a day where there was no water from the city, which is usually every other day, but it's not a problem because we have a water tank. However the water tank is below ground, so it has a pump to get the water out. Well, Sunday the electricity went out all day so we had to electricity or water! It was a nice "welcome home"!!! So we (as in Charley) had to get water out of the tank with a bucket, then we took bucket showers.

Well, sounds like the guys just got home from the meeting. I hear the whir of motorbikes outside. So I'll sign off now!