Dust you are...

So, it's been three months since I last posted. I can't believe it's been that long! I blame it all on Instagram, entirely!

So, 2015 is going well. My last post was a review of 2014 so I guess that barely even counts as being a 2015 blog post! 

In January we enjoyed a visit from my mam and dad. They spent a month here, two weeks of which they spent with the English congregation in the nearby city of Granada. They got the full Nicaragua experience this time - power outages, no water, parasites, the list goes on! That's what happens when you stay past the 14 day mark!! But they bore it all well, and overall they still managed to enjoy the experience. If you would like to see pictures, here's a link below to the photo book I recently made for them. Well, there might be a link below if our internet doesn't decide to work properly. If not, I'll blog it another day!

Hmmmm, what else? We had a circuit assembly in February which was very nice indeed. One of our young ones, 12 year old Rosely, got baptized. Then in March she auxiliary pioneered, and I think she was talking about doing it again this month. She's really doing well. It wasn't that long ago that we spent some time in service together learning how to do return visits and start studies. She's moved on since then - she has about 5 bible studies now mostly with little girls, and the one we started together with a young woman around 20. I need to program some time to go on her studies with her, see what I can learn. This is where I was going to post a picture, but our internet is not cooperating this evening. I've made a note for a future blog post to include a picture of her!

In March we had a wonderful visit from World Headquarters Representatives. They were visiting Mexico, which is the branch that oversees the region, and we got to enjoy a recording of the special meeting they had in the assembly hall there. It was wonderful. Also made a note for a future blog post! And it was almost entirely in English and interpreted into Spanish, so that made it that much more amazing!

And of course, our Memorial was a lovely occasion as it was around the world. There's a lot of prep work that goes into an outdoor Memorial here, even if it is out the back of your Kingdom Hall. Again, photos to follow in a future post. There was a lot of sweeping, installing lights, platform backdrop installation, sound system, renting and cleaning chairs, etc. During the process I realized how much I've got used to things here. Two years ago when we had the Memorial in the same spot, I got there in time to help sweep the dirt. I couldn't figure out where to start, or how to know when the dirt was clean. This year, I immediately started raking and sweeping and was like, man, this dirt is dirty, and then an hour later, ok, now the dirt is clean! It suddenly dawned on me - I'm Nica now!!

So, we had two congregations with a total of about 150 publishers and were happy to have 473 in attendance. Our coordinator gave the talk, his first time giving a Memorial talk. He did a very nice job. We had a few studies there, not as many as last year, but still a few, including one of Charley's studies at his very first, and hopefully not last, meeting.

Tomorrow Charley has the privilege of giving the special talk in our congregation so hopefully we'll have a good turnout from that too. I have a couple of studies in particular that I hope may make the effort to come. 

So, now we're in April, the hottest month of the year. It's called dry season, but I think anyone down here would agree that dusty season is a much more appropriate description. When I got done with service today, one of my little friends was picking the dirt out of my hair as I sat and drank a glass of water. And that's in the city. Get out into a rural area and the dust is just EVERYWHERE. Can't wait for May to come, which is the start of "winter", also known as hot with rain. Charley suggested maybe next year we should make our US visit right after Memorial to escape from the heat here and enjoy some US Spring weather. Sounds like a good idea!

And one last thing, I have to talk a bit about my little Roxana. I've been studying with Roxana for about a year now, or maybe a bit less, or more, not really sure! Her aunts and uncles are witnesses, but her parents are not. She lives with her mam who at one time studied, but doesn't now. If you follow me on Instagram you know that Roxana was approved to a publisher and join the Theocratic Ministry School at the end of March. I wasn't entirely sure if she understood the importance of it, but she's proved me wrong!

So far this month she's been out 2 or 3 times a week. And she probably would be out daily if she could find someone to take her! Today she did really well. She placed three tracts complete with introducing herself and me, asking the householder a question, reading a scripture. She was nervous and a bit awkward at first, but she's doing so well. She's 9 by the way if you didn't know that already. 

On Tuesday at the meeting she said she needed to write down an hour on her report for Monday, which I thought was odd, since there is no group on a Monday. I asked who she went out with. Her answer - Rosely, her 12 year old cousin who I mentioned earlier. They went to conduct a bible study together!!!!! I was so impressed!!

I've also been encouraging her to do what she can to support the worldwide work and congregation expenses. She had some money the other day she suggested she'd donate, but it got spent on candy before it ever got near the hall! But the next meeting, without me even mentioning the subject again, she excitedly pulled out some money from her bag and told me she was going to put it in the donation box. It just warms my heart to see her working so hard. Looking forward to her being my householder in May or June - waiting for the next School schedule to come out.

Ok, well I'm done praising Roxana for now!!! We have hall cleaning this week so I've been teaching her to do that too since not many of our kids have the habit of helping out. We're going to clean the windows on Sunday if I don't forgot to take some cloths to the hall since they all seem to have vanished this week!

We have also been hosting a couple of Puerto Rican sisters visiting for a couple of months. They are friends of the owner of the house we live in, so they came to experience needgreater life. They seem to be enjoying it, and we've had fun spending time with them doing some touristy things. I always enjoy seeing Nicaragua through new eyes, because they often see things that you'd forgotten were odd, or different, but it brings back nice memories of what we first thought and felt when we came down here!

Well, I think that's enough rambling for tonight. Hopefully over the next week or two I'll get to my list of other blog post items and be able to include some pictures.

But one last thing - isn't JW Broadcast the most AMAZING thing ever?! I could type for an hour about that, but I won't! So wonderful to feel so close to the organization no matter where you find yourself in the world.