The first few days

So, here's the beginning of the posts on my mam and dad's visit. They arrived on a Wednesday evening after an uneventful trip from Indianapolis.

The first day they were here they spent the morning unpacking, which was an exciting time for us!! Soon our dining room table was FULL of goodies that they'd brought! Granola, chocolate, Woolite (you can't find it here!), business cards we made online for the ministry here, ant bait (we're having some success with it!), a ton of clothes mam got on clearance at Kohl's, 52 ties that a few brothers in Indy gave them to bring for our brothers here, and the list goes on! The chocolate was probably the highlight!!

In the afternoon I took them to our local zoo just a kilometer from the house. Last time I went it was 60 cents to get in. I was SOOOO irritated when we got there and discovered that it still only costs about 80 cents for locals, but that they've added a foreigner price for just over $4!!!!!! I mean, I know it's still cheap compared to US zoos, but still, it's just the fact that they blatantly take advantage of foreigners, gggrrrrr!!!!

We had a nice little time there though! Here are a few pictures.

Dad drinking beet juice. Mam LOVED it. It's pretty common here.

Freedom!!! It's an automatic so I can drive it too!

Here we are having our first dinner together at home. It was almost the only dinner we had at home actually, we ate out A LOT!

And then we took them to meet our congregation. And they both had me translate a comment for them on the DVD part we had and both commented! I was really impressed! The congregation is so hospitable, I think they met EVERY single person there! Some even used a little English. They were all really excited to meet them.

Tamara, Raquel, Gladys, Paola, Hilary & Julia

Rosario, Evelyn, Marlene, Rosibel & Noelia

Our parking lot

Emanuel & Timmy

The next day we took them to Catarina which looks out over the Laguna de Apoyo, then we went down to the Laguna for lunch and a little swim. It's so lovely down there.

I can't seem to rotate this picture, but that's mam learning to drink Pepsi from a bag. She kind of cheated with the straw though!

And Charley drinking from a coconut - yum!

And dad drinking his local beer!

They have the BEST chicken platter!

The ground is really stony, so you need shoes or something on. Mam kept loosing her flip flops though!

Then on the way home we visited one of our older brothers who is housebound. He was delighted to meet them. Isn't he cute?!

Saturday was one of dad's favorite days he said. We went out in service in the morning, then got invited for lunch at the Montoya's house (a family in our hall), and then made the drive up to Leon where we spent a couple of days.

Here we are at the meeting for field service

Erica, a study of mine who sells fruit on the corner. 

Mayling & Gabriel - we had a really good return visit with her and with me as interpreter mam got to join in too.

Then I took her to Noelia's study. Here she is with her mam and grandma.

And then we had lunch with the Montoya family - Franci, Fatima, Pedro Jr & Pedro Sr.

So, those were the first few days. I think that's enough for now! Stay tuned for more on our trip to Leon, and see how we spent Superbowl Sunday!

Jehovah just knows, doesn't he?!

I know Jehovah always knows what we need, we all know that, but sometimes things happen that just remind me how he REALLY knows what we need, and when we need it!

So, just like everyone else, I enjoy it when a day out in service is really productive. Those days where all your calls and studies are home, and you just feel like you got a lot done in your territory that day. But today, that's not what I needed.

My mam and dad left early Tuesday morning, and Tuesday was spent doing laundry, blogging, just catching up and tidying up. But this morning I got up feeling really sad that they'd left, and wishing they were still here. But of course, no amount of wishing was going to change the fact that they aren't here anymore.

So, I decided I should concentrate on an achievable desire - the desire to see my San Sebastian (the name of our congregation) family again. Since we have no fleshly family here, they are our family. And since we've been here and there with mam and dad we haven't seen much of that family in the last two weeks.

I prayed this morning for help to relish the fact that mam and dad came, but not to dwell on the fact that they went home! And asked Jehovah to help me enjoy my spiritual family here.

Well, we went out. Charley ended up by himself but had a very productive morning of two Bible studies. And no doubt that's what he needed! Not that I'm saying that he wasn't sad that his in-laws went home, but...well, anyway ;0) I worked with one of our young sisters, Francis, and we didn't really find any of my studies or calls home. Just one all morning I think. But we did spend half an hour talking to a family in our congregation whose house we walked past on the way to a call. And then we saw another two sisters walking to the market and talked to them for a few minutes. And then on the way to another call a sister was locked out so she was outside and we talked to her for a while. Then Franci's mam had us stay for lunch at their house so we hung out there. Then in the afternoon, I found one study, and one return visit. I went out with Franci again, and then we saw a sister and her daughter in the street and talked to them for a few minutes. And then my last study was sick, but we ended up talking to her sister, who is in our congregation, for about 20 minutes. 

So, the point is, I spent a lot more time talking to my spiritual family today, than I did to people in our territory. And that's EXACTLY what I needed! It felt so good to see them, to hear them say they'd missed us these last two weeks, to be reminded of how loving our brothers are, and how no matter where we are in the world, no matter how far away we are from our family, we have family right there on our doorstep just waiting to welcome us.

Now, I can't say for sure that it wasn't just a day of coincidences, or that it wasn't because I provided what I needed by talking to the friends as I saw them throughout the day. I probably see that many of them every time I go out since someone is usually always home around here. Who knows. 

But I have to say, it sure felt like an answer to a prayer.

One thing at a time

Man, how time flies! I'm back in blog world again, finally. Mam and dad are currently in Atlanta airport, soon to fly back to Indianapolis. We had a fantastic time with them, and I have way too many pictures to share of all the stuff we did.

But to start off with this blog will be about the things we did in the week between my last blog post and mam and dad's arrival. It's been a busy few weeks for sure!

So, our friends from El Crucero came down to visit Leyla, our landlady, and we went out to eat. I was craving a burger but they don't have any at the place we went to. So I got some Nica Nachos, and then an order of fries - only the second time I'd had fries since we came down here I think - as you can see, I was very happy!

With Leyla & the Robleto family

My yummy Nica Nachos

Friiiiiiiiiiies!!!!

Henderson, a young brother in our hall, gave Charley a Nona to try. Here are a couple of pictures. It was good. It was somewhat like a pear in flavor and texture.

Looks like a tiny pumpkin doesn't it?!

The inside of the nona fruit

And then, the day arrived for our much anticipated trip to the beach, San Juan del Sur. Most of the congregation went, and some from other congregations too. The bus was packed beyond description. I'll just let you see the photos because it's hard to describe it. They told us we'd leave at 5:30am - yeah right, I should have known we could have had an extra hour's sleep like some apparently did! Oh well, so we got on the road at 6:30am and it took a couple of hours to get there. Charley says he remembers school buses being bigger back in the day!

Our bus - this held over 80 adults!

This is the view on the inside! There were plastic chairs in the middle!

Charley and I were the first to get in the ocean when we got there. Apparently we were the only ones who thought of wearing our swimsuit under our clothes so that we didn't have to hide behind a blanket to get changed upon arrival! We only went in up to our waists when a HUGE wave came and knocked us both over. Charley had a swollen hand for a couple of days, and I thought I was going to die under the water! I drank and inhaled more saltwater than I ever want to consume again! So, now I'm even more terrified of the ocean than I already was before! Charley continues to be fearless!

All in all it was a good day though. Around 1pm, we went to San Jorge which is at Lake Nicaragua. You can see Ometepe Island, which is made of two volcanoes, so we hope to visit there one day too. You get a ferry to go across there. 

My slightly off-color panoramic of San Juan del Sur

Volleyball on the beach

The twins - they were enjoying themselves although you can't tell in this shot!

 

Hesvan in his own little ocean - he had a BLAST!

Everyone is so brave - nobody can swim, but they were having a great time!

Junior provided the music - isn't he cool?!

The kids had a great time

San Jorge - that's Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua

I was too cheap to pay 50 cents to use a changing room. It was WINDY that day! Thankfully Brenda's camera didn't capture the moment just seconds before this shot!

Caleb decided to follow my example - it was almost disastrous too!

This last picture is when the bus made a BAD noise on the way home, then it started to smell like burnt rubber! So we were all a bit confused about the instructions, but started to get off. Then the driver clarified that he didn't need us to get off, he just needed us all to re-position ourselves so that we were all in the front half of the bus, to get the weight off the back. I laughed when he said that, since the bus was already PACKED from front to back, and now he wanted us in half the space, and he was dead serious! In the end, he had all the guys at the front packed in, and us ladies got to sit in the back! We made it home - slowly, barely, but home we went!

And then the next day we had Brenda, Caleb and their visitors, Lyn & Janell over for lunch, and then we did the night tour of the Masaya Volcano. You're supposed to see these birds that have adapted to the sulfuric atmosphere, and the lava glow, but we didn't see either of such things! We did, however, see the bats. There over 30,000 bats living in the caves around the volcano. I think we saw 28,345 of them! We went inside the caves, and we hiked up to a high point with an amazing view. I was terrified of the climb, and even more of the descent, but I survived and was glad I did it! It was a really cool experience. Here are a few shots.

Janell, Lyn & Brenda after the first little hill

The view was fantastic

Charley's catalog pose!

One our way up that hill ahead of us

Proof that I made it to the top!

See those little ants - those are people. That's where we climbed to.

The sunset was lovely

Entering the cave

Not a great shot, but those are the bats flying out.

 So, that was what we did just in the week leading up to mam and dad's visit. Sometime in between all that we got the house ready for their visit and planned some of the activities we'd do with them.

Next time I'll share some pictures and stories from their first few days here. Hasta luego!