Drawing fun!

So, back in November I brought a bunch of drawings, crayons, paper and stickers that my cousin sent for the kids here. She had a group of kids at her house to draw, and they all sent a picture or two for the kids here. Well, it took me until this past Saturday to get organized and get the kids together to give them the drawings, and have them draw too.

It was a great success!! All of the kids 12 and under (and then some) came to a family's house in our congregation to draw. We packed them all into the porch and with a bit of ingenuity of the sister who lives there everyone managed to have a table of some sort! I now have over 30 drawings to take back to the States for the kids there. 

We also played Pass the Parcel, a British game that I grew up playing at parties. They seemed to enjoy it and everyone got lots of sweets, so that always makes for a successful afternoon! Get them all full of sugar, and then sent them home - that's how I do things!!

Here are some pictures from the afternoon. Shout out to my cousin, Wendy, for her generosity and making our kids so happy on Saturday afternoon!

This one and the one below are the pictures that the kids sent from Indianapolis.

Let the fun begin! We had 27 kids ranging from 2 to 12 years old!

Showing off the picture they're sending to the States!

God's Word Exerts Power

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, we just had our Special Assembly Day on Saturday. What a wonderful program. The day flew by and left me with a lot to think about and work on.

We had an attendance of around 1500 which is half of our circuit. 17 were baptized, a lot of them young ones. Since we live in town now I got the congregation bus to the assembly, and Charley went on the motorbike! It was fun to get to be on the bus although I had to stand up on the way there since I was the last one to get on! It was pretty full so I was up front by the driver. But it's only about half an hour so it wasn't bad, just got a bit hot up there!

The talks were all really good. Our friend Caleb did a great job with the baptism talk. The interviews were great, one of them made me cry. Sister Reyes Vivas is in one of the congregations we share our hall with, and she's the sweetest thing. She's been baptized 44 years and she talked about the challenges she's had with her health. About 3 or 4 years ago the doctor told her she would die if she didn't have a blood transfusion. She refused of course, and since there was an assembly coming up she begged Jehovah to allow her to attend one last assembly before she died. And she made it to that assembly, and obviously she's still alive! It was just so moving because she's such a humble sister, and she has such a deep appreciation for the meetings and assemblies.

The part about young ones was also lovely. Three young ones were interviewed, and the one that stood out the most was the 24 year old Brother Vasquez. When asked what privileges he enjoys I was expecting him to say regular pioneer and ministerial servant. Well, he is a regular pioneer, but he's not a servant, he's an elder!!! He serves as secretary and school overseer and has been pioneering for 6 years. What a lovely example of what our young ones are capable of with Jehovah's help and what a blessing they are to the congregations here.

We also had the privilege of having a visiting speaker from the Central America branch in Mexico. He was one of those speakers that you forget to take notes because you're so busy just enjoying what he's saying! He gave two wonderful talks reminding us of the importance of meditating on what we read in the Bible. It's a two-edged sword but it can't cut through stone or metal, so we have to have the right heart condition for it to penetrate. He also encouraged us to support the young ones in our congregation, since Satan is busy trying to draw them away from the organization. I talked to him for a little bit and he's been in Bethel for 13 years and works in the Construction & Design department. It was his first time in Nicaragua and he seemed to be enjoying the weekend.

I also met a couple this weekend who have been serving down here for quite a while, but just recently moved into our circuit. She's from England originally and small world as it is, turns out my mam's special pioneer partner from back in the late 60's is in the same congregation as this sister's parents, in Spain! Funny how you find something in common so often in Jehovah's organization. We are such a united brotherhood.

We have quite a group of experienced brothers in our circuit now. I got to stand and listen to a missionary couple who were visiting the assembly, a missionary couple who are in our circuit now, and another couple who are here on their own, but used to be missionaries in Honduras. What a privilege to just stand and admire such pillars and learn from them. One of them was interviewed in the part about youths. How she used her youth to serve Jehovah and has no regrets. Actually, her story came out in the April 22nd 1985 Awake. It's entitled Achieving My Childhood Goal. You should read it. Made me cry!

I was also really excited to have studies at the assembly. Alejandra, she's 9 and has been studying for about a month, was there and her dad came too! First time for both of them at an assembly. I haven't had chance to talk to him yet about it, but maybe he'll be the next new study to be started!

Anahis was also there with her family. She was raised in the truth but never did anything about it. She seems to be really starting to enjoy her study and has been at more meetings lately too. She told me when we had her study last week that she had never really taken it seriously before, and that she'd never got into the deeper things like the subjects in the Appendix of the Bible Teach book that we've been studying. She has some great questions, really thinks things through, so we'll see what happens there!

And Cynthia came, and brought her two kids. She's just on fire!! She came with her young cousin who is also studying, and they got there themselves on the bus and arrived earlier than our congregation bus did! In her study last week I had been helping her see how to isolate the key phrase in a scripture that relates to the point being made in the paragraph. That seemed like a new idea to her. Funny thing is, the CO talked exactly about that in his talk about using the Bible in the ministry. We both thought of each other during that talk! 

And when we were chatting at lunch time a friend came by who just got appointed a regular pioneer this week and is on such a high!! She's a young one I had the privilege of studying with in our previous congregation. She had already baptized about 6 years, but had never studied the second book and had never really set firm roots down, always up and down spiritually. She's doing so well now though, so happy to have reached her goal of regular pioneering. When I told Cynthia why this friend was so excited, Cynthia sighed and said "I have a such a long way to go to reach my purpose". When I asked her what purpose she was referring to, she said, "To preach. To have more knowledge and share it with others". Makes you dance inside when a bible student says something like that doesn't it?!?! She really seems determined to progress and she's on the right track!

Charley and I have both been a bit sick this week. Well, him first, and now me. Charley had some stomach issues but he seems fine today, and I've had a sore throat since Saturday night. I didn't go out yesterday in an attempt to kill off whatever this is, and today we're home all day too. I have a scratchy throat still, but I think maybe I'll manage to stop it becoming a full blown cold, I hope! Lots of water and rest in between the housework and laundry!

And exciting news, Charley just went to the supermarket to pick up a few things and he found a toaster!!!! YAY!!!!! They sell almost all appliances at that store, except toasters! But it was worth the wait, he found one today! I was just saying this morning that I was really missing toast, and voila! Hahaha!!! It's the little things in life...

So, that's the main news. We had a busy week of helping clean at the assembly hall. They have a new arrangement where each congregation in the area is assigned a day to go help clean the place. Our day fell on the same week as the assembly! So we were there most of Thursday cleaning, and then again Friday morning doing pre-assembly clean! Friday was easy though. There must have been about 350 people there to help, so in about 90 minutes everything was done!! We have great support for the assembly cleaning in this circuit!

Service is going well. I started a new study last week - because I didn't already have enough! I actually don't have hardly any morning studies, all in the afternoons, so now I have a morning one. She turns out to be Cynthia's sister-in-law and she seems really interested in studying, and when she found out Cynthia studies that seemed to encourage her too. She's the only person I've ever met who named their child Job. Isn't that cute?! Job Isaias is her youngest, and the other is Elias Daniel. All bible names.

Well, I leave you with a few recent pictures. I didn't really take any at the assembly, but I have a few pictures I want to collect from other people's cameras so if I ever accomplish that I will post them in the future!

Ready for meeting - I love this picture!!

Ride home from the assembly on the congregation bus! Yes, you see mam, dad, and two boys on the seat behind. What you don't see are their two daughters - 6 on a seat made for 3, or 2 comfortably!

Ignore how dorky my hair looks in this picture, just wanted to post a shot of the dresses Brenda, Lupita and I all had made for the assembly. Material cost me $3.50, and the lady charged me $4 to make it! We're going to make a catalog and fill it with the dresses we have her make for us. Yes, dresses in plural - this was the first, but won't be the last!

What a whirlwind week!

I write this post from our new home, using our freshly installed internet, drinking a lovely cup of hot tea. And I will begin by saying, WE LOVE OUR NEW PLACE!!!

Don't get me wrong, the other house where we lived was fantastic. The owners were very generous, we had the convenience of a truck, and of course since November we had the luxury of our very own swimming pool and hot tub! But, we definitely don't miss the traveling at all. We live just about 10 minutes motorbike ride from our Kingdom Hall, whereas before we lived about 25 minutes truck ride away. We can actually come home for lunch in the middle of the day now, and get ready for the Sunday meeting in our own house! And if Charley ever has meetings to go to, I can just get a taxi home for about 60 cents from wherever we are in town. It's just wonderful.

So, it all happened really quickly. We just started seriously thinking about moving a couple of weeks ago. I think what really brought it on was when a brother in our congregation was attacked and ended up in the hospital. We were at home when we found out, and just too far away to run over to the family's house to find out what was going on. That really made me wish we lived at a convenient distance. With gas at almost $5 a gallon, and a big truck that guzzles lots of it, trips to our territory were not cheap.

A while back I blogged about helping some friends move to another area, and the house we moved them out of is right in Masaya, across the street from the biggest grocery store in town, just close to everything really. So we got the number of the brother in Puerto Rico who owns the house and found out it was available if we wanted it. Then a friend of ours who left for two months to Guatemala told us she was selling her motorbike. It just seemed like everything was falling into place and after much prayer we decided that this was the right decision.

So, within a space of days we bought a motorbike, moved our stuff to the new house, and by Thursday of last week we were living here! So far, so good. The house is nice and roomy, we have room for guests when we have any, the neighborhood is quiet, and we're surrounded by Witnesses. We have a water tank so even though the water only comes from the city every other day, we always have running water available. I have to admit I still don't like riding on the motorbike too much, but I'm getting used to it!

We had our first rainy season bike riding moment last night!! The rain has just started this week, and after eating dinner out with our friends last night it started pouring! The first real downpour we've had so far. We waited until it died down and jumped on our soggy motorbikes!! Everything was going well until this obnoxious motorbike rider flew past us through deep water and drenched us on one side, and the poor couple in front of us who had a little baby wedged in between them (you'd be shocked if you saw how many members of a family manage to fit on a motorbike here!). But it was kinda fun! Time to go poncho shopping though!

So, here are some pictures since I know you're dying to see how our new place looks!

View from the kitchen

Back patio where the water tank is in the ground.

Kitchen, obviously!

Our bathroom, en-suite. That's the edge of the shower cubicle you can see on the left. Not sure how you'd take a shower with the one over the tub without getting water everywhere! That's a whirlpool tub! First time we've ever seen a bathtub in Nicaragua.

Our bedroom. It's really roomy. Bigger than at the other house, as is the bathroom.

Living room looking from front entrance.

Spare bedroom

Spare bathroom

Front entrance, also called motorbike parking station!

Storage room, which even would serve as a third bedroom. Nice to have somewhere to hang clothes up indoors during rainy season!

Our "street". It's an alley really, off a main street.

Front of the house. We have five keys to get inside the place!!

On a very sad note, the brother I mentioned earlier who was attacked, died two weeks later in the hospital. He would have been 66 years old in August, and he was the sweetest, most humble brother. He was a ministerial servant in our congregation, and we meet at his house for field service four times a week. His wife Frances is holding up as well as can be expected. They had been married 26 years and he was baptized in 1994. He had four children, but from a previous marriage. There was a huge turnout for his funeral on Thursday, and the brother who gave the talk did a wonderful job with it, reminding us of everything we loved so much about our dear brother Domingo. It just doesn't seem real, that he's gone. How we long for the time soon when we'll be able to welcome such ones back to a world free of violence and sickness.

Field service has been going really well lately. I have about 18 Bible studies and it's a challenge to keep up with them all at times, trying to remember each ones problems, questions, kids' names, homework assignment, etc!! But it's a lovely problem to have and I'm not complaining! They've all been pretty regular lately too, most of them at least. Almost half of them have been to at least one meeting, and about 7 of them come regularly. 

One in particular that really surprised me last month was Cynthia. Her aunt is in our congregation, and she put Cynthia on the spot one day less than two months ago by telling her she should have me study with her! I wasn't sure she was really so sure of the idea, but she agreed. When I went the first time she wasn't there. I went back later the same day and she seemed to reluctantly accept a study! But she ended up enjoying it I think, and we talked about a couple of things she said she doesn't like about the Witnesses, and in the end she realized that those are just Jehovah's standards as outlined in the Bible.

Anyway, we had a couple of studies, just reviewing the first couple of chapters of the Teach book since she'd studied them before, nothing outstanding really. She came to the Memorial, but she does every year. She used to study and go to meetings in her early teens, but then stopped and now she's in her early 20's and has two kids. So, one Sunday a few weeks ago we went to Tisma to give a talk, so I didn't go for her study or to our meeting. That following Tuesday after the meeting I turn around and who do I see?! Cynthia!!! I was so surprised! Turns out she had been at the Sunday meeting too, and she had prepared for her study the day I didn't go! So, we made plans to have her study during the week. She had not only underlined the remaining 17 paragraphs of Chapter three, she'd also made notes in her book on all the scriptures like I had started to show her how to do the previous week!

She hasn't missed a meeting since, she prepares thoroughly for her study, and she's studying twice a week now!!!! She is really wanting to make changes, and is just on fire!! Oh, and she read a scripture during the Watchtower on Sunday! What a privilege it is to be used in a small way by Jehovah to help someone find their way back on to the road to life!

Another new study is Alejandra. Three of her cousins (aged 12, 11 and 7) are new unbaptized publishers in our congregation, and I study with her cousin Roxana too (aged 8) who comes to all of the meetings. So, now Alejandra is studying too. She's 9 and we've had about four studies now. She asked me to go twice a week!! And she came to her first ever meeting a week ago Sunday. She said she wanted to comment next time, so we prepared three comments for yesterday. Unfortunately, she didn't come. According to her cousin Roxana it was because she didn't want to wear the same dress she wore last Sunday. I guess it's the only one she has. Poor little thing!!!  I haven't seen her yet, but I'll have to reassure her that nobody will mind. I think this trip home in July I want to bring back lots of kids' clothes. Maybe Alejandra can get herself another dress or two that way. 

Well, this post has turned into another long one, way too long. There are so many other experiences but we'll save them for another day perhaps.

I would like to say that although I don't love riding the motorbike yet, I did manage to ride home on the back this afternoon carrying a 10 gallon wastebasket with some groceries inside it and another bag on my shoulder, while Charley carried the rest of the groceries in his backpack! Who needs a car!!!

Oh, and for the non-Instagrammers, I got a new haircut!!!! When we went to Tisma, the special pioneer couple from Spain who serve there invited us over afterwards. She was a hairdresser for 10 years in Spain, so she knows how to cut fine, European hair, unlike most hairdressers here since they're used to thick hair. I love it! 

On that very vain note, I finish today's blog post!

Shout of praise in the press

Just had to share this beautiful article about the relief work going on in the Philippines. What a wonderful shout of praise to Jehovah and his organization. Click the link below to read it.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/597786/yolanda-homes-up-in-5-days-in-leyte 

And just briefly - we're moving tomorrow! We'll be living much closer to our territory, and we bought a motorbike! But more about that later. I have to pack!

Encouraging Memorial Season post

I just had to post a link to my friend Shawn's blog about their Memorial. It's so very encouraging. She lives and serves just down the road from us, the next territory over from the one we live in. Lovely to see the growth.

Here's the link to her post http://shawn-adventuresinnicaragua.blogspot.com/2014/04/memorial-season-2014.html

She mentions a small area called San Francisco. If you've been reading the blog for a while you may have read about our adventurous trip home from our Pioneer Meeting last year. San Francisco was one of the little places we drove through in the dark trying to get home! Nice to hear about the work going on there.

Memorial season, go, go, go!

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Memorial season and are enjoying following up on the interest shown.

Here all is well. It's been really hectic this month, since April 1st we haven't had a single day off to just relax, so this morning I stayed home for a bit to try and get some rest, do some studying, and get a bit of baking done. It smells really good in here right now!!

Our two biggest events this month were the Memorial, obviously, and the Central America branch (formerly called Mexico branch) had a visit from Bro. Losch of the Governing Body. The three-hour program was streamed out to all congregations who could get connected, and since we have the advantage of using the CO's internet connection at the hall, we had a trouble-free viewing of the program.

It started with a beautiful Watchtower Summary by Armando Ochoa. It was a wonderful lesson anyway, and he did such a wonderful job of summarizing it. Very nice indeed.

Then a report on the region supervised by the Central America branch which stretches from Mexico to Panama. There are 980, 897 publishers in the region, 807,000 of which are in Mexico. The rest of us are pretty little!! There are over 1,300,000 studies being conducted, 1 million of which are in Mexico alone. We had a 2.2% increase as a region, and in Bethel there are 18 nationalities represented and there is translation being done in 58 languages. A lot of those translation groups have now moved, or are in the process of moving out of Bethel and into the areas where the language is widely spoken. No other organization goes to such lengths to translate into so many indigenous languages.

Then Brother Losch gave his talk, which was the rest of the program. He made some really interesting points. He talked a lot about higher education, what dangers it exposes our young ones to. He mentioned that some parents are encouraging it so that their children can take care of them in their old age. He asked those parents "Where's your sense of urgency? Where is your trust in Jehovah?" He was very direct with some of the things he said, which I really liked! And the phrase I liked most on that subject was "Higher education is not enough for Jehovah's people. We need the HIGHEST education, the one that Jehovah provides by means of the variety of theocratic schools".

He also emphasized why we do what we do. That we preach principally, not to save lives, but because of our love for Jehovah and our desire to contribute to the sanctification of his name. And that we don't do Bible reading just to gain knowledge, but primarily to get to know Jehovah better, to increase our love for him. He said if we say we don't have time, well, we have to FIND the time. And I liked what he said - "When we do our Bible reading despite being tired, we give Jehovah even more reason to love us". What a loving God we have!

And something that I personally feel I need to work on, good works. He pointed out that preaching is not enough. We have to balance our time so that we can also do fine works, especially for our brothers and sisters. Dorcas was known for her fine works, not her zeal in the ministry, although she was no doubt a zealous evangelizer. Sometimes I get so caught up with studies and field service that I don't take out the time to just visit the sick, and do things for the friends, so that was a good reminder for me!

He also reminded us of the need to preach in small groups, small, small, small he said! Well, he said pequeno, but I'm translating! His Spanish is pretty good so it was nice to get to listen to it without the need of an interpreter. 

The three speakers, and a little shot of us singing. It was nice how they showed the auditorium in Mexico during the song so we felt like we were there with them!

Of course, the other highlight of this month was the Memorial. I had my doubts about how we were going to make our Memorial location look pretty, but I think we pulled it off! We have about 73 publishers now but we had 222 in attendance. Don Oracio came, the man in the wheelchair, and my study Ruth who also brought her two kids, teenage niece and a friend. And we had some other studies there, but mostly those who go every year anyway. I was really excited that Ruth came though, and that she brought guests! I haven't had chance to sit and talk to her yet about it, but she seemed to enjoy it. That was her first meeting, so hopefully it won't be her last! The electricity had been going out quite a bit in the week leading up to the Memorial, and as you may have seen on the news we've had quite a lot of earthquakes and aftershocks around here, although only one did much damage and it wasn't in our area. But, thankfully for the Memorial there were no rumbles, and the electricity didn't go out until we were putting the last item from the stage into the truck to take it away! Good timing I thought!

Here are some pictures which you may have already seen on Instagram!

Our studies and return visits. Don Oracio, in the wheelchair, told me the other day that of all the religious organizations he's visited, this is the only one he's really liked. He's so very impressed and doesn't plan on going anywhere else!

Our congregation. Some came in taxis, others on bikes, and a few in a cart!! Haha, that was actually afterwards. I think they were coming to pick something up, and so the girls got in and let their brother push them!

Charley did a wonderful job. The chairman was our Coordinator, Wilber. We had two beautiful flower arrangements made for just $15 a piece, and I had my first french braid in over a decade!!

More of our congregation

Who needs curlers when you have plastic straws?! I love people's ingenuity here!

We also had some lovely visitors for a few days. They are friends of friends from the State of Washington, and they came to Nicaragua for a few weeks to immerse themselves in Spanish. I also think they maybe got bitten by the needgreater bug because by the end of the trip they didn't want to leave, and they said "see you soon"!! We got to take them out in service in Masaya (we almost killed them with two long, hot days!) and we took them up to El Crucero too where we spent our first month in Nicaragua way back when!

This is the BEST smoothie place in Masaya, and they had the brilliant idea of making giant tables and chairs! 

Our friend, Steven, also got a custom made, leather service bag with his name on it, made in Masaya. It only took the guy two days to make it, and I'm in love with it!! I might just have to design one myself now for the meetings!

After our morning in service up in El Crucero with Mario Robleto. Steven & Chloe are the cute couple on Charley's left.

We also spent a nice evening at TGI Friday's with Steven & Chloe, Monica, Veronica and Brenda & Caleb.

I was horrified when I realized I had eaten the ENTIRE burger. I was sure I'd have half of it left. I guess I worked up an appetite that day or something!

I also just have to share this picture and story, for those of you who haven't already seen it on Instagram! I've managed to live here 18 months without ever riding on a motorbike, but the Sunday that Charley went to pick Steven & Chloe up he left me in Masaya at a cafe with some friends. I hoped he'd be back before the cafe closed, but he wasn't. So I had to get on a motorbike and pretend not to be nervous! Since I'm a rookie they made me get in the middle. It was a bonding experience if nothing else!! Just a shame that I was wearing a really long, narrow dress that evening. Yes, that's a dress in the picture, not shorts!!!

Thankfully we didn't have very far to go. Just a few blogs on small, city streets.

And last, but absolutely not least, a shout out to our dear friends Veronica & Monica Iglesias. We had to say goodbye to Monica, and it might have been our last time with Veronica too, last week. Veronica has been here about 3 years, and she's a true missionary. Like someone once expressed it, "She makes me feel like a little grandma shuffling around in my slippers down here". I admire her immensely, as I do all single sisters serving where the need is greater. Her sister Monica came for four months and was a trooper too. So, Monica is heading back to the States, and Veronica is off to serve on the pioneer campaign for a couple of months in Guatemala - like I said, missionary through and through! And since we'll be gone July and part of August we might not see her again since she's heading back to the States in August to see what far-flung part of the earth she'll go to next!

So, we spent some time with these wonderful girls over the last week, and best wishes to you both, and thanks for the inspiration! Oh, and Monica, if you're reading this, can you send the pictures you took of us together in Granada, please? The crazy hair ones!

Caleb, Brenda, Veronica, Monica, their cousin Maddy who came to visit, and us, after enjoying fabulous pizza in Granada! Yum!!

Veronica, Brenda, Caleb, me, and Monica just before the motorbike ride! 

Same folks again, enjoying some Gelato in Granada.

Well, now you know why I had to take this morning off to recover!! Between theocratic activities and socializing with great friends, it's been a rather exhausting month so far!! 

The rest of this month looks to be equally busy, but maybe May will be calmer. That's what I say every month, MAYBE!

Just a quick one

Just a quick post to put a few pictures out there for anyone who hasn't already seen them in Instagram! Things are going well here. It's been really busy lately, and we've had a full house with our landlady, her daughter, and her brother here, so it feels like we've been even busier than ever this last couple of weeks.

The ministry is going really well. I have a lot of studies now, it's a challenge to keep up with them all, but it's a nice problem to have!

The congregation is really flourishing too. As I think I mentioned before, in the first 9 months we just had one new publisher, although we had 5 baptized. But all of a sudden we've had a bunch of new publishers. All little kids and old ladies! Another of the little girls we spend a lot of time around was approved for this past month, and her brother is about to reach that goal too. And another young teenager too. And then three older studies. Two of them are almost 80, the other is a little younger, but she's blind. One of the almost 80-year old's has back problems so she can't walk too well. So she set up a table outside her house. It's a busy street, and she knows everyone, so I think she placed over 40 pieces of literature her first day sitting there! The other almost 80-year old was at the group on Saturday for her first time out, although I haven't had chance to talk to her yet to see how it went.

I hope to have some pictures soon of all our new publishers. It's so lovely to see older ones coming along like that. We have at least 6 more studies that are over 50 too, and are at all the meetings, so maybe we'll have another growth spurt in the next 6 months or so. It's lovely to see the growth. It's like the congregation has finally settled, we're all getting used to each other, and so now the growth begins!

We also had a man from our territory come to the meeting for the first time a couple of weeks ago. He's been in the territory since always, and a lot of people have talked to him, and everyone was really pleased and surprised to see him at the Kingdom Hall for the first time. He was sick this past Sunday, so we'll see if he comes this coming weekend. Our friend Cherub met him out in service and set things up for us to take him. Here he is below, chatting with Charley outside the hall. He said afterwards that the really enjoyed it. He was impressed with how well organized we are, how well everything was explained, and how the kids all participate too.

Don Oracio at his first meeting. Charley's not asleep, just squinting from the sun!

And here are some more random pictures with brief explanations below each one.

Here we are on Sunday getting our Memorial location cleaned up. They painted over the graffiti! We'll be having it outdoors again, but this time on a piece of land owned by a study in our hall. It's nice because it's in our territory, unlike our Kingdom Hall, so hopefully we'll have a lot of people come that evening. 

We spent a lovely evening down by Lake Nicaragua in Granada with some friends who serve nearby, and some others who serve in English in La Ceiba, Honduras. If you're thinking of serving in English somewhere, they would love your help. There's only about 12 publishers and lots of territory. There you go guys - I told you I'd plug La Ceiba!

Caleb's parents were here visiting so we had them over for a nice, relaxing afternoon. I think Caleb played volleyball for 2 hours straight! Charley was testing his new goggles!

Some friends from the congregation where we served in our first three months came over. Hardly anyone here knows how to swim, or even float, so we had a good laugh trying to teach them. Not sure we got anywhere, but we had fun!

One of Charley's studies, Johnny. He doesn't read well, but he pays rapt attention!

We had the privilege of meeting this lovely family who came for three weeks, and their friend who is here for 6 months. It's so much fun to see more and more people coming down here, spying out the land!

And here are our newly adopted nieces and nephew. They call us Tio Charley and Tia Rachel now, which I love, since that's what we did growing up - everyone in the congregation was Aunt and Uncle. Isaac is well on his way to becoming a publisher, his cousin Roxana next to him is my newest Bible student, his sister Jael just became a publisher, and Roseli just was on the school for the first time a few weeks ago. They're such sweet kids.

Well, time to start getting ready for the meeting. Oh, and one other thing, we booked our flights today for our trip home - July 1st to August 11th so to those of you in Indy, see you soon! It was so fun booking tickets without giving any credit card info - we used half the credit we got last time we flew!