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!

Picture overload!

I had chance to sort through my pictures from the Spanish Regional Convention, so if you care to look at them, here they are!

Oh, but first I have a cool story to tell. During the invitation campaign in Spanish I talked to this very polite young dad who sounded very interested in attending the convention. So, yesterday we were out around there and I saw there was a car outside. So I went to find out if they'd gone, and to offer them something released at convention. His wife was home, and it turns out they went!!!!!!! They were only there about an hour, but hey, they went!!! After they got out of church around 1pm, she said they headed down there! So she accepted a publication, and the sister I was with is going to return on Saturday with her husband! Yay!

We were tied into the International Convention in Atlanta for some talks. The three biggest conventions were Indianapolis, Houston & Atlanta, all had over 25,000, but Indianapolis was the biggest!

Dear friends from Columbus, Indiana Spanish

These young ladies grew up so fast!

Mark & Mitsuko serve in Guatemala, but they're in the States at the minute. They stayed with us for the convention.

Charley's sister and hubby invited us to dinner with some ex-Bethel coworkers. Jason & Xiomara are now special pioneers in Kentucky, and just had the privilege of going to the Bible School for Christian Couples last year. 

Saturday morning, ready for a day of learning

I was so excited to see these girls. They used to live next door to my in-laws, and now one of them moved back to Puerto Rico, so it was exciting to see her back in Indy for a bit.

Claudia is in English but very kindly came to work at the convention

With my buddy Cherub. She's moving to Nicaragua at the end of the month!

The section where the 470 baptismal candidates had been sitting!

The baptism pools were busy most of lunch!

With some dear Argentinian friends. Back in the day we were in the same congregation and it had been a couple of years since we'd all seen each other. 

Wendy & Yuliana from East Spanish

Saturday we ate with these lovely friends from Columbus, OH at a Turkish restaurant

So excited to see Holly again. It had been YEARS since we'd seen each other. I love this picture. We were so well coordinated, accidentally!

Rachel & Daniel with their adorable kids, Elijah & Liliana

Such a joy to see little ones learning to give back to Jehovah

Brother Malenfont was the Governing Body helper who gave a few talks, streamed from Atlanta. He is such a good speaker and his Spanish is also very good.

Almost 32,000 on Sunday. 

Just over 700 attended the meeting for the School for Kingdom Evangelizers

Got to see Iris. She served for a time in Nicaragua, so it was nice to finally meet up again

Convention theme - reminding us to put the Kingdom first, not sports!!

Just six missionary couples that were in Atlanta

Some of the signs in Atlanta. The one at the bottom says "Look for us in paradise" and it has a bunch of arrows pointing up to the people holding it!

God's Kingdom Loading - 99%

Sad goodbye to Lucas Oil Stadium. What memories we had there during July & August!

Indianapolis International Convention

I thought I'd have all kinds of time to post while we were visiting Indianapolis, but it hasn't happened! So, here are a bunch of pictures from the Indianapolis International Convention. We had a great time! Just over 32,000 were in attendance with 280 baptized. With all the conventions tied in to the one in Indy there were about 122,000 and 791 baptized. We had Brother Mark Sanderson from the Governing Body. He has such a smiley, friendly face. It was such a pleasure to have him with us and hear his talks.

We got to enjoy Brother Sanderson's talks twice, since he was also the visiting GB member at the Atlanta International Convention in Spanish. He gave his talks in English, and Brother Williams did a FANTASTIC job of interpreting. That is HARD work indeed. We went to the Spanish Regional Convention in Indianapolis this past weekend and it was quite a treat. We had almost 32,000 there peak, and a whopping great 470 baptized including 10 from the congregation we used to be in here in Indy! With all the locations tied together the peak attendance was over 191,000 with 2248 baptized! Spanish is still a growing field here in the US! My pictures from Spanish are still inside my camera so that'll be another post.

Thursday cleaning was HARD work! I got filmed by the Bethel camera crew. I got so nervous - haha!!!

Family from England

Some of the Indianapolis Burmese group. They're so sweet!

Tim & James from a Polish group in England

Friends from Poland and Bulgaria. 

Local delegates from Kentucky. A sweet sister in our congregation in Nicaragua sent little wooden bowls as gifts for some of the delegates so I made sure I got a picture of those I gave them to.

Charley with a brother from Estonia

End of day one. A couple from Poland gave us the bags. They have the convention theme on them. Apparently a brother in Germany had them made for a convention he was going to, but they didn't arrive in time. So he gave them to this sweet Polish couple to give out in Indianapolis.

The lovely Lucas family. We later spent a day in service with them and had dinner at their house. Their daughter Iley quickly made Charley her best friend! She just loved him! She says she's coming to visit next year!

Lucas Oil Stadium enjoying it's calmest event ever!

Sister from Poland in traditional dress

The baptism on the big screen.

More traditional Polish outfits

Polish again - we had a lot from Poland! 

My dear new friends, (l to r) Halinka, Elzbieta & Agnieszka from Poland. Only Agnieszka spoke English so she translated for her mam and friends. Helenka did know how to say "I'll miss you". She said it over and over again!

Fellow Brits from Chesterfield, Derbyshire - my favorite British county!

Charley with the British brothers

I just love this shot!! Such a united people

My friend Cherub had a TON of people over Saturday evening including two really sweet brothers from London Hindi congregation. They taught us some Indian dancing! It was so much fun!

Dressed up Nicaragua style for the last day of the convention

We were thrilled to find this couple, Arthur & Anita. They are Polish, but are special pioneers in Sign Language in Slovenia. We met them at the International convention in Poland in 2009 so it was soooo exciting to meet up with them again. Who would have thought we'd run into each other in Indianapolis!

Very few friends from the Philippines were able to come, but here are few of the beautiful friends who did. I guess many of them weren't able to get a visa to come visit.

After being baptized for some 36 years, Janice had the pleasure of seeing her husband get baptized on Saturday!

My favorite picture from Sunday! This is our new friend Zane. Isn't he ADORABLE!?!?!?

This pretty much sums up what Sunday was like!!! We have half a suitcase of gifts to share with the friends in Nicaragua.

I think these sisters are in a Russian congregation in the UK

The Matthews. I think Lara was trying to hide!

With some friends from East Spanish Indianapolis

Ukranian maybe? We were comparing notes about not getting to take many of our own pictures because we'd been in so many pictures. She wore a traditional outfit all three days though. I don't know how she had the energy!

So, this little girl came and gave me a bookmark. The sister with her said she was really shy of giving anything to the brothers. So Charley got down to her level and asked if she had anything for him. She said still had bookmarks in her hand but she said "No". And she would not give him anything!!! It was soooo funny!

Couple from Finland

The Tres Amigos! The family resemblance is so strong in this shot.

With my parents

With our new friends Adam & Sohpia who gave us those cool bags on Friday

Not sure - it had been a long day by then!

Friends from Romania.

The Monday after the convention was foreign delegate service day down at the hall my parents go to. There are 3 Kingdom Halls on one piece of land, so 150 delegates came for service, lunch and afternoon entertainment.

The Bethel camera crew were there for the meeting for field service too!

Isn't Josslyn adorable?! 

Friends from the Philippines with a couple of locals

This couple are from England. We discovered we have friends in common!

Lunchtime in the tent

Arthur & Monica from Poland

The kids did the drama of Achan

Time for the delegates to leave

Well, that was enough for today, probably more than enough. I have more pictures, but I won't post them all. You get the idea from the above pictures. It was such a pleasure to be part of this experience. Starting to save our pennies for the next round of Internationals!