Memorial

Yesterday seemed to come and go so fast. We had 223 in attendance for the Spanish memorial with about 35 publishers and 328 for Creole (274 in Las Terrenas and 54 in Barbacoa) with 38 publishers. I guess the numbers in Barbacoa were about half of what they were from last year. This year the evangelicals were going around behind the witnesses with the bible teach book saying why go with them when we teach the same thing. But it is still amazing to watch the growth in the Creole cong. Now things are starting to settling down and people are starting to make there way home for the summer. But before that happens we need to have one last party. So tonight, that is exactly what we are doing. One big adios to everyone and a big thank you to the elders.I love when people where shirts when they have no idea what it says.

Levi and i at the hall clean yesterday morning. Haha right back to multiple people telling you multiple things.

Some of the young ones in the hall stood out on the street and handed out invitations to people walking by.

Even Chines was trying to help out.

So this dear sister was just minding her own business when all of the sudden ......

this was crawling up her skirt. It was about the size of the palm of my hand, maybe a little bigger. Just a baby. I had to chase it across the street to get a picture of it.

Diego and Vince cleaning the gate.

Levi "washing" the sidewalk.

Another shipment of chairs

And washing all the chairs

When we got to the hall, the Creole memorial was just ending.

Readjusting the camera for outside

The start of the spanish memorial.

Bro. Cordero from Sanchez gave the talk

There are always such beautiful flowers here.

Me and Levi

Bro. and Sis. Cordero

Ok so i thought i would add a few moving pictures that i missed last time. Here we are with our stuff waiting for the truck.

After we loaded (by we i mean them) our stuff on the truck we asked this guy if he wanted a rope to tie it all down. He said "no, I am the rope".

Here's all our stuff going down the road. Not sure how he held it on with that one finger but he did.

Haha. The little neighbor kid escaping from his house, naked.

This is not our picture but i had to post it cause it's so funny. Proof the milk mans milk is fresh.

Ok so it took me all day to write this post and the party is over. Good times as always. The next few days are going to be BUSY. I have to get a few more hours in service and do a bunch of hair cuts and at some point i guess i'll have to pack. I've got 5 days. That's lots of time right? Anyway i am tired and ready for bed so i guess i'll see ya'll in Canada. Adios.

Snow!!!!

Ok so i know i said i was kinda excited to come back to Canada and be cold again but really i wasn't counting on being in 2 feet of snow. There is a big difference between the two especially considering i now have to put a hoodie on when it hits 20. + 20 i mean. I know i'm such a wimp now. Oh well what do i have to complain about, i'm not the one who has to work in it. haha.

The month is flying by so fast. It's been a lot of fun pioneering this month and it's help me to be able to stray from my rehearsed presentation and start adding things off the top of my head. Believe me, for me that is a big step in Spanish. Everyone is thankful for the invitation. It neat to see people siting and reading it when you are walking back out of the territory. Every once in a while you see it pinned to a door or a wall. Maybe with it being in the new hall we'll have more then normal. It's amazing what a witness the new hall is in it's self. What's cool to see to is the amount of def people that are being found in the territory. There were some visitors here from the US a little while back that knew sign and were finding def people in town. Now the problem is they have gone home so we are down to one sister that knows some sign (not sure how much) and one sister learning sign. The cool thing is that they use American sign language here but the hard part is that the def ones in town know very little sign so you almost have to teach them as you go. The thing is. now i have an urge to learn sing language. I might have to get you to give me a crash course when i get home Nikki. They say it's easier to learn a language if you learn two at the same time so i wonder if sign language would count. Why not add more thing to my plate. ;-)

Well speaking of service, we planned on going out for a full day today but we woke up to pouring rain. Guess we'll wait it out for a little while and see if it blows over. It already sounds like it's slowing down.

Just like home there has been lots of requests for haircuts this week. With the memorial on sunday and us leaving next saturday, everyone is trying to get in one more. No matter where you are, girls will be girls. haha.

I can't believe we are coming home in a week. The past 7 months have gone so fast. The nice part is we have our place here for the next year and we're leaving Pica here so we know we are coming back. It makes it much easier to leave when you know when you are returning. We're so thankful that we are able to leave Pica here. Not that we want to but her flight would have cost way more then one of ours. It's crazy.

The rain is almost stopped now so i better get up and get my but in gear.

New House

It's been a busy month so far but we are finally in our new place. I was getting a little worried about how we would get all our stuff to the house seeing as we had to move actual furniture this time, not just suitcases. The only brother in the hall with a truck moved away last week so that option was no longer an option. Thankfully another brother in the hall did some phoning around for us and was able to find a truck and driver for us. What we didn't know was the truck also came with 4 guys to move everything for us. So for $20 we moved and i didn't have to lift a finger. I thought that was pretty sweet. I've been slowly trying to organize but the customizing wont come till we get back to Canada. The house we rented was not furnished so it's been a big step for us. Maybe commitment is a better word. I was very nervous about having to buy furniture but as it turned out, one of the couples in the creole hall is moving back to Canada and had to sell all there things. So in the end it worked out pretty good. All we need now is a stove top. Everyone in the neighborhood has been really nice. They say that if you make an effort to say hi to your neighbors that they will take real god care of you. Our first night here i think we had every little kid in the area at the gate playing with pica. Anyway, here are a few pics as promised.

Pica likes to sit at the back door and bark at the chickens in the field behind the house

This will one day be my salon

Our tiny little bedroom. I was so worried that our bed would not fit in the room but it did. Not much else though. It's a good thing the closet also has shelves and drawers. But the bed. Wow it is nice to have a real bed again. Kinda makes it hard to get up in the morning.

The kitchen.
My favorite new thing, the fridge. I am so excited to have a real fridge. No more ice box for a freezer that doesn't freeze.

The main living area. Haha ok so here's a funny story. So you all know how levi broke his toe right? Well take a closer look at this picture. It's not flipped. Yup that's right, he broke his other toe. Sorry Levi but i laugh every time i think about it. I wasn't there but here's the story i got. All over town there are these stupid 2 inch steps. People trip on them all the time but levi was walking at full speed and didn't see one of them and walked straight into it and down he went. 2 broken toes in two weeks.

The invitation work is in full swing and everyones excited to have the first memorial in the new hall. The hard part about the invitation campaign here is that everyone wants you to come in and talk. They insist on bringing out chairs for you so it's hard to just give them the invitation and go. Yesterday this old guy that could hardly walk was out cleaning up his yard and insisted on going into the house and dragging out this big wooden rocking chair. We felt so bad but he wouldn't take no for an answer so i sat for a minute while Sarah did her thing. The campaign is actually really hard work here. There is so much territory to cover and it's walking for hours on end. Usually you can stop and talk for 20-30 min at a time to one person and have a rest but not now.

Levi's just finishing up painting a tank for a quad and it's so nice that he can paint at home again. Hopefully the work keeps coming in.

But now i have to get ready to do a hair and then head out in service for the afternoon. So nice that we are in town. Now i don't have to rely on Levi cause i can just walk everywhere. I think i'm gonna like this place.

Annnnnnd Go!

Ok so it's Apri first, the start of a very busy month. We decided to get the month off right and go in service this morning. So we set the alarm and head to bed. I proceed to watch the clock hit 1, 2, 3 and finally at 4 i doze off only to wake up again at 5. I finally go back to sleep and wake up to realize that the alarm did not go off. I jump out of bed, have a quick cold shower ( our hot water has not worked for about 3 week now) grab my bag and we run out the door. I sure hope this is not a sign of what is to come this month. Anyway we make it to the group but no one is there. A few min. later a few more show up and we realize the group is waiting down the road. I was sure there was going to be big group out this morning seeing as almost all of the congregation is pioneering but there was only 9 of us and 5 of them were going on studies. So it's down to Levi and i and 2 other sisters and of course they get paired off and levi and i get paired off. Well it's been awhile since we have had a chance to work together seeing as we have always been with someone fluent in Spanish but we figure why not, we can do this. So off we go into the territory praying for a little extra holy spirit. Well i think we did pretty good and it helps a lot that everyone is very patient.

We got home and thought we would stop by and pick up the key to our new house but i guess they are just finishing painting it today so no keys till tomorrow. Surprise, surprise. Nothing is ever ready when they say it will be here. It's a big lesson in patience when you live here. Oh well good reason to go home and have a nap.

But now i have to tell you about this visitor that has been coming to all the meetings. As much as we all love to have new ones at the hall, this one just will not be quiet. Talk about a distraction. We all know when he shows and every ones eyes go straight to him sitting on the window. Yup he's a cricket. Hehe. But for real every meeting this cricket shows up and sits in the window and is so loud that he drowns out the speaker. No mater how many times you shew him away, he just keep coming back.

You can sure tell that winter is over here. It has been so hot the last few days. I did laundry yesterday and it dried within an hour. I don't think it's ever dried that fast. Needless to say i'm kinda looking forward to coming home and feeling a little cold. I know i'm crazy right. haha. Anyway i am really excited to come home see everyone. It's only 3 weeks away and we'll be in Alberta.