August 22, 2015

Sweet reunion.  After a few errands early Saturday with Leanna….especially for some coffee…..family started arriving!  Caleb and Charlotte arrived first for some sweet baby time.  Then, Christina and Dan came and brought food for dinner.  Next, Dad and Delora arrived and Delora cooked a peanut butter cream cheese pie.  Tyler was out for a while, but he also joined us later in the day.  Everything was delicious, especially the big salad!  Yummy.  After a full afternoon, everyone headed home.  I stayed up to finish my dress.  Christina brought her sewing machine, so I could finish it for Sunday.  I finished up about 1 a.m.  It was good to see a project come to completion.  It was a day full of laughs and catching up on all the family news.  It was great!

Baby Charlotte and Charlotte!

Day of Laughs

Harley Interaction

v

Checking our Doggies

Delora with Doggies

How big is Ruger?

Dad, Delora, Dwaine and Charlotte

Dad and Delora

Ruger

Kessler

August 21, 2015

And we're off.  Charlotte stayed up until 3 am working on finishing her dress so she could hopefully wear it on Sunday.  I went on to bed about 1

ough for two days.  She had a headache and forgot to take anything for that.  She said she always gets a headache on travel days.  Probably because she slept so much last night.  We had a smooth trip to the airport and arrived in plenty of time. We told Cesar how glad we were that we had ended up being able to work with him and Eliza after all the years that had passed since we had all first talked about the idea.  Turns out we are the only full time missionaries from the States from the Churches of Christ.  We told him how lucky he was to get to work with two old Gringos.  On our flight from El Salvador to Houston we sat next to a young man from El Salvador who worked at the El Salvadoran embassy in London.  He had only been working there 6 months but before that had worked 2 years at the Embassy in Russia and said he spoke Russian.  His parents still lived in El Salvador as well as his girlfriend who he actually met in Russia.  He said they hoped to get married in a couple of years.  We are now finally on the flight to Huntsville after a long and tiring trek through the customs process in Houston.  We finally got to eat at Panda Express but it was not too great.  Our flight was delayed about 15 minutes as a thunder storm passed through the airport area.  We tried to call family and let them know but we have no phones and could not get on the net.  Well, see them soon.   

Ready to fly!

Cesar with Dwaine

Cesar with Charlotte

Flight from El Salvador to Houston

PaPaw and Charlotte

MeeMaw and Charlotte

Girls galore!

Close-ups!

Lots of smiles!

Precious hugs!

Welcome Home!

August 20, 2015

Last day before leaving.  We were really glad we had done all of our Ataco area studies on Tuesday because Thursday was a rainy day.  We had to get the car out so we could get to the empty suitcases at the end of the garage so it sat in the rain but that is life.  We spent most of the morning working at home and Charlotte had decided to finish her dress she had been working on for a while.  We also were waiting for the trash to come by and finally gave up because we were trying to go out and do some last souvenir shopping for a few gift items.  Sure enough as we headed up the street, here came the trash truck.  So we went back and got everything out.  It was still good, because we had more than usual since we were trying to do some cleaning for our being gone a month.  Also, Charlotte had decided to throw away a few items of food we were not able to eat and did not want to leave sitting for a month.  At least we caught them.  Then we went to all the shops in town that were open that sold gift type items.  There were a lot few open on a Thursday than on Saturday and Sunday.  We did get caught pretty good downpour but we were able to find items to suit us for most everyone.  We went by Carlos and Linda's to say goodbye and leave a key to our house so Carlos could let the brothers from BICA stay there next week.  They were not home but we were able to put everything through the open window.  He called late to ask about the house key and I told him to look on the corner of his dining table, he thought that was pretty funny.  About 5 Paulo came by to get all the instructions for staying in the house.  Charlotte was frying chicken and about 5:30 Sister Isabella and her granddaughter came by for a last visit before we left.  Charlotte just put on more chicken and french fries.  We had a good visit.  After they all left we finished all our packing and gave Wicket a last trim on her hair.  We feel a little sad we will not be seeing her for a month.  

Looking for a tourist shirt. 

Paolo came over for dinner and let us take a couple of mug shots in case

we need a record of his house sitting!

What great fun!

August 19, 2015

Last long workday.  We arrived in Juayua about 10 as usual.  First we went by Mr. Rivas but he was not home.  We have not been able to contact him since the Sat. (Aug. 8) that he went with us to Santa Katarina.  His family said he had been home some since then but arrived fairly late at night and left first thing in the morning.  We were sorry we were not able to talk with him one last time and hopefully Cesar will be able to get back up with him soon.  Then we stopped by and visited with Dellme for a few minutes and Charlotte gave her some cookies she had planned to give to Mr. Rivas.  She said she had completed another lesson in Que Dice La Biblia and Cesar said he would drop another by for her in the next couple of days.  Then we stopped by the corner store where we had visited with the lady who owns it several times just at her door.  She had helped us to look at one house a couple of months ago and she asked if we had found one yet.  We told her no and she said she knew of one she thought was empty and that it had a pool!  We were pretty amazed by that because we have looked at quite a few places by now and none of them had a pool.  We did not get to see it but Cesar is supposed to check back with her.  I said if we were to get a house with a pool then Christina and Leanna would just move on down.  Then we went on to our study with Julia and that went well.  Because we had not been able to study with Mr. Rivas we were a little ahead of schedule so Charlotte and I wanted to run by the bank and deposit the rest of the money we would not need before we left.  That went fast even though opening the account seemed to take as long as buying a house it only took a moment for them to take our money for a deposit.  Osvaldo and family had come over to spend the day with Cesar and Eliza (he is Eliza’s brother) so Eliza and Luzelena had fixed a delicious lunch for us and we had a great time of fellowship.  I asked Osvaldo if we were the only full time American missionaries in El Salvador and he said as far as he knew we are.  I said how lucky Cesar and Eliza are to get to work with a couple of old Gringos and we all laughed.  We had a 1:30 study with Omar (me) and Charlotte with Emily and Gisela.  After a few minutes of English question (define beef up, bristle up and opaque) he asked me a question about a Bible verse and from there we had a good study of baptism.  At 2:45 we went back by and picked up Cesar for a 3:00 study with Kelly and Jose.  We have become good friends and he had made monogramed coffee bags for us as well as for Jim who studied with them 4 times while he was here.  We will miss them until we get back but Cesar and Pedrito are going to continue the study.   By now it was time to head on to our last Juayua service before we left.  As we were driving along we passed, Omar, Emily and Gisela with their Bibles and they were headed to our services.  This was their first time to come on a night other than Sunday.  Because Sister Regina and Pedrito had gone with us to the study at Kelly and Jose’s there was not a lot of room in the car so I got out and walked with Omar and let the sisters get in with Charlotte and Regina & Pedrito.  Osvaldo led the study on being members of the New Testament Church and afterwards he studied individually with Omar for about 30 minutes.  Because Cesar’s birthday is this Sunday and we are not going to be here, Charlotte had made a delicious cake and we brought a drink so we had a great parting fellowship.  We also found out that Tati had a birthday on this Friday.  We had a lot of long goodbyes and got to drop Omar and Sisters off on our way out of town.  When we got home Ricardo and Joli dropped by for about an hour to say goodbye.  It sure is wonderful to have so many people we have grown so close to so quickly.  We sure have found Jesus’ promise that you will have brothers and sisters wherever you go for Him to be very sweetly true for us here in El Sal.  We will be missing a lot of people for a month. 

Julie cleaning a duck for lunch.

Common load to carry at all ages.

Special stir fry lunch prepared.

Luzelena, Osvaldo, Cesar and Eliza

Happy Birthday Cesar and Tati!

Fellowship

Enjoying time together.

Last evening together for awhile.

Last photos.

Yummy coconut cake!

August 18, 2015

Great last Tuesday.  We spent the morning working at home mostly.  We did walk up to the market for a couple of items but I worked on blogs and getting ready to speak Sunday at Central and Charlotte on children's class stuff.  We headed out after lunch to try to finish up in the Ataco area before we leave.  We stopped first at Rosaria's.  It had been a while and she sure was surprised to see us.  She was pretty sick and from the description of her symptoms we were concerned she may have Chikungunya.  It is a mosquito borne disease that is pretty common here and causes joints aches and flu like symptoms.  She said she had been sick since last Thursday.  After a fairly short visit and a prayer we headed on to Natividad's.  She was cooking in a side room of her house and seemed to be doing the best physically that we had ever seen her.  Charlotte led a study on procrastination and told her that her good health was a gift from God to let her be able to be baptized.  We do not know why she is waiting but pray she will decide soon.  Next we went by Reina's for a visit and she said it was a miracle we had come because we had not been there for quite a while.  Then we went by Marita's house, and she and Bessy were there.  She fed us tamalitos and we had a good visit.  We ended the day at Zoila's for the evening Bible study.  Carlos led as usual and the subject was the resurrection.  When we got home we saw where Caleb had tried to skype so we called him back and they were still at life talk so we got to speak with Allen Wright for a few minutes as well as Caleb.  We have now worked till ten listening to the rain and a sermon and trying to get all done we need to before we leave. 

Coffee plant full of beans!

Yummy!

Last visit to Rosaria before our trip home.

Someone is putting up firewood for cooking.

August 17, 2015

Last Monday for a while.  The time is flying as always.  So hard to believe our last regular Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday have all come and gone.  We will be flying out this Friday, so that will certainly not be a regular day.  I started the day by running up to the Ataco bookstore to get some copies made.  The street in front of our house was jammed with vehicles on both sides with barely room for one vehicle to go down the street.  The garbage truck had to creep through with men directing on each side.  We never did know why but there were many more cars than normal.  I was going to Ahuachapan to Claro to get the phone and internet changed over from Wendy's name to ours.  Without a bank account you cannot get phone service in your own name and without a 1 yr. Visa you cannot get a bank account.  Fortunately, there was no one parked in front of our garage so with Charlotte coming out to direct me I was able to get the car out.  When I got to Claro the brother who works there and always helps us told me that you had to have your bank account for at least 3 months with at least a $250 deposit each month.  Then he said if the deposit was more than $250 each time that would be even better.  I thought that was a funny statement because it was so obvious.  The good news was that our current service is good till the 29^th. Of October.  That should work out just right.  We were already going to leave some in our account before we head out on Friday because we don't want to bring it back to the States when we will need to bring back here when we return.  So that will cover August.  Then we will be back on September 22 and be able to deposit in Sept. so all we will need to do is deposit early on in Oct. and then go back to Claro to get the transfer.  At least we don't have to get something done now.  It took so long to get the visas oked that we could have had a problem.  When I got home we had lunch and headed to Juayua.  Our first study was with Mario and Sara and Charlotte took them a pan of Chicken and rice.  We have tried to take them some food most every time and we are not sure if anyone is going to continue that.  Mario did ask Cesar if he could take him to a September 1^st. Doctor's appointment.  That will be good.  They seem to be really interested.  Then we went to Sister Anna's.  She sure was surprised to see us since we always come on Wednesday.  She seemed to be in good spirits and we had some laughs.  Our church family is helping her some with food from time to time and it was good to be able to give her that yesterday.  She always asks for prayers that her children will become Christians.  We wrapped up the day with an almost 2 hour study at the home of Raul and Anita.  Sister Rosalidia went and took her two kids and the 4 children had lots of fun in the yard while we studied.  Since we started the children's classes, the four children have become good friends.  Tati and Cesi are about the same age as well as Josue and Alex.  What a blessing to see them developing this friendship!  Eliza's father, Bro. Manuel Azucena was 75 on Sunday and the family was having a big gathering in Ahuachapan at Osvaldo's.  Cesar had missed all of it to that point and we had planned to get together at the end of the day to get him set on the Saturday English classes.  He said he would just follow us back to our house since it was on his way.  When we got there Charlotte asked if he wanted dinner and he said sure, guess he had already missed the group dinner.  We had a good dinner of left overs and enjoyed our visit and got all the English stuff done and he left about 8:30.  That was a full day.

Bible study at Raul and Anita's.

First time that Rosalidia came.

Rosalidia, Anita, Regina and Charlotte

August 16, 2015

Time out.  I had some cleaning to do to get ready for the lunch guests and Charlotte had some cooking that she was able to do before services but she had 3 kinds of pizza planned and that would have to be cooked after services.  We had to leave early to pick up Carlos in Apaneca.  On the way we passed Samuel and his brother Arron waiting beside the road.  Carlos was waiting when we got to his road and on the way back we also picked us Arron and Samuel.  It was good that they got to know Carlos some on the way.  The service was good and Edgardo preached on the crucifixion.  Charlotte had 4 teen girls riding with her back to our house so Carlos and I took the bus.  We still got home well before Charlotte was able to get everything ready.  She had 2 pizzas as well as corn casserole and soup ready pretty quickly.  I thought it looked like a lot but those rather small teen girls sure could eat.  They finished off both the pizzas and I still though we would have one left.  After a devotional and singing they told Charlotte they were ready for the third pizza and ate most of it and dessert.  During the devotional Charlotte had with the girls, Carlos and I went upstairs and had about a two hour study.  It was good but he had no Bible knowledge and has a long way to go.  When the girls left apparently Wicket followed them out and Charlotte did not realize it.  When Carlos and I finished studying and he left about 30 minutes later when we opened the door she ran in.  We were so thankful no one had picked her up because she is small and pretty and friendly.  A little later when we left for evening services in Juayua when we opened the door she stayed under the table and made no effort to go out, until then she had always run out as soon as we opened the door.  It appears that her 30 minute time out was pretty frightening.  On the way we picked up Isabella and her granddaughter Gabriella.  We went by to check on Julia but she was not able to come because she had visitors and Mr. Rivas was still not home, Kelly said they were still too busy to make it tonight but that they could study Wednesday at 3.  We still had a good turnout for services and all were telling us goodbye for our departure on Friday. 

Teen girls for devo and Carlos visiting for a study....lunch first.

Yummy Pizza

Nice silver lining on this cloud....

August 15, 2015

Saturday morning Charlotte and Pedrito finished getting ready for Wednesday night classes while we are gone.  Charlotte said they prepared 16 different crafts and games (four for each class).  At least they got it all done.  At noon we left for Juayua. We had a study with Nelson at 12:30 and talked about some questions he had about the trinity and the word Jehovah because of Jehovah Witness (Testigos) here.  Then we had our English class but it was pretty small.  Omar, his sisters and the brother and sister who had come with them did not make it this time so we just had Nelson, Carlos and Pedrito.  Cesar came and sat in so he would be ready to start teaching for the next class.  We talked with Carlos after class and he said he would come to services at Shucutitan tomorrow and have lunch and a study with us.  Then we went to Jose and Kelly's but only their son Ernesto was home.  He said his parents had gone on an out of town trip and had planned to be back about 3 but were still not home.  We decided to go by Selectos to get the items we needed for Sunday lunch with the teen girls and Carlos so we would not have to go after services.  At 4:40 Hector arrived and visited for a few minutes.  Then at 5 he did a study on the old and new covenants and also went over the various divisions of the Bible.  It was a good study for most of the people there because they are not very experienced or knowledgeable about the Bible.  It rained some during the class but we were fortunate to have a fairly dry and safe trip home. 

A heart for helping hands

Colorful cross

Pedro Arnoldo's children abiding in the golden rule get along

August 14, 2015

Preacher's meeting.  I did not have a good night and slept little.  I also did not feel much better this morning but did not want to miss the monthly preacher's meeting because we had missed last month because the group was here that week from Central and we will miss September because we will be in the States.  Charlotte has gone to almost all the meetings but she has so much she is trying to do to get everything ready for her month absence from teaching the kids and all else she does so she decided to spend the day working on these things.  Cesar was to come to our house about 8:15 and we would go on together from here since the meeting was in Ciudad Real and going through Ahuachapan was the closest way.  He called about 8:10 and said he would get here about 8:30.  I decided since we were going to be running a little late I would get in the car and wait for him.  As I opened the door he walked up-he had ridden the bus from Juayua.  When he got in the car he said he had just gotten a call a few minutes earlier from Charlie (a preacher here who is also his close friend).  Charlie had asked if he was coming and he said yes he was on his way to Ciudad Real.  Charlie said oh no the meeting is in Sonsonate.  So we went back right by Juayua and of course I would have picked him up if we had known the meeting was in Sonsonate.  Then when we got to town Cesar had no idea where the building was so we were on the phone with Charlie several times and made a few wrong turns.  Finally we just stopped and waited and a brother came to meet us.  We finally arrived about 9:40 for the 9:00 meeting.  However several others arrived about the time we did so Hector said he would just do a quick recap for everyone.  The majority of the meeting was about final preperations for the family seminar which is next Saturday in Ciudad Real (I think that is where the confusion came in).  I was still on the schedule to lead the prayer for lunch but we had decided when we got our tickets for the trip back to make them for the day before our last 3 month visas ran out since at that time we had no idea if or when our year visas would come through.  We really would like to attend, the first one with David Nance's brother was really great.  Anyway, I volunteered Cesar to lead the prayer since he was going anyway.  The meeting ended about on time but was still long for me because I had major stomach cramps all morning.  I tried to eat some of the chicken and rice that was prepared for lunch and it was good but about 1 hr. later I was just about in knots.  When we got back to Juayua we had a study with Mario and Sara and then I ran by Selectos for a few items.  Pedrito came back with me because he is spending the night and Charlotte is helping him get ready to teach the Wednesday night children's class in her absence.  She has taught every Wednesday night and rotated Sundays and he has always helped her on Wednesday and we know he will do great.  On a closing note, I rested about an hour when I got home and started feeling some better.  Charlotte cooked a delicious dinner and it was the first time I was really hungry since Wed.  I tried to not eat too much but hopefully am on the mend.

Pedro Arnoldo working on crafts.

Fingerprint sheep

Sheperd