January 17, 2016

Just us.  Today was our second Sunday at our new location.  Charlotte had a lot to do cooking and getting ready for the children's class, including making play dough from scratch, so I walked Wicket by myself.  We were hoping that Mario and his two children would attend so I walked over to their house to ask.  Cesar had tried to call last night but did not get an answer.  I walked really fast since they live fairly far from our house and I did not leave to go until about 8:20.  They were home but he said they could not come this morning because both of the kids stated school tomorrow and had parent, teacher, student meetings today.  I walked slower back home because I was winded and had gotten there so quickly that I had more time left than I though.  We went by and picked up Sister Regina, Kenya and Arnoldo and got to the building about 9:30.  When we arrived Carlos and family were already there and said they had been waiting about 5 minutes.  We had set up chairs and all last night so we did not feel we had to arrive too early.  We still had no electricity so I asked the next door neighbor if we could use theirs again with the long extension cord that belongs to Ricardo.  They said fine and we did but the only thing we were trying to set up was a portable one speaker sound system that belongs to Bro. Mario Lara and it had a fully charged battery and he did not plug it in so the cord laid unused on the floor throughout the service.  Several people had said they might come, Nelson had said just last night he would try very hard to be there, we also expected Mr. Rivas and hoped for Alba, her girls and mother-in-law,  Kelly, Kiki and Nicole and some I cannot think of now.  However, none of them made it so we had no actual visitors, sure it will not be the last time.  We did have some family members of Carlos who were visiting from Costa Rica as well as some other brothers and sisters visiting, so we did have a good number and the larger space sure is nice.  Charlotte and Eliza moved the kids to the largest of the three bedrooms and I think that worked out much better for them.  After lunch, Linda, Yoli and Eliza came over for a ladies meeting about the ladies classes that are due to start in February.  They met until about 3:50.  Linda and Joli rode with us to Salcoatitan and as we were getting in the car they said they wanted to stop and buy some sweet bread to have bread and coffee during recess, fortunately Charlotte had some of her ever available cookies and they said that would be even better and they were a huge hit, what a surprise.   We were slightly late in arriving for service because Salcoatitan was packed with people and cars. I did get to sit with a man who had attended the family breakfast event and had been at one service since then.  Charlotte helped Linda with the children’s classes.  They had several visitors from Ataco and also the lady who will be 100 in February who is a sister and whose home we visited and held the first event at and now Carlos has a group study at their home every Monday.  She said she would be 100 February 10^th but her birth certificate says March 10^th so she would have two birthdays.  I said anybody who can make it to 100 should celebrate at least twice. 

Crafts in Juayua