Beautiful Feet: April 2016

Saturday, April 30, 2016

April Newsletter, 2016

Seems like a long time. We spent the latter part of March in the States so we decided not to do a report for March so we need to catch up with this one. We did start a few new studies in April as well as discovering that Rafael whom we had been studying with for a little while was actually a lost brother. He had been baptized 25 years ago after listening to the Gospel preached on the radio and then traveling to a nearby city to be baptized but after a while had started attending with another group since there was no Church here in Juayua. He lives just up the street from our building so he came and rededicated the first Sunday after we discovered his history. He has been twice since then but is 68 and has both diabetes and failing kidneys so he has lots of health problems. We started a new study with Heber who is the son of Daisy, Delmy's sister. He seems fairly interested always underlining in his Bible and reading along but so far has not attended a service. Mario and Sara, whom we had just about given up on for reasons that we have not yet discovered have started attending very regularly. Sara comes every Sunday and Wednesday and Mario every Wednesday. He tries to work as a guide on Sundays since that is a tourist day and his family lives near the waterfalls and have been working as guides for several years. He was not able to after his leg was broken from the fall but is walking pretty good now. We are trying to get back to studying with them. We had studied with him several times but Sara was working and right now she is out of a job. We are having really good attendance at all of our services and events. On the first Saturday of April we had 39 ladies, 27 of whom were visitors attend our monthly ladies’ event here in Juayua. In our Thursday night studies at member's homes we had a house full week before last and the time before that Bro. Mario's home literally had standing room only. I got to have one good study with Nelson and then he attended service on Sunday morning for the first time since we moved to our new location. Charlotte led a class for Sunday school teachers in Santa Ana and she also was the featured speaker for a ladies class in Ahuachapan on raising adolescents. Of course, her personal requirement is that she always has to take food to such events so more cooking. She has also started a prayer session for each Tuesday morning after the ladies event here in Juayua and that has already resulted in one new study with a young lady named Tatiana who lives next to the church building. I got to go to Hector's house for a Saturday afternoon of giving reports on the works here to an elder from Signal Mountain, Kendel and Matt Bender who were here for a weekend visit. We are now starting the process of getting our one year visas renewed and would appreciate your prayers that all goes well. We covet your prayers in general, especially for the many studies we have every week and the fun pace we continue to go.

April 29, 2016

Rainy days and Fridays always get me down…or was that “Mondays.” Well, anyway, the rain came. We started the day dry and hoped that Kelly and Jose would come at 8:30 for a study. They didn’t come, so when we left out for our first study, we dropped by. Jose had to go to San Salvador to get his check from working and Kelly had a dress to sew with a deadline. Dwaine asked if Kiki could study on Saturday and I asked if Kelly might get together in the afternoon for a lesson on prayer. She is going to lead a prayer on Saturday at our next ladies’ event. Then we headed to Cecelia’s for a visit. We got a treat in the Teresa was there and she is rarely at home. She was planning to work the afternoon, so we had time to get in a good study. We have studied the plan of salvation, but now are beginning to approach some of the differences with the Morman church. Cecelia regularly comes to most things that we invite her to, except Sunday. Cecelia and Teresa go to the Morman church. Cecelia doesn’t read so it is a challenge. But in the end, she made the most common response….little by little. Cecelia is such a sweet lady and a dear friend, which pulls at my heartstrings that she is so far from the truth. Keep her and her daughter in your prayers. Next, we passed Rafael, who lives across from Cecelia, and Dwaine mentioned he would come back at 2 for a study with Cesar. I planned to study with Alba. However, Seyli called and said she would not be able to go for she had to make a trip to Santa Ana. We went home for lunch and then when it was about time to head out, the rain came really hard. It rained for about 1 ½ hours, so we did not go back out. When it is a downpour, people do not go out. Everyone says they just sleep it out in their homes. Nice thought. Dwaine studied some through the afternoon and I cut out a dress pattern that I had brought back when we visited in March. I probably won’t sew it for a while, but I had bought a little extra material I wanted to give to Kelly. So, I needed to get it cut out to be sure how much material remained. While I was working Cesar came by. He had gone to Santa Ana for the morning to buy Sister Ana some medicine. After he left, Yesenia and Ulma came by for a visit. They actually live in Apaneca. So, they are doing some extensive décor for the ladies’ event because here, Mother’s day is the 10^th, so we are celebrating a few days early. We got 400 balloons and she wanted to do a personalized paper craft for each to take with them with some verse references. Yesenia had also put us décor in our classroom and nursery at church and she had designed an extensive mural made from paper just from a picture. I am going to meet them at 9 next Saturday to help them so I can help repeat some of the décor for Salcoatitan. The event is at 3 and then Seyli said afterwards she and Mario are having 20 couple over from Santa Ana and wanted us to come. That may be quite a dayJ! Friday closed on a quite note. I later learned that Alba was out all afternoon anyway. Dwaine and I watched a movie, and it was really good to have a slower day.

April 30, 2016

We were getting ready for a big dinner tonight with Briseida and her husband Antonio and their two kids, and Mario and Seyli. So we spent the morning cooking and cleaning and getting ready. About 10 we went up and visited with Kelly and Jose for a little while and then covered their street and the one behind the cemetery passing out invitations to next Saturday's ladies event. We had wanted to go by Briseida and reconfirm that they could come to dinner. From 2 to 3 I had a study with Kiki. He had mentioned the idea of getting baptized when his parents did but in the end decided to wait a while so I had wanted to try to study with just him. We had tried a couple of times but had not been able to work it out until today. He wanted to try to study in English so I took 2 of the first booklets in the series Jim had given us on WBS. It went pretty well but he is still fairly basic in his English so we did not cover a lot of territory. I wanted to get back home by at least 3:30 so that I could help Charlotte finish getting ready for dinner. Our guests were supposed to arrive at 6:00 but didn't get here till about 6:20. When they arrived along with the people we were expecting were Briseida's mother, and her brother and sister-in-law and sister. I did not think we would have enough but Charlotte said it would be fine and it was. We had to bring in the plastic square table we inherited from Caleb and Della as well as 4 plastic chairs but we had a great time. Mario talked about the church and our starting a congregation here in Juayua while we finished getting everything ready for the additional folks and after dinner he led a short devotional. We had wanted to have Mario and Seyli over because we have been in their home several times since they moved here but so far had only had them over once with the group for my surprise birthday party. It was a great evening and as always the food was delicious. I told Charlotte later that other than perhaps Mario and Seyli that was probably the fanciest and most delicious meal that any of those people had ever had in their entire lives.

Dinner Guests

Friday, April 29, 2016

April 28, 2016

Swap about. I had been having a study with Tatiana and Claudia with Suylema. This past week Suylema took a one week job in San Salvador, so Kenia went with me. That is Suylema’s sister. This week Kenia could not go, so Regina went with me. Tatiana was ready to study and made several good comments. She has not visited a service, so we tried to encourage her to come. We studied at the church building and afterwards, as we headed out to Floramarina and Claudia’s, they were heading out to do some shopping to make tortillas. They have a stand to sell tortillas, so they needed to get some supplies. Dwaine had gone to get the oil changed in the car during the studies, but he arrived just as we were finishing up. We took Regina home and went by the house to pick up our cake for Jose’s birthday. We got there about 11:30 and visited for several minutes. Seyli and Mario also came and two family friends. Kelly had grilled some chicken with rice and fresh salad cuts. About the time we finished, Kiki and Nicole had to leave for school. We all had cake and left about 1:30ish. We went home for about 45 minutes and I headed back out to pick up Seyli for a few studies. It was a little rainy and that seems to slow visits. We walked up to the cemetery and visited a few minutes with Wendy. Eliezer was sleeping, so we missed him. Then, we walked next door, but Reina was not home. Her daughter, a different Tatiana, was home and we visited a few minutes. She had gotten a splinter in her hand and was trying to get it out. She had no alcohol or way to clean her hands. We were trying to help her and both of her hands had lots of cuts from cutting wood and several burns from cooking with the wood. She is so young to have such a difficult life. Life is really hard here and during this time where the coffee is not in production is especially rough. Since we had a little more time, we walked up to Alba’s to invite her to the Bible study in the evenings. We wrapped up visiting and we went home for about an hour. Each time I went home today, I slept for about 10 to 20 minutes. We did get a few minutes of Charlotte time in on Skype. Dwaine left to pick up folks near the church and I walked over to Socorro’s to walk with her to Cesar and Eliza’s. She was ready and everyone arrived about 6. We had several visitor, one of which was new, a neighbor of Cesar’s. It was a nice evening and we made a couple of rounds of deliveries on taking folks home. We didn’t do too much for the late evening, but did learn that Leanna’s steering pump was out for about the 4^th time on her car. She said it was especially difficult to drive right now. We are trying to look into if there is a recall on it. There must be some reason it completely goes out very often. It is supposed to be redone again Tuesday. We are prayerful she keeps safe.

Celebrating Jose's 40th birthday with friends!

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

April 27, 2016

This morning we had much more success than last Wednesday. When we first went by Delmy’s she was not home but we were told she would be back soon. We walked around the corner to Dasie’s house. She has been working in Santa Ana for the last few weeks but her son Heber was home and we had a good study with him. Then we walked back around to Delmy’s and she was back so we studied with her and then walked across the road to Mr. Riva’s house and visited with him about 30 minutes and by that time it was noon and we knew Charlotte and Seyli would probably be done so we headed back to their house. Arnoldo did not have school today so he had walked over to our house at 9 and gone on the morning studies. Actually, I had put the car out of the garage in getting ready to go and when Charlotte and I walked out at 9 Cesar was waiting by our car and Arnoldo was walking up. From Charlotte: I went with Seyli to first go to Julia’s house. Since she lives in front of the cemetery, I thought we might have a lesson on the demon possessed man who lived among the tombs. It made for a good illustration. Julia always has interesting stories, but she usually finally settles down and listens intently. Recently she had exchanged their nice old mare for a stallions and he lives in the ‘front yard.’ Since the rain has started, that really enhances the odor. We also talked about some plants they had and one was to attract the bats. Then, of course, there are the rabbits running around free that will be someone’s dinner soon. It is always an interesting visit. Next we went to Briseida’s. This week her husband was not their but her brother and sister-in-law came for a visit and they sat in on the study. I must admit, I experienced something I had never in my experienced previously. Last week Seyli had led a study on the church. She had a great flow of thought and many good illustrations. Today, she asked Briseida if she could remember last week’s lesson. She said she could, but she could not relate anything, including the theme. Then, I thought Seyli was going to review, but to my amazement, she retold the entire lesson again! I even chimed in and related one illustration she left out. Afterwards, I did ask how many times she would repeat the same lesson and she said up to 3 times before she would change the subject. I can’t wait to next week. We did invite them for dinner Saturday night along with Seyli and Mario. She said it was a good time for them, so we will look forward to this. I had forgotten my bread in the car, so we walked back to the car and then returned. Next we went back to Seyli’s and waited for the men. She showed me all the flower decorations that she was making to sell. She is very artistic and works very hard to supplement their income. She keeps a little store, but they are in a location that is not very visible to many people. From Dwaine: Arnoldo had lunch with us and helped do some cutting out of stuff to get ready for the nighttime children’s class. At 2 he walked over to Cesar’s to go with him and Mario to visit Sister Ana and I took advantage of Charlotte not needing the car to run to Sonsonate to get an oil filter. I am overdue for an oil change but was unable to the filter here in Juayua so I also got a couple of other things I needed. Charlotte stayed home and worked on some physics homework with Leanna and helped with her application to Sonography school. She also made, for the first time, a ‘Tres Leches’ cake. Kelly had asked her to make this for Jose’s birthday. We are going to have lunch with them and take the cake on Thursday. I had a nice trip but one guy did almost rear end me and had to run off the road to avoid it. He got right on my bumper and then the car in front of us had to make a sudden stop and he was so close he had to leave the road to avoid hitting me. Then in a few moments he passed me and the other car and almost had a head on collision in the process. For the evening service we picked up Mario, Sara and their kids and Regina. Don Santos came along with several brothers and sisters. After the service we conducted two bribes successfully. The first was we invited Don Santos for dinner before next week’s study but told him he would have to get Sonja and Jimmy to come and he said he would. Then we told Mario and Sara we wanted them to come for lunch Sunday after the morning service but this would mean that Mario would have to come to the service which he never does on Sunday morning but Sara and the kids have come the last few times. Anyway he said he would. After the lunch we are going to have a study and talk with them about how we can help their process along of getting married and becoming Christians so if you think of it be praying about that between now and then.

Ready for Bible Studies

Ready to speak God's Word

April 26, 2016

This morning we went back up to Mercedes and Armando to see if we could study again with them. Fortunately, they were home and available. We had discussed the inspiration of the Bible during our first study so this time we talked about the verses that say there will be many people who will depart form the true faith of the Bible. Mercedes never says anything but Armando had several questions and comments. It is a little difficult to make as much progress as we hoped to with lots of comments but at least it is better to have interaction and to know someone is engaged in the study. When we finished Charlotte had a meeting with Eliza to discuss the new material Eliza had bought in San Salvador for the children’s classes. In the afternoon I worked around the house and finished getting ready for the study with Don Santos while Charlotte went with picked up Regina and Seyli and went to Sister Ana’s. Sister Ana was in good spirits, but none of her daughters were home to join in on the study. When Don Santos arrived he was alone again. I guess we will just have to hope that he will be able to influence Sonja once he is a Christian. I had asked him last week if there was anything he wanted to study and he said he would like to know how close we are to the return of Christ. When I asked him tonight if he remembered his question he did not. But anyway we studied what apocalyptic literature is and the importance of always understanding it in the light of the scriptures that are not apocalyptic. Then we studied Matthew 24 and talked about the destruction of Jerusalem and also looked up the destruction of Jerusalem in Wikipedia. It was pretty incredible in that it said so many Jews fled into the temple thinking that God would protect them and the Romans entered and slaughtered them and there was such a river of blood flowing out of the temple that it carried some of the dead bodies along with it. Anyway, when we finished he said he understood that Jesus could return at any time. I told him that I wanted to do the study with him to show that we speak only from the Bible but that this subject does not interest me greatly because I believe that if I am ready to die which could happen at any moment I am living then I will also be ready if Jesus should return. After the study we had some super delicious desert that Charlotte had made for the first time here and she sent some to Sonja and Jimmy.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

April 25, 2016

We decided that we would try to go back to one blog a day. It just seemed too lengthy and disjointed. Maybe we can stay on track. Monday, we started with a meeting of our group from 9 to 11:30. We settled on several activity dates. We were excited to get to announce that the school director had told us Friday that he had gotten approval from the school board for us to use the school auditorium for our joint Sunday morning service when the Central group is here. We also gave a copy of the requirements for our visa renewals to each family so that they could see if there were any ways they could help us. We have to turn in our renewal applications two weeks from today so we are trying to get everything ready. After lunch I went to a study with Seyli to visit with Amalia. She was alone today, but ready to study. After the study, she said she was learning ‘little by little.’ We get this expression a lot and it is a way of saying I am just not quite ready for a decision. At times, we just don’t know why the delay, but there it is. We are in prayer that God will be gracious to give time for a decision to be made. After the study, I came home for about 30 minutes. Seyli was hosting a baby shower for Gabriel and Charlie from Santa Ana. I was to cook some cupcakes and still needed to ice a few and get my baby gift packaged up. I went to her place about 4 and helped to make a drink that has a lot of fruits and veggies in it….cucumber, apple, carrot, radish and marañón. The last is extremely bitter and has its seed outside the fruit. It is supposed to be great to lower sugar in the blood, but alas it is just too bitter for us. Gabi arrived about 5 and only Seyli and I were there, so we did the ‘Surprise!’ Most everyone arrived soon thereafter, including Cesar and Eliza, Noe and Betty, Osvaldo and Luzelena and Dwaine. All brought children, so we had quite a crowd. Seyli put me and Luzelena to work making baleandos (which means dancing) from Honduras. They are made with wheat flour and are huge. Then, they are filled with refried beans, scrambled eggs, plantains, cheese and cream. They were great, but were quite a process to make. We are in the hot seasons with temps in the 90’s. Add a stove top going full force and room full of people, I was only imagining how hot it was in the kitchen. I think it is the first time my feet swelled since we have been here. We then had some games and gifts. It was after nine when we headed for home. Seyli had homemade some satin bags with flowers filled with candies for each family. It was all a nice evening to celebrate the upcoming birth. Gabi is from Honduras and will go there next month to be ready for a June delivery. She said that it was easier to get papers if you are in your own country and she has lots of family there to help her.

Baby Shower for Gaby Mendoza and Charlie

Monday, April 25, 2016

April 19-24, 2016

A few more days. This is Sunday morning and our last blog was 6 days ago. Charlotte said that hopefully she will have some more time after today. Our Wednesday visits were somewhat off this week. Delmy was sick with a cold so we only visited a few minutes with her and had a prayer. We had heard Mr. Rivas talking in his house as we walked by on our way to Delmy but when we got back to there his Grandmother said he had just gone out. We then walked around to see if Heber, Daisey's son, was home and he was. She has been working in Santa Ana for the last 2 weeks and he said he did not have too long but we did have about a 30 minute study. Then we went by to try to visit Bro. Rafael but he had gone to the medical clinic again. We sat and talked with his wife for a while and he arrived back so we talked a little more and had a prayer but it was so close to noon that we did not have a study. Charlotte and Seyli studied with Julia and they also had their first study Briseida who also lives behind the cemetery and her husband sat in on most of it. After lunch Charlotte had her weekly study with Socorro and Cesar, Arnoldo and I went to visit Sister Ana. Our Wednesday night group was about like usual. Don Santos came but Sonja and Jimmy did not. He had also come by himself to the study on Tuesday night and we are beginning to think that Sonja may be avoiding coming for now. We had studied about the Holy Spirit and at the end I asked if there was anything special he would like to study. He said that he would like to talk about the prophecies about the end of the world and to know how close to the end we are. With the many denominations there are here he has no doubt heard people making all kinds of claims about that so I have spent most of my free time this week researching and preparing for that study. It always amazes me how much information is available on the web and how hard it is to imagine not having that resource though it is fairly new. Cecelia also came and Mario and Sara and kids. We talked with them about trying to get back to a personal study and hope to do that this week. Thursday morning Charlotte had some studies scheduled to go with Suleyma but when we went by to pick her up Kenia said that Danielito was sick again and that she was going with Charlotte instead. Charlotte: Our first stop was at the home of Tatiana, a 19 year old girl who lives next to the building. She had a cold, so she wanted to wait a week. Next, we went to Floramarina’s and Claudia’s. Floramarina had gone to visit with her mother in Santa Katarina. Claudia wanted to go ahead and study. I was glad Kenia was with me, because Claudia is only 14 years old. However, we seem to have connected pretty good. On Saturday, we have a youth event in Ataco and both she and her sister, Sandra are planning to go. That is the first time that Sandra has planned to come to anything. I think that Claudia is truly interested in the gospel and we are not ‘fighting’ a strong interest or background in other religions. Next, Kenia and I went to visit Evelia. She was sleeping with the aid of some heavy meds, but her husband was home. We visited about 45 minutes as he wanted to explain all that had happened at the hospital the previous week. Unfortunately, in the end, it was basically a nonproductive visit. They know her kidneys are failing, but there is not much to be done. The closest dialysis is Santa Ana and they do not have funds to support continuous medications. It is a sad situation. Her mother is blind and now only the husband can be there to care for his wife and mother-in-law. We ended with a prayer. Dwaine: I spent some time at the building drying a load of clothes and putting up a bookshelf and then I walked by the office of the lawyer who had done the contract on the house we now live in and he looked over our papers for renewing our visas. He did not seem to have had too much experience and I decided to wait on actually having him to do any work and he did not charge anything. After lunch I worked at home while Charlotte went to a couple of afternoon studies with Seyli. Charlotte: First, we went by to visit with Wendy and her mother-in-law Sandra. We have been studying for many months and they are not interesting in visiting any activities. They are now regularly going to a church where her grandparents go. They also had Eliazar’s baby confirmation done there recently. We are going to keep in contact, but we actually have a few studies waiting to start because there are not enough hours in the day. We did visit for about 45 minutes to an hour. Afterwards, we went to Reina’s. She had asked if it mattered where she might go to church if she was baptized, so we started that study. She did not have too much time so we finished up close to 4. There had not been water all day in Juayua, so the school were closing a little early. I invited several to the Thursday night Bible class in our home this week, and we set up one meeting place and time for pick-up. Dwaine: On Thursday night we had the weekly home study at our house and had a great turn out. Again Don Santos came alone so I told him our concerns about Sonja and he did not say much. If change is difficult for him I am sure it is extremely difficult for Sonja to even consider. Cecelia, Floramarina and Claudia came as well as Mario, Sara and kids and several members. The biggest suprise was that Sister Ana and two of her daughters arrived in a taxi for the study. We were sure not expecting that. Afterwards I took them back home in the car. Our large living room was full again. On Friday morning we had hoped to have another study with Jose and Kelly at our house but he had been working in San Salvador all week and was not able to come on Thursday night and when we asked Kelly she said they would come about 8:30 if he did not have to work but they never arrived. About 10 we headed up and had a study with Celia and Charlotte asked her if it would be ok if Floramarina and Claudia also came to dinner with us since they are good friends. She said that would be good. In the afternoon Charlotte and Seyli had a study with Alba and I got the house ready for dinner guests and studied some more on my lessons. Charlotte: I had planned a study on instrumental music with Alba, but when we arrived she had several questions on some of the Psalms she had read. We talked quite a while on her questions. While I missed the other study because it has been a question she has had for quite a time, but it was good to know she was reading her Bible and wanted to better understand what she was reading. Her daughter wanted to sell me some tickets to a concert put on by the Assembly of God groups here. I declined, but little did I know that it would be close to our house on Saturday night and we heard all of it anyway! Dwaine: Dinner went well and everyone we were expecting came. It was the most contact we had gotten to have with Teresa, Cecelia's daughter, so that was good. Yesterday morning, Saturday, we got ready for our lunch and movie with Sister Ana and whoever of her family could come. We thought we had left the memory stick with the movie back in the states but fortunately Charlotte was able to find it on the internet in Spanish so she saved the day. When I picked them up it was Sister Ana, four daughters and one granddaughter. We had vegetable soup and chicken salad sandwiches and then the movie. All went great. After the movie I took them home and then washed the dishes and studied and rested. No rest for Charlotte as she had to pick up some of the sisters and go to a baby shower. Charlotte: The shower was a surprise shower for the daughter of Arecely, a member here in Juayua. There was a great turn out and when the daughter arrived after about an hour, she just broke down in tears. Linda MC’s the event and she had some hilarious games. We had one charades game and each team only had one participate…..yikes and I was one of them. We laughed til we were crying. She had to guess what was in each gift, so opening took a while. If she missed it, she had to put a bow on her body. We actually ran out of bows in the end. I got to sit next to two ladies from Mojado and I had a great time getting to know some new people. Kelly had made three beautiful dresses that I bought, $5 each. I will include some picturesJ. Dwaine: She did not get home until about 6:30 and after dinner and about an hour rest she stayed up until 2 am again to finish getting ready for the class she was to teach in Ahuachapan this afternoon on raising adolescents. It is now Sunday night and we are back from Ahuachapan. We had a little bit of a low turnout this morning in our services but Bro. Rafael did come for his second time as well as Sara and her kids. Mario always goes to visit his family on Sunday morning but we will work on that. Charlotte: I had one funny thing to happen. This month was the month that Yesenia and I were teaching together. Sunday was Yesenia’s day. However, she did not make it to church until 11. Regina had forgotten the grape juice, so they swapped the preaching and the Lord’s Supper. So I adlibbed through the sermon. She arrived on the break and that left the Lord’s Supper time, which was fairly short. I was glad we had a few craft items in the drawers, thanks to the ladies at Central, esp. Nancy Jackson. So we had things that worked well for the theme. After lunch we picked up Regina, Pedro and Arnoldo and headed out. We dropped Pedro off on the way to Apaneca near his work area. We dropped Regina and Arnoldo off at her parents’ house to spend the afternoon and picked them back up on the way back through. Luzelena had invited me to speak at their ladies’ event and she had told me it was a study that focused on the Psalms and Proverbs. She had only asked me on Wednesday, but I did at least reread all of Proverbs to prepare. I also generally try to prepare Power Point because it helps them to see pictures and read the verse for themselves. I think it is a way to enhance my Spanish so they can get more out of the lesson. Luzelena gave me a heart satin pillow afterwards that she had made. She said Della had taught her how to make it. They had 24 ladies to come and it was a nice afternoon. When we finished, they said they would follow with a teen event. They were excited to learn that Clifton was coming and wanted to schedule a lunch when he arrives. Dwaine: We also went to Selectos and Dollar City after the talk. Dollar City was closing as we left and we ran into another .99 store across the street and they were trying to close too. At least we made it home by about dark. To say the least Charlotte was worn out. A little rest tonight and back at it again tomorrow.

Weekly Bible Study

Sister Ana came!

Weekly Bible Study

Nicole too!

Cecilia, Teresa, Floramarina and Claudia for dinner

Police tape again tied to our house....a man was dead on the street,

an alcoholic died of 'natural causes'

Police Tape

Ana, Sonja, Gloria, Carolina, Ingrid, and Maria for lunch and a movie

Baby Shower

Lead Singer for Ladies Event in Ahuachapán

Luzelena giving intro for Ladies Event

Ladies Group

Dresses for Baby Shower sewn by Kelly

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

April 13-18, 2016

Charlotte mentioned today that we have not done a blog since last Tuesday and today is Monday. We have gotten so busy and the hours and then the days fly by and to some degree they are becoming somewhat the same routine. Every day we have morning and afternoon studies except for Monday mornings when we have our leader's meeting for Juayua-Salcoatitan and on the weekends we have event activities. Charlotte said she has been taking less pictures because there are not many new things to take pictures of. Anyway we have decided to sometimes post a few days together. Charlotte has had so much going on since we got back with the ladies' event here the first Saturday after our return, teaching the Sunday school teacher's seminar in Santa Ana, meeting with Eliza for planning the Sunday school long term program, teaching the ladies class in Ataco Friday, as well as had a meeting on Saturday morning to plan a teaching event this fall and finally the monthly ladies event in Salcoatitan. One good thing happened when she taught in Ataco was that she was able to take some visitors from Juayua with her. She left Saturday morning about 8:30 to pick up Linda on her way to the meeting and I was still out walking Wicket when she left. I met a young couple from Europe who were waiting for breakfast at a pupusa stand on the street. We talked for a few minutes in English and the lady said that I must live here because I had a dog with me. She said old people need dogs. I laughed and said “Well, I am old.” But old is something hard to feel most of the time at least for me. Our studies are going well though most of the people are very resistant to change. Wednesday night we had a large number of visitors and then Thursday night we met at Mario and Seyli's house and there was practically standing room only. For the ladies event in Salcoatitan Saturday afternoon we took one load with us when we went at 2:30 and then I ran back and got another load and our Sunday services always have lots of people thought most are brothers and sisters and less visitors on Sundays. After morning service this Sunday we wanted to take Jose and Kelly and their kids out to lunch since we had not done anything with them in a while. I asked about the Gastronomica (the food fest that Juayua has every weekend) and Kelly said she had worked at one of the booths for a couple of years and that the lady who owned it bought her food at Selectos and was careful in preparing it. So we had our first experience at that though it is what Juayua is famous for and what people come to from far and wide. It was good and hopefully we will not get any parasites but most of all we had a good outing with Jose and Kelly and kids. This afternoon Charlotte led another baptism study and I read verses for her. It was with Mr. Riva's grandmother and his aunt. Tonight we had Wendy and Oscar over for dinner and had a study on the differences between the New Testament Church and the denominations that fill Juayua. It went well but in the end we did not get the impression that they really took it to heart. As the saying here always goes “poco a poco” little by little and so it goes and so do we.