Tuesday, May 31, 2016

May, 2016 Newsletter

Two by two.  This month we had Bro. Manuel and Sister Marina Azucena as well as their son, Josue and his finance Lia came to work with our congregations here in Juayua and Salcoatitan for 4 of the 5 Sundays of May.  The ladies taught the children’s classes and Bro. Manuel preached each Sunday.   He is a pioneer of the Churches here in El Salvador and is greatly respected.  Our ladies event on May 7th here in Juayua was a great success again with 30 visitors and over 50 people total.  Charlotte and I spent the entire morning helping two other sisters get the church building decorated- we blew up over 400 balloons.  On Sunday, May 8th after our service we had the great joy of two new baptisms.  The first was Enrique Ernesto Galacia the 16 year old son of Jose and Kelly.  The second was Carolina Sanchez, the oldest daughter of Sister Ana’s oldest daughter, Dora who died suddenly a few months ago.  This month we also had to get our visas renewed since mine was due to expire June 10, we had to go to San Salvador three times in a week and half but at least on the third trip we did get all our papers accepted and we got new three month temporary visas but it was during this phase last year that we had to go through the in home interview process before our final approvals.  So we will still have to see what happens but at least we have gotten this far along again.  Wednesday May 11 we had an in home explosion as Charlotte thought she had lit the oven and when it was not hot she tried to light it again and it blew up.  It was amazing how loud the explosion was and how much the stove came apart and ash was blown everywhere but despite all that we were able to clean up the mess and put the stove back together and everything still worked and Charlotte was not injured.  We even managed to get to go to Ataco that afternoon to visit with some of the people we had studied with while living there and some brothers and sisters in Ataco.  We also got to have our first men’s event on successive Friday nights first in Salcoatitan and then in Juayua.  Here in Juayua we had our first men’s event with 10 brothers and 12 visitors- we watched the movie Courageous and then we had tamales and talked about being good fathers.  Toward the end of the month Charlotte got the sickest she has been since we got here.  She finally did go to the Dr. and after some blood test he decided she had two different types of stomach flu one on top of the other.  She has tried to push on through as much as possible but has had to miss some studies and some services.  The most amazing thing she did was in the middle of all her illness she cooked a beautiful wedding cake and several other things as well as decorating for the wedding because last Sunday May 29 Mario and Sara got married at our house.  On Sunday morning we had a huge 5th Sunday service with our congregation, Salcoatitan and three visiting congregations.   We also had the great joy on May 24th of going to the airport to pick up our son Clifton who will be here with us until the end of July.  He will be working with us as often as he can when he is not gaining employment experience by working with Ricardo and Yoli in their variety store and warehouse.  We only have a month to go before our group arrives for the big campaign.  We are getting excited.  Keep us and especially Charlotte in your prayers.

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