June 28, 2016

There’s more.  First, when I got up at 5, I checked on the bird and he was dead in the bottom of his cage.  We knew we had tried to get him out, but he was fussy, just squawking some.  But he was a goner.  Then, about 8, we got a call from Regina’s house.  Regina’s brother’ who was about 37, died from diabetes complications.  He has been sick for several months.  His mother, Rita, is not in good health either and we knew this would be hard for her.  Then, in a little bit, we got word that on Monday night Regina’s aunt also died, unexpectedly.  That means Rita’s sister and son died about 12 hours apart.  Also, Regina’s aunt was the mother of Aracely, another member of our congregation.  She dies suddenly of a heart attack.  It is a difficult time for our congregation now.  Visitation was scheduled for the night.  We had originally planned to go to a lake with our leadership group, but we heard the roads were washed out.  With all the difficulties here, we decided not to go too far from home.  First, we had a meeting here at our house mostly regarding the campaign in two weeks.  Then, we decided to go to Los Naranjos for lunch.  Everyone said there was a nice restaurant, called 'Alsaka' with grounds that had some activities and walks.  We arrived around lunchtime and there was not a big crowd gathered, but we didn’t eat till around 2ish.  Clifton did was to do an obstacle course, so after walking around, he went for it.  It’s was the Ninja Warriors course, but there were some challenging on balancing.  We had a good group of about 5 families.  Even Mr. and Mrs. Azucena’s family joined us from Santa Ana.  We left out about 3:30ish I think.  When we got home, we got ready to go to Rita’s house for the visitation.  It was packed.  I really couldn’t begin to count, but probably 60 to 70 people.  There were rooms full and then, the yard was packed and the street was packed.  Many people were walking back and forth from Rita’s home to where her sister lived.  We tried, but could never get directions to go to her home and everyone said the roads were bad.  The funerals were planned together at ten in the morning, so we just planned to see them then.  We stayed there for over an hour, visiting with many people we knew.  Hector did one sermon and Ricardo Moran did another sermon. Edgardo also led some songs. I sat with Regina for a long time, but there were many that we knew.  Regina’s mom has a big family that live from Juayua, to Apaneca to Rosario.  We got home about 9ish.  They said that they would stay up all night, but visitors would come and go until about midnight.  This was a very difficult time for the families.  Keep them in your prayers. 

Group at Restaurant 'Alaska' in Los Naranjos

Clifton is braving the obstacle course.

Great Views

Peacock and Horses