October Newsletter

Back in the groove.  We were in Huntsville from Sept. 9 through Sept. 26 so there was no report for September.  Since we got back at the end of the month and each first Saturday of the month we have a ladies’ event here we had to hustle.  This event was different in that it was to be a ladies and children’s event.  Saturday, October 1, is children's day here in El Salvador.  We borrowed the two canopies from Salcoatitan and got permission from the mayor's office to set them up in the street in front of our meeting place.  Charlotte made up the invitations and along with trying to get back into as many studies as we could we got those passed out.  We had no idea how many people to expect since this was the first time we have had this combined event.  We usually have around 30 ladies and 15 to 20 kids.  This time we had over 80 people total with the kids.  We were amazed, the chairs were all full, and some people were standing.   The only negative was that there were so many new people that we did not get to have much one on one time with them and will have to work hard on follow-up.  It was a great event and we were very thankful.  There is a great write up and lots of pictures on our blog at simmonsbeautifulfeet.blogspot.com  .  After catching our breath from all that we had to get back into our routine.  Since Xiomara and Gisela were baptized on Wednesday before we left on Friday we had their baptism certificate presentations on our first Sunday back as well as for Jorge and Ana Vilma.  On Monday evening we went to Hector and Rachel's house for dinner with Rodney and his family as well as some area preachers and their families.  The next weekend was the big teacher's training seminar in Ataco in which Charlotte had a major segment.  There was huge attendance and Charlotte did an incredible job.  I was so amazed at how she was able to be so energetic and enthusiastic through 4, hour long repetitions of her presentation.  She did so well that one sister asked her to come to San Salvador at the end of October to give the same presentation to ladies from three different congregations.  Her unique style of using science experiments and making Biblical applications to them and using items that can be obtained here is in demand.  We have started some new studies as well as given up on some that seemed to be going nowhere and where the people were usually not home when we went by.  Another exciting development this month was the baptism of Alba.  She had stopped Charlotte on the street after our very first ladies’ event last November and asked where our church met.  Charlotte and different ladies have studied with her for months and finally concluded the studies.  She kept coming to services off and on with her two young daughters and then came by Friday morning Oct. 21^st and said she wanted to be baptized on Monday because she was on her way to work at that time.  Again there are pictures on our blog of the baptism as well as the events in Ataco and San Salvador where Charlotte taught.  We are so thankful for all the blessing God has showered on us this month.  On a personal note we added a new small member to our family.  When we got Wicket we said she was for Charlotte but she has ended up being somewhat more mine.  Charlotte has always loved cats so we decided to look for one when we got back from the U.S. this time.  We looked both in San Salvador and Santa Ana but found nothing.  Finally with the help of Xiomara we went to the home of a lady here in Juayua who had 30 cats including 9 young kittens.  After 45 minutes of agonizing, Charlotte finally picked the only orange one.  We are enjoying him and have named him Aubie since Charlotte and I both went to Auburn and Clifton and lots of our money have gone there for the last few years.  We are so excited that he is graduating on Dec. 10^th.  Pray for him in his job search.  Thank to all of you for your love and support.

October 31, 2016

Invite time!  We printed about 100 invites for the Ladies’ Event scheduled for the 5th of November on the Parable of the Sower.  With a ‘short week’ ahead on available days for working, we handed out invites for the whole morning.  On the way home we stopped by Super.  We were hoping that Raul and Anita with their two children would come for dinner, but we had not gotten a final confirmation.  So, I planned something light that we could have on hand.  About lunch time, Raul called and said that they would have to work on another day.  We got home close to 11:30 and it was a day that we invited Douglas and Sonja for a study, but they didn’t come.  For the afternoon, Ulma met me at the building to go to Vilma’s.  She had time for a study, so we looked at repentance.  At the end of the study, she told us her 12 year old daughter, Andrea, has thyroid problems and will have to go to the hospital in Santa Ana for tests on Friday.  They will have to leave at 4 for a 6 o’clock arrival.  We have plans on Friday, but hopefully next time she has to go, we can help out.  We talked a long time, since thyroid problems are definitely a personal health issue and an issue for our daughters.  Prayerfully, she will get some good news and I hope that we can keep up with what is happening. Ulma and I also handed out invites in the cemetery area and another block near the church. We wrapped up about 5.  Dwaine has the Wednesday night lesson for our service, so he worked on developing his study for this occasion.  We did get to catch little Charlotte, I mean, Doc Mcstuffin’s, for a Halloween walk.  It looked like quite a venture with all the family, only missing Clifton from Auburn. 

October 30, 2016

All set to go.  Feeling much better and ready to go to San Salvador.  We planned to go after recess/break at church.  The first part of our service focuses on the Lord’s Supper.  Then, we have a break with coffee for fellowship and then the preaching.  The children’s class begins at arrival and goes until the end, so the children are never in the service with parents.  This developed when we met at Regina’s because there was not enough room for everyone to be together.  We have been in the current location for about a year, but this remained.  So, we announced this past week that the children would be with parents during the Lord’s Supper and then break for class.  We are in prayer that this transition will go smoothly.  At break, Gisela, Arnoldo, Dwaine and I left for San Salvador.  We drove by the house to pick up lunch and cupcakes and headed out.  It was a smooth trip and we arrived close to 1 to meet Jose and Lia.  The seminar was at Mira Mount and they invited two additional congregations so we had a turnout of about 70 to 75.  We did not know, but they prepared lunch for us.  We started about 2 and went on until 4:30.  Dwaine helped with the PowerPoint and Arnoldo and Gisela helped with materials and pictures.  I repeated the seminar of October 8^th in Ataco, using object lessons in teaching the Parables of Jesus.  Since my time was double, I added some more examples.  One thing that was funny was that if something didn’t work, someone in the audience jumped up and helped try again.  We all just laughed and laughed.  Dwaine even got a full round of applause when I was talking about food object lessons and mentioned he always helped in the kitchen.  One lady recorded the entire lesson with her phone and many took notes.  Overall, I think it was one of the most interactive seminars to date.  We left about 4:45 to try to get home before dark.  One funny thing happened on the way home.  Dwaine said early on that he thought that we would get home about the same time if we had gone to Salcoatitan.  As timing would have it, when we drove by the church in Salcoatitan, we passed Carlos and Linda pulling out!  Once home, Dwaine did some studying, but I called it an early night.  

Seminar in Mira Monte,San Salvador 

 

 

 

 

October 29, 2016

Dwaine left fairly early to go to church to clean and dry clothes.  He has been doing this on Sunday morning, but since we have the trip to San Salvador on Sunday, he wanted to complete this on Saturday.  On his trip, he ran into Mauricio who said he might be able to drop by for a study at 1.  I used the morning to cook 90 cupcakes for our trip and to prepare Sunday school material for the teachers for the month of November.  One o’clock came and went and no Mauricio…We had planned to go out at 2 to visit with Edgar, but I was dealing with a bad stomach ache.  Since I could hardly stand, Dwaine said we could wait for a time on Edgar.  So, for the afternoon, I sat at the computer and worked on PowerPoint and at 4:30 Gisela came by to make sure my Spanish was all correct.  She stayed until 6:30 and all that was left was gathering materials.  Dwaine helped a lot on this aspect and we finished about 11…..not too bad on a seminar night.  On in the evening I felt a little better, so I had hope that Sunday would go okay in the feel good category!  

October 28, 2016

Nicole and Kelly came 8:30 to 10:30.  Dwaine graciously went to pick them up.  While he was there he talked to Jose about getting together for some one on one studies for encouragement and to answer some questions.  Once we completed our study, we cooked through lunchtime to get ready for a dinner in the evening.  Dwaine dropped by Vilma and Zoila’s to say he could pick up their family for the dinner tonight. Briseida dropped by to ask if we might be interested in buying some oranges.  I committed to 20 for $2.  (I’m sure we will ‘tip’ on that price.)  I usually use them to make bread, but that might be a stretch.  I may be trying some juice with that many.  I was overjoyed that she would come by and ask.  We did expect Mauricio for a study right after lunch, but Dwaine had passed him and he said he was very busy today.  He didn’t come. Raul stopped by and said that Cesi needed to make a sample craft for school and he was wondering if I might have any ideas.  Kelly and I had been working on the craft for the ladies’ event on the sower, so I shared that with him. It gave us a chance to talk to him about some spiritual issues and it was a great opportunity to get to visit a few minutes. I left at 2:50 to go pick Katheryn up for a study, but Alba had to go to work and so we crossed paths and she brought Katheryn to our house.  Dwaine and Cesar were both there waiting on Nelson, so that worked okay.  Katheryn and I studied ‘til 4:30 and Dwaine and Cesar studied with Nelson until 5.  Nelson said that he was using the information he learned to share with another friend, but as yet Nelson has not made a decision. Cesar and Nelson left and then Arnoldo arrived to go to the leader's meeting.  Dwaine drove him on up to the building as Dwaine was going to do the dinner and Cesar was going to teach the class tonight. Dwaine left at 6:15 for Vilma, Zoila, Andrea and Hilma.  They are all really funny and we had a lighthearted meal together.  We have been studying for about a month and so that was great to have them come.  We are prayerful it will help to make them more comfortable coming to church meetings and group Bible studies. Afterwards, we first took Vilma and her daughters home in the cemetery area and then drove back across town near Sister Ana’s to take her mother, Zoila, home.  Dwaine washed a huge load of dishes while I rested.  When he finished he rested and I worked on a lesson for about an hour.  So we flipped flopped on that…..I forgot to take pics from dinner….we will just have to repeat sometime.  

October 27, 2016

Yeah, for our study on Thursday morning, Mario, the father of the family we are visiting was home.  The last two studies he was working.  But, we were thankful he was home and instead of moving forward, we revisited the Word study. It is always our desire to work with entire families.  Afterwards we were on to Claudia’s.  She was out working on a school project because students are wrapping up their school year.  We talked to Sandra, her sister, a few minutes and said we would revisit when school is out in one to two weeks.  After a stop at Super, we went home, expecting Douglas at 11:30.  Close to 12:30 we had a pleasant surprise.  Douglas arrived and Sonja came too.  This was her first time to study in our home.  We studied faith and wrapped up close to 1:20.  Arnoldo had shifted to Thursday for lunch because of the preacher’s meeting, so he had arrived for the majority of the study.  At 2, we picked up Xiomara and headed toward the church building.  We dropped Dwaine and Arnoldo off for a baptism study with Melvin and Mr. Rivas and Xiomara and I drove to Miriam’s.  First, Melvin did not come and Mr. Rivas came late.  In the end, Cesar said he led the study with Mr. Rivas for only about 30 minutes.  He has already had several studies on this topic.  While Mr. Rivas has not made a decision, he does come to services and events regularly now.  For us ladies, Miriam was not home.  She is a contact we had made from ladies’ events and Xiomara had once been a neighbor.  Since Carla has been out for several studies, we had decided to try a new contact.  It was quite a drive up to her home, often spinning wheels on the rocky road.  We were laughing like crazy.  In the end, we should have walked.  We will have to try another day to revisit.  I dropped Xiomara off at her home and I went home to rest a few, but cooked instead…..At 3:30 I went back to pick her back up, as she only lives about 3 to 4 blocks away.  Dwaine called and he was already walking our way to join the study with Blanca.  And….Blanca was not home.  Her door was locked up.  So, there was a little down time and we headed out close to 6 for the Thursday study in the home of Regina.  We picked up Xiomara’s family and checked on Socorro, but she had not been home all afternoon.  We also stopped back by Blanca’s for she lives close to Regina, but she still was not home.  In the end, we had about 25ish and the excited news was Douglas and Sonja came along with several visitors.  For the evening we revisited internet loss.  We are still connected to Claro and used their service for a bit.  Eventually Tigo came back on and we became a divided family.  I stayed on Claro and Dwaine opened up in Tigo.  Internet woes. Claro is only $17 a month, so we may just let their contract ride out or a few more months. We worked on lessons for several hours, skyped and called it a night.    

Couldn't resist the beauties....

  

October 26, 2016

Early morning baking.  Dwaine had talked with Carlos on Tuesday and we agreed to help with the snacks for the preacher’s meeting on Wednesday and then serve lunch in Salcoatitan.  Dwaine went at 8 to the church in Juayuá to clean and meet Carlos to give him tables and bread.  Cesar ended up coming by and picking up the things Carlos needed.  Dwaine and I first went on a study to Briseida and Antonio’s.  Antonio said he had some pending work, but we talked him into a short study on faith.  We encouraged them to come visit as well.  We also walked down to Wendy and Angelica’s and gave them a ‘Que Dice la Biblia?’ to study.  I guess we will use this to gauge their interest in a way.  I have studied off and on for a while with them and they all go to different churches.  It is hard to get them all together at one time where we can study so we will see how the lessons work.  We also stopped by Vilma’s and invited their family for dinner on Friday.  She said that her husband would not come as he typically went out.  We are hopeful that it will work out for the whole family.  We arrived at the preacher’s meeting about 11:15 and served lunch close to noon.  Afterwards, we went returned home for another study, but the group went on to the locale in Salcoatitan where the next area wide service will be held November 13^th. About 2 we had a meeting with Ricardo and Meri.  They are the daughter and son-in-law of Rolando and Blanca and have been coming and studying with Cesar.  They visited about an hour and said they would come for the evening service.  We are enjoying getting to know this family.  I went on to Socorro’s and studied ‘One Baptism’ from Eph. 4.  Dwaine, Cesar and Arnoldo went to the building to study with Mr. Rivas and Melvin.  They said they would be studying baptism on Thursday.  They ran out of time going to Sister Ana’s.  We had a good crowd, including Rolando’s family, for the night service and we had 14 kids!  What a room full of children.  Gisela taught the children and had made an amazing shadow box to teach the story.  I was really impressed and the kids loved it!  it was like watching a movie.  It was definitely a full day.  

Preacher's Meeting at Salcoatitan

October 25, 2016

Decision made.  In case you are all in suspense….ha, ha.  I chose the little orange kitten we originally got, so we left for Kelly and Nicole’s to give her the grey and white tabby.  She was ecstatic, crying.  It was love at first sight and we were delighted she was so happy.  We told her we thought she was getting the prettier kitten, but I was already attached to the orange kitten and couldn’t let it go.  Hopefully, there is some great potential for becoming just as pretty.  We had planned to go to Ahuachapán to get the kitten that Noé had gotten.  Along with that trip we planned to visit Isabella, Bessie and Reina.  We still wanted to go that distance so we left about 9:20.  Bessie helped me with a craft for the big event for the Western congregations in November and we had a great visit.  It was also a tremendous blessing to visit Reina.  To see her dependency on God and love for the Lord was really uplifting.  She also said that Mirdna was faithful and had good health now.  She had suffered with Bell’s Palsey the last time we visited, but was well now.  Those two are daughters in the faith and it was a blessing to see them growing strong.  We got back to Juayuá about noon.  In the afternoon Ulma said that she wanted to come and go to Ana’s with me, but at 2, she was not here.  I left at 2:30 to go pick up Regina and got a call along the way that Ulma had arrived.  So, Regina and I went back to the house and picked her up and then on to Ana’s.  We visited about 2 hours and that was a good time together.  I took Ulma by the buses and went home for our visit with Don Santos.  He did not come tonight.  Dwaine had stayed home for the afternoon because Tigo was supposed to come to work on our new internet connection.  They didn’t come.  The computers will not permit us to enter passwords and therefore could not connect.  He has not been able to use his computer now for a month.  He stayed up into the night working on this and finally got the connection for both.  He used instructions on troubleshooting on our Claro connection that I had and now we can make a final disconnect with them.  Tigo has more megabytes and it looks like we can now operate both laptops simultaneously.  Seems like something simple, but not here.  We were so excited that it looks like changing companies will get this settled.  Before going to bed, I did look for some kitten names and after searching a while, I settled on Aubie with Dwaine's help….well good name for kitten ofAuburn grads and with soon to have Clifton graduate too.  While that name may be common in AL, it is rare here, so we are excited about it!

    

Nicole receiving kitten!

Happy face!

Broken sign along the road. 

Would hate to find this one in the dark.

Bessi and Isabela's View

Family Pets

In total, there were 5 of these.

View near Reina's 

Happy, happy reunion with Reina!

Ducks visiting Sister Ana's bedroom.

Sister Ana assured me that these would not be dinner.

October 24, 2016

New Sister!  Yes, Alba Ban was baptized this morning!  We were expecting Alba to arrive about 7:30 when she dropped Katheryn off for school for about an hour of study and then her baptism at 9 when others arrived.  However, she didn’t arrive until 8:50J.  She had a logistics’ problem on timing. But, we still studied for an hour and everyone visited.  At 10 she wanted to pick up Katheryn up at school to be at her baptism and we met Rosalydia and her children in route to the house as well.  About 10:30, she put on our Lord in baptism.  It has been a long journey as she was one of the first contacts we had when we came to Juayua.  It is a blessing to have her part of the family and we pray for her growth.  Just recently I began studying with her older daughter as well as she has really connected with girls in our Sunday school class. We are excited for her and pray for her growth.  Since we went so long, we did not meet for a leader’s meeting.  For the afternoon, Ulma came to go on studies’ with me.  She is a young mother with a son of 2 and ½ years.  She wants to go out with me one day a week and then also join Regina and I for a study at Sister Ana’s on Tuesdays.  It is a journey for her on bus as she lives in Apaneca, close to Rosaria.  We visited with Vilma.  It was good to get with her again and her husband arrived, Manual.  This was the first time to meet him.  We studied spiritual blessings.  Next, we went by Amalia’s but she was occupied and unable to study.  So, we walked up to Celia’s and visited and studied the Eunuch and the gospel Philip shared with him.  Terry was home and her health was about the same.  Afterwards, I dropped her by the buses and headed home.  Dwaine put the car up, but soon he got it back out.  We got a call from Cesar that Noe had to go to Ataco, so he was going to come on to Salcoatitan and drop his gray kitten off with Carlos.  When he arrived, we drove to Carlos and Linda’s and visited about 30 or 40 minutes.  The kitten was really pretty and maybe 2 or 3 weeks older than the one we got last Thursday.  When we left, Brianna said, El Meow, El Meow!  The girls had really liked the little kitten.  Well, this will be a very hard decision to make.  One will go to Nicole, whose cat was killed about a week ago and we will keep the other one.  They had a play fest when we got home and the new one must have been around a dog, for it did not even hiss at Wicket.  No final thoughts for the night....only blessings for our new Sister.

Alba Ban's baptism!

 

Kitty from Noe

October 23, 2016

Left behind. Dwaine left early to clean the building as October was our month for this.  Dwaine has carried that load.  I spent the early morning preparing for the Sunday school class, as well as gathering materials for Ulma’s week to teach on the 30^th.  We had a good turnout today and the Bica students working in Salcoatitan led the service.  They had to leave after lunch and therefore came our way to have the opportunity to lead our service.  Our good news about Alba’s desire to be baptized was announced.  So we are hopeful to have a good turnout for her baptism. She is going to arrive at 7:30 Monday morning for some more studies and then everyone is invited to arrive at 9.  We are excited to have Alba to be a part of the family.  One thing we did learn this morning was that we missed one person on the trip to Izalco.  Oops.  Rafael ran late and did not make it to the building on time.  He was light-hearted about it, so that was good.  In the afternoon, the new kitty did get his first bathJ.  That was needed.  He was definitely much more sociable today.  We still have our trip scheduled for Tuesday to pick up a second kitten from Noe.  We did also schedule a visit with Bessie and Isabel along the way at Ataco so that we could drop off some clothes and pick up some class samples for our big November event for all the churches in the area.  Last year there were about 800 and expectation is about 1000 to come.  So, Hector had assigned slots for the teaching the children on Saturday and Bessie has some of the material.  For the evening, we went to the service in Salcoatitan.  Ana Vilma and Jorge went as well as they are having to work on Sunday mornings.  On the way home, we passed Douglas and Sonja and Douglas said he had to work this past week.  So he is planning to come on Thursday.  When we got home Dwaine worked on setting up the pool for Monday morning. 

The picture no one wants to see....

just tracking life:)

October 22, 2016

Early start.  Out the door at 6:45.  We were meeting at the building at 7 for our quarterly event for the churches in our area.  Everyone gathered at the building and we had 16 adults and 1 child going to Izalco for a seminar on ‘Violence in the Family.’  El Salvador has a high incidence of marital abuse and it was the last of a series on the family.  Some of those making the trip were visitors, so it was an encouraging time together. In total there were over 200 attendees.   We had two lessons in the morning and one in the afternoon with a wrap up at 2:30.  Our van full stopped on the way home for coffee and sodas and made it home about 4.  It was a full and day and we did not schedule anything further in the evening.  

Family Seminar

Passed a 'Sweet 15' Party along the road!