My friends' good experiences :-)

I recently visited my friends Kelly and Bonnie who work in Spanish and sign language respectively, and was quite encouraged by them.  Sign serves several nearby cities.  Bonnie normally goes on her studies alone because 1 there are not many sign publishers and 2 local publishers don't always have the money to catch all the busses needed to get that far out.  Although I don't know sign, I told her I'd tag along (she taught me a few things :-) ).  We took an old school bus, then a van then hiked about several miles through hills and rural terrain over rivers and such.  It took us 2 hours just to get to the first study!  When we got there, I got to see Jehovah's love and the patience of this sister in action.  There is a nearby school for the deaf however, the family never had enough money to send the now 30 something year old woman so she never learned to sign.  Her mother taught her "household" signs-- making up signs for her.  So the sister is starting from square one teaching her not only how to read and write but also how to sign.  It was really something to see Jehovah's spirit at work as she taught her the sign for name, then her name and others family members names. Then she taught her "house."  From house she explained Jehovah has a "house" in the sky and he created all things.  So now she knows who Jehovah is!  She picked it up so quickly!  Little by little she is coming along and learning about Jehovah and his wonderful promises. 
The Kelly works in Spanish.  She showed me a picture of a lady who comes to the meetings now whom she is helping.  The woman was very, very smart graduating college at 15.  However, upon graduating, she was in a very bad car accident rendering her unable to move from the neck down.  She is also unable to speak, although her mental faculties are in tact.  She was learning the bible before her accident but afterwards, her mom stopped taking her to the meetings.  Her mother soon noticed that she would fidget and become anxious during the times of the meetings so her mom started to take her again and she seemed to be happy and comforted.  This is how my friend met her.  Kelly remembered having met someone back home with a similar handicap who had learned a language by blinking her eyes.  She prayed to Jehovah to help her remember the little she had seen and sure enough holy spirit brought it back.  So she is helping the young lady to communicate all the wonderful things in her very active mind!  That's two experiences for you :-)

Bonnie and I at the convention (I think I posted this elsewhere)

Kelly and I at the beach...I've really gotta learn how to swim!

Relaxing at a beach house after a long weekend of service.

Random pic of a gecko on the curtains.

I haven't forgotten the blog!!

Hey yall!

I haven't forgotten the blog!  Unfortunately, my camera died when I made my last post 2 months ago.  Although I was able to obtain a camera in the States (thank you to my bestest bud!), it's really tricky having things sent here since the country (including the postal service) is full of corruption.  I know too many people who have chanced it only to have items stolen or arrive for them to them half eaten (everybody loves chocolate).  But fortunately, we have a new couple here from Austria (currently living in the States) and they are having visitors come down this weekend so my mom is going to overnight the camera to them so they can bring it.  YAY!

So let's see. What have you missed in pictures?  Me with braids ( I think everyone here is now used to the length of my hair constantly changing!)  I've been really busy with bible studies some of which are totally English and others which are "Spanglish" (half English and half Spanish).  I have to prepare quite a bit for those.  I've been visiting a few other areas and seeing how great a need there is in Spanish.  (I'll publish a seperate post with a couple of good experiences I had with other folks.)  Over and over, I am encouraged to just jump in and move over to Spanish but at the moment I'm still on the fence.  Everyone else seems to see my improvement and I am able to converse in Spanish for the most part but, I dunno.  We'll see :-).  I will be VERY excited when December is over because the people here have an affinity for fireworks and live bands at all times of day and night.  From December 1-7 people in Granada celebrate the city's patron saint, Mary.  They place huge cardboard cutouts of angels in all of the streets slowing down traffic even more.  Every night, there is a live marching band that walks down a different street carrying a 7 foot tall image of Mary along with a smaller hand held version.  Anyone desiring a "blessing" sits outside their house and when the Mary's pass by, they touch the small one and give a donation for their blessing.  I'm not sure where the blessing money goes.  This goes on ALL night.  I was at a friend's house spending the night when the band came down the street at 3:30AM!  All month long, people set off fireworks.  The fireworks here sound like we are at war and being bombed.  They begin as the sun is setting and continue until sunrise.  They celebrate Christmas Eve here like New Year's Eve in the States.  Everybody is in the streets partying and at the stroke of midnight, all the fireworks go off.  I was leaving a get together that night and as we all piled into the back of my friend's pickup truck to go home, a crowd gathered around us.  The band suddenly appeared and got in front of us and started to lead an impromptu parade with us at the head!  This is not the first time I've been in a car when people randomly got in front of us with a banner and decided to start a parade with us leading the way lol.
I gave my first talk as a householder (assistant) in Spanish two months ago.  This was when my camera was dying so my friend recorded it on her phone.  Now as soon as I can figure how to transfer it off, I will post it (shaking my head).  I do have a couple of random pics that I took with my phone....

I think the baker was having a bad day.  I feel like the sad cupcake when everyone else seems to be picking up Spanish rapidly and I feel slow :-(

Ok.  I still don't think I can explain this.  I came out to wash my clothes when I realized Clemen beat me to the clothes line....to hang meat out.  At first, I just turned and went back in my room since it looked really gross and I didn't want to revisit that visual as I was eating dinner.  (Ignorance is bliss here with the food, sometimes).  But, I finally asked if she was defrosting it and she said no, it needed sun.  One person told me they salt it and put it in the sun because it is so fresh.  I dunno.  Like I said, I didn't ask too many questions!

Going Loca!

This pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment lol. I need to find something to do...