Beet Harvest

I'm here working in the States for the beet harvest again.  This year, there are about 25 of us here!  The harvest has started off slowly because it's been unseasonably warm-- to warm for processing.  Ironically, after many days in the 70s and 80s, yesterday it began to snow!  Here are some pics of us hanging out with friends in the local congregations at picnics and visiting their meetings....

Get To Know Our Needgreaters- Marissa

Get To Know Our Needgreaters-Manuel & Marissa

Where are you and your brother from? We are from San Jose, CA in the US.

Why did you choose to be a need greater? An elder in our congregation is now serving in Granada, Nicaragua along with his wife, and they invited us along with a few other brothers and sisters to come for a visit to experience life as need greater.

Why Nicaragua? That is the place where we were invited to go. So we said yeah why not!

Have you served anywhere else? No. We have done seldom worked territory before, but we have never had a chance to get a taste of what life would be like to serve as a need greater.
How long will you be here and how long have you served thus far? We stayed in Nicaragua for 5 weeks. We hope to return again though.

How did you prepare to come? We talked with other brothers and sisters who had already had the privilege of visiting Nicaragua before us. We also talked a lot with the brother who invited us. All the brothers and sisters gave us very good advice on what to expect in Nicaragua, such as what the climate would be like, the cuisine, all the bugs and mosquitoes.

Were you worried about anything before coming? Although we are very young and this was our first trip without our parents we were not really worried at all. We made the trip with a very close friend of ours whom we have grown up with, and the three of us made sure to watch out for each other the whole time. We also we prayed to Jehovah that his Holy Spirit would be with us on our journey and trusted in him. Knowing that our fellow brothers and sisters would be there to greet us also gave us a calm heart.

Have you had to overcome any challenges to get here or while serving here? Financially, it was quite an expense but thankfully we all had our parents who helped out with our trip and actually paid for the majority of the trip. But even then it was a bit of a struggle, but Jehovah always provides, and somehow he made it so that we were able to make our trip and help serve with brothers and sisters in Nicaragua.

Do you have any highlights or good experiences from being here? Too many to count!! One highlight in particular though was being to attend the meeting on a floating kingdom hall with a missionary couple. That was an amazing experience.  Doing service in Granada in general was always a delight. It was very, very hot there, but the people for the most part were always very nice and receptive. That is very different form the States, because we do not always get very nice responses. It was so nice to be able to speak with so many people who were actually open to learning about the bible.  One of the greatest blessings was creating relationships with different brothers and sisters in Nicaragua. We know feel that we have a home away from our own home. We consider the brothers and sisters in the Granada English Congregation to be our Nicaragua family. It’s such a blessing to have that feeling.

How has being here brought you closer to Jehovah? There was less distractions while we were staying in Nicaragua, we were always in service and always with the friends. That definitely brought us closer to Jehovah.  All our days there revolved around our service to Jehovah. We enjoyed a lot of spiritual and uplifting conversations with the brothers and sisters there. After we came back from Nicaragua Manuel decided to become a full time pioneer, a big part of that decision was because all of the encouragement he received from the brothers in Nicaragua, and he will be attending Pioneer school this July.

What do you do in your free time? We have busy schedules, we do a lot of service as Manuel is a full time pioneer, and I am in my second year as serving as a continuous auxiliary pioneer. But when we are not in service, we are just like any other teenagers. We hang out with our friends, listen to music, and go to the movies a lot.

What advice do you have for others thinking of coming? Bring lots of mosquito repellant!!lol. Bring good walking shoes! Try the fritanga! Stick close to the friends. And most important pray to Jehovah before making your decision. And Enjoy yourself!

Fiesta!!

After all of that preaching, we know how to have a good time!  Here are some pictures of parties, gatherings and just hanging out :-)  We are always having get togethers- usually with lots of food, dancing and loud music.  At other times, we get together and just watch movies, play cards and relax.  By no means are we all work and no play!

We love to eat!

 I think one of our visitors brought a Wii on this evening

 Playing a game where a blind folded person has to feed rice pudding to their partner at lightning speed.

 Visiting an island called Ometempe

 Cooling down outside after dancing up a sweat with friends!

Miramontes Bible Students

Here are some of the Bible students!  They are all doing so well and I am sooo proud of them!  Many prepare up to an entire chapter ahead with the scriptures looked up and noted in their book.  Most have children and many household obligations but they realize the importance of their lesson and make sure their chores are done so that they can fully focus on the study.

This particular student's daughter has the same name as me (Kimberly).  On this day she refused to take her nap because she was so transfixed by the creation video.

This student always insists on giving me a huge plate of food after every study.  Usually 3-4 times what I would normally put on a plate for myself.  I eat every spoonful as she looks on, pleased to be able to give back in some way.  Her daughter is also studying with another sister.  One day, I finished her study and she had not had time to prepare anything.  I assured her that it was quite alright and that I needed to head to another study not far away.  While sitting at the other student's house, I noticed her kids walking up the street searching for something.  When they spotted me, they came in and said that their mother asked that I please return after the current study.  When my partner and I returned, she had made a huge meal for us.  I couldn't even hide the surprise (and fear) on my face as I realized I'd have to eat it all at rapid speed because the sun was quickly setting and we had to make it home before night fall.  My partner had just told me she was on a diet to prepare for the upcoming convention so she shot me a cold look as she realized she too would have to eat this huge fattening meal!  

All in this family are studying.  The little girl, Adrianna always is prepared with her book whenever her mom is studying!  They are so excited about their study that they made me promise to print a copy of this picture of them with their books so that they can hang it in their home :-)

This is another student who also likes to feed me.  This often turns out to be quite a blessing because in order to reach this territory, I have to take an hour long bus ride at 6AM on my only day off to visit her and a few others.  Sometimes I have all I can do to get up and go much less prepare breakfast.  It never fails that on the days that I coincidentally don't have any breakfast, Jehovah blesses my efforts with breakfast at her house!  On this day she made fresh tortillas, homemade cheese and fried a fish from the creek behind her house.  On another morning I was very surprised that she offered me meat with beans and rice (meat is expensive).  As I tasted the meat, I couldn't figure out what it was.  It didn't taste bad...just....different.  I forced myself to stop thinking about what it could be and focus on the fact that it was good.  As soon as we left, I asked my partner what it was.  She laughed and told me it was an animal they catch in the swampy wooded area behind the house (I can't remember the name!!).  I don't know what it was, but it was good and it was prepared with love!

This is her son showing me a toy that his dad carved for him.

She's making great progress using our new brochure Listen to God along with the Read and Write brochure.  (Imagine me teaching reading and writing in a language in which I can barely read and write!!!)

I am soooo proud of this student.  She has great questions and is really helping me to develop as a teacher.  No matter how much house work she has, she immediately stops and gives me her undivided attention.  Her son is studying with another sister.  She comes to the meetings on her own and even gave her first comment a few weeks ago!  I had all I could do not to jump up and hug her in the meeting.  She told me that she wakes up at 4AM each morning and works well into the night caring for her household.  She only has time to study late at night when everything is done.  Since she has no electricity, she got the money to by a flashlight.  She studies well into the night, by flashlight, meditating on the scriptures in the Teach book and praying to Jehovah to help her understand the points that are difficult for her.

This particular student has several kids as you can see and was pregnant when I met her.  She too also makes time for her study.  It took quite a bit of time for me to find a Bible for her but when I finally got her one, she almost cried to have it.  She just sat looking at it and tracing it's outline with her fingers.  She asked me to sign my name with a little message in her special gift.  When packing her hospital bag in preparation for the baby, her Bible was the first thing to go in since she wanted it close to her.  One day, her niece and nephew were turning through the pages of her Bible and she took it from them telling them it was not a toy.  They assured her they only wanted to understand it.  Then, she showed them how to use the various features in the front for fining the books of the Bible as well as the index in the back!  I'm always so overwhelmed and humbled when I realize that the students actually understand my teaching!  This student also built a small additional room in her house for her children but has invited me several times to move in and live with her, rent free so that I don't have to go to the States and work but can stay and continue teaching her and others about the Bible.

I miss these and all of the other students dearly and can't wait to get back and see them all!

El Salvador

This year marked the very first time that the English congregations from several countries  in Central America all met together for the District Convention.  Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador were there.  Not to mention all of the needgreaters.  I met friends from all over the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, Britain and Czek Republic...just to name a few!!  We had 3 baptized-ages 12, 16 and 17.  Friends came by boat and over land-some over 20 hours, through 3 countries.

 Once we arrived the friends gave us sandwiches and sodas.

 The first day, we were welcomed to El Salvador by having our first taste of pupusas.  Boy did they ever live up to all the talk!  And for 60 cents each, I could definitely eat them every day.  I especially liked the ones with cheese and a little flower called loroco.

The pupuseria had the smallest bathroom ever!!

 Convention!

 The first day, the air conditioning was ice, ice cold.  Since I'm not used to A/C anymore I was shivering like crazy despite having a small jacket.  I ended up with a head cold.  This sister sat behind me on the first day and saw how miserable I was.  So, on the second day she brought me a super warm sweater to wear!  She spoke no English and we only briefly introduced ourselves the first day, so to know that she had that much love really touched me.  We truly are a unique people!