Circuit Assembly-Safeguard your Mind

Last weekend we had our Circuit Assembly.
We traveled by minibus almost 2 hours to the assembly hall in Ticuantepe. 
We left from the hall on 7a.m. on Friday (pioneer meeting and assembly hall cleaning)
and 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Here we are waiting for the bus.

Although our circuit includes El Salvador, Honduras, and groups in Guatamala,
our assembly was only for the congregation and groups in Nicaragua.

Here are some pictures of the assembly hall:

This also used to be the location of the Nicaraguan branch, but after the consolidation to Mexico, there are just translation offices. 

The largest attendance was 337 and 2 were baptized, including a sister from our hall Thalia and
a Canadian sister.

Here is Desmond doing some cleaning before the pioneer meeting on Friday:

A few of us took a break from cleaning to play with the baby: 

                                                            me and Lily

           Lily, me, Mariela

 Sergio and Lily

The pioneer meeting was wonderful! The District Overseer stressed the need for publishers in the English speaking field of Central America. Saying it is a hot spot even more so than Mexico.

Many of the friends in our congregation had parts(including each of our 3 elders):

 Mariela (soliloquoy on suggestions on making return visits) and Nathan

 Theo, with Sergio and Pat(giving him tips on fitting personal study into his schedule)

I (Shannon) also had the privilege of being interviewed by a brother in the Granada congregation about supporting the groups for service and the benefits of assisting others in the ministry.

Many of our friends also had parts on the circuit assembly.

 Miguel gave the #3 talk on the TMS, the District Overseer Brother Chobar called him a "seasoned speaker"

Me and Desmond had a skit with "our son" Moises. Here is the link to part 1 of the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyWdVYmXYk8

and part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlxWjghmXmE

Please let us know how our acting skills are!

Here is a picture of our little family:

yes he is Nicaraguan and a 22 yr old pioneer brother from Chinadega.

 We also had the excitement of gaining a new sister, Thalia.

 Thalia studied with Ashlee (pictured here with hubby, Nate and baby Lily)

 Elfa, Thalia, Fanny, and Mariela

Being down here we have realized what a small world Jehovah's organization is. We ran into two sisters who know Josh C. from Charlottesville, they served with him Puerto Rico. They have been here for 3 months serving in small Spanish group in the mountains near the town of Masaya.

 Laura, Didi, and me

Thanks to these sisters I might see some familiar faces in a few months.

Here are some of the young people in our congregation:

 Caleb(pioneer brother visiting from St. Louis), Fanny, Sergio, Mariela, Sergito (visits from Spanish)

These are two friends who should be in the English but are still in VeraCruz Spanish (which is 5 minutes outside of Leon)

 Marian and Enrique

 Scarlett and Theo who are going back to the states for a few months!

 We're going to miss them!

After a wonderful weekend everyone was tired but in high spirits on the way home. See this clip of the friends singing Kingdom melodies on the bus: http://youtu.be/rigHYoyoFeo

And when we got back to the hall, one of the couples that from the sign language hall were selling shawarma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawarma) made with homemade tortillas, chicken, lettuce, tomato, and their special sauce. We all got a yummy dinner for 50 cords ($2) each.

Thanks Colton and Indira !