Hellos and Goodbyes

The last two months have flown by! We have had a lot of Hellos but a many sad goodbyes! I know the post is long but please don't forget the experiences near the end, which are very encouraging!

We lost two couples that have been with Leon English since it was a group. The C.O. has assigned them to other places that have a greater need within our circuit.

                                                         (makeover the morning they left)

Brad and Lydia have been pioneering here in Leon for the past two years. In early May they moved to San Miguel, El Salvador to support a group there. The group in San Miguel does not have any pioneers and Brad will be the only Elder for a while as well. We are very excited to visit them in a few weeks.

Lydia's sister, Scarlett and her husband Theo also left us in early June.

Theo and Scarlett have been supporting Leon English for the past 3 years and have been asked by the C.O. to move to the capital Managua. The Managua English congregation will now have 3 elders and 55 publishers, which is the largest in the circuit. We think the goal is to split the congregation because they have a large concentration of english speakers over a large area.

Before the couples left, we had a goodbye party for them. Here are a few pictures from that:

musical chairs

duck duck goose

Another couple have returned home to Australia, in order to save money for their return.

 Ben and Marissa had been supporting a Spanish congregation here for 7 months before they left. They are originally from Australia, but had been serving in an English congregation in Spain for a year and a half before coming to Nicaragua. When they return in August, they will be helping to start an English area in San Marcos, Nicaragua.

Before they left we managed to go to the beach for a last meal, and they were able to purchase some fresh lobster as well. 

At the end of April we received a special invitation to conference into the zone visit to the Mexico branch. We had two other congregations join us. It was very encouraging and upbuilding. What a privilege!

Now that we have covered the goodbyes, we will share some experiences of friends who have been able to visit recently. 

Allie and Corey are from St. Louis, Missouri and have been here for the past 3 1/2 months and hope to continue returning indefinitely. They arrived here in Leon 3 days after their wedding! They have both been to Nicaragua before when they were single. So they decided to start their married life here!

Jasemine and Danielle are pioneer sisters from North Carolina. This is Jas' second visit and it was nice getting to know them in the ministry. We hope to see them here again soon!

We also had two brothers come from Bethel, one from Walkil and the other from the Tuxedo location, Gavin and Paul. They stayed for two weeks. 

 

hospitality for speaker(Gavin at head of table and Paul on his right)

We also have some exciting experiences from the last two months: 

Mario

 Mario has been studying with Desmond for the last 3 months. A sister who was visiting a call nearby happened to see him walking and gave him an invitation to the meeting. He attended the very next Sunday and has been regularly attending ever since. He comments regularly and has expressed interest in joining the school. He asked Dez if only brothers can wear ties, once he hard no everyone is encouraged to dress up. He began attending meetings looking like the other brothers.

Mery

she finished her last chapter of the Teach book                 she joined the school as a householder in May 

                                          (she turned in her first month of time for the month of May)

Mery is 19 has been studying off and on for the past 1 1/2 years, but she has really begun making progress in the last 4-5 months. We can see some of her progress from the pictures above. She is  so zealous for the ministry and gives such heartwarming comments. She is also already conducting a study with her mother. 

Clinton and Anne

The last week of May we had our circuit overseer visit. We really enjoyed this couple they were very encouraging. They are substitutes in the Circuit Work, but have been serving as missionaries for the past 10 years in Honduras. Although they are both originally from Canada, they had been living in North Carolina before their acceptance to Gilead. Our circuit overseer, Todd has now been assigned to be the district overseer over English, so we are hoping to see Clinton and Anne on the next C.O. visit. We will see. 

Here are a few more pictures from the past few months:

 truck loaded down with Theo and Scarlett's stuff

 Aileen, Mery, Scarlett, Talia, and Elfa

 Francinette, Hazel, Danielle, Jasemine, Alli, David and Gustavo

Mery, Danielle, Aileen, Fanny, Jasemine, and Lydia.

Mery, Fanny, Sergio, and Mariela with Dez for Game Night