Panama Trip

Before we talk about our trip to Panama I wanted to introduce a few of the new friends to the congregation.

This is James and Rhianna, from Minnesota. They were here for little over a month and stayed in the apartment near ours. James' sister is serving with her husband in the Santa Ana, El Salvador congregation.

We have a lot of young people visiting here is a group picture:

from left to right: Taylor (Tennessee), Hazel ( Leon), Tyler(Richmond, VA), Vanessa(Sweden), Tara and Jesslyn(cousins from Richmond, VA) and Francinette (Hazel's sister)

They will be all staying between 1-3 months here in Leon.

This is Carla, she has been studying for a few months and is now regularly attending a majority of the meetings. When he is in town, she brings her nephew, Christopher(9), who is heading back to Houston, TX in the next few weeks.

We always love Christopher's comments when he visits.

Also a few weeks ago we had a part on the service meeting about friends who stay zealous in the ministry despite health problems. I wanted to share the experience of the sister in our congregation, Anne from Canada. Here is a picture of her and her husband, Rob.
Anne has a disease that causes bone to grow in strange parts of her body, so she is in constant pain. For the past few years as a result of her disease her neck and spine have been fused together, which causes some difficulty when crossing the street, etc.
She and her husband have raised a family and now are fulfilling their dream of serving where the need is great. They are regular pioneering together and they intend to spend 6-7 months out of the year here in Nicaragua and the rest of the time in Canada.
Our entire congregation is encouraged by her wonderful example.

Now to our Panama trip:

We took the TicaBus from Managua to San Jose, Costa Rica. It is a very comfortable bus with tvs and very cold air conditioning.
The following morning we took a local bus from San Jose to the Costa Rica/Panama wedding. Here is the bus stop we had to wait at and here are some pictures of Costa Rica en route. 

Here are some pictures at the border. It was pretty easy crossing over. The bus went over a separate bridge and we walked over this one:

From here we took a taxi to Almirante, Panama which is on the coast, so that we could take a water taxi to the bocas del toro islands. Here are some pictures:

Actually we ran into some friends from Canada that have been serving in a spanish congregation in Las Bonitas, Nicaragua for the past few years. Doug and Valerie. Also Valerie´s sister, Libby was just baptized at our past English Circuit Assembly in December with a sister from our hall. What a small world!

Here are some pictures of the town on Isla Colon:

We also were able to go to a beach that is referred to as Starfish beach, the water was gorgeous and we saw some of the hugest starfish ever.
here are some pictures:

We really enjoyed our trip to Panama, but we are also happy to be back in time to have a full share in the Memorial campaign.

Also here is one last picture of me and Dez, that my dad keeps requesting!

Recent Events

On Saturday, February 9, 2013, we had a goodbye party for the Poldens. 

They have been in Leon since March, 2012 and have decided to move to another congregation, Pearl Lagoon. Here is a picture of Pat and Debbie:

The Pearl Lagoon congregation has only 11 publishers and needs a lot of help. We are going to miss them and look forward to visiting them soon. They have two wonderful blogs:  http://los-poldens.blogspot.com and the very informative crazyparentsinnicaragua.blogspot.com. 

The party was very fun and a good chance for the congregation to get together. 

We had it at Rob and Anne's house. They have been here since November and are leaving in April. They will be returning each year for 6-7 months at a time.

It has a great dance floor:

Above is a video of Marcus and Maria, doing a typical Swedish dance.

The following day, Sunday. We had a visiting speaker from the Masaya Occidental congregation (Spanish)
Justin gave a wonderful talk about showing love for our brothers and sister. Some great illustrations, that we are still discussing about seeing the good in others and continuing to cover over our brothers irritating qualities with love. He refused to allow any pictures, so here are 2 sisters from their congregation, and his 3 bible students that accompanied them.

Also we had some more farewells this month:

This is a picture of Tyler, Jordan, and Caleb
Caleb and Jordan are brothers. Caleb has been here three months and was surprised by his brother for his final month. Tyler came for a week. They are all pioneers from Missouri. Caleb has decided to make a permanent move and will be returning in August.

Unfortunately, I have been really bad about taking pictures lately but I will try to do better.

We have just arrived in Panama for our visa run, so our next post will probably include this trip.

We love you all and take care!

Many visitors in January!

 We had so many visitors for the month of January! It was so nice meeting friends for different parts of United States and Canada. We felt so encouraged by their visit. I was especially impressed with the different circumstances of the friends who were able to come down and help us!
Here they are: (you many see some familiar faces)

Dez is standing next to Bill. Bill and his family are currently in the Colonial Heights congregation in Virginia. He came with his wife, daughter, and a pioneer sister from their hall (pictured below) in December and stayed for 1 month. He started a bible study while he was here, which Dez continues to conduct.
Halfway through their visit his son came with two friends and they stayed 2 weeks. They are pictured above. Sean, James (son of Bill) and Kaleb, ages 19-21.
Sean and James are in a congregation north of Philadelphia, PA and Kaleb goes to the Blackstone congregation in Virginia.

Here are the ladies of this group. Amy, Shanna(13), and Cathy. It's such a small world within Jehovah's organization. Although this was my first time meeting Cathy. I used to be in the same congregation as her sister in Richmond, VA.

This is George and Quatia. They visited for 10 days from just outside of Sacramento, California. Quatia is of Honduran descent, so she helped me with my Spanish. George started a study while he was here, but the man recently moved to Los Angelas. They hope to return for a longer trip. 

 

The four on the right are the Larson Family. Mercedes(11), Wendy, David, Sophia(7) from Washington State, U.S. The girls took a month off of school to come and visit. The family auxiliary pioneered the month they were here,even though the girls aren't baptized they got the hours too. David's an elder, so he gave a public talk while he was here and conducted the Congregation Bible Study. The whole family was a force to be reckoned with on the soccer field. 

A young pioneer sister from their hall joined them for the last week of their visit, Chabrie. This is her first year pioneering and her 1st trip out of the country.  The locals really liked her and her blonde hair. An older man kissed her hand and cheek while we were sitting at table witnessing one day. LOL :)

David's (see earlier picture) parents also came to visit for 2 weeks of their visit. Cathy and Mark. Mark gave a public talk while he was here and I was able to have an awesome morning of return visits, studies, and search work with Cathy. They live on Orcas Island, off the coast of Washington State. 

Lee, Josie (6), Levi (14), Jessica have been in the ASL congregation in Greensboro, NC for the past 5 years. They are staying for 2 months. Lee is an elder and has been conducting the TMS school. Levi has started his first study while here and continues to conduct it. 

Here is Levi again, pictured with a new couple from Sweden. Maria and Marcus will be here for a full year. They originally were planning on going to Spanish, but we were very convincing. :)

Also we had Rachel visit (middle, pictured with Mariela and Elfa). Her parents have been here since November and plan to return for 6 months of each year. She is a pioneer in Ontario(?), Canada.

Here is Chabrie again pictured with Alison(16). She visited for a few weeks from a small mountain town on the other side of Managua. 

 Here is Taylor who is from right outside Nashville, TN. He is visiting for 3 months and this is his 2nd year of pioneering. Next to him is Sergio(14) a local pioneer brother who has been supporting the congregation. He and his family are moving to Poneloyo(beach) to help the congregation there.

Last but not least we have Ryan and Tawny. They are newlyweds just married in October. They are both pioneers and will be here for 6 weeks for this visit and plan on returning for 9 months in August. Tawny had visited on 2 previous occasions and so has been trying to return on some of her previous studies. They are from Pennsylvania and Ryan actually works for the same company as a brother from Rising Sun. (small world)

This has been a really exciting month. We have had field service groups numbering almost 40 and meeting attendance up to 60. We have really appreciated the support of all the visitors.

Our first visitor!!

So we had our first visitor here in Nicaragua on January 1st. The night before, a brother in our congregation and his family came over to the house to help us plan how we were going to get Keshia from the airport. We discussed our plans over a yummy meal provided by Lenin and his wife, Erica. 

 They made refried beans, tostones (fried plantains), repocheta(tortilla filled with cheese), boiled eggs flavored with lime, and gallo de pinto (Mexican). We really enjoyed the food!

So our first visitor is Keshia B., visiting from Charlottesville, VA. She stayed with us for 8 days. We enjoyed service together.

 Keshia at the table in Merced Park.

Keshia also came with me on my bible study with Aileen(purple shirt). Her brother Josue and her cousin, Linda also sit in on most days.
I met Aileen in October and we have been studying the Bible Teach book ever since. She is only 12 years old but shows a real comprehension of Bible principles. Her grandmother and aunts are active Witnesses and her mother is inactive. So far she has only attended one English meeting and the Spanish circuit assembly with her grandmother. We are working on her meeting attendance. She is very sweet and we are enjoying getting to know her.

 Here is Keshia on a caponera. It cost us 30 cords total, which equals $1.25.

 On Thursday (3rd) we had our meeting. A few minutes before the meeting, Keshia and I were asked to do a demonstration for The Bible-What is it's Message brochure. I think we did pretty good!

On Friday(4th) we traveled to Granada and stayed at a hostel overnight. Friday evening we visited the Masaya Volcano National Park. Masaya is a small town between Managua(capital) and Granada.
This park includes two volcanos (Masaya and Nindiri) and 5 craters. It was beautiful and only a little bit of hiking.  Below are some pictures:

There is also a large cross at the top of this hill, because a Catholic priest was able to stop the indigenous people from making human sacrifices to their god (the volcano)

We also went down in the an underground tunnel created by the lava flow, which were filled with bats and tree roots. This large underground area was also used to hide teenage boys during the Revolution so they would not have to fight.

 We were also able to see the glow of the lava but I was unable to capture the picture.

On Saturday (5th) we toured some of the islets of Lake Nicaragua (in Granada) by boat. Here are some pictures:

 The next two pictures are of monkey island.

 One of the monkeys having fun with another boat group (below)

 Here is a pretty picture of the Mombacho volcano:

 

Also last Sunday (6th) Desmond had to step in and conduct the Watchtower Study. He did an awesome job!

On Monday(7th) we went to the beach. Keshia and I split this delicious fried fish.It cost 155 cordobas ($6.50)

We traveled to the beach by bus 13 cordobas each way ($0.54)

On Tuesday (8th) we went to the Cerro Negro Volcano, located outside the city of Leon. It last erupted in 1999.

Here is our crazy tour guide, who tried to convince us to get a picture out there!

The red color comes from the iron, the black from the sulfur, and the white from the calcium.

 Here is a picture of Keshia volcano boarding on a sled down the volcano.

Keshia left us on Wednesday (9th) after a busy fun-filled week. We really enjoyed her bringing a taste of home.
Okay well whose coming next?
LOL