A Little Bit of Everything

Some of my finds

 These are some shells and coral that we've found on the beach at Luperon. The middle piece is brain coral with fan coral attached.

This is the inside of Cory's KH in El Ranchito. The brother in the doorway is the speaker for the morning. He left his house at 7:00 a.m. to take public transportation so that he made sure that he wouldn't be late. He actually arrived an hour ahead of time (but you never know how it's going to go w/ public transportation.

This is the literature department in El Ranchito.

Front of Hall

The KH is a simple wooden structure w/ a cement floor and tin roof.

Brother Antonio's transportation to the meeting.

The four of us went to the beach for a few hours yesterday but we had to share the area with some horses and a few cows.

But these were a few of our finds for the day.

Searching for shells

Enjoying the hammock in the breeze

Later that afternoon we went to the place where the wedding reception will be so some final arrangements could be made. This is Jeni's Aunt and cousin who will be helping at the reception.

We were assured that the dog would not be coming to the reception.

The woman looking at the camera is the owner of the restaurant. She's been very helpful.

The restaurant is on the side of a mountain overlooking the sea. While we were there is was quite breezy. I was worried about it being too warm at this open air reception but I think it will be fine and those of you who get cold easy might want to have a light wrap. (I'm talking to you Mary)

This is immediately after the meeting, I'm standing on the stage. The seats are wooden benches.

Now today was a special day. It was the annual pioneer meeting with the regular pioneers and we were invited to attend. They do things a little differently here. Since many of the congregations are small, There are five cong. that get together to have this special meeting. This year the host congregation was Navas (about 45 min from Cory's house). This is a very small KH.

Outside of the KH

Transporting some chairs to the picnic site

 It is the custom here that after the meeting, the host congregation provides a meal and some entertainment. So off we go to another location where a lovely picnic is set up for us

These should be some familiar faces

Now that's a lot of oranges

One of the local sisters prepared this kettle of rice (delicious)

Where the food is served

 The main course for the meal was roasted pig. this is the fire pit where it was roasted all night long. The pig was put on a spit and had to be turned regularly. Matt & Debra helped out with this. Matt's shift ended at 1:00a,m. The pork was very tender and delicious and was appreciated by all.

Ahh, now they are cute.

Ok, first official picture with our new family!

Several of the local Elders doing Karaoke

The location for the picnic was a house of a local brother. It's not finished or lived in yet but was a very pretty setting.

Smart girl, knows how to find shade.

Matt & Cory helping Doug navigate through some mud and holes.

We took a different route home and I really enjoyed the scenery through sugar cane fields and mountains.

Today was some sort of National Holiday. So there was a lot of traffic and groups of people all over the road.

It's hard to believe were only a little over three weeks from the wedding. Time is flying by!

Hope you all are well.  Thanks to those who have sent emails, it's nice to hear what's going on back home!