Saying Goodbye

Well, the time has come. Our latest adventure in the DR is coming to an end. To be honest, it doesn't feel so much like an adventure anymore but just life. It's interesting how you can become accustomed to things that are very different than you're use to. It's been 8 years since we made our first visit to Sosua and it's been nice to come back and see faithful brothers and sisters still serving Jehovah, it's been fun seeing how the young ones that have grown and made advancement in the Truth. As always, we've enjoyed the ministry here. We did our study with Vilma for the last yesterday, we've turned her over to the special pioneer couple here, so she is in good hands. She told us yesterday that she has known and talked to many different Jehovah's Witnesses over the years but this is the first time that she has taken time to study. When Doug got her in the door to door ministry he was using more of a direct approach using 1 Tim 2:4 and opening with the question, What do you think God's will if for you personally? and highlighting that it is to come to an "accurate" knowledge of truth and she needed to have a study of the Bible. This obviously touched Vilma and we returned a few days later to have her first study. So it's a good lesson in not giving up on people in our territory even those we're preaching to often because we never know when something will happen that will touch their heart and move them to want to come to know Jehovah. I have my last study with Laura this coming Tuesday, I'll be sad to say goodbye to her but we're hoping to stay in touch. So we'll miss the ministry here, the beautiful blue skies and warm breezes but there are some things we won't miss like the bugs! spiders, roaches, mosquitoes.....and the crazy drivers, the limited selection at the grocery stores. I'm looking forward to seeing my washing machine and dishwasher again. Our neighbors that were letting us use their washing machine moved out about 2 weeks ago so we are back to doing laundry by hand. And there have been a few times when we've been without electricity or water, ya know just things you take for granted back home. And we're looking forward to getting back to our Spanish group, hopefully you'll see a little improvement in our Spanish????? It really does help you get more comfortable with a new language, being able to use it regularly, chit, chatting at the meetings, being able to have conversations at just about every door in the ministry and conducting Bible studies, so we're thankful for the opportunity we've had here, I've always felt that our visits here are a gift from Jehovah. We're always asked at our last meeting, When are you coming back? and we always say quien sabes (who knows) We've said different times this is probably our last time....but quien sabes. We have our last visit with Cory and Jeni this week and then they'll be driving us to the airport. So see ya all soon, our flight is the 27th, our first meeting will be March 2.

My last picture for you, as the horses ride off into the sunset.

Some prettty things

These orchids are growing near our place

These are all orchid plants and the others have some blooms on them also

The view from my beach chair yesterday

My Bible Student, Laura

Sorry the weather continues to be yucky back home, but hang in there, Spring is Coming!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

February 15, 2013

Well, it's hard to believe that a year has past already, but it has, So HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Cory and Jeni, we wish you many more and we're happy to be here with you on your first anniversary!

Cory and Jeni are with us this weekend and we decided to do a fire on the beach and watch the full moon come up.

One Year Later, they seem pretty happy!

Roasted Hotdogs!

The Good and The Bad

Hi everyone, we've been sorry to hear that many of you have been dealing with the cold and flu. It's been the same for the congregation here. Every meeting there is someone new that is missing because of  "el gripe" (cold or flu). Doug and I both had it, Doug had it much worse than me which is unusual because usually I'm the one that gets the annual cold and Doug doesn't catch it. But this time Doug had a pretty miserable time with it but I didn't get too sick and it didn't last too long. But finally we're both feeling pretty good and we're hoping that there are no more sicknesses for the rest of our time here. So that was the bad, now the good.

We had the opportunity to visit with our friends, the Radimersky family. We had made arrangements early in January for a beach day together with the family. They live about 3 hours from here so we picked a beach about half way between us and were looking forward to a day at one of our favorite beaches (Playa Grande) and catching up with our friends. Of course when you pick a date weeks in advance you never know what the weather is going to be like. As the day approached, our weather took a turn for the worse, Friday it rained off and on, Saturday - total rain, Sunday not much better (monday is our beach day) We kept hoping that the weather would change. It's still raining when we get up Monday morning but we decide to keep our plans and hope for a few rays of sunshine. We met up at the apartment of a Brother and Sister from Austria, they are friends of the Radimerskys and where they had spent the night. It was still raining off and on so we visited awhile and I was served the BEST cup of coffee that I've ever had, Seriously! I haven't been drinking much coffee since we've been here because I just don't like how I make it and haven't found a good place to buy it. So when David offered me a cup, I said sure. As I'm sitting there chatting with Richard and Rebekka, I hear coffee beans being ground (I'm starting to get excited). It was so good and I'm thinking, even if the sun doesn't come out, this was so worth the trip. Anyway it's about lunch time by now and we're all hungry so decide that at least we'll go over to the beach for lunch, which is known to serve some of the best fresh fish you can buy. We sit out on a cliff over looking the water and yes there is blue sky and sunshine now and the fish arrives along with rice, platanos, french fries, avocado. And yes, it's the best fish I've ever had! Or maybe I was just really hungry, anyway, it was really good. Here are some pictures of the day.

Ordering lunch, that's David, the coffee maker on the right

The Radimerskys, The surf board belongs to David but even though they couldn't stay for the afternoon on the beach with us, he left the surfboard because Lucas (the 11 year old) desperately wanted to try surfing, but unfortunately none of the rest of us knew anything about how to surf.

This monkey is carved out of a coconut. a man came around with box of them at lunch and tried to sell us them for 800 pesos each, Rebekkah thought they were kinda cute so offered him 250 pesos for one, the man said no and put his monkeys back in the box and left but later another man comes walking down the beach with the same box and Rebekkah again tells him that her final offer is two for 500 pesos, without any arguing he says ok, which two do you want!

Happily for Lucas, this young Dominican Man was offering surf lessons, after Rebekkah did a little negotiating and a price was settled on, Lucas got his first surfing lesson, it began on the beach and then was taken into the water. He did really good and we had fun watching him.

That's Lucas getting up on the board for one of his first times!

Some more good things: Doug and I were doing some Return Visits the other day and were walking up a main street in one of the territories when a woman called out to me from inside a store, at first I thought she was just trying to get my business but no she recognized us as Jehovah's Witnesses and wanted to know if I had any of those magazines to read. She told me she Loved reading them. How nice is that to be stopped and asked for literature! In doing door to door the other Saturday I was invited in by a teenage boy. He was so polite and gave such intelligent answers to my questions. I decided to offer him the Good News bkl and explained our Bible Study arrangement and asked if he's like to have a bible study which he said yes to,  so I made arrangements to go back the next Saturday, which Doug and I did return and had the nicest study with Luis who is 14 years old, his 16 year old brother was hanging around and listening also. No parents were home either Saturday and the two older boys were watching their 2 year old brother. I've since found out that the mother studied in the past and even attended a few meetings but is not doing anything now, but obviously some seeds had been planted with these boys so we'll do a little more watering while we're here.


  Some of the Beautiful Friends in Our Congregation!

A Bible Student with a pioneer from Germany

Aren't they adorable

Joann from England and Katia from Finland

Ok, the best good news for last, Cory and Jeni have their tickets, they'll be arriving in the States May 3!