PREACHIN' AND LOVIN' IT

It's been a while since I've posted some service/territory shots, so here's a new batch:

Studying with Don Rodolfo.  He's not my student but sometimes I'm his teacher when his own can't come by.  He's in a wheelchair because he's a diabetic and recently had the lower part of his left leg amputated.  You know what, though?  He comes to every single meeting and freely identifies himself a one of Jehovah's Witnesses even though he's not even an unbaptized publisher yet.  He even took a stand for blood when it came time for his surgery.  We study outside his house because it's cooler.

This is an aluminum bridge in my territory.  Frankly, it scares the crap out of me.  It has no rails and isn't very sturdy.  The most frightening part, though, is that it runs over a causeway that is full of runoff water from people's homes and trash trash trash.  My only comfort is knowing that IF the bridge were to burst under me, I'd die an immediate death of staph and hepatitis.  No suffering, you know?

My student, Karla, nursing her baby, Jimena, while watching  the Organization video.  She's such a sweet soul and has the PERFECT disposition to be one of Jehovah's servants.  Time will tell....

One of my favorite vistas in my territory

Us preaching in a neighborhood just a few blocks from where I used to live.   I always am hoping they'll send me to the shady side of the street!

A very unfortunate neighborhood on the edge of our territory.  If you go any further, you'll fall into the lake.  These homes are made of aluminum sheets or heavy plastic.  They do have electricity and running water but the toilet is usually apart and a latrine.  A lot of people just go down to the lake to bathe and wash clothes.  I had a student who lived in the last house in this row named Yuri Milady.  She moved to Costa Rica last week but gave me her phone# there so she can continue studying.  Yuri Milady lived in a plastic home with a dirt floor with her 3 children.  The entire home was about 1/2 the size of most Kingdom Hall's 2nd school.  In the corner, she cooked on wood.  She literally owned nothing but a mattress, a change of clothes, and the dishes they ate on.  She always made time for her study, though, and was very intelligent.  During our last study together, she brought out a bunch of plastic, woven bracelets and told me to pick one, she wanted me to have it.  She makes them from old plastic bags that she tears into strips and weaves.  This woman has NOTHING and was giving me a bracelet from her only source of income.  It continually amazes me here how it's almost always the families who have the least that are the most generous.