AWKWARD!

How much do you make a year?
How much do you pay for rent monthly?
How old are you?
How much do you weigh?
Why don't you have kids?  
Why aren't you married?

Do those kind of questions make you nervous?  If you had asked them as a kid would you have gotten slapped in the face?  Yeah, me too.  As it turns out, though, those questions form part of the cultural divide between Americans and Latinos.  Ever since I moved to Spanish six years ago I've been bombarded with questions of this sort, and somehow, I'm the one that comes out sweating and nervous instead of the person asking this very inappropriate question.

Here's some examples of exact statements people (both JWs and non) have made to me within the past month:
1.  Wow, you really filled out when you went to the U.S.
2.  Be happy you got sick, Shawn.  You lost weight.
and the kicker from my elderly neighbor I saw on the street this week....
3.  You look fatter today!....to which I responded "I don't even know what to say to that."

How are you dealing with these questions?  Laughing?  Crying?  A snarky reply?  I think I need to grow a tougher skin.

DING DING ROUND THREE

After a month in the States and another month settling in back in Nicaragua I'm blogging again!  Yeah!  Sorry for the delay, but it's been so crazy since I've come back.  Three days after my return I had a group of friends come visit for two weeks.  Near the end of their trip and during my circuit overseer's visit I ended up seriously sick (bacterial infection in respiratory tract), and it took me a good two weeks to really start feeling like I was out of the woods.  Now that my energy levels are up I've been running like a crazy woman trying to finish up the service year with a bang and get all my students back on track.

Dragonfruit. They call it pitahaya here.  The color is so beautiful and makes a great fresco.

Let me introduce a friend of mine and our new brother Melvin from Nindiri!!!  Congrats on your baptism, Melvin!  Just look at that great smile.

Bro.Tallet translating talk from French in Las Isletas Cong 

So I came back to so much huge news.  We're forming a new congregation!  Yep, between us and our sister congregation we have about 200 publishers, and during the circuit overseer's visit we each had about 165 in attendance each--standing room only!  So we're taking a few publishers from each cong and forming a new one.  I feel both excited and nervous.  I think a new territory will be refreshing, but I'm really nervous thinking about possibly leaving my current students.  I feel really attached to a few of them :(  The other big news is that we have a missionary couple assigned to our cong--Frederic and Maud Tallet.  He's French and she's from the island of Guadeloupe, and we're they're 3rd assignment.  They were in Guadeloupe, then St.Barth's in the Caribbean, now Nicaragua.  I truly feel that Jehovah has answered two years worth of prayers in sending an experienced brother to our congregation.

So much news I'm not sure it'll all fit!  Ok, so something else new is that we're starting public preaching here in Granada (like mentioned in the KM 2 weeks ago with the tables and carts; Manhattan project).  English Cong has been doing it for a while but they only offer literature in English, so Spanish is finally starting to meet that need.  I'm participating!  Yep, tomorrow I'll man the booth with my partner from 6-8pm, and I'm so excited to see what the response will be from the community.

Also, I'm going to the English convention at the end of the month in San Salvador, El Salvador.  English Cong rented a big bus and are letting English speakers from other congregations join the trip thankfully.  I'm excited to hear the conv in English, and more excited to see a new country and meet new friends.  Supposedly all English congregations in Central America will be there.  Wow!

Next thing....well, I need a favor from you guys!  We all know about the power of prayer especially when many of us are praying for the same thing....so I need you guys to pray for me on two specific items.
     1.  to sell my car in the U.S. so I can use the money down here and
     2.  to give my roommate and I direction on if we should move to cut down on our expenses.  Granada is the most expensive city in Nicaragua, and we'd like to be living cheaper, but we can't find anything lower than what we have staying in Granada.  There's a possibility to rent in Nindiri and go to Masaya congregations.  I'm checking out a house on Monday and a territory on Tuesday, but I'd love to see divine direction in the decision.  Thanks for your help!

Sorry for this Frankenblog but there was so much to talk about!  I'll blog more regularly now so they'll be smaller :)

MEMPHIS SHOUT OUT

When I went to Memphis recently I got to see some good friends I have there, the Barrons.  I used to be in their bookstudy group (back when we had them), and they've continued to be a big support as I moved to Spanish Cong and then Nicaragua.  Even though we only see each other about once a year now, we can just pick right back up like it was yesterday, and I love that about them.  The dad, Bruce, is Zimbabwean and the rest of the family is South African, so when I visit they always serve me my favorite....South African curry!  It's like a saucy beef stew served over rice with coconut, banana, spicy preserved limes, and mango chutney on top.  Heaven!  And check out these good-looking kids of theirs Tayla and Ross.  When I first met them they were 5 and 7 and look at them now!  I could tell you some stories about these two trouble-makers....

Just want to give a shout-out to all my Memphians who helped make my trip home a great one....Brenna, Flecky, Summer Spanish, Northeast, and my favorite twins Sarah and Laura!  I even got to see my old duplex and the cutest little couple living in it now sent from Couples School to help the French Group. 

LIVING THE YEARBOOK

We often joke here appreciatively that we are literally living the Yearbook because we are fortunate enough to serve in a place with amazing experiences on a fairly regular basis.  This is a long post, but I know these experiences encourage all of us, so I wanted to share a couple with you that have recently happened to me.

I've started to do business territory with a missionary sister on Thursday mornings.  It's a new field for me, and frankly, I've been really intimidated because we're not just trying to reach the owners of little Nica pulperias, we're trying to reach bank and university presidents!  It's been surprising, though, how many of them not just take the mags each month but set aside a few minutes to study each week!

So a couple weeks ago we're trying to reach the president of a national bank for his weekly study when his assistant, Ana, comes out to apologize and say he won't be able to study this week but we're welcome to leave something for him.  Well, our directions from the branch are clear that if we leave literature, it must be in a sealed envelope, and we didn't have one with us, so my partner explained we'd just come back next week for him.  Well, Ana is still standing there looking  like she wants to say something and finally squeaks out really embarrassed, "You don't even have anything for me?".  She added that she knows we drop off the mags to her boss because when he finishes, he always gives her the copies, and she and her hubby read them together with their Bible.  So we gave her the mags for this month and she added she specifically wants to read about the family since she has two small children.  The next week we came with a packet for her with lots of magazines on the family and a Bible Teach book.  She said her husband used to study and liked it but had to stop when he started working.  She adds, "Do you accept visitors at your church?  Because we really feel the need to be meeting with someone, and your church is only two blocks from my house."  Thankfully, she lives in the territory of my partner so (after we picked our chins up off the floor), they exchanged information to follow up on Sundays when they're as a family (also a meeting day).  

Here's the second experience.  A few months ago a sister from English Cong told me about one of the money collectors on the bus who used to study in Costa Rica and wants to restart.  She wanted me to follow up since I speak Spanish.  No problem, I'm thinking.  Which bus?  Well, the LaVilla/Mercado bus.  But there's about six of them, and she's not sure which one.  Which money collector?  She doesn't know his name, but he's young and caramel-skinned....as they all are.  So I'm thinking that I'm NEVER going to find this individual, but she keeps following up with me, so finally one week we're working the territory near the bus hub when I see a money collector who's friendly with me.  I ask him offhand thinking he's never going to be able to help me, "Is there a relatively new bus collector on this route who's just moved from Costa Rica?"  

"Yes," he tells me, "his name is Yalmer, and he's sitting in that parked bus right there on the other side of the parking lot."

So I go over to the bus and talk to Yalmer saying, "You don't know me, but about a month ago you spoke to a JW and indicated you'd like to study the Bible, is that correct?"

He tells me calm as can be, "Yes, I've been waiting for you."

So we sit in the bus and do a review of the first four chapters of the Bible Teach book--all he's studied so far.  Yalmer not only answered everything correctly but had Bible texts memorized to support his answers.  So I tell him, "Well, that brings us to chapter 5 on the ransom.  How sad I didn't meet you sooner so you could have attended the Memorial with us."

"Oh, I went!" he tells me.  "I had gone in Costa Rica before and knew more or less it was this time of year so was keeping an eye open for invitations.  I saw one for Masaya (a town about 15 minutes from us), so I went there."

So now we study every week in the 30 minutes he has between bus tours, and he's just soaking the information up!  

Now tell me you don't see Jehovah's hand or angelic direction in our work......