Coming home to visit soon!!!

Hey everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since we’ve posted.  We sort of settled into a busy routine of field service and meeting parts and time has really flown.  It is hard to believe that it has been 11 months since we arrived!  We were warned that lots of people get really homesick around the 6th or 7th month mark but so far we haven’t felt that way.  While we miss our friends & family, familiar foods, and lots of conveniences back home, we treasure on a daily basis the privilege and blessing we have of being down here.

Our field service day yesterday underscores why we are enjoying it so much here.  We went up to another remote territory about 1.5 hours from town where there are several small pueblos/towns.  We had been there a couple times before when our group had the territory and had found a lot of interest and started numerous bible studies.  However, since then another congregation had been assigned to that area and we were asked to leave the interest in their hands…so the last trip out there was last February (when Chelsa was here!).  Well, it ends up that the other cong has never made it out there for one reason or another.  And so a couple weeks ago Sam receives a couple of calls from her studies there and they are asking why she hasn’t returned to see them!  That in itself is a big deal.  The people there normally have very little financial means and rarely call out on their cell phones because of the cost (outgoing=expensive, incoming=free).  So, we decided to take a few people along and went up there yesterday, and ended up having an absolutely amazing day.  Most of our studies and calls were there and we had great conversations with them.  Sam was able to place about 20-30 bible story & YPA books with the school kids, and the teachers asked her to bring back another 30-40 more books for the other kids who weren’t there.  I had the opportunity to show one man that I had given a bible to on the last visit how to look up scriptures.  When he admitted that he had read the bible very little since my last visit in Feb, I showed him the scriptures in Juan 17:3 and then Mat 5:3.  I was amazed to see how those scriptures affected him.  He practically promised me that he was going to sit down with his family and kids and study with them regularly because he realized how important it was.  He was thrilled to see how easy it was to use the bible and look up scriptures once he understood how he could find the bible book in the index and then understood how the chapters and verses worked.  We did several ‘practice examples’ until he had it down pat.

Well, we are excited to say that we are coming home NEXT WEEK to visit!!!  We can’t wait to see everyone.  If you have any specific time we could hang out with you, send me an email and let’s make a date!  We will be back for about a month and then returning here for another year.  We will also be heading down to California for about a week just to do a road trip, do some wine tasting, and visit friends.  I seriously cannot wait to taste a real rib-eye steak and some sushi!!!  Oh yeah, and Thai food!!  And Indian food, and…pretty sad how much I miss familiar food…

Anyway, for those who have told me that they want more pics and less dialogue here, here are a bunch of pics that Sam put together.  She already emailed them to a few people but for the rest of you all, here you go:

Clint and group on the bikes-not all made it home!!  They have a habit of breaking down at the high altitude especially when one of the brothers doesn’t seem to think his needs a carb filter. (lots of dust)

 

Luis and a little brother (Robin) who incidentally is about 8 or 10 and gave one of the best talk #3’s I’ve heard down here. He gives amazing talks and he is just a little guy. He does a really good job with his reasoning points and he speaks up and has awesome sense stress. He is way out in the boonies I guess you can see that by the pic. Just an amazing kid.

 

Me and a Bible study and her daughter from Ibarra-they went with us to the meeting in Pablo Arenas-Check out the views!! It’s awesome way up there.

 

Hmm, they have a different type of road kill here. Giant spiders that can really jump. Clint almost ran this one over-he’s been running them over a lot lately I think it has something to do with the rain we decided to let this one live and take a pic. Clint had to jump back in the car before it jumped on him. This thing is about 6 inches wide.

Burro in tow. This is something you don’t see everyday-and I really don’t think they are doing it for extra horse power. I had to attach it-not quite sure why they didn’t just give the thing a ride. Half the time you see giant pigs in the back of peoples cars –yes cars-not trucks! Just hangin out in the back seat but apparently this guy must have run away from home and they are teaching him a lesson.

 

This is why you don’t usually see many gymnasiums around. You get your vehicle stuck in the mud so often everyone gets a workout before service just to make sure you are good and ready. When it rains here the dirt turns into a sponge. Sometimes it rains several inches in one night so the next day service is always entertaining.

 

Plant life…

 

 

 

 

 

12,000 ft and going over the pass-AMAZING VIEWS the camera just can’t do it justice. It’s really cold up here.

 

 

Not too many w/ us this time only 5 in the back and 5 in the cab. The others took the little blue truck that was stuck in the mud because it was supposed to rain (it did more pics later) and the roads were supposed to be washed out. So they took the long way around and poor things didn’t get home till 800pm!!

 

 

Coming down the other side. A little foggy. Clint w his hat out the window.

 

 

 

To get to this one town, we have to cross a river.  Last week it was the highest we’ve ever seen it:

 

Clever –‘this water really makes me have to pea, are you sure you want me to walk all the way to the middle?’

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alcetes-‘Clever, I don’t believe you I’m checking for myself and yes, I know I look like Moses’

 

 

 

 

Alcetes –‘it’s really cold but I’m sure we can pass’

 

 

 

 

 

Jarassic Park…almost there.

 

 

Yep pretty sure there is no way we are getting through here, just passed a river, drove over the top of a water fall and now a giant landslide-hmm. Think we are turning around cause it’s at least another ½ hr walk and can’t leave the car here-the cows might steal it.

 

 

Top of waterfall in background. Couldn’t get down to get a pic of the waterfall from below.

 

 

Really you left your lunch in the blue truck…

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe we can move it???

 

 

 

 

 

What are we wasting our time for-we could be walkin!

 

 

 

At least they’ll be able to get past it. Hey and we can get out time going again!

 

 

 

The truck is getting washed. Hey and look we’re doing advertising for the local town. Rain –they had to have some sort of protection.

 

 

It’s a long way home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What you lookin at?

 

 

 

Sharon-(back in town) This is Sharon my buddy. She is studying –had her first talk with me (poor thing). Her husband is an English professor at the University and their son Isreal who thank goodness is near the end of his TERRIBLE TWOS!! She’s going to be getting baptized at the next convention.

Sam’s blurb:

That's about it for pics as always we enjoy field service here. We are constantly finding new interest. Last week a woman who lives up in the mountains sat down next to me in a tienda where i was having my bible study with a young girl -Katherine. Katherine's mom asked her if she could help her and she said 'no i just want to listen to what she has to say'. We were studying out of the Bible Story Book. Turns out she lives in Pugaran, a town about another hour and a half from where we were. After speaking to her for a while turns out that we already study with her sister. (the family that has 10 kids 5 deaf and 5 hearing-have a sister from the sign language group working on teaching them sign language right now.) They live at the very very top of the town-or so we thought, turns out the woman -Inez who was listening said she lives about another 1/2 hr walk up the hill from them and she has never had the chance to speak to us. She only sees the literature and videos we leave with her family. I asked her if she'd seen the Bible Teach Book and if she was interested in having a study. Since we are coming back to the states in a few we made arrangements for someone with a motorcycle to call on her (much easier that way). She was happy as she left the tienda with the book on her 3 1/2 hour walk home. (She left around 430 so ya-she was walking home in the dark).

Amazing experiences, views and friends. See you all in a few weeks.