Always Plenty to Do

First off, I wanted to thank everyone so much for thinking of me over the past few weeks!  Every single email or post on the blog or phone call was a little bit of boost at a time that was truly hard - I mean "goodbyes" in general just totally stink but saying goodbye to Jordanne and A.J. was like saying goodbye to the constant thing in my life and knowing that after they left I'd be living in a foreign country to fend for myself...all alone...O but I was SO SO wrong.  We are never alone in Jehovah's organization and this is a lesson proved very true over the past few weeks.  It all started with the convention.

English Convention, Guayaquil, Ecuador Stupendous, Up-building, Touching, So Much Fun!  It's hard to find the words to describe the experience of attending the English Convention here since it is chock full of need-greaters, missionaries, branch members, etc. the experience is truly special.  At one point one of the brothers asked for all regular pioneers to put their hands up and let's just say it was the majority of the delegates.  As each and every brother approached the podium my mind would swim with the kind of sacrifices he had made to serve in Ecuador, what kind of background he had, how he was probably the only elder in his congregation, working day in and day for the the brothers and sisters as well as the territory and his family.  And the singing.  Not only was it whole-hearted and powerful but we finally had the chance to sing some of our new songs in our own language in a large group!  Also had the chance to meet the newest missionaries just assigned to Ecuador in April - the Waddingtons.  (You can see them in the August 1 WT).  They are, of course, a delight and just talking to them gave me chills.  I was also determined to meet our new C.O.  Previously the Chinese groups/Congregations had been visited by a Spanish speaking C.O.s but starting September 1 we will have our fist ever Chinese speaking C.O.!!!  But that's not all...this brother has been assigned to serve almost all of the foreign language groups/congregations in ALL of Ecuador!  That includes English, Chinese, Russian, French Creole, Korean...and there's more I just can't remember them all - 7 in total - pretty impressive.  He doesn't speak all of these languages but he does speak Chinese, English and Spanish.  I wanted to meet the brother because while I had heard rumors of this development I was dying to hear it with my own ears from the source.  More on him when we get his visit in September.

What a happy group!

Amanda, Jor and Me

Most of Cuenca English

Almost time to say goodbye

Back in Cuenca I took the bus back to Cuenca with my friends Jenny and Melody Mendez and their friend visiting from the States, Alejandra.  We had a great time recounting the convention, talking about our future plans and how excited we are just to be here for the 4 1/2 hours back.  The girls are originally from San Diego, CA but have a Mexican background.  They had been serving in Cañar - about 2 hours by bus from Cuenca - for about a year before they had to leave for the States to work again.  They made it back just in time for the Convention.  These girls are dynamos!  They live in a place know to be COLD!  And it is.  Often damp and rainy.  Of course there's no heat in the house and they have no car.  But the pay off is good.  They never even have time to work together in the ministry due to the fact that they have 16 and 18 studies each, many of which are progressive.  The girls needed a place to stay in Cuenca just for one night so we all spent the night in the old apartment and the next day the, very kindly helped me move the rest of my stuff over to my new/temporary house which entailed us all walking a load of stuff 2 blocks away.  As you can imagine, spending a few days with these girls was truly motivating.  

My New/Temporary House Right now I'm living with a really lovely couple, the Moores and their super awesome doggie, Rusty.  The only problem is that I'm just a little bit spoiled over here.  They have a big screen TV and DirectTV - no need to say more.  Might as well live it up now cause I'm about to be completely furniture & TV-less.  I'm in the process of looking for a place.  I've looked at a few but nothing has really turned out to be the right thing yet.

Chinese Group News We just had our first student to sign up for the Theocratic Ministry School!  This is very good news for both us and of course her.  Recently this student has been making some very good progress.  She's been studying for quite a while now but seems as if things are really clicking for her at this point.  She's even aiming to look a little bit more Witness-like and asked Paola and I to take her skirt shopping a couple of weeks ago - so sweet.  We also have a new addition to the group.  It's Amanda James and she's here from New Zealand.  She spent 6 months in Taiwan so we've very happy to have her and her Mandarin speaking skills for more support in the territory and the meetings!  The group also took a little out of town adventure last week up to a couple of new towns that each had a one Chinese location that we had never witnessed to before (2 1/2 hours by car).  The Chinese people in each location accepted a BT book.  The woman that I talked to was very very nice.  She actually had some of our literature in Chinese - one older magazine and a brochure.  They looked well used and were right there on hand.  So we chatted a little bit, read a couple of scriptures, left the book and some new magazines.  Hopefully it's not too long before we get up there again.  Now the group is eagerly anticipating our upcoming convention (which means back to Guayaquil).  It's only a one day Chinese convention but I'm really hoping to get the new brochure that was especially designed for Buddhists - we didn't get it at English.  I've also recently been able to restart up a study with a man that I had originally studied with when I first got here but then one day inexplicably stopped but continued to be nice.  So, I kept going with the magazines and then about a month ago asked if he wanted to start discussing the book again.  He's been very regular and a very good student ever since!  I'm so excited for that.  

That's Amanda, the new girl in Chinese.  We're getting ready for a little Chinese group party.

This is my student, Yan Jiao Yu holding her nephew Josue

We were pretty proud of how authentic everything turned out.  We couldn't have done it without Yan Jiao Yu's homemade dumplings!

Nice spread and we even bought chopsticks to complete the experience

So, as you can see, life is moving right along and never boring.  I miss my friends but how can I complain when it's just been one blessing after another - too many to relate - there are lots of good reasons to be so thankful to be living in Ecuador.  At the risk of sounding preachy - put your life in Jehovah's hands and you won't ever be left alone :)