2 new publishers

2 weeks ago we had a special day of preaching here in Pailon inviting everyone to our convention that weekend. 

Alejandro(In the Grey shirt) was preaching for the first time as a newly appointed publisher in the pail on group. Kyria asked him how it felt to be preaching and he replied,  " I feel like I am really living now!" Kyria teared up.

The young man next to Alejandro is named Roberto. He lives in Switzerland currently but was here visiting his family. He learned the truth in Switzerland by filling out an online request fir a bible study on JW.org. He was appointed as a publisher while being here in Bolivia. So this was his first day of preaching as well. 

Needless to say, our whole service group was overjoyed to have such great support and to see the brothers starting their new careers in Jehovahs service. 

It's time for ' Party Dance'! (As the Bolivians say)

That is Rudy. The dance maestro of Cotoca. 

This is Karen, Rudy's sister, also a very good dancer. She could show you a thing or two ( or one hundred things) about bachata dancing. When Rudy and Karen dance together it is something quite special to behold. I can't take my eyes off them, which means I start stepping all over the person that I am dancing with...

Chihoko, the Japanese sister in the back, is going to the neighboring Quechua congregation. She has served in Cotoca for around 8 years and has finally reached her goal to serve in one of the indigenous languages here is Bolivia. Chihoko is such a great support in the ministry and an amazing example for all of us in the congregation. We are happy and sad to see her go. 

Eric( the originator of ' Party Dance) has just gotten accepted to go to the school for single brothers in Chile.  He applied the day he turned 23 and he got accepted 5 months later. He is so excited about it he nearly cried when he told us about how he found out he was accepted. Eric is also very well known around the Santa Cruz area. He has about 5 or more different going away parties being planned for him. That is just a small testament to how great of a brother he is and how much he benefits not only our congregation but any congregation he visits. And we benefit as well because we are invited to all of his surprise ' party dances'! Well done Eric! (And us...)

Once again, once the music was on, we did not leave the dance floor. Kyria and I tore up the dance floor. The Bolivians can't take their eyes off of kyrias Aussie dance moves. ( I didn't allow Kyria to wear her Aussie onesie for those of you who know what that is.) It was salsa, merengue, bachata and other strange Bolivian dances lasting until midnight. 

The brothers and sisters practiced and performed a typical Bolivian dance for everyone. They put a lot of time and effort into preparing it. It was great to be able to see. 

Back in Bo-Lives (say it like an Aussie)

This is just a few hours after we arrived in Bolivia. We are on our way back to the infamous Pailon to visit bible studies and go to the meeting there. We tried to not show how jet lagged we were... Did it work?

This is Yanet. She is 10 years old and she is very smart. We did a review of 8 chapters in the good news brochure and she answered every question with no hesitation. 

Kyria keeps the young ones busy with Caleb videos and after when they show her how they can ride bikes she playfully just pushes them off... Somehow they still really like Kyria...( kyrias response,"that's because I am likable Taylor!")

Cool things we found or had given to us- Kyria found a cool stick bug. 

I was given a huge cherimoya. A return visit climbed up their huge tree to get that for us. We showed our appreciation by getting it all over our faces as we tried to eat it walking to our next return visit. 

At the meeting in Pailon (40 people attended!) the once crazy and loud Greta had just fallen asleep. The poor thing just tuckered herself out coloring. Kyria was on the other side being very jealous because she wanted to sleep too.  

Bienvenidos a Miami... Again.

Contrary to what you might be thinking... This is not the white house. This is the Kingdom Hall in Miami. Complete with chandeliers and a front sitting room. 2 stories and winding staircases. Hands down the prettiest hall I have seen. 

After the meeting we were invited out to dinner with a few sisters ( if you girls are reading this Thank you so much! See you next time we are in miami!) from the congregation. We ate really good Mexican food and Kyria was able to wear a sombrero. Kyria was so excited to be able to wear that sombrero that she is sure it was Jehovah's blessing for us attending the meeting that night. 

We found ourselves in a health food store the next day... I needed a few minutes to say goodbye to all the beautiful fresh vegetables that we can actually just pick up and eat and kombucha. 

Our Busy 2 weeks

We arrived home from Sucre feeling quite relaxed. However, as soon as we got off the plane we were reminded that Santa Cruz is always hot and we were slapped in the face with 35C/95F heat and 100% humity... Welcome home!

The next day we had our assembly. It was lovely to be surrounded by all our brothers and even get to chat with some other foreigners who speak English that are serving in our same circuit. Afterwards we helped clean the hall till it was sparkling then went out for Italian ice cream (aka gelato).

It's been a while since Kyria has had good ice cream and she wasn't going to let any go to waste

The following week was our CO visit.  A semana(week) full of preaching and spiritual food. On Sunday after our pioneer meeting we had  the congregation over to our place for almuerzo and close to 50 of our brothers came.

Note: the brother below with the sweater on is Chano Roca. He is one of the congregations Ancianos. That smile he has never leaves his face. He is one of the most delightful and happy brothers you will meet. 

The next Day was the Memorial/Conmemoración. Taylor and I were assigned to the Paílon group so we set out early in the morning to Paílon to visit our studies and RV's to remind them of the important event.  We just happen to get goodies and coffee made by Kyrias ex-Mennonite return visit. Amazing cookies and snacks. Fun fact: She, Martha, even mills her own wheat. 

We told the cow that she couldn't come to the memorial. 

The morning of the memorial Taylor finds out that the brothers do not have enough chairs and are banking on her return visit to provide them. Whoops! Thank goodness the return visit had chairs available for us to rent that they were delivered just in time! Just in time to clean and scrub each one before setting them out because they were filthy! 

This is Doña Gaby in the jean jacket. Taylor studies with her and it is hands down her favorite study. This was her first meeting and she brought her 3 kids and her cholita mother in law. They had to walk about 25 mins in the dark to get home which no one likes to do around where she lives. Earlier in the day after the study we had, Doña Gaby asked if she could braid our hair. (which we were delighted to let her) As she was braiding she kept mentioning our smooth and fine our hair was in comparison to thick super heavy Bolivian hair. 

Taylor had a constant wrestle with 6 little kids trying to get them to calm down, not talk and the most important to to grub down on the perfectly edible crackers that was passed in front of them. 

11 Brothers from Cotoca and 3 from Paílon assisted the memorial and we had a total attendance of 50. 

Our congregation in Cotoca has 60 publishers and 180 attended the memorial at that location. 

 Hermano Roca gave the talk. 

We finally got back home at 10:30 at night completely exhausted. But it was a good exhaustion knowing that you have done all you can that day to help people come and learn about Jehovah and about the Kingdom hope. Probably the best ending to the busiest most spiritually upbuilding week we have had here in Bolivia. 

The End

... For now 

Sucre

We spent 3 days in Sucre (the capital of Bolivia) We are used to dirty dusty streets, extreme heat and deathly looking street dogs. So this is what we were expecting when we got to Sucre.  HOWEVER... It was quite the opposite... It was a lovely 23 degrees Celsius there was zero sewage to be smelt also the canines were very healthy looking and on leashes walking with their owners. We almost forgot we were in Bolivia except for all the cholitas running around and the fireworks being let off every 10 mins because of some protest.

We visited the Centro congregation and were warmly welcomed, this cong has over 240 studies being conducted...How amazing!!! The metal thing in the middle of the picture above is an imitation Eiffel Tower which you can climb. If that's not a token of their civility I don't know what is. 

Sweet little Sucre goodies. Fried dough with cane sugar. Quite tasty. 

The fruit they sell here is what we think they had in the promised land.  notice the Pineapples are the same size as the watermelons behind them. Almost...

They have cheesy blue lit up fountains!

Kyria didn't want to leave... Poor Lion she didn't let go of him for a while. 

Farewell sucre until next time.

Minero & sushi

These two actually have no correlation but I thought the addition of sushi was a nice touch. 

We made this a week ago. We were pleasantly surprised at how edible homemade sushi turned out to be in Bolivia. 

Yes... It was just us two to eat that mountain of sushi. Taylor just kept rolling and rolling and rolling sushi. Needless to say we had leftovers for a while. 

On to Minero. It is about an hour and a half or so away from Cotoca. We went with a sister to visit her old congregation. Fun Fact(s): Minero has a vast expanse of territory. It is actually one of the last territories on the border of Santa Cruz until arriving at the next state of Beni. They have a group a few miles out that they just started and they had over 20 new ones attend the first weekend. 

This was on the way there. Between the blaring dance music and incredible popular pop songs our dear sister Alejandra managed to still be witnessing. Kyria and I along with Karey from our hall were having a party in the back. (Not shown)

Once the dancing stopped... I mean taxi ride we got down to business. The invitation work. It was very hot. very Bolivia-like in that there was dust dirt and gross accumulations of water everywhere but we thoroughly enjoyed preaching in a new territory. We met a brother named Sunovio. Which means" your boyfriend. " it took us a while a quite a few other brothers and sisters to confirm that it was not a joke. 

 

Sunovio is on the left of Taylor and Karey they dancing queen on the right. 

The Minero Kingdom Hall. It has very high ceilings inside and kinda feels like a bomb shelter. 

We are now in the airport heading to Sucre in Bolivia. More stories to come. Por favor perdona nos Por no actualizando este blog mas Temprano.