¿Hay alguien que habla ingles?

The rest of yesterday was spent “touring” centro. Unfortunately, we had a duffel bag full of groceries and stuff that we had to lug around. In case anyone wants to see just how far we walked, the Starbucks was at the corner of Vallarta and Chapultapec and we walked up Vallarta past Federalismo all the way to this hotel/restaurant called “Hotel de Mendoza.” Still, it was really cool to see a bunch of what makes Guadalajara unique. If it hadn’t been for our map, some really nice people and sheer determination, we never would have make it! A nice man who spoke perfect English showed us on the map how to get to Museo de Carmen, an art museum not far from where we wanted to eat. On our way over there, we saw some really interesting art. In the courtyard of the Cathedral there was a real mariachi band playing.

About dinner…we have a confession. We each ordered a margarita (not half) and slowly drank them over the course of the meal. No big deal for Kate, but Kelsey inadvertently obeyed her mom and was only able to drink half. We aren’t lying! The funniest part about dinner was the busboy, who kept staring at us and smiling. He would go to the kitchen, walk out and do seemingly nothing, start walking away, look back at us and smile, go to the kitchen and repeat. He was innocent, and we were flattered but still leery.

So today was our first day in service. Wow! First thing this morning, we made our way over to the Kingdom Hall. The meeting starts at 9:30 because most people don’t have a car so they take the bus or walk. We saw some of our friends there and started to get eager to start the real adventure. Even though the people here are very friendly, we learned at the meeting for service that we need to be succinct in our presentations. So here’s how it works. We go to doors and say (loosely translated from Spanish) “Good morning/afternoon. We are looking for people who speak English.” There’s also a lot of emphasis on informal witnessing since it’s fairly difficult to find foreigners door-to-door. Anyway, it turned out that we got to go with two sisters, Leslie and Lizbet. Leslie (on the right in this picture) is from Michigan and Lizbet is from Norway! Since no one in our “car group” had a car, we took a bus to get to the area where Leslie’s calls were.

It was really cool watching them take advantage of every opportunity to talk to people about Jehovah. For example, we had to catch the bus around 12:30 in order to get back to the Kingdom Hall by 1pm. Waiting at the bus stop, Lizbet sat next to a woman and asked her in Spanish if she spoke any English. Thus began a nice conversation about the Bible and the woman was happy to accept the magazines. When our bus got there, we got on only to find there were hardly any places to sit. There were however just enough for the four of us. Leslie sat next to a girl (Anna, maybe 25 years old) and again asked if she spoke any English. This conversation ended with the exchanging of phone numbers and Anna saying that she might come to the meeting on Sunday. Incredible!

We met back at the Kingdom Hall at 1 to find even more people meeting for service. We switched car groups, only this time there was actually a car involved. We ended up going with three pioneer brothers. You can see them in the picture here (Andy, Jesse and Josh, the other is Albert but we didn’t go with him, though we have been fighting for the attention of such a distiguished dreamboat such as he...just kidding, folks). Andy and Josh are from Canada, but only Josh speaks French. Jesse is from Hawaii and has been living here for about a month, just visiting. Andy drives like a maniac, as do the rest of the people here. Imagine New York City taxi drivers and then you’ll have an idea of how they are. Anyway, Josh wanted to eat at a little Taqueria (like a taco bus but not in a bus) that is known locally for it’s fish tacos. Get ready for this dad: I ate a shrimp taco and LOVED IT!!! While we were there, Jesse walked around the area and asked people if they spoke English. He apparently had some success in talking to some of them, but we were too busy enjoying our pescado and getting to know our new friends.

As the fire in our mouths died down, we drove to the territory, which was admittedly quite ritzy. We went with Josh, door-to-door, but it’s not the same as back home. They have a general rule: every four houses. It’s not important to go to every house, but just to ask the neighbors if anyone there speaks English. Since this was a fairly upper class neighborhood, each door had an intercom. Neither of us has ever done intercom witnessing, but after Josh demonstrated a couple times, we tried it. It wasn’t so bad, but neither of us got a listening ear. We did have one good call when we met a man who said his two sons speak English. He went to get the one boy, Ivan, and Josh demonstrated the Bible study program with him. He set up a time to come back next Thursday and Ivan wanted to know if it was ok if his brother joined in too! How awesome. Jesse and Andy had a study after that, so they took us back to the hall and we waited for the bus.

“Turquesa” is what it’s called, which means turquoise. As one might imagine, it’s turquoise in color (who woulda thunk it?). It runs all the way from Zapopan (where the Kingdom Hall is) to Centro (where we live). It’s a pretty nice bus! When we got off the bus, it started raining. Guess who left their umbrellas at home? It was ok, though, since we just kept ducking for cover in little shops and under overhangs.

We were exhausted, so when we got home we asked Ezra to help us order a pizza. (While he was on the phone, he had some funky music on in his office and he turned it up and started dancing. He’s a strange man, but cool nonetheless.) When we got the pizza inside, we were a little surprised to see the sauces they included. See for yourself. Yes. Those are SALSAS!!! How strange. Also, see that a large pizza cost us $99. Eleven dollars with the tip. Oh yeah, salsa + pizza = pretty yummy!

Honestly, it’s been an all around great day. We’ve gotten a real taste of what things are like here and we’ve started to make some really great friends! On Sunday we’re moving to Zapopan for several reasons. One is that it takes us about an hour to get to the Kingdom Hall, and as you all well know, we are not morning people. Also it’s an all-around better neighborhood that is more centrally located than this one. Plus, it’s free. The McCaslands have to go to Texas for a while and they offered for us to stay there. We’re excited, and just going with whatever happens. Now, as we relax, nursing our aching feet and (not)scratching our plethera of mosquito bites, we bid you “adieu.”

Much love,

Kate and K3LSO