OXXO

We went out in service today even though it’s the biggest Mexican holiday. That was awesome because, unlike the other times we went out, we only needed 15 minutes to get there and that was on foot! We went with Irving, Josh, Jesse and a sister named Judith. Judith is really cool. She was born in Mexico City, but moved to Frankfurt Germany when she was 19 and that’s where she became a Witness. She’s also lived in two different cities in Iran. Kelsey learned today that Irving is her flute buddy, but he doesn’t like chocolate and we think that’s strange! Irving is one of those kids that says really funny things and doesn’t even realize it. For example, OXXO is the name of a convenience store here, and he likes to say that it means “hug kiss kiss hug.” When the other guys wanted to go “make some RV’s,” Irving thought they wanted to go witness at a trailer park! Something we were told about before coming here was the stray dogs and cats. However, these are some of the most well-behaved animals we've ever seen. This dog was just lying in dirt as we walked by!

We only went in service in the morning since it’s a meeting night and people usually stay home. So we got dropped off near our house around 1pm and stopped by the taco stand on the corner. We ate these strange things called “tortas ahogadas” and “tacos dorados” which is basically bread or hard taco “drowned” in delicious sauce. After that, we went home and enjoyed the rain from the shelter of our little apartment. There are neighbors moving in upstairs, and they sure are noisy! Their kids keep running up and down the stairs and the men keep opening and closing the squeaky gate as they move their stuff inside.

Speaking of noisy, today is 16 de setiembre which means that last night this city was the party central of all of Jalisco! And boy do these Mexicanos know how to party! We just happen to be right next to this big outdoor amphitheatre. Last night it was quite a happenin’ place. It sounded to us like the Mariachi equivalent to a rock concert, complete with screaming girls and super amps! It was so loud! We recognized one song from the night in Tlaquepaque with the cute Mariachi guy. The only word we know in the song is “A-moooooooor”. We like it. Victoria at Starbucks told us she thinks it’s a song by Alejandro Fernandez. He is un hombre muy muy guapo in Mexico. He’s a BIG star here. All the girls love him. Once she told us that, we thought that it might have been him, in concert! Probably not, but we like to think it was him because that would be cool! Anyway, we went to get dinner (and a churro, the best ever by the way) came back, ate, watched Raising Helen, and went to bed around 12 and he was still at it! Then he talked for a long time and all the girls screamed louder than ever. We imagined that he must have been saying, “we’re having a contest. Whoever screams the loudest gets un beso de mi” But that’s just our active imaginations working off our crazy assumptions. By the way, that's a picture of the Farmacia Guadalajara that's on the corner near our apartment. It is open 24/7!!!

Guess where we are now? If you said Starbucks, you know us too well! We’re at the one on Avenida Guadalupe and our friend Victoria is here. She’s so sweet, she gave us both free drinks!!! Oh yeah, and if anyone from Kate’s Starbucks is reading this, I’m drinking my old Dulce de Leche bebida favorita! In your face y’all. We were just talking on the way here about how it seems we don’t have nearly as many fun stories to relate to you guys. In a way, it makes us a little sad, but it also makes us feel pretty good! That means that we are getting used to being here and that it’s not so much about what’s different from there. Now it’s just like, this is how it is and we accept and love it! We’re walking more and more and it’s killing us less and less, so watch out when we get home…you might just get taste of the Mexican style of service.

Hope you guys are up for the challenge! As always, we send our love.

K3LSO and Kate

¿Bueno?

Buenas tardes! Well we have had an excruciating day! We hope not to let you down, but today’s adventure was more like a siesta. We were so exhausted that we just slept in until 10 and we only got up then because we were expecting the phone guys. They got here on time to our surprise and a brother met them here to help with translating since these people talk so fast! They don’t realize they’re talking quickly so Kate started saying in Spanish “Could you repeat that slower” and she’ll ramble off something very fast in English. They usually get the picture and speak really slowly…

We didn’t end up going out last night because it was getting rainy, so we bought some junk food from the convenience store on the corner and watched Hitch (with Spanish subtitles of course). Don’t worry all, we have had our trusty umbrellas within our grasp at all times so we didn’t get pelted with angry bullets of rain!

After the phone guys left, we walked to the bus stop, which is now only about 1 block away, and took the 629 bus to galerias mall. We went to a little shop comparable to Claire’s. Got some cute earrings for really cheap. We had lunch at Chili’s, which we shouldn’t have done, but we were really craving some familiar food. Too bad we didn’t get it! Speaking of which, you know how we told you how everything is different here? Sherry told us we needed to try McDonald’s Desayuno Mexicano (McDonald’s Mexican Breakfast), which we thought was strange. But we tried it and it was strange. Good, but strange. It consists of 1 English muffin cut in half, slathered with REFRIED BEANS and a slice of American cheese, eggs scrambled with pico de gallo, and a sausage patty. They give you more pico de gallo on the side and at their condiment stand they have a ketchup dispenser and a jalapeño dispenser! We got a picture of their other condiments, though it was impossible to do so without drawing undue attention to ourselves. Yes, those are whole jalapeños and salsa packets.

Anyway, back to the mall. We returned to the Starbucks on the third floor and the one lady remembered us (how could she forget, after all?). Kate asked about work there…get worried friends. A shift supervisor named Jesus gave her a tour of the back and even a coffee passport in Spanish! It’s confusing ordering a drink in Spanish. For example, Kelsey’s drink is called “helado grande soya caramel macchiato.” Oh yeah, they have dulce de leche here. That totally makes up for their lack of zucchini lattes. So we walked the whole mall from top to bottom and noticed a couple of funny things. Check out the creepy mannequins!

It seems as though there’s a slower way of life here. At restaurants, for example, they won’t give you the bill until you ask for it. Well, if you don’t know that, you will sit at the table all day waiting! They consider it to be very rude to give you the bill without you asking for it. We’ve also noticed that it doesn’t seem like they drink very much soda or water. At petrol stations, they have deals on hotdog and chips combos whereas in the states they would do a hotdog and a drink. Even if you’re at a restaurant that offers free refills on drinks, and that’s a big IF, they won’t refill unless you ask! Sherry said that they feel that a meal is a leisure time and that no one’s in a hurry, so they don’t rush you. However, it isn’t considered rude to call the server over to your table.

Right now we have the front door open with the screen shut and it’s not only letting in some great cool air but also some fun music. The Mexican people are very fond of music and dancing, and when they listen to music they do it right: LOUD! We’re adapting well to the exchange rate (which is up to 10.6ish) and we’re getting some great deals! In the picture, that's about 32 dollars, 320 pesos. Hopefully we’ll get to go to a tiangis (pronounced tee-ang-ies), which is basically a swap meet, and that’s where we’ll find some street venders with cool local stuff. We’ve got some room for souvenirs so that will be really fun to check out! We have service tomorrow morning folks, so look forward to some fun stories.

With love,

Kate and K3LSO

Zeta Gas, Cow Bell, y Tlaquepaque

Well, bloggers, we are sincerely sorry for how late this post is arriving. It really has been quite a day! Of course, we went in service, but only in the morning. We wanted to stop at the Starbucks on Avenida Guadalupe, which is apparently the newest one. There was this one girl that worked there, named Victoria, who was very sweet. The guy who took our order didn’t understand us, as per the norm, and he put in the wrong drinks and a whole bunch of stuff. Victoria made sure everything came out right and even wrote nice things on coffee cups. The one said “Have a nice day partner Katherine.” How cute, right? She sounded just like Hilda, for anyone who knows her. Kate asked her if she could read English and, since she did, we got to place a magazine with her. (She was so grateful that she gave me a hug and kissed my cheek the way Mexican women do.) We were absolutely distraught over the prospect of having to come back to visit her…and only a couple blocks away from our new house. (YAY!) We went in service with Sherry again and also this sweet 14-year-old sister who’s getting ready to be baptized soon! Her name is Rebecca, and you’d never believe that her mom is very opposed to her being a Witness, and her dad is studying but not progressing nearly as well as she is.

The congregation we’re working with has so many territories, and they are very big at that. This picture shows Tom and Miguel trying to figure out where we were supposed to go. Poor guys. Sherry decided that she felt like eating pizza from Costco for lunch, so we stopped there to pick one up after service. While it was cooking, we went inside to score ourselves some free samples. You will never believe what they were sampling! They had Bailey’s Irish cream, Tequila, etc. They didn’t even ask for ID, they just gave us some. “Welcome to Mexico,” Sherry reminded us.

Speaking of which, we wanted to let you all know about some cool things that are specific to Mexico. For example, when the gas truck comes by you can hear what sounds like little kids singing “Zeta, zeta, zeta gas.” Also, there aren’t always set days for garbage pickup, so the way you know when the garbage man is coming is the sound of a cow bell. Yes, you heard correctly…the garbage men here wear cow bells so people hear them coming. That brings new meaning to “I need more cow bell!” (How's that, April?)

We had been planning on going to the Saturday afternoon book study, but it turned out that the sister who’s house it was supposed to be at was out of town. It must have looked strange to the neighbors with so many dressed up people waiting outside this apartment building, talking, laughing, having a good time. No big deal, at least we got a picture of all the people who showed up. Quite a crowd, huh? It seems we ended up all dressed up, with no place to go (haha, get it?). We went back to the McCasland’s house and spent some time chillin’ with Lulu and watching Jackie Chan in Spanish. There's a picture of the McCasland family, complete with the baby!

Tom had a talk in Tlaquepaque so they invited us to go with them. We were surprised to see that four different language groups meet at that hall: Spanish, English, Chinese and Japanese. When we got there, the Japanese meeting had just ended and we got to meet a sister who is a Special Pioneer from Japan. After the meeting, it started to rain and we were very glad we had remembered our umbrellas! By the time we got to the middle of town, the streets had started to flood. When we finally found a parking place, the streets were full with rain and we had to watch where we went because cars were driving by, splashing walls of water in their wake.

We went to eat at Sherry’s favorite restaurant El Patio. It is, as Sherry says, “very Mexican.” It was fantastic! We spent a little more time walking around downtown where there were lots of shops and restaurants. By the way everyone, Kate got married today in Tlaquepaque! That’s the real reason we’re so late. You know wedding arrangements, they take FOREVER. Included is a picture of Kate and her new hubby. What a HUNK right? She is the envy of all the city. Enough about that though, I mean geez Kate… way to take the limelight.


Inside a courtyard, there was a restaurant with something like an over-sized gazebo, called a kioska, in the middle. In the gazebo was yet another real Mariachi band (with a muy muy cute singer by the way). This one was really good and they were taking song requests. After observing (and appreciating) some boys break dancing, Tom and Sherry were ready to turn into squash (pumpkins…just kidding) and needed to get us home. We’re moving tomorrow! YAY!!! Hasta luego nuestras amores.

Love you all,

K3LSO and Kate

PS: Be sure to check out "Domingo Flojo" which accidently got posted below this one. Sorry that there's no pics on it!

Domingo Flojo

Today we share a double blog with you since yesterday was so busy and we didn't get to post anything. Today we don't have much to report. It has just been another average Sunday. We did get moved out of our apartment in Centro and are now moved into the McCasland's for the duration of our trip. We're really excited about this and it seems that several of the young ones in the congregation are too since they've been talking each time we see them about all the fun they plan to show us when we're closer.

We'll get a taste of that later today. Right after the meeting one of the sisters came and invited us to go do... something with them. There are GIANT "round-abouts" here and in the middle some have statues, parks, and/or gazebos in them, they're really quite pretty. I guess every once in a while there will be music, art and junk food (Kelsey may finally get her churro). The sister is trying to get a group together to go to one tonight and we were invited. We'll let you know how it goes! Sounds like fun though.

Have we mentioned how much we love our congregation? They're great! We're enjoying it thoroughly. When we arrive at the Kingdom Hall we are greeted with kisses, hugs and at the very least hand-shakes. Usually it's a combination of the three. There is a real feeling of unity and love in the congregation, which was coincidentally the focus of the public talk today. It was really good! The speaker was a brother from our congregation. Arnie, we've mentioned him before. You might be able to see him in the picture of yesterday's book study group, he's the brother in the back. Speaking of pictures, we got a picture of Rebecca, the little sister that went with us out in service yesterday. She is such a cutie! Oh yeah, and we're in it too. HI!

That's about it for today I think. I can't believe we've been here 6 days already! I can't believe we're here at all! We miss you all, and I do mean ALL. We're thinking of you always, hoping you can handle it all without us... just kidding. But we are thinking of you. Thanks for thinking of us! Give yourselves all big hugs for us!

Lots and lots and lots of love,

Kate and K3lso

Ay ay ay ay...Canta Mariachi

Sorry to get this to you so late. We spent the whole day out in service and it was fantastic! This morning was like going in service with Rachel Crist (love you, Abuelita). Sherry McCasland is HILARIOUS and we got to spend a little more time with Lesley. Today was a little different from yesterday…we had a car! So first off we drove to some territory, worked at one block where Sherry talked with a really nice young Mexican woman who learned English in school. The woman’s baby was fussing so she was very distracted, but Sherry offered the magazines and set up a time to return. After that we went to a 7-11 (they actually have them in downtown Zapopan and even in old town) where we were trying to get these cheesy little iced lattes but the machine wasn’t working. A nice man came over and helped us, and it turned out that he had spent some time in Colorado so he can speak some English. We gave him some magazines on marriage and he was very appreciative. We really got to enjoy some of the Mexican flavor this city has to offer today. We’ve included just a few pictures of the colorful houses we saw.

When we got back to the Kingdom Hall, there turned out to be only one car for all of us (6). Still we all went together in a Mitsubishi Lancer. Human sardines!!! Then we stopped at a different taco place for lunch and the waitress, whose name is Rosalina, asked if we were the people from that place on Avenida Guadalupe. We asked if she meant Jehovah’s Witnesses, which she didn’t, but she must have misunderstood and she said yes. She didn’t speak any English so Irving gave her some Spanish magazines. Then she directed the guys to a man who speaks English. This is a picture of the people we went in service with in the afternoon (and me…happy mom???) They are Irving, Josh (again) and Marjorie. Marjorie has been here 7 years and she was pretty shy, so we didn’t get to know her very well. After lunch we worked the block where the taco restaurant was and the one next to it. Marjorie had to go home for the day, and we were hot and our feet hurt so Josh suggested we go to “Galleria.” That is a very ornate, ostentatious mall that is fancier and pricier than a lot of what you’ll see in America!

We walked around a little, which was nice even though we were hurting, because the ground was all even and we didn’t have to worry about tripping on it! There was another Starbucks on the third (yes, third) floor and we got a refreshment there. We, as usual, held up the line with our butchered Spanish and all the baristas gathered ‘round to make fun of the gringas. Kate wanted a pumpkin spice latte (which they don’t have here) but didn’t know how to say it. Irving told the barista what he thought was pumpkin, they said they didn’t have that, Kate said it’s really popular in the States. Then Irving realized that he had actually asked for a zucchini latte. EWWW!!! No wonder they thought we were gross. Anyway, there were lots of chairs there and we sat for a little while to rest up. A cute little girl was playing with the high-tech sign (it’s interactive and touch-screen…really!) and her mom was sitting next to us. So Kate talked to her, she ended up speaking English, and being as she was Catholic, she was very interested in “How well do you know your Heavenly Father?”

The overwhelming sound of a mariachi band filled the mall and, as we got closer to the origin of the fiesta, we saw a real Mariachi band with about 20 members. There were horns, violins, guitars and of course singers. They even did a little dance “para las mujeres” at one point. That was so much fun to watch! After walking around a little more, we realized that a lot of time had passed and it was already 6:30! We took the bus to our side of town and it ended up being the yucky one (route 51) but we still tried to witness to people there although no one spoke any English.

Turns out we got dropped off a little further away from our house than usual and ended up having to walk 8 blocks to get to the restaurant where we wanted to eat. We weren’t impressed with their food, but the view was incredible. Our server had a strange accent, didn’t talk loud enough and couldn’t hear or understand us. Oh yeah, and one of the guys that works there kept sitting at a table and smoking, even though the host assured us there was no smoking in the restaurant. We won’t be eating there again, but at least we tried it! After dinner, we walked probably 8 more blocks to get home. It was getting very dark, but we were very careful. Plus, we were armed with umbrellas which we decided could be considered weapons if the wielder of said umbrella had some sort of martial art training. Keys in hand, we entered the courtyard of our apartment and promptly closed the gate behind us.

Have we told you guys just how hot it is here? Maybe if it wasn’t the rainy season and there was no humidity it wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s like we can’t ever dry off. After several nights of being almost unable to get to sleep for being so hot, Kelsey went and asked Ezra for a fan or something. This fan is awesome and I can’t believe we didn’t think of doing this sooner!

We have tomorrow all planned out. First, we’re going in service until about 2. Then we’ll attend the book study with the McCaslands. After that, we’re going out to Tlaquepaque where Tom is giving the public discourse that they have on Saturdays. Then we’re hitting the discos. Just kidding, but we’ll explore the area and (this one’s for you, Miss Bobbi Bottoms) do a little souvenir shopping. For any of you who don’t already know, Tlaquepaque is the shopping district but we’ll let you know more as soon as we know!!! So, for now, we leave you with this: Ay ay ay ay…Canta y no llores!

Love ya!

K3LSO and Kate

¿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

Negrita de Mis Amores

We did it! We survived our first day in Guadalajara! On just a few hours of sleep, we set out to discover the local area. It might as well have been a different world! We knew it would be different, but we really had no idea how drastically. For example, in most neighborhoods, you will find a hole in the wall selling Coke and other local beverages of choice. A few blocks from or apartment was a large outdoor mercado (market) where fruits of every shape and size can be found for relatively low prices. This morning we bought a liter of jugo de pina or pineapple juice for only $18! No not 18 dollars, the peso sign is the same, $18 here is only $1.80. Good deal huh!

Another example is, this morning as we were walking to the bus, we passed a food stand near the big market. Simultaneously, we turned around to see what the delicious odor was! After not much debate, we ordered whatever it was that the old man on the seat next to us was having. Juevos, arroz y frijoles with the most delicious salsa you could ever imagine. As we cleaned our plates, two men came up behind us. Before we knew it, they attacked! Just kidding. They did however whip out their guitar and accordion and did some mad serenading. "Amor" Thus the title of today's blog. Stefani at Starbucks (yes, we found another "Starbooks" as they call it here) told us about a song specific to Guadalajara with that title. It means, the dark-skinned people in my heart, and is a love song to una mujer morena, a "dark-skinned" woman.

Back to our first day though. After our journey to a supermarket we returned to our apartment exhausted. We both promptly fell asleep, though we really didn't mean to since Brother McCasland was coming to get us at 4 to take us to their house for dinner before the meeting. "PSSSSST! PSSSST!" we heard as we awoke from our comas. How embarrassing, especially seeing as how we both were snoring like two elderly, overweight men with sleep apnea! Oh well. We hurriedly got ready and were off. On our way in the cab, we both acknowledged that we were feeling a slight bit overwhelmed by so much culture shock! It was a nice transition to have some salad and spaghetti from Sherry. That's their dog, Lulu, by the way. But the real comfort came later, as we pulled into the kingdom hall parking lot. All our anxieties melted away and we both breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing something so familiar. It really gave us a feeling of a refuge from the overwhelming feeling of not belonging. Finally, we were in a place where we belonged. A place where everyone had the most important thing in common with us. We quickly made friends, and lots of them. Kate wasted no time in outspokenly procuring for us a couple of tour guides! ( they're sisters, I promise)

The congregation was amazing. There are a LOT of younger people, and very spiritual! Most of them are there to help the congregation. Everyone who had a ministry school assignment, were doing it for the first time in English! We wouldn't have known though, if the school overseer hadn't announced it. The Bible reading by a younger brother was so full of feeling, so from the heart that we had the feeling as if Paul was right there talking to us. We could feel the love in every word, how appropriate since the reading was about none other than love. Later, as we sang the second song entitled "Here I am, Send Me" we were reminded of what a privilege it is for us to have the opportunity to be here. By the way, brothers and sisters!!! They NEED you here!!! The english congregation that we visited has only 3 elders for its 80 publishers. At this meeting, two were unable to be there and the third, Brother McCasland had to do both of the talks for the service meeting on very late notice. The aforementioned school overseer, Arnie, is a ministerial servant! The majority of the congergation's territories have never been worked. One amazing young sister named Kandi speaks 5 languages (Spanish, English, Russian, Chinese and ASL) Out of these, though, the most needed is English! Although they have difficulties, their work is very productive! They've just started a new congregation with an indigenous spanish/indian dialect.

We've also learned that paraguas are a necessity, paraguas are umbrellas. Edie, you'll appreciate this. Every afternoon, right now in fact, clouds roll in, and the lluvia (rain) falls. Yesterday, as we were eating at a restaurant recommended by our landlord, we were able to enjoy this thoroughly as the restaurant had a courtyard where we could watch the rain fall, while being protected from it ourselves. It was beautiful.

Last night after being escorted home by a brother who lives near us, we fell asleep to the pouring rain. A nice end to a fun, then slightly stressful, then spiritually refreshing day. Now as we sit in a Starbucks watching the rain, we quietly contemplate what the next few days might hold for us. Whatever it is, we like to think of you, our friends back home, working hard for Jehovah and we know that you are obviously thinking of us as well as indicated by the fact that you are reading this now. Until next time, friends, we will stay safe and we will keep in contact.

All of our love,

K3LSO and Kate