Pictures and Home

 Service in Jarabacoa. It is so so different than in Las Galeras. It is a search work. We are searching for English speaking people. They seem to be few and far between, the service here was much more about being with our brothers and sisters, who we just loved and who were so encouraging, ones who are serving here to try and keep themselves and their families focused on Jehovah and his work....just like the rest of us.  There were a lot of families in the English congregation. Families with very young children not even in school yet, and ones with elementary aged kids, teenagers and ones with young adult children. Also, ones who's children are grown and they've left married children and grandchildren, and ones who have had them follow them!:)

This is at the home of the brother sitting on the bike, he and his wife moved to Jarabacoa with their 9 and 11 year old kids from Michigan. They love it!:) and Micah and Jude loved working with Caleb in service, and hanging out at his house later!

More Jarabacoa service. Jude got to help with the carts in the main center park.

It's a very nice park where there is a lot of scantily dressed young women carrying around bottles of vodka, and beer drinking young men riding around on their motorcycles.

But it's great for cart witnessing during the day....

When we met up with the group here at the end of the morning a woman came over and asked us for food, we didn't have any but everyone gave her the money they had in their pocket and she was so appreciative. We also gave her what literature we had in Spanish and a Spanish invitation to the memorial.

She tried to thank us but then just kept standing there, so I tried to talk to her in my very little Spanish and she began to cry:(

So I hugged her, because it was all I knew to do.

Then she sat on the bench and started very carefully putting the literature in her bag and also looking it over closely, while crying.

So I went and sat by her and after a bit I realized she is DEAF. I did my best to "chat" with her, I found out she had a son, who was grown and died:( and she enjoyed watching Jeremiah. 

So I went on a search for an ASL brother or sister and could not find one:(

AND THEN, an ASL sister walked up to us!! So I brought her over to the lady and they talked a little. But the sister said the woman didn't t speak much ASL and that she was rather shy about talking. So the woman picked up her stuff and then walked over to me and gave me a very big hug and we both cried and she said thank you and walked away. How helpless I felt, I wanted to do more, but I am so happy to have had something positive to give her.

The boys friend Caleb.

Service with dad.

Break!!:)

This is the group we met at our favorite coffee shop in Jarabacoa. The girls went here just about every morning to connect to the wifi and do school work then meet us at the hall for service or meeting. They ran into the brothers and sisters there even before we'd met them:) great cafe con leche for $1!!! 

Mmmmmmm, I miss it!:) 

This is an AWESOME traditional "American style" Mexican food restaurant. It is owned by a brother  and sister from California. It is only open on Saturday and Sunday late afternoon-dinner. It is in the bottom portion of their house, and has made such a name for itself that they have to turn customers away some evenings and people who have come for the capital go looking for it to try it. And look for it you must, it is way WAY out of the way in the middle of what looks like just a regular neighborhood at a dead end. It's so awesome!:)

This was Jason's burrito!:) it was the same size as his FOREARM!!!

 And his is what was left of it:)

And the dance party!!! Melanie and her kids heard our girls wanted to have a traditional dance party and so they threw one together in no time! And it was everything we'd hoped for. Non-stop Salsa dancing!

Also, this was one of the coolest parties because as Jason and I sat watching everyone dance there were a couple of brothers on our left talking in Creole to each other and on their left was another couple speaking in ASL with each other and on our right were a couple of sisters speaking Spanish to each other, and thankfully to us sad single-language people they all spoke pretty good English!

A couple brothers from Texas, a sister from the other end of Texas, a bunch of girls from Wisconsin, and a girl from the other end of Wisconsin!:)

Our long trip home.

 We took a taxi, to the bus, the bus to another taxi, that taxi to the airport, the first plane to Ft Lauderdale, another plane to Orlando where Papa picked us up and brought us to Lakeland!

Whew!

And what all that traveling does to us!

We got home late Tuesday night and on Wednesday afternoon my mom had a couple bible studies to go on, so I got to go with her. These are the two kids I played with and kept busy while their mom studied with my mom!

Such an awesome study. This was only my moms 3rd time visiting with her but she said shed been reading the Bible Teach book all day and really would like to study it with her and that her boyfriend wants to study too:0 :)

And although her boyfriend didn't make it home from work in time to go to the memorial, she did!! And brought her 2 kids, who sat exceptionally well in the 2nd row with us!

I can't wait to find out how this goes! And that's in Lakeland, Not nearly as far or as expensive to get to as Dominican Republic! And they speak English:)

Pictures

 Campo (super rurals) in Jarabacoa! 2 motor cycles, 1 four wheeler, our car and 12 people accomplished 60 hours, 1 and 1/2 territories completed and many invitations distributed, before.....

THE FOUR WHEELER BROKE DOWN!!!!

there was pulling, pushing, ropes tied to hands tied to 4 wheelers tied to cars...pain, suffering, hours and hours of waiting, and some really exciting and memorable service stories!!

View of Jarabacoa from the campo!

Two worn-out and dirty boys after campo!

COSTANZA! 

This is the town on he cover of the 2015 yearbook. It's such a beautiful farm town surrounded by mountains. 90% of the produce produced in DR comes from this town.

Jarabacoa!!

Getting the car stuck:/

Our favorited spot in Jarabacoa! The girls visit it every day...at least once:)

The waterfall and horse back riding!!

Jarabacoa service group day 1!!

Jason's much needed USA binge!!! Twin, Sour Cream and onion chips, ESPN, he also had a beer;)

Sorry!!

I don't know what happened to that last post:/ :0

GROSS!!

But it won't let me go in and delete the pictures or even change anything!!!!

SO, that was our first injury. Ginia was swimming in the green river with all the girls and she just swung her foot along and sliced it open on something!:(

She should've had stitches but I was a little concerned about bringing her in and not speaking their language and not having shots etc etc.

SO...

We got to Jarabacoa and after another day it was so swollen and was hurting her so bad that I brought her to the Farmicia and showed the pharmacist and she was SO nice and she spoke English and said she needs to go to the DR. So she pointed us in the direction. So we go to this tiny little clinic. TINY. And the front desk people didn't speak English, but the very young Dr did, so that was nice. He and his helper companion were so young they enjoyed watching music videos on the the little tv while they were working on Ginia!:) We knew it was to late for stitches and he just kind if looked at it and shook his head and got to work SCRUBBING it clean with iodine. I mean SCRUBBING it! It hurt Ginia just to touch anywhere around it so she handled this very very well. I felt terrible for her! Then he wrote an Rx for a topical cream and told her to stay off of it for 4 days (yeah right) and we paid the
bill for $16 as we left, then picked up the Rx and bandages and wrapping for another $16 and Virginia said it doesn't even hardly hurt anymore! She must have had an infection in it and he literally
 scrubbed it out!!

*Side note, when we went to the Hall for service today the super nice pharmacist was there!! She's a Spanish sister:) she told Ginia she shouldn't be on her foot:/ how do I make her stay in bed when we only have 7 days of this dream left???:/

We have gotten to experience everything DR has to offer. Stay tuned for Izzy's trip to the dentist!! She's going to make her appointment tomorrow I think!

Now......

                                                                   JARABACOA!!!

We love it here too!!!

We got here Sunday evening and Monday we did a horseback riding excursion through the mountains to two different waterfalls, we even got to swim in one (except Ginia, I had to put my foot down there). It was so much fun. I had forgotten how much I really really love horseback riding. Girls are going again today, I'm going to regret not going with, but I'm really not feeling well today:( Both of the boys have shed a few tears about not being able to go again. But we all loved it so much, Micah and Jude are now trying to find us a place to live where we can have horses, and Jeremiah said about half way through "now I want to be a cowboy". Funny we come all this way and spend quality time with elders and special pioneers and I never heard "now I want to be a pioneer, or an elder" but one day horseback riding and they've got their lives figured out!:) I admit, it was a highlight for me too;)

The most memorable moments:.......

Maddi said, "is anyone else nervous, I'm nervous about riding a horse, I don't love riding." Then
about half way through she said she was doing just fine and having fun, "I'm just letting the horse do
whatever it wants" then all the way back we could hardly see her because her horse wanted to rush back and she was far ahead and we kept yelling "Maddi, pull back, say whoa, come back" but she was letting the horse do whatever it wanted, although we could clearly see it wasn't what SHE wanted, and we all had to laugh:)

Abby! She just kept smiling and saying "I love this, I just love this!" And she had the biggest smile for the entire day. Then we did service and it's an amazing congregation....I think she's putting some roots down here!!:)

But Jason made it in our MOST memorable. There is not one of us who can even talk about his riding
technique without laughing, sometimes even so hard we cry:). But, we also feel so bad for him, we really do, he was in miserable pain, it showed every time he road passed us.
First of all, he's gets this truly crazy looking horse. His mane and front hair is kind of short and sticking up, not ugly, just like he's crazy, and a little ornery, and he's got this unmistakeable look in his eye like he wants to run wild. And he's not a really big horse, but then you put Jason, a somewhat
big guy on him and he suddenly looks smaller and more ornery! Not to mention Jason was not nearly as excited to go as the rest of us and he's looking pretty ornery himself (he had also just gotten stuck in the culvert just outside the riding place and about 10 dominican men had to get extremely creative to pull him out, thankfully most of the men came off a big brick truck and were equipped to get him out) But this horse coupled with Jason was truly humorous. The horse just kept trying to take off and every time Jason would go trotting by us he was stiff as a board and cringing in pain and it was a funny, although pitiful, sight. Sadly, two days later and he still can't sit. I know understand that cowboy saying "that really chaps my hide"

So after horseback riding for the day we passed out happy. Us girls went in service Tuesday morning
and we met many AWESOME brothers and sisters. We worked with Josiah, a young brother, 17, from Two Rivers WI, who knows the Racovsky's because that is the cong they are from:) His family moved here a few years ago and he LOVES it. He is a regular pioneer and I think his sister is too. He is just upbeat, positive, and fun. We also worked with Linda, an older sister from California. She moved here with her husband, who is 80, in September and she us so thankful to be here. She said when she had to go back to work a year before coming here she was so unhappy and depressed that
she decided to pioneer too because she figured she was going to her grave at her desk and she wanted so etching positive out of it, THEN her husband decided to consider moving here;) her sister in law has lived here for 3 or 4 years. She's so thankful and hopes they don't ever have to leave!

We also met a family from Michigan who have a 9 year old daughter and 11 year old son. They have been here for 6 months. It took them 3 years of planning to finally make it and their hope is to be here
permanently, one year at a time. They also love being here.

And there is Melanie and her super fun family. They moved here from Florida 4 years ago with their
then 3 teen age children. They were going to do a foreign lang but decided to start in English until they had adjusted, but her husband was appointed an elder and is much needed in English so they are still in English. BUT, throughout the years their 3 children have tried out all the foreign language groups and they now have a 23 and 21 year old sons in Hatian Creole, and a 20 year old daughter in ASL. All still living at home, but serving in the different cong that share the same hall with the English! Melanie has been above and beyond sweet, kind, and generous. She has opened her kitchen for us to use during our entire stay and has offered us to use her washer and dryer and has invited us ALL (10 of us) to all kinds of excursions and outings, and even offered to watch the 3 boys for us to go do some amazing sounding waterfall body boarding thing that kids can't do....we don't have the heart to leave the boys behind for it, so maybe next year;) but she is and her family is just what Jehovah wants his people to be. I hope we can learn to be as warm, welcoming, and hospitable as she is. Especially if we ever become established in a new place and can help others.

This is truly an amazing group of people, 5 congregations of them. And when we meet for service all
5 groups are there and it is such a cool experience. How thankful I am to jehovah for allowing us to be here, to experience this, and especially for allowing our family to be a part of his organization!

As much as we love Las Galeras, I can only say, I love it here just as much for COMPLETLY different reasons!

Pictures.......

I have atempted to post pictures at least 3 times and the internet will not stay connected long enough, so I give up for now!!

Got the Girls!!:)

We got Maddi, Izzy, and Abby!! And it has been non stop busy since:)

We had a big beach day planned with this wonderful family from North Carolina. We never met them but they stayed with Marilyn for 2 nights. They visited Costanza Spanish cong. Ignacio is from Venezuela and his wife Heather is from Alaska, they have 3 children, ages 17-13. Our kids hit it off with them immediately!! They were in DR for 10 days and worked with the Spanish cong in Costanza . They spent the last two days in Samana at Marilyn's place and asked if she knew any families that would like to plan a beach day...she knew she wouldn't have to ask us twice!!:). So we had a great day at Rincon, and in the middle of it Jason went to pick up our guests!!

So they spent a little time at the beach with us then went to Nicole's house for a cong sisters Paradise Tea Party! A great way to spend an evening and get to know your sisters and think about the REAL life! We'll have one when we get home:)

Then a few days of ministry and a day of whale watching and Bacardi Island sun bathing and the awesome "beach hike" our favorite thing to do in las Galeras. We also went to dinner with Damas, the brother from Holland who my boys just loved. Even Jeremiah and he doesn't seem to love anybody! Although he does love Marilyn too!! But Damas left las Galeras just a few days before us so we had a finial farewell dinner with him!

Her are our pics!!

Family dinner! Vegeta