Jason's Favorite Service Day!!

We had a really good day, despite my having a terrible cold...in the TROPICS!!!???:/

I didn't feel we'll so I stayed home for service but Jason took the girls out. He said it was his best service day yet!! He worked really really hard on a presentation for the Who Rules the World tract, then introduces the video and then has his Spanish speaking service partner take over from there!

He got to show the video 3 times yesterday!!

At one door it was a young mother (which seems to be well over half the population here:( ) holding her son, about 1 year old. She got out chairs for them to sit in and set them up in the shade. So they sat down, Jason did his presentation, she took the tract, then he introduced the video and then he had Johan hold the tablet for her to watch the video and Jason held the baby, and as it started 2 more young mothers with even younger babies came out and sat and watched the video also...they also fully exposed themselves to nurse their young as they watched the video with these two brothers:0 lol!

But Jason said it was very touching, they just all seemed anxious and eager for something better. So he'll return! Probably with the Good News brochure if we can just get our hands on some!!

It kills me, us, all of us, that we can't talk more with these interested people!! And it's a bummer that I can't go on any of the return visits with my family...but we'll keep practicing our Spanish and the next year we will:)

Because I was home I have no ministry pictures from yesterday, but I've got one from our first dinner out on the big town of Galeras!! We had pizza!:)

This next picture is a pic of the Belgium family's last meeting:( it was Wednesday night. We will miss them so much! Johan, Regina, Tina, Iris, and their 2 friends Phoebe and Mariam!!

And out our kitchen window we see horses some times so the boys and I went over to feed him a treat, a carrot. He was to scared to approach us, but this is out view out our kitchen!

And this is a typical picture of how hard Jeremiah sleeps! He does not sleep this hard at home!! But we do the beach almost every afternoon so he plays very hard and sleeps even harder!....and he sleeps  between Jason and I:/

:)

We have been trying hard to learn our Spanish but it really doesn't seem to be going very fast! We are like the slowest learners of all time!! So frustrating!

But we study our lessons for meeting in Spanish and English and we prepare Spanish answers AND....Micah and Jude both answered in Spanish last week, and ALL 5 OF THE KIDS ANSWERED IN SPANISH AT WATCHTOWER!!!!! Yeah! We're proud of them, and now they've completely showed us up and we have to pull it together and answer tomorrow night:/

Also, Virginia, in Spanish Bare-he-me-a, has the first return visit of our family. Woman thanked her and told her that her door is always open and she can come back anytime to talk about the bible! Really everyone we talk to acts like this but this is the first one who actually said. So we'll return, especially since Fico, the sp. pioneer here said she doesn't talk to him. So we told Fico it is "parquet Bare-he-me-a es muy Linda que tu" because Virginia is cuter than he is:) he doesn't think she is!!l Lol!

Then at the next door we took the brother spoke and he showed her the video and she said "yes, please come back and study the bible with me, anytime and any day!" She is about 75/80 years old and can't read but loves the bible!!

Can't wait to return. Was a long very treacherous road back to them though!!:/:)

Here is a picture from service today!!

And here is an example of service break. They are called Colmadas. They are everywhere, but not this nice, neat, and clean....and never once has anyone used a bathroom during service! Nunca!!!

And here are my crazy travel partners!!!

And.......

Jehovah has answered all my prayers, and then some:/ :) all the blogs I read, difficulties and hardships always sounded like such a "good experience" We've experienced them all and the blessings and joys do WAY out weigh the difficulties! Plus, you truly feel Jehovah's love and care in situations. What this experience has done for my personal relationship with Jehovah can not be even explained. You must all come here!!

However, it IS difficult and stressful at times and I saw even those things thru rose colored glasses before coming here, but living it doesn't feel like "such a great experience":/ but surviving it does! :)

But I also want to say, when it read about the BUGS, never ever did I think that would be a good experience. In fact I thought that would be more than I could handle. And yet, we are sharing our living quarters with such things and I am surviving, not sure I'll ever think it was ok though;)

But it also helps me appreciate being at home. I didn't know I loved Wisconsin so much!!!:)

But this view makes up for the above view....which by the way, that is the boys bed it's on:0

We are in the house we will be in our house and settling in. It is a beautiful house! A sister from Germany owns it and lives in the unfinished upstairs. It's at the top of the mountain. We are about 30 minutes from Rincon beach which has apparently been written as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. And it is THE most beautiful beach we have ever been to!

But, we are not in a tourist part of dominican, well, the Dominicians vacation here, and a lot of Europeans have made it home, but it is very very local here. Including this beautiful house. We are at the end of the pinisula and the main water lines to here broke in the middle of the night on Sunday/Monday, (a week and 2 days ago) causing the one and only road to collapse. They got the road opened back up within 24 hours, but the entire town of Las Galeras has not had water since!!!! 

This house has a huge tinakua (water holding tank) for this very reason, and for when the water turns 

off, which it does daily, but we have to be very careful of the use of water! We NEVER leave water on. When we shower we wet, turn it off, soap up, turn it on rinse off and get out. But it's only cold 
water anyways so we are not TO temped to linger in it anyways:) We also don't flush until 2 people have pee-ed and we do not flush ANYTHING down the toilet. Poopy paper goes in garbage next to toilet:/ :) 

Also, they do not spay for bugs here:/ :( This is the campo here, country. Spiders, lizards, cockroaches, wasps, Mosquitos, and MILLIONS OF BILLIONS of ants!!! They all live right in here in the house with us.

We spoke to the bros and sisters in service this morning about it and they laughed and said "yea" and basically not to worry about the spiders, they run away from you, and cockroaches don't bite, snakes and scorpions be afraid of.....we've seen neither of them - yet!!

Also, things I will remember to bring next year! A rain coat or umbrella, it is mostly beautiful but when it rains it pours and it is sudden, in the middle of the service day, and then we step inside wait for it to stop then have to trug the leftover rivers:)

It has been beautiful all day and all of a sudden it started to pour, our whole group was all at the same place at that moment and the old woman whose house we were next to forced us all in her porch and set out as many chairs as she had and we all 7 sat there while she talked with one of the sisters! Just amazing and kind people!

Continued.....

Things are a little different here!! Yes, Jeremiah is driving:/:)

We went back out to the spot where we went whale watching and where it has the big blow hole.

I found out why they call it Boca del Diablo (Mouth of the Devil)

As I said, the boys love throwing things in it and watching them shoot out. Then they found a coconut  and threw it in and as I was thinking "hmmm, it'll probably be to heavy to blow out...oh but if it did that would really.."

CLUNK!!!!

It flew out, straight into my forehead!

It did "really hurt" but after the shock of it, we laughed so hard we couldn't stop. In fact we still laugh about it! But this is the mark it left, besides the big bump and bruise. Jeremiah calls it "your coconut head"

The congregation also found great humor in the story!

But, they also told me I am lucky because people have gotten killed by sitting under a coconut tree and a coconut fell out and killed them:0

Maybe my mom and dad were right, I am hard headed!:)

If you look at Jason's shirt and notice the back where it is black, that is sweat! It was very hot on Wednesday in service. We walked most of the morning and were so happy for the shade when we found it!!

A Little Bit of Everything!

I'm going to just post some random pictures (if I can get them to load-aaaarrrrr) and add comments!

We stopped for gas on our way to the grocery store yesterday and Jeremiah said "I need a tract to give to the guy" so we gave him one and he and Jason went inside first and Jason said "give it to the lady" and jeer said "no, for the guy out there!"

So he handed it to him and said "para ti" this is for you!:)

When it begins to pour everyone just runs in to the closest house and the people who live there just let us wait out the rain! This is a woman who actually lives across the street and this was like a little work area. Damas, brother from Holland, tried to help her fix her broken chair:) the cute girl in the green is Phoebe, from Belgium. She learned Spanish in 2 months! I'm not kidding. She's pioneered all over the world and never knows the language but arrives and is able to pick it up, lick it's split! Whatever;) We love her! She teases Jason just like she is from Hudson:)

Nicol about to dive in after waiting out the rain!

Virginia and her service partner, Christiana, braving the flood'!:)

Regina and Iris bible study. Super sweet soft spoken woman, and then her neighbor comes over with her baby and sits in on it! That's the way bible studies are here. I've never seen anyone study with just 1 person at one time!

Jeremiah's view during the study:)

Audry. We don't know what she was saying, she doesn't speak any English, but she loves to talk and laugh....and dance:)

Audry and Saira are fleshly sisters. Fun group!

To the CAVES!!

This is Marilyn, she's 78, and does this walk to her study EVERYDAY!!

2 of the people she studies with, but 16 families!

Heading back down after the studies!

Our New Roommates!

Do you see him on the wall by the curtain there?

That is your bed to the left Izzy!:)

I also had a video of the LARGE LARGE cockroach as he ran across that same bed just about 5 minutes later, but I can't get it to load. The boys were chasing it! Good news is they caught and killed it:)

Welcome home!!:)

Our New Home!

Just moved into our new home. It is so beautiful, and the sister from Germany who owns it is SO sweet! These are some pictures of the house, perfect floor plan for a family. A square with two bedrooms in the middle with sliding doors, and two bathrooms at the back of the square ! And my dad would LOVE the wood work in here, we love it:) But the 3 boys love the momma and daddy dog with their one little pup left out back, the most!

The front entrance.

 

View from the deck!

Walking in the front door! 

Zone Meeting!!

We found out last Sunday that this Sunday was the Branch/Zone Meeting for Dominican Republic. What a treat for us to be here for it. We had decided to go all the way to La Vega with Marilyn so we could hear it in English (thus understand it;)) La Vega was a 3 hour drive one way. But we were very excited to be going to it and to be at a meeting in English!!!!

 Then we got a real treat. Marilyn called us the night before because a brother from the branch had just called her. She had put a request in for the branch to screen it in English here in Samana even though there was no English cong or group here. Well, they called and asked how many needed to hear it in English, so she told them besides herself there were the 7 of us plus a family from Belgium for a total of 13, and so the granted her request!!!! So so kind. So the brothers set it all up for us in a basement room at the Samana kingdom hall (within walking distance from us). But Marilyn warned us to be early because she knew there were many English speaking people who would probably prefer to hear it in English and they'd flock to the room as soon as they heard:)

So, here are the brothers setting it up.

Here we are waiting for the program to begin. The very tiny room comfortably sat 15, as you see 

here. As I looked around I thought, if more show up we could probably get 5 more chairs in here....

More showed up....

And more:)

And the brothers got 15 MORE chairs in that room, plus at least 5 outside the door. 

They opened the bathroom door so a chair could fit half in and half out of there. Adult sisters were sharing chairs with each other. Our boys were going to sit on the floor but there was no room, so they also shared chairs. My knees were in the sisters back side, plus Jeremiah on my lap, the entire 3 hours. We all let out a chuckle when it came 

time to stand and sing, we didn't even attempt to stand for the first song, we were literally that tight that we couldn't even stand, but we HAD to stand just to move for the next two! 

It was so touching to see how much we all wanted to hear and understand what the Faithful and Discreet Slave had to tell us! Not one person complained or lost their smile the entire morning!!

What an amazing priveledge for our family. 

And the information....you'll just have to see our notes. 

The Society knows exactly what is going on with all of us in every country. Their needs were 

addressed for DOMINICAN REPUBLIC specifically, and seeing that and hearing their genuine love 

and knowledge of the people, the brothers and sisters AND the ones in the territory, just really made me feel even closer yet to this organization. They truly love ALL of Jehovah's people and they know what each and everyone of us needs. It's amazing!

So, it was a great day!!:)

This is a view FROM the Kingdom Hall. 

A view looking down from the drive in entrance. We were in the room to the right of the sister in the red shirt.

And looking UP, the Spanish had theirs at the same time.

It is a very beautiful Kingdom Hall built about 3 years ago.

And finally! Right after meeting we made the two hour drive to La Sirena. I didn't know about this place until now! It is the Dominican Republic Walmart/shopping mall.

Jason heard there was a Burger King here so he and the boys were salivating the entire way. I wish I could say I'm kidding, but I'm not:/:)

But when we got in we found out the Burger King is not in the "food court" but down the street. But they saw Dominos and were quite happy with that, and found great peace in the fact that when they need to, for just a short 4 hour round trip drive, they CAN get good ol' American grease;)

I was so SO happy to see foods with labels I could read and find foods I knew how to cook and what to do with, and PRICES CLEARLY MARKED!!! No " quanto questo" here:) 

We stocked up on groceries (except meat, meat is a little funky here, we did buy a pack of chicken breast but when I went to cook it the very next day, it smelled so bad I actually gagged) but we got lots of things I know what to do with, including bacon, which was just like at home! I can make anything with bacon and butter;)

And we agreed we'll probably have to make that trip every 10 days or so, sadly, walking up and down those isles put all of our culture shock away for the time;) 

Who would've ever guessed Walmart and Fast Food would put us at ease?:):(

I told Jason we are so American Jehovah is going to have to RING it out of us after Armageddon!!

Oh, and Micah and Jude spent some time talking to the security guard who spoke broken English, but truly enjoyed the boys, and Jude placed a set of mags with him! He said he has a man who come and talks to him and he'd talked to him that morning and he said "I love Jehovah witnesses!"

Needless to say, it was a REALLY good day:):)

Las Galeras Congregation

This is our tiny congregation in Las Galeras. The end of the pininsula!

 It's got two elders. Fico (Fransisco) and Orbiz. They are both young Dominican brothers who finished MTS(I think that has a new name now) school and were sent here as special pioneers. 

It has a couple of local families, Nicole and her family, and Christiana and her daughters, Saira (who is marrying Orbiz in June), Audry, who is super sweet talkative and laughs a lot, and 13 year old Sweet Anna.

A pioneer sister from Germany, Susan, who we will be renting from, and has the biggest smile ever. A pioneer sister from Boston, our very dear and new life long friend Marilyn. 

A visiting brother from Holland, Damus. He is 20 years old and came here by himself as a pioneer and is staying with an older newer publish who had an extra bedroom. No kitchen or car, just heard of a great need here and is pioneering here for 2 months we are so impressed with him.

Damus was staying with a brother named Brian from Columbia. Jason and the boys got to work with Brian and they REALLY liked him. But he went home just a few days after we arrived.

A visiting family from Belgium, Johan, Regina, their 16 year old Tina and 12 year old  Iris. We have grown very very fond of this family. They were here 16 years ago for one year before they got the truth. They learned Spanish then. Then they learned the truth, had children and then came here for a total of 5 months. Their daughters knew almost no Spanish when coming here, but preach and answer and homeschool, however their country is not happy about them homeschooling and they will have to make up for it and test out to prove they were learning. 

And their friend Phoebe! Phoebe is a super cool sister. She's adorable and funny and quick witted. She learns new languages at the drop of a hat! She's been to 2 places in Africa, learned the lang there and picked up Spanish in her 2 months here. She hopes to return here!

They all love it here and none of them want to have to go home!

This whole family has been an encouragement to our whole family.

 They had us for lunch the first day we met them. We will be so sad when they go home March 1st.

And mostly local bible students and newly baptized ones!

Including bible students and the 7 of us from Wisconsin there are about 40ish people. 

This is at the back of the little school room they meet in, notice the comfy chairs:) we LOVE it here!!It's TRUE Dominican Republic as the couple from Kansas said:)

 Gene and Jeanette. They were in Punta Cana for 4 years in English, but it is very expensive there so they moved to Samana and are learning ASL and helping that congregation. We met them yesterday at the Zone Meeting! They said it is cheaper here in Samana, but we all agree besides rent, it's not CHEAP in DR!

So, that is a run down of the people we've met and love and don't want to forget....so far;)

Rincon Beach

 Ok, the internet here is SO slow and I'm to tired to wait at night so I fall asleep while waiting for pictures to load:/ And now we are going in service this morning so I don't have a lot of time but I will post a few pictures with explanations. Then I am going to just write a long note to self:)

This is beautiful Rincon beach! It is a HUGE bay with white sand beach all turquoise, green, and ,dark blue water all the around. And this beautiful crystal clear fresh water river that runs tyo it. There is a bridge crossing the river to go up the side of the mountain to a couple houses. Haven't done ministry there yet, but would like to:)

Our view during lunch break!

LUNCH BREAK!!:)

Dinner! Dominican Republic style!:) the rice and beans turned out very good, and we loved the passion fruit, the yellow and orange one, it was sweet and super sour, but the white one, don't know what it's called, but it'll take some getting used to:)

We had to go back to santo domingo to return our car and whirl we were there we did some tours of the old forts and Christopher Columbus son, Diego's, house. All built in the 1500's. Very cool!