Almost 3 weeks...

Hola everyone! I figured it was about time for another update on things here in Cancun! I am feeling more and more at home here and getting more accustomed to things with each passing day. I am also really beginning to feel like a part of the congregation. I'm getting to know everyone and becoming familiar with all of the names and faces. The congregation is very hospitable and I enjoy the local custom of greeting most everyone with a handshake or a hug at the meetings, out in service, and at gatherings. It's something that I am going to do my best to bring back with me to the States when I return.

This week has been a productive one for me out in service. Wednesday and Thursday I began at the local bus station at 6 am. Yes, it is very early for me, but I balance it out by napping in the afternoon :) Thursday morning I spoke with an older man who gladly accepted a magazine. A while later I glanced over at him and saw him reading it. He looked up and gave me a big smile and a thumbs-up! He walked over and asked if we had a place of worship of some sort. I gave him a map with the meeting times and he is only in the area part of the week, but he said he would be at the meeting on Friday night. I went back to 2 of my other return visits and left the Bible Teach book with both of them. I made arrangements with one of them, Candelario, to come back with a Bible and begin studying with him. The week ended with one of my favorite experiences in Mexico thus far. Linki (the mother here at the house) got together some of the kids' old stuffed animals and filled 3 garbage bags with them. Friday morning out in service we went to a part of town where the people are very very poor. They have basically just claimed the land they live on, building small shacks for their families out of whatever materials they could find. We parked the van and Linki asked one woman working outside if there were any children around. Before we knew it, the van was surrounded by little kids. As Linki handed out stuffed animals to the children, the rest of us handed out Spanish literature to the mothers. It was a really great experience and I'm hoping to do it again.

In the last post I wasn't very clear about the orange house. Some people thought that's where I live, but that's where a couple in the hall live. Below is a picture of Lesia and I in front of our house!

Well I'm sick of trying to think of things to write about so I'm going to quit now :) Hope everyone is doing well! Lots of love from Mexico...until next time...

My new home

So I have come to the realization that I'm not a born blogger. Everytime I think about sitting down and typing out in detail what I have been doing I cringe. But alas, I am going to break down the overwhelming wall that is blogging and write a post!

I'm sitting here in my room with my 2 roommates, Lesia, 15, who lives here and her friend Alysha, 18, from Canada. Living here in the house we also have Lesia's parents, her older brother Wally, 19, and Ditte, a pioneer sister from Denmark. I am having such a fantastic time with all of my new friends and I already feel right at home here.

We usually start service at 7:30 am and do street work right around the house. We just walk around for a while, maybe grab some coffee and just talk to anyone with whom we come in contact! It is so fun and an enjoyable way to start service for the day. After that we come back to the house and then head out for the meeting for service which starts at 8:30. We'll go out until 12 or so and most of the morning is spent walking. My first house that I did was very scary because the beginning of our presentation is in Spanish, telling the householder that we are looking for people who speak English. And it didn't help that there were 2 people outside the house speaking to each other...in Spanish. I mean, that is nerve-racking in your own language!! Neither of them spoke English, but it gave me the confidence to do more doors. I have only spoke with one person who knew English and he wasn't interested, but I'm sure there will be more :)

Our school and service meeting is Friday nights at 7:45. We have a Spanish meeting before us and that's why it is so late. The congregation has around 60 publishers and between 25 and 30 pioneers. Amazing!! This past Friday we had 89 at the meeting, due to all of the visitors. It is so interesting to always have new people at every meeting, from ALL over the world. We have our Sunday meeting at 3, so I will be doing that a little later today. And then this evening, we are going to someone's house for dinner and to hang out and watch The Sound of Music...that should be fun. Yesterday a couple in the hall had a ton of people over to play beach volleyball. It was such a gorgeous spot right on the ocean. We had burgers and hotdogs and rounded out the evening with playing guitar/singing and Rockband. I also had real Flan! Very delicious :D

Eve of Cancun

Almost 1 am and I'm finally winding down for the night. We're shooting to leave the house around 7:45 am and my flight leaves at 1:09. If all goes as planned I should be in Cancun around 9 pm local time, which is an hour behind time back home. Ok well this is probably the shortest and most boring blog post of all time, but I'm just getting into this whole blogging thing and I think it's going to take some getting used to! Next time you here from me I'll be in my new home for the next 3 months!