Soyapango, or The Post In Which You Get To See Pictures Of Us

We had a great time in Soyapango, getting to catch up with friends from Pioneer School. We only got to spend three days there, which was way too short. But we'll be back in October for the Convention.

The friends we stayed with. We were like adopted kids while we were there, with a mom to take care of us. They were so sweet. I needed that.

Once again, the lake from the Awake. This time we got to go in it. 

Aw, look! It's us!

 After the meeting Saturday, a bunch of the friends loaded up in the truck and drove us around to see places and get pupusas! Me gusta pupusas.

Look! Here we are again!

While we were eating, these kids came up and started doing a whole "Drumline" thing, complete with fire tricks. 

One of the best things about Jehovah's organization is how you can instantly be friends with anyone anywhere, because you already have that one thing in common. We met so many people for the first time on this trip, and they were all wonderful.

And we're on the road again. This time there's a volcano.

We took a very wrong turn and ended up in California. Oops.

And that's the end of El Salvador. Next up, more horror stories from the borderlands.

Border Patrol Hates Me

We are finally home. We made it alive, just barely, with plenty of stories to last a few posts and then some. So, let's get to it.

This is the route we traveled. The first thing you should know is that Google Maps lies when it pretends to know how long a drive should take. The second is that you should not try to cross eleven (count them, 11) border patrol stations in two weeks unless you really hate yourself.

So Wednesday, we head out to San Salvador. Google Maps says this should take about 8 hours. What Google does not account for is the mechanic who puts water in the radiator instead of coolant and the layover on the side of a mountain road with no cell signal due to said radiator overheating. This means we get to the border at dusk, and the Honduran Migración office is not where Lonely Planet says it is. Thankfully, it moved to the actual border, instead of a town a few miles away. Honduras says "Sure, we'll let you out." El Salvador says "No, you can't come in." Uh, what?

Picture Break!

 This one is for you, Pam

 I like to think you can see Guatemala in this picture. 

And we're back.

So I believe I've written about this before. The CA-4 treaty/pact thingy between the 4 countries, the reason we had to go all the way to Costa Rica. Well, someone down the line isn't doing their job properly, which means El Salvador does not recognize extensions given by Honduras past the first 90 days. This is why several friends got turned away at the border on the way to the Convention last year. We were within our first 90 days, thanks to the trip to California in December. However- Honduras apparently forgot to stamp us out of the country then, and the US didn't stamp us at all. So it looked like we seriously exceeded our visa, and El Salvador was having none of that. Awesome. Thankfully, I rarely delete my email trash, so by some miracle I still had our boarding passes from that trip in there. Even after that, we got the third degree from them, but were *finally* allowed into the country. Little did we know, that was going to be one of the easier crossings. If this were a book, that would be called "foreshadowing".

San Salvador is a difficult place to navigate in the dark when you don't know where you are going. However, right down the street from our hotel was McDonald's and Denny's, so it's all good. (That's one thing I'll never get used to, in the States I really don't like fast food, but here we get so excited about it.)

Off to Soyapango to meet up with friends from Pioneer School!

Road Trip

Ok, we are actually doing a Visa run this week. Well, next three weeks. 4 countries, 2291 km (that's 1423 miles) and approximately 33 hours of fighting over the car radio. So, yes you will definitely get stories of border guards, traipsing (driving) through jungles and hopefully....volcano boarding! Might even throw in a picture of a Starbucks cup, but you already know what those look like. (Hey, it's novel to us)

But what you will not get is an update until April. Sorry.

So....to tide you over, some pictures. These are mostly overlapping panoramics of our favorite place to cool down.

See you in April!

Visitor

We currently have a visitor with us, which has been really great. The last week has been a lot of fun, because we are getting to play tourist while we show him the sights. We might even make it over to Roatan (finally).

We have had some great service experiences lately too. The other day we found a lady in the territory and when we said we were there to talk about the Bible, she invited us in right away. So we sat and talked for a while, then when we made arrangements to come back, she said she is going to cook for us next time!

I manned (womanned?) the public witnessing cart by myself last week. That was fun, it was a quiet morning so there weren't a ton of people stopping by, but I still had some good experiences. A few people came by and said "My kid speaks English" so I recommended the Young People Ask for them. Pretty much everyone asked how much the books cost; when they found out everything is free, they were really shocked!
One thing I love about being here is that as soon as you hand someone a publication, they start reading it. There's no "O I'll read it later" and you get the feeling they won't ever look at it- they will start reading as they are walking down the street, which then makes me worried they are going to get hit by a car.
We did street work downtown a couple days ago. In about 20 minutes, we placed 28 magazines, just Zach and I. The other pair ran out of magazines too. Then we tried something new- we went to the hospital. They have wards- men/women/pregnant/something else- and many people are in one room. It definitely doesn't look like a hospital in the States, no TV or radio to keep you busy, you just sit there and die of boredom. So we went in and asked people if they would like something to read.
Now, keep in mind, I still don't really speak Spanish. And since there are separate wards, and I was with all brothers, I got to go to the women's ward by myself. That was super intimidating. First I had to ask the nurses if I could visit the patients, which was difficult to convey, but thankfully they said yes. Then I went into each room and asked "le gusta leer la Atalaya?" There were three women sitting in one room who were all happy and said that they do like to read it, then started laughing. Turns out they were sisters from out of town. That made me feel so much better because I wasn't in there alone. The brothers had a really good response too, they ran out of magazines again.

Three weeks ago, I was sick and missed meeting. Zach went and a family was visiting- Aunt, Uncle, Niece. The uncle and niece speak English, he lives out of town, but she lives not too far from the Kingdom Hall. While there, they asked for a study for the girl and gave Zach her phone number for me to call and study with her. So we call, and are told we can only come on Sundays because her grandmother, who is very opposed, comes to her house every other day of the week. Also, her mom is very protective, so we might have trouble getting her to agree to a study or bringing her to the meetings. However, the girl had previously studied English at the school a sister here runs, and the mom knows another sister, so that might make it a little easier. So we go on Sunday, they live above a pulperia, we go in there and ask for the girl. That's how we meet mom. Right away she says yes, we can study with her daughter and she can start going to meetings with us! Did not expect that at all. Then the mom says that just a little while earlier, someone else had come by to ask the same thing, but they hadn't met the daughter. She describes an older couple with a blue car and the man is very tall. Hmmm ok. So we are thinking and thinking, finally figure it out- our neighbors. No wonder she was agreeable to us, she already knew! It turns out, they had gone to both the Spanish and English meetings that day and asked for a study both times, since they don't live in the territory of the Spanish congregation they went to, the information got passed to the missionaries to call on her. But we talked about it and decided since I had met the girl, I would be the one to study with her. So we had our first study yesterday and she is going to start coming to the meetings next week!


 Now for some pictures from the river.

March Awake!

So, it's almost March, which means you should have your March Awake. If not, go download it here. I'll wait.

Ok, got it?
Did you notice the article on El Salvador? Our friendly neighbors to the West and slightly South?

So Omigoodness Pupusas! I don't remember the last time an Awake article has made me hungry. Thankfully, I can get them here. If you haven't had pupusas before, seriously, Google a restaurant near you. You do not want to miss out. Also, eat with your hands. Tastes so much better that way (like most food, actually.)

Now.. look at the pictures in the article. Now look at these pictures. Of course, the ones in the Awake are so much better. But it's the same places! The same lake and the same volcano.

Even a coffee plantation.

I thought that was really cool, usually the places featured in the magazines seem so far away and exotic, but this time, it's somewhere we have been. Practically our backyard, in fact.

Anyway, just wanted to share that.

Beach Day

The missionaries downstairs had some friends from home visiting last week, so we had a beach day with some from their congregation. It was an absolutely perfect day- sunny and warm, even the water was the perfect temp. So.... here's pictures.

Zach

Palapas on the beach

 Random kids

Awesome shoe tan

The kids have a thick piece of styrofoam that they play with since they can't afford a boogie board. Works just as well.

This little girl spent about two hours following me around and talking to me, even joining in on the game of volleyball with the congregation.

 Rainbow

 I was trying to get a shot as the wave crashed over me, but I don't know how well it turned out. 

Awesome, right?

Service Experiences

Here are some recent experiences we have had out in service.

Just this past week, we have *hopefully* started two Bible studies that will be mine. 

The first one is with a girl we met a week and a half ago. She was on the territory list, and we made the first contact with her on a Friday, we went back on Tuesday, then again Friday. We were supposed to go back on Sunday, but she wasn't there so we will go back another day this week. She speaks English great, but doesn't really read it, so we are using the Listen to God and Live Forever brochure to help her learn to read as well. Yay TESOL certification is useful! We have never taught anyone to read before tho, so if y'all have any advice, that'd be great. 

She already knew God's name is Jehovah, and His name is in her Bible. That is one thing we have noticed down here- "Jehova" is everywhere, in names of Pulperias, on buses (usually calling on Him to save them from their own driving) so people tend to know His name, even if they don't seem to understand Jesus isn't God. She also knows that idol worship is wrong. 

Unfortunately, she starts working again this week, so she will only be available on Sundays now, but we are off to a good start.

The other call is with an older lady. I had placed the magazines with her about a month ago, and when we went back, she had questions. So we answered those questions, then she had more. We were there for a long time, and read at least 10 (ten!) scriptures to her. It may have been more, but I could only remember that many to write down after. We brought back the Bible Teach book for her, but she wasn't there either (bad timing that day) so we will go back and start the study this week.

Last week, we went to another territory that hadn't been canvassed yet. We were there for about 2.5 hours, and found probably 25 or so people who speak English. It's really amazing, we have all these territories that we don't know about and think maybe there won't be anyone there, but we always find a lot of people.

Something else that seems pretty common is when you mention you want to talk about the Bible, people will say "O yes, I was just reading it." People are very interested in discussing spiritual matters here.

(So doing the Bible reading for this week, Genesis talks about Jehovah-Jireh. Many of the pulperias have that name. After finding out the meaning, we are curious if there's a reason for that. Hmmm....)

That's all for now.