Movie night!

This week we had a local brother join in with us for the spectacular event that we call movie night and we watched "The Last of the Dogmen", Irving made popcorn as usual it was delicious and me and lace took boysenberry pie and ice cream it was great! Just wanted to send a shout out to my Dad, that movie reminded me of you I know you really like it, Love ya and miss ya :) Hope your week goes great!

Coatza!!!

The first weekend of May was a special weekend of activity. Several english congs in our circuit visited some newly appointed groups to give them a boost to their activity. Our congregation was asked to go to the coastal town of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. (Which is incidentally where Salma Hayek is from thats one english speaker the guys I'm sure would love to speak to!) So Lacey and I, Josias, Abraham, and Michelle Holt traveled together in 'Jairo' (our 91 Ford Explorer). Little did we know when we left at 3 in the afternoon on Friday that air conditioner would stop working leaving us delightfully sweaty the entire trip. The good news is that what we thought was about a 7 hour drive would take us only 3 hours, when we learned this we stopped in Tuxtla to see about getting the air conditioner charged, but to our dismay the frion needed is discontinued and can therefore only be found on the black market. So we decided to just travel that evening and be melted when we arrived.

The drive was beautiful through the mountains and dense jungle of Chiapas, we crossed the Puente de Chiapas at sunset and saw a breathtaking view of the river as the sun dipped below the horizon. Then we drove through a piece of Tabasco and onto the state of Veracruz that welcomed us with a soft warm salty deep breath of fresh air.

The family we stayed with was more than hospitable opening their house to us all. We met the group of Coatzacoalcos the night we came in as they had just had their congregation bible study. There are about 30 people supporting the one meeting they have in english each week and they have yet to recieve their appointment as an official group. Everyone was sooo friendly and welcoming!! After service on Saturday morning, they took us to have Coco Frios, chilled delicious coconut you get chopped open and with a straw to drink out the water then they cut it open and give you the meat to eat with chile and salt and chamoy. It was a great break for such a hot morning. We also ate lunch at a wonderful familys house whose daughter, Luz is supporting the english work. Her friend Jazmin was visiting from Veracruz, Veracruz and we all had so much fun together. The saying that coastal people are happy and friendly definitely proved true! Because it was soo hot Luz' mother told us we could go into one of the bedrooms and lie on the bed with the ac. What a relief!!! That room was a little piece of heaven! Jazmin, Luz, Lacey, Michelle, and I sat in that room and learned the spanish words we wouldnt learn in a spanish class and we taught the idioms and expressions you only know as a native speaker of english. This is where Jaz and Luz put to rest our given names and gave us nicknames we would be referred to for the rest of the weekend. Lacey was encaje, for lace in spanish, but also is used to describe a moocher! And I was of course, Verano for Summer. The rest of the time there went by so fast, we had the meeting on Sunday and service as well. Also they rented a hall for us all to go after the spanish meeting and before the english meeting to eat and talk. It was so thoughtful of them, they are truly a united family and welcomed us without reservation. It really gave us something to live up to, for when we can repay the favor to visitors to San Cristobal. After the meeting on Sunday we headed home and got into San Cris about 2 in the morning. It was better to drive in the coolness of the night. All in all it was a fantastic trip where we met so many new friends. We found some english speakers too and I even spoke to a woman from Nebraska, she was parking cars in a supermarket parking lot for a job, it was quite a surprise to see this blonde white woman in my rearview mirror. She is studying with one of the sisters and we hope that she starts attending meetings. It was a great upbuilding weekend!