Scare yourself silly - give a talk in another language!

When things go wrong - they go wrong! Tonight was a little stressful to say the least. First of all my householder phoned to say she couldn't be there as she had a cough - oh great! So I scrambled around and got one of the sisters in our BS group and we had a quick practice before the meeting.My heart was pumping so much when it was finally my turn - I didn't think anyone would be able to hear me speak.
We started off fine but then Racquel forgot to answer a question which threw me a little but we managed to get back on course. She kept adding bits in and so unfortunately I went 45 seconds over time which he had words to me about - but understood of course. The funny thing was I was working on Articulation - or pronunciation - what a joke. I was so nervous that I am sure I did not articulate or pronunciate well at all.
I had jacked Mark up with the camera to video it for you but as I say things always go wrong with the plan - the camera would not work for a video - I think the memory stick has a problem. Anyway I had to do a set up for the video - you will get the drift I am sure.
We are off to Guayaquil tomorrow and are not returning until Friday next so I may not be able to blog for awhile- don't worry I will catch you up when we get back. Chao for now

Message to New Zealanders

Sending you a little bit of sunshine cause I hear you need it!

Been watching the news on the internet and feel so sorry for you guys. What terrible weather you are having!!!
Please stay safe and warm - we are thinking of you all.
And to all those who offered to send me
gumboots - you better keep them for yourselves!
Cuidado otra vez mis amigos
(Take care again my friends)

Poor Mark

We have had an interesting BS tonight - it was the final study in the Revelation Book as you know and afterwards one of the sisters had made a celebration supper. We had seen her bring in a hotplate before the meeting started and heard it bubbling away so were thinking it might be a hot chocolate drink as we have had before. But no - much to Marks horror he gets served a lovely warm drink of milk and rice. Mark may be a farm boy but he abhors milk and this was not going to be easy for him to stomach. Actually to me it tasted like a sweet rice pudding my mum would have made although of course very watered (or should I say milked) down. I got mine down no problem then discreetly swapped with Mark, the empty cup for his half full one. I will expect him to do the same for me when I am next served sweet coffee, which nearly turns my stomach!
We then made out way home in the dark as we have been experiencing power cuts tonight - it is pitch black out there too and not easy to navigate the torn up road however we made it home without me falling over - amazing in itself! That is another thing to go on the shopping list for just in case times - candles! By the way the spare key I brought paid for itself today as the door shut on me again - only takes one boo boo to never make the same mistake twice!

I had some time so...

More Mail!

Today we got the nicest surprise when we went past our letter box in town - we had another letter! So off to the coffee shop to open it and how exciting it was to read all the comments from our friends in Bethlehem! Thanks guys - you are the best! As you can see it has now taken pride of place on our wall of rememberance!
We had decided we would get our eyes tested today - I wondered if my eyes had deteriorated somewhat as sometimes it is hard to read. And yep they had - well one anyway - my left eye is really bad and so the right one is doing all the work. Could account for some of those headaches eh? Upshot is I need new glasses and I should be wearing them most of the time now he says. So more money to pay out - but guess what for $300 I get a pair of graduated/transitional specs - my last pair in NZ (not transitional) cost over $800 so I don't think it is too bad. Oh by the way - that included the eye exam for both me and Mark too (Marks eyes are fine - he just needs better light in the house!).

Introducing...

This week E's news has been replaced by another show - Peyton's Place.
The Scarborough Family - in town from Georgia - liked my video idea so wanted to have a go! Who am I to stand in the way of stardom?
I have a feeling this family will fit in very well around here - they seemed to enjoy everything new and when they came to the meeting with us - they all answered even though they know less Spanish than us! We were impressed (also it made us see how far we had come in the 3 and 1/2 months we have been here!). They have left Cuenca now but we will see them again at the English convention and then of course they will be back to live in October.
Nothing much new has happened this week that I haven't already told you - life must be settling down to normality. I will have plenty to report on soon though as some new firsts are coming up in the next couple of weeks. 1 is my first talk in Spanish which I am practicing like mad with. I cannot seem to memorize the first line though so I think I might have to resort to just reading it! Of course then in 2 weeks time we go to Guayaquil for the convention then on to the coast to visit Maria K. Looking forward to exploring again!

A day of work at the Salon de Asamblea

Today I went with Mark up to the assembly hall. He volunteers up there every week and I have been told there is plenty of work for me too so I tagged along today. Trouble is it is about another 1000 feet up and it was jolly freezing up there today - or as they say here "chachi!" So my job was painting the scrolls on the fence - what a fiddly job - I am sure it looked just as good all green - with no gold at all on it. Mark as you can see was in his favorite place most of the time - he is still up there as I write this - I came home early cause it is meeting night tonight and I need a siesta!

Brother and Sister Jones are being transfered at the end of August to Guayaquil and it will be such a loss to Cuenca. Helen says it is the hardest thing she has been asked to do in her whole full time service so that is sad for her. It is just that Jnr Jones has a lot of experience with sound equipment so he is needed at the assembly hall in Guayaquil. He keeps hinting to us that they need another couple to assist the Brother that will be left in charge here - of course I don't think we really fit the bill as we have not proved ourselves here yet.

10pm update - Mark's holiday is over - it was announced tonight that he is an "anciano" (cracks me up that the literal translation of that is OLD MAN). The applause from the congo was tremendous and afterwards they were all coming up congratulating us both - they are so happy and say it is a great privilege for their congo to have 4 ancianos. By the way we also handed in our application form tonight so it remains to be seen if we get accepted or not. I have decided that if I don't try regular I will never know if I have the strength or not so I just have to bite the bullet and do it.