Ecuador Blog

You can check out Nathan’s new business here:  www.unlimitedbusinesscards.com

The Sign Language group just had their C.O.’s visit.  Since they are a group, the visit is only three days.  Friday night we went to the Bookstudy.  Nathan said the opening prayer!  Joel and Marci are the names of the couple.  He is from Canada and she is from Alabama, but he’s lived here 14 years and she’s lived her 16!!  They are only 33 and 31!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Joel gave a talk after the bookstudy and I actually understood it!!  I was so excited!  This was the first time I’ve seen a talk in Signs that I hadn’t studied for, so it was really neat to see that I can actually understand some things.  (I’d say, maybe 90%!!)  Saturday was service and a meeting for all publishers supporting the Sign group.  They had two meetings for service:  8:30am and 2:30pm.  This was our first time in Sign Language service and I was really nervous.  I got put with a pioneer who lives in Quito, but is moving to Ambato in July.  She is 29 and has been in Signs for three years.  Another sister came with us too.  She is 18 and has been in Signs maybe 6 months to a year.  We had a really good time.  Then, at 2:30 I got put with a DEAF SISTER!!!!  I went with her on two studies!!  I was literally terrified.  After we had been together for about thirty minutes I was exhausted and thought, “OK.  That’s enough practicing Signs.  Let’s just talk now.”  Then, I remember that she can’t talk!!  :-)  I have to say I think it went really well.  I understood her enough to get by and she’s so nice that even if she couldn’t understand me she didn’t show it.  At the second bible study I tried to sign something to the young boy, but he acted like he didn’t understand me, so I asked his friend to translate for me.  When she finished and told me his response I think he really did understand me to begin with, but just couldn’t do what I was suggesting.  He had said he couldn’t come to the meeting today, because he was eating with his family.  I told him that he could come for the talk, because it was only from 11:00 am to 11:30 am and he could eat with his family after.  But, he said he was having a program that lasted from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.  Anyway.  It was nerve wracking and exciting at the same time.  Then, at 6:00 pm we had the meeting for the publishers.  There are 9 publishers in the group (3 deaf).  There are two pioneer sisters moving here from Quito in July, but they are not included in the 9.  Neither are we, because we are not officially in the group.  There are now two Sign Language Circuits in Ecuador.  So, if a group has their own Watchtower study they now will receive a whole week’s visit of the C.O. and all other groups will move from three days to four!  The Branch publishes publications in 44 different Sign Languages.  Joel said that a lot of the Sign Languages are very different.  For example, Colombian Sign Language uses both hands for their alphabet.  He said the Branch works very hard to produce dvd’s in Signs.  It took them FOUR years to make the Require brochure dvd!!!  There are 83 known deaf people in Ambato.  That doesn’t sound like very many, but he said to think about it this way:  there are 9 publishers so if each publisher had 3 studies they would be at 30% of the population.  For the Spanish population to be at 30% every publisher would have to have 94 studies!!!  So, there really is a big need in the Sign Language territory here.

Today we had the Public Talk, Watchtower, and other Talk.  The Watchtower was pretty profound and difficult to translate in to Signs, but Nathan and I both commented!  (I’m proud of us for that!)  :-)  I also understood both his talks.  Karen (an 11 year old in our Hall) came with us and I translated the entire meeting to her in Spanish.  All-in-all I’d say it was a very interesting weekend!

Oh!  I also wanted to tell you that Karen and Diana (Diana is 13) both wanted to have bangs like me so they decided to cut their hair themselves!  I haven’t seen Diana, but poor Karen’s hair didn’t turn out so good.  I think she took an entire fourth of her hair and cut them in to bangs!  They are also very long.  About down to her chin.  She told me she doesn’t like them.  I’m going to try to help her re-cut a fourth of them and let the rest grow out.  But, it was really sweet for her to say they wanted bangs like me!

We love you and miss you tons,

Jennifer

Ok, don’t hate me. I know that I’m behind. I still have alot to put on here. I’m trying to get it worked out. I have tons of pics to share if I can figure out how to get them on here. ha. So, for now, I’m going to distract you all by showing you my little online t-shirt shop. There isn’t much on there right now, but one of these day I really hope to have tons more. Check it out and maybe you’ll even see something you like. ;p  hehe. 

http://tinyurl.com/292u5m

(I also put this link in the Blogroll.)

We were in MegaMaxi (think Wal-Mart) this morning before the Sign Language bookstudy and I noticed that this very large man was staring at us. I told Nathan and we noticed that he was also following us! So we stopped and Nathan asked if he knew us. The man didn’t answer and I noticed that he was moving his mouth as if he was talking to himself, so I told Nathan that he must just be crazy. We went to the checkout line and were behind one other couple. Well, the man followed us!! So, Nathan asked one of the worker men if he could make the man quit bothering us. The man got irate and started yelling, “Who’s bothering you, you crazy Chinese?!” Nathan and I just looked at each other and I said, “We’re not Chinese.” Then, the man kept yelling, “Crazy Chinese!” and pushed Nathan hard twice!! I got really worried that Nathan might try to fight back so I put myself in-between him and the man. So, then the man PUSHED ME!!!! Really, really hard on my left arm. Seriously, it hurt for about three hours! Finally, the security guard came and had to escort the man out. I was really shaken up and we were worried he might be waiting for us outside, but we made it to the truck safe and sound. WEIRD!!!

Love and miss you,

Jennifer

I am so excited to tell you all that I have been extended an incredible privilege!!! Tito asked me last night to take over the accounts while Stephanie is gone to Germany from May to November!! So, obviously I’m not going to be the Account’s Servant, because I’m not a Servant, but I will be performing the duty of one! How crazy is that??? Anyway, it should be a very interesting hobby for me over the next few months.

I’m also posting my very favorite flowers here. (besides the Cala Lily.) This flower is planted in the front yard of our Hall. They make me smile every single time I look at them! I wish the picture could show how bright orange these flowers are. But, at least you get an idea.

Love and miss you all,

Jennifer

(click on the photo to see more)

Favorite Ecuadorian Flower

Nathan gave his first Sign Language talk this past Wednesday. He did REALLY good if I do say so myself!

Love to all,

Jennifer

We had 169 at our Memorial this past Saturday!!! That’s pretty incredible considering we only have 40 publishers. Four times the publishers!!! Nathan and I were privileged to have three different bible studies in attendance. Two of whom have not been to a meeting before so that was pretty exciting.

Love and miss you all,

Jennifer

click here to see pictures:  Memorial 2008

Hey everyone! I´m so sorry that I haven´t written on here in forever! For a little while it wouldn´t let me sign in, but I´m back. Well, my house was finally painted. Did I already tell you guys that? I took pictures, even though everything isn´t completely fixed up. I´ll try to get them posted as soon as possible. Also, I´ll be getting my camera soon, so hopefully I can take lots of pictures to share with all of you. I want to have a kids party for everyone here, so of course there will be pictures of that. I figured that we could try out some classic games: duck-duck-goose, Red Rover, etc. We´re all going to be clowns! hehe. I´m aiming to have it in a week or two. I´ll fill you in when it happens. Well, Jen told you about the assembly. It was great! (As you already read.) Right now we´re all very busy trying to work out territory with the invitations. Brothers and sisters from Riobamba even came to help us out. Our territory is huge! We can´t finish it all! Oh well, we´re doing what we can. I know that Jehovah will use his holy spirit to help get some of the ones we miss. I can´t wait to see how many come. I´m really trying to stress the importance of attending to my studies. I´ve never had so many studies in my life. Which is the point, but still, it´s great. Granted, not all are regular, or have studied 3 times yet, but I have about 13 right now. There are 2 others that have accepted studies, but we just haven´t started yet. One of my studies has been the meeting several times now, and I hope that she will continue to come. She´s missed a little, so I´m really praying that she won´t get in the habit of not coming. She´s only 13 and she´s one of my best studies! She really doesn´t seem her age. I can only pray that my studies will continue to learn and know Jehovah, but I´m very proud of the ones that are progressing now. Make sure to fill me in on your great experiences, too. With the Memorial being Saturday, I´m sure there will be stories soon. I´m hoping to go to another Hall build soon. There is one in Riobamba. The friends invited me to come when they were here helping us. I´ve been hearing about the Hall builds in the States, too. Keep up all the great work you guys! ( A quick shout out to my Electrical Family…I miss you guys! Keep churning out those lights!) Until next time….

“that which we have seen and heard we are reporting also to you, that you too may be having a sharing with us.”

We had our Circuit Assembly this past weekend and I wanted to share a few experiences/illustrations with you:

An illustration about materialism: You want to cross from one mountain to the other and the only way to get across is an old, crickety wooden hanging bridge. Would you want to cross it with a big load of stuff on your back or would you want to cross carrying as little as possible? Well, we are on this side of the mountain (this old system) and we want to get across to the other side (paradise). We need to do it with as little material possesions as possible.

Life experience of our D.O.: he needed a job and went to a big factory in New York. They told him they could give him a job for two weeks cleaning an extremely filthy warehouse (full of rats and roaches). He needed the money so he took the job. On the last day he took a shower and left. When he got to the subway he reached in his pocket and didn’t have any money. He realized that he had left it in the shower at the warehouse. He went back and of course, the money was gone. He was devastated. Much to his surprise, the boss came over and gave him the money that he had lost! The boss explained that another employee, Jimmy, had found the money in the bathroom and returned it. Jimmy was the only Witness who worked at the warehouse! Our D.O. was so impressed that he started studying, got baptized, went to Gilead, got assigned to Ecuador, became a C.O. and then a D.O. Too cool, huh?

Another experience: A worldly Jew in New York was a Doctor, extremely successful, got in a car wreck and became paralyzed. His wife left him. He got invited by a friend to the Kingdom Hall, because he said he would find true love there. The jew didn’t believe that Jews and Arabics could truly be friends so he decided to go to Jerusalem to see for himself. He went to the meeting there and sure enough, Jews and Arabics were hugging and kissing each other in greetings. One of the Arabic brothers invited the Jew to come home with him. The Jew wanted to go outside to see the sunset, but the Arabic brother told him he couldn’t because he was the only Jehovah’s Witness Arabic in the building and it wouldn’t be safe for the Jew to go outside. The Jew looked at the Arabic and asked him why he was showing him love? The brother responded, John 13:35.

Another man in the US moved 3,000 kilometers to get away from the Witnesses. Well, he moved to Brooklyn so guess what? a Bethelite brother called on him! The man told him he had moved just to get away from the Witnesses so the brother told him he could put him on the Do Not Call list. The man said the Witnesses told him that before, but it never works. The brother said he would personally come by once a month to make sure the Witnesses weren’t calling on him! Needless to say, the man became a Witness!!!

Two young children went outside a highrise building to preach with their Bible Story book. A man came down from the fifth floor to see what the fuss was all about. The man got mad when he found out that he had come down for Witnesses. He told the kids, “If I would have known you were Witnesses, I wouldn’t have come all the way down here!” The kids looked at the man and said, “Jesus came all the way down from heaven, the least you could do is come down five floors!” The man stayed and listened for two hours.

A five year old was preaching and told the householder that God’s name is Jehovah. The householder asked why God doesn’t have a last name. The five year old said, “Why do you have a last name? Because of your parents, right? Well, God doesn’t have parents!”

We had 12 baptized, peak attendance of 1,253, Rodolfo had the Bible reading, and Tito did the talk about the text. Josephina and her granddaughter came!!! It was their first assembly. Josephina said that we teach things so differently from the Catholics. All they ever did at her church was recite the Lord’s Prayer. They never taught about Jesus’ life or how we should live. She could really see the difference.

We love you and hope you enjoyed these experiences as much as we did,

Jennifer

Josephina’s first assembly

Melissa came with us to the Sign language book study this past Sunday and I gave her a comment. She was very nervous, but did excellently! Also, one of the sisters from the group had a little baby girl. They haven’t decided on her name yet, but she’s a cutie. People here don’t name their babies until a few weeks after they’re born. The government had to pass a law this year that they only have a certain amount of days to name their child after its born. Weird, huh?

The fair came to town too. We went Sunday evening. We went and got Marjorie, Josephina’s granddaughter, and took her. Everyone had a blast.

Love you all,

Jennifer

Nelly’s baby and the fair