Ecuador Blog

Ok, I am finding it hard to find the desire to sit down and write something here. So, I decided to record myself calling a friend and telling him about some of my feelings and experiences. It is edited (unlike most of my conversations) and one-sided (pretty much exactly like most of my conversations). Here you go:

P.S. - Be patient. It will load eventually. Maybe you can press pause until it is finished loading.

Ok, I´m going to try this agian. I wrote a long blog the other night and right when I went to save it, I accidently exited out of it! Oh man that stunk! But, I guess I´ll give it another go…

Ok, I guess to start I´ll briefly mention the trip I just took. I went with friends to the coast. We went to go visit Rocio, a friend I made when we were just visiting the congregation. I couldn´t wait to see her again when we knew that we were going to live here in Pillaro. After only maybe a month of living here, Rocio had to go to the coast (around 8/9 hours away) to build a rent house, so she´d have money to live here in Pillaro. So, along with her brother, his family, and some friends, I went to visit her. All was fine until themorning after we got there. I was already sick. The trip was short, and my fun time was even shorter. I was feeling a little better the day before we left and was able to spend some time with Rocio. So that worked out. However, Í haven´t felt good since we´ve been back. Well, I just found out why. I have amebas! I tell you, it´s inevitable! They have tests that you can take to see if you have them, so I did. I´m not even going to tell you what you have to do to be able to take the test. So I got the results later that day, and I´ve got 2 different types of amebas. As of right now, I´m trying this natural medicine to try to kill all of them. Oh ya, when I was sick in Milagro, a store owner asked if I was pregnant. ha. Now my friends are having a fun time saying that I´m pregnant with amebas. They´re crazy! ha. I love em. (the friends!) So, the moral of this storyis that even if you are trying to be the Queen of Caution, you will still get amebas. That´s why everyone here just takes the medicine for it twice a year.

Moving on… Want to know how I wash my clothes? I climb up the stairs to my roof (yep, my roof) and scrub away by hand. That´s right, I´m a true Ecuadorian. There is a washing station on my roof where you go to scrub your clothes. It consists of a well like area, faucet, and stone washboard. It´s all concrete and together. They are everywhere here. The norm. Then I hang my clothes up to dry and hope it doesn´t rain. Right now, they are building a roof on top of my roof. It´s going to be made of some type of plastic so that we can still wash and dry even if it´s raining. Nice, huh? We think so. I took a video (before the new roof construction) of the process. I hope that one of these days I can get it put on here.

Now,I want to share with you a little bit about my service experiences. I don´t remember if I´ve mentioned the two sisters that I study with. They are great, when they are at home. I do believe that will prove to be a problem no matter where you go. I origionally found this woman at the marketplace, she has her own booth selling shoes. I ended up starting a study with her, and then later with her sister, who was helping her, as well. Both are adults, I´d say around late 30s early 40s maybe. The origional one, Blanca, is married and has 3 kids. Her sister, Carme, is single and lives with their elderly parents. I´ve studied with them separately and together. Right now, they want to study together. So I have 1 good study, ha. When I first started studying with them, we were on the part of the Bible Teach book about how Jehovah is not the cause of our problems. Blanca´s little boy (around 1 1/2 yrs old) has a lot of health problems, and as she was holding him, she starting crying. She talked of all the problems that he´s had and she said…”So God´s not testing me?” I really think it touched her heart to know that such a loving God would never do something to hurt us. They both seem to have real interest. I can´t say it´s been easy, though. It´s been a real struggle tying them down. I just have such a strong desire to share with them all these Bible truths, cause they really seem to soak it up. At the last study, Iwas showing them how to prepare ahead of time by reading and underlining the answers. I got out my pen and literally showed Carme how to do it. She looked at me wide eyed and asked, “I underline this sentence like this? Is this right?” She´s usually the one that answers the questions and reads the scriptures from her Bible. She really seems to take in everything. She´s such a wonderful student. Even when the topic is contreversiol, like hellfire, they seem to just accept what the Bible says. How great is that?! I´m going to try to stay patient and hopefully they will continue on studying and learning. I want to briefly tell you of another experience I had. Out in service, I found an elderly woman ( around 83 yrs old) at the door. As I talked about the tract, I asked if she had a Bible in the house. She told she didn´t, because she didn´t have any money to buy one. She told me I could return another day to visit with her. When I went back, I took her a Bible. She said,”But I told you that I don´t have any money.” I told her it was gift. With eyes welling with tears, she gave me a huge hug and thanked me profusely. I went on to tell her about the Bible Teach book and explained to her the study arrangement. She accepted a study. As of yet, she hasn´t been able to start studying, but recently she told that she should be able to soon. I´ll try to keep you guys informed. As far as the others, I´ve had people accept studys, but I haven´t caught them again. I´ll keep trying and tell you what happens.

Alright, what else? Ah, yes. I´m sure that at one time or another you were at the meeting, listening intently, and -boom- the lights go out. Ah, blackout. This, also, happened to us a little while back. We had started the Watchtower and -boom- no lights. What did we do? Kept going, of course! The Watchtower conductor held a little candle up so that he could read the questions, and the reader stood at the window to read until there wasn´t enough daylight to do so. Then he, too, had a little candle. I really love the perserverance of our brothers. But what about the closing song? You bet we sang! A brother in the back counted to 3 and the entire congregation just started singing. Without a note of music, we sang together all 3 verses! (Thank goodness we knew the tune! hehe) I have to tell you, that was extremely exciting and encouraging to me. I loved it! Oh yes, we have proof! Jen took video of it. Hopefully it will also get posted sometime. Speaking of meetings, want to know what we do when we don´t have a speaker? We watch one of the Branch´s videos. What a neat idea! We´ve already had to do that twice. Yesterday being one of those times. It´s nice. Hmmm, can I think of anything more? Oh, the bookstudy. At times, mybookstudy has found itself without a reader. Our conductor, the only elder, just asks who wants to read the next paragraph. I´ve been able to help with the reading at the bookstudy! hehe. This, too, has happened several times. It does demand more participation.

Well, I think that about wraps it up for now. When I think of something, I´ll try to jump on here and let you guys know. I love you all, and don´t forget to keep me posted about the States!

Last night we had Karen, Joshua, and Jael Inchiglema, Diana, Diana (my study), and Melissa over to watch movies and stay the night. I made hot dogs (Chilean style with tomatoes, avacado, onions, cheese, mustard, mayo, and ketchup) and pizza. In the morning I made pancakes, we read the text together, and then I gave them all a presentation for the December magazines. I think they all had a blast.

But the most exciting thing I wanted to tell you was that Diana (my 8 year old study) enrolled in the Theocratic Ministy School tonight!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. How cool is that??? After the meeting they came with us to take Josephina home. After we dropped Josephina off Diana asked when she can start preaching! Rodolfo explained that she had to give a talk on the School first. She didn’t really like that answer so Marco Jr. said, “Just start crying Diana!” Rodolfo said that must be what she does when she wants something and her dad says no. We just cracked up laughing! I can’t wait to help her with her first part on the School! Rodolfo said it will probably be in March because he’s already made the schedule until then. But, still, it’s a start! Oh and I had to break the news to her today that we don’t celebrate Christmas. I studied the chapter in the Great Teacher book about holidays with her and at the end Nathan asked her if she was sad and she said she was a little bit. I promised her she wouldn’t be sad for long, because I would make sure and have more kid parties and do lots of fun stuff. Then at the meeting I asked the other Diana and Karen if they were sad they don’t celebrate Christmas. They both said no way and explained to her that they do lots of fun stuff all the time, not just one day a year! Diana was pretty happy with their responses.

Lots of love,
Jennifer

More animals and us with kids

Here is our new address:

Nathan or Jennifer Cain
Nueva Ciudad
Avenida C en frente del Colegio los Andes en la escina
Tungurahua, Pillaro, Ecuador, S.A.
092475623 (this is Nathan’s cell phone #. sometimes the post office will call us if we have mail.)

Love you,
Jennifer

We miss you all terribly! It’s much worse than we thought it would
be. The only way we know to combat that is to stay busy. So last week
we went out and I started five new bible studies. I want to tell you
about one of them:

Her name is Josephina. She is in her late 40’s, a paraplegic,
and can’t read. Talk about a challenge! Anyway, we met her a week ago
Thursday and offered her a study and invited her to the meeting. She
started crying and said, “I would love to learn about God!” So, this
past Thursday we picked her up for the meeting. Two of her
grandchildren came with her (Junior who is about 10 I guess and
Marjorie who is 5). Nathan and Rodolfo lifted her in to the truck and
put her wheelchair in the back. Before the meeting we gave them a tour of the Kingdom Hall and showed them a painting that a brother painted of a paradise scene. During the meeting I showed Junior how to look up the scriptures and he looked up all of them! He also sang the songs with me. After the meeting I asked him what he thought and he said, “It’s paradise!”

Josephina came with us to the meeting again yesterday. We leave our house at 2:00, pick up Juan (a 19 year old brother in our Hall), and go get Josephina. Juan is really strong so he just carries her from the house to the truck! Then Nathan drops us off at the Hall. It is now 3:00 and Nathan heads to pick up Gloria (an older sister in our Hall) who lives 20 minutes from the Hall. On a good day he gets back by 3:40 and all is well. Unfortunately Gloria isn’t always ready on time and Nathan makes it back by ten minutes til the meeting starts. After the meeting we do the same thing and take everyone home. We get back to our house about 8:30 (the meeting ends at 6:00). Anyway, after the meeting last night I asked Diana (Marco’s 9 year old daughter) if she learned anything. She said, “Yes! So many things!” I told her to tell me one thing she learned. She said, “We shouldn’t fall in to the traps of Satan!” I then asked Josephina if she remembered any of the traps. She explained to me about how we can fall in to the fear of men. Then Diana said, “Also, we shouldn’t smoke cigarettes, because they’re bad and Jehovah doesn’t like it!” I’d say it was a pretty successful meeting!

Also, one of the guys Nathan is studying with who got removed as a publisher about four years ago wants to be a publisher again! Tito said he needed to join the School first so him and Nathan met with Rodolfo (the school overseer) Saturday and he joined the school, so hopefully he’ll be a publisher again soon.

I think that’s pretty much it for now. Love you bunches,

Jennifer

New house

I’m sorry it’s been a while since I posted to this blog. A lot has been going on here. First of all, we bought a truck. After a lot of prayerful consideration (and talking to the elder and other pioneers) we decided it would be the best thing for us to further our ministry here. Also it will help the congregation because we can let people pile in the back and head off to the territory.

Second of all, we moved! We were having some pretty serious problems at our apartment with the water. Serious enough for us to get out of our one year lease. We moved to a house in what’s called “The New City”. It’s kind of in the country so it’s really peaceful here. We feel like we are actually getting sleep for the first time since we’ve been here. (Ecclesiastes 4:6) I will post the photos of our new home as soon as I get them uploaded. It is a big house, but we are paying the same rent so that’s pretty good I guess. Also, we are going to have the privilege of having the C.O. and his wife stay with us when they come December 25th!! We’re very excited about that. I’m also really nervous about it because I still don’t cook Ecuadorian food so I hope they like what I come up with for them.

Third of all, Nathan’s laptop got stolen!!! We had a work day at the Kingdom Hall last Monday and the brothers asked us to go to Ambato to buy paint. We took off and when we got there we parked on the side of one of the main roads. We put Nathan’s computer in a case that doesn’t look like a computer case then we put it in the back seat under both of our jackets. We locked the truck and set the alarm. Less than five minutes we came back because the paint store was closed. The lock on my door had been jimmied and the laptop stolen! When we bought the truck we were assured it had an alarm. Little did we know the alarm didn’t work! We filed a police report, but they aren’t going to do anything. So, Nathan had to buy a new computer and we had a new alarm system installed in to the truck. Such is life here.

Enough of that stuff. On to the good stuff: Marco and his two children are still attending almost all the meetings. The oldest child, Diana (she’s 9), comes even if Marco doesn’t. You know how they say that your bible students are your spiritual children? How was I to know that mine would be literal children? I have started studying with the two kids. We study the Bible Story book. I also want to start including a lesson from the Great Teacher book. And since Diana loves to comment at the meetings I’m going to start studying the Watchtower with her so she can come up with her own answers. She’s so cute. She hears everyone at the meetings calling each other “sister” so now she calls me that! It’s too sweet.

I have another study named Mariana. She is the one who was having problems with her daughter. Anyway. When we first started studying I invited her to the meetings and she said that she couldn’t come because she has to work all the time. (She owns her own little store thing in the market.) Well, we’ve been studying for about two months now and I’ve been really trying to show personal interest in her and help her with her problems with her daughter. And every study I invite her to the meetings. To my great excitement and surprise she walked in to the Hall a week ago Saturday just in time for Nathan to announce the concluding song!!! She came and stood by me and SANG the song with me and afterwards I introduced her to everyone in the Hall. That next Wednesday I had her study and she said that she went to talk to her daughter on Sunday and asked her why she wasn’t at the meeting! She told her that even if she can only go for ten minutes it’s worth it, because “that’s where peace is and everyone there is so loving!” She told me that she would come again to the meeting Saturday. I was very disappointed when she didn’t show up. But then, on Sunday morning she walked in to the book study!!! She told me that she had to come Sunday since she couldn’t make it Saturday. Needless to say, I’m extremely excited about her!

Love you all SO much,

Jennifer

P.S. - Ecuador doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time so we are now an hour LATER than you guys.

P.S.S. - We also experienced our first earthquake last Thursday night! It was felt throughout the whole country. It was pretty minor here. We could tell what was happening, but nothing fell or got broken at our house.

Hey everyone! I know, I know. It’s been a while. Sorry I haven’t written much. Ok, so let’s see what I can think of here. As far as my house goes, I’m still working on making it all comfy and warm. I think I’ve done about as much as I can with the walls being painted. Once they get painted, though, I can really decorate. I will post pictures as soon as they get some paint in my house! I really do like it, though. It may have it’s problems, but I truly think that it’s a blessing from Jehovah. Maybe I can take a little video for you guys to watch, while we’re waiting for the ‘finished product’. Oh no, I’ve got to run. I will write some of my experiences on here, I promise. I’ll try to do it really soon, but I have to go to the meeting now. Love all of you out there!

I would like to tell you all a story, so sit back, relax, and enjoy!

I started a study with a woman named Mariana. She is in her fifties and has three grown children. Her son who is in his middle thirties is divorced and lives with her as does her youngest daughter who is 21. When Nathan and I went to her house for her third study she started bawling. I asked her what was wrong and she told us that her daughter was missing and had been missing for five days! All she knew was that Liliana (her daughter) was at school and her and another girl got drunk. The principal told them to go home. They left the school, but she didn’t go home. She left her backpack and cell phone at school. (Why is a 21 year old still in High School you may ask? All the schools here require that you wear uniforms which the parents have to pay for. You are also required to buy your own books. Apparently, if the parents don’t have money to buy a uniform or the books one year, they keep their child home. Then, when they have the money, they send the child back to school.) Mariana was very upset about her daughter missing so we read a lot of comforting scriptures to her (several chapters from Psalms) and Nathan said a prayer. We also returned the following day to check on her. She still had not heard anything from her daughter. This was on a Friday and the daughter had been missing for an entire week. The following Wednesday I saw Mariana on the street. She told me that she had found Mariana and we would talk about it that night at our study. Come to find out Liliana was just afraid of getting in trouble by her older brother for getting drunk and didn’t want to come home! She had been living with her boyfriend the entire time!!! Well, Liliana had been studying with Stephanie (the German sister) and they were already more than half-way through the Bible Teach book. So, Stephanie went to visit Liliana and told her that she would not study with her anymore if she did not start attending the meetings. Stephanie said she needed to show some progress in the truth and show that she really wanted it. LILIANA WAS AT THE KINGDOM HALL FOR THE VERY NEXT MEETING!!! Cool, huh?

One more experience of Stephanie’s: She studies with a woman in her early thirties (Sandra) and the woman’s mother. Sandra had a lump on her throat that started growing so she went to the doctor and they admitted her in to the hospital. She went through all kinds of tests and after about a week in the hospital they determined it was not cancerous and she was released. After this ordeal Sandra told Stephanie that she wanted to come to all the meetings and come in to the truth! We had visited her parents while Sandra was in the hospital to see how she was doing and this impressed them so much that they too have come to every single meeting! The father has also started studying and all three of them comment at every meeting!!!

Now this story is just plain funny: Last Thursday Elke and I went to check on one of her bible studies in a pharmacy. The student wasn’t there, but a woman and her two daughters were so we visited with them. The mother was extremely excited to find out that I speak English and she started talking to me in English. She said that they have been learning but don’t have anyone to practice with and they wanted to see if their pronunciation is good or not. She was trying to get her daughter (who is probably about 14) to ask me questions, but the daughter couldn’t think of anything to say. So, all of a sudden, the mom yells out, “You can sing in English! Sing for her!!” I asked her what song she knew and she said “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion in the Titanic! So, the girl starts singing right there in the pharmacy and sings the entire song!!! I wanted to crack up laughing so badly, but controled myself. It was too cute. An Ecuadorian girl singing the Titanic song in the middle of a pharmacy! When we left Elke said, “This is why I love service here so much. You never know what’s going to happen. I would have never known yesterday that today someone was going to sing to us!”

Love you all very much,
Jennifer

Today is our two month anniversary here in Pillaro!

I wanted to let you all know that Marco attended the meeting this past Saturday and COMMENTED at the Watchtower Study!!! Nathan and I couldn’t stop smiling!

Yesterday we had the first study with a man Nathan found in the ministry. He originally acted like he did not want Nathan to come back, but Nathan overcame his objections and the man agreed to a return visit. He doesn’t know what to believe in regards to religion or religious publications so Nathan told him we would only use the Bible. When we went to him yesterday he said he wanted to know the right way he should be living to please God. Nathan told him we needed to use a book as an outline for our conversation, but we would only read scriptures to him. So, with the help of the Reasoning book we shared scriptures with him that first showed that not all religions are pleasing to God and second that you do have to belong to an organized religion. We told him that next time we would identify the one true religion. He was very excited! He even got out a pen and paper and wrote down every scripture we read and took notes!!!

We were also able to do the second study with a young girl. She is 13 and extremely smart! She answered every question correctly and in her own words! For example, in the first chapter of the Bible Teach book in the paragraph that gives an illustration of how we know Jehovah doesn’t cause suffering, but allows it: A father allows his adult child to move out of the house and the child goes down a bad path in his life and has problems. The question asks what example shows us the difference between allowing something to happen and causing it to happen. She answered by saying that “Jehovah is like our father and we are his children and he allows us to make our own decisions. When we make bad decisions, it’s not Jehovah’s fault, it’s our own.” Isn’t that awesome??? Nathan was so excited by her answers that he actually yelled, “You’re so smart! I’m so excited!!”

That’s about it for now. Love you all!!!

We have our washer/dryer on the roof of our apartment and we also have a neighbor who lives up there. It is a man (Marco) and his two small children. Well, one day Nathan decided to offer him a study. He accepted. Nathan gave him the Bible Teach book and the Great Teacher book. A little less than a week later, (this past Sunday) Nathan went up to get the clothes and it looked like Marco was praying. Nathan looked closer and he wasn’t praying, he was reading the Great Teacher book! Marco saw Nathan and stood up and walked over to him with the book in one hand and the other hand over his heart. Nathan asked him if he liked the book and he said he liked it SO MUCH!! And he told Nathan that he had already read the entire Bible Teach book and it has “impacted his life a great deal”!!! With joy in his heart and tears in his eyes, Nathan told Marco he would come back that same day to start studying the Bible Teach book with him. After that first study on Sunday, Marco said, “What do I have to do to preach this?” Nathan said, “Nothing! Slap on a tie and let’s go!!” Just Kidding. Nathan explained that there were certain requirements and Marco said, “I have to gain more knowledge, don’t I?” Nathan said yes and told him they would start studying two times a week and also told him about the meetings. We had the second study on Wednesday and he told us that he was enlisted in the Military and that he attends some kind of military training class two times a year. He wanted to know if he should still do that now that he’s studying the Bible. We showed him several scriptures that explain God’s view of war and supporting any government other than God’s Kindgdom. When we finished, he said he wasn’t going to go if the Military calls him and he shouldn’t go to the training classes either! Awesome, huh? He also came to the meeting with us on Thursday! Nathan had a sheperding call after the meeting, so Marco and I walked home together. I asked him if he enjoyed the meeting and he said, “So much!!!” (”Bastante!!!”) He is a school teacher so he very much enjoyed the Ministry School and said he wanted to learn how to give talks about the Bible! Also, Elke told him she hoped this wasn’t the last time we see him at the meeting and he said it definitely wouldn’t be! So, needless to say, we’re very excited about this study.

Jehovah is definitely blessing our decision to move here. Here is our schedule as of right now:

Monday - free day (prepare for bible studies, go grocery shopping, etc.) and family study in the evening.

Tuesday - door-to-door from 8:30 to 10:00, study at 10:00, another study right after that, come home for lunch, and five studies in the afternoon/evening. We usually get home between 7 and 8 pm.

Wednesday - door-to-door from 8:30 to noon, lunch, study at 3:00, then I go with Letty on her studies from 4:10-7:00pm, come home and Nathan and I have a study at 7:00.

Thursday - study at 9:00 am, come home study for the meeting, then I go with Elke on her studies from 2:30 til the meeting at 6:00 pm.

Friday - door-to-door from 8:30-noon, study at 4:00 pm.

Saturday - door-to-door from 8:30-noon, lunch, study for meeting, Public Talk/Watchtower Study at 4:00pm, then we have a family from the cong. over for dinner after the meeting.

Sunday - study for Bookstudy, Bookstudy at 11:00 am, Nathan has a study at our house after the bookstudy, another study at 3:00, another one at 4:00, and another one at 5:00. The 5:00 study is also at our house and the guy stays after the study for dinner. (I don’t sit in on three of Nathan’s studies on Sundays, because they have all either studied before, been publishers and been removed, or are publishers right now and Nathan wants them to be able to confide in him if they want to. Which they do, because one has already told Nathan that his problem is that he is physically and verbally abusive to his sisters that lived with him until they just recently left him by moving out. Anyway, he probably wouldn’t have told Nathan that if I had been there.) So, right now we have about 15 studies going between the two of us! Not bad for a month and a half, huh? But just like all of you with your studies, we pray every day that they will continue.

Continue to keep us in your prayers as you all are in ours!!!

We love you very much,
Jennifer (and Nathan)