The blog is back and so am I!!!

I had a nice trip back, and while I really enjoyed my time at home, I´m also glad to be back among my new amigos once again. Can you believe I made it through an 18 hour bus ride without getting car sick or going out of my mind?? I´m feeling more and more like a Mexican every day! They hardly ever travel by airplane because they can´t afford it, so they are much more accustomed to long bus rides. By flying into Cancún and then riding the bus to San Cristobal, I paid only half of what a plane ticket to Tuxtla Gutierrez would have cost--and saved about a month´s worth of expenses!

I would like to take a minute to commend a few people. First, the "Donation Calibration" team -- Emilie Shannon, Natalie Arnold, Sydney Mann, Elizabeth Fuller, Gabi Simmons, Amelia Smith, Jessica Beckham, and Julie Beth Fluellan--for all their letters! It was such an encouragement to me to read all of them, and I know these girls are all going to continue doing great things for the Lord as they get older! Also to Sissy Pickler for all her help getting me more teaching materials to take down, to the ladies´class at MJ for the money they gave for me to buy teaching supplies, to Rosemary Fox for buying school supplies, and to Darlene Moore for letting me take so many of her own books and crafts. I don´t know if I ever mentioned it in previous blogs, but there are no supplies for the kids´class at church. So whoever teaches has to put a lot more time into preparing lessons, and the kids quickly grow restless because of the lack of teaching aides. So I am very grateful for all the extra supplies I was able to bring and know the ladies and kids here will be too. (One of my suitcases weighed 90 pounds this time because of all the books, but it was worth it!)

I especially enjoyed being home for Christmas since the Christians here don´t celebrate it. Because there are so many Christmas customs here related to the Catholic religion, the Christians think that by celebrating it they are being hypocrites, and not setting themselves apart from other religions. I understand why they don´t celebrate it, but I wish they would do a better job trying to understand why I DO celebrate it!

I´m going to do my best to remember everything that happened before I went on vacation that I never got around to writing about. First, on the Saturday before I came home, we had a get together with all of the young people at a local park. We had a devotional together, played several games, and ate hot dogs. They all thought I was absolutely loca for putting a hot dog on a stick and roasting it over the fire, but I equally thought they were absolutely loco for wanting to eat the hot dogs raw! Our girls´class had been participating in secret sisters, so I also used the opportunity for us to give each other the final gifts. They had never participated in secret sisters, and most of them really enjoyed it. We had the best turnout of chicos and chicas that we have had since I´ve been here.

Since I´ve been back, however, the teenager turnout has not been so good; José Luis and I have only had about half as many in our classes. But we are trying really hard not to get discouraged. We also plan to do a better job visiting some of the jovenes who have not been coming regularly. On Saturday we went to Tuxtla, where José Luis met with men from other congregations to start planning get togethers with teenagers from all the nearby congregations about every four months--similar to what a day-long youth rally there would be like. So we are both really excited about that and hope the teenagers will be, too!

Before I left for vacation, some of the girls were starting to talk a lot more and pass notes during the classes and worship services. I feel like I got what I reaped in dealing with that problem, because I did the same things when I was their age! I also feel partly responsible since I kept encouraging them to sit together when we first started having our class! But since they were becoming such a distraction to the other members, I taught a special class about the importance of showing respect and not talk¡ng during those times. Since we have still been studying about the tongue, it fit right in with our other lessons! Who knows if what I said had any impact or not, but since then they have also started sitting with their parents again rather than sitting together. Then this past Sunday, we talked about the importance of making spiritual resolutions and growing spiritually. I gave them the first week and a half´s worth of verses from the daily Bible so that we can all try to read through the Bible together every day, just like everyone at MJ is doing. I have a feeling most of them have never even considered studying the Bible on their own, so it may take a lot to motivate them to start. (But I hope not!)

The congregation has also been busy making plans for the new year. Several of them met last week (before I got back) to discuss the budget and the works they want to be involved in this year. One of the works that seems to be going really well is their prison ministry. About a month ago, our two prison ministers actually had the unique opportunity to perform the wedding ceremony for two of the convicts that have been coming to their weekly worship services. Since the men and women´s cells are in completely different parts of the prison, the newlyweds normally only see each other for a few hours each sabado. Yes, they did meet at the prison!

At the ladies´class last Sunday, someone asked me if it´s hard to deal with the constant tardiness. (If you didn´t already know, Latinos are known for rarely checking the time and arriving at everything at least 10-15 minutes later than they say they´re going to. Sometimes they seem to have the mentality that minutes really don´t matter, just the hours. For example, if you ask someone what time it is, they might say, ¨12 o´clock,¨even though it´s actually 12:25. Even weddings and funerals typically start 30-40 minutes after the time designated.) I feel like I didn´t answer the question very well on Sunday, so I´m going to try to answer it better now. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating, but for the most part I´ve gotten used to it. I´ve learned to always carry a book or something with me in case I end up waiting somewhere a long time. I´ve also learned not to expect people when they say they´re going to arrive. The tardiness bothers me the most at the start of my classes (especially if half of the students show up right on time and the other half shows up 10-15 minutes later). I really tried to stress to my students that they needed to be on time for every class, and for the most part they did a good job of that. David (our preacher) also tells the members to arrive on time for every worship service, and asks the men to come 10 minutes early if they want to participate. Unlike many other preachers in Latin America, he starts every worship service right on time, regardless of who´s there and who´s not.

Random Thoughts:
--Jose Luis´5-year-old nephew frequently asks me how to say certain words in English. Yesterday he started asking me about some new words, and José Luis asked him,¨Como se dice pollo en inglés?¨(¨How do you say chicken in English?¨) Fabian said, ¨Kentucky!¨

--My English class that meets during the week finished up right before I left, but I hope to soon start publicizing again for a new class.

--I mentioned a while back that I was going to add the Global Missions info. to my blog page, and I finally did; it´s in the top right hand corner.

--Andrew was right, your comments are a joy to read and such an encouragement.

So I wasn´t able to put any new pictures or Spanish vocabulary on here this time since I´m getting ready to leave for another trip, but hopefully I can get back into doing that the next time. Adios!!