Bienvenidos a San Juan del Sur

Hey everyone,

Last week, Simon and I paid a visit to one of the most beautiful places in Nicaragua: San Juan del Sur!

You can probably already guess from the pictures that San Juan is a major tourist attraction, mainly because of the nice beach scene. I'd say that it is more touristy than Granada. San Juan is actually a really small town compared to other cities in Nica; its population is only 18,000. It is the only place in the country where the foreigners seem to outnumber the locals! 

Life in San Juan seems to be more relaxed. It's definitely because of the surfer mentality, which I'm afraid seems to be rubbing off on Simon...

One thing we were happy about was the fact that there was a breeze! There were some windy days! "Wind" and "breeze" are two words you never hear in Chinandega. Another major difference is that there is only one congregation in San Juan, compared to the 27 in Chinandega.

Besides being there for a mini vacation, we were also there to check out the recently-formed English group. It has been up and running for a couple of months now. They currently have one elder, Zac Higgs (who moved here with his wife and three daughters from the States), and a few servants. Zac and his family are currently back in the States for a few months, so one brother Pete (here with his wife Hayley from Australia) and another servant have been taking care of things in the meantime. Because it is just a group, they currently conduct the Congregation Bible Study in English in the second school, and then join the Spanish congregation for the remainder of the Thursday night meeting. On Saturdays, they have their own meeting for the Public Talk and Watchtower Study. Most of the group also supports the Spanish meeting on Sunday, which is great because the combination allows everyone to improve their Spanish as well.

Squishing into the second school for the Jeremiah study!

The English Circuit Overseer, Todd Schleper, advised our friends Andy and Paije (originally from Australia, and yes, her name is pronounced like "Paige") to relocate from Chinandega to San Juan del Sur because it currently has the biggest need out of all the English territory in Nicaragua. They're a great couple, and were kind enough to let us stay in their house - which is air-conditioned! - for the week. The group has a big need for public speakers at the moment, so I gave the public talk the first Saturday we were there, and Simon gave it the next week.

There are quite a few studies attending the meetings, including some foreigners!

We also took advantage of opportunities to go witnessing with the English group. It was exciting to be there during the formation of everything! Right now, they're in the process of censusing everywhere and making maps for the territory. A couple of days, we piled into Pete's car and went to a nearby town called Rivas to search for English-speaking people, with awesome results - they've found about 40 people who speak English in that town alone, and many are very interested in learning about the Bible. I had one guy approach me in a restaurant and asked what we were all doing in Rivas. I told him we were Witnesses, and gave him a Truth tract. He was very interested, and gave me his address & phone number to pass onto the group so that someone can call on him!

Pete, the brother in the middle, fearlessly leading us through Rivas. (The brother on the right is Andy, and the sister is his wife, Paije.)

One day, we went with the Spanish congregation to preach out in the rural territory, which made me feel right at home in Ojo de Agua again. It made me realize how much I'm really loving being in Spanish! 

The rural territory has some beautiful views!

And of course, we had to spend a couple of days at some of San Juan's awesome beaches. 

San Juan is also home to some of the best sunsets in Nicaragua! (I took the background photo for this blog the last time I was in San Juan del Sur, about a year ago.)

Simon

Me

Although I'm pretty content in Chinandega, San Juan del Sur is a great place to be. There's a nice variety of people - families (one with a two-year-old baby from the States!), couples, and a lot of young single people. However, as said before, the group needs a lot of help. Many of the people who are there right now are not there longterm. So if you'd like to help out in the English field, San Juan is the place that needs the most help. Plus, a nice little town on the beach? Can't beat that!

Hope you all are well. I heard that it reached -10 degrees in Maine the other day - for those of you who use Celsius, that is equivalent to -23.3 degrees-Celsius! You may say that I have it good here, but trust me, I don't spend all my days at the beach. I'm on the other end of the spectrum, and it's not much better - currently 93 degrees, and this is the cold time of year! Oh well. Stay...warm? Cold? Whatever suits you.

Take care,

Sam