It's Friday, Friday...

Hi there!

We've certainly been busy these past few weeks. One thing I've noticed is that Friday has become a very busy day for us. It's always a productive morning of preaching followed by an afternoon filled with many Bible studies. This morning, I did some early preaching near On the Run, which went very well. I went inside to get a drink, and a man who works there approached me. I've talked to him a few times before (he knows we're Witnesses), and he speaks broken English. He saw that I had my service bag, and asked me, "Tienes algo de leer para mi? Do you have something to read for me?" I said yes and gave him one of the latest magazines. He replied, "Thank you, Sammy. Have a good day!" Not a bad way to start the day!

The Friday group in Ojo, all ready to start preaching!

Roberto is gonna KILL me for posting this, but I couldn't resist. Look how happy he is! I don't think I've said much about him, but he's been here for about over a year. His parents are both Mexican, but he was raised in the States. Spanish is his first language, but he speaks English fluently as well. He's a big part of the congregation, and has been very helpful to us. He is also, more importantly, hilarious.

This morning, we worked a road that goes all the way to the edge of our territory, one that hasn't been worked in months. It involved a lot of walking, which was difficult considering it's been hotter and dustier lately. But it was well worth the effort. While we didn't have any mind-blowing, study-starting conversations, we just had a lot of fun. Simon, Roberto, & I went together since we were the only brothers out. Roberto was leading us down a road next to a sugarcane field when he suddenly told us that we had to cut through the sugarcane field to get to the house we were going to. I didn't really have time to protest, so I had no choice but to follow.

This was just the light at the end of the tunnel. What happened next? No one was home. Yeah, that was a bummer. However, we turned around and saw a nice big tree, that was begging for us to climb it!

Being very productive, as usual.

Single brothers stick together!

Each Friday morning always ends with "posicles" (popsicles) at Jasmina's house.

Bible studies in the afternoon always prove to be interesting. Last week, I went to see if José & Fatima were home with Stephan. I usually study with them on Wednesdays, but they weren't home that day. So on Friday, I tried again, only to find another guy come to the door and tell me that they don't live there anymore! I was pretty disappointed. They were a great study. However, they moved out to Rancherias. I know a brother who lives out there, and was able to arrange for him to continue their study. The man gave me their new address to pass on. I ended up bumping into them downtown the next day, where they apologized profusely, but were happy to hear that their study would continue. Yet, I think Jehovah could tell I was still sad about losing the two studies. So what happened next? That same afternoon, I picked up two more, of course! One is a kid named Junior, and another is a man who I have called on before. I went back on both of them today, and it went very well. Only on a Friday!

Yorleni & Maddie cycling off to a study.

Maddie & Stephan returning from a study. 

I had an interesting experience with Jorge (one of my English studies) last week. We went to have the study with him, only to find that he was too sick to study that day. Before we left, however, he told us that they had been gathering watermelons from their farm on the edge of town. He showed us some of their collection inside - they've gathered over 600 watermelons so far!

That's just a small part of it! They've been selling them pretty quickly, but Jorge wouldn't let us leave without giving us one, which was sweet. But then, his adorable five-year-old son came over and insisted that we take the biggest one they had. How do you say no to that?!

Today, we returned to find that Jorge is feeling much better. We had our study, and it went well as usual. He does better with each passing week. A couple of weeks ago, I started using the Who Are Doing Jehovah's Will Today? brochure with him. As soon as I showed it to him, he took it from me and was closely examining all the questions - Why are we called Jehovah's Witnesses? What will you experience at our Christian meetings? What are our meetings like? He said, "These are great questions!! I've always wondered about them!" We've done a section at the end of each study, and he always enjoys it. Hopefully it will motivate him to come to one of the meetings! 

We end each Friday with Jorge. That's his wife, Sandra, in the middle, and his son, Jorgito, to the right. Sometimes we are there until 7 PM, but it's always worth it. Sandra will even brew us some really good coffee and serve us tasty pica bread once in a while. :) They're doing so well. Ever since I gave them their own copy of the Bible, they've still been reading it together every night at dinner time. I'm so proud of them. It's truly a pleasure to study with him, and it's always a great way to end our long day of preaching!

Hope everyone is doing well. 

Take care,

Sam