Aida, Jenny and I are very happy to say that we were all able enter Bolivia without any major issues. We did have a rude woman to deal with at the American Airlines in the US. Once we stopped dealing with her everything went well. She thought that she knew it all and was on a serious power trip. But the next customer service agent was very nice and reassuring. However, since the first lady had sown some doubts as to our being able to enter the country using our Specific Purporse Visa we were a bit nervous. We found out very quickly after we arrived at the Santa Cruz Airport (Viru Viru) that everything was in order like we thought and passed into the country with flying colors. What a relief!
When we arrived at Bethel we were received with open arms! Our world wide brotherhood is really wonderful! The friends made sure that we had everything that we needed. Sonia Manani was our host during our stay and Vanessa Ugalde gave us the tour.
I had a lot of fun playing volley ball with the brothers on Friday night! They said that we shouldn't go to Sucre. (I wonder why??)
This was the service group that we supported on Saturday. Gwendeline (the girl beside Jenny) is who brought us to the group. She is Mexican/American/Canadian I believe. I went with her to a couple of her studys after working in the territory. The one study had baby ducks and baby parrot. Since the family didnt have a cage for the bird I opted to help clip its wings. I have never known a sweeter bird. It didn't bite once and was very affectionate. One day I hope to have it together like Gwendeline. She has been very blessed.
These are some of the friends from the Portuguese group. No one in the picture is Brazilian. Haha! There are a lot of Bolivians learning Portuguese and few Brazilians in the group. There are 40 publishers and there was 80 in attendance!! They should soon be a congregation. When I told them that I was leaving for Sucre in a couple of days they loaded me up with literature to take with me. They gave me instructions to help form a group in Sucre since as of yet there is none. Let's see what happens...
These are some of Bolivia's typical musical instruments that were being sold at the town plaza.
So we have now arrived to Monday. We have done so much in so little time. After having the privilege of being at morning worship and saying hasta luego to our big spiritual family at bethel we leave to stay with the Rojas family on the other side of Santa Cruz. Directly after luch their youngest daughter Fabiana says, "Do you girls want to go preaching at 4:00?" We are thinking that she meant for just a couple of hours so we say, "Sure! We are tired but sure." Then we ask when we will be returning..... We preached til 9:30 at night!! It was definitely not something that any one of us expected. The people were very nice and Jenny even was given a donation. The lighting was a problem at some of the doors but majority of the people didn't seem to notice it being a late hour. The biggest problem we had was the lack of literature. haha! We didn't bring enough. Well, you now know why we are sooo tired looking in the picture above.
We are enjoying ourselves at the Roja's home and they are feeding us well but we are leaving at 7:30 am tomorrow for Sucre. Hopefully we will have good internet connection at the next family's house so that I can upload more pictures. There is soo much to do and so little time. We are seeing the Jehovah's hand in everything. He is taking good care of us! Much love! Hasta luego!
