Memorial 2012

Memorial 2012

Memorial Attendance:
Padilla 52
Serrano 95
Sur, Sucre 392
Grand Total (for my congregation of 131 publishers) 539!

The Memorial is always something that I have looked forward to every year.  So much emphasis and excitement for the ministry.  For many it is there first time to the meeting.  That was the case for many here in Bolivia.

I went to Padilla for the Memorial.  I had mixed emotions about going to Padilla for the Memorial since all my studies are in Sucre.  Although, at first, I was very torn about leaving behind my studies in Sucre to fend for themselves, I am very happy that I went to Padilla instead of staying behind.  I know of at least one of my studies did in fact attend and I am waiting to ask another one of my studies that I was hopeful about if she and her daughter went.  Segundina was very distressed over not being able to make it due to it being a rainy disastrous day.  (By the way, Segundina and I study at her house now in the kitchen verses the street corner.)

Thursday morning began at 8:00 a. m. cleaning the small Kingdom Hall.  Due to dirt roads, open widows and no A/C the whole place quickly gets dusty.  Then there is the cleaning of the shared, kingdom hall bathroom.  Well....it wasn't pretty but I was pleased when I was finished with the disinfectant.

By 10:00 we were finished with the kingdom hall cleaning and at 10:30 we commenced giving out the last of the invitations to the residence in Padilla.  Debbie and the two young publishers had done the brunt of the invitation work and had left only not-at-homes to do.  With Jehovah's help our small group was able to complete the whole territory of Padilla with less then an hour to spare til the Memorial began.  We had even arranged for a radio advertisement to be given.

There was no time to waste the whole day.  Happily, bible students started arriving a half an hour til the start of the program.  Then at ten to seven arrived a small bus of 25 studies and interested people from then next town over in Tomina!  Oh!  How wonderful it was to see so many interested ones coming into the kingdom hall for their first time!  In a previous blog I wrote about Tomina and how it has so much interest and how infrequently it gets visited.  The one and only time I was there I enjoyed very much.  One of the people I talked to in the door-to-door work was a young mother.  We talked about 2012, "The end of the world", and I showed her what the bible says on the matter.  I arranged to have someone go back the next time that they go to Tomina.  Well, the next time that they went back was to invite interested ones to go to the memorial in Padilla.  How exciting it was to see that she was in attendance along with her little baby!

Here are some pictures of the scenery that I took while on the trip.

I don't know why but for some reason on "Passover Sunday" the town of Serrano does bull fighting.  So, after, before and/or during the Sunday mass the people where in town square celebrating while watching the bull fighting.

    

Then on returning to Padilla we found that they do horse races in the town square on "Passover Sunday".  Which, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the Passover or Christ.  It is a tradition that promotes over-drinking and loose conduct which the bible condemns.  I don't know how some of them were able to stay on their horse (or mule for some) since they were sooo drunk.

Looking forward to what Jehovah has in store for me this next month.  There always seems to be an adventure.  :)  

Apt for Rent!

Hey everyone!

A couple in my congregation want to rent out their apt!
The BEST Apartment in Sucre!

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to let you know.

Keep it in mind when you are thinking about heading off to a need greater assignment.  :)

(The View)    

This place is GORGEOUS! 
Situated in downtown Sucre.  

Short walk to the main plaza, the supermarket, and the Kingdom Hall.  

Unique view of the city.

Plenty big enough to share with another couple.  

2 bedroom, 2 bath fully furnished and Wifi connected.

Master suite and guest room with Queen-size beds.

Large living-dining room and kitchen.  Plus laundry room with washer.  

Not to forget furnished terrace on roof complete with grill and lounge.

Water, electric, Wifi service..etc all included.

$500.00/monthly

Availability June 12-August 12

(Living Room)

(Living-Dining Room View)

(Master Suite)

(Guest Bedroom)


I hope that you liked the tour!
E-mail Katya Doucet for more info and pictures.  
kreilkoff@hotmail.com 


Take care!

~The New Apartment~

(Living Room)

Jehovah really is GOOD!

This apartment spoils us girls.  It makes us feel safe, comfortable and happy.

(Dinning Room)


This table you will remember from my other apt.  Not all the furniture is mine like the living room set.  Some stuff came with the apt.

(Kitchen)

(Bathroom)

(Girls Bedroom)

(My bedroom)


It has a great built in closet!
Well, if any of you are wanting to come for a visit, I have room.  While I am back in the States (June 11th-Sept 6th)  I am looking for someone to rent the apt.  $300/monthly plus utilities. 
Let me know if you are interested.  :)

Isolated Territories!

Tomina, Padilla and Serrano

Wow!  What a three-day weekend!


A brother in my hall was assigned to give the talk in Serrano and Padilla so I asked to go with him, his wife and sister to help out.  The four of us headed out by bus to three of the isolated territories that our congregation is assigned.  Serrano is an established group, Padilla has a little place in town for the Sunday meetings and Tomina is still a working progress.  

First stop, Tomina.  

Tomina has at least 5,000 residents.  The four of us didn't even make a dent in the territory during the time we were there.  The couple that I came with, Jimmy and Keylet Tamay, have been coming to Tomina once a month for the past year and a half.  However, this was the first time that they had been back to Tomina in 5 months.  So they were anxious to see their studies again.  As soon as we arrive we head off to the first study to ask where they serve the best food for lunch since we were all famished.  She was so happy to find out that Jimmy and Keylet hadn't moved back to the states and to never return.  Unfortunately, the restaurant that she recommended was out of lunch so we had to search town a bit to find lunch.  On successfully finding lunch we were ready to start preaching.  I found that the little town was very receptive to the the good news.  Of course, the majority had never been preached to before and were eager to learn.  I only saw two churches in town.  Both churches did a very poor job at teaching their members.  I'd say about 80% didn't have a bible and 50% couldn't read.  However, the majority spoke Spanish which was a relief to me.  It is really hard preaching to some of the isolated towns since many speak only Quechua and can't read.  

Their was one very hospitable woman that is worth relating.  One of Keylet's studies is named Exhaltacion who has a husband and three kids.  As soon as she saw Keylet she about fell over.  She wanted to make sure that everything was ok since they hadn't been back in so long.  Then insisted that we ate at her house for dinner.   So the four of us went back to her house at dinner and stayed til 8:00 witnessing.  Then Keylet and I were just done and went back to the hostel.  But Jimmy and his sister had arranged a study for 8:00 and so they didn't get back to the hostel til 10:00.  Talk about a long, productive day!

The whole time that we were preaching passersby would stop us to ask what we were doing and some asked us to visit them next time.  I wish that we could work this territory more.  Keylet and Jimmy are the only ones that preach to this town.

Next stop, Serrano.  


Serrano has about 7,500 residents.  We arrived at lunch on Saturday.  I just wanted to nap all afternoon after walking the streets all morning in Tomina and the bus ride to Serrano but somehow I recovered some energy to go on some return visits with Debbie McKay, a sister that is from the United States that is living in Padilla.  She comes to Serrano every Friday and Saturday to attend the meetings and attend to her bible students.  
The above picture shows the packed meeting.  There were a lot of students there for the first time.  We had 36 in attendance!  Some that were attending for their first time gave comments and read scriptures.  It was cute, too, that some of the regular attenders were proud of the attendance as well.  There was only three baptized brothers in attendance so I had to do microphones.  Then since there were people still coming in during the Watchtower study I lost my seat.  There wasn't a empty seat in the house and some of the kids were sitting on parent's laps.  There is major need and good response in this group's territory!  

Last stop, Padilla.


Padilla has about 7,500 residents as well.  It has even more need then Serrano since there is only one baptized sister, Debbie, and two newly unbaptized publishers in this town.  
In order to get to Padilla from Serrano we had to take a "Micro" at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday.  A mirco is a dirty, old, mini school bus (the short bus).  It only is an hour drive in this dirty, cramped, smelly, and did I mention it was dirty, cramped and smelly.  haha!  It actually wasn't that bad of a ride.  No horror to stories to recount this time.  Debbie has some good stories since she takes this ride every week.  You can put up with anything knowing that it is only an hour.

Chicken anyone?

Or maybe a turkey?

The whole Serrano group of brothers and sisters came to help us in Padilla.   

After going door-to-door all morning we were beat.  So it was nice of Debbie to let us crash at her house during "siesta".  Siesta is the time period between noon and 2:00.  Everyone goes home for lunch and then takes a nap before returning to work or school.  I'm really getting to like this custom.  

At 3:30 starts the Padilla meeting.  Jimmy gave the talk here as well then, due to their only being two brothers, he read the Watchtower.  Guess who had micro duty??

Debbie with one of her students that attended the meeting.

This the is family of the two new publishers, Aime and Rodrigo.  The older girl, Aime, has been studying for less than two years and has the goal to get baptized.  I worked with her in the ministry during the morning.  I was impressed with how put together that she was.  She talked to the people at the door like she had been doing it all her life.  Her little brother, Rodrigo, is very mature for his age.  After the other brothers left to do studies at mid-morning, he took the lead of the group and took note of all the not-at-homes.  Very impressive!

Don't you want to be part of this group? ? ?
Apartments are cheap.  Roughly $100/monthly.  Or you have the option of renting a room for literally next to nothing.  Then, there is the option of staying at the hotel for $4-$5 a night.  Debbie isn't going to be able to stay in Padilla for a whole lot more time so who is going to keep an eye on the new publishers after she leaves? Why not try it out for a month or two?

Little this, little that...

Service Days...

This is one of my students, Segundina.  She is so sweet.  She really wants to know the truth and remembers really well.  Her son moved to Colorado after getting a scholarship to the Denver's University.  Segundina's first language is Quechua.  However, she speaks and understands Spanish very well.  She studies with me on the sidewalk step in front of  her shop.  She has some opposition from the lady that she shares her shop with and from her husband.  But she is determined to know the truth.  The lady she works with is nicer now but she still has opposition from her husband.  Even so, she is very bold and tells me that the things she learns from the bible she tells her husband even thou he doesn't want to hear.

So, as you can see, Segundina, has a little meat stand.  Yummy...
When she has a customer she hands me her book, chops up a piece and weighs it, and then returns to studying.  I offered her hand sanitizer and she took it the first time but after that she wouldn't use it.  She thought that putting it on her hands was more of a treat then a necessity.  That's a problem since now there is no way I can keep from getting all her raw meat and chicken germs all over my book.  Oh well....it's Bolivia.

Country Cooking...

Looks good, huh?
Yeah...we actually had no hand in making the...whatever it was that they were making.  It was just fun getting pictures of how normal life is for some.  But you can see one of the reasons why you need to think twice about getting food from the street.  It might be made at a place like this and then let sit out for hours in the sun to let who knows have access to it.

The old couple in the middle are the ones that were so nice as to give us a tour of their home and garden.  In their garden they have a natural spring that used to be used by the whole town to draw water and wash clothes.  But now there is running water available to most of the homes and thankfully more modern technology that they only use the spring to help water their garden.  It's hard to imagine everyone in town washing their clothes at the spring since it is only a 4x4 ft hole but I guess you do what you gotta do.

Rock Climbing...

I haven't gone recently but these are some pictures that I wanted to put up a while ago and never got to.

Sorry, no pictures of me climbing... I'm saving myself the embarrassment of everyone seeing my backside in a harness.  lol  Believe me, I climbed too!  Can't wait to go back.  :)

I'm leaving tomorrow for Serrano, Tomina and Padilla for the weekend.  Hope to be able to get some good shots to send.  Then I'll work on getting pictures of the apt.  Sorry for the delay.

Serrano

Serrano

Serrano is one of the isolated territories that my congregation supports.  It even has a group of 5 publishers.  My roommates and I had the chance to go along with a group from my hall that went along to support the visit of the circuit overseer and his wife.  

It is a 5 hour bus ride from Sucre.  I could handle any distance as long as they promised me that I would get the window seat so I could watch the breathe-taking scenery.

Joel and Rocio de Pecho, the special pioneer couple that have been assigned to Serrano within the past year. The group rents a couple of rooms in this building.  In the back of the little hall the owner serves lunch.  Therefore, it makes sense that he would put his Surena beer sign right under the the meeting sign.

Our fun group after the meeting!  The CO is the one kneeling on the far right and his wife is standing above him in the orange-tan jacket.  Jeins and Dina Theirfielder from Germany.

Elisnor, the sister in the white jacket lives in the back of where they hold the meetings.  (Since it's not a congregation and is still a group, it isn't called a kingdom hall yet.)  Elisnor has 22 bible studies and many attend meetings.  Wow!

We stopped at one of the famous stores.  The shop of the maker of the biggest, working charango in the world.  He was mighty proud.  But, I have to give it to him, his work was something to be proud of.  He let us test out his hand made guitars and charangos.  A nice charango is about 600 bolivianos or a little less than $100 but of course the price varies to quality.  The guitar that Courtney is holding is $200.  (Updated info)

So we had to try out the lunch spot behind the hall.  It was really good.  I asked for no salad and they gave me extra steak instead.  My kinda people!  :)

(Courtney, Me and Kandra)

The hardest part about visiting Serrano was saying good-bye.  I can not wait til my next trip.  Hopefully I can make the trip at least once a month.  My roommates want to stay an extended period of time sometime soon.