A Post...Finally

Sorry for not posting in so long! We just realized its been over two weeks. We are posting two days in row (gasp!) to make up for it. This one is a little overview of service in Tienda Nueva, and the one below has some pictures of our week.

It's been in the back of my head to write about the differences in preaching here and preaching in Florida, and I finally sat down and did it.Here it goes:

~You preach the same territory every week, like the people in NYC who only have a few territories and say "We are making our weekly visits." In the Nueva territory where we are, we go to a different territory every day of the week(Tienda Nueva on Mondays, Potrerillo on Tuesdays, Barrancas on Wednesday, etc) and on the weekends we do one of those territories again or La Bolsa or La Cascada (La Cascada is where we live). They have some meetings in the afternoon and evening, but generally its door to door in the morning, and then studies and return visits in whatever territory you are in that day. This means walking for most of us. Two of the above mentioned territories have some nice hills with rocky roads. As I grew up in Florida, I find these hills to be more like mountains. Did I mention we are not driving up the hill in a car with A/C? No, no, no, we are climbing this rocky, unpaved road in hot weather with only umbrellas to shield us from the sun.
Really though, its not that bad, and its good excercise.
~Here when you get someone home, they generally will give you some time to talk, or at least share a scripture. They have the same problem with return visits not being home or not having time though. In general, they have have more studies thanthe average person in the US, but half the time, the study doesnt have time when you come. And you come once a week, maybe twice, but generally when you are in that territory that week. For comparison, today we went to three studies and five return visits. One of the three studies actually studied, and 2 of the return visits were doorstep studies, two were busy, and one wasn't home.
~Here they take 2 hours for lunch! It's crazy. They have to go home and make lunch, or bring lunch (there is a a few brothers at least in every territory, so if you need a place to chill for lunch, it's available). And even if you eat a small lunch, the rest of the world is preparing and eating lunch for those 2 hours. If you goduring lunchtime, chances are they will be busy and not able to talk.
~Something to appreciate about Florida-the endless amounts of territory and avenues of service. Telephone, letter writing, early morning, tons of (not home usually haha) return visits to drive around to. There is no telephone witnessing here because phone calls are expensive on cell phones and you have to call land lines (Fijo) from a Fijo phone. In Cali (a bigger city), there is early morning, but here there isn't.

So those are some of the highlights of what service is like here compared to my experience in Tampa and Bradenton. Amazingly, as many times as you do the territory, you meet different people at the same houses (because families live together a lot of the time-grandparents, cousins, etc.) so you still find interested people even after the 27th time working the same territory.

Jessica