Party at the house yesterday! Yesterday, we had a small gathering, of only about 40 or so. First about 20ish for San Cocho (delicious soup) for lunch. They had to make it in a giant pot over a fire. Then more people came later, including some musicians (all brothers) and there was a little concert of singers and guitar players. Then some dancing and later some soccer in the dark. Overall, awesome party.

Saturday was Emily's first offical day in door-to-door service. We took a picture with these kids after they surrounded me when they found out I was American. From far away, it looked like the picture of Jesus surrounded by children in the Learn From the Great Teacher book with the scripture "Let the little children come to me." But in this case, they were surrounding me so I could teach them English.

This little girl was the cutest. When we played soccer, she told Alejandro (the guy in the video), "Think of me so that you will win." She can also sing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes...." in English, complete with the dance.

This is Diani. She is 18 years old and a regular pioneer. Her knowledge of the Bible and ability to reason from the scriptures really shows how much effort she puts into personaly study. In addition to being an active commenter in our meetings, she is learning Sign Language and attends their Sunday meetings. She recently spent two months serving in isolated territory with another young sister. They lived in a small town in the mountains with a two hour walk to and from the Kingdom Hall. (!) She says her goal is to move "anywhere!" there is need and be in the full time service. She is a great example of whole-souled service!

Wednesday we went to a part of the territory that involves a lot of walking (on a mountain). We only work it about once a month. Here are some of the sights typical to this area.

No. 2 talk last night...

mmm the color of chocolate...

Our water comes from the river, so when it rains hard this is what comes out of the faucets.

It shouldn't last too much longer but until then...we will be showering out of the bucket:)

The Tienda Nueva Congregation is growing!

Since we love our little congregation here, we thought you guys should get to know them too.

We will start introducing you to the brothers and sharing their stories little by little. I hope you enjoy getting to know them as much as we are!
We had 3 new unbaptized publishers go through their questions Saturday night. They were all out in service on Sunday morning for their first official day in the ministry.


This is Rafael and Amanda. Amanda is a continuous auxillary pioneer, and was elated to have her husband join her on his first day in service. Their two daughters are regular pioneers (all of three sisters were baptized two summers ago). It was so encouraging to see Rafael's zeal and boldness. He not only talked at every door, but read scriptures and used detailed illustrations!

This is Olmedo and Yornay, also unbaptized publishers as of Saturday, and their daughters who are studying too. This is the family's first day in the ministry. Yornay was very excited to become a publisher; she was nothing but smiles after the meeting and told us how happy she was to be able to preach.

Bogota

We went to Bogota for about 5 days. Here are the highlights. Went to Bogota Beer Company on Thursday and I had an honrary beer even though I've been able to drink for 3 yrs already in Colombia.
We also went to the English Congregation Sunday, which was very exciting. We actually understood the entire meeting for a change! It was an especially good day to go because the speaker was a MTS graduate from NJ (originally from Colombia). Plus, I got to see the friends that I made two years ago.
The pic of Jameson playing is a game is called Zapo (Frog). You throw rings into holes and try to get to 100 pts first.
Other pics are of friends. The pic on the right near the bottom is Monserrate. And yes, that dark ominous cloud above our head is a rain cloud. It rained hard very shortly after this pic was taken.
The brothers in the bottom right corner are brothers that went to the English with us. The one on the left was visiting from Italy, and the other two are Bethelites.

A highlight of our trip was spending the weekend at the Colombian Bethel (Branch Office of Jehovah's Witnesses) in Facatativa.

There is a pic of of the group in front of the famous tree.

Saturday night we had a little gathering in one of the Social Rooms at Bethel. On the left, there are pictures of a lively game of Mimica (our version of Charades with Bible characters).

Jameson's arm with the stamp displays our Bethel "tattoo." There is a brother in jail in Facatativa (he used to be a police coronal, and he is in jail for things he did before becoming a Witness). He is a regular pioneer and has his own special territory-the jail. Brothers from Bethel go give the talk in the jail and the brother conducts the Watchtower study. We had to get stamped and numbered to go in the jail. It was an awesome experience though. He studies with several people in the jail, one of which is a publisher now.

More to come soon...didn't have much time tonight but I wanted to post again since its been so long. Chao pesca'o!

Jessica