Day 82 – Tying up loose ends

We met for service in Santa Rosa. Shawn, the Vivancos, Erik and I and 3 of the Guerrero boys went out. I worked with Diana because I had a bunch of calls/studies I wanted to turn over. We actually found all but one home so that was good. They all asked when we are coming back – it’s really hard to tell them I don’t know. But I know they will be well taken care of and we are only tools to be used by Jehovah.

After service, I practiced Diana’s talk with her. She always does awesome but is extra nervous because she’s never had one when the co was visiting.

We got home around noon.  We finished up the audit. At 12:30 we had Ryan drop us at the KH on his way to drop all the co stuff at the Vivancos. Erik wanted to practice the special talk and I went to listen (and critique). We used to do that all the time when he first started giving public talks-except back then I usually had popcorn. We stopped at the store to buy food for our trip tomorrow and then walked home. We got home 20 minutes before we had our study with the neighbor, Sabina. We managed to have a good study despite the fact that all the kids were awake. Erik had Jesley on his lap, Sabina had the baby and I managed to keep Wilmer somewhat happy/distracted. She said she’s gonna go to the Memorial-it would be her first time. Remember: her brother was an unbaptized pub and was killed on the family farm last year. We are super hopeful that she will go.

We got home at 3:30, and I took a quick shower. Victor had called to see if we could help with a demo tonight. I said fine as long as I was the householder bc I knew we’d have no time before the meeting to practice. At 4, we walked down for Nancy’s study. We got home at 5, Erik took a quick shower and at 5:20 we left for the meeting.

We had a nice first meeting with the circuit overseer, Luis Feijoo. He and his wife, Silvia, are in their early 40’s, I think. He’s been serving for 8 years as a co and is from the coast of Ecuador originally. He is very enthusiastic and animated-kind of a cross between Jim Carey and Frank Torres. Diana did a great job on her talk, as usual. Erik & I managed to get through the presentation, although everyone said it looked like I was flirting with this poor “brother” offering me the mags-maybe I was.

We got home a little after 8 and had to pack for our trip in the canoe along the Nangaritza River to preach to the communities only accessible by boat.  Erik & I were going to spend the night at Hermano & Hermana  Luis & Edit Castro’s house in Yantzaza (35 minutes away) to be closer to catch the 4am bus up to where we would get the boat. The boys graciously offered to take us (Ryan may have had ulterior motives) but everyone wanted to go (did we mention the food truck in Yantzaza). So all 6 of us squished in Shawn’s truck. We filled our bellies and then met up with the brother and his wife after their meeting. We felt like kids getting dropped off at summer camp.  Unfortunately, we had no time during the day to pack so we were throwing things together for the trip. FYI: It’s never a good idea to throw together things for an all day trip in a canoe.  This was no exception. When we got to the brothers house we realized we didn’t have enough money. That’s embarrassing. As I laid in bed thinking about the 4 hour bus ride (remember, we haven’t really rode the bus more than 5 minutes since we’ve been here) I was a bit anxious. Not to mention we don’t have an alarm clock. I could tell I wouldn’t be sleeping much for the next 5 hours.