Trip to the U.S. with family and friends. :) and most memorable, THE ANNUAL MEETING!!!!

So...it's been a while since I updated the blog. I have so many pictures and things to post so I decided to start little by little. :)
Our trip back to the U.S. to renew our Visa and for me to renew my passport, was amazing. It took a little longer than we anticipated, but we really enjoyed spending time with friends and family. We got to see all the friends from the hall in Charleston, SC, we traveled to Arkansas to visit friends that had just finished the couple school and were assigned to that area. We got to go to Amarillo, TX to visit a very loving family we had not seen in a while, all the family are regular pioneers, parents and the three daughters!!! Beautiful family!! We drove up to Colorado, where my family had a little family reunion, which we had not had for about five years!!! Really enjoyed that! Hard to say goodbye tho. :( After that we drove up to Iowa where we got to see Justin's dad and family and also the brothers from the hall we had attended before there!! Lot's of fun too!! 
After all that traveling we went back to Charleston, SC where we spent the last weeks of our stay, with Justin's mom and sister. We really got to enjoy spending time with them!

The whole Alvarado Family and my beautiful parents in the middle, my dad is hiding there a little, but you can see his little glasses!! :)

My brothers Luis and Jorge and sister in law, Wendy and my little gorgeous nephew, Ariel!! Miss them and love them so much!!

My little sister and brother. Love them!!!!

You will see a lot of Starbucks in pictures!

My little nephew heading to school. Can't believe he is in school already, I still remember taking him with me in service and studies!! They grow up to fast!!

My sister in law Erin and my mother in law Bonnie. They are the sweetest, miss them so much!!

Justin and me at Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, SC (Oh yeah! That's my mother in laws finger on the top! :):):)

 

Beautiful downtown Charleston, SC

 ...and the most memorable thing of all, THE ANNUAL MEETING!!!!! What a privilege that was for us to be able to attend, what a loving provision from Jehovah!!! This will be forever an unforgettable meeting. Amazing Bible we have now!!! The talks that the brothers gave in that meeting just really lets you feel how loving and wonderful the faithful and discreet slave is and this is truly Jehovah's organization!!! Can't wait til the Bible comes out in Spanish so we can use it here in Panama!!! :)

Assembly hall in South Carolina where we had the privilege to attend.

 All in all it was a wonderful trip. We laughed, cried and had fun, but it was time to go back home to our service in Panama. We were really started to miss it!! We will miss everybody, it was hard to say goodbye, but we know that Jehovah will protect our families and friends and soon there will be no more sad goodbyes only happy reunions!! Really look forward to that day!!!

District Assembly In Panama!!!

So our long awaited District assembly finally came!! and all I can say is Wow Wow Wow!!!!!!! It was so amazing. The dramas were so heart touching and really made us think of the time we are living in and how much Jehovah loves us and will always take care of us. The new publications...everything was incredible!! Truly Jehovah is very loving to us! The kids just loved the new brochure. So perfect for them!! Aren't they adorable!!!!!!!

My favorite release was the DVD. How loving our god is to make a DVD like this. Jehovah is really pleading and showing his love for those who have left the truth to come back!!
The assembly hall here in Panama is beautiful. Every person in Panama has heard about it especially because of how beautiful it is. It's in the same property that the offices of the Panamanian branch was at one time, before it got relocated under the Mexico branch. We went a day early and as you can see at the bottom we had some cleaning to do before the big day!! :) Of course it's spotless, just a little touch up!! Another unique thing about the assembly hall is that there is no walls. That way the breeze can go thru and it won't be to hot there.

 ...and this is how it looks with all the brothers arriving!

Look at the smile on their faces!!! Priceless!!!!!!

Justin spent most of the assembly in this little office working, but when I got the chance it was picture time!!!

 These are our friends from Spain that have been serving here for the last 2 years. He had 3 parts in the assembly, shows us the need they have here for more brothers. They had a whole family who they study with come to the assembly, even though that meant that they had to take a taxi at 4am, get to the bus from their town, then take another bus all the way to the assembly hall which is 4 hours away!! That family had the biggest smile on their face by the time they left. One of them is the boyfriend of the daughter who has not even started studying, he was the one that was the most impressed. He mentioned he had never experienced something like this before especially the drama really got to his heart! So as you can imagine how happy our friends were to have them come. What an example!!!

 This is another couple that just moved to Panama from Mexico about a month ago, to help in service here. They are both special pioneers and they are the sweetest couple!! There are a total of 8 couple in our District, including us, that have moved here from other countries to help.

 Warning!! If you haven't seen the drama yet, close your eyes for these pictures!! :) Our brothers did an amazing job with the drama!!
Needless to say the last day was a very sad day...saying goodbye to all the friends until the next assembly is never easy!! 
We love our assemblies it's a place where you feel protected and really loved. We meet so many new brothers and sisters every time. Can't wait for the next one!!!

Getting our studies ready for when we go back to the U.S.

So we are only a week and a half away from returning to the U.S. to renew our visas. We are very excited to go see family and friends and yes have a little cup of Starbucks in my hand!!! :)
Anyway we have been letting our brothers and studies know that we will be gone for about a month. So I was praying and thinking how I can help my students while I'm gone so I thought that leaving them homework would help, well...that was a 2 week long project!!! But thanks to Jehovah I'm done. I love arts and crafts, unfortunately all my scrapbook stuff and jewelry making stuff is in the states, so I went to several local stores here and came up with a cute idea. I made some folders for most of my studies. After 2 weeks they were finally done!! I gave some of my students theirs today and I couldn't believe how excited they were!!! They said they would definitely study and do their homework. For the kids I printed out more picture activities from the jw.org website and for the older ones different things I want them to research. One of them I printed out different aspects of the fruitage of the spirit, another, each apostle and another one wanted to know about why some religions speak in tongues, so that's her homework. Printed everything out and put them in cute folders!! Now I only pray that Jehovah will keep them strong and still determined to learn about him!!

Pizza Class!!

So there a couple of sisters from our hall that want to learn how to make pizza and this was the day they were going to learn how. So I had them over to may place, it was such a fun time!!  It was hands on training!! The sister was very excited to do it on her own as you can see by the pictures. Look at that smile!!! One reason she was so excited to learn is that they are thinking of making pizzas to sell. They are both trying to find a way to support themselves here and help out our little congregation more in service!! So I was happy to teach them how to make the pizza!!

The end results were great. The pizza came out delicious!! She did a wonderful job. Before that I made them some chocolate chip cookies and of course some delicious coffee. Everybody really enjoyed it. It's such a wonderful way to get to know our brothers and sisters in a more informal and relaxed way. We laughed so hard that I think all the neighbors could hear us!!
Jehovah's organization is wonderful!!

This is the sisters husband enjoying a chocolate chip cookie and some coffee while he waited for the pizza!! :)

 

Service and Studies With The Fosters

So we have some friends that are visiting and staying with us from South Carolina. They have been wanting to serve where there is more need and they decided to check out Panama. Well, they have been loving service here!! They have been going with us in service and studies and they have been walking and walking and walking!!! But in the short 2 and half weeks they have been here they already started about 6 studies between both of them and visited a congregation, which the Circuit Overseer recommended them, that does not have any elders and only 2 young Ministerial Servants. Needless to say they are in love with the service here!!!
The pictures below are one of the territories we took them too. Lots of walking, but we had such great response and great studies that the walk and crossing the stream was so worth it!!! :)

Justin was trying to balance on a little stone...and yes he stepped right in the water!

 The friends took some pictures of some of our studies that we have here. Which was awesome, because I have been wanting to take some but never had the chance and they were so good at sneaking in the camera for a shot!!

This lady is one of my favorite studies. She has such a humble heart and when she learns something new from the Bible, you should see her face!! She gets so excited! Here we are going over the Organization brochure and she is starting to get all the pieces together and realizing she has found the truth!! It is very true what a Circuit Overseer told us once. The studies that progress and get to baptism, are the ones that we follow every suggestion that has been given to us in The Kingdom Ministery, on how and what to study with them!

This is one of Justins' studies. he is very humble and very receptive about truth. This day he was so sick but he really wanted to study, so he laid on his hammock while they did the study to him!

This is another of our favorite studies. The girl we study with is the one on the far left. She has such a hunger for the truth. Her face lights up everytime she learns something new about the truth. She was the one that in a previous post, her mom had run out and stopped Justin to tell him that her daughter wanted to study and that she had a bag full of our literature all neatly stacked and all read. The little kids around her are her little neighbors. They study with another sister but everytime we are there at the study they come over so I started printing out for them the kids activities from the jw.org website. They love it and they are always there every Saturday waiting for their next activity!

This is another of Justins' studies. He just got baptized in the last assembly. Such a humble and zealous brother!!

Another study of Justin. Young kid in High school. He is so appreciative and wants to learn the truth. It is so nice to see young ones like him have that hunger for the truth and wanting to learn it.

Our friends are here for another 2 weeks and they are so excited to go back and make plans to come back to Panama and serve here. With Jehovah's help we know they will be back enjoying service here in Panama for a longer period of time soon! 

The Foster Family!!

Rainy Season In Guarare!!

The rainy season has started!! Everything is getting very green. It's amazing the transformation, from when we first got here to now. Here are some pictures to show you how beautiful it has gotten here!!!! This first picture is how dry it was and now...

Look at it now!!! Preaching in the rain!

Even this little baby piggy is enjoying life here!!