post 2

Hellooooooooo!!!!
 Sorry its been like 2 weeks but Ive been so busy and you'll see why in a second. This experience has tested me and pushed me beyond expectations. But through it all I'm keeping my smile because honestly you work hard you play hard down here!

   But here's whats up, My schedule has been crazy its full service day days Monday Tues and sat, Partial service days wed. and sun. extreme long day Thurs. and rest day on Friday. But then we party hard like after a full service day well hit up the beach or go to a dance party- by the way the friends get DOWN here its so my element. After the wed. night meeting last week we went to the hot springs which is actually a volcanic mud bath! INTENSE MUCH ?!!!!?

   Then theres the need gre- I mean self sustained missionary family, I had no idea that it would be this cool or that I would meet so many awesome people who are in driving distance from my home in PA. Theres new and old faces - you all know Tony and Alla ,and Jennifer and Scott and Jasmine are down here but Brother luhrs, Elsie and Wyatt just joined our motley crew, 2 sisters just left Monday    :( but Yasmine  just came in about a week ago and of course the other Jasmine and Zach (our Vermonter and residential Maple syrup/ Seinfeld expert ) is still here sticking it out as well  - wait you wouldn't know this unless I told you *FUN FACT* There are 2 Jasmines ( one who came with me from the Poconos and one from Jersey City) and a Yasmine ( our bubbly brooklynite) down right now! Funny stuff... But like any family theres some bumps and bruises to be had, especially for me who's used to being the only child but now having 2 (well 3 now) Roommate's. But its worth it, Its just sooooo worth it!

    So as far as the territory goes its fruitful. OK its amazing, They refer to door to door as 1st call which is cool its def. a term i plan on trying to take back to the states. I currently have 5 bible studies well 4 that Ive established and i started 1 today so we start tomorrow. My studies each have there own personalities and are amazing in there own ways but the two that stick out the most are Samantha and Tasha. Tasha is a amazingly humble girl with 3 kids, were studying the Listen to God brochure ( a extremely useful tool down here). Tasha is a hard core study she has it 2wice a week with me and is always wanting to learn more. The one day I went to her house ( actually its a 2 room shack it has a bed room and a kitchen - no bathroom, no shower)  and she said she had a tooth ache but she still wanted to study, so I thought thats great- no it wasn't turns out she was in so much pain she couldn't even read the words, so of course we postponed the study. But that just shows you how much she wants it.

    Then theres Samantha.... Oh boy what I wouldn't do for Samantha! She blows my mind! She blows everyone who goes with me mind as well. I get so excited when I go on her study. Our 1st time in the bible teach book i did the routine bible study prep read the first pages together showed her how to look up and understand scripture lay outs and showed her how to do study prep with the 1st few paragraphs, then for homework I said K, now you study 2 and 4 for next week. I came back the next week and she had studied not only 3 and 4 but all the way up to chapter 6 in the book!!!!! With the scriptures looked up and answers underlined!!! last week I told her to just look over what you did  for next weeks study and make personal notes on the scriptures and how they make you feel. So yesterday I went to her house and said K, so lets read this scripture, she pulls out her notebook I'm like nice but were going to read the scripture shes like i know and starts reading the note book out loud turns out she had copied every scripture from the lesson on the notebook and even wrote personal notes and feelings under the ones she liked and questioned one she didn't understand! Then after the study we were talking and I asked her why she didn't go to the meeting last week and she said EJ (her son) had a bad fall so she had to stay with him and I asked so how about this week and shes like for sure. So I told her since the meeting starts at 6 it'll be hard for me to save her a seat if shes late and she goes it doesn't matter where I sit as long as I'm there!!!!!!!!!!!! I love LOVE her!!

     Also I gave my 1st talk down here last week, my house holder was Jasmine from the Poconos,  had had part #3 How Can Humans Gain Access to “the Secret Place” of Jehovah? It went really well. Tony said I was trained well and I handled my self really well even with the mic malfunctions and brothers having to cut in to try and fix them lol. but I think Jas and I did well considering we had a weeks notice. :) shout out to my elders for putting me in last minute talk situations to help prepare me for here haha!