I'm Sorry Week 10 is So Late!

   I realize that this is Wednesday not Sunday. I will explain at the end of the blog why I am so late! But for now we'll talk about last Monday. It was kind of a short day. We walked to La Ronde again. We had nice calls there and Em started a bible study. By the time we got back to La Plaine we were all exhausted and just visited with James and Nanci for the rest of the afternoon.  Tuesday we worked in Mourne Joune in the morning. In the afternoon I had my study with Crystalyn. She was talking about how she is sad because she can't read her bible anymore. Also she has been wheelchair bound for 4 years. They do not have transport for handicapped here unless it's the ambulance. So other than going a short distance down the road, she has not been able to leave her house. When I mentioned the possibility of getting the bible on CDs for her she was sooo excited!

    Wednesday morning was super encouraging! Em and I went to a few of my calls in the morning. I started a new study with a woman named Annette. And I conducted my first study with a girl James handed over to me, Cheryl. Two little boys interrupted our study and asked her if she would buy them books like that. So Emily and I each placed a brochure with the boys. They were so excited when we wrote their names at the top. Thursday we did our usual cleaning stuff and then meeting. It always rains on Thursdays. The only day we hang our wash out to dry.

    Friday we got to organize a ton of stuff at the assembly hall. Boxes of miscellaneous nails, screws and metal gadgets. Then we ate pizza in town!  At Pizza Hut!!! That was amazing. Saturday we had a great time working Grand Fond. We worked with a sister who just recently moved back to Dominica. She talked to a 10 year old boy who really wants to explore the sea. This kid was so smart! When the sister asked to read a scripture the boy said "Well, anything that has to do with God is alright with me. " After showing him several scriptures that show how one day we will be able to learn about all the animals without fear of them she asked if he understood. His reply? "My mind is blown, actually." He was so sincere through the whole conversation!

   So Sunday we went to meeting. And afterwards we went to Kaysh's study. She was busy doing her wash, so we offered to come back later. Her little girl said "Don't have them come back later. They can talk with me. " So Kaysh studied with her out of the Good News brochure. She understood everything really well. That evening we went to James and Nanci's for movie night. We had so much fun! When it was time to go home, James walked with us to our house since it was late and people party at night. We got halfway up our driveway and I realized that I forgot our keys. So we had to walk all the way back down and up again. Now,  we live about 15 mins away from the Montgomery's. So by the time we walked and searched for the keys it took about an hour to get home. I completely forgot about my blog because it was already 11pm.

  Please forgive me for the late blog! I'll be sure to write a new one Sunday....probably.

The Trip is Half Over

   I can't believe it's already been 2 months!  It's flown by so quickly!  The thought of going home is bittersweet. Of course I'm excited to see my family and friends. But I will also really miss things about Dominica. This week really increased my love for the ministry here even more. Monday we all walked to Case O Gowrie. I worked with Mariah. Even though her bible studies weren't home we were able to enjoy working some territory together and had a couple of really nice conversations. I got to see my call,  Liza, again. She's the one I witnessed to on the beach. She was busy planting but was very nice. She told me that I could call her to arrange a visit. Since she works as a hairstylist she would clear her schedule for me when I wanted to come.

  Tuesday I had the privilege of working with James in Mourne Joune. He took me on his bible study,  Terry. Terry is a very good student. At the end of the lesson we looked up Psa 37:9-11. James told Terry that he could ask me any question about the scripture.  So he asked me if I really believed that promise. After I told him that I did he asked another question. He asked if I found it difficult to live by bible standards. I told him that for the most part I don't because I can see how much happier it makes me. I was honest and told him that it can be very difficult when people are pressuring you to do what's wrong,  but it's always better to obey God. We returned to La Plaine for the afternoon. I studied with my older lady who's wheelchair bound, Crystalyn. This was my 3rd study,  and marks my first study I can officially count here!  Starting studies is easy,  getting them to be consistent is another story!

   Wednesday was a little less eventful. Kaysh had nice calls and I went with Mariah on a few studies of hers. Other than that,  nothing special. And Thursday was meeting day. I had a householder part for a local sister. It's so nice how the local friends treat us. They are so kind!  After meeting we seen a familiar face!  Asha, my call that I wrote the experience about,  was outside the Baptist Church and said hello! Friday was a nice day we worked at the assembly hall in the morning. A sister made homemade chocolate cake for everyone working. Told ya that hard work brings blessings! ;)

   Saturday was a FANTASTIC service day!!! In the morning we worked in a new village,  Grand Fond. The response there was amazing. But we had to leave after just a few doors to get back to do some calls. We went to La Ronde to see Asha. He had just come from the church and brought a friend for some "back-up". Both had bibles in hand and Asha even had a notepad with scriptures written in it. The first topic he wanted to address was the fact that we wouldn't let him pray with us last time. So we reasoned on the scriptures that say that we shouldn't make a spectacle of our prayers.  And also pointed to the fact that praying was not part of Jesus' instructions for preaching. It was hard for him to understand at first. But eventually he said he understood.

  So then we moved on to the next topic,  being born again. That topic didn't last long though because he really wanted to talk about the trinity. The first scripture that he found was in Isaiah. It refers to Jesus as mighty god. He thought he had really proved a point.  But we took him to the scripture that refers to Satan as the god of this system of things. And also told him that many refer to Buddha and other things as god. We explained how god is just a title,  and how Jesus could be a god in a relative sense without being the same as Jehovah.

  Before admitting defeat,  however,  he had to point out that our bible is different from his. This upset him because he felt that we should not add or take away from the Bible. Which is obviously true, and I knew better. But rather than tell him that his bible is the one that adds and takes away, I offered to just use his bible. But he still wanted to compare translations.  I also brought up that they came out with a Divine Name King James Version which put God's name back where it's supposed to be. He gor the point that taking God's name out is a pretty big deal. His friend even helped us out by saying,"She has a point."

   After that, he allowed us to read from the appendix of the Bible Teach Book. This brought up another issue because his friend had recently been mislead and was very upset. So Asha felt uncomfortable reading from a book that's not the Bible. l told him that I understood his concern and that I didnt want him to believe
me or the book I just want him to believe what the bible says. All I asked was that he think about the Scriptures in the book.

   That led to the most interesting part of the conversation. He had found a scripture that said the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. This Scripture was 1 John 5:7 . l had never seen this scripture before and I had, no clue what to do. Thankfully Jehovah helped me to think quick enough to use the JW Library app to compare translations. We made a fascinating discovery! The original Greek never includes that thought. In fact, the King James Version added an entire sentence that wasn't there. You can imagine how shocked Asha was. He just kept reading it. After he calmed down a little I asked him if that made him question where else his Bible might be changed. He sincerely said, , "Yeah it kinda does."

   We were able to finish the appendix. I could tell it was all really weighing on his mind now. James and Nanci were leaving for a study and we hadn't had lunch so we had to excuse ourselves. But Asha begged us to stay. He really wanted an answer to a question he had about the 144,000. We left that for next time. The hope is that next time James will be able to start a study with him.

   Today was also good. Our Watchtower was amazing! Kaysh and I tried going on a couple studies but neither worked out. It Was still nice though. And to finish off our awesome week James texted us to let us know that he had a great first study with Solomon. Solomon is the man we met on our way to get ice cream! Jehovah is definitely blessing our work! Sorry this blog was so long! Thanks for reading though.

PS: If any mature single brothers or couples are looking to serve where the need is greater and are willing to work in the ministry as well as the congregation Dominica is in serious need of qualified brothers. There are so many interested people, many are men, and not enough brothers to study with all the interested ones! If you would like more information please contact me and I will put you in touch with the local brothers :)

Week 9's Photography

8 Weeks....Already!

Monday was the most exciting day this week. We went to Middleham Falls with Br. Gibson. He is from Marigott Congregation and was taking a big group from his hall and offered for us to go with him. The hike was a lot of stairs but was really nice! We even got to pick raspberries on the way up! Once we got to the falls we ate a small packed lunch. I was excited to swim but it was SO COLD!!! But i still went in so i could jump off the rocks on the other side! The water's very deep so it's really safe to jump. Although getting up on the rock was difficult! On the way back home Br Gibson's bus broke down. Because it was a holiday there was no one to fix it and no transport to take us home. So we walked down part way to town and hitchhiked the rest of the way. Hitchhiking is extremely safe here....also it's very fun! Thankfully a sister came all the way to Roseau to pick us up. And Mariah was so kind and fed us traditional Lebanese food!

   The next two days were lovely service days. On Tuesday it was insanely hot outside! But we were able to make a couple nice calls anyways! And Wednesday we were able to work some territory! I got to work with Emily and James. And i got two new calls and James started a study for me. That afternoon we did some calls but we quit early because it was just too hot and i was exhausted.

   Thursday was a boring day. Meeting was nice though. On Friday we worked at the assembly hall. We had a good time shopping. I had juice, ice cream, iced coffee, a chocolate parfait, and more juice. And yesterday I enjoyed service in Delices. Today we went to meeting and the brother gave an excellent talk! Overall it was a good week.

Week 8's Photos

I Almost Forgot About Pictures From Week 7!

7 Down 10 To Go!

Well after the experience on Monday we re-motivated ourselves to go in the afternoon. We all had pretty good conversations with people and it was very enjoyable. Tuesday we went back to Morne Joune. Kaysh and I got to work together. Nanci told us that there was a house waaaay back in.  So we walked, and walked, and walked. Until we finally decided that we had walked for at least 15 minutes up a trail that led to nowhere. We still placed a tract with a guy who was weed whacking. He found it quite humorous that we thought there was a house up there and told us that the locals call that area "mount zion". We were tired so we sat down for a bit. We placed several tracts. I visited with my study Crystalyn and she was so happy to see me.

    On Wednesday morning we Em and I went with James to La Roche, Delices. That's where our kingdom hall is. We got to work with some of the local pioneer sisters. That was really nice. And then we did a call in Petite Savanne (sa-von). We didn't get back to La Plaine until 2pm. Thursday was just an average Thursday. Cleaning,  cooking, studying. There were only two brothers at the meeting though. They had to take turns speaking and running mics.

    Friday we went to town. We started by working at the assembly hall. It was very physical work this time,  shoveling and raking a truck load of landscaping stones. I visited with someone who I placed a tract with last week. This time I gave her the magazines.  She was so excited to see them! I also talked to someone who used to study. It was very nice! Saturday we slept in because our backs were so tired from the assembly hall. And our afternoon studies weren't home. Today the visiting speaker had to read the watchtower. And there was no roving mic. Kaysh had a study this afternoon.  And now we are just hanging out!

   Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to share. Hopefully I'll have more stories next week!