Semana Santa (crazier than Spring Break)

Nicki, Raye Ann & Juan  can tell you how chill & boring our little town is. But, then, Semana Santa (Holy Week) comes & 100,000 visitors swarm to SJDS. Rather than a religious holiday, it's treated like a Spring Break. Managuans come down for vacation & take over...sleeping in cars, on the beach, in the street and any house, hostel or hotel that they can find!! By mid-week, the streets are filled with cars, taking literally an hour to get thru. Basically, to avoid the crazy, dirty, drunks, we stay at home all week. Venturing out only in the morning/early afternoon, we were able to take some pics

In 1 DAY, stages, volleyball courts w/seating, restaurants & vendor tents were built...then completely disappeared when the week ended!!!

Cars, Cars & MORE CARS!!!

Beach Volleyball Tournament

Pop Up Tents on the beach...Nica's basically lived under these tents for a week

Party Stages w/DJs

Tons of street vendors

Time for a hike !!!

So, this is SJDS's statue of Jesus, that is a hiking destination. From the top, it has the best view of SJDS. The electricity was out all day, so we decided to take a LONG hike.

So, this is how Nica's make a new road: Dump used, crumbled up asphalt from the pan-american highway & call it a day

Ready for the incline...

We made it !!!!

Memorial 2015

San Juan Del Sur, Central Ingles Congregation's 1st Memorial...we had 57 in attendance.

Bryan helped pass the emblems for the first time & Carl gave his first Memorial talk :-)

Bryan & Carl (best buds)

Our beautiful friends...most of whom are leaving soon :-(

It's Summer Time!

It is so difficult to keep up with a blog when so much is going on. We are sorry for the lack of posts. Our cameras have been giving us problems, apparently the particular type of hardware our phones have (which had awesome cameras) can't handle the heat. Our pictures come out blurred or with a weird purple hue, so we have to depend on other peoples photos right now.

That being said, we miss everyone so much and often spend time reminiscing. We hope to visit Houston around fall, plans aren't solid yet, only for 3 weeks or so. It is summer here (March-May) and the heat gets pretty crazy. If you're in the sun it can feel like a convection oven baking your skin, but the good thing is that it doesn't get as hot as H-town. Shade is our friend, unlike Houston where the humidity suffocates you no matter where you go. Then again...you do have air conditioning.

This is the time when people start to leave as well, by the of next week we will be down to 15 publishers from 34. We still have only 1 elder and I will be the only MS for a while...I really don't know how long, but there are other non-MS brothers that we can use to help with the load. This does mean though that the elder and I will be giving parts every week,..hey, practice makes perfect!

I have the privilege this month of being a 'traveling speaker' :-D. Well, not a CO or anything, but the English Congs are so far apart that it is an experience. Mid-April, I will be giving a talk in Granada (1.5hrs from SJDS) one weekend, we will stay the night with Joel and Lindsey Savage. Then we'll head to Managua, take a 6hr bus ride and 2hr panga (small boat, almost canoe size) ride to Bluefields to give a talk the following Sunday. We are going to make a week out of it and experience field service in that area, which is English/Creole. My talk will be in English but the Cong consists of local Creole speakers. We will try our best to take pictures.

After the Memorial we plan on giving you and update. The pictures below were of the campaign work on Ometepe Island.

Myself, Keahi (from Hawaii), Ryan (from Michigan)

I KNOW I'M SHORT...BUT NOT THAT SHORT :-D . I WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF AN INCLINE GOING UPTO THE KINGDOM HALL ENTRANCE.

Ryan & Jessica (husband & wife), Keahi, Jessica & Bryan

Yes, you heard it right, Ryan & Jessica and Bryan & Jessica. How confused do you think the locals are?