A.J. had his first public talk yesterday in Spanish! It was a symposium with another brother in our congregation. Their theme was "Communication: With God and In the Family." They both did a really excellent job. Though I must admit that since A.J. went second, I wasn't paying the most rapt attention to Amable (the other brother), as my stomach was churning with nervousness. I haven't been that nervous for A.J. since his first public talk in English, many years ago! His first part in Spanish here months ago on a Thursday night didn't have me too nervous, since the way I view it, We can only do what we can do! You do the best you can with your limited Spanish skills, pray for Jehovah's spirit, prepare well, pray some more, and just do it! But a public talk...In service news, our tract campaign is going very well (UPDATE: We finished our territory! :), and I'm excited to see how many visitors are at the Memorial on Tuesday. I'm really hoping my students attend, I tried to convey to them that it is the most important day of the year, the only commanded observance in the Bible. So I hope for the best and will keep you posted! Last Monday afternoon we went out with the English group to invite English-speaking people to Bellavista's Memorial. We worked downtown in Parque Calderon and got to speak with people from all over the world! I worked with a sweet Ecuadorian sister, Pamela, and everytime we'd see a foreigner, she's excitedly proclaim "¡Un gringito, un gringito!" The first person we talked to was a man from the Czech Republic who strongly reacted (negatively) as soon as I pulled the invitation out of my bag. Pamela boldly asked him why he reacted that way, which led to us talking with him for a half hour! He ended up taking the Would You Like to Know the Truth tract. After him, we talked to people from France, Switzerland, Germany, the United States...it was so much fun! Our territory in Narancay has most people taking the invitations and thanking us, with some even asking questions and accepting Bible studies to learn more. I was happy to inherit a new Bible study with a teenage girl who has been eager to learn from the start, even requesting two studies a week! Miha had started studying with her when she was visiting August-October. Unfortunately it seems that no one was able to catch up with her to continue her study, but I ran into her on the street a few weeks ago, and am happy to start it up again, going Monday mornings!
Otherwise, things have settled back to "normal" since our guests left, and we really appreciated their visit. Our friends are so generous to us when they visit, and we are very grateful for their love and support! We are also grateful to travel with them around our country here, as those breaks refresh us so much, and keep us going/spur us on in our day-to-day life here in Cuenca! Thank you!
