Anniversaries and Surprises

Chickens having a bad day

Yesterday was a very different day. We decided to take the entire day off and relax. It was a special day for two reasons, and by the end of the day it was special for three reasons. We never did relax.

First of all....
Yesterday was the anniversary of three years in Mexico! Yes, three years ago we arrived in Puebla with a trunk full of valuables. In some ways time has gone by fast, in other ways the last three years has been packed with much excitement. Do we regret our decision to move to Mexico? No. The only thing we regret is that we didn't do it sooner in life.

Nothing says celebration like two Dr. Simis, the local pharmacy's mascot

Second Of All
Second of all, yesterday marked the anniversary of our marriage. Twenty years! Yep, we are officially old and experienced married people. But we have enjoyed these years, that is for sure. Do I feel old being married for twenty years? Well, let's just talk about the third reason....

The Third Reason
We spent the morning slowly waking up. That is, until an unexpected email from the Branch fully woke us up.

Finally a new assignment! Belize City! We couldn't believe it. The thought of moving from Puebla and living in yet another foreign country is exciting and overwhelming all at once. We are still digesting this reality.

The culture of Belize is very, very different than Mexico. It is more caribbean / islander culture and less Latino or Hispanic. So it will be very different once again to anything we have experienced. The weather will be humid and hot. There are not really any commercial businesses that we are very familiar with. There is less than 400,000 people in the entire country. The city of Puebla has a few million. Belize is lush, green, and beautiful. Puebla is full of concrete and exhaust.

The whole thing will be quite a different experience. Are we ready for it? Totally! We are excited.

The next few months will be very busy for us. We will not only continue to get in our hours, but we have to figure out how to squeeze moving to another country in. At this point the logistics elude our overwhelmed minds, but we will sort this out and by December 1 we will be living in Belize...wow!

They are not underwater, but it's still pretty talented

Pioneer School

Pioneer School
Last week we went to Mexico City where I was helping out with a pioneer school. The class location was in the heart of Mexico City, so we really got to experience the big city and all it's...well...peculiarities. We braved the pollution, transients, and noise to discover that we actually had a very good time.

The school itself was a blast. It was held on the third floor of a four-story Kingdom Hall. Mexico City, like New York, is a city where things grow tall, not out. The new book made the class fun and refreshing. The students readily commented and the time went by fast. It was a fairly international audience with students from Mexico, the USA, Canada, Austria, France, Sweden, Norway, and Australia. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the week.

With the other Instructor

Into the Jungle 
Nicole had an interesting week as well. She was not able to attend the class with me, so she went out in the ministry with the locals. Her goal was five hours a day, every day, in the heart of Mexico City. Since her pictures of her adventures in Mexico City are far more exciting than my classroom pics, Nicole will share these now:

The literature carts attract lots of interest for the Spanish congregations.

The cart on the right features Russian literature

A giant stage in the downtown, for viewing the World Cup

View from the house we stayed at

Waiting for the metro

Protest in the park

Had to get a photo of this cute sister between the carts

Saturday service group

One More Time
This week we go back to the same area for one more class. We are looking forward to it. We will hold our breath, count to three, and plunge once again into the heart of the third largest city in the world.

Special Pioneering

Special Pioneering
We just finished our first month of special pioneering. At the beginning of the month it seemed rather daunting to complete 130 hours. But we were surprised that by the end of the month it was quite a manageable effort. It definitely feels a bit different than the usual 70. It's obvious that you are putting in much more time, and it takes energy. But at the same time it feels like we can do it. We end the month with a huge sense of accomplishment.

The month was not without it's challenges. I fell ill half-way through the month. It was a bad fever and stomach flu. It kept us home for a couple of days. In addition, I was pulled over by police twice this month. The second time they wanted to take my car. My car is perfectly legal and there is no reason for this, but the police are likely hoping for a little side money or simply want to display a show of authority. It was the first time that we felt that we may perhaps lose this one and things will turn bad. The policemen refused to call my lawyer. Finally when he was away from the car I called my lawyer anyway and when he returned, I just handed him my phone and he stuck it up to his ear. They argued for about 10 minutes and he finally stormed off angrily.

Friday to Celebrate
We were excited because Friday was the day we would reach 130 hours. We decided to do something we don't normally do and go out to a nice restaurant to celebrate at the end of the day.

The countdown was on, we parked the car in a central spot and spent the day on a study route which made the day very enjoyable. Around 4pm we reached our goal and it was time to find a nice restaurant.

As we walked back to the car we discovered that the locals decided to celebrate as well. They were marching their idols up and down the street and making a lot of noise.

Dinner
We found what appeared to be a nice restaurant. A scenic area, quiet and peaceful. It had a big sign advertising wood-fired pizza. We stopped and ordered pizza and a glass of wine. Soon we were soaking in the scenery. It was a noble idea and would've worked if we were living in the states...

But in Mexico, you can't choose a restaurant by it's atmosphere. Our mistake was that we were attempting to celebrate in a very American fashion, but we were forgetting we were in a foreign country. The pizza was not "wood-fired". It tasted like a frozen pizza you would get at Safeway. The mushrooms were from a can and the other ingredients tasted artificial. The wine was probably the worst tasting red wine we have ever tasted. Flies continued to land on our pizza and a stray dog kept walking by desperate for a hand-out. The owner and his wife decided to pull up chairs about 4 feet behind us to smoke and take in the scenery as well. Of course that meant that they were staring at us and straight-through us the entire time.

On the way home we ran into a procession with the saints again and had to stop and wait it out for awhile. Once we got past that, we noticed the road to our house was closed and had to take a 25 minute detour.

We finally made it home. Once we closed the doors to the house we felt like we just crossed the finish line of a marathon.

We wanted to celebrate like an american. We were wrong. We should've found a crowded taco place and ordered a light, cheap beer. But we have learned that things cannot go perfect when you are living outside the USA. You have to learn to accept disappointment and cherish the little victories that do come your way.

Something is coming
In the end, we had a great month. We started a number of studies this month and had a lot of fun. We do feel like something big is coming around the corner. A big change for us. We think it may be soon. We are waiting, but we have received no information yet to confirm that we will stay in Puebla for an extended duration. Only silence. Time will tell.

A new study. He spent about 20 years in Arizona

Another new study. He has three children under the age of 10 in Wisconsin. He has only been in Mexico for a year and has not been able to speak to his children since he left.

Nicki's bible study. This kid does not yet know where the camera lens is located evidently.

Bible School for Christian Couples

BSCC
We graduated from BSCC on March 16th. What a great privilege it was to attend this class. It is difficult to put into words exactly how a person benefits from having the privilege of attending the class. It sort of takes what you were and turns you into something you still are, yet now you are different.

Perhaps this is a tasteless comparison, but it is sort of like putting a car through one of those auto-car washes. A lot of stuff happens in a short period of time. You start the class. You are caught up in a whirlwind of study, assignments and activities, then suddenly you pop out the other side feeling very...different and... better. More solid, more anchored, more focused. It is a good feeling.

Of course for the first few weeks after the class there is a bit of separation anxiety. During the eight weeks you feel like you are in a protective nest of security, oblivious that there is a world outside this captivating environment a person finds himself in. After 8 weeks, you are suddenly expelled back into the real world once again and the feeling is odd and uncomfortable. It leaves you yearning for that feeling of being back in the class. We will miss it.

But before you are released, there is an unforgettable graduation weekend that we shall never forget. The whole things was absolutely amazing. A life highlight for sure.

Our turn at a morning worship comment

Perhaps we were studying too much, but the dirt on our cleaning rag was starting to look like Hebrew to us...

A goal each night was to try to study around 3 hours