Preaching On Horseback

Today was a first for me. I had the privilege of preaching on horseback.  My partner was named "Bayo" and he did a great job.  I've got a new study that is really isolated and he's the perfect mode of transportation.  You just never know what you'll experience here!

After Humintas..It's Fishing Time

So later after making Humintas we went fishing...for the smallest fish ever. It is amazing how hard they work to get one small tiny fish. Here are a few of the photos.

Walking to the "special" fishing spot.

Crossing a very rickety bridge thing.

The river

Crossing the river again.

The smallest fishing hooks ever.

Justin chilling in the water.

Getting ready to fish.

It's fishing time.

Just relaxing.

Another way to catch fish is with a wine bottle.

Justin caught the only 2 fish. About an inch long.

Albert is excited to fish.

Try my hand at fishing.

Huminta Time!

Today since it was so cold we decided to delay our picnic at the river and instead made Humintas and are going to play basketball. Here are some pics from our making Humitas together as a congregation.

Grinding the Choclo (corn)

Justin acting silly

Before the Choclo is ground

Helping with the grinding of the choclo

Albert working hard

Bella drinking the milk from the choclo

After it is ground you mix in the spices

Cutting up cheese to put in the Humintas

Preparing the Humintas

Justin wrapping a Huminta

His finished product

Preaching To The Inmates

This morning was really rainy and after preaching at the market, a sister in our group suggested that as a brother, I try preaching to the inmates at the local jail.  I had never done anything like this before but it seemed like a great option, especially after walking in mud all morning.  After entering the front, a new Bible student (who happens to be studying everyday and attending the meetings) was chit chatting with the police at their desk.  After explaining why we were there and asking for permission to leave Bible information with the inmates, he quickly offered his support telling the police who we are and how wonderful Jehovah's Witnesses are.  Even though visiting hours happen to be later on in the day, they gave us permission and I quickly tried to think of an approach.  The section where inmates are housed is really cramped, dirty and generally cold feeling.  I told them the purpose of the visit was to provide them with Bible information and no matter what we've done in our past, it's possible to change.  We also talked about Jehovah's wonderful qualities such as love and patience and how thanks to these qualities, we are afforded time to learn his principles and make needed changes.  During these discussions more and more inmates came up to the bars and by the end, all in the jail were listening.  I ended up placing all of my Bible Teach books with them and they also would like to have Bibles.  Before leaving they were all asking when we would be back to start studying with them.  It was a new experience but it turned out good.  Based on their current circumstances I'm hopeful that most of them will have had a chance to read a good portion of the book by the time I go back next week.  We never know who will listen and be our future brother.

Found Newborn Puppy

So on Sunday after we came back the two young brothers here found a newborn puppy on the side of the road. It still had it's umbilical cord attached completely. We took it to the vet and had them tie it off and cut it. It is a girl puppy. They said sometimes people here throw the girls away because they do not want more puppies later on. It is not like you can spay them. Grrr! Sometimes people make me really mad. So one of the brothers said he would take it. I have been helping at night to take care of it because it is a lot of work. So far so good. She is doing well and eating a lot. We have not given her a name yet, because we want to see how it goes.

Our Whirlwind Immigration Vacation

So as you may know we have been on a very crazy tour of Bolivia trying to get some things figured out with my visas. Well as of yesterday I am good. We got the tourist visa canceled and now I can go ahead with my 2 year visa paperwork. We tried flying out yesterday to Tarija, but there were no flights so the earliest flight is tomorrow at 3:15pm. So we decided to have a nice time here in La Paz. We didn't have time to book a tour of the world heritage spot here, nor go biking on the world's deadliest road, nor see Lake Titicaca. Hopefully next time. But we did find a restaurant that had food very similar to the States, watched a movie in a real movie theater, got to watch our first Futbol game in person and got a massage. A nice finish to a crazy week. Here are some pics and video of our past week.

Dinner at Jardin de Asia in Santa Cruz.

Waiting in line at the first office in Santa Cruz.

Relaxing with some ice cream.

Overlooking La Paz.

Overlooking La Paz.

Eating at Factory. The only of its kind in Bolivia.

The Stadium at night.

The Strongest side. They won 4-0

Leaving after the Futbol game.

Sushi night.

First taste of sake. Not my favorite.

View from our room. The mountains are full of houses.

 

Enjoying a warm cup of coffee.

Dealing with Immigration

Well the past few days has been nothing more than frustrating. It started out with a phone call on Thursday from Tarija saying I (Steph) needed to sign a paper. Ok so I grab a taxi to Tarija and spend the night at the Marsden's. The next day I go to Immigration to find out that I am signing a paper to have temporary custody of my passport. They are saying that La Paz sent all my paperwork back for my 2 year visa because I did not cancel my tourist visa. First of all they tell me I have to go to the U.S Consulate to fix this. The U.S had nothing to do with issuing this visa. So then they say well you need to go to the an office in Santa Cruz to fix this. So Justin drives up to Tarija and flys out the next day with me to Santa Cruz. We spend the weekend here. Then on Monday we go to the "office". Well that place was a mad house. I was worried there was going to be fights. After 2 hours standing in line the boss tells us she can not do anything. And goes on to tell us we obviously do not understand Spanish that well. I was a little ticked at that one. Anyways we call Tarija they tell us to go to another building. After 8 trys we find the building, in a totally different area. This lady agrees with us in that we came in on an Objecto Determinado visa and that voided the tourist visa. So she calls La Paz. No one will call her back. So we go in this morning. La Paz finally answers. They say all we need to do is send a letter stating we want to cancel the tourist visa. The thing is we already sent a letter like that to them and they did not accept it. So we are flying there this afternoon. Let me tell you this is one of the most unorganized countries there are. No one knows what the other is doing. All we can do is continue praying and trying to do all we can.    

Preaching in Salinas

Yesterday we had the privilege of going to preach in an isolated territory. Salinas, Bolivia it is located in a National Preserve. It took us about 2 hours to get there by car. A brother from Tarija and 4 others came for the weekend to help us. We had a wonderful time. Cooking together, sharing experiences and cramming 14 people in one car. At one point I was in so much pain I started to cry. I felt bad, but the brother stopped the car and Justin massaged the blood back into my sore leg. Justin and 2 other brothers sat on top of car. A brother and sister that live out there made lunch for everyone. They do not get to come to the meetings often because they live so far and do not have a car. It cost them $40 or so to drive home from the meetings. Which is a lot anywhere, but especially here. We had great experiences. Justin and I both started a study. We are going to go back twice or more a month to study with them. We also found deaf ones and talked to them about God and shared the Simple version of the brochure Listen to God with them. They were so happy to talk to someone. They loved talking about Jehovah. All in all it was a great day. The sun baked down on us, but we knew Jehovah was keeping us going.

As you can see there is no really good road there. It is just a lot of rock and dirt.

Our new meeting sign. I bet we are the only ones with a picture on ours. :)

Taking a break under the rare tree. Looks like something in Africa!

Enjoying a rest moment.

My new study, Vilma and I. She was so happy to study. She had the book already and read half of it but did not understand it all.

Justin with Willy on top of the truck.

Most of our group. There were 14 in all.

Going home. 3 on top, 11 inside.

Justin Washing Dishes

Here is how Justin washes dishes now. First in the States we had a dishwasher, then in Tarija we had an indoor sink and now we have an outdoor sink. We dry our dishes in the sun because it is so easy and quick.