Circuit Assembly

This past weekend we had our Circuit Assembly and an outstanding Pioneer Meeting on Friday. The theme of the Assembly was "No Part Of The World" and it was packed full of great information and reminders, it also reminded us how important endurance is in this world as well.

We had 6 baptized, all sisters. Our District Overseer and his wife were also here, and Hermano Jahn gave such wonderful talks. We knew them previously from when we first came to visit Bolivia in May of 2010 and had the privilege of traveling back from the U.S. together. Here's a few pictures from over the weekend.

This is during cleaning on Friday night before the Assembly. The sisters here are cleaning and taping down the mats where the chairs will be set.

Steph and Bruce taking a break after lifting close to 1000 chairs.

Have you ever seen seat saving done like this? A trash bag tied between 2 chairs :)

Our District Overseer

The kids playing outside during lunch.

Our Circuit Overseer

After the Assembly we had to take down the sign, this is just a little more dangerous than what you normally see, especially when one of the brothers on the ledge is a Missionary :)

After the Assembly he had dinner with friends and went back to their place for Cappuccino Yum!

Preaching Amongst The Pigs

This evening we worked a territory pretty close to our house. One of the things about Tarija is that you'll find categories of businesses all grouped together such us your meat markets on the same street or your barbers in the same area, even your funeral businesses all grouped together. I guess it's no different when it comes to the pigs. Tonight our territory was littered with pigs of all sizes and colors. We posted some of the photos below.

On a side note, a few weeks back Stephanie and I were witnessing to a little boy of about 7 years old. We find young kids home alone all the time and this was no different, so typically we like to show them God's name from the Bible. We did so and he was very appreciative. After we said our goodbyes to him and were walking to the next house we see this little boy running up the hill. He had gone back to his house and picked up 2 little candies (which are like gold here) and was running to give us each a little candy. What an appreciation! We told him we would bring him something in return, the Bible Stories Book. Well tonight we went back to visit him and his cousin was there probably in his early 20's. After explaining to him why we were there, he went and got the little boy, the little boy was so excited to get his book, that after I read the introduction to him, he immediately started reading it and asked his cousin if he could go inside to continue reading. We then started talking in more detail to the cousin after the little boy went back inside and offered him the Bible Teach Book. After a nice discussion, we are going back next week to study with the little boy in the Bible Story Book and the older cousin in the Bible Teach Book. It really warms your heart when you see young ones in the ministry with such an appreciation.

These pigs live next to a trash dump, can you guess where a lot of the trash is going?

I've never seen bigger pigs than these two.

The ground cracks a lot here, this is Steph walking over a crack in the middle of our way.

We had some strong rains yesterday, so these pigs are enjoying the cool mud.

Turkeys!

More pigs!

Piglets with their mama.

Another set of piglets with their mom.

Unique Paintjob

Today as we were wrapping up morning service, a car stops and honks. As Steph and I are admiring the paint job we realize that the driver is one of my Bible Studies. If you've ever seen the movie Lilo and Stitch then you'll recognize the paint job on the car immediately. This is just another example of the new things you see everyday here in Bolivia :)

Week with the Moyas

We had a great few days with our friends serving in Potosi, the Moyas. They arrived on Tuesday afternoon. We greeted them with a homemade sign to welcome them to Tarija.Poor Ginette got sick the next day. We think she got some kind of food poisoning from Santa Cruz. So we all rested that day. Then on Thursday the girls and I went to get some spa time.

The guys tried to go hit some golf balls and couldn't because of a blockade.
After we all met together for lunch and spent some time in the park.

The next day their flight was overbooked so they were able to stay another day. So we went to the La Casa Vieja Vineyard.


Later that night we stopped at the dentist for appointments and to get some work done. Ginette started feeling bad again. I think it was all the running around. So she took a cat nap.
Also during this time we got a chance to meet little Josue Raul Santos for the first time. He is so cute. Only 10 days old here.

On Saturday they finally were able to get a flight out. We were very sad to see them go. We hope they had a great time and can not wait to go visit them in Potosi.

Children in our Ministry

The other day while we were in service we caught a photo of something that we often see here in Bolivia. A very young child all by himself.


Many parents do not have anyone who can watch the children while they go and work. Sometimes you will find a child as young as 4 or 5 taking care of a baby. Children here are not able to stay children for long. Taking care of the house and younger siblings is life for many young ones in Bolivia. It is very sad and sometimes I get very angry when I see this, but what can I do...nothing. So when we do find ones at home that are old enough to understand why we are there, we ask them about God and see if they know he has a name. Then we show them Psalms 83:18. They really do like knowing that God's name is Jehovah. We had a young boy about 8 at the door the other day and showed him this scripture. When we left the door he came running after us to bring us both a piece of candy to show how grateful he was. (He was very poor and this was a huge thing to give us his candy.) We told him we would bring the Bible Stories Book back for him and read him a story each week out of it. He was very happy. So in our ministry we meet a lot of children. I always think about how much Jehovah loves them and try to treat them with respect and teach them something about Jehovah.

4 Year Anniversary

This Thursday Stephanie and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. We went to a small town about 15 km from here called Coimata and stayed at a little hotel called La Pasarela. It's a very quint place with some of the best views and food you could imagine. We stayed 2 nights there. They have trails which you can hike and bicycles for exploring the area. They also have a swimming pool for relaxing. The best thing about La Pasarela is the food, the owner is from Belgium and is just an amazing cook, anyone that visits us is going to be taken there from now on. :)

Tomorrow Bethel has the zone visit here and they are broadcasting via Skype to the larger cities around Bolivia. Here in Tarija we will be having it at the Colosseum that we have our Assemblies. The only weird thing is that tonight there is going to be Russian Ice Skating and we have to come in after to do the cleaning, which is supposed to start around 10pm. I have a feeling we're going to be in for a treat with all that ice clean-up and a very loooong night especially since I've got the cleaning. :D

Steph excited about the Filet Mignon she's about to eat (Yeah we're really suffering here ;)

A view from where we hiked, just above our hotel

Enjoying the mountain views

Our little house (we stayed on the left - we were the only ones there the whole time)

The view from our room

Bicycling through the little town, the weather was great, the bicycles not so much :)

We bicycled to where you see a lot of people washing their clothes and food

Even though it's prohibited as this sign next to the river explains

Even though we're in the rainy season this river which Steph is sitting over is completely dry

After our bike ride we enjoyed a refreshing dessert

Monkey Time in Service

Today in service we found a cute little monkey. It was a pet of someones and was super friendly. I have never touched a monkey before. Their hands are so human-like and the way it looked at me was like it understood what I was saying. It was so nice to meet the cute little thing.