Service and hanging out with the cong...

Cricket cricket.... we are still alive :-) been forgetting to update the blog! But not too much new to report. We have been in service , working our "personal territory" which is 54 square blocks around our apartment.. Yup u read that right 5-4! Since its a new hall still we are all working to establish territory and doing TONS of census. Which can be hard when ur trying to keep up with return visits, and establish studies... But either way it's a great territory, we do find English speakers , and also find many our the characters of our 'hood ... Haha.

We also have been making an effort to invite friends from the hall over , small groups at a time, for desserts, games , or simple dinners.. Including a couple and a family that were visiting from states and canada(sorry naomi for posting pic ;) ) So that has been fun and in turn we have been invited over by many in the hall. So we have been having fun getting to know the ones in hall better.. Which is making us sad to think we are going to be leaving in one month, we are already know we are going to miss them: :( they are all making us promise to return !

Oh and also a couple in our hall hosted a talent show at their house! It was so cute and fun to watch, everybody got involved with a lil something! Raf represented for us as a backup "guitar player" lol.. The bro asked him if he could pretend to play guitar behind him as he sang a song he wrote.. Some played real guitar, sang(karaoke), danced, played a Smarty pants... Oh and we found out raf has a new skill: hula hoopin' ! they made everyone try it and raf was among the top 3 best, surprisingly! Haha. Ill post some of those pics as well.

Oh and raf found a group of brothers that play at the park right next door to our place , they are crazy cuz they play Monday nights 930pm-midnight! But of course he loves it.. Haha, it is a well lit park with free wifi so I just hang out n use my comp.. :)

Well here are a few pics of us hanging out in our place an at others , view of outside and inside of our hall, and the view to beach from the hall... :)

Rafs 1st English talk! & pioneer meeting!

Well this Sunday I was a proud wifey! After almost 6 years of giving public talks in Spanish , Raf gave his first public talk in English!!! He did so good! I know how hard it can be going from spanish theocratic Lingo to English theocratic.. Of course it's all the same but it can be challenging! (I mean I still struggle from English to Spanish.. Haha) any hoo.. He was relieved to get his first public part done, and the congregation enjoyed it. They were surprised it was his first English public talk!(ok here I go into bragging mode! But what can I say I'm proud of my man, haha )

It was such a nice Sunday because that same afternoon we joined the annual pioneer meeting . There were 5 of us visiting pioneers but the hall now has
12 pioneers (with 32 publishers!) it was held in an old Kingdom Hall that is now only used for service meetings..

It was such an Encouraging meeting! Of course there were many good points but a few of our favs were:

Talking about budgets! (Rafs strong enforcement of ours helped us to get here to Chetumal , haha) but how does this relate to pioneering? Well as we all now these days everyone struggles in these hard economic times, and as pioneers the pressure to take on more work just to cover necessities can be hard(we know the feeling). But the brothers and society encourages us to rely on jehovah, that the moment we feel we may need to stop pioneering (from Discouragement / economic pressures) first to analyze our budgets! Many times we can make a realistic physical list/budget to cover properly our expenses. (Many articles but particular one in Awake of June 2011 has article on Budgets) we can both vouch for the fact that giving full time service to Jehovah is great! It helps keep us focused in ministry and so much less stressed! And keeping a budget is a lifesaver for our pioneering(altho i push rafs budgets to limits sometimes,... Ok alot.. Lol)

As one sister said "pioneering liberates you to be used where Jah wants you to be used, and we can truly see Jahs hand in our lives!" Dido sistah:) pioneering helps us to put trust in Jah.

As another brother(whose home was recently broken into and robbed) mentioned: "you don't worry too much about being robbed because we learn to be content with few things. Therefore less things to rob!" Lol, what a great attitude in a tough situation!

Going along with what the brother mentioned.. Here in Chetumal one thing that I personally have been surprised by is that we honestly have nothing in this apartment of ours (compared to back home) yet we are content and able to do everything we do at home! I should clarify.. When I say nothing I mean a few service /casual outfits, a very small kitchen with literally one small shelf for storage, and a fridge that is about 1/4 the size of our fridge at home! Lol. We have 2 pans, 1 pot and a small 2 burner stove. Only COLD water(when the water is actually working..)for showers, 2 kitchen towels, 2 bath towels.. A small bed that poor rafs feet hang off of, a dining table that barely fits 2 plates at same time ... This may seem like a little bit or much to you, but for me/us very eye opening! My shopaholic ways, need for space and THINGS is truly being adjusted here!! We really focus on service, studying, and meetings here! Everything else is extra . We also don't worry too much about being robbed because the only valuable things are really just our phones. We are just happy making our main priority service !

The pioneer meeting mentioned the text in 1 Timothy 6: 6,7,8 "... For we have brought nothing into the world, and neither can we carry anything out. So, having sustenance and covering, we shall be content with these things" so we learn that being content with basic things coupled with having godly devotion makes us happy. Here in Chetumal we really see this is soo true.

Keep life simple, serve Jehovah the best you can, set spiritual goals and with Jahs help you can accomplish them! :-)

Lago Bacalar

So this last Friday we played hooky from service Nd went with our good friends here Aaron and claribel to Lago bacalar ! Its also known as "the lake if 7colors" its fed water by Underground cenotes (Dangerous to swim by woth its strong currents.. so we stayed away..) It's just about 25-30 mins from our apartment . It's the 2nd largest lake in the country and it's absolutely beautiful! We went to their favorite spot Cokalitos.. It's where they had their wedding!:) we pretty much had the spot to ourselves the whole day, and it was perfect weather out! We hung out, played games, studied and ate our lunches we packed :) I would love
To vacation there permanently ! The water was "sweet water" .. it's diff lake cuz at most waters edge it's actually deeper than in middle, so it's shallowest parts are in center.. But in a diff area of lake they hold boat races.. So it's a very diverse and huge lake!

Then on way out we walked to Cenote Azul it's doesn't look like much but it's a very big Cenote, with more fish in it than in the lago! It's super deep , and they said they stopped measuring the depth at 300ft.. So they really don't know how deep is is! And there is a rope that spans across the middle for u to hold onto in case u get tired, cuz there is no where to rest... Kinda creepy and none of us wanted to get in.. Yes we big babies.. Maybe next time.. Lol.

Will def be going back to visit!

Mexico City PT 2

Decided to break this trip up into 2 post since there is so much and so many pics!

Day 4-6::

Day 4:

Today drove about 2-3 hours away from bethel to the city of Puebla. It was a beautiful city where we ate and hung out it the Centro Historico. While there is a church/ cathedral on just about every corner... There is HUGE cathedra right in centro historico ! It was quite ridiculous ! It reminded if those churches I've seen in Europe, it even had a painting in the dome like the one inside the Duomo cathedral in Florence, Italy .. Well check out the pics..
And if course my dad and Tios sniffed out the best Churro stand in the city and we all stuffed our faces with freshly made churros:)

Day 5:

Today we had a slow start but we drive about 30 mins away from bethel to the pyramids of Teotihuacan! Very impressive! Almost all of us (even my mom! So proud of her! Haha) made it to the very top of the largest pyramid there! The Sol pyramid is biggest of the two, Luna is large also. Then we all had a family dinner where our count was 30! Check out the pics!:)

Day 6:

We all woke up very early and joined the bethel family for morning worship! It was so nice! And even our cousin David had comments during so we were all excited , and clapped n cheered after his comment! Jk! But we were glad to be there on that morning:) then we all went on bethel tour guided by family that is in bethel. First half by cousin Karina, then printery by cousin Gadiel.
While we were in museum it was neat to see my dads family in many of the pics showing the growth of the witnesses in Mexico City bethel and rest of country. Look for the pic of a service group (est 1930s) where my great grandfather Alejandro is on far left, and grandpa German is the small boy in white shirt :) then we had a final lunch with everyone and we took off to catch flight back to the hot and humid heat... We returned so encouraged, but a little but homesick after seeing all the Fam. But we had a great time!!