Service, Service and More Service...

Posted on 5:14 PM
Wow!  We have been busy in service Thursday and Friday... and luving it!  Having great experiences as we put the ministry 1st and see how Jehovah blesses us with the rest.  Logan was sooo excited for service today... Hot and humid but armed with his waterbottle....he was ready, even his great smile  :) 



Here is a copy of one local territory that Nate was given and we finished.  It was of the downtown Quepos area, a business territory.  The small numbers circled are English speaking people....(some spoke little English, but we could communicate just fine with them)




On another sheet the circled numbers are listed showing who had a previous interest there and the location.  Then we write in any comments there may be...like the literature we left




We talked with many different ones and invited them all to the Memorial of Christ Jesus on March 30th. Most people here recognize the importance of the Ransom, but we did find one that didn't even want to talk about the Bible at all...Kinda wish I would be around to see who attends....but looking forward to seeing all our family and friends. 




OK....Sooo guess who came around the corner while we were in service????  This is the perro (dog) that I was talking about earlier in our Blog...the one that I felt sooo much pain for and now want to take home... His back left leg is the one that is injured.  It still has a gouge in it, but it looks smaller and I have a way of dealing with things much better now.  I just pray for paradise to come and then we won't have to see things like this anymore. 


So, this is kinda funny....Some of the curbs are sooo high here that they have a step just to get on and off of them.  I had to take this picture...


Oh yeah...I forgot to show you the goodies I made.  A little home away from home.  I had to have them and the kids too....I heated up the house for Choc chip cookies and Lemon poppyseed muffins...Yum!

Today...Nate and the kids stayed in and worked on schoolwork and studying their watchtowers.  The kids were very tired and we let them sleep in...Getting up at 6am can be tiring in the hot sun all day.  But off I went in service.  We checked out another territory and I got the privledge of working with ones from Canada...Brittney and Robin, two pioneer sisters that are here for a few months.  They just got back from Beliz for two weeks helping out there and visiting their friends they met from two years ago.


Here is a copy of the map we had...We took a bus to Manuel Antonio and there we hiked and climbed all day...5 hours in the scorching hot sun, to be exact.  I experienced some of the biggist hills I've ever seen.  the west Hills have nothing on these...at least they felt like it!  My calfs were burning and sweat was pouring off me...I now thank Jehovah for my sweat glands...this was the only thing that was keeping me cool when a little breeze came by...
I know these pictures won't really show the hills we climbed but just imagine...down one and up another for one house and some of these houses are sooo big!





This house was HUGE!  It is a custom home that is under construction.  The family is from Canada and working on it....
The guys below were working on the High voltage here...what a sight to see...in shorts, sandles and no gloves.  I know what they should be wearing, since my bro...Alfie is one.


I couldn't leave out this cute guy...I saw him in passing looking for my next house


A high five and a picture of Robin and myself after accomplishing a whole territory in the ministry...WE DID IT ! ... and had Great Success


"Thanks Jehovah for your Holy Spirit and another great day in service!"

The kids and I are now at the cafe...they are eating and then we are heading over to the market to get some fresh produce...it's only on Friday night and Sat morning here...
Then back to our place to prepare for Saturday service and enjoy a quiet evening.  Our friends, the Barros are coming in town Saturday and we are going swimming after service and having dinner together.  Looking forward to our visit with them.  We will really miss them when we leave, they are here thru April.  I guess we will have to make a trip to Florida, where they are from.  Any excuse to travel.
Heading out to the market now.  Love you all and will hopefully post tomorrow.
xoxo















A Full Day...

Posted on 11:11 AM
Tuesday was another great day in service... We were up at 6am getting ready and having breakfast. Erika and I met at the hall at 8am with the service group and Nate helped the kids work on schoolwork and prepare for the evening meeting during the day. We traveled about 45mins to the town of Dominical with Josh and Andra, a couple that is here helping out here thru April. Here we had territory to work and a couple of return visits. The drive was beautiful...

This was the Palm Oil factory that we passed


Once we got off the main highway, the roads were very ruff. Thank goodness for the 4x4 vehicle that Josh had to make it up those hills and cross the streams. There were rocks everywhere...




The roads were windy and it seems like we were traveling forever and then out of nowhere there was a house....I'm not sure how these people have water or electricity, but they do. Several times we saw wires hanging in trees and pvc pipe running along the ground. The important thing is...they have all their basic necessities of life and we found them so we could share encouraging thoughts from the Bible.

Here Josh and I waited in the very very hot sun!!!! We had a good time watching the moo moo's... I luv their floppy ears


Erika and Andra went to this house and had a great return visit. 

 


About an hour later...they came out!  The householder had been studying the Bible by herself and believed the same thing that they were sharing from the scriptures....she then asked them..."Is it possible that everyone else is wrong and there is only one religion that is the true religion?" They in return shared Math 7:15-20 .  How encouraging to hear this since we know that Jesus didn't belong to multiply religions...He did exactly as Jehovah asked him.  Some followed in His footsteps and others turned astray and only followed to their liking, like we see today...


They were happy when leaving and look forward to their next visit!
We headed to another house and Andra and I invited her to the memorial on the 30th.  She is going to try and find a ride so she can make it.  She really enjoyed us visiting with her...


What a simple life here! We talked to some people that have moved here from the US to raise their families and they are sooo much happier now. The same thing was said over and over..that they left the US because of all the politics and the government. We had several interesting conversations and before we knew it....it was time to head back home.



After getting back, I cooked an early dinner so Nate and Elesia could head out for service and meet Luis for a Bible study before meeting. Erika, Logan and I cleaned house and got ready for meeting at 7pm.


(I know...Erika cleans here....it's awesome)

The meeting was wonderful...Nate opened with prayer and you could feel Jehovah's Holy spirit on the congregation as everyone did a wonderful job on their parts. It's nice to get to hear new ones speak and learn about their experiences. We had a nice visit afterward with all the friends and Nate made arrangements with another brother to install the 2nd toilet at the Kingdom Hall and a security system this afternoon. How nice it is to be able to help the congregation out while we are here. We also made dinner plans for tonight(Wed). I'm making spaghetti for 13 of us and garlic bread (from a local bakery) Yummy.... There is another bakery in town that makes coffee cake and you can get a whole one for only 1,000 colones, which is just under $2.00 in American money. What a great deal and it is very good. I think I'll get a couple for after dinner. I can't resist!!!


We'll the kids and I are off to pick up some things around town and do some informal witnessing. I love placing the suffering and truth tract here. People have really been enjoying them...that's if you have a chance to give one before Elesia does. I usually end up just following up with a conversation. She is awesome at informal witnessing here! I think she got it from her dad...Haha


Oh and I forgot to tell you that Nate was invited on a local fishing trip on the river today...(maybe we will have fish tonight too...) I made him breakfast and packed him a lunch this morning while he packed Bible teach books. We were both thinking about “food”, just one was literal and the other spiritual....I can't wait to hear his experiences from placing them.


Hope all is well with everyone and our bunnies and Scamp are doing well.  We know they are in good hands with the Woosley's and Rossignol's.  Thanks for taking care of part of our family!!! We can't forget the big thanks to Justin for watching our house...
We send our hugs to our family and friends and can't believe we only have a week left here...talk to you all soon.  We will try to update Thurs or Friday.





Sunday and Monday

Posted on 3:16 PM
Sunday meeting was wonderful.  Vinny Barros gave the public talk on "Does your hope rest on Science or the Bible?"  Excellent talk! Then Chaba conducted the watchtower study and did an awesome job.  The meeting was once again very encouraging and the brothers and sisters are sooo loving.  The kids are making great friends. Here is Elesia and Logan enjoying their new friends...The Barros


The girls are sooo sweet
and the boys trying to decide what they should do....

Here's the ramp and step that the brothers poured and laid tile on so we wouldn't have to climb into the restrooms. ...The construction is coming along nice...Looking good !
After a hot afternoon we headed to the beach to cool off
Logan catching a wave on a board that we rented for the rest of our stay for only $40.00.  A great way to cool off after a hot day in service

Heres Nate helping Erika up on a board.  She was doing great by the end of our night!  Elesia and I played in the sand and enjoyed the sunset

Sunday night ended with a wonderful time with our friends and today, Monday we are cleaning, doing laundry and studying for Tuesday meeting.


Nate is reading the weekly Bible reading to the family while we enjoy a cup a juice with our sandwiches. 
The Barros family stopped in and off we go to a hotel to swim and cool off.  There is a local sister that owns the hotel and she was sooo sweet to let us come cool off and use the internet.  Here we squeeze into their vehicle that they shipped from home...It has AIR...nice!





We had a nice time at the pool and with our friends today.  Logan was trying to teach Elesia how to dive....Too funny! We're now getting ready to get a bite to eat and call it a night so we can rest up for another great day in the ministry tomorrow.  We'll let you know how our day goes....  Hugs and Kisses

Taste of Paradise...

Posted on 5:36 PM
A taste of Paradise is what we experienced as we visited the Manuel Antonio National Park yesterday.  We had a wonderful time and were privledged to have Jesus (pronounced Hey-suess), a Bethelite from Brooklyn, NY join us for the whole day.  WOW!  He was such an encouragement to us and he loved the kids.  Just what we all needed at the right time.  He taught us that we always needed to have JOY in our lives and told us the meaning of the word...
J = Jehovah first
O= Others next
Y= Yourselves last
I now will never forget the meaning of the word and when the kids start bickering...Nate just says...JOY and they get the point!  I would have never thought such a simple word would mean something so powerful. We're so glad to now have a friend in NY who's invited us come stay and wants to make all the plans for us.  We started at 7am with breakfast at our place and making lunches.  We then left left and caught the 8am bus for the park and that's when our adventure began. 
If this is just a little of what Paradise will be....I can only imagine!  We had monkeys hanging over our heads and lizards walking the paths with us.  We hiked up hills and rode the waves of the ocean.  Nate even got us to swing like Tarzan from a vine (and for us girls..Jane) .  We saw some of the largest bamboo trees and scariest spiders ( I was told that they weren't poisoness, but didn't take any chances either).  At the end of our day, we stopped and visited the family we are studying with and bought a few souveinirs from the vendors.  It was then dinner time at a Fantastic BBQ place called 'Chicken on the Run' and then across the street for an icecream bar to top it off.  We headed back to our place and Jesus came over and shared an amazing talk with us....It was a talk from a brother in Egypt where they are under ban and very very encouraging!  It is incredible how Jehovah uses ones to teach others about His purpose for the Earth...even in areas where Jehovah's Witnesses are under ban. I hope we can get a  copy of the talk to share with others...we will see
We had a very full day enjoying Jehovah's creation and taking many sooo many pictures that it was very hard to decide which ones to post.  Here are some we've selected and hope you enjoy them too!!!

One of the views from our hike...

"What's up there, Logan?"...

It's a sloth and he moves sooo slowwwwww

These guys were everywhere...on rocks, in the sand, on trees and even on the paths.  We saw some from 2" to about 2' long

We can't forget my favoite critter...NOT!  This one was the size of a baseball.  That's HUGE!!! (Don't worry...I zoomed my camera in on him) Too close even for my comfort!

Do we look hot and sweaty???? Because we are!

And the kids look cool as can be....that's because we just got done riding the waves and cooling off.  Sooo glad there was water to play in.  I wish the Oregon coast was as warm as here....

We can't forget these cute guys!  They were about 3' from us looking the opposite way when I made little monkey sounds  (eee eee) and they turned around for this pose....They probably were wondering who the crazy monkey was?
Later...we all had to try acting like monkeys...it was hillarious!

Don't let go Logan....

Elesia seemed like a natural! ....

and Miss Erika made it seem sooo easy that even Nate and I had to try....(we left those out till later...haha,)

We can't forget why we are here...... Nate placing a  Bible Teach book while informal witnessing to a tour guide passing by.  (Informal witnessing is awesome here!  People are sooo nice and willing to listen to the Bible.  It was a great conversation!

Dinner on our way home...It was if we had never ate before...we'll actually, I think the kids were just glad that we didn't make them eat rice and beans again.  We had ribs, chicken, salad, plantains, tortillas and soda...all six of us ate for a little over 11,000 colones, which is about $20.00.  A great deal and we were full...except for the room we left for an icecream bar... yummy!
That was our incredible day and there is more to come later.  Hope you are enjoying our trip.  We send all our loves....Hugs, The Olvera fam xoxo


American food...Yummy!

Posted on 5:29 PM
It's Thursday and a good morning to an all american breakfast....No not bacon, eggs and potatoes, but how about pancakes and bananas drenched in syrup.....yummy.  I had enough beans and rice for one day...so when I saw pancake mix...I bought it right away and price didn't matter!

I thought it was funny that the syrup said, "for export only"...I guess they were thinking of us 'homesick americans'...haha

Oh, i forgot to tell you that when we came home last night, we found this friend waiting for us on our window by our front door... It's a 'locust'
We used Erika's hand as a measuring tool.  Don't worry, she was on the inside of the window...we couldn't get anyone to volunteer for an outside measurement...Anyway, it was HUGE and I know it was closely watching us with its very BIG eyes!

After breakfast, we headed to the hall for service at 8am.  We setup at table with literature at the bus depot and it was very busy.  We placed a couple of Bible teach books and had several great conversations with interested ones.  With one lady...she thought that only 144,000 were going to be saved and she knew that there were more Jehovah witnesses than that, so what would happen to the rest? ...A great question...I was able to share Rev 14:1-3; Rev 5:9,10 and Isaiah 45:18 . After a wonderful conversation...she said, "that makes sense" and I invited her to the hall on Sunday, so we will see if she comes.  Nate also invited another man who was very nice and wanted a book too.  It's exciting to see such interested ones here and almost everyone has been sooo nice and willing to talk about spiritual things. 
Here are some people that we met today and I took their pictures

This was one of our invites to this Sunday's meeting

( I'm almost as dark as the tica's here.... thanks to the almost 100 degree weather)

So there is a great story behind this picture!  Tuesday was my breakdown day....(I cried all afternoon and wanted to go home) Just when I had seen enough poverty for the rest of my life and knew that only JEHOVAH could take care of their situation I had this stray dog approach me limping and I called it over to see what was wrong...when it turned around, I saw that it had a huge hole in its back leg(aprox 5 inches long and an inch wide) and I could see the bone...that was it for me....I got sick in the curb and didn't understand how people could just let an animal walk around town sooo injured. No one even blinked an eye at him, as if it was normal .
That's when 'Venessio' approached me and said, "It be OK, mi amiga".  Apparently when I was crying in front of his house, he heard me and came out to comfort me.  Later he told me he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses and shared Mark 12:30 with me (You must love Jehovah your God with your whole, heart, and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength) and He told me "to be strong" (I forgot to tell you that He didn't speak very much English either...just enough for me to understand the compassion he had for me)
I knew immediately that Jehovah used him to comfort me and it worked.  The last two days have been very different for me.  My focus has been back on the ministry and to encourage my brothers and sisters here that are working so hard in the ministry and not on myself and my problems...which are so minor compared to many people. So that's my new friend and a wonderful brother.

This is Luis and we are studying the Bible with him and his whole family(even his sister and her 6 kids)  Today his eye's teared up after our study and he said..."So, I need to taste and see that Jehovah is good"  He got it!!! Put Jehovah first and see how He will bless us....I love his family...wonderful people.  Here is his niece dancing for us..

She was sooo cute and not shy at all.  She learned God's name today, "Jehovah"

We'll, we just got done eating and Elesia and Logan are happy campers...sitting in their bean bag chair

while Erika chuggs more water and works on homework..."ughhhh", she say's 

 
Gotta go for now....luv u all!!!!








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