Our Day Today at the Beach

First freshly dead puffer fish I had seen.

These rocks are about a half mile up the beach from us. So beautiful!

THE BIGGEST PUFFER I'VE EVER SEEN!!!!

Chilling out on the rocks!

First day at Puerto Lopez Beach

Trying out surfing for the first time

The view from Court and Anna's place.

Jordan's surfboard.

Kelly was the one that really tried to surf. Look at that determination!

Yes! This is the Kingdom Hall in Puerto Lopez. It just so happens to be on the way to Court's

Random Pictures

       

This was a Queso soup that was DELICIOUS! I also had a Coco Pescado. Yum!

Courtney and Sarah made a chicken pasta dish. And then we had a movie night! Such fun

This is my favorite picture of Kel. She was about to venture out to el bano, lol!

This is Maji, Suleka, and Joann! Mi nuevo amigos!

This is Kel while we were making our way up a ridiculously huge hill. Isn't she disgustingly gorgeous!

This is Joann spelling his name for me in mi computadora. Apparently he actually has four names!

Courtney enjoying her coco soup and fried fish

This is Sushi. Court's been housesitting for a couple friends, this is their gato.

This is me being the kids merry-go-round.

Then they decided to dog pile on top of me.

Me and Kel's manos. She's so tan! And I'm still Blanca Nieve lol

Update

So I haven't posted in a few days, sorry. But things have just been super busy and my brain is being fried by all the Spanish, lol.
So we still haven't started our Spanish lessons. We have an email to send off to the school to get it all set up. Hopefully next week we will finally be starting those. Yay!
And I have become friends with the kids around here. They have been running around calling me "Blanca Nieve" which apparently means "Snow White"!! How cool is that!?! lol! I'll post some pictures of the kids dog piling on top of me and using me as a merry-go-round. erick chancay. <That was one of the kids :) He just came over and wanted to spell his name into the computer (computadora) So cute!
I got to go out in service again. This time I spoke twice at the door. I have a couple return visits now! I just opened up the watchtower and read the "Learn From God's Word" section. Really easy and everyone is willing to listen! A couple more times and I'll have a couple studies! I just need someone to go with me so I'll know what they are saying back to me. lol. The problem is that there are so many studies that there isn't anyone to go with me most of the time! We'll see how this works.
On a sad note, one of our little next door neighbors has Dengue. She's in Guayaquil in a hospital right now. Our elders Eden and Steve are with her right now. She apparently has the worst kind of Dengue. It causes you to hemorrhage. She lost alot of blood. At a certain point they force a blood transfusion. But she has managed to stay just above that mark. The brothers and sisters here are very emotional. Kelly and I walked into the Kingdom Hall and everyone was sobbing! We thought that she had died. But she had gotten worse, not dead. Still waiting for word as to how she is doing today. They thought last night that she was stabilizing.
Kel and I took a break and took a walk down the beach. It was so beautiful! I'll post pictures. But there were several reminders that the ocean can be unkind. Two dogs, four blue footed boobies, one pelican, and an inumerable amount of puffer fish. Although I suspect the puffer fish are cast-offs from the boats.
I got to help out with the cleaning at the Kingdom Hall yesterday. We swept out the hall and dusted down the chairs. Then we went outside and picked up every leaf from the gravel outside. It was alot of work, but alot of fun :) As I was leaving I headed down the wrong road. It was just like something out of a movie. The little lost gringa went the wrong way while all the locals are screaming at her and she's too busy daydreaming. I finally got the message and headed the right direction with a ridiculous smile on my face. It's such a good thing that we have so many good patient brothers and sisters here!!
Tomorrow is the country-wide day off. Not sure what we will be doing. We'll have to wait and see. But we got a response to our email to the Spanish teacher. She said that we can definitely have lessons on Tuesday. And we're not sure if we can get another one yet. I really hope we can!
Well I've gotta get going. I have two little ones running circles in the kitchen. Ciao mi amigos!

Experiences

So I thought that I would post some of the amazing experiences I've heard since I got here. All of these experiences are from my congregation here in Machalilla.
 One that was very moving to me, was of a brother that used to be the town drunk. His family used to be absolutely petrified of him. He would drink and drink and then come home and beat his wife and kids. But witnesses came to talk to him one day and he decided that he would start studying. He eventually cleaned himself up, no more drinking. And he became a loving husband and father. Now his kids adore him and they have a happy family life.
 One thing that is a MAJOR problem here is that the men think that infedility is normal. They feel as if there is nothing wrong with having several different families. One of the studies here was having an affair with a married man. When she started studying, she made the decision to break it off. The married man didn't like that very much and would stalk her all the time. The study, trying to find some sort of protection, found another man that was not in the truth and married him. The man she was having an affair with was so infuriated that he tried to hire a hitman to kill her husband. But the funny part is that the hitman ended up calling the husband asking "What have you done to make this man so angry?" When the situation was explained to the hitman, he decided that he wouldn't take the job. And told the studies new husband what he had been hired to do. After that the ex decided to back down. And that study was just baptized this past weekend at the assembly and is now a sister.
 The one that impressed me the most was of a young man that lives next door to me. His name is Estefan. He dabbled in spiritism when he was younger. So all his life he had problems with demons. He couldn't even carry on a normal conversation with anyone. Maxine said that when she first came to Machalilla, she would wake up to him screaming. His family would put him in a truck and drive him out of town to take him to witchdoctors and whoever else they thought could help. But nothing ever worked. But then his parents started to study with the witnesses. Little by little he started to get better. Once him and his family accepted that Jehovah was God and Jesus was his son, he was finally better. No more demons. Now he is a very sweet young man that can interact with other people as if none of that had ever happened to him. It's so amazing what Jehovah does for his people!

Youtube

Hey!
 Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm starting a youtube site. Just type in "vronitay" and you should be able to find it no problem. I've only got a couple of videos on there so far. But hopefully I'll get a couple more on today. I'm sick and stuck at the house all day today. Misery. I'm the only gringa that would catch a cold when I got to Ecuador instead of the usual "tourist sickness".

Our First Spanish Assembly

This first picture is of Kello (obviously), Maxine in the red, and Courtney in the blue. The sister on the end had a nice conversation with Kel, but I didn't ever get her name.

This is Diana. I can't remember how many years she has been serving in Ecuador. But it's been a long time. She's a super sweet sister from Virginia originally.

This is Andrea. She's super sweet and lives in Puerto Cayo. She came up to me while I was waiting outside the womens restrooms. She does speak a bit of English. So slowly but surely she helped me understand a couple of basic questions in Spanish.

These two girls are Genesis and Ros...... I could not for the life of me understand her name. They were EXTREMELY energetic girls that spoke a mile a minute! It was almost impossible to understand what they were saying. But they were super friendly and sweet. And very excited to meet us!

This is Maria! She's so fun!! I can't understand what she is saying so she mimes things out for me with great enthusiasm. I already love her to bits!

This is Maxine with her "Novio" Joseph. Aka "Cougar Bait". lol.

This was after the assembly hall was all cleaned and everyone was leaving. Yes, behind us is the hall. It is open and absolutely beautiful!

These two girls were waiting patiently outside to get in. I do not remember the one on the lefts name, but the one with the dimples is Diana. She is super sweet! This little girl sought out Maxine to have a bible study! She's as smart as she is sweet.

On the left is me with my new pal Jonathan. We were sweeping out the kingdom hall on the back of the assembly hall. I've totally fallen in love with the kids here. There's so adorable! On the right is Luis. He's part of "the family" the has been collected by Maxine and Courtney.

Here are two friends I made on the first day of the assembly. The little boys name is Andi. He gave me a flower, TOO CUTE! And I wanted to steal this little girls hat. I didn't get her name. I don't think she ever spoke. But she gave Kel a flower.