Arizona weekend 2

Let us continue with Sunday from my weekend trip with Ziv to Arizona.

I woke up early that morning so I could study my WT since I hadn't been able to during the week. Since Myin had already woken up, I asked him to accompany me to the van downstairs, so as to get my copy of the WT. I couldn't find it, so I had to print out another copy in the hotel lobby. I told Myin I would just study in the lobby until I finished and it was time for me to get ready. It was a few minutes past 6am and I saw another sister from our group getting some coffee while explaining to the Security dude the reason of our coming to Yuma. She even placed magazines with him! It was very quiet setting while I studied and I was able to finish it and head upstairs to our hotel room. I took a shower and was the last one ready, but since the Jones' were going downstairs for breakfast it wasn't urgent for me to be ready. We had our last breakfast together and made sure to have all our luggages ready to be loaded into the van. We checked out around 9 and headed to the Kingdom Hall in Yuma for the public talk and WT study. We got there about 15 minutes before 10, but the hall was already full of brothers and sisters. My brother and I sat with the Schneider family, while the Jones' family say about two rows behind us. The public speaker was Derrick J., the brother visiting from Minnesota, and he did a great job. Very enthusiastic and he had my attention the whole meeting. The title of the talk was, "How to conquer Bad with Good(Love)". The meeting attendance was of over 200 and there was a large participation from the many visitor, including our group. Once meeting was over, our group joined the service meeting and we went out until 2ish. 42 brothers and sisters went out in the afternoon! I was able to preach to a young girl and talk to her about the third question on the Truth tract. We were a large caravan of about 7 cars and we all followed our 'leader' to and from the territory. We finished our territory! From there we went to eat at Subway inside of Walmart. Since we had been invited to the graduation of a young girl from the hall, and she had been someone we already knew, we headed over to her house. It was very nicely decorated and several of the brothers and sisters we had met throughout the weekend were there. Lots of purple and black! After a while of mingling a prayer was said, and then birria was served. Must I say, yum!! It was awesome. I was presently surprised. We had some karaoke and sang for several hours. I had fun, and then we also got to see Dominiques gifts. Since we had been invited to a Thank You Dinner, after a certain time two of the cars from the Jones' group left to say goodbye to our hosts. It was another 15 minute drive to sister Christina Williams home, but when we got there we were able to share in a very intimate setting. It was very cozy inside and there was a group of some playing a boardgame, and then another simply chatting and drinking coffee. When our group arrived they decided to switch the game to Apples to Apples. THAT was fun! Some of the adults went outside and started to put some music on to dance to, so we ended the game, picked up and also headed outside. I noticed the majority of the songs were line danced to. I liked one in particular called the Wobble. I loved seeing the difference in music taste and the way others enjoy their gatherings, depending on their upbringing. I had fun, and after having enjoyed dancing for a while, Isaac and Marcia arrived with Myin. They said hello, had some dessert, but we left shortly after. I asked the youth to please take a last photograph with the youth from our group and we did. The ladies decided to go in one van, while the guys in another and the last car stayed the same. While we were driving back home I decided to check out my Instagram and post a photo of the night, but I realized that my photographs were all in my camera. I started to look for it and remembered that I had not gotten my camera back after the last group photo. As I thought this aloud and said so to the girls, I got a call from Christina telling me I had left my camera. Mind you, we were already about 25 minutes away from her house and a caravan of three was ready to get home. Senta quickly thought of a solution. While we made a stop at Starbucks before getting onto the freeway in Yuma, we would wait and meet with the another car group of sisters that was also at the gathering but had mentioned they were going to drive home in El Centro shortly.  We walkie talkie-D the news to the 'leader' car and then I made the call to the girls from El Centro, and we arranged to meet in a few minutes at Starbucks. I felt very embarrassed about forgetting my camera, but the adults, well some, assured me that it wasn't a big deal, since they were all able to get their caffeine shot and quick pee break. Our large group of 11 got off and just as the last one entered Starbucks they told us they were going to close in 3 minutes, but they would get our orders and then have us go outside. It took several minutes to get all of our orders and to make them. About 5 minutes after we all got our drink, headed back outside and got our last things ready for the trip, the girls arrived with my camera! YAY! I was so glad and grateful.
We finally were able to get on the road and start our drive back home. Our van had some R&B music playing, and I knew a few so we all sang along. It was very funny and I laughed a lot. We had finally crossed back into California and had literally just passed the sign welcoming us into the state when we hit something and our left front wheel popped and our car slumped forward. Senta was able to control the van very well, and she just drove into the center of the freeway and we walkie talkie-D again to the other cars. Leader van said they had been able to avoid something that looked like an animal carcass, but instead we hit it and then the car behind us had it hit them too, but nothing happened to their vehicle. Senta called AAA insurance and while she was on the phone a cop came by and asked what the situation was. He was very friendly but asked us to veer onto the right side of the freeway and he motioned and guided us on how to. All of the girls in the van transferred to the first car and then others to the third car. Since I really had to pee and so did three others, the leader van took us to a rest stop about 3 miles away. The other two cars stayed together and waited for AAA. We continued to communicate using our walkies, since the signal in that area was very terrible. We all met back up at the rest stop and were finally able to continue our journey. Although we had all switched spots, the 6 siblings ended up together. The third row, which was made up of Ziv, Bethany and Andrew, fell asleep almost immediately. The second row, Ericka and I, stayed up the whole ride back and we had very interesting and deep convo with Myin. Isaac was also in the front, but he seemed to be dozing off. It was such a beautiful ride back, and I loved seeing the clear sky shining with so many stars and the bright moon following us as we rode through the desert. We shared our thoughts on the weekend and also spoke about the weekly Bible reading, which was based on Revelation. When we finally got to Lakeside and actually were inside of the house it was 3 am. We still had to inflate some of the inflatable beds and have a midnight snack. More like a madrugada snack. I was so tired, I went into Bethanys bed and feel asleep fast. The following hours, I tried to sleep as much as I could, but I could hear the lovely ladies talking on an on. So I forced my eyes to open and at 9:30 we all got up and those who had time to showered. Everyone was hungry, so we wanted to get out of the house and get to Denny's as soon as possible. Brunch was very enjoyable and we played our own version of Apples to Apples. It was so funny and difficult to chose at times. When we got back home, the 6 siblings decided to play Monopoly, but we were all so sleepy, that it was hard to play with enthusiasm.
 My dad came for both the Schneider kids and Ziv and I at 4. We said our big thanks and our adieus to the Jones' family and headed to National City to drop off the kiddos. After leaving them at their home and once we were on our way home to Mexico, we were able to share with my dad some of the experiences we were able to enjoy during our weekend in Arizona. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am very glad to have gone and brought Ziv along. I think that the people that were a part of our group became good friends with us and I hope to maintain that friendship.

I recently received an email stating that 30 persons went to the first meeting in Gadsden thanks to being given an invitation. Although many more were in attendance, the rest were brothers or sisters. We have been invited again to go another month for another weekend of special activity. They still need to complete more of their territory and they need help to find interested ones. So, if you are interested in going, let me know!

I hope to go back soon and help out with the advancement there.

Arizona weekend 1

About two months ago, more or less, I received a text message from a friend in the English congregation from the same hall I went to while in Lakeside. Bethany Jones is her name, and she invited me to go with her family to Arizona the last weekend of December to support the territory in a town with no English congregation. I told my parents about it, and promptly replied to her saying YES! Since that initial text message, I received more information from her father through emails, and we were also able to include my brother in the trip. We would both stay with the Jones' family from Friday morning until Monday afternoon. I also learned that we would focus on handing out invitations to the first English talk given in Gadsden the first Saturday of each month. I was really looking forward to it because it reminded me of the work we did in Mexico when we did search work. 

On Thursday of last week my brother and I got our luggages out and had to select clothing for the weekend of activity that awaited us. Since we had meeting that night, I had to continue after meeting and I went to bed slightly later than I wanted. On Friday morning my dad woke us up at 3 to load our things to the van and cross with him to the States. My dad leaves early to have enough time to warm up the motor of the van and get his coffee ready for the drive. It also is a good time to cross the border because one can avoid waiting too long in traffic at the border. So that is what we did with my dad that morning and once we crossed within 20 minutes, we drove to Lakeside. Once in Lakeside my dad parked at the Vons parking lot and slept until 6:15. He usually does this until he has to go into work, but since we were getting dropped off at the Jones' we did this earlier. Anyways, when we arrived at the Jones' place, Bethany's older brother Myin, opened up the door for us and we brought in our luggages and blankies. We were able to talk while he got his things out from his room and waited until the rest of the family was awake. Once Bethany was ready Ziv, Myin, Beth and I left to get breakfast and coffee at  a Mexican restaurant and at 7 Eleven. We took that back home and ate with their parents. About 20 minutes after we finished eating and had started to load things into the van, our first addition to the caravan arrived. Two sisters, S... and Marlena, mother and daughter, both from the Jones congregation and their niece and family friend arrived. I never got to learn their last name, but they were all friendly and the younger girls, eventually became more comfortable with us. Well, once the van was loaded we went to 7 Eleven again to fill the van with gas and we also met with vehicle number 3 joining our caravan. The Schneiders: Senta, Erika, and Andrew. Something that I had only used once before on a road trip was used in this mini road trip and it became a great tool of communication. Walkie Talkies. So, each car in our caravan had a walkie talkie and this is how we communicated the rest of the trip while on the road, each day. It was so fun. Once we all met and our cars were full, we headed onto Highway 8 and started our trip. 

We did two stops on the way, one at the Golden Acorn Casino to buy some tape or super glue, and the second was in El Centro to buy some dried grasshoppers, which we didn't find. But, both were practical since we were able to have bathroom breaks in each one. We arrived to Somerton, Arizona around 2:30pm and dropped off some Karaoke equipment at a sisters home, but then went to Jack in the Box for some food. This was our first picture with all the kids..oh, and one adult. 

LEFT TO RIGHT: Kayla, Andrew, Phoebe, Ziv, Bethany, Erika, Izmir(aka me) and Myin.

 After lunch we went back the Hoffs home (where we had left the Karaoke equipment) and did some testing on the mic and screen. The testing resulted in an afternoon of singing together, and we continued singing until about 7:30 pm  or later. I had fun during that time and some good laughs as we all tried to sing along to songs we either didn't know the melody to, or didn't like. The drive from Somerton to Yuma was of about 25 minutes and we got to our hotel about 8:30 and met in the lobby with a group of JW's. There were 3 of them, all with their cowboy hats on and vaquero boots and buckle. Interesting first impression, but accurate. The man who was signing us all into the hotel and who was giving us towels, turned out to be  brother too. It was awesome to hear that the majority of guests staying in the hotel that weekend were JW's, 50 brothers and sisters! Anyways, that evening the kids stayed together part of the evening talking until I decided to take a shower and go to bed. The following morning we all got up to have breakfast at 8 am in the lobby and this is a photo of our crew..








The service meeting was at 10, but the schedule we had all been emailed stated that the drive from Yuma to Gadsden was of about 50 minutes, so we had to leave by 9 am latest. We did and the drive to Gadsden was on the same road we had taken the previous night from Somerton. We actually drove past Somerton and continued another 20 minutes until we made it to Gadsden. On our way we saw a lot of fields filled with vegetables and we came up with a game of guessing the name of the produce. When we drove into the KH we saw that there were brothers cleaning the hall and some were working on the doors, these were all from the Spanish congregations. We also arrived 15 minutes before the service meeting, so I was able to take some pictures and meet the other witnesses I saw. Here is a photo of the KH before the service meeting.



 This is outside of the building. 5 Spanish congregations meet her, each with an average of about 100 publishers. It also is about 80 feet from the Mexican border, something I found surprising.

By the time is was 10, the KH was packed, and the total attendance turned out to be of 121 that morning. The brother who conducted the service meeting turned out to be the same brother working in our hotel the night before. He told us to be thorough in our search and to take our time. Try to speak to someone from each house and write down the information from each house, even if they spoke Spanish. If we found English speakers we only gave them the invitations to the special meeting the following weekend and tried to get a name. A demonstration was given by the cowboy brothers, whom we had also met the day before. The brother, his name Charles Banks, also mentioned several cities and told us to raise our hands if we came  from them. Our San Diego group was a mighty one! Then we were divided into groups, depending on where we came from. So, the Jones' group went with a local brother who would take us to the territory and give us instructions once we arrived. Br Banks continued to organize the groups and send them off with local brothers or sisters for another few minutes. After everyone had someone they were assigned to we had a prayer, but that wasn't it yet. We also took a group photo and that took another 15 minutes to organize and another 5 of purely photo taking. The brothers and sisters there were so kinds to us, they even had donuts and coffee for us outside. So after we used the bathroom, had our donut, and got the group together, we finally left the hall and headed to San Luis. 

Brothers and sisters from all ages and backgrounds came from Los Angeles, Long Beach, El Centro, San Diego California, Tucson, Phoenix, Yuma Arizona, Reno Nevada, Chicago Illinois, St Paul Minnesota, and San Luis, Tijuana Mexico. There might have been other cities represented, but I can't remember.  Im on the right in the second row, wearing green. Ziv is in the front row, third from right.

When we got to the territory, Beto Olaiz handed each couple a sheet which we would fill out with information from each number we preached to. I worked with Bethany in the morning until about 12:10 on the same street as her parents. Ziv went off with Beto (or Bethel as everyone ended up calling him) and then switched to be with Andrew a bit. Since we finished up our street pretty soon, we waited by the car and then headed out to lunch with our caravan to get some Mariscos(seafood)! I did get to talk to a younger woman, maybe in her mid 20s who speaks and reads English. She has a Bible at home and I read to her Acts 17:11 and told her that its important to make sure that our beliefs are in harmony with what the Bible says. She accepted the November magazines and the invitation with a very friendly attitude. I need to ask more questions though, I will try to work on that. 

After lunch! We had to rush back to the afternoon service meeting where we got an attendance of 92!!!!

So, the rest of the afternoon we preached and I worked with Isaac (Chief Jones) and with Erika, then I worked with Bethany for a while again. We had the same people work with us in the afternoon, but an additional 6 persons joined our group. We each spoke to someone again and this time I got to talk to a young teenager who actually was interested in knowing the answer to question number 3 on the Truth tract. We analyzed it together and also read the scriptures together. She told me that her mom also spoke English and that she would share the invitation with her. I hope she did and I also pray that she becomes someones return visit. I had to pass some information from my house to house record onto the sheet we gave back to the brothers, so I did that and we finished. One of the car groups left to the hotel, and so did the Jones' van with the guys, only Senta, Marcia, Erika, Beth and I stayed to go to Walmart. We needed some things and also some closed shoes for the bonfire that evening. It took us a while to drive back from San Luis to Yuma, so when we finally did everyone was waiting for us and ready to leave. We had to quickly change and drive back to the Somerton area for the bonfire. Although it was cold outside and dimly lit, we were able to dance a little bit and talk to others. I got to talk to the sub C.O. visiting from Minnesota. He graduated from MTS back in 1996 and has been in St Paul since. Here are some photos..

Senta, Erika, moi and Derrick Robertson or Robinson.. sub C.O.

 The adults all decided to leave before us kids, so the 6 of us stayed until the end. The 6 siblings!! I really enjoyed being with this group of young ones and so did Ziv. We all felt comfortable with each other, and their conduct was always very proper, so I didn't worry much. Myin drove us all back to Yuma, but we all were begging to get Ice Cream, so he took us to Cold Stone. I forgot my wallet, so Andrew payed for both Ziv and I...I owed him. Anyways, it was a nice additional stop and we took a picture there too, although that was taken on Erika's phone. Cold Stone was right across from the hotel, so we decided to head back to the lobby and finish it there. I printed out an application for the girls that I had received several years ago, and it made them laugh. A young brother who had joined us during the afternoon service was also in the lobby when we arrived, so he joined our table and we learned that he was from Tucson and a Regular Pioneer. Then we all were able to share our positive thoughts of RBC and we had good chit chat. We even talked about New York. We were only down at the lobby for 30 minutes, but it had gotten late by then.. 11:30 pm.


I will add part two to my blog soon. I had an awesome weekend and felt very encouraged afterwards.