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.