English Convention

Hey All,

Im sure you have all been very busy like we have here. I want to get better about posting updates. So I figured I would start with our District Convention we had the last week of July. It was an amazing experience! Along with the wonderful spiritual food, this convention is very unique as far as who attends.

Ill give you some background information on this convention so you can see why it is so special. About 10 years ago when more need greaters started coming out to Ecuador the brothers saw the need for these friends, most of which English was there first language, to be encouraged by continuing to have the District Convention in English. So the program was not for a circuit but for the need greaters throughout Ecuador. So even though today English is now a foreign field that is being focused on here in Ecuador and that has become a circuit, the English District Convention is made up of mostly friends who are in the full time service: English speaking need greaters, pioneers, missionaries, ect. You can imagine how exciting this is, going to a convention of about 1000 in attendance, friends from all over the world, serving in full time service and in all parts and languages in Ecuador. A truly unique experience!

I hope you all enjoyed and benefited from this years program as much as we did!

Progress...

Hi everyone...

So first I should apologize for not posting too much recently..we've been keeping ourselves pretty busy. Also due to an unfortunate incident Ariel's camera is broken, hence the reason we haven't been posting pictures as well, don't worry though a back up camera is on its way! Alrighty now I wanted to share some encouraging things that were announced during a recent service meeting in The part "What Did We Accomplish?" When Ariel and I arrived here in Feburary our publisher count was 33. Our current publisher count is now 54! Its awesome to see so many people taking the invitation to serve in a foreign field. Our memorial attendance was 96 which was 44 people more than last year. Now for the best part...remember this is increases from the month prior so not total counts.

March- increases from February
- 3 publishers more
- 442 hours more
- 173 more mags.
- 69 more return visits
- 8 more Bible studies


April- increases from March
- 8 publishers more
- 1428 hours more
- 69 BIBLE STUDIES!!!

Amazing to see first hand the growth of a foreign language congregation!!! Hope you are doing good please keep us posted on how your doing! Miss you all

Field Experience

So I had a request to post a nice experience and decided to share this one with you all. A sister in my congregation was out of town so myself and another sister meet up to take over her study for the week. We had our study in a coffee shop which was pretty empty since we got there when it opened. We were just about done with a 2 hr study and a lady walked over to our table. She said "Excuse me, I overheard you talking, I have me own religion and faith but I feel like this is an opportunity for me to learn more about God, may I please join your lessons?" I was in a moment of shock trying to figure out if i heard correctly..I  did, we arranged for her to join the following study and she was excited when I gave her a personal copy of the Bible Teach Book. I look forward to hearing about her progress and hopefully seeing her at the meetings! Its very encouraging to experience these things and I hope you all are encouraged by it as well.

Also in the July study edition of the Watchtower there is a really nice article of serving in Ecuador, take a look at it when you get a chance I'm sure you'll find it interesting! Take care everyone and please let us know how you are all doing.

Gotta love Quito!

Tres de Mayo

on some rare occasions... rumors are true ;P

If we were to leave Ecuador as we originally planned we'd be on a plane today :/ BUT as things don't always go as planned... WE GOT NEW VISAS AND CAN STAY TILL OCTOBER :D Looky looky that's real real nice ;) Less than a week here we were already talking about extending our stay then baddah bing baddah boom we got new visas! Hahaha it wasn't that instant lol. It took a lot of prayerful consideration and help from the friends but woah Jehovah is amazing then comes the baddah bing baddah boom :D We're so excited, absolutely love it here. And to the friends back home... its not that we don't like you, we just know you'd like us to stay here and continue to enjoy our service :)

More Canadian Awesomeness!!!!

F ~ R ~ I ~ E ~ N ~ D ~ S

One of the best parts of serving here in Ecuador is making friends from all over the world and knowing that we are all working towards the same goal of serving Jehovah fully. At the same time, this makes for one of the worst things about serving..saying goodbye to these new found friends :( Its interesting because Ariel and I have found we draw close to people much faster then back home, we attribute it to a combination of a few things. One were all away from friends and family...and really everything we know. Also we are all encouraging each other in this endeavor just by being here. We all are in a way forced to rely on each other for challenges and struggles we may have here. Its great to have each other and even though its the hardest thing saying goodbye we wouldn't change a thing about having these great friends...really a new family.

We have had an amazing time with a group of pioneer sisters form Canada, who are at this point some of the best friends we have made here. Girls we will truly miss your smiles, laughs and zealous spirit. Love you all and cant wait to hear about your next spiritual adventures. Maybe we can join you on the next one eh? :)

    Jaclyn ...QUITO!