Oh the joys...

I know I don't normally update this quickly, but I just had some funny things happen the past few days.

Milk Waterfalls

The other day, I went to the grocery store, which, without a car, stinks.  I walked there, but had to take a cab home.  Still, getting the groceries 1. from the cab to the curb, 2. from the curb to my door, and 3. from the door to my kitchen, is a process!  Honestly, I try to go the store as little as possible.  Anyway, I had successfully managed to get half of the bags to the door and was opening the door when, low and behold, a three liter bottle of carbonated water busted through the bag and crashed into the bag of bags of milk.  Haha, I know that sounds funny, but milk is sold in bags here.  You can't buy a gallon container here.  We normally pour the milk into a pitcher once we open the bag, but until they're opened, they're just stored at room temperature.  Weird, right?  Well, there I was, standing in a puddle of milk, watching the milk start streaming to the stairs, thinking, "Seriously?!  Couldn't this have happened several steps ago!?"  So is life :)

Another one bites the dust

Another thing that is a never ending is shoe repair...  I have now officially WALKED HOLES through FIVE pairs of shoes.  I've had some re-soled and used them again, but walked through them again!  So... does that make it eight pairs?  :)  I've included some pics of the latest victims...  They lasted me a while, but they're to the point of no return... too many super glue-ings, too many soakings in the rain, too many miles!  Thanks Laura for sending me some new shoes, you're the best :)  I've already put them into the rotation!

BERNARDO & The Water Outage...

Also, Sunday was my first day of dog sitting. We're not talking just any dog... it's a 200lb Saint Bernard! My friends left for a three week vacation and I'm in charge!  The poor thing seems so sad already :(  Obviously, that's not funny, but I went to feed him after I got home from playing basketball with some friends and I wanted to take a shower and give him some new water.... BUT, the water was out!  My apartment is 3 doors down, so I went home to shower because our house has some reserve water for situations like this.  Unfortunately, the reserves didn't last long...  So, I spent the past few days bathing with baby wipes and putting on a hat for service to cover the disaster that was my hair.  This morning, Wednesday, the water came on for a few hours... Now, the water isn't exactly clean looking...  it's brown.  But, boy does it feel good to be semi-clean!  We took advantage of the few hours to fill every garbage can and bucket we could because we don't know when the water will be back :(  Here are some pics!

 Buckets, buckets & more buckets!

Lovely brown water

Hello again!  I've had a few really cool service experiences that I want to share :)

First of all, I was trying to support a new pioneer in our hall and join her for long afternoons in service.  Since the borders of our territory were just changed, most of my afternoon studies were in the old territory and I had to start from scratch.  So, every afternoon consisted of a lot of door to door.  In one block, a young woman and a little girl answered.  They seemed interested in learning more about the Bible, so I offered to return the next day and show them how to use the new brochure, Good News From God.  When I returned, the little girl, Yesenia, was ready to study and the young woman was nowhere in sight.  Silly me, I thought I'd be studying with the adult, but the children here never cease to amaze me :)  She invited me in and got out her Bible to look up the scriptures.  After the study, I asked Yesenia when I could return and she essentially asked me to come every afternoon!..  we settled on every other day :)  Every study she wants to give me juice, bread, fruit, whatever they have in the house, as a token of her gratitude.  Yesenia has expressed to me some concerns she has with her family, drinking, marital problems, etc. The other day, I asked her if everything was okay, and she responded, "Yes, we've had food every day this week, so that's good!"  It nearly broke my heart. It's amazing how strong and generous young people are and how much they really appreciate Bible truths. I'm working on getting her to come to my house to eat lunch which we study.

The second experience comes from a return visit that I'm doing for Stephanie... I went to study with a girl at an internet place, but she wasn't there, so I decided to talk to the girl that was working there instead.  It turns out, she was the normal girls' sister and was filling in for her for a few days.  We talked for a while and she had a lot of good questions about how to strengthen relationships.  I went back a few days later and answered some more questions.  The girl, Cristina, told me that she might not be filling in for her sister the following week, so she asked me for my phone number and email so that she could make arrangements to meet again since she had more questions.... Normally, the fact that people ask for my information is shocking in itself... BUT Cristina emailed me a few days later and practically begged me to make plans to meet again :)  Of course, she is going to be starting a different job next week on the other side of town, but she asked if we can continue to meet downtown because she has a lot of questions.  We'll see how this plays out!