May Preaching Experiences

[Ed. Note: Yes, yes! We know this is for May and it's almost July. Better late than never right?]

We've been going preaching every day except the days one of us is sick.  The first service day was the toughest. Steph, Ariel and Ashley stayed up all night talking so by the time 7:30 rolled around, all they wanted was to sleep.  Steph and Ashley ended up going out for a couple hours and of course they had the territory that was the farthest away from the hall.  Thankfully Jehovah blessed their efforts and Ashley was able to leave the Awake magazines on injustice with two people.  One was a woman in an internet cafe who was super sweet.  She told Ashley to come back the next Tuesday.  She had been training someone new and Ashley spoke to her husband one Saturday morning and he was very receptive as well.  On the same street Steph found a kind woman who works at a taxi station.  She is extremely busy but willing to listen when it's possible.  Ashley found a man in a car stereo business who took the magazines and told her she could come back.  Since then he has been busy on every occasion she passes by but they've arranged to talk around noon on Tuesday as well.  We'll keep you posted on that :)


Ariel and Kaitlyn have been really practicing and perfecting their presentations in Spanish.  It helps that they don't speak fluently because the householder will sometimes permit them to go through their presentation and they can give some sort of good witness.  Kaitlyn has a few good return visits, one of which happens to be home only once month.  He works 22 days in a row then has 8 days off, he told her to come back in a month to continue their discussion in the Would you like to know the truth? tract.  At first he didn't want to listen, then when he saw the question about will war and suffering ever end? He wanted to know what we believed.


The sister that lives in the apartment we are staying at left Ashley with the same study she had last time.  It's so great that she is still studying the Bible after a year.  She has been difficult to have a regular study because of work obligations but once she actually sits down, the study lasts a little over an hour.  She loves to learn new things so it's very easy to keep her captivated.  When she found out about the fact the bible prophesied the destruction of Babylon and that it would be desolate forever, she was shocked and googled it to assure that it was true.  Google for yourself if you're interested to know ;)  Anyway, her confidence in the Bible was renewed.


Maria also left two studies with Stephanie. They are sisters who both have a stall in the local market. Their mother died earlier this year, so they have a lot of questions about death. It is difficult for them to study in the market, though because they face a lot of opposition from other venders who don't like witnesses. They were pretty discouraged, but we have had some good studies. They both have really opened up. It's been nice to be able to visit them, even if they only have a short time to study.


On Ariel's first day out in service, she came across a man named Rodrigo. He was interested in the Would You Like to Know the Truth Tract, so Stephanie and her made plans to come back the next day and discuss the next question. They ended up going on Thursday at well and started a study with him. The next week he studied twice and even came to the Sunday meeting! Stephanie and Ariel studied with him for a total of 3 weeks before turning him over to a brother in the hall. As far as we know, he's still progressing on his study. :-)


Another return visit Ariel had on her first day is a woman named Catalina. She had a lot of questions, especially about family life. It was more Spanish than Ariel could handle, so she arranged for Stephanie to take over. They've been studying about every week. Catalina has also asked her 21 year old daughter  and her 17 year old to sit in so they can hear the information on family life too. Stephanie has placed the Young People Ask with the teenage daughter. Hopefully all the information can help them get along better!


Stephanie also had a really nice experience with an older woman, Mariana. She was leaving the day that they worked the territory, but accepted a tract and said afternoons were better. When Stephanie went back, she invited her in and told her that she has some questions about death and the 144,000. So she pulled out her Bible and read through chapter 8 of the Bible Teach book. She accepted everything once she saw it from the Bible. She has continued to study, but is currently visiting her family in Canada and will return in July. 


In the same block, Stephanie spoke with another lady who works at a store. Her name is Raquel and she was really interested in suffering. She is hard to catch, but when she is available she is really sweet. Her teenage daughter also had a copy of the Bible Teach book and said that she had read most of it. Perhaps with time the whole family might study. 
 
Obviously, Jehovah's holy spirit is in action! We all feel so privileged to help out and be a part of the greatest work ever!