Papallacta Preaching

For the first time, we went to preach in another territory, a seldom worked territory around the town of Papallacta. Papallacta is where the Thermal baths are that we went to a few months ago. It is quite cold as it is high in the mountains. There is no congregation near by, so the territory falls under the direction of a congregation close to us, Pifo. They asked for our help last Saturday to try to work the entire area in one day, since no one gets out there much to preach. So we signed up and met the 30 or so brothers from our hall at 7am Saturday morning. From there, most loaded up in a rented bus, and Hannah and I loaded up in Dennis' van, along with Danny, Omar and Carmita. After driving by the Pifo kingdom hall to gather the brothers from there, we got on our way. It was about an hour drive up into the mountains. Once we got there, we waited for 30 minutes for the others to arrive (I guess we made good time!) Since the others weren't there yet, they assigned us to start on our own in a pueblo about 15 minutes out of Papallacta called Cuyuja. It is a super cute and very quiet little town, maybe a mile and a half long. Although there were people out on the streets, it was very quiet and everyone watched us carefully to see what we were there for.

Hannah and I got paired to work together and man was it a great morning. Us 6 finished the entire vilage in 2 and a half hours. Collectively, we started 15 studies and placed all our literature. Every study we started, they asked when we were coming back to study with them. This was only a 1 day arrangement we made with the Pifo congregation, so we weren't sure what to tell them. Our instructions were to turn over any interest found to the Pifo congregation and they would try to follow up. But we would like to try to make arrangements to return ourselves and follow up on our calls. Maybe we can go once a month or something.

The atmosphere of our preaching was very relaxed and fun. Maybe because we were out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe because we were just with our friends, and never had a meeting for field service (all the other brothers had their meeting once they arrived and worked together in the town of Papallacta, leaving this other village all to us, with out much direction) So after a quick breakfast of cheese and crackers in the car, we had a prayer, and got started. Where do you start when the territory is an entire town? Where else but at the town church! Well, across from it anyway.

The first door Hannah and I went to we found a very old women. She must have been in her 90's. But she was very interested to see the blue pages of the Teach book. (that's what we call them here. The first couple pages with the changes Jehovah will bring to the earth...) Since she couldn't read anymore, she examined the pictures very carefully and before even offering the book to her, she asked if she could please have one and how much it would cost her. Hannah read her scriptures and asked if she would like someone to come read the book to her and explain more, which she readily agreed to. The women's son, the owner of the house, was sitting next to us on the porch listening to the whole discussion. After leaving the women with promises of someone returning, we spoke to the son as well.

The next good call was at the Parroquial, or City Hall of sorts. A little brick building, as dead as a door nail. I entered the building and found a young man and young women lounging around the one desk in the room. I just started by saying who we were and that we visiting the town to meet people and say hello and know the town and leave gifts (literature) with all the citizens. We had a wonderful, lively conversation of about 20 minutes, discussing the themes from the February magazine on "Who is God?" They happily took the magazines, asking when we'd be back with more. Another study started. Turns out they are a married couple and would like to study together.

And so went the morning... great call after great call. No one refused to talk with us, everyone was excited to receive literature and we got to see some beautiful landscapes. At one point, all 6 of us met up with a group of people eating at a side street stand. We spread out and each took a different person to talk to, including the cooks that were making fried empanadas. The cook was the only person all morning that refused literature because she was Catholic and didn't want us to leave anything. But she still let Hannah talk with her for a while and share a number of scriptures.

At one of the last "doors" we took, down a dirt ally way, we came across a couple of women washing clothes in the back of the house. I called one of them over, promising to be quick as to not stop her from her washing. She came over to the side fence, and I leaned over it as far as possible, standing on a tree stump, to be able to talk with her. After showing her the last 3 magazines I had, I asked which she'd like to read for now, and we could discuss it when we come back. She said she'd like all three, to which I said, "too bad. Choose one!" (We still had a couple houses and we were running out of literature) Anyway, it will be cool to see if we can go back and what response we will get when we do.

getting ready to go...

waiting for our ride with Omar and Carmita

the rented bus that the other brothers took

our group... minus me

This poor kitty, which we named Gatito con Camisa, had some kind of illness. It shook and made funny noises. It just sat there the entire time we were there. Poor kitty.

getting started, trying to get organized

this was our first house, where we found the interested old lady

typical home in Cuyuja

in service, we often come across agressive animals that prevent us from getting very close to the house, so we just yell to the house holder from the street.

eating lunch in the car after we'd finished the territory