They took this congregation picture for Hannah to bring home with here to remmeber them and to remember to come back as promised! (this is about half of the actual congregation)
This year the district conventions here were very special. Usually they are held at the assembly halls, and are about the size of a circuit assembly. But this year the branch organized to have just a handful of conventions for the whole country, much larger and held in big stadiums, like the one below. This is the stadium of La Liga, only the best futbol team of the country.
No, this is not an unusually large badge, this is a giant billboard outside the stadium. Pretty good advertising.
So we get there, and holy cow, there are a lot of people. It took us, literally, 45 minutes to find seats. We kept going to one section, just to have the brothers tell us that section is full and redirect us. But the stadium is built in a way so that to get to the next section, you have to exit the stadium, go around, then re-enter. Anyways, after a while we ran into friends, and all started looking for seats together. Below you see Danny, Fausto, Elsie, and Diana waiting in line to get in. This was the last section with available seats, probably because it was the nose bleed section. No covering, which means constant sun all day. And not just normal sun, equator sun and 9,000ft elevation sun, which basically means super duper strong sun, that gives you a headache. But hey, at least we got settled before the program started.
There are very few parts of the stadium that have real seats, and those were reserved for the elderly, all the rest are just concrete benches. But they were very clean. We went in the weekend before and cleaned everything really well, even painting the bathrooms and over grafitti, and pulling weeds outside. Good thing too, because it was seriously dirty. But tons of brothers went to the cleaning, it was a really good witness. And i don't think that stadium has been this clean since it was brand new.
This was our view...
You can kind of see the large screen showing the speaker at the very top, just below where it says LIGA.
Diana trying to get comfortable, with all her umbrellas and pillows. Thanks mom for getting us the umbrellas that are specifically for the sun and have SPF protection in them. They came in handy. The sun made it impossible to sit through the whole program, so we took turns going up and standing in the shade for a while, drinking as much water as we could, trying to avoid heat stroke. That was the only problem having the Convention in an open stadium in Quito during the summer.
We are very close to the airport, so all day long we were hearing and seeing airplanes pass overhead.
Whose idea was this shot???
637 were baptized! 6 from our congregation! There were three pools with 4 brothers in each one, but it still took almost the entire intermission. Doesn't the water look nice?
We found a couple of friends from the congregation.
No, this is not an unusually large badge, this is a giant billboard outside the stadium. Pretty good advertising.
So we get there, and holy cow, there are a lot of people. It took us, literally, 45 minutes to find seats. We kept going to one section, just to have the brothers tell us that section is full and redirect us. But the stadium is built in a way so that to get to the next section, you have to exit the stadium, go around, then re-enter. Anyways, after a while we ran into friends, and all started looking for seats together. Below you see Danny, Fausto, Elsie, and Diana waiting in line to get in. This was the last section with available seats, probably because it was the nose bleed section. No covering, which means constant sun all day. And not just normal sun, equator sun and 9,000ft elevation sun, which basically means super duper strong sun, that gives you a headache. But hey, at least we got settled before the program started.
There are very few parts of the stadium that have real seats, and those were reserved for the elderly, all the rest are just concrete benches. But they were very clean. We went in the weekend before and cleaned everything really well, even painting the bathrooms and over grafitti, and pulling weeds outside. Good thing too, because it was seriously dirty. But tons of brothers went to the cleaning, it was a really good witness. And i don't think that stadium has been this clean since it was brand new.
This was our view...
You can kind of see the large screen showing the speaker at the very top, just below where it says LIGA.
Diana trying to get comfortable, with all her umbrellas and pillows. Thanks mom for getting us the umbrellas that are specifically for the sun and have SPF protection in them. They came in handy. The sun made it impossible to sit through the whole program, so we took turns going up and standing in the shade for a while, drinking as much water as we could, trying to avoid heat stroke. That was the only problem having the Convention in an open stadium in Quito during the summer.
We are very close to the airport, so all day long we were hearing and seeing airplanes pass overhead.
Whose idea was this shot???
637 were baptized! 6 from our congregation! There were three pools with 4 brothers in each one, but it still took almost the entire intermission. Doesn't the water look nice?
We found a couple of friends from the congregation.
This is Santiago. He was having fun playing in the dirt at the intermission.
By the afternoon people were getting creative trying to get out of the sun.
Overall, it was a very interesting experience. The high attendance was 30,530. And many of those were brothers who had to travel long distances and make lots of sacrifices. There were brothers all the way from coast to the west, and from the jungle to the east. It is always encouraging to see so many brothers and sisters coming together to worship Jehovah. But it's hard when you realize convention season is over, but wait, I have one more to go. Kichwa......
Overall, it was a very interesting experience. The high attendance was 30,530. And many of those were brothers who had to travel long distances and make lots of sacrifices. There were brothers all the way from coast to the west, and from the jungle to the east. It is always encouraging to see so many brothers and sisters coming together to worship Jehovah. But it's hard when you realize convention season is over, but wait, I have one more to go. Kichwa......
8 comments:
PAHAHAHA I CANT STOP LAUGHING AT THE BLANKET SHADE PICTURE!!!! just hold your head right there sweetie, no no dont move!
I wonder what the brothers did who could not find seats when all the sections were filled up?
We were in Long Beach Sept 4,5,6 at their convention as martin missed ours going to Florida for his brother's memorial. It was pretty packed, although a lot smaller.
The sun in Budapest was really strong, too.That was a few years ago. There were about 70.000 I think, and people had to keep going up the steps to where water was available, and stay under the umbrellas while in their seats. Which it is very hard to take notes while holding an umbrella, but I figured it out sort of.
Very nice Assembly pictures and notes. It is such a good reminder of what our Bro's & Sisters are happy to undergo to attend what Jeh has provided. Really shouldnt be any different for each meeting or task. The experience of Jeh answering ;prayers even if 20 yeaars later is moving and I hope to share it with others. Thanks
Little Radish
i can actually sympathize with you guys ( well sort of) when we went to the futball game.. wow was it hot! and three days of it..you guys are awsome!
and hannah your hair looked lovely
the thoght of 637 being baptized at once baffles me. Thats 4 or 5 new congragations in one day.
What fond memories all that brings back. 80K at Dodger stadium, Anaheim Stadium,Candlestick park and more. We used to call our knees assembly knees as they were dark brown from the sun, as that was the only part of our body that wasn't covered with umbrellas or what ever we could find. They actually peeled after the conventions. Now you know why we arrived at 5am inthe mornings to get a piece of the shade if possible. Howerer we did have seats with backs except for the Rose Bowl- it had concrete benches like yours. It seamed the harder the conditions the more we appreciated the Conventions. I know you girls did!! Your photos were very clear you must be getting to be quite the photographers. Wasn't the new publications great. I loved the booklet especially. Hope to see you soon Hannah and you Elsie in Dec. Oh Yeh and happy q-tipping. Love Auntie
Elsie - Dad and I are really hoping to be there for the English Convention, next summer. Yet I still hope to have improved on my Spanish!
Estaba leyendo su comentario sobre la asamblea de distrito en Ingles. Y me recuerda mucho a las asambleas de ingles aqui en Mexico. Es como una pequeña asamblea internacional, con muchos visitantes pensando en mudarse. Ademas de que una cuarta parte del distrito sirven como precursores. Creo que solo hay unos cuantos lugares que tenemos el privilegio de tener asambleas asi cada año!!
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