Recent Service Experiences

We have had a phone territory sitting on our table for about a month now, waiting to be started. Last week we finally overcame our fears and got started on it. And we are glad we did! We are calling all of the numbers in the phone book, very quickly asking for any English speakers. It is a great was to get started each day before we leave the house. Yesterday morning before service I was making a few phone calls and found a woman from here who speaks very good English. I simply offered a bible study, and she said she was interested! She gave me her address and we have an appointment for this evening at 6:30. I'll let you know how that goes. We have already had many good experiences from the phone territory. Last Friday another sister in the hall called someone who ended up going to the meeting that night! Between the census and the phone census, we are going to find every English speaker in this city. We are looking forward to many more good experiences to come.

Yesterday I finally found a call that I have been looking for for about 8 months now. I had stopped by Tatiana's house at all different times of the day, but she was either never there, sleeping, or not able to come out. But the first time I found her she was so interested and wanted to study the bible. I had decided yesterday to leave a note with my phone number on it, and then leave it up to her to contact me. I was writing the note and reading it out to Elsie when behind me, someone walks up and says, "I'm Tatiana." Finally! She was only home briefly for lunch and said that between work and school she is usually gone from 8 in the morning to 10 at night. No wonder I hadn't found her! But she was eager to finally start her bible study and we made arragements to study on her lunch break this week. I am so happy I found her at just that time!

(Elsie here.) The same day of the above experience, we also went to a man who I had called on a couple times before. We really felt like he wasn't interested because everytime I went back after the initial visit, he said he was busy even when just watching TV, so I figured I wouldn't go back. Here getting back to RVs is difficult, so they really have to show some interest. However, since we were in the area, I thought I would give it just this one last try and see if he'd had a change of heart. Well, apparently he did because he said he had time and he wanted to talk. His life has not been going so well lately and we talked about the Bible's promise to rectify the situation soon. In the end, he took the Teach book, chose chapter 4 to discuss next week, and we made plans to return Monday at 1:00. Lesson: If you feel an urge to check on an unproductive call just once more, do it!

It seems like we have been finding a lot of Americans in the territory these last 2 weeks, which is always nice. It might be harder to preach to them, but we feel very satisfied when they have been contacted. These are the ones we want to focus on since they are not able to be taught by the local congregations here. Anyway, our friends found a family from Kentucky yesterday, very nice, had never seen the magazines before, and wanted an invitation to the meetings. That kind of friendliness from foreigners here is not so common.----  Last week, another American was contacted and a Bible study was started when our friend Dan found him walking on the street. The man said he was in a hurry, walking to go pay his electric bill but invited the brother to walk and talk. So they took off for the electric company, discussing the Bible along the way. In the end, arrangements were made to continue the conversation at the man' s home. ---- In the territory yesterday, an American couple approached the group as they were leaving the territory to go home. They asked if the Brother's were Witnesses, and when they said yes, the woman related that she used to work with a Witness and was told that even in Ecuador they could find them if they kept their eyes open. The couple had been waiting to see us in the streets and finally found us.

Lastly, one of the homes we went to yesterday turned out to be a little doctor's office. We had seen a tall white guy walk in a few seconds earlier, so we were intrigued. The doctor answered the door and didn't understand the sister who was asking in Spanish if anyone spoke English there. He is originally from Haiti, but moved to the States when he was 5, then to Ecuador about a year ago. He was so excited to hear that we spoke English, he literally grabbed us by the arm and dragged us into the waiting room. He introduced us to the gentleman in the waiting room, who was from Texas. We explained to all of them there why we were in Ecuador and why we were looking for English-speakers. They weren't put off at all, they asked questions and took meeting invitations and even asked for my phone number. We had a nice discussion about volunteer work, the meetings, and possibilities to learn more with a home Bible study. The Texan said that he was only here for 3 more weeks to get affairs arranged to then move back early next year. He said, though, that the meetings seemed like something he'd like to participate in when he gets settled here. You never know... Oh and we were offered free medical consultations anytime from the Doctor! Bonus!