"Hey Man! You Like French Fries?"

Things have been busy as usual! I've been able to start a few studies this past week and these guys are just awesome. Today is normally my day off, but one of my students requested that I come today, so i got Herby to go with me this morning. Unfortunately , we weren't able to have the study, so we decided to make the most of our time and do public witnessing. In just a short amount of time, we met three guys and were able to set arrangements for studies with all of them! So our CO was encouraging us to just speak english to people and see how thy respond.  One example he said was just asking the peopl " Do you like hamburgers?" It would be pretty obvious by their reaction if they spoke englsh or not. Herby wanted to try this out, so he goes up to a man today and says to him " Hey man! You like french fries?" The man whipped his head around and said " whatchu talkin bout french fries for?" IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! It may seem silly, but the results prove that this can be effective!

 The other night we were all treated out to dinner by a very kind brother yesterday night. He was adamant that we get what we wanted and not to worry about any of the expenses. So a group of about 15 of us went to Square One , a very American restaurant , for our feast! We had so much fun! To the right is Lenin, Hannah, Maria and myself . The next picture is Rina and Ambar. Ambar has such an amazing story all about how she came into the truth and it will be posted up here soon. I won't spoil any of it for you, but her story will make anyone cry. So keep your eyes open for it!

 I had my first motorconcho ride today! Motorconchos are the motorcycle taxis . It was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was the driver, Herby and I on this small motorconcho. I was on the back of the bike with one hand on Herby's shoulder and my other hand wrapped around my bag and Herby's folder. I was nervous at first but it was awesome. I am definitely doing that again! My mom hates the idea , but it's a very common way of transportation so i have my excuse .

We're looking forward to our circuit assembly this weekend as well! We the have two guests coming in on Thursday from the capital. One is a young brother and the other is an older sister who has been in the full time service for sometime now. I'm sure that we'll really get to learn so much from these friends . For the Pocket fans, you'll see here that he's happy, healthy and lazy. A Pug/chihuahua mix getting to enjoy his senior years in the Caribbean. He's definitely enjoying the life. He's been losing weight too! He's finally at a healthy weight after all these years.

We hope you friends are doing well! I hear this winter is pretty awful. My heart goes out to all of you who are coated in snow.

Nos Vemos,
Aaron

Branching out to our new family

The CO visit was so encouraging !!! I found out that it was brother Simon's first time ever serving with an English congregation , but his English was so good!! Each morning at the field service groups , he brought out something he wanted us to try. For example, one morning he stated that we were to use only our bibles at the door. Another day focused on starting studies right away and so on. All there methods proved very effective and many of us got results immediately. I was able to start a new study with a young man named Luis! He must be in his late teens. He was so great ! He came in from playing baseball to sit and talk. When we asked him questions, he didn't just recite an answer from the book. Instead, he thought about the information and have a heartfelt answer! I felt like this was different then any other study that I had conducted because of how much he wanted to learn. We went over the first few paragraphs of the first chapter in the Bible Teach book and I'm slated to return next Monday.

We've been having the friends over our new apartment lately. It's been nice because we can all relax and just get to know one another better. So one night we had some young ones over and we danced and sang. It was pretty loud once Adele was being sung. These girls LOVE Adele. Another night we had a large assortment of friends over. Two sisters from connecticut who are visiting for a little bit , two missionaries , and some other friends from our congregation and another Spanish hall. This night was SO enjoyable. Not only did we get to know these experienced publishers better , we sang kingdom songs like our life depended on it. We had 4 different languages present , so people were singing in French, Creole , Spanish and English. Regardless of the language, the praise to Jehovah was beautiful. The best part was the food tho! Shout out to my mom for rocking the barbecue chicken. I couldn't have enough of that stuff.

Below you'll see Graham, Mario, Herby and Adrean. After that is a noni tree!!! For all of you health freaks, this is what you're drinking!! Next is Teresa with Clara Luz. We were teaching her about god's kingdom and Jesus being king which is why she has a crown on. Lastly, you'll see that gangnam style has infected the farthest parts of the world!

Nos Vemos,
Aaron

A special week of activity

Hey friends!!! Our apartment is starting to feel more like home everyday now. We have furniture in there now and everything is starting to come along well. We just have to paint the walls and then I'll post up some pictures for everyone to see.

We've been able to spend some time with friends visiting from the United States lately. This past Monday we all went to the beach and I was the one leading the whole group! I was nervous because it was my first time bringing a group outside of Santiago, so I was just hoping everything went well. We went to get the bus around 7 AM and then found out the first bus was going to leave at 8:15 so we were going to have to wait an hour. Aaron Bailey , failing before 7:30. That was just an amazing start. Haha BUT I saw a girl who was definitely American so I said to on of the sisters with us that she should go preach to her. The sister sat nearby her and began to study her Jeremiah book and the KM for this week. The girl came over immediately and was a witness too! She was visiting for two weeks and was on her way to Monte Cristo. After we all met (causing a little scene in the bus station ) a man came up and knew who we were right away. He said he was a pastor and commended us for the work we do here. A strong witness was given and suddenly we all felt better about showing up to the bus an hour early.

Sunday we had a speaking from bethel and he gave two talks that were so great. The last in particular was about the our spiritual diet and how important it is that we feed ourselves regularly. He even showed us some ways our brothers in some lands are getting their spiritual food where the watchtower and awake are not allowed. It was absolutely amazing. Jehovah really does make sure we all get our spiritual food. I was just in awe. As for this week, we have a visit from our circuit overseer. Brother Jones is at the school for the CO's in Paterson so we have Brother Simon. I'm not sure where he's from but he has a heavy accent, I think maybe Haitian. This brother is FULL of love. His talk tonight was about the progress our congregation has made as of late. We have 57 publishers, 18 hour average , 11 mags average and almost each publisher has at least one study. The brother was practically bursting with love! He made a really amazing point tho that I never thought of. During the great tribulation while we are being persecuted , we will still be preaching but our message will be different. It will be a judgement message and people will hate us for it. This really helped me understand why we are looking over the Jeremiah book as a congregation. We are being prepared to take the heat and we are also being reminded that Jehovah will always be there for us as he was with Jeremiah. I'm looking forward to our week of activity with him and my first pioneer meeting with the Santiago English congregation!!

Below are an assortment of pictures. First was our jam packed concho ride out in service. There are no words to express this picture. Next we have Graham and I doing the Gangnam style out in service. Don't tell Teresa , we did it while she wasn't watching. Next, we stopped back to the orphanage and visited the children again. The little girl in the picture has mental disabilities and she drooled... All over my back.... I looked to Teresa and Graham and was thankful that I was just drool , because it could be a lot worse then that. And the last picture is our beach day. In the picture next to Graham is Blake, a brother visiting from the states for 3 months. Behind us is Joel who is also visiting for three months.

We hope all you friends are doing well and think about you often.

Nos Vemos ,
Aaron

Off to a running start!

Hello friends!!

Everything has been so crazy since we returned to DR so I'll try to lay out the major details as well as some nice experiences we've enjoyed.

First off , WE MOVED INTO OUR NEW APARTMENT!!!!! It's not grand , but it'll do. We have beds, a stove and a fridge. We've just recently installed wifi , which has been the primary reason as to why I haven't posted anything lately. Also it appears as tho we are going to have guests soon! A brother from Japan who is serving in the capital will be with us for the circuit assembly , as well as a sister who I don't know. We're looking forward to getting to know them both better. Being right across from the Kingdom Hall is awesome!! We just cross the road and I'm immediately at the service group! Now my laziness can enter a whole new level.

We rested for the first day after we arrived and then got to the preaching work ASAP! I brought Graham with me to the sign language group and we went along with Teresa and Esa to Clara Luz and Sarah , another deaf girl. It felt so great being able to use my sign language again! Teresa ten told me that she had a young boy that she wanted me to study with so we made plans to work with Teresa on Sunday morning and we were in for such a treat! Teresa brought us to an orphanage wher she visits a young blind girl. As we drove in , all the little children were waving at us and yelling "HOLA!" We ended up not just preaching to the blind girl but also about six other children. Using the Listen To God brochure , we all conducted studies with the children. Even Graham with his limited Spanish was able to study with a boy using the pictures. We are planning on go back to visit all of our new friends very soon. After that, we stopped in on the boy to Teresa would like me to study with. I know his sign name is a "K" but we don't know his full name because he has problems spelling. Regardless, he was very timid at first. But Teresa saw that he responds to drawing, so she had him draw the first pages of the Listen To God brochure. Soon after, we were showing him some new signs and having him imitate these. We know he will do well in his studies and I'm excited to be able to have a study in sign language!!!

We are continuing work on Clara Luz's book. She's been progressing so fast so we have to keep making more and more pages. This may seem easy, but the process is difficult. First, she's never been able to see the things we're teaching her about such as gambling , earthquakes and so on. So we have to make cut outs of foam or use objects to convey these ideas. For example, the subject of gambling. We use a card , a few pesos and some dice to put the idea in her head about what gambling is. That's just one thought. We have to convert the whole Listen To God brochure into this. While most of this work is done already, we are still making more lessons for Clara Luz.

Below are some pictures of our visit to the orphanage and Clara Luz , as well as our night working underneath the brutal dictator known only as ..... TERESA. Can't you see how mean she is by the picture. Haha

We are so happy to be back and in the action again as the work continues to grow ! We hope you friends are doing well and think of you all often.

They "made us come " - Acts 16:15

Well we return to Dominican Republic TODAY so this blog will be back up in action !!! I wanted to let you all know of something that really touched my mom and I as we visited the states. When we realized we would have to return for a time , my mom was very stressed because we have no home in States anymore and no vehicle to use as well. But a close friend of ours encouraged us to stand back and see what Jehovah would do for us. I remembered my friend , Graham , had offered us a place to stay previously when we were transitioning through homes. So I placed a call and immediately Graham's family said that we should stay with them for however long we needed to. Now that we had lodging , we needed a vehicle. Well as I was talking to Graham and asking if anyone had a spare car we could use, he told me that they had one and we were more then welcome to use it! It was amazing to see that in just a mere 5 minutes , all our problems had been solved and it was all because of our Christian brotherhood. The LaRose family offered us the mother-in-law apartment beneath their home which was furnished , had a kitchen and our own bathroom. As for the vehicle , we were allowed to use whichever van we wanted , even their brand new van. Just thinking about this whole experience over the past five weeks has really impressed on me that as brothers and sisters , we must show extraordinary love to one another.

As we got to know the LaRose family better, we became closer friends and were able to encourage one another. For example , one thing that I learned from Greg and Heather (Dad and Mom) was patience. They have three kids living in their house and they really are cultivating them in such a way that is sure to see results. Graham(son) was very kind in letting us take his car whenever we needed to , even when it inconvenienced himself . Tristram (son) was so encouraging because he had such a strong desire to comment at the meetings. His hand shot up and would get so excited! As for little Aubrey (obviously daughter ) , she gave her first comment and she would always say the cutest pray before she ate. I was really just so impressed with all of them and we look forward to spending more time with them next summer.

While we were disappointed that we had to return to the States, we were so encouraged by the many things we could experience. We saw many demonstrating of Christian love while helping out in disaster relief work and with the hospitality we were shown. We saw Jehovah's hand guiding us along as we met many Dominicans here and were able to give a witness to them. And finally we made new family and friends who we share so much in common with , all because of our God.

So now we return to DR and Graham will be returning with us!!! He'll be staying for six weeks , just enough time for the circuit assembly in January! This is his first time serving where the need is greater , so we're looking forward to the many blessings he'll receive as well as the experiences he'll enjoy. So it's time to get back to work!!! We are so excited and happy!!!

Here's a picture of Aubes(that's my name for her ) and another with Mom and Tristram.

We hope you friends are all doing well and we think of all of you often !


Nos Vemos,
Aaron