You're my teacher!

We've had many friends who had stayed with us here in Santiago for up to 3 months and now they're returning back home. I feel really sad seeing them go because we've gotten so close to them and now we know we won't see them for about another year or so. So this week has been sad. Almost all the group supporting the Imbert English Group will be leaving and even some from the congregation. Last night we had a gathering for a few of them to say farewell. We ate , we gave experiences and played music. People talked about their favorite times preaching , whether it was with small children who truly understood about Jehovah or other scenarios where Jehovah helped us to find someone we were looking for. The night was filled with happiness and appreciation for the privilege to be here with our brothers in Dominican Republic.

On that note, the friends who have been leaving have studies and return visits that they need taken care of. So they've been handing them out to whoever is in need of studies or would be able to help their student. This is where my funny experience starts. So the other night I was on my way to a return visit and saw a young man named Eric who study with the Cornelius family. He was waiting outside the Spanish meeting and so I ran across the road to say hello. He's very shy so I always try to say hi to him. When I saw him his face lit up! He exclaimed "Cornelius is leaving! You are my teacher now !" You can imagine my shock at the statement because The Cornelius family never told me that they wanted me to study with Eric or anything about him. So I said "ok so I'll see you at our meeting tomorrow morning !" and let him go into the Spanish meeting that was about to start. The next morning he came to the meeting and sat with me. He even read a scripture during the watchtower study! After the meeting we got to talk more and Eric told me that he is studying in Spanish already but that he still wants more in English! So he told me that I should come by Wednesday at 9:30 for his study. He had set up this whole study on his own!!! It was so awesome. So I decided that instead of actually "studying" with him that we would consider the watchtower study for each Sunday and help him prepare a comment. That way I'm not getting in the way of his Spanish studies. Eric truly has the spark tho. He'll do Great things with what he's learning. I'm just looking forward to see him progress even more.

Below is a picture of the Cornelius family, mom and I. We were so sad to see them go.

We hope you friends are doing well. I know winter is killing you but know you always have an island getaway if you need a break.

Nos Vemos,
Aaron

A "Loud" shout of praise

Hey friends ! Sunday was such an amazing day! 6 of my bible students came to the meeting. I was in such shock. Right now I'm conducting about 12 bible studies and it's been truly crazy. I can't handle it by myself so Herby has been willing to come and help me out with studies every Sunday. Just yesterday we conducted studies with 8 different people after the meeting. So today is my day to sleep in and relax. After a day of students like that , you need to just chill out. I don't have many pictures to share right now but I'll try to take some soon.

We've had such a large group at the meetings because of the group of Americans that came to support us. After the meeting, it was so loud I could barely hear myself think! I couldn't help but think what a LOUD shout of praise that was.

Hope you friends are doing well and we think of you often.

Nos Vemos ,
Aaron

Dominican Republic Zone Visit 2013

Hello friends! Our preaching activity here in Santiago has increased even more! Why? Because we have a group of almost 20 people from the states all coming here to help support the Imbert English Group. It's been SO encouraging meeting these different ones. You have single ones, single parent families , and many other large families! All here to help us! We begged the master to send more workers and as always , Jehovah has provided for us.

Yesterday was the zone visit and I seriously was in spiritual overload! The way they delivered the zone visit to all of DR was interesting. Because we have so many language groups ranging from creole to Russian to Italian and so on, they needed to use a way for all these groups could have their own translations. By using the Internet , the transmission from Santo Domingo was sent simultaneously to all these groups! It was also recorded so that other congregations could see it later on that night. We were able to watch it live in our own Kingdom Hall! The attendance at that time went as followed :
Spanish : 4,400 +
Creole : 1478
ASL: 821
English : 358
Now these aren't the final numbers. We were told they'd be available soon. I was so happy that Rodnee and Leogan (another study of mine ) were in attendance with me! It was such an amazing event.

We were given some facts about Dominican Republic and the progress we've made so far. For example, five years ago there were only 28,000 publishers here in DR. But as of October 2012 we now have 35,535. An increase of over 7,000 people ! There have been 70 new congregations formed and 20 new salón del reinos built! Next, we talked about four goals the branch has for Dominican Republic.
1. Preaching in places of greater need. We were told that 30% of our territory on the island isn't reached regularly or at all! The call has one again gone out for help reaching these smaller communities in the campo.
2. In march the branch would like to have 20,000 auxiliary pioneers. This would mean that 6 out of every 10 people would be pioneers. Also we set a new goal for 7,000 regular pioneers.
3. Learning a new language to speak to foreigners. We were reminded of Haitian , Chinese , Russians and Japanese. There are so many types of people we can find here and we want to know their language to be able to preach effectively. In Acts 2:4 it talks about the anointed ones speaking in tongues. It was pointed out to us that most of these people could have spoken Greek , yet Jehovah wanted these people to hear the message in their own tongue. So it's up to us here in DR to learn these new languages and find these ones so that they can learn of god.
4. Conducting progressive bible studies. Right now there are over 70,000 bible studies being conducted. But the increase has been slow. So we were given four reminders. 1 Thessalonians 2:8 tells us that we need to impart our souls. So are we truly becoming friends to our students? Are they like children to us? Second, direct attention to Jehovah, Jesus and the organization using the new brochure. Also we could do this by binging experienced ones like elders with us. Third, help them understand the seriousness of the study. Our students must be prepared and we should be aware of when they need to be terminated if they aren't making progress. Last, finish both books and help them maintain their Christian course.

Below you'll see Adrean and Blake riding in the back of Mag's truck. Gotta get to these studies somehow. Haha next are picture of the zone visit ! The last one is Joseph(brother with the Chinese congregation ), myself, Leogan and Rodnee.

Take care friends and keep strong. I'm hearing scary reports about snow. We've been thinking about you all.

Nos Vemos,
Aaron