Vacation!!!

Hello friends! The special talk for this year was so great!!!! I know you all must've enjoyed it as well. I forget the exact count we had at our meeting , but I was so happy to see 4 of my bible students in attendance! I've seen something really special about the congregation and I know this exists everywhere, but maybe I just see it more now since we have so many bible students. In English there's the expression "it takes a village to raise a child ". It's the same way with the congregation! It takes effort from each member to make every student feel welcome. Whether its a friendly pat on the shoulder or sitting with the students during the meeting , I've noticed that it really does give a warm loving feeling to the congregation. We're seeing many different ones progress. Raymond has been studying with Adrean for some time now and he's just started preaching with us this week! It's so exciting to see the look on his face, the excitement ! Other students are doing so well too. It's really been such a privilege to watch them progress.

In less then two weeks a big group of us are going to lifestyles , a resort in Puerto Plata , for vacation! I am sooooooo excited! I realized that my Mom and I haven't had any down time since the last time we came to DR in 2012 ! So this will be nice to sit on the beach for a few days and soak up the rays. I'm gonna get so dark!!

Soon we have a new wave of visitors coming in. Graham returns as well as Mario! We're so excited to have them back with us because we need the help! Speaking on help, we just got a new couple in our hall and the husband is an elder! Also we had 4 new pioneers appointed so now we have 26 regular pioneers. But don't forget , we still need help! So please consider coming down to DR!

Below you'll see some pictures.

John

 Every Sunday, Alejandro, Herby and I go preaching in Villa Magesterial after the meeting. Each week, this dog follows us around as we walk all over for our studies. He's always happy and wagging his tail. So we decided our friend needed a name. We thought for a while and couldn't think of one. Suddenly a man was walking in front of us and the dog freaked out and started to bark! He howled and barked until I called him back to us. From then on we've called him John, one of the "sons of thunder".

This is some of the barrios we preached in just last night!

It was a very windy day and poor Loudy lost her umbrella! The wind ripped it right off ! Of course we needed a picture!

Below you'll see this little lizard and it was puffing its mouth out! I thought of my little friend Logan who is in the states now. If you're reading this buddy, I'm still on the look out for lizards !

We hope you friends are doing well!! We fly back May 25th and we'll be visiting until June 10th. This is a shorter trip then we expected , but we didn't want to be gone from our assignment for too long. So hopefully we'll be able to see you all very soon .

Nos Vemos,
Aaron

Refining myself as a teacher

Erick is continuing to do so well in his studies! He continues to ask me every week if he can join me in the preaching work , so now we've really started taking steps in getting him ready to be a publisher. Through this whole process tho, I've seen many things in myself that I need to improve. One area is just being a friend , a better friend , for my students. I've seen that as you get closer to these ones , they reveal things to you that you would never even expect. Such as family problems or other things like this. I've seen that what I need to do is just make my self available WHENEVER I'm needed. I always thought that I was a good friend to my students , but now I've been trying to take a bigger interest in my student's personal lives. Not just being buddies, but now focusing on forming a brotherly relationship. I know this will help me especially as my students continue to progress.

This weekend is quite crazy! The ASL circuit has their circuit assembly , so we have 6 people staying in our house right now. No matter where I look as I type this up, there's someone there!!!! But it's nice getting to know these friends better.

It's crazy that's it's been 6 months since we left the states. Time has been flying and in just another month , we'll be back in the states for a short period of time. We look forward to seeing many of you and we hope we get to see you all!

I'm going to try to post more often! I apologize for the gaps. I've been trying to come up with new ideas so that the blog is more interesting! So bear with me during this transitioning phase.

Nos Vemos,
Aaron

Hey friends!

Hello!!!! First, let me apologize for not posting for so long. I've been a little busy with my students and life in general. But I promise I'll have a new post up here by Saturday , if not earlier. Everything has been going great! I have some exciting experiences for you and a couple new pictures. Once again I'm so sorry!

Nos Vemos,
Aaron