Feliz Navidad...Merry Christmas!

12-23-08 Day 25
This morning Nathan mowed Delbert and Frieda´s lawn and I cleaned our apartment. At 11am we went to the grocery store. It was absolutely packed with people buying their Christmas food items. Nathan boiled a chicken and I made apple crisp this afternoon after our siesta. Probably not a good idea when its so so hot, it made our apartment really warm but it sounded so good, oh well. At about 5pm we walked down to the river with Elizabeth, Vero and Valentine (her son). It was nice to have some more interaction with the people from the church here. At 8pm we walked to the west zone and worshipped with them there.
12-24-08 Day 26
Christmas eve is more of a celebration for people here than Christmas day is. I was able to talk with my mom and grandma on the phone today, it was wonderful. This evening we went to Juan and Ami´s house to be with them. We ate supper (asado) together and waited until midnight to have a toast, and lots of firewords were going off in the town. Definently a different way of celebrating Christmas.
12-25-08 Day 27 MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Today Nathan and I walked to Juan and Ami´s house for lunch. We ate and then swam in their pool. We played some card games together, drank mate, and hung out. It was great to be with them. No Christmas decorations, no Christmas gifts, no family, no snow. Our Christmas day was much, much different than it would have been in the states. Thank you to all of you who sent us Christmas cards here....each one was very special to us!
12-26-08 Day 28
Today was low-key. We watered plants, did some laundry, played cards games together, went for a run in the evening, and stayed inside in the afternoon to avoid the heat of the day.
12-27-08 Day 29
This morning at 8am Elizabeth, Kira, Juan, Jacob, Nathan and myself met together. We shared with each other for about an hour of what the Lord is teaching each of us. Passages that came out were Isaiah 50:10-11, All of Acts and Paul´s journeys, Matthew 16:24-28, Psalms 5:3, & Colossians 3:12-17. It was good to spur one another on toward love and good deeds and learn from the Lord. After that we went with Kira to the North zone church building where some people were revarnishing benches and measuring wood slates for the windows. Kira left and we ended up staying to help finish with the windows and drink mate (of course). On our walk home, Nathan was saying how they could have done this or that to make things better and more efficient but here making things better or doing things more efficiently isn´t really as much of a value. It´s more about serving the Lord and being in fellowship with one another-getting things accomplished is second to that. Any kind of interaction we have with the people here is very much appreciated-we learn so much! Tonight we went to the Cena de Jovenes 2008. An end of the year celebration for the youth. People here are considered youth until about 30years old, unless you are married and then you aren´t a youth anymore. So Nathan and I weren´t exactly youth but we went anyway. It was at the south zone church building and was an evening of fun. The youth dressed up nice, we had a wonderful meal together, watched a video of past youth experiences that they´ve had, recieved a Christmas ornament, had a toast for the new year, and took some group pictures. This event lasted from 8:30pm-12:ooam. Then Nathan and I walked home (30min trek).
12-28-08 Day 30
WOW... we have been here a whole month. Time goes so fast! It seems like we are just starting to grasp SOME things here. This morning at 930am we started walking to Juan and Ami´s chacra and we got about half way there when the church van picked us up to go the rest of the way (God has many times already provided for us when we least expect it). The west zone church had the service in the pavillion back behind their house. It was a beautiful cooler day. We had a time of worship and listening to the word of God and then we had a picnic together of asado. YUM!!! In the afternoon they played vollyeball and swam in the pool. We walked home at about 5pm and Nathan was able to talk with his family on the phone.