Semana Santa

Semana Santa...What is that you may ask? The English term is "holy week". That is what took place last week. It is a time of partying, concerts, drinking, parades, etc. Oh and maybe some Hail Mary's or Jesus in there somewhere! Who knows! Sounds real "holy" huh?

 Since we were warned that it gets crazy in town during that time, the brothers decided to not have arranged meetings for field service. So we mainly stayed home away from all the "holiness". :0) Mike and I have started a study with a man in Sololá on Saturdays, so we thought we would go up on Saturday morning to have his study. BIG mistake! As we were heading up, the traffic was terrible, loads of busses and trucks filled with people coming down for a day at the lake. Traffic was backed up both ways as far as your eyes could see the road going up the hill. We knew it would take all day just to get there and back, so we decided to turn around and just go home. That was about 10:00am and we heard that even later in the afternoon the traffic was still the same! A little later in the day we thought let's go see for ourselves what this is all about, so we did and the pictures below show you what we saw. Pure craziness!

You would think you would see posters of Jesus or the cross since it is "holy week", but nope this is what you saw as you came into town.

Down at the end of the riverbed it was full of cars.

This is on the road that runs along side one side of the riverbed. Packed with busses and cars! We couldn't believe it!

This picture and the next two are down along the lake. Full of people and food and merchandise stands! You felt like you were in a herd of cattle as you walked along there. MOOOO! (I thought for a second that I was at Kemper Arena for Regional Convention in the corridor during lunch break.)

This is at the lower end of Santander. The main shopping street! Never seen it so crowded! We had had enough by this point so we headed back home where it was much quieter!

Few misc pics

So this week is Guatemala's Semana Santa (Holy Week). It is crazy in town with lots of visitors, drunks, concerts, partying, etc., so we are not able to do really anything in the ministry. Wednesday our family decided to get together for brunch (biscuits & gravy, potatoes, cooked apples and bacon, YUM YUM!) and just a lazy day. Even Todd got in on it! (the biscuits and gravy too!)



This is Mike studying with his student Mario. He owns a candle shop and a corn mill, which is in the back of his candle shop. They study on Tuesdays at 12:30. All you have to do is show him what the Bible says about a topic and he accepts it! Great study! Hope he will make it to a meeting soon!



Here is our new signs,  JW.org and our meeting times!



Our previous sign was wooden with Salon del Reino los Testigos de Jehova carved in it. Nothing that showed it in Cakchiquel or English. Now we do and we love it!

Memorial 2015

Our first Memorial outside of Missouri! Our Memorial was at 7:30pm following the Cakchiquel congregation. We had an attendance of 47. Here are a few pics from our evening.

We are waiting outside for the Cakchiquel to finish.

 

 

 

Mike was our speaker.

Diego was our chairman.

Our chairman and speaker.

Ashlie and Austin, sooo adorable, aren't they?

Me with the handsome speaker!

Our family.
 

This is Terri with her Bible student, Jenny. Jenny is widowed and suffers from MS. Although she deals with an affliction, she is a go-getter. She walks around town to do her shopping. Poor thing is dealing with neighbors kids that keep breaking into her home and stealing things. We are trying to find her a new place to live. It's a little tough right now in the high season, but hopefully she will be able to move soon. She is an awesome student and she comments during the WT study. She is our Robin! ;0)

The Welker family. I was actually able to get Rue to not give a goofy face, although he was very tempted!