The EASY Hike....

I started to blog about our trip to Banos, but some friends of mine reminded me that I never posted our little mini-adventure that we had in Vilcabamba with Doug and Judy!!!! So, first things first. We (well mostly Judy haha) were excited to see that there was an EASY hike around our hostel, so we convinced the group to go with us! Little did we know......

On another note, I am so excited because Berta, the woman that had been attending the meetings, has come to the last 2 meetings again. There is no greater joy than to see a bible student come walking through the Kingdom Hall doors!
Yesterday, another bible student, Maria, had a really good study! I have been studying with her off and on for a few months, but she is still just a "doorstep study". She never has invited me in and sometimes I was not even sure she was that interested, but I continued to stop. Yesterday, I stopped and she was there (although moving out of the territory next week boo hoo). Anyway, we had a really nice study, and then she started to open up to me. She started thanking me profusely for studying with her. She said that the one thing she is so grateful for is that we taught her God's name. She was talking to some friends the other day and they were telling her that is NOT God's name, it is a demonic name (some of the catholic priests actually tell their congregation that). But, Maria said she was so proud that she could show them in her Bible that is WAS God's name. She then proceeded to tell them that if it weren't for Jehovah's Witnesses stopping by and teaching her the Bible, she wouldn't know the truth either. I also found out the reason that she doesn't invite me in...Her mother-n-law lives there with them and she gives her a hard time everytime that we come. But Maria said that she always defends us, and even her husband wants us to keep coming because he has seen changes in Maria for the good and he really appreciates that. She just went on and on about all the wonderful things she has learned from studying the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses. In the end she made sure to give me her new address...it is about 20 minutes from here..so that next week I could still come and study with her. She said that now she will be living near her sister, who is also interested in studying the Bible with us. So, I promised that I would come next week and see if I can find a sister from that congregation who can continue to study with her....We'll see what happens, but you just never know what people are really thinking, do you?
We miss you all very much and hope to hear from you soon!...
Oh, I almost forgot!! For those of you losing sleep over Scrappy and his well-being...Mark and I saw him yesterday! He was rooting through some garbage on the other side of the territory! And walking just fine! I can't be sure, but I think he smiled at me....