“Let God’s Name Be Sanctified”

2012 Two Day Assembly  

2012 Annual Pioneer Meeting

The pioneer meeting has always been a highlight of my year and the one in DR was no exception! Our attendance was 443 with an increase of 5% from last year. Staggering numbers huh? As always the information was timely and encouraging and it was so nice to see pioneers from all over the island! There were so many great points! One of my favorites was taken from 2 Timothy 4:2 which talks about the art of teaching. Our attention was drawn to the word art, defined as a skill attained by study, practice and observation. The brother encouraged us to study and observe carefully the examples of effective teachers and than to put in to practice what we observe. It made me think about how I could really improve my teaching. The other point I really liked was from our circuit overseer, who told us, a need greater had once told him, "we didn't come here to do great things, we came here to do things with great love." I hope its something I don't forget.

Beautiful Constanza!

So as soon as Cassandra left, the very next day I went to visit Constanza . . .couldn't stand the empty house by myself! :) Anyhow, I had been trying to get to Constanza to visit a friend of mine serving there. So I took advantage of having a few days before I had to get back home. We had a jam packed couple of days! Between service and meeting, visiting friends and going to the waterfalls, it was a pretty nice weekend. Constanza is an hour away from where I live in Jarabacoa and is known for being mostly agricultural. The town itself sits in a low valley surrounded by mountains. Driving in you see the land divided by crops, like an all natural checkerboard sprinkled accross the mountains. It's beautiful! Service is spanish in this country is pretty amazing and Constanza was no exception. Almost every door invites you to come in and everyone allows you to share a scripture or leave literature. By the third door I was out of placements! My favorite experience was of a lady we talked to at a colmado, a local neighborhood store. She knew the witnesses and realized that it was really time to make some changes in her life but because of owning a colmado it has been hard for her to study or attend meetings. So we shared Isaiah 48:17, 18, reasoned with her about how Jehovah said her peace would become like the waves of the sea and all in all spent about thirty minutes talking with her. It was a very exciting morning! Anyhow, hope you enjoy the pictures!