#5

Hey everybody,

Everything down here is going good. We had the english convention a couple of weeks ago at the branch assembly hall and were really excited to see friends from other parts of the country, and to make new ones of course. We had a peak attendance of 697 on Sunday! The majority spoke english not necessarily as a first language though (a lot of friends from Europe) and there were also quite a few there learning english so as to help in the areas where they were seeing an increase in english speaking people in the territory.

It was a real delight to hear such quality speakers! Branch coordinators, bethelites, special pioneers, missionaries and the like. We also met up with some of our old friends in the congregation we were in previously. As hoped we feel re-invigorated and refreshed, ready for action.

Jehovah is really making us work hard for our studies lately. It seems to be no problem starting them, but getting them to express themselves and progress...knowing if we're really reaching they're hearts has been a challenge. I have one study in particular who Iv been with for almost 3 months now. She used to study but hadn't for almost a year. When I asked her if she would like to renew it she seemed a little hesitant at first but seemed to really enjoy it once we started. She's been rebelling and hasn't been getting along with her parents of late and has been very casual about our studies.

Well, I decided to really pray hard to know if she was sincere about studying or was just trying to make me happy, I also really wanted to know if she was considering making serious changes or not. I arrived at her house last week and we had the study as usual but afterwards I asked her to write down 3 reasons why she was studying the bible with me, and wouldn't you know it reason 1 was : Know the bible better; 2: Because its what SHE wanted not because of anybody else; and reason 3: She wanted to make changes in her life and be happier. I thanked Jehovah for answering my prayers and feel really good about continuing the study with her.

We enjoyed some time down at the lake last weekend at sunset and even had time to wake up at 3 am to go watch the meteor shower with friends, it was beautiful! We fit ten of us in this car made for 5, amazing I know!

Our circuit overseer visit is next week so we're getting prepared for a long week of activity.

We miss everybody and look forward to the spring.

kirk and kells