we will become silhouettes

it has been such an incredible week it's a little overwhelming to even attempt recording it here. but here's a rundown...

saturday: two car groups drove to teacapan to blitz the english communities with the keep on the watch brochure. it was amazing to talk to genuine english speaking people, mostly canadians. actually, mostly british columbians. we spent the whole day there, having interesting discussions with different people and each other. we wandered down the beach, witnessing to all the ones who had their camps set up there. the neighbor's called it 'little canada' which made me really happy. we met the circuit overseer who was serving with the spanish congregation there, and all eleven of us ended up being invited to a sister's house for lunch with the co and his wife. everyone was wonderfully nice, despite the language barrier. even though we couldn't talk, we could still smile and hug and take pictures and eat. an older couple that is down here from calgary had the best time with those brothers and sisters. they told us that they had been to mexico about two hundred times, and that was their best day. it was very heartwarming. we barely made it to the meeting that day. actually, we missed the first 45 minutes. but it was worth it.

kandis' wedding. a big fat congratulations to the new couple. sorry i couldn't be there in person to dance the night away with the langners, but i did my best from here. i got all dressed up and dragged everyone out to hotel playa. i danced on the beach in the moonlight, ate jelly belly's, and drank gin. i'll post pictures later.

sunday: i was exhausted that morning, and barely got out of bed (i just re-read this part and i have to clarify that this is unrelated to the gin... i only had one. i was paying attention at the watchtower. it was just a late night. ;) ). but britta dragged me to the beach, even though it was cloudy and kind of raining. i really tried to get out of it, but she always makes me feel really guilty cause we don't get to the beach very often. we ended up having lots of fun. just the usual beach stuff, but it was great. lots of giggling and exploring and swimming. not a whole lot of surfing, unfortunately. the waves were huge, so i didn't last too long. by the time we meandered down to chandlers for a congregation get together for the lyons, the sun was shining and it was really hot. so it all worked out. that was a lot of fun. i'm really sad the lyons are gone. i'll post pictures of them too. that night we watched 'the village'. it had potential, but there were too many people and everybody was restless, so i couldn't get into it. my favorite part was that this new guy, jesse, wouldn't look at the scary parts, not because he was scared, of course, but because he was 'scared of getting scared'. riiiiiiiiiiight. i don't understand the difference, but he insists there is one.

wednesday: aw we went to the orchestra, mexican style. we got all gussied up, real purty-like, and had us some tequila, and tried to act all growed up. the music was beautiful. there's a brother from culican who plays the cello, which is how we heard of it. his name is fred, and he's neat. he used to play electric guitar and was in a band until he got sick of that life and found the truth. now he plays more appropriate music (pay attention steve) with a better behaved band.

thursday: beach day. it's been up around thirty again lately. and it was really sunny yesterday too. we stayed at the beach all day. we took doug and leah pope's huge raft thing out. we'd drag it way out and then pile everybody on it, and try to catch waves in. usually we ended up getting smashed around by the waves, which was still great. and painful when we got up to nine people on there. russel caught an iguana at the restaurant, more pictures i have to post. he named it pedro and took it home. he's really cool. he changes colour quickly, but he's mostly bright green. we're all quite fascinated. it's a struggle to see who gets to hold him. we all try to hog him. some of us stuck around at the beach until dark so we could have a bonfire. we went swimming in the dark, which was indescribably fun. for some reason we all got really hyper around eight. then we lit a fire and sat around and stared at the stars until almost eleven. the fun part was then figuring out how to get home. russel was supposed to come back after his bookstudy, but he never did. so me, britta, ashley, laura, jeremiah and alex all walked down the beach for an hour and a half, then managed to grab a taxi the rest of the way. which was good, cause we were still at least a two hour walk from home.

all in all, a pretty fantastic week. mostly just laughing all week long. and marvelling at the privilege i have to be here and experience this. today was a long day of service, then the bookstudy. we have a new conductor, tom anderson, at least temporarily. i adore the andersons already. they are friendly and generous and enthusiastic. there's tom and wendy, and they have two kids, tyler (13), and savannah (9, i believe). and to hear how hard they worked to be able to move down here is very humbling. i am so encouraged by the families that are able to do that. people like myself have the perfect circumstances to be doing this, to go anywhere. but families that are established, with kids and jobs and whatnot, make real sacrifices in order to be here. i have a lot to learn from such ones.