Paola's Baby Shower

First ever Baby Shower in Taulabe!  So our dear friends, Paola and Lupe, are expecting their second child, first boy, at the end of this month.  When we asked Paola if she would like a baby shower, she said that she had only heard of them from the TV and had always wanted to see what they actually were!  So Bry decided to throw her a baby shower.  It wasn't quite as easy as we expected since they don't sell any decorations here for baby showers.  So Bry had to make everything by hand, even cutting streamers strip by strip from huge sheets of tissue paper!  But everything turned out pretty cute in the end.  The theme was baby monkeys!

 

 

 

A sister made cute little party favors for the guests:

 

 

Amanda and Janelle made amazing cupcakes that were SO adorable!

We played all kinds of baby themed games with prizes.  Everyone loved them.  Haven't seen them laugh that hard in so long!  It was great!

 

One game was called "Besitos en la Boca". You had to fill your mouth with marshmellos and then get your team to guess some baby themed words like bottle, diaper, etc... Hilarious!

 

 

Then it was time to open gifts.  She got some really beautiful gifts.  I especially loved a handmade, embroidered bib that a little 12 year old girl made for her.  It said "Lunes" on it so she can use it on long service days on Mondays!

Auntie Trudi mailed down here some gorgeous handmade blankets for the baby and his big sister, Andrea.  Paola loved them!

 

Everything turned out great in the end and everyone had a good time.  I think we've started a trend!

Chica Day

 

So since Aaron has been taking the boys and guys from our town once a year to the big city to watch a movie and go to the mall...I thought, why can't I do that with the girls??  So last week I took 10 girls to San Pedro Sula for shopping, lunch and a movie!  It was an awesome day!  None of them had ever been to the theater, or a mall, and especially not a 3D movie!  

 

 

We left in the morning with Ketnia driving us...

 

 

We got to the mall around 11:30 am and went straight for lunch!  Everyone loved the pizza! Especially the part where we didn't need to share it with any boys!

 

 

 

Then we did a little shopping and goofing around...

 

Then it was time for the big show!  We saw Monsters University in 3D!  The girls could barely contain their excitement as we entered the theater and bought popcorn and got our 3D glasses.  As the movie started and the effects began to happen, all the girls started screaming and trying to catch the stuff in the air!  It was hilarious!

 

It was a great day.  My favorite part was seeing how happy they all were and excited to experience something new.  They all especially loved the elevators and escalators! They wanted to ride them over and over again.  My only regret is that we couldn't fit all the sisters in the truck...so hopefully this fall I can take another group of chicas to the big city!

Zone Visit 2013

Last weekend, all of Cental America had the privilege of be able to tie into the Zone Visit meeting in Mexico.  Once every 3 or 4 years, the branch office on Jehovah's Witnesses outside of the US have special meetings to talk about our progress in their area and what are the needed improvements and to encourage us all.  Our country, Honduras, is under the Mexico branch office.  Normally these visits are only held in one location and very few have the privilege of hearing the information, however this year the organization made a very loving new provision.  The created a streaming web event that any congregation could tie into and watch the program! 

This of course wasn't exactly easy to accomplish for us here in Taulabe.  We frequently lose power, have very poor internet service in most homes and absolutely NO internet in the Kingdom Hall!  We also have no projector or video equipment in the Kingdom Hall.  So after much planning on the part of Aaron and the other elders, we were able to obtain a wireless WI-FI modem that you just plug into the USB port of your computer!  We also borrowed a big screen tv from a local family and figured out how to connect my laptop to it.

 

 

 

Everything turned out great.  We were worried that the internet might not stream fast enough or that we would lose power but thankfully it all went smoothly.  We had 68 people attend the event.  Many thought that it was a movie or tv program because they couldn't understand the concept of streaming video from Mexico or even how the internet works!  When they heard the other people clapping and singing over the video feed many finally understood that it was live. 

 

 

 

 

Bry had two small children right and then a 1 yr old baby in her arms for most of the program!  Needless to say, we needed to do an overview of the information afterwards to see what we missed!  Our favorite part was an illustration of two soldiers.  It went something like this: Imagine that you are a soldier in Gideon's army. There is a soldier on your right side and another on your left side. The soldier on your right is saying, "we are going to die in this battle!  We are never going to see our families again. The other army is too big.  We will never return home again!" The soldier on your left is saying, "Let us be strong and courageous!  Jehovah God will give us strength and will fight with us!  We will be victorious!"  The speaker asked, which of these soldiers would you rather have by your side during the  battle?  He then likened this to our daily fight in this harsh world as christians.  When we are with our fellow brothers and sisters, how is our attitude?  Are we negative or positive? May we always be positive and be encouraging in our way of speaking!

 

 

 

Roatan Vacation!

2 weeks ago, we had a wonderful mini vacation to the island of Roatan!  Bry's brother, Derik, and his wife Kelly were going to be stopping at the island for 1 day while on a cruise with 5 other couples.  So along with Auntie Trudi and our dear friends Stuart and Lili Molina, we decided to meet them there!  We were only on the island for 4 days, but it was a much needed break from our busy schedule. 

 

We drove to the coast in Stuart's truck and from La Ceiba, took the Galaxy ferry across the ocean to the island.

It was rough ride!  The waves were so high that one little boy actually flew off the ground into the air!  We had to hold onto our seats!  Needless to say, we were all happy to see dry land when we arrived!







The next day we went to the local English meeting in the morning and then enjoyed the beach right in front of our hotel.  There was a great restaurant called Banamarama that served great food, had nice little tables in the sand, a swinging bar, life-size jenga and connect 4 games, and a fire show at night!

 

 

The next day we took advantage of the rental car we had and toured the small island.  Stopped at many cute little shops and ate at the nice restaurant in the Mayan Princess resort.  Amazing food!  Stuart and Lili had a seafood soup with lobster, crab, oysters, shrimp and coconut milk!
 

 

 On Monday night, we went out for a nice dinner and found the cutest little place along a wooden boardwalk.  There was one table all by itself on its' own dock.  We had delicious drinks and coconut shrimp!

Tuesday was the big day! The cruise ship arrived around 10 am and Bry was waiting at the dock when everyone arrived.

 We spent the day snorkeling, see the dolphins and star fish along the way.  Even got to take a wild Banana Boat ride! It was an awesome day and even better that we got to share it with so many friends and family!

We ended the day with the nice dinner on the beach with the whole group, then had to say our sad goodbyes.  The day went by too quickly but it was unforgettable for us.  We love seeing our family and friends here in Honduras and hope that they will come back soon!