And we have arrived

Hello our good friends! After a few days in Cuenca Ecuador we have followed through with our plan to start a blog. We are certainly not experts so please forgive our mistakes. We had a successful journey and enjoyed our flights for the most part. We had a connecting flight in Miami Florida which was a bit of a challenge. We arrived in Miami at 11:13 pm and so we did not really get off the plane until about 11:30 pm which left us 20 minutes before our plane loading gate closed for our flight to Ecuador. Well that is a huge airport and even using the sky train left us at a speed walk and sweating until we got there. When we got to our departure gate our tickets were called as we were walking in. We were a bit worried but in the end all we could say is there was no wasted time.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

After making our flights we then had to lug all of bags through the airport.  Thankfully they had all made it! Seven checked bags, three carry on and three personal.

Our first motorcycle in South America. After looking at the congregations the branch recommended it seems clear that an off road vehicle will be a very useful tool to reach many areas of any of the territory that we might be working in.  

Our first piece of furniture that we bought! It is plastic shelving, but it is helping us to get ourselves organized. We bought a few of these! Easy to move at about 2 lbs each. Yup we got the cheap stuff!

We visited Guachapala today (Saturday 2/7/15) This is one area the branch recommended. Very pretty & country like. We drove around long enough to realize that there are many areas that are almost inaccessible with a car. For a while we thought we were lost! We had to wait for some cows and chickens to get off of the road. We thought the cows were going to charge us but we made it past.  Then some very friendly locals helped us get back off of a trail and onto the main road.  

 

Another picture of Guachapala.  

 

We of course had to see if we could find the kingdom hall & this is the kingdom hall in Guachapala. That was the first time all day we felt at home. We saw the Kingdom hall and immediately felt like we were in good hands! This is a very tiny hall with almost no parking. It seems clear that most of the brothers probably walk or take public transportation. The meetings are Thursday at 6:30 pm and Saturday at 6:00 pm. We loved it! A local directed us to Jehovah's house. The first stop we made, those locals knew where to send us!

Their landscaping says "JW.ORG" can you believe it?

 

We also visited Paute today! This is their Kingdom Hall. This is a larger town 10 minutes from Guachapala.

This is actually a piece of the park in the center of Paute. So very pretty! Flowers are blooming!

 

Now you know a little bit about what we have been doing. Traveling around & trying to get organized! Our Spanish is improving we think.  If not we are going to keep telling ourselves it is. We are still hoping Jehovah will treat us like he did at Pentecost 33C.E. and maybe tomorrow we will just wake up speaking Spanish and forget English. What can I say we have high hopes!

 

 

 

Until next time...... We miss you all!