Needless to say the brothers eagerly invited them to this year's memorial and they agreed to come. In the group distributing the memorial invitations was a special pioneer couple, Jese and Meyling, (our roomates now!!!) who live one hour from the Flores' house on foot. They arranged to continue the bible study with them. Eight individuals have been present at the study at different times, Francisco the father, Gertrudis the mother, Yorlene (28yrs old and in the picture) and Magdalena (not in the picture) their grown daughters, Meyling, Jennifer and Mayerling their three granddaughters, and their nephew Javier (not in the picture). The family travels the hour on foot to attend the meetings regularly even though in the rainy season they are forced to cross a dangerous stream at flood stage. And in November 2010, Francisco and Gertrudis were legally married after being together 28 years. They said they consider their marriage only the first step in the spiritual progress they plan to make. The picture of the group of them is outside the courthouse the day they got married. The picture with the cake in back at our house. Fransisco is funny. We showed him his picture of when they were cutting the cake (shown above) and he said he smiled scared like that because Gertrudis had a knife in her hand.
And I have to add another thing. The judge decided to make their marriage a bit difficult. He asked them to bring in two witnesses to sign for the marriage, which is normal. But he required that they had known them all their lives, and were older then them. That is a challenge because Francisco and Gertrudis are near their 50's and not many old-timers are still around int he community where they live. They had to ask 5 different people. One said no, he couldn't see anymore. One said no, he couldn't hear anymore. Another said no, he was illiterate and couldn't sign his own name. One more said yes, so that was great. And the last guy said yes, but he was technically younger than the couple. They used him anyway and didn't tell the judge. In fact, the judge wasnt even in the courthouse that day. He broke his arm when his horse fell into a river, so his secretary conducted the ceremony. Anyway, the point is that Francisco and Gertrudis went through a lot to make their marriage legal. Something that they said no one in their little community bothers to do. It is so encouraging to see the effort some are willing to make to be able to serve Jehovah.
The District Convention:
The District Convention was excellent this year. This is the place that they rented to hold it. It is a coffee production area called a beneficio.
A concrete slab with a roof and a bit of the adjacent land was rented to us.
As a side. The comments on the photos are great! We love them. But the private messages dont work well. Blogabond wont let us retrieve them sometimes. So, if you want to say something for all to see put it on the comments. And if its very secretive and personal just email it to us please. Thanks
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