We again met a lot of people. People from all over. Today we met some people from NY. One couple was from Walkill Bethel and knew Kathryn and Jonathan Straniero. Levi and Katelyn were their names, I think. He works in heavy machinery and she is in housekeeping. Forgot their last name at the moment. It was pretty neat talking to them. They are staying at a Family's home so they get to see the hospitality on a more personalized level. The stories they told us were great. We also met a couple from Brazil (who are now temporarily serving at the Philippines Bethel doing computer work and housekeeping ). John met the guy since he was looking at the way they do sound at the Conventions here. You know, Nerd stuff. Haha . We talked to him a while and then his wife comes up and he introduces us. Turns out, I met her at Bethel here when we toured it. Pretty neat. We talked to them for a while and then walked around for a bit more before the music started.
During the session we sat next to Tim and Christa. It was fun. So Saturday is the baptism day like typical Conventions, but this was the most I've ever seen get baptized at once. I lost count at 35 and that was only about half. I'll have to get to exact count later. It was amazing. We clapped for soooo long, my hands were hurting by the end of it. We knew 2 of the kids from the 1st congregation we visited, so that was neat. (They were probably between the age of 10-12).
After lunch we walked around a while and I got to give out a lot of the gifts I brought for the locals. They were so thankful, it was funny. Then they wanted to take a picture of us after. Soooooo many pictures! The afternoon session started. It's funny, even though we heard this convention already we still get a lot of points out of it. I am taking notes and putting stars next to the things I want to apply, but I know I've already written the same notes at ours. Just goes to show, we really do need reminders - even from a convention we had only 4 months ago. It is neat to see the convention program here though, seeing the similarities and differences. The girl who was interviewed on the same part that I was at ours had almost exactly the same experience and feelings as me. I wanted to go find her and tell her, but I didn't see her after the program. Also, the part that Jared and Cindy did at ours about working abroad may not have seemed like a problem in the USA, but here A LOT of people leave their families to work abroad. So it really touched home for them. The Faithful and Discreet Slave really know what they are doing. :) Anyways, Bro. Splane gave the last talk again and then the session ended for the day.
We talked to more people for a little while and then head outside through the large crowd of people to our bus. We were one of the last few people to load so our bus group was small. Maybe about 15 people (compared to 45-ish). All the buses have a guide/attendant to make sure we get to the hotel ok. It was nice because of all of us just sitting on the bus and quiet, he had us all involved in conversation. He used the microphone and asked questions about our experiences and how we felt about everything so far. He had a good sense of humor also. He was telling us how much work they all put into preparing for the convention. He said he put his application in about a year ago to help out with this. And spent a lot of time preparing, especially the last couple weeks. Because not only did he have these preparations to take care of but he has a job with Samsung and had to work extra hard the week before since one person got promoted, AND his wife is at home 8 months pregnant. But he was humble about it. He said, only by Jehovah's Spirit were they able to do it all. He said that all the smiles on the delegates faces made it worth it.
We get back to the hotel and decide to venture out for dinner. I was happy with McDonalds which is in walking distance.
But John wasn't into that idea as much so we decide to take a hotel shuttle over to a nearby mall. I didn't know how far it was, but it was only about 5-10 mins away. We get there and I see all the American places I'm used to. Outback, Chilis, P.F Changs ect. I'm really excited to see all that. Although I didn't show it at 1st, because I'm not really a happy camper when I am hungry and then I'd be proving John right for picking a better place than McDonalds. ;) Well, he was right. It was a lot better. We went to Chilis for dinner. Man, was it good to have American food. haha.
After dinner we found a Pinkberry (frozen yogurt)!!! This was really exciting because we go to this same place like twice a day when we go to NYC, and it has been this close to us the whole time?! Whaaaaat? Haha. So we went there for dessert and got to witness a little bit to the people who worked there. We told them why we were in town. After that we walked to where we needed to be for the shuttle and headed back to the hotel.
Again, very tired. I tried to listen to the Watchtower for Sunday but fell asleep about a quarter through. Guess I'll have to really study that one later. :) Looking forward to Sundays Convention Day!
But it was spelled Hsiu-Ping.
Well, Gabby, sounds like your stomach is feeling better! That's good. Joan and I and I are camping out at Lake Chatuge this morning and just read your post. Btw, what is the time difference between here and there?
ReplyDelete