Don't Stop Believing

Jamie, Megan, Sam, Lou and I go to Nicaragua tomorrow for our exit trip, so before then here are some pictures from today. Both congregations met for a special zone visit meeting and the program was broadcast from the Mexico branch. A point was made about Jesus' humility when in Matthew 19:4-6, he didn't say "When I created the first man and woman", though he could have as the master worker. He gave the credit to Jehovah and didn't even mention his own role. I had thought of the same point a few months ago when I was reading that passage for Bible highlights, but for some reason didn't comment on it...because I couldn't find anything to back it up with, perhaps? But it's nice to know now that I was right.

Someone said the count was 69. It was pretty packed.

Afterward, there was a goodbye party for Sam at Mike and Lura's.

Keysha signing the poster Laura and Paulina made for Sam.

Everyone made excellent food... fresh fish, coconut rice, lentil salad, homemade salsa... my contribution was Japanese curry with coconut milk which I had to carry all the way up the hill, but it was worth it because it was a big hit.

Mike and Lura recently moved into the pool house where Jill and Spencer had been living. It's the perfect place for a party.

View from their yard. These bushes have multiple colors on the same branch.

Mike's latest installation: the bar

Keysha and Char posing for a Keyshagram. It's like Instagram, but it's solely pictures of Keysha posing in different locations with graham crackers.

The card filled up pretty nicely.

I drew a portrait of Sam on the back. He was quite pleased.

It more or less looks like him.

Keysha's art piece on the back. Inside jokes of all the good times he had here. 

My other work of art. He was stung by scorpions many times, once in the butt.

An arm-wrestling tournament broke out.

Ben wasn't really even trying.

Tait gets intense. "I have old-man strength!"

The girls took a crack at it.

"His upper arms are four times as thick as mine!"

Keysha vs. Samuel 

Garrett beat out everyone else but met his match in Lura. We have our reigning champion!

Sam leaves May 15, we all hope he'll be back again soon. But we know that we'll always see him again-- if not in this world, in the next. And until then, of course, don't stop believing.

Don't Stop Believing is a song by Journey