Hey everyone! Hope you all are doing well. Praying your Fall 
like weather starts soon! It is 86° right now with a real feel of 90°. We have had an eventual week. On Saturday, we traveled to a city called Masatepe where we met with a fellow Missionary named Mallorie, who is actually from the Thomasville area as well. Of course I forgot to take a picture. We talked for well over an hour and the kids played together with her daughter.
Then we traveled to La Virgen. We stayed in a beautiful house right on a lake within sight of two volcanos. This was our home for 3 nights. On Sunday we traveled to a church in Rivas and enjoyed the service and spoke a little about our ministry and our hope to serve in the area in the coming year or so. We picked this church because one of their members was a translator we met when we traveled to Honduras several years ago. It was very nice to see him and meet his family as well. Sarah played with a little girl under the pew during the 3 hour service while Hannah and Josiah were in Sunday School. It was a wonderful time of worship.
After service, we traveled to San Juan del Sur and enjoyed the statue of Jesus in the city. It was quite a hike but the views were well worth it. We also took the kids to a public beach where they played in the water and Sarah (who hated the water) played in the sand and with rocks.
On Monday, we decided to take the kids on a day pass to a local resort to play at the pool and have lunch. It was a perfect little mini vacation from school. Everyone had a blast...even Sarah loved the water.
Tuesday, we headed to the capital, Managua to try and get our vehicle registration figured out and pay all the taxes that were owed from the previous owners and ours as well. Thanks to Diomedes Jr. and Andresca Menjivar, we were able to get this completed within 4 hours or so. We took the kids to a local mall while we had to wait and they had fun on the playground. Praise God that it worked out and that the taxes are paid and the car is correctly registered now. Thank you to so many who have donated because some of your donations helped us to do the registration. Next month we have to renew the vehicle insurance which can be expensive too especially since we are going to be probably getting full coverage since it is a new vehicle.
The remainder of this week has been spent homeschooling and studying for the end of the quarter exams. I can't believe Hannah and Josiah have completed 3/4 of a school year in Spanish school!!
Today, the kids participated in a festival for the celebration of Semana Patria which is their country's independence celebration. It lasts for a week here!! Both Hannah and Josiah's classes recited a poem in Spanish as you can see below. They did pretty well for trying their best to memorize it in Spanish. We are so proud of how much they are improving in Spanish...we think they are going to be speaking better than we are before too long. Lol.
Please pray for potty training Sarah next week since the kids are off school and also for taking her pacifier away. Lord help us!! Also pray that everything goes well and we can participate in house to house (the one we have rescheduled several times) on September 21st. We also ask you to pray for the search with the next set of flights to the U.S.
God is totally in control of all of these things but a little prayer never hurts. Thank you for your love, support, and prayers daily. Love and miss everyone.
