Our first LSP meeting

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Last night, Lessly drove us to El Salon del Reino, much deeper into Santiago then where we are. We want to learn how to take the bus so the brothers don’t have to go out of their way. But we are much too far to walk to the hall.

We were dropped off early because Lessly still needed to get ready for meeting at her home. One of the first sisters who greeted us in the tiny parking lot was Maria. Maria is one of those sisters that can make anyone feel at ease with her. She’s not shy. Even though I had no idea what she was saying, she made big gestures and had fun facial expressions that made me feel involved in the conversation between her and Raquel. Rachael is called Raquel in Santiago, Panama. I, however, have a town named after me here and no Spanish translation for my name. I introduced myself as Clayton or Clay. James is Santiago when translated into Spanish. I should have gone with my middle name! Rachael: Clayton thinks its “should have went with” but I think its “should have gone with”…what do you guys think is grammatically correct?

One good thing about Santiago is everyone has air conditioning. However, the hall is too cold. I was forced to surrender my suit jacket to Rachael. It was nicer in the back room where the LSP group conducted the congregation bible study (which we believe to be where the brothers’ bathroom used to be, since they have none). We signed our opening song off of the conductor’s tablet. The conductor was Jeremy, a very nice young brother who gave us a ride to the grocery store and back home after meeting. We had fun with him; it’s too bad he won’t be staying in LSP for long. His signing was expressive yet dignified. There were only seven in attendance of the bible study, so there were understandably long pauses before anyone raised their hand to answer the questions. I was able to raise my hand and spit out a couple of comments for the sake of avoiding the awkward wait. I think that my accent in Spanish and LSP is the equivalent of an Asian’s in English. I throw away words that would usually connect my sentence or thought, and accidentally create words often. We learned the sign for Pharisee, preaching, Jehova, catholic, easy (hahahaha which is the same sign as prostitute in ASL), brother, sister, amen, marriage, husband, wife, and padre. Rachael: I was totally not gonna answer but then I saw Clayton do it…and so then I did it. He’th a good example for me! =B

After leaving the back room, Jeremy continued to interpret the Spanish conductor for our group (which sat in the front left). The sisters took turns interpreting comments and demonstrations with head coverings. It was so nice to see the Spanish brothers and LSP brothers lovingly share a kingdom hall and meeting pace. The Spanish brothers even waited for us to finish our song long after they had finished theirs and were ready for prayer.

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Comments

[Lisa Pier]

Cold...
I guess some things are the same earth-wide in our Kingdom halls!!!!