I had no problem sleeping all through the night, and thoroughly enjoyed my desperately-needed 14 hours. But the alarm went off at 8AM, and off we went into the ministry. But not before breakfast of course (Brittany wouldn't tolerate that...) Our breakfast table was a treasure-trove of experience. Some were from Germany, others from Kenya. The couple from Kenya were graduates of the 43rd class of Gilead, and had flown all the way from Nairobi. Talk about a climate-change! Interesting point: the Irish eat baked beans for breakfast; don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

After the meal we walked a whopping hundred feet to a small parking lot full of large coaches. We found a bus marked "Field Ministry - Balbriggan Congregation" and hopped on with our brown bag lunch in hand. The local brother that guided us on the bus was quite the comedian, and had that full-on and true-green Irish accent. He sang songs (tried to get Brittany to join in; didn't work), told stories, and let the 50-some friends on board tell experiences from their home countries. The 30 minute ride to the Kingdom Hall went by quickly, and we arrived ready to preach. The Hall was beautiful but very small. I think I was expecting the two-hundered person Halls we have back home but sixty or seventy people filled this Hall to the brim. In the back of the Hall was a large wall with magazines in all different languages (14 I believe) illustrating the various tongues spoken in the territory. I had no idea it was so diverse! We had a somewhat crazy service meeting (try organizing 70 brothers and sisters who have no territory, no transportation, and no plans...no thanks!) and were back on the bus in no time. Large groups of us got dropped off at different territories. I had the privilege of working with an 8 year old local named Eaun (sounds like 'Owen') who loved Legos, so we had plenty to talk about :) The convention is tomorrow so it was the last opportunity to place invitations with everyone. We didn't meet a single unkind person. Everyone was very pleasant and came to the door with a smile. On top of the wonderful people, the territory itself was gorgeous. I was right on the water, and the sun was high and bright. Apparenlty it has been raining torrentially for the past many days, so we are really catching a break with all the sun. After a couple of short hours doing door-to-door we stopped for lunch. We all hopped onto the bus for a five minute drive to the beach. Imagine Clearwater beach with rocks instead of sand, and islands in the distance topped with thousand-year-old castles. That's about it, and we loved it. Things can't help but grow here, and there are flowers absolutely everywhere. The grass is as green as you'll ever see, and it was a picture-perfect afternoon (as you'll see if I can ever get some pictures up...why does this always happen?). After a nice long break and some lounging on the grass/beach, we went back into the ministry. It was such a joy to work with the local brothers! You really get a sense of the scope and magnitude of the brotherhood. There wasn't much territory left, so just about the entire group ended up working in the same area. Imagine looking out your door and seeing 60 witnesses walking down the street! It must have been quite a sight, and we all laughed at what some of the neighbors might have been thinking. "They're invading!" was the most common one :) This is when we really thought about the vision in Revelation. We truly felt like a swarm of locusts!

We got back to the hotel in plenty of time for dinner, and did some channel surfing in the room. We stumbled onto a show called "Pointless" and just judging from the title I knew we'd like it. It was essentially family feud in reverse. Your team had to guess the least likely answer and have the least amount of points at the end of it all. Not exactly a revolutionary idea but it filled the gap between preaching and dinner. And FYI, I totally destoyed Brittany at the game. Ahh, life is good haha. We sat down for dinner at a table with a large group of sisters visiting from Manhattan. It turned out that one of them was in the french congregation, so we had a lot to talk about! They had just recently experienced the opposite of our Hall; the congregation remained french and a creole group was formed. She's been in the congregation for about five years now, and we had some great conversations about the challenges and joys being in a foreign-language congregation brings. When dinner wrapped up, Dad and I thought we would covertly go downstairs to the hotel bar and sneak a pint of Guinness. It turns out that no sneaking was necessary because virtually everyone in the hotel was already there! We had a fantastic time talking about the day with everyone over a beer or two. A really nice group of friends pulled up some chairs next to us and we had a great time. We talked to several Germans, and one couple taught me some interesting facts about Heffewveizen (not sure if that's how you spell it) beer. I'll have something to tell Yves when I get back! I really loved hearing the language. German is surprisingly beautiful when Hitler isn't the one speaking it. Anthony (an Irish brother), Lucy (an English sister), and Sam (the sister's husband) spent a good hour or two with us at our pub table. We got to hear what life is like on their side of the world, and even learned that baked beans on toast is apparently very good (I'll have to try that one back home). Evenutally my parents got tired and headed up to bed. That was probably the smart thing to do considering it was 10PM and the convention is early tomorrow, but an exceptionally talented musician started to play some great songs and we stuck around for a bit. It's hard to say goodnight when you're having such a good time! One last Guinness down, a group of fifty all sang to American Pie, and then we said our goodbyes. We've met so many wonderful people! I hope we see each other again during the convention and can keep in touch afterwards. It's just before 1AM now, and I've got to get up in 7 hours. The great thing is that the convention is all of two hundred feet from our hotel room, so there isn't much of a commute. I'm off to bed to rest up and prepare. Best days to come!

Oh and Aunt Kim, I don't know what it means, but Brittany says to tell you "Sorry, no Bono to kidnap...yet".

Ok, so I've got tons more pictures but they all have other people in them and I don't want to post them. Would you want your picture floating around the internet without knowing about it? 'Nuff said. I'll make a slideshow when I get home for the full effect :)