Snippets from my journal

We went to try to buy envelopes for the tithing. We are out of tithing envelopes. The stores in town don't have a box of envelopes for sale. Hopefully they will get a shipment before the weekend. And they always need batteries for the remotes for the TV screens and the air conditioning. We also each got an ice cream.

We bought tamales on the way home. Lewis liked them. They look like Mexican tamales but are wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks. I wasn't very impressed but then I don't like the others very much either. Thank heavens we have a chunk of chocolate for dessert.

Lewis went to buy lumber and cement blocks with which to build a shelf to hold all of the manuals that he took out of the office. He found boards. He had to go out to the artisan area to buy blocks. He bought a saw and paid for a lot of taxi rides and help to unload everything. But he got a big shelf built and all of the manuals off the floor. After breakfast/lunch we went to the chapel and he worked more on the paperwork. Brother Villon came again and worked with Lewis organizing the clerk's office.  

We sorted out all of the books on the new shelves and put them in categories. Lewis had me organize all the pictures "in the library". They were all in a plastic bag. Lewis was destroying all financial records older than three years and two notebooks became available. I got almost all of the Gospel Art into the plastic sleeves of the two notebooks along with the index so they can be found. There are still a lot of pictures from the lesson manuals. I will keep working to sort those out as well. Brother Villon came to work for an hour or so in the office with Lewis and they got more done on the financial records.

I have been reading the history of Joseph Smith written by his mother. It is fascinating and has so many interesting details about the lives of her family. I am enjoying reading it. I need to remember that any sacrifices I might make are very small indeed. 

Angela Calapucha and Marianita Becerra and Karen Macias made Fanesca - the traditional Easter soup. Fanesca is a special soup with supposedly 15 different grains and peas and beans in it. It also has a special salted and dried fish but they took some soup out for us before the fish was added. So nice. It is a fairly big fish that they cut open, lay out flat, salt heavily and when it is almost dry, some people hang it on the clothesline to finish drying completely. The dog was tied up the day they had a fish out drying near where we live. It is an Ecuadorian tradition and the dried fish is for sale all over Ecuador at this time of year. (It smells awful.) But the soup was good. 

The women worked all morning in the heat over an open fire behind the chapel to make the soup. They have a huge pot and placed it on several stones - there are hundreds surrounding the church. They cooked it over an open fire. People started showing up about 1:00 and they served 30-40 people. There were several new members and non members and old members and children and it was very festive and fun. If you serve food they will come. 

The soup had a lovely broth with lots of grains and vegetables. To serve it they added a cooked strip of ripe plantain, a chunk of hard boiled egg and a strip of cheese. They also had juice that was very good. Lots of work went into that meal. The three women from the ward spent all day, cooking, serving and cleaning up outside the church in the sun. And they did the dishes in the big pot with a hose. I tried to help clean up. They said I could help clean the chapel tomorrow but I wasn't dressed to wash dishes with them outside. The provided a very welcome activity for the ward. It was appreciated by all who came.

I am having a great birthday. The sister missionaries baked me a banana cake and brought it to our meeting this morning. I even had balloons! We had been invited to go to lunch at a members house today and while we got lost on the way, we finally made it. We were in a cement block house but nicely plastered and painted on the inside. The roof looks like a Chipotle restaurant--the shiny corrugated metal they use for a false ceiling. But in this case it is the real ceiling and roof and there are no problems with the openings at the eves because there is no glass in the windows either. She has a stove that is much better than mine at home. Her brother who lives in Florida was there with his blond American wife and bilingual daughter. His birthday is today also. Who knew I would ever spend my birthday in the outskirts of Bella Vista above Puerto Ayora on the Island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands?! We even saw a "wild" tortoise near the roadside on the way back down the hill. That was a cool birthday present. 

We had church at 8:00 this morning because the medical and dental team were going to be using the building on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. But they changed the plans at the last minute and the company who was sponsoring the doctors wanted them to hold it in another location. So the people who were at church on time last week came at 8:00 and the rest of them came at 9:00 when we were finishing up. Lewis gave a great talk on family history and explained that our emphasis on families and temples is because we know that life after death is as real as our lives here on the earth. Sister Dengue also spoke about the Savior so they did remember it was Easter Sunday. Also a young man talked about tithing. 

I sat next to Menardo who came to church for the first time. We sat in on one of his lessons last week. He is a sweet 18 year old who really cares about religion and knows that our church is not highly regarded by the other churches in town but he has felt something special in his lessons and wants to know more. I think he enjoyed church today. Sunday School class is always good. Narcisa is an excellent teacher. Relief Society was also very good. I was nervous as one of the newer converts who is not socially well adjusted asked if Joseph Smith was a prophet and then she asked if she could bear her testimony. I wasn't able to understand everything she said but she did bear a testimony and while it was long the teacher handled it beautifully and made everyone feel comfortable. She invited one of the Sister missionaries to tell a little bit about Joseph Smith and said it is always good to ask questions when you want to learn. 

The teacher then told us that long ago, Narcisa (the Gospel Doctrine teacher) worked across the street from where she worked and they were acquaintances. Somehow they were discussing religion and Narcisa asked her if she would like to learn about Mormons. Sister Rosario Villon said "Yes" and the missionaries happened to be passing nearby and they called them over and made an appointment. She has been a member for 14 years. Her children told her it wouldn't last long because she had been a member of two previous churches but she bore a sweet testimony and said she is here to stay. It was a great meeting.