I want to share some images and words about the Zamora Branch. We thought we would be living in Zamora for many months and I regret not taking photos of the members from day one because now we are no longer part of that branch and will only be visitors in the future. I do not even have a photo of our Branch President and his family even though I have been in their home for Family Home Evening and have enjoyed their wonderful rice pudding parfaits. I also must have a photo of Pedro Bedoya who was formerly in charge of everything. He gets a break now as Elder's quorum president. I will find a way to get some more photos but I want to share what I do have so you can get a glimpse of the church in Zamora.
Let's begin with photos of Primary children. The first week I was there they needed someone in Primary and I volunteered. I stayed there till we left. I loved it and it was challenging. We had two long hours in that small room every week.
This was the first week and we did a lot of coloring because I had paper and crayons and a stack of pictures. We found a gospel principle to talk about for each of their pictures--except I did have to really stretch it to work Sponge Bob in.
Above is SarahÃ. She was so patient and focused on her picture. She used the little pencil sharpener to shave off curls of the colored pencils and then rubbed the color on her picture. The gentle coloring on her picture is not crayon. It is color she created by rubbing tiny shreds of color on her paper. That never would have occurred to me. Watercolor effects from colored pencils. Cool.
Above is Yaiza. She couldn't draw what she wanted to so she asked her brother to draw a picture for her. Kevin drew Sponge Bob and she was delighted.
Here are a few more photos I took of our cute Primary kids in the Zamora branch.
Yaiza, Saray and Anabel
Antoni, Kevin and SarahÃ
This is Rosa Tenesaka and her son Santiago. We had visited with them in their home. They live quite a distance from Zamora. They only have a motorcycle so when money is tight the family walks to church. It takes them an hour one way. Santiago was a little shy at first with this strange lady and I was grateful for Rosa's help the first hour. We got through opening exercises, sharing time and the lesson. Then she went to Relief Society and the rest of us used most of the time with my homemade play dough. It is a big hit and you would be surprised at how deft the kids are who have a family bakery. This is how I packaged it up beforehand. I have learned the hard way that in Zamora you must also bring a zip lock bag of flour because the dough absorbs moisture from the air and gets very sticky rather quickly. They love sprinkling flour all over. Good thing I know where the broom and dust pan are after church.
Here are some photos of the building the branch is currently meeting in.
Above is the Bishop's office. Grandpa spent hours and hours sorting through all the stacked up paperwork and organizing everything. We got a filing cabinet and bought folders and labeled and filed it all. It is amazing how much information is sent from Salt Lake to church leaders. We have a lot more time than they do and were able to be helpful. I spent a "week" sorting Primary pictures at home. There were hundreds all mixed together. We bought notebooks that come with attached page protectors and I sorted them all and put them in order for each manual. Now they will be useful for the teachers.They can now find the Gospel Art pictures as well. Everything in the building is now better organized and much cleaner.
This is the Primary room.
This is at the front of the Relief Society space. They do not have a separate room and the Primary does have a door but there is no glass in the window of the door and the RS ladies can hear us all too well I'm sure. We also end on time. None of us in Primary want to stay in the room beyond the assigned time. Look out mothers - we are finished at 12:00 noon on the dot.
This is the chapel. The ceiling lights did not work in the front of the chapel so Lewis replaced the switch and solved the problem. The problem of the columns in the line of sight can't be solved so we are very happy to be moving to a larger space with no columns that block your view of the speaker.
It is a two story space. The class rooms are above. One interesting thing is that there is a house right behind this place with an open dining area. You can see what is going on in the house behind the speaker in Sacrament meeting and still look like you are paying attention. Right behind that house is the river. But you can only see that from the second floor.
Below is a snapshot of the new building. There is a three step elevation to the back half of the building. They will make a strip of the higher part the stand for the chapel and build classrooms behind the chapel and two in front of the chapel. They are just starting to build the walls in this photo. They will have drywall and make a lower ceiling. It should be nice when they are finished and make it a lot easier to provide a good experience for the members on Sundays. Yea for progress.
We were able to attend one baptism. It was a very beautiful experience and we were all quite wet when it was finished because it was raining but only Elder Castro and Monica were freezing because the river water is very cold.
Elder Larrea, Elder Castro (he had been transferred to Loja but was able to return for the baptism), Elder Carmona, and Elder Huamani.
This is the space the elders have dug out a bit and used in Zamora over time. It is not the Zamora river. It is called the
Bombuscaro river.
It is quite swift and they say it is cold. I didn't test it myself. I was wet enough.
Elder Castro helping Monica get to the right spot. Monica was wearing Grandpa's plastic sandals but they were way too big and her foot slid all the way through the front. Kevin is having a great time. After the baptism I asked him to pick up many small rounded river rocks for me to take home.
Elders love to take photos too.
This is what I did with the river rocks. In Primary we learned about prayer and they each got a special "rock friend" who would serve as a reminder to say both their morning and their nighttime prayers.
We had a fun experience with the Barney family from somewhere near Ogden, UT. Brother Barney was a missionary in Zamora 21 years ago. He reopened the area and spent several months here. This is his second visit to Ecuador with a group of about 80 people this year. The fathers (or mothers) are returned missionaries who served in Ecuador and every 3 years they visit and participate in service projects. Some are doctors and dentists. Elder Barney said his specialty is building chicken coops that they donated to needy families to increase their self sufficiency. He said that two of the families that he delivered a chicken coop to spoke of the missionaries that baptized them many years ago. These two families got to meet their missionaries again because they were participating in this trip and Brother Barney got them together to greet and hug and see the old photos. He brought his sons (Thomas, Joshua and Nathan) this trip and it was fun to see them interact with the missionaries and the members and have a wonderful pre-MTC experience with their dad. He brought only his wife last time. He says he will bring her and the three girls the next trip. They met Zoila Castillo (she is the one with the bakery and she brings treats for Primary) at church. She knows a younger sister of one of the families he baptized. She will take them to visit Sunday evening. The sister was too young to be baptized when he was here as a missionary. We invited the Barneys and the missionaries over to eat after church and we all had soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I'm sure you are not surprised at the menu. Grandpa is very good at making lots of grilled cheese sandwiches efficiently.
Former missionary with current missionaries and future missionaries. A great group to have in our home.
Love, Hermana y Elder Pettingill
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