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Apr 21, 2014

WAVE AT THE MISSIONARIES IF YOU SEE THEM :)))))


Herro. This week was awesome. For some reason I was in extra awe of where I´m at. I know with all my heart, that God wants me exactly where I´m at. I know that it's so divine that I´m here. These people are literal CHILDREN OF GOD. And they all deserve the opportunity to know and come unto Christ. It was very special because this past weekend, we remembered the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He lives. I know He died for us, but that He has RISEN.
Hahhahaha for my hood friends............... this was today like 49 mins ago hehehhahah, I love Otavalo.


Us with the cutest little hood kids that were out playing at like 9 at night. We had a whistling competition after we taught them how to pray. We talked a lot about Jesus since it was Easter this week, and semana santa (Holy Week). They loved talking about Him and looked at us like their heros. We have talked to one of their Mom's a couple of times and she´s pretty interested in the Church as well.

So thankful for this Gospel! I love it so much. 

We got to have the Mission President Richardson come and have a reunion (meeting) with us on Thursday where we learned how to teach the message of the Restoration a little better. It was awesome. What a great afternoon. And then we got to go out and apply it! 
Me and my compcomp, Hna Rojas chilling by our favorite bushes after the zone conference on Thursday.

Here´s our zona along with some of the Otavalo Sur zona (South Zone). We had a greeeeat capacitacion (inservice training). I love when President comes and visits us. :) "Eeets de beeeehst!" (Nacho Libre voice)

We also got to listen to the Conferencia de Area (Area Conference) which was directed to all of Ecuador. The conferencia de areas was absolutely incredible. I love capacitaciones (inservice trainings) and conferencias. I feel so refreshed! It's great to be able to go home and actually presently apply what is learned. And I had no IDEA that Elder Richard G Scott knew how to speak such flawless Spanish! The Spirit was so incredibly strong. Also, we got to hear Elder Jeffry R Holland speak. He spoke in Spanish for a second at the beginning and then gave the most powerful testimony at the end in Spanish. I love this message of hope and love that is for the whole world. Listen, listen!

We are making lots of plans for the rama (branch). The Presidente really trusts us now, and we are planning activities and trying to get activities going for at least every other Tuesday night, so that investigators can be hermanados (member companions). We have lots of great ideas. We really are praying for a lider missional (mission leader), and maybe someone that could come out on visits with us. This rama has a LOTTTT of potential -- they just need a little push. We are also going to have a little intro to PME(Predicando Mi Evangelio) (PMG - Preach My Gospel), and make sure that every family gets one for their homes. I really do love Quinchuqui. There's so much to do here.

Well, the rest of my week can be explained in pictures. 
Me with Johnny! So cute - this was after the fanesca activity on Thursday.

Obviously, he's my favorite little stinker. He always says his prayers now and we have talked about the Book of Mormon and he's so stoked. He´s the only person in his whole family who has desires to listen to us. But he is always so determined and shows up to church all by himself every Sunday morning. He´s the best.
Love this kid. :D

Me last night after I fell in the street for the 8,953th time this week. My companion finds my clumbsiness hilarious. It's great. But I find it quite funny too, heheh.


Love you all,
Smile at someone and invite a friend to church this Sunday!! AND WAVE AT THE MISSIONARIES IF YOU SEE THEM :)))))

Hugs and slugs,

Hermana (Sister) Bowman

PS. Q&A TIME!!!!! (Questions from my Momma and Answers from Me.)

Q: Have you eaten anything else strange (besides guinea pig)?
A:  Not that I can remember. Just lots of cow stomach. They have something called fanesca (soup) that they eat during semana santa (Holy Week) here and we had a sweet rama (branch) activity where we made it in two giant witch brew pots and also made colada morada (SO GOOD). Fanesca is tipico de (typical or indigenous to) Ecuador and it has like 12 granos. It's like a soup served with aguacate (avocado), tomate (tomato), queso (cheese), and little bread balls. It was good except we ate like 5 bowls in one day and almost exploded. It was difficult to move.

Q: How did you kill the chicken? Swing it around or wring it's neck?
A:  We put the chicken on the step with its little neck hanging off and then cut it with a kitchen knife. You have to hold it down or else it jumps up and does flips without its head on. It was quite the experiece. We killed 6 with Elder Bacab, Elder Gonzalez, me, the sister I trained Hermana (Sister) Rojas, and Hermana (Sister) Cajas. 

Q: What do most members wear to church on Sundays? Like Costa Rica where men might wear a t-shirt with a design or lettering on it under their white shirt? Women in flip flops and a t-shirt and skirt?
A:  Everyone wears the typical anaco (dress). The guys wear a blue or black poncho, white pants, and white alpargates (the cool shoes that I literally wear daily... they're the closest to flip flops). Because our Stake is all indigenous, it's just all the indigenous wear. We wear anaco like every other week. They say we look prettier and they like us more -- hahaha. 

Q: Have you worn out any shoes yet?
A:  I have worn out like 3 pairs. I wear alpargates most the time, they're light, and easy.  They actually have good support -- and they're always under 5 bucks. Woo woo.

Q: How much does a taxi cost?
A:  Taxis try and cobrarnos (charge us) like 6 dollars because of my skin and hair but then I speak to them in Spanish and they're all surprised and then they charge us at the most like $2. We have ridden free a bunch of times too. 

Q: Where do you keep your money? Do you use the Kanga Pack?
A:  I keep it in a little monedero, a pouch. You always have to have it handy because we take the bus way more than taxis. The bus is always 25 cents. They use dollar coins here a LOT. We hardly ever handle bills. We don't use Kanga Packs, those are for nerds. Hahaha. But we usually never leave the house with more than 5 bucks. 

Q: How much of your day would you say is spent speaking Kichwa and how much is in Spanish?
A:  45% Kichwa (it's not Quechwa, thats a different dialect.) and the other 55% Spanish. And some English. Hermana Rojas knows "The Eeensy Weensy Spider" and "I Love to Look for Rainbows" now. So proud of her. :)


PPS. Surprise epilogue MORE PICTURES :)




                               THE CUTEST LITTLE NOTES I HAVE EVER RECEIVED:
The one on the left is from Johnny. It says:

"Hermanita Woumer (that's what he calls me because the last name Bowman is literally impossible for people to say here - hahah) por favor no se vaya de aqui. (Sister Bowman please don´t leave from here). On the other side he drew and colored the Libro de Mormon (Book of Mormon).
And then the two other ones are from the kiddos in the other picture. They were so cute, they like slipped them into my backpack. Aw aw aw.
("You are my best friend in the whole world.")
("I hope that tomorrow you come again and tell us more stuff about God, but make sure you come after one pm.")

SO CUTE THEY MELT MY HEART.

seeeeeelfieeeeeeeee

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