Papallacta....again

_{Hello all! I’m afraid I’ve been terribly remiss with the blog. Since Hannah left for home, I’ve been busy with the usual, and a few extra things as well. 2 weekends ago, a friend from the coast came up for a visit with two other friends, and they chose me to be their tour guide. The plan was to stay in Quito only one day, but they liked it so much, they cancelled the rest of their travel plans and stayed here with me the whole weekend. If they ever send me the pictured they promised, I’ll post them, as we did some pretty cool stuff in Mindo and other places.}

_{This past weekend, I went on another trip, also very last minute. The English group in Quito, who I am just recently getting to know invited me Friday night on a trip to Papallacta, a hot springs town in the jungle. The way there was a bit hairy, as the other sister I was travelling with and I were targeted by two con-men. Thinking that they were bus attendants, they set up where we sat on the bus, arranged our bags under our seats and started chit chatting, which we tried to avoid. They kept asking for change for their bills and directions to different places. Meanwhile, the bus attendant (who I figure was in on it too) was hassling us over the fare, saying it was $4 when really it was $1.50. Then he acted like he didn’t have change even though he did. Anyway, a while later, the guy who had been standing over us the whole time talking to us got off the bus with another guy. A few minutes later, a different guy came to the back of the bus and asked if those other men had been bothering us, because he knows for a fact that they are criminals from Colombia. He said he’s an under-cover police officer and he’d seen them before. He said it’s a good thing they decided to get off the bus, because as he wasn’t “packing”, there would be nothing for the police officer to do anyway if they had turned violent.}

_{Aaaaanyway, to make a long story short… turns out some guy at the front of the bus was indeed robbed, a foreigner, and while they were dealing with that commotion, the bus actually broke down, there in the middle of the jungle. Well, it was a highway in the jungle, but still. So as we were all getting off to see if we could catch another bus, that is when I noticed that my bag had been slashed from under the seat. It’s a nice Nike duffle bag, brand new, which made me sad. (But it’s ok, I can sew it.) That’s when we put everything together and realized the two guys were distracting us, so the third one sitting behind us could rob us right under our seats. Well, the good news is that all he could find was the food I had packed because earlier I had pulled my bag forward within my view, suspicious that something like that was going on, and he couldn’t reach far enough without us seeing. Nothing was stolen except my chocolate milk, which sounds little, but I was actually very upset about it. I had been saving it…}

_{When we finally got there, everything was totally worth it because the cabins that we had rented for the weekend were awesome. They have their own private hot spring pools too open to us 24 hours. There was also a SPA where I got a very good massage the next morning and mountain trails, horseback riding, more pools, etc…}

_{After lunch, we did a treasure hunt that one of the brothers had prepared the weekend before in the jungle. We got lost a number of times and it started pouring an hour into it, but it was still fun and of course, we ended up winning. I’ll add pictures of the hunt later when I get them from someone else. I myself didn’t take very many, but below are a few to show you the lodge and some of the friends. All in all it was a fun weekend of speaking English and finally getting to know some other foreigners serving here. (Although half of the 18 publishers in the group are Ecuadorians.)}

_{I will post some good service experiences as well after the photos. Hope you enjoy reading them. I sure enjoyed having them! J}

a couple quick experiences...

I have been studying with a young married couple for a few months now, named Jorge and Inez. At first, I wanted to turn it over because I thought it would ackward studying with a husband and wife, but it turned out to be the best study I have (well they at least tie for first with 2 others!) The husband is so humble and funny. He is constantly asking me if he is doing the study properly or what he should do better. He loves to read the paragraphs even though we all laugh at his terribly reading. It's quite funny sometimes... Anyway, they are really funny and aren't afraid to ask questions, even though sometimes they get really embarrassed about them. The good thing too is that they are excited to share what they are learning with their friends and always ask whoever is around in their store at the time of their study if they'd like to sit in. They aren't embarrassed at all about it, as some might be. So when I arrived yesterday for our study in their health club, they were with two other mid 20's gals who work there too. The couple told them they could have an hour off to study the bible with us, so we put chairs around in a circle and as we only had 2 books and 2 bibles, we passed them around and everyone took turns reading. We were 6 in total. Well, since we are already in chapter 3 of the book, the other two girls kept interrupting with so many questions. We could hardly get through the paragraphs. At some point, one of the girls, Veronic, got really frustrated, stood up and said, "This just isn't working. I need my own study! I'm never gonna understand this stuff without my own study!" So of course we made plans to get her her own book, bible and study. She is very religious and made us promise to not pressure her to change Religion, which we happily agreed to. People very quickly see the difference in true and falde religion pon their own after a few chapters in the Teach book. Veronica is a very loud, opinionated and possibly volatile person, but that passion could turn into zeal like the Apostle Paul, so although it will be a challenging study, I can already tell, I am looking forward to it.

Teresa, the study Hannah left to me is doing very well. Yesterday, we finished the chapter on the resurrection and she expressed at the end of the study how much she appreciated knowing the truth, even though she is extremely embarrassed she says to be learning these things at such an old age (60 maybe). She says this is the first year that the church will not be able to take advantage of her ignorance, as she will not be paying the misa, and will not be buying things for her dead mother. Studying these chapters came just in time because next Tuesday is The Day of the Dead, when everyone brings food, drink, flowers, etc... to the graves of their loved ones and pays the church for blessings to safeguard them. Teresa says she won't even go to the grave this year, as her mother no longer needs her help. She is simply resting peacefully waiting for the resurrection. It was amazing to see her really applying what she's learning and using it in her life and being freed from the lies and tricks that she's spent her whole life believing.