Visita Superintendente de Circuito

So we have just had our circuit overseer visit the week of March 24-29 which was exciting and encouraging.  We have found out that things are a bit different for the week the circuit overseer visits.  Lunch for example, if you sign up to do lunch you are also signing up to have everyone who goes in field service that day for lunch also.  Lunch for them here is there biggest meal of the day. Lunch with the C.O. is about a 2 hour time frame. It is very nice and encouraging to spend that time with the congregation. The brothers and sisters make sure that you are well fed. We went out a couple of the days and got to experience this first hand.  We had no idea that is how things work here and we were hesitant to go to lunch at first because we thought we would be intruding or that they might not have enough prepared because we knew we did not tell them we would be out in service ahead of time.  We asked the brother in charge the first day and we were informed that it is almost disrespectful to not go to lunch. They said it is their custom. The pioneer meeting was on Wednesday evening in a brothers house. We counted the chairs and there were close to 40 filled! Pretty good with only 57 publishers. The C.O. told us that Zakk could come with us so he got to attend his first pioneer meeting ever.  After the meeting they had a little BBQ party for everyone!  We are also learning that when they have a party they have 3 or 4 main dishes and they serve everyone the same thing and the same amount.  They make your plate for you and bring it to you. Anything left on your plate seems to be saved for the animals they have. They also had a party or fiesta on Friday night for the circuit overseer because this was his last visit.  After to talking to them we found out that they used to be special pioneers for 20 years while raising their daughter! It seems like then after she was grown they became a Circuit Overseer. They know everyone really well because they pioneered in this area. It's almost like family to them.  The congregation had a whole bunch of things prepared for them.  First they had the little kids sing song 120 "Listen Obey And Be Blessed." Then some of the adults sang song 85 "A full Reward From Jehovah". Some lines just the men sang and others just the women. A few verses were done all together.  Oh and that wasn't all, they were just getting started.  Then they performed a drama.  After that there was a dance in the traditional Ecuadorian clothing.  Then we ate and they had cake. 

So here are some pictures from the party and some from the week of activity.

Here is a picture of the circuit overseer and his wife and daughter.  The Congregation made them 2 bouquet's of flowers for the women and a little boutonnière for him.   

 

 We had some difficulties loading the videos so we hope you enjoy them.  They for some reason can not be played on a phone or tablet but laptop or computer they work. 

 

 

 Here are the kids singing song #120.  It takes the kids almost 1 minute just to come out and get lined up so be patient they do sing after they are all ready.

 

 

Now the adults singing song #85.

 

 

 

 

and now the drama--- 

We do believe the drama was a portion of Noah's ark given the little animals. It was about a 20 minute drama. But we only gave you a few minutes here and there.  Enjoy!

 

 

And that was the end of the drama! 

Here are some photos from the same Drama. 



Here is the whole cast!

This is the Sepeda Family, the husband is the one in blue, he is an elder and they have 3 boys.  They are a really nice family & they even speak some English!  The oldest boy in the middle is doing like a  home school program during the week and then he goes to school on Saturday.  It's pretty cool and he is able to regular pioneer.  The middle brother is going to do the same thing next year he said.

Here is everyone that participated in the traditional Ecuadorian dancing and the Circuit overseer and his wife and daughter.  

 

They all line up almost like line dancing or square dancing.

 

 

We had to laugh because as everything was going on with the entertainment the little kids kept getting closer and closer to the cake.  Finally there were like 3 girls surrounding the cake and took a swipe of the icing! haha....we laughed! Of course they were scolded and told not to touch the cake.  But when it was time to cut and serve the cake they were the first in line!!!

They cut the cake in small pieces that I have never seen before, I guess so everyone could have some.  But they saved the picture part of them and gave it to them as a gift.  How nice!

Here is a limon tree at a brothers house that we went to for lunch this week.

Don't know if you can see or not but the little dark red balls you see in this plant are coffee beans! These were at the same brothers house.  They had all kinds of fruit trees and plants growing here!

They also had dahlias which are my favorite flower! I've never seen so many flowers on one plant before, they are so pretty!  One lady told me that this area has really good soil for growing things!

 

 

 

We handed in our time and we had a real time with it trying to figure out what was what!  We had always emailed our time at the end of the month, so it had been quite some time since we actually filled out a time slip.  We figured out Libros real quick!  Folletos are broschures and tracts.  Horas de servicio en el campo is simple enough.  But the revistas sueltas and the revisitas were a bit tricky! How in the world magazines and return visits translate so similarly we don't know! Revistas are magazines and Revisitas are return visits.  Now were going to send some home to use so you can thoroughly confuse your group overseers!