Mi Iglesia

Per request by Big Brother Micah, here are pictures of our church. There are actually 3 LDS churches in Riobamba. Our ward is 5 blocks from our apartment, and I think it is the Stake Center. The building on the left is the Chapel, and the building on the right houses the rest of the rooms.

And now for the juice... I am going to tell a little story I like to call My First Day of Church in Latin America.

After being in Ecuador for approximately 3 days, the Sabbath arrived. We already knew a few members, we knew where our Ward was, and what time it started at. We arrived on time, and greeted the 3 other members that were on time. Everyone was soooo excited that we were there because: we are white, we are from Utah, our last name is Young {little do they know Oliver Young isn't related to Oliver Cowdrey or Brigham Young, but it is easier not to disclose that information}, and we aren't even missionaries! We find where our classes are, and Oliver takes me to the Relief Society Room {in Ecuador they have classes before Sacrament Meeting, so that all of the members can get to the Sacrament on time}.

In the Relief Society Room there are 2 Sisters, one of them is the teacher and the other is just another member of the ward. Oliver explains that my name is Carly, I don't speak Spanish, but I can understand most of it and then he heads off to Priesthood. As I enter the room they both stand up walk over to me and kiss me on the cheek {not a normal kiss on the cheek, but a Grandma Glo Kiss: cheeks pressed together and we are both kissing the air}, at this point I am thinking to my-American with a personal bubble-self, that was different, but it is okay because Grandma Glo makes me do that too. I sit down on one of the wooden benches, when a group of women enter the room. Then it all starts again, everyone is saying "Buenos Dias" very loudly and kissing each other. I think to myself, oh good...everyone is here, I don't have to touch anymore strangers, and now we can start. Indeed class began, but not everyone was there.

The class started by everyone talking to the new girl. They were asking me all sorts of questions and trying to tell me all kinds of wonderful things, but to me it sounded something like this "BLBLBLBLidda RLRRRLBLBL BLBLKJFLAKJDF BLBLBLadadad BLBBBBBIDIDIDIDID." I just looked at them like a deer in headlights, I couldn't even muster a "No entiendo" or a "No hablo espanol"...I had nothing. At one point a sister asked me what my name was {she spoke about as slowly as possible} and I was able to mutter "Carly," they then began to call me Cathy {Side note: the name Carly boggles the minds of every single Ecuadorian, those sounds just don't make sense in the Spanish Language.} Then all of a sudden somebody walks into the room and we all have to stand up and Grandma Glo Kiss. One of the sweet sisters in the ward felt bad for me, her remedy was handing me a coloring book with farm animals in it. I really wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with the coloring book, but expressed plenty of gratitude and then flipped through it like it was very interesting.

Finally the lesson begins, but nearly every 45 seconds a Sister enters the room, starts yelling "Buenos Dias," and we all arise and kiss each other. Occasionally they all turn to me and ask me questions, I stare at them blankly, and then we move on. This hour of class seemed like an eternity. Here I was holding a farm animal coloring book, kissing all sorts of strangers, and I said "Amen" right in the middle of the prayer. The class ended, they all started kissing again, I hand in my coloring book and hymnal, and I dart out of there.

As soon as I saw Oliver I started hysterically laughing and crying all at the same time. Of course he thinks it is the most hilarious thing in the entire world, so much for sympathy. Since my episode, church has gotten a lot better. I now read scriptures, pray, and follow along in my class manual, but I am pretty sure that they still think my name is Cathy. Oh, and I found out that half of the Relief Society speaks English.