OFFICIALLY ECUADORIAN RESIDENTS AS OF TODAY

After a very long day of waiting, walking and celebrating, we have got our residency finally. This means that we can stay here indefinitely (as long as our investment stays in the bank, that is). It has been a long process but only one thing more to do, which is to obtain our cedula (official identity card) and we are set. Something also that was a VERY nice surprise - we were told to have $320 each to pay for the visa but it turned out that it was only Aaron needing to pay that (as the primary visa applicant) and only $50 for us as dependants - WAHOO - lets go shopping! Anyway it is a big relief to have this finally under our belt - now we can concentrate of the more important things in life.

it was a long wait at the visa office but about half way through the morning - a heap of chinese people walked in - Amanda being very prepared straight away was up and at em, with invitations to the Chinese meeting and magazines for them. It was awesome to see the look of surprise on their faces as this little white girl busted out the chinese. So jealous that I could really only say "ni hau" but I guess 5 years ago I could really only say hello in spanish too so...one day. 

In other news, I had my first study with the lady with the broken Jesus the other day. It was a text book study and the best thing about it is, she is at her place of business so will always be there - what a blessing.

We are eagerly waiting for our first visitor from New Zealand (this time around) to arrive this weekend. Westley is coming for about 6 months so we will have plenty of time to show him around Cuenca and why we love it so much. Let the good times begin!    

LAS CHICAS DE DIOS

Gotta love being called a "Girl" of God - helps that I was with Amanda of course!

So we walked a long way this morning and just when I thought I could walk no more, Amanda took me into her call with an awesome little family and we got invited in to sit down. The story behind the theme of this post is that is what the Mum kept calling us. I got the low down from Amanda and thought I would share it cause it is a cute story. Amanda and another sister where preaching in the cul-de-sac and the Mum called out "we're Catholics" - in other words go away! So they carried on with the other houses. Not too long after though, the lady comes out of her house and calls them back.as her daughter,Stephanie, had said to her - "that is not right Mama - they have the bible with them and you shouldn't be rude to them". Well as you can see in my sneakily taken pic, Stephanie is not very old, probably about 12 or so, but she has got a real desire to know what the bible says and comes out with some great questions. The first question she had this morning was something Amanda had talked about with her Mum and so Amanda was super surprised that the Mum gave Stephanie the correct answer. Shows she has been listening intently and learning a lot!

WE KNOW THAT JESUS DIDN'T GET TORTURED BY A CROSS BUT I DID!

Interesting title and it is a bit of a funny story: On the way home from Amanda's lovely call, we stopped in at one of my RV's - I had placed the October mags with the lady in a Funeraria (a place where they sell grave headstones, objects of worship etc) and I didn't see the cross, complete with a prone "Jesus" hanging from the ceiling. Of course I knocked it off it's perch and it came crashing down on to my shoulder and shattered into a million pieces, along with a glass table underneath it. It hurt a lot but I wiped away my tears and carried on (after Amanda cleaned up the mess that is) and offered a study to the lady. What else could she say except "yes". How embarrassing though - breaking all the idols before we even study that part in the BT book!