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Show Book Of Mormon Is Familiar To These People By JACK E. JARRARD Church News Traveling Editor EOGOTA, COLOMBIA The Albancando brothers,, Taquino and Enrique, their wives and children are a fairly long ways from their home in Ota-valEcuador, a small town of about ?,000, of which a quarter are Indians. They live in a small, humble apartment on the outskirts of the Colombian capital where they weave sweaters, rugs, tapes- - tries and other cloth items peculiar to their people. They take these goods into the Bogota marketplace where Colombians and touring gringoes" buy them. Both families are members of the Church and all speak the Quechua Indian tongue. Many members of their group are scattered all over South America and they are sharp tradesmen as well as doing excellent craft work. These people are very friendly and cooperative, but their idea of things religious are way out, Elder Kdell Bagley of Star Valley, Wyo., said. Elder Bagley, who has been assigned of the Colombia-Venezuel- a to. the headquarters Mission in Caracas, Venezuela, labored in the Andes Mission which included Ecuador. He was transferred to his present mission when it was formed last year. While in the Andes Mission, he was assigned to the work with the Otovaloan Indians. He said the favorite pastime of the men of the group is drinking up most of their money Saturday mornings in the town square. Elder Kdell Bagley learned the Quechua dialect. Every Saturday morning these people come into town with the goods they have made or produce they have grown to sell to the townspeople. After they have sold their goods the men drink up most of the money Saturday afternoon and Sundays. The women dont drink, he said. As a result these people are extremely Tarquino Albancando works at his weaving loam modest apartment making a tapestry. in his dont have a tribal organization and each family works for itself. Where there are concentrations of these people it is hard to work with them. But when they have gone into the cities to set up their looms to make a living then we find much success with them. dress and customs. But where they are going their own way all the nen of the group dress exactly alike and so do the I worked with five families of these and had memorized some of the lessons in Quechua. We bad a branch and chapel at Otavalo with 28 members and their pagan gods such as mountains, said. poor. They people or 12 of those were these Indians,' he said. 10 When they joined the Chu"ch in their area, they changed over into Spanish style women. Even though a lot of these Indians had been under Catholic influence and received teachings of Christ they would pray to he But for Elder Bagley the highlight of his life was working in the small humble villages with the Indian people. They seem to understand the Book of he added. Mormon, Marine Launches Book Project In Austria WASHINGTON, D.C. The admonition by die Savior to the rich folyoung man to go sell what he had and low Jesus has special meaning to Lance CpL Clair L. Dorius, a young U.S. Marine assigned to the staff of the Defense Language Institute in the nations capital Thats what CpL Dorius did with everything he owns, except his uniforms, to get a special project going for his old mission field in Austria. The Marine sent $1,C00 for deposit in the European Headquarters or the Church in Frankfurt to be used in purchasing the edition of Meet the German-languag- e Mormons (Das Sind Die Mormonen) tor distribution m Mstrian police stations, banks and libraries. Pres. Arthur R. Watkins of the Austrian Mission said CpL Dorius sent a long list of names and addresses of these institutions when he deposited the money. Apparently he wrote friendly letters to many of these institutions, Pres. Waikinswrote. At Christmas the post office offi. L Dorius . . . goes second CpL Clair nr.Ue cials in the town of Bad Ischl were delighted to hear from a young American who had lived in their town. Since they couldnt read his name in order to address a letter to him and express their thanks, they asked the only member in town if ho could be a missionary. She passed the name on to me and I recognized it as Dorius. It is very worthwhile to know what effect one small Christmas greeting can have among several dozen employes of a post office. CpL Dorius, who lists Brawley, Calif., as his horne got the idea when he heard the popular book had been translated into German by Max B. Zirnmer of Bountiful, Utah, himself a dedicated missionary and Conch worker. He hitchhiked to the headquarters cf the Eastern Atlantic States Mission in Betftes-da- , Md., and asked Pres. Norman R. Bowen if the mission had a copy of the book. They did and showed it to the young Marine. He was ecstatic. If we had only had something like this I was a missionary our work would have been easier, said CpL Dorius. The corporal has furnished the Austrian Mission with over 1,000 names and addresses of his former mission contacts. He is presently secretary of his elders quorum and home teaches 11 families. Pres. Watkins in describing the work and idea of CpL Dorius, said Brother Doriuss generosity and ideas about publi relations were a pleasant surprise to us, to put it mildly. Although he was a former student of mine at BYU, I really did not know him until I came in contact with him again in the mission field. Among many compliments paid by his former mission president, J. Peter Loscher, I found this revealing statement: He loved to do missionary work among farmers au.d country folk, employing very daring methods wili good results. He loves people and people love him . . . he'll long be remembered. Recently we finally received our order of the book Das Sind Die Mormonen and will begin to distribute this book to the people and institutions on Elder Doriuss list. when WEEK ENDING MAY 17, 1969 CHURCH- -7 |