3/6/17: La emoción!!

So many thoughts going though my head! I do NOT feel like I`m going home in 2 weeks. WHAT! Yesterday was my last fast and testimony meeting here in the mission so I went up and bore my testimony. I was thinking if I should or not and then an hermano behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said I should go give my testimony,haha. How`d he know! Everything`s going good for the baptism of paulina and her sister domenica. We`re going to finish their teaching this week and they`ll have their interview this sunday! woo woo . 

   In other news..I`m not a fan of dogs anymore. Dramatic, I know, but on wednesday night we were teaching a woman for the first time and her door was open and my bag was opened on the ground and the dog just came in through the door, went straight to m bag and started peeing! Who invited you. Then on staurday night we visited a woman, irlanda, for the first time too and her small dog was by my feet and we were teaching her and at the end of the lesson she was like oh m dog bit a hole in your skirt! And at the bottom of my skirt there was a giant hole. I`ll have to keep my eye out for the dogs this week...

   AND, this morning we woke up bright and early at two thirty (some of the number keys on this keyboard dont work..so I just spelt out the time) to travel to guayquil for the visa of my companion, 8 hours on a busa there and back, woop woop. 

   It`s still been raining quite a bit and it totally reminds me of Washington! Maybe it`s a good thing to help me get adjusted to the weather over there...

   I still can`t believe how fast the time has gone by, I feel like it was just yesterday that I received my mission calling. And I couldn`t even say guayaquil correctly,haha. I`m going to enjoy every moment I have left and breath in the ecuadorian aroma while I can!!! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! CHAO CHAO !!

2/27/17: Temple Trip

This week included a trip to the temple! We left bright and early Thursday morning at 3 am! We left the bus terminal at 4am and got to guayaquil at about 8am. Then we arrived at the temple and went to a session in the morning. Later, we waited in the temple housing and studied a bit then got to go do iniciatories which was really cool, then we went to another session right after in the night! 2 sessions in one day. Such a cool experience. Then on friday we had a multizone conference and at the end all the people who are leaving next month had to go up front and give their testimonies. terrifying.

    So we´re teaching the daughters of a less active woman that´s also named maria castro..and it´s funny because she lives like 6 houses away. #whichmaria But she has 3 children and 2 aren´t bapitzed and the 2 girls aredying to get baptized,haha. One is named Paulina,10, and the other domenica,8, and they showed us their book of mormon, complete with princess stickers. They´ll be getting baptized on march 18th! Pray that everything goes well and that their father also gives them permission..we taught him once and he´s nice. Him and maria are separated so it´s kind of complicated. 

   Strange thing, this week I´ve have 2 dreams that one of our investigators, maria castro (the other one) got baptized! The first time was friday night and I just remember seeing her get baptized. Then this morning I woke up and remembered my dream and it was the weirdest dream ever. I was walking on some dirt road and i was talking to mom on the phone (rule breaker) while I was filling out the baptism record (okay, it´s called ficha bautismal in spanish so I´m not sure how to say it in english) of maria castro. I was also walking past an evangelical church and they were all singing and clapping and I was telling mom that I couldn´t hear her because they were singing too well. Not sure what it means but we´ll see! Maria Castro hasn´t really been progressing so I´m so confused about these dreams, because I usually never remember my dreams. We´ll see. 

   Carnaval also started on saturday and ends tomorrow,it´s basically just a holiday where everyone gets each other wet with buckets and water balloons..but we´re working as normal and so far no one has gotten us wet! 

    Well, time´s going by super quick. I´m trying to enjoy every moment I have here and soak up all the sun I can! Love you all so much!!! CHAO CHAO!

2/20/17: Miraculous Recovery of Her Memory Card

Oh man, this is going to be one speedy email because we had to send photos of our house to the misison haha. But to answer your questions (im just going to write everything right here) I did find my drivers license, expires 9/19. and that's fine about the money, haha.

   This week....went by so fast! as always. We brought like 3 menos activo families to church this week which was awesome but none of our investigators came...everyone went to go vote in el centro because yesterday were the elections, what. I think the new president`s name is lenin or something like that. 

   We passed by for maria mendoza and things are looking so great for her...she was kind of acting like  a child and was like no I dont want to be bapitzed anymore because we taught her the law oc chasitity and she told us she has UN OTRO compromiso that lives in portoviejo, and we told her if she wants to be baptized she has to end it or get married. SHE wants to get married but he doesn`t. Never thought I`d have to tell people things like this,haha. But yeah, she was a little molesta with us. She just needs to soften her heart and repent! Well enought about that. 

  It`s been raining less, it`s still pretty hot, I made no bake cookies this week and gave them to a family of members. Hope they liked them! Today I`m makin another batch, gotta win over the hearts of the members withcookiies so that they give us references and go with us to the lessons...I mean....

   But yeah, everything`s going good, this week we`ll have more people in church! LOVE YOU ALL! CHAO CHAO!

These are the photos from last week, now I have my memory card again! Miraculous recovery. We took some photos on the street that we walk each day...right in front of the beach!

2/13/17: Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy almost valentines day! Totally forgot about that until reading the subject line of everyone´s emails haha. I´ll be sure to eat something chocolate tomorrow. This week we traveled to Guayaquil on wednesday to go to the verification of the 6 weeks of my companion and then we stayed in the house in the sector called florida, then returned thursday nght. 8 hours in total traveling in bus!woo! So update, maria castro came to church yesterday which was great because it was raining SO hard yesterday morning and there were like 40 people at church. But Maria Mendoza didn´t come and I was heart broken! We called her and passed by her house but she wasn´t there. We taught her on Friday about the word of wisdom because she drinks coffee and she told us that she stopped drinking coffee after we told her like a week ago that we don´t drink coffee. whattt. But something weird that happend is that when we got to her house her grandaughter came out and said that someone was smoking in her house and then maria came out and smelled like smoke and we asked her during the lesson if she smokes and she was like no, it makes me sick I could never smoke! And I asked her if she was alone with her grandkid and she said yes. confused...

 Also..we took some awesome photos this morning but I was a fool and put my memory card in the wrong slot of the computer and now I can´t get it out...so pray that we can rescue it! Just all the pictures from my mission,no big. It´s been raining every few days here and it´s been SUPER hot. WELL; i´m going to try to rescue my memrory card somehow. WIsh me luck! CHAO CHAO: 

2/6/17: Missionary Manicure and Lots of Rain

Another week! Yesterday Maria Mendoza and her daughter Luz Clara Cedeño came to church and they loved! They were so cute all dressed up. Practically members. But we found out yesterday that her husband, who she´s NOT married to, lives in the same house as her..theyve been sepearted for 10 years and sleep in different rooms and he like had another wife and got married to another woman and had a family with her and the hose beongs to maria but he doesn´t want to leave...so we´re praying that she´ll have permission to get bapitzed...my soul is so pained for her! She NEEDS to get baptized, not to name favorites but she´s probably my favorite investigator,haha. Her and her daugter are SO great and already have testimonies of the church and the book of mormon. Pray that they can get baptized the 25th of february!

   This week we had intercambios and I went to montecristi with hermana franco and it rained SO hard. Then yesterday we went to the house of the 2nd counselor to eat lunch and after one of his family members who paints nails had brought this giant tub of nail polish and was like sit down Im going to paint your nails! So I had my first manicure yesterday...I felt really weird, a missionary getting her nails down? haha. But she really wanted to paint them so watcha gonna do. 

   I also saw a quote this week that I LOVE, so here it is.¨Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings,increase their opportunities, comfort their souls,raise up friends and pour out peace.´-Ezra Taft Benson. 

   Well, it´s still raining here and we´re still wearing our ponchos (sometimes...other times I just don´t bother) but everything´s going well here in Jaramijo. LOVE YOU! CHAO!

Didn´t have many photos from this week,. just this one from the grocery store! I decided I´m going to try all the weird fruits I can while here.

1/30/17: Rain Poncho Fashion Show

It`s been rainy like crazy this week! It rains every 2 or 3 days but when it rains it pours the whole day. On friday we went to go visit maria mendoza and luz clara cedeño in an area called eloy alfaro, and to get to this area you have to climb a giant hill, so we got to their house then right as we got there it started POURING, and the roof of their house is tin so we could barely even hear what they were saying and we were there for like an hour and a half because we were trying to explain everything but the rain just kept on goin. Then when we went to leave all the streets were like rivers...because all the roads are dirt and so it was all flooded in some parts and we tried to find a place to leave that wasn´t covered in water but...we could not. SO, we just walked through one of the little rivers and it came up to our calves! And we were also with a member who`s like 60 years old, her name`s Blanca....hopefully she`ll go with us to another lesson after that,haha....

 Update, so it`s still raining here in good old Jaramijo, and Jaramijo is kind of isolated from the main city,Manta, so the signal`s already not so great...and the signal`s even worse today with all the rain, so the internet is super slow and a minute ago the power went out for a minute...but my email was saved as a draft so it`s okay. everyone in the cyber shouted ´nooooo!´ ,haha. One way or another we`ll write our emails today. anywho....

   Other things that happend this week- we had stake confernce and elder ardila from the seventy came and spoke! He spoke mostly about the youth and how parents need to teach their children and basically how the leaders of the church can`t teach their children everything. After the conference he said hola hermanas! to me and my companion but my companion wasn`t looking and there were a million people there and I had to run after my compaion so I just said hola as I was running away,umm... 

    So maria mendoza accepted a baptism date for the 18th of february but...she didn´t go to church on sunday! ahhh...I was so pained. Is that a phrase? I was so sad her and her daughter luz clara didn`t come to church, we called them but they still haven`t answered, so we`re going to visit them tomorrow. Pray that they go to church this sunday! Maria castro and her daughter kenia did go to church and to go to the stake conference in manta we all hopped on a giant bus and off we went! 

   Other things...today it was raining and we didn`t want to leave the house so we just made lunch in house and i made no bake cookies! Without a measuring cup. I just used a real cup and guessed...but they turned out pretty good! They didn`t really set up ( i think it might be for the humidity) so we put them in the fridge and now they`re great, just in case you were worried. 

   So we watched a missionary broadcast on wednesday morning and they announced some changes! They`re not SO extreme, we`re just planning in the morning instead of at night and pday we have an hour and a half more, whaddup. Also, the key indicators have changed,I`m sure you were alldying to know that. 

   My companion now has 5 weeks on the mish! So far so good. She teached me her peruvian lengo and  I teach her words in english! ´´oh my gosh´´ Anything funny I should teach her in english? well, I`m going to send this before the power goes out again or something crazy happens. HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK! read your scriptures. CHAO CHAO!

Sorry for the lame photos today...me and my poncho? who could say no to you when you`re dressed like this.

1/23/17: Skirt on Fire in Jaramijo

This week...it rained super hard on friday and it rained ALL DAY and we left in ponchos and rain jackets and looked kind of funky. I thought everyone was going to let us in more than usual because it was raining but everyone just kind of looked at us and said ...mañana. haha, and then on monday we were teaching Maria Castro and we were sitting on her sofa across from her and in the middle of the lesson she asked me if my skirt was burning and I was like what? what is she talking about? and I looked down and below me on the ground was this little bowl with this coil thing of incense they use to repel the mosquitos and it had burnt a little hole in my skirt, uhh.....

      THEN, on tuesday we were contacting in an area called ELOY ALFARO and we were walking and I was just trying to think of WHERE we should go...and so then we went down this one street and talked to this one lady who didn`t want anything, then we walked down further and there was a woman sweeping outside and all I said was ´oh you´re sweeping!¨ and she called out to her daughter who was isnide and said ´cynthia, le buscan! ´´ and her daughter cynthia came out and they pulled out two chairs. I was so confused! Because there are a ton of people here who are less active so I thought maybe that was it..? but we asked them if they were members and they said no, but that they has always liked the mormon church and we went back the next day and taught them the restauration with a member, gloria chinga, and it was honestly one of the coolest lessons ever, because they payed so much attention and were so excited to go to church! One of the daughters of cynthia who`s 7 came in at the end of the lesson and was like what`s going on? and maria mendoza (who is the mother of cynthia and was the eoman who was sweeping) and cynthia and the other daughter of maria, luz clara who`s 19, were all like we`re gpoing to their church and it`s going to be better and you`re going to have new friends! SO great. Only cynthia ended up going to churc yesterday with her daugter, natasha, and we didn`t think they were going to show up but they did right as it started! Best moment ever. Well, this week the goal is to get all of them to church! Pray for them!!!

 BUENO; gotta go, CHAO! love you all 

Took some quick snaps in front of the wall that says JARAMIJO. Totes ofish. (totally official abriviation plus a fish pun in favor of jaramijo.)