12/26/16: Ahhhhhh, This Week!

WOW, SO MUCH HAPPEND THIS WEEK. We went to Guayaquil monday afternoon and had a family home evening sort of thing with other zones, then later this week we had a baptism and it was great! It was Christmas eve and it was the baptism of Gabi Rojas and it was at  9 AM, more like 9 45 because everyone showed up late,haha. But it went really well, Gabi was super happy! He works for the governor or something and he`s always SUPER busy and he has like 3 different jobs on top of that so it was good that everything worked out to have his baptism that day. Then later that night we went to sing as a zone at Malecon with the stake choir. We sang all the christmas hymns then we sang that alelujah song that`s on Shrek and we sang it in spanish and it was  astruggle aha. Then the stake choir started singing other songs and I didn`t know some of them so I kind of just did what I could...it`s the same as talking, it´s just louder and you more your voice up and down! Pretty sure I didn`t quote that correctly because it`s been awhile since seeing that..uhh... And of yeah..... Last night the zone leaders called us and told me that both me and my companion are going to train! I have cambios to a different place and she`s staying here to train but I`m freakin out, what do I do...Opening a sector and training. WHAT. That`ll be interesting. There are only 2 sisters that are coming this transfer and they`re both from Peru. Whatttt....Many stories to come. Well, I`m going to go take some deep breathes and drink some water. LOVE YOU ALL!!! Hope you all had a marvelous Christmas and have  agreat new year!! CHAO CHAO!

FIRST UP-The baptism of Gabi Rojas the morning of Christmas eve,

 The streets of Ecuador 

We took a lot of pictures today..haha

More photos at Malecón .. 

12/19/16: Merry Christmas from the Mission President

Dear Family of Sister Tirrell,

 

In behalf of the Ecuador Guayaquil West Mission, we send you a very warm greeting and a Merry Christmas. We wish your family the richest of blessings during this Christmas season. We encourage you to share your uplifting experiences with your daughter in your weekly emails, just as she does with the people she serves. Attached is the Christmas picture of your daughter with her zone.

 

Once again, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2017. 

 

Sincerely,

 

President Rosendo Santos

Sister María Santos

Ecuador Guayaquil West Mission

 

12/19/16: The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer...

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear! How is it aleady almost christmas ?? So crazy.This week we went on a trip to Mapasingue! Our leaders called us Tuesday night right before we went to bed and told us that we were going to have to be in the terminal the next morning to travel to Mapasingue. It`s because my new companion, Hermana Mancuso, sang in a choir for an activity that the mission did in Guayaquil. So we were there from wednesday to sunday morning! And while my companion went to choir practices everyday and then performed in the activity, I was with another hermana, hermana Mendoza, and she was Mary in one of the live nativities that they had in the fair where the activity was Saturday. The activity Saturday was a fair and it was in a place called Concha acustica (something like that) and on thursday,friday and saturday there were 7 nativities and the activity was with 2 other missions, guayaquil south and guayaquil north mission. And in the nativities the people at the fair could take their pictures and then they had to write down all their information so that we can send them their picture slash (I can`t find the slash button on this keyboard..) so that the missionaries can go contact them! And guess who took the pictures in one of the nativities, me! The first night we took 98 photos...and then the next night there weren`t that many people and then saturday there were SOO many people!! We took over 200 photos over the 3 days...

In other news, Gabi Rojas is going to be baptized this saturday, On Christmas Eve! So excited for him. He`s so ready. Yesterday we were teachiing him and he sounded like a gospel preacher,haha. He`s just very deep and he gets really into what he`s saying. Then there`s Miguel Ortega, our best friend. He`s one of the sweetest people ever! He`s like 70 years old, always rides his bicycle to the chapel and his greatest desire is to be baptized! We taught him tuesday and he accepted a baptism date for january 7th! Right after we said the prayer he asked us what he needed to do to get baptized....more to come! 

    We put some chirstmas lights up in the house, found  a nativity scene in a drawer of one of the dressers in our room but it`s missing baby Jesus...and we also found a mini christmas tree that we`re going to put together soon! Hope everyone has a very JOLLY christmas!!! FELIZ NAVIDADDD!!! CHAO, love you!

12/12/16: Photos!

12/5/16: Otra Semana!!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures from this week, haha. They`re not the coolest but we`re going to take some more this week. Saturday we had a conference as a zone with the president and we got there at 8 am and left at 3, woo! And we hadn`t eaten lunch so president took us to shopping and bought us all carl`s jr...and cake.haha, so funny. Then while we were all eating this little girl popped out of nowhere and handed me the drawing that I have in the pictures I sent. I was so confused! And then we figured out that it was this one man that was drawing and he talked with one of the elders, then we went and talked to him, gace him some cake and one of the cards for the christmas iniciative and then he showed us a picture of him with the Pope, #we`reinecudaor . His name was pedro! 

   Then yesterday we had our stake conference so we met together with 2 other wards at 3 pm and then at 8 we watched the christmas devotional! We had invited all of our investigators but none of them could come, sooo...like 10 minutes before it started we went and talked with some people of a family we had invited to some movie night we dida few weeks ago to come to the devotional and we got one of the couples who lived there to come, woo! so the elders that work in that sector will be visiting them I`m sure. 

   And the other photos I sent are from Thanksgiving,ha. Watch out ecuador!! We`re still teaching azucena and herlinda and lisette and we`re going to try to help lisette get baptized the 17th of this month,woo. 

   People here already have their crazy latin christmas lights hung up ( i don`t know why, but the christmas lights here just aren`t the same..) and we have a little baby christmas tree in the apartment that was already here. ç

    Well, Hope everything`s going swell up there in the states, have a fantastic week!! LOVE YOU!!! 

11/21/16: Another Week of Esperanza!

This week, this week....on wednesday we went to guayaquil for a conference for my companion since she`s one of the leaders and so we got back thursday night, and the rest of the week went by super fast. We`ve mainly been teaching Azucena (we found out her name means white lily in english, good to know) and Lisette and Herlinda, the mother of a convert here. Azucena..oh azaucena, that girl needs to go to church! She hasn`t gone to church the past few weeks so she`ll be getting baptized later than planned but that`s alright. She gave us a little bit of ceviche yesterday before we taught her, always good. She`s always so nervous to pray and one time this week we came to her house to teach her and her door was open and she was taking notes from the pamphlets we`ve given her and writing a prayer out, so cute ! And then there`s Lisette, she wants to get baptized but she`s still not so sure about the book of mormon, SO we`ve been helping her with that and if all goes well she`ll be baptized this saturday or a little bit later. And Herlinda! She`s the mother of a convert named Alexandra and she wants to get baptized! She`s like 60 years old and always gives us bread and is so sweet. 

    And then today, we cleaned the house, went and ate some bolones and smoothies for lunch then walked here to the cyber to write! And on the way we met a dog! As pictured in the photos I sent. There are SO many dogs and cats here, it`s kind of ridiculous. One time hermana twitchell and a different companion counted all the dogs here they saw in one day and they counted 223. Yeah. Well, I hope everything is well and that everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving filled with turkey and cranberry sauce! haha. CHAOOOOOO love you guys!

11/7/16: First Real Tourist Attraction- La Chocolatera

WOW! I have like 2 minutes to write this email But hey, I sent like 20 photos so that`s worth like 20,000 words, right? This week we went to our first real tourist attraction here! It`s called La Chocolatera and it was super gorgoeus! And really windy. We went with the bishop and his wife and daughter and the wife of the patriarch and we of course went in the bishop`s taxi! We also went to this little museum they have there, snapped a ton of photos and went to other look out points and even saw some seals. Other than that, we`re getting emily mite to be baptized this saturday and e viisted a member who`s mom the missionaries had been teaching in the past and she said she had a dream and wants to be baptized, so there`s that! Her name`s Asusana valverde and she gave us a mango aftter teaching her. 

   Before going, here are a few options for recuerdos (ahh, my mind is blanking on the word for this in english) , so you can all tell me which thing you would most like and I`ll see what I can do! There are hammocks, futbol jerseys, bags, bracelets, keychains. Yeah. ç

  Well, hope all is well with you guys!! Have a fantastic week!! CHAO LOVE YOU!

Here`s the first of the many photos from our visit to the Chocolatera 

10/31/16: Hall-o-whatttt? Halloween.

First off, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  I`m sure everyone`s gotten their costumes ready and has already eaten too much candy,haha. They don`t really celebrate halloween here, but they do celebrate el dia de los muertos which is november 1 and 2 , something like that,who knows. But what they do here is they drink a lot of something that`s called colada morada and it`s this purple drink with  a bunch of different fruits and it`s super sweet, look it up! We`ve already had 3 giant glasses from the members this week. They also eat this special bread that they usually make it to look like a little doll with braids, it`s called wagwa or something? it`s a name in kichwa and I don`t speak kichwa. They also do that thing where they cook all the favorite foods of their ancestors that have died and then they say that the spriits come and eat it but really anyone who comes to their house just come andeat it..

   This week we had a conference with Elder Montoya in Guayaquil and it was awesome! He and his wife both spoke and mostly spoke on missionary work (obviously) and the importance of prominsing blessings to the people we teach and also to the members.

    And, lisette barreto, the wife of a less active that we`re teaching, accepted a baptism date! She and her little fam are so cute. She`ll be getting baptized the 19th of november. Then the week after that-primary program. Nuff said. We all know how awesome those are. Should be interesting with all the crazy energetic latin children too haha. 

   Well, I hope everyone`s halloween is wonderful! Love you all so much!!! 

P-day AKA pie day

Funny story...last monday we had to call the patriarch and his wife and the bishop also showed up, to install a fire alarm that the mission said everyone has to have. Look at them go!

selfie with emily mite, getting baptized the 12th!

 Picture with a dead chancho, so great. 

10/24/16: Photos from Michelle's Baptism