2/1 15: Pizza and English

This email´s going to be shorter (than usual..) this week , but here it goes!! This week included visiting the Guillem family from our ward and the father made us pizza!! I miss pizza so much. And the mother is the new Relief Society president so we chatted with her and her family for awhile. Also, Hermana Espinoza is learning ENglish (all the Latino missionaries have english books to learn english on their missions) and so Ive been helping her learn new words and phrases like ¨´cream of the crop´¨ ,haha, our favorite. ALso the phrase ¨´totes amazing´´ (not found in the book..) Weve been well fed this week, as usual, and were especially well fed wednesday when we had already eaten lunch then were given a mountain of rice from someone else we taught a few hours later..I don´t know how,but it happend. But it´s okay because we´ve been doing the KALO (spelling..?) workout in the morning for exercise! Yesterday and SAturday our neighbors that live across this little street had kareoke night...and their voices sound the same as when the someone here kills a chicken..and they went all out last night (for 4 hours) so pray we dont fall asleep during a lesson today!haha. YEsterday at church Eva Ruiz, a less active member who we´ve been teaching, gave me a pair of earrings! SHe just asked me if I had earrings and I said no and she just took some out of her bag,haha.THis week´s been good and hot! CHAO!

1/26 14: Conference and Cake

First off, sorry this email is a day late! We didn{t have P day yesterday because we had a conference for the Hermanas yesterday and left at 7amin the bus and just got back to Portoviejo before lunch. Its been raining a lot this week and one day when we were knocking doors trying to find someone to teach, we found a woman named Betty Cirvantes! We were knocking the door across from her little home when she poked her head out the window and started talking to us. Then she invited us in, which was especially great because my skirt was soaked,haha. She told us how she had prayed for a sign from God and that when she saw us outside her window that that was her sign. She had been taught by missionaries about 3 years ago and said I looked like one of them. So we talked with her for awhile and it felt like we had known her for years and she opened up to us so quickly. She has 4 sons and lives with the father and said she{ll probably get married in our church...kind of like the investigator of our dreams! She is so sweet and has so much faith! 

      This week...one day the sister who was going to feed us lunch wasn{t home so instead we bought a cake! The natural thing to do,right_ But dont worry, we ate some real food two. OH, and I killed my second and third cucarachas this week, it{s even harder when they fly! And Hermana Espinoza completed 5 months on the misson today,wooo!!! 

      And yesterday we had a conference with all the hermanas at the misson home with Hermana Dennis and it was so great! There was one talk that Hermana Dennis shared that I especially loved called Living by the power of faith by Elder Gene R. Cook. Its in Spanish so I dont know if this is the exact translation, but all the more reason to look it up! THis talk is great for everyone and are good things to remember for everyone who has goals that they want to accomplish (which should be everyone!) So these are the 6 steps to use faith as a principle of power to accomplish your goals 1. Believe 2. COmmit yourself 3. do your part 4. pray 5. know that there will be opposition 6. have faith that the lord will act. One of my favorite parts of this talk is when it says that we should have a vision of what we want to accomplish and see with the eyes of faith as if the things we want to accomplish have already happend. Hope this helps! Love all of you so much, CHAO!!

1/18 13: New Hermanas

Portoviejo is wonderful as always this week! Pretty sure this city has the best sunsets ever because we were walking on the street one evening and the sun was perfectly aligned between the buildings on each side of the street and was this gorgeous pink and orange color (okay this is how every sunset is, haha). Also we{ve recieved our fair share of food this week... One day we visited the Loor family and the mother, Nelida Loor, came out with all this food, which included an empanada with queso (sprinkled with sugar), papaya and then a small plate of mani (its like peanut butter but not..) with this white cheese everyone makes here that makes a squeaky noise when you chew it. Then for lunch yesterday we were given not one but TWO pieces of cake from the Lozano family, and weve gotten mangos from 3 different people this week so we have been well fed this week. 

      Two new hermanas arrived this week to live here in La Paz with us, one is Hermana Pugh (Logan,Utah) and the other is Hermana Mancuso (Miami,Florida) and its been so great having them here with us! Because both of them are new here in this area weve been showing them around and introducing them to the members of the ward. One night all of us went to home of the Sanchez family and while we were teaching one of their chickens was just circling my legs,ahh..But this week has been great and one of our investigators (Francisco) is also doing great and always come to church, even when he comes alone with his crutches. Love all of you! CHAO!

12: Staying in Portoviejo

Oh yeah, so I guess all of Portoviejo will be without water for a whole week sometime soon...so that ´ll be interesting! But this week has been good, we´ve been given plenty of food from the members...last sunday the family we ate with insisted that we have two pieces of cake after the meal, or we´ll teach a lesson at house after we´ve eaten lunch somewhere else and they´ll come out with a bowl of ceviche (which is fine with me because I can always go for some ceviche). Hope everything´s going good at home! Love you!! 

This week has gone by so fast! There are "cambios" every 6 weeks in the mission where you´ll get a call telling you´re going to a different sector and you have to pakçck all your things and go to mission in Guayaquil, or you don´t get a call which means you´re staying in the same place. So yesterday was the day was the day of cambios....and Hermana Espinoza and I don´t have any!! So we´ll be staying here in Portoviejo for another 6 weeks which is great because we can continue teaching the awesome people here. Yesterday Abraham Laniz, who was baptized last month, blessed the sacrament for the first time. It was such a great moment and Hermana Espinoza and I felt like proud mothers,haha. And a woman we´ve been teaching, Edicta Vera, has been coming to church every week and is officially an active member of the church again. She is so cute and is like our abuela! She always has a different dress when we visit and is so sweet. 

1/4 11: Happy New Year

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!!! This week again we were with the other four missionaries again im 12 de Marzo for a few days during new years eve! For New Years Eve we got to stay up until 12 and watch fireworks! We went up to the rooftop of their apartment and watched fireworks with hot cocoa and freaked out about 2016!! on the 31st there were a ton of those statues they make for the new years and my favorite was the giant Captain America in front of the bakery on our street. People light these statues on fire and its actually kind of anticlimatic,haha. They kind of just sit there and watch the statue burn and sometimes it fizzles out and they have to relight it. And of course there was plenty of good Latino music throughout the day playing in the streets and in the night. 

       Weve been teaching this couple, Carmen and Francisco Vasquez, and they came to church with us yesterday! They both have so much faith and are such great people. Francisco recentlly had half of his left foot amputated so he cant walk without crutches and wasnt able to make it to church because of this for the past few weeks. But last Friday he was able to get a wheelchair from a foundation here so he can make it to church now! Theyre so cute and theyre like our grandparents who give us mangos when we visit! Were excited to keep teaching them this week. 

       Hope everyone has some good new years resolutions, love you all! CHAO!

12/28 10: Christmas

This week was Christmas!!!! The best part was definitley skyping with everyone and getting to speak in ENGLISH! Before skype my companion and I were so stressed because the cyber we were going to skype at didnt have cameras, so then we ran over to the other cyber nearby and thankfully they had everything for Skype, a Christmas miracle,haha!After skyping we went to dinner at one of the counselors of our stake and had a delcious meal with their cute family and ALL of the missionaries in our zone in Portoviejo. The dinner included rice, chicken, salad (were not supposed to eat lettuce but most of the missonaries did anyways.,..oops!) and then of course cake! They had christmas programs from the Mormon Tabernacle choir on their tv and it was so festive and great! Then we went to the house of the missonaries in 12 de Marzo to spend Christmas with them since we couldnt leave the house til the 26th. For lunch on Christmas day we had food that a member brought us (rice and turkey ) along with food from Hermana Mancuso (from florida) like stuffing, grazy and cranberry sauce so it was a multicultural Christmas lunch,haha. This week weve been teaching a m,an named ANgel Tobias who is the husband of a member in our ward. Hes this spry (spelling)87 year old, always wears these white suit pants and green button up shirts with the sweetest oxfords haha and he wasalso an engluish teacher so he like to use his english phrases when we visit. This weeks been good and I cant believe its goong to be 2016!!

12/21 9: Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad! This week has been great, we went to Guayaquil to go to the temple there and then after there was a "verificacion" for the new missionaries and oh yeah, we had our first baptism!! Our first baptism was on December 19th at 8 pm and it was such a special experience. The person who was baptized was Abraham Laniz, he{s 16 years old and he loves trying to speak to me in English,haha. He was baptized by his cousin, Brian Rezebela, and the next day was confirmed a member of the church by his other cousin, David. Abraham has so much faith and he{s such a great example to those around him. During the baptismal service we made sure to sing plenty of Christmas hymns since Christmas is this week!

. This week we{ve been sharing the christmas message of the church with everyone we possibly can! A lot of people here dont like christmas because of how commercial it is and because there are a lot ofpeople here who cant afford to buy presents so it{s so nice to talk with them and remind them that this holiday isnt about all of these material things but about remembering our Savior and all the things he{s done for us. The people here who have christmas trees go ALL OUT and the tree is covered in tulle and other giant deocrations, you can barely see the tree, haha. Speaking of Christmas..Tuesday after our zone conference I got the two packages from Mom and Dad then Reesa and Dayna!!! I was like a little kid carrying my two packages out of the building (and then into a taxi..a bit of a struggle,haha) 

Also, shoutout to Bart and Lori Tirrell on their anniversary on the 19th! 

Everythings been really great here,weve been doing the usual like eating meals that could feed a family, singing Christmas songs and preaching the gospel! Feliz Navidad!!