3/14 21: Six Month Mark

This week.....I completed 6 months in the mission!!!! Tried polaca and morocho for the first time and saw the biggest butterfly ever. I was standing with one of the hermanas in our apartment and this thing flew in through the window and touched my hand and we thought it was a bat because it was HUGE and thick and gross but it turns out it was a butterfly, happy surprise!Then in the middle of the week my companion was sick with a fever and kind of lost her voice (it´s some kind of virus) so we were home for a day then it was my turn! But the funniest árt was our voices...we sounded like  frogs and we still taught lessons and everyone was so concerned for us because our voices haha. But we´re all better now!! We´re also teaching a man named Alex Bolanos who will be baptized the 26th of this month! This week´s been good, thanks for all the birthday wishes!!! CHAO! LOVE YOU!! 3 nephi 13:21-22, 31-33 

3/7 20: Francisco's Baptism

It´s March! And Saturday was the day of Francisco Velasquez´s baptism! Saturday was kind of a crazy day, the baptism was set to start at 5 but we went to the church at 3 30 to clean the baptismal font with the help of the bishop and his wife. After that we set up chairs, made a ton of calls and awaited the arrival of Francisco. We were also waiting for the zone leaders to bring the baptismal clothing for Francisco and we were so nervous it wouldn´t be the right size, but it was perfect! To start the baptismal service we sang Tengo gozo en mi alma hoy, then there was a short message about baptism then the bishop´s wife bore her testimony, then Francisco was baptized. After the baptismal service was over and I was shaking Francisco´s hand to congragulate him he said ´´It´s because of you I was baptized´´ (Well en Espanol..) and it was one of the best moments of my mission. And yesterday he was confirmed a member of the church during sacrament meeting. 

   This week also included two ¨temblores´´ haha, we woke up a few days ago to our apartment shaking, woo! We´ve also been contacting where all the rich people live haha. Everyone calls then Peliconas, but there´s so many super rich houses here, it´s weird. But it´s a challenge bcause all of them have these giant gates and so you have to try your best to contact them or talk with them on their little intercoms...haha. Talk to you next week, CHAO!!

2/29 19: New Companion

Here´s a short summary of my week! On Monday I got my new companion arrived from her area in Libertad, Hermana Quispe. She´s from Peru and is so sweet. We´ve been doing the usual- walking and teaching! We met one lady named Rosa when we bought bolos (like homemade otter pops) from her and everything she says has so much emotion, its hilarious. And then there´s Francisco who is ready to be baptized this Saturday! I don´t think there´s anything that could stop him from coming to church, he´s a stud. He had hsi interview yesterday and is all set. We started contacting in a different area this week to find new people to teach and there are lots of small streets (callejons, I dont really know what to call them in English?) with houses and we found one woman named Cheri and she lived in Canada for awhile and moved back to Ecuador where shes from a few months ago. We´re going to teach her more this week. Everything here is going good, love you all, CHAO!

2/22 18: Still in Portoviejo

Guess who´s still here in Portoviejo! Yo! We had cambios yesterday but Hermana Espinoza(Chile) and Hermana Pugh(Utah) are the only ones in our sector who had cambios so they left early this morning. So it´s just me and Hermana Mancuso for now and our new companions will be getting here later today. By the end of this cambio I´ll have more than 6 months in the mission and I will have had 4 transfers here in La Paz. But I´m excited I get to be here in Portoviejo for the baptism of Fransisco and help him prepare for this day! Some highlights for the week, Hermana Espinoza and I saw fireflies on this little path and I think this was the first time I´ve ever seen them? so cool! Also, we didn´t eat cake for an entire week, how bout that?At the district meeting we have each week we read the letter from the mission president about deciding to be happy and after one of the zone leaders called me up to stand in front of everyone and told our zone to ask me questions and no one asked me a question for a solid minute and so I was just smiling because it was kind of awkward, and after someone asked me a question the zone leaders told everyone to be happy like me haha, cue the song Happy by Pharell. People here will have shirts with sayings in English, and they´re usually all really weird...my favorites are ¨ I am me´´ and ´´Your mom will love me´´..This week´s been great and I´m excited to find out who my new companion is! Oh, and last week I mean }t to type Helaman 3 27, not 3 7 haha. Have a good week ! CHAO CHAO!

2/15 17: Carnival

This week was Carnival! (carnaval?) We were inside all day Monday and Tuesday so what did we do...we ate a whole chocolate cake in under 6 hours! To be hair it wasn´t THAT big, but we live so close to a bakery so why not. We also had meals that didn´t consist of rice. Hermana Mancuso cooked chicken alfredo and macaroni and cheese (from scratch) and used the turmeric that mom sent in the package,haha. Then Hermana Espinoza made completos (a hot dog in a bun, with chopped tomatoes,guacamole,and a little bit of ketchup and mayo. We also had time to do...face masks! We didn¨t really know what to do with the free time we had, it was such a weird feeling! Then we had a conference with the zones from Portoviejo and Manta with President Dennis and Hermana Dennis Thursday morning and it was really great and we talked about Alma 26 and Helaman 5. And Francisco Velasquez, our investigator, is doing great! He´s so excited for his baptism on March 5th and it´s so cute. When we ask him how excited he is for his baptism on a scale from 1-10 he always say 20, but his face isn´t that expressive so it´s kind of funny haha. Because we have cambios this coming Sunday and dont know if we´ll be here in Portoviejo, we´ve decided to try food from all the places we´ve been oogling(is this even a word..?I think so?) for the past few months THIS week. Our favorite is Arte Pan (they have the best baked everything) so we¨re going to expand our horizons this week. Here´s a scripture I like that I read this morning - Helaman 3:7. Hope valentines day was good! The members who we ate with yesterday gave us cake for valentines day and always insist we have two pieces , "con confianza!" they say,haha. Love you, Chao!

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!!