3/28 23: Cake in the Face and Women's Conference

This past week was Semana Santa andddd it was kind of like every other week, haha. On Friday though there was almost no one on the streets because everyone on this day is in their homes with their families. They also don´t eat meat on this day and the people that are super catholic don´t eat meat this whole week and sometimes longer depending on the family and their traditions. They also have processions of  people and there´s one person with a giant cross and depending on the procession they have costumes and what not...we saw one but the group wasn`t very big and there was just one person carrying a cross... And on Tuesday at the zone meeting they surprised me with  a cake! They sang happy birthday in English and then in Spanish and after they said it was tradition to lick a bit of frosting off the cake and me not suspecting anything did just that and a second later my face was in the cake thanks to Hermana Quispe and Reyna haha. Pictures to come... 

           And Alex will be baptized the 9th of April because he took a bit of alcohol but it´s not a big problem for him and he´s learned his lesson..aha, but he´s progressed so much and he´s practically already a member. I can totally see him being the bishop one day! 

             And Saturday was the women´s conference and it was great! We got there a little late...like 20 minutes late...haha, but it was still really good! We were teaching  a lesson before and the woman gave us crackers so we couldn´t just leave to go to the conference. But every talk was about service and having charity for others and all the videos were great! And it was nice to hear the songs from the choir in English!! They had the words for the people watching to sing in English, but nobody in the stake center sang (because they dont speak english..) but it´´s such a blessing we havet to hear the Prophet and everyone else speak and not to have to hear the translators. I never though about that before my misson. But it´s been another good week and soon it´ll be April!! LOVE YOU AND CHAO!

3/21 22: Birthday Week

this week went by so fast and then on Saturday it was my birthday ! After I woke up, Hermana mancuso and velez knocked on our door and sang happy birthday and gave me a cupcake, yum! Then Hermana Quispe made breakfast (We almost always eat a grilled cheese for breakfast with tea, haha. It´s normal here) Then we went out to preach the gospel! This day was SO hot, probably one of the hottest days of my mission aha. Theen we went to the bishop´s house for lunch and the bishop´s family would randomly start singing feliz cumpleanos haha, and thebishop did a little dance and song haha. Then we taught a woman, Maria Jesus, and the place where she lives is GORGEOUS, and we always say we´re going to bring oru cameras and we finally did this day so enjoy all the photos from this place! The day before when we were at her house we helped her iron and fold clothes because her job is to wash clothes and her house is FULL of piles of clothes..it´s crazy. Then the night of my birthday we went to teach Karol laniz and she had a surprise for me, a doll! A gringa doll,haha,I don´t know how I´ll carry it with me from area to area but I´ll find away. This week was good and hot! This Saturday Alex bolanos is getting baptized at 5 pm, pray that all goes well! love you all so much!! CHAO CHAO!

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!