Happiness is serving our Savior...
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Week 37 He Lives!
Hey friends and family!
My first Easter in the mission! It was fun to spend it with gringos.
Our mamita fed us waffles today! It was a good day for waffles. We got a huge history lesson today in our monthly meeting with Presidente! We talked about how the Great Apostasy really came to be. It was pretty intriguing to learn from a historic standpoint of how the Apostasy really came to be. We also got a change to the mission. Not only now do we have an English tutor but also a family history consultant and guess who gets to be it for my district! Yep! Me... Now we are putting more emphasis on the importance of family history because it helps so well with retention of members.
We ate even more waffles today! So many waffles... We walked up and down a dirt road in Nayon contacting people trying to find a reference. We finally gave up and went to talk to a member about a few things that we were doing to help a less active with all of her problems. Last week, we found a family by the name of Añapa and had an appointment with them tonight. It was a little awkward but we made it through it. We invited them to our noche de hogar and they were super excited!
We had the usual meetings and then went home to eat lunch. One of our poor ward missionaries who is prepping for a mission got his wisdom teeth out, so to be nice, we took some ice cream over to him. He was super excited for it. Afterwards, we went to Zambiza to visit Stephany and Joselyn. They have just been so busy with school that we haven´t been able to visit them. Then we went to Nayon where the family Añapa was waiting for us. They had a blast at the noche de hogar and were super excited for us to visit them the next day.
We went to go find a family that went inactive and finally found them! Afterwards, we visited another less active and then went to Nayon. The family Añapa is doing so good. They are not quite ready to accept a baptismal date but were really excited to go to church on Sunday.
We got told by a Hna. Santa Cruz that we should probably stop visiting her husband for a little bit because he is annoyed of us... Oh well, he will come around one day. We visited Victor with the zone leaders because they asked if they could visit someone with us to see if they could help us. Victor was sick and received a Priesthood blessing. His wife also received one. It was a pretty awesome experience and Victor received the promise that if he kept trying to live the commandments, he would receive his answer. Ya mismo, he will get baptized!! With faith! After the visit, we went to the women´s general session where they talked a ton about service and loving one another. It was not quite the same in Spanish but still really good.
Happy Easter!!! I got to celebrate it by bringing the family Añapa to church! Everyone thought they were members because they looked so comfortable. Score! Ya mismo they will get baptized! After church, we went to the Luster´s home for lunch and made chocolate eggs. We then stopped by the Cruz´s home (they are leaving soon to go back to the states 😥) and learned how to make brigadeiros (Brazilian fudge). It was a fun way to spend easter.
That´s pretty much it for this week. We found mold in our house, so the owner has to come fix it. This house by the time we are done will be as good as new! (And of course I will be gone by the time we don´t have to do anything... oh well!). Have an amazing week and I hope to hear from y´all soon!
I wanted to share this video earlier but I forgot. Easter is the time to remember that Christ lives! He is the Prince of Peace! I am so grateful that I have this time to share this wonderful message with the peopel here in Ecuador! Here is the website for the super good easter video of this year! He lives!
https://www.mormon.org/easter
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Week 36 You know you are a horticulture major when...
Hey friends and family!
This week was another exhausting week for us here in the good ol´ Éden! We have been working on trying to find as many new investigators as we possibly can and this week, we reached our goal of contacting over 100 people! I was pretty dang proud of us because I had never done it before in the mission. I guess I was just being lazy...
TuesdayThis week was another exhausting week for us here in the good ol´ Éden! We have been working on trying to find as many new investigators as we possibly can and this week, we reached our goal of contacting over 100 people! I was pretty dang proud of us because I had never done it before in the mission. I guess I was just being lazy...
In the words of Hermana Thomas, "Oh my gosh we lived through an earthquake... Why are you being so casual about this??" Yeah, we had a tiny earthquake and it was a little sketchy living on the third floor of the building but hey, we survived (BOOM! I have lived through another earthquake...). I ended up doing divisions with Hna. Dorta and it was a ton of fun. We had to shimmy past a truck to get to lunch and Hna. Dorta was not too excited about that. We found a few menos activo kids while trying to contact a reference. It was awesome! We found tons of families all living down this tiny alley way (it was a little scary... but awesome!).
We did the switch back and Hna. Thomas fell out of her chair while we were planning for the next week (picture below). It was so funny. Hna. Thomas is always doing something goobery and we are always dying of laughter. We pulled a total gringo moment and bought cotton candy.
Happy St. Patricks Day (I forgot to wear green...)! Happy birthday Caleb! Happy 1 year since my knee accident! I celebrated with brownies for my district. I look back through this past year and what I have accomplished since being told that it was not looking good for me to be in the mission. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father let me stay in the mission a little bit longer. I have learned so much and continue to learn every day! We did our weekly noche de hogar and we gave the message. We did my little activity about the armor of God. It was super funny because we brought clothes and made a girl put them on.
We have been completely redoing our area book and I am exhausted! We did over 200 copies to fix up records that were in the area book. Thankfully, it only costed $6! We tried to visit a bunch of people but no one was really home. It was a little bit of a discouraging day. The one good thing about the day was a girl named Alison gave me a bonzai tree! I was pretty darn excited about that little tree!
I went on an ice cream date!... With my companion! ;) Hahaha It was a little bit more of a rough day because our awesome ward mission leader told us that he was not going to be in our ward anymore because he was going to be getting married next week. It was a bit of a downer because I really like working with him. We decided to cheer us up with ice cream! Afterwards we tried finding more people and saw very little success. We went to chat with Hno. Lopez to see who he could suggest. We asked and asked for references but he said he did not have a single one. Finally, with a little persistence, two young men came into his restaurant and began eating. He told us we should talk to them. Come to find out, they had a brother recently pass away. He introduced us and we began talking. They were really excited to listen to our message about the Plan of Salvation and we have an appointment later this week with them!
We did the usual running around to get things done for church. Afterwards, we had lunch and they dropped us off in Nayon. We taught the mom of the two less actives and she now has a baptismal date! Then we went and found a super awesome couple named Mikal and Nelly. They are so excited to learn more about how to have an eternal family! We also went and visited Mayra who will be completing her 1 year as a member and she is super pumped to be sealed in the temple to her husband!
It was a little bit of a rough week but we ended on a really good note! I hope you all have an awesome week and cannot wait to hear about your adventures!
Until next time,Week 35 Pictures
1. Hna. Thomas and Hna. Duff to the rescue!
2. Hno. Mullo fixing our sink
3. El. Wheelwright and El. Olsen doing the companion activity
Week 35 I an exhausted! (Says every missionary)
Hey friends and family!
What a week! Our house got fixed (and something else broke), our bishopric got switched out, we have been visiting a lot of the members of ward council, and we have been doing a complete turnover of our sector! Oh and lots of paperwork! :P
What a week! Our house got fixed (and something else broke), our bishopric got switched out, we have been visiting a lot of the members of ward council, and we have been doing a complete turnover of our sector! Oh and lots of paperwork! :P
We had an hermano come to our house to fix several things. He cleaned all the drains in the house and tightened up our sink. Right as he was leaving, our sink started leaking again so he told us that he would come another day to fix it. We have been struggling with one of our investigators who has a drinking problem. He has been coming to church for the past 4 months (which is probably the hardest things to get investigators to do) and had accepted baptismal dates in the past. We have been talking with members to help get him on track because he wants to be baptized, he just can´t until he gets this problem taken care of.
We started off the day with getting our house checked by the hermana leaders to make sure it was clean. As they were leaving, Hno. Mullo came to fix the sink. As soon as he got started, he had to stop because he didn´t have the parts and told us that he would come back the next day to get our sink fixed. We had lunch with the young women´s president and talked about how we could help her in her calling. Later in the evening, we had an awesome appointment with David and Paula with a couple that is getting married next month. David told us that he would never pray with us and that they had no desires to get married. After this appointment, he told us that they wanted to get baptized and wanted to get married!! It was a good way to end the night.
Hno. Mullo came back and the sink finally got fixed. We found a few new people to teach and visited some less actives. Afterwards, we took our investigator to our weekly noche de hogar. It was a simple but fun one this week. When we got home and tried turning on the lights, they didn´t work! Now we have to wait to get the lights in our study room fixed! The house is falling apart! ;) Well... Missionaries have lived in it for more than 20 years...
We always seem to eat breakfast burritos with one of my zone leaders... We ate them out in the coast and now here in Quito... He really likes his breakfast burritos... Anyways, I got a priesthood blessing because I have been sick and my voice has been going in and out (Hna. Thomas was afraid that she would have to do all the talking but I have managed to keep my voice for the most part). We did an activity for our zone meeting where we had to carry our companions on our backs and try to shoot a basketball. It was a pretty hilarious sight. The evening was a little sad because we had a few investigators tell us that they did not want us to come around anymore and listened to a less active tell us about all of the problems that had happened within the short amount of time that we had not been visiting her. It was a pretty rough night but hey, everyone has their time and their challenges.
We visited F. Santa Cruz and they are doing awesome as always. Unfortunately, they were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off so we could not actually teach them. We visited with F. Lopez and I peeled potatoes while Hna. Thomas washed dishes. Hna. Lopez was afraid the whole time that I was going to cut myself (not that that has happened before... ;) ). We contacted a lady in the park who always wanted to practice her English with a foreigner but never had the chance. The only problem was that she did not have any real interest in listening to us. We left Nayon and headed to the church to have a meeting with the ward leaders. Little by little, this ward is becoming a stronger and better ward. We went and visited Stephany afterwards and she is doing super good! She loves reading her Book of Mormon. Her mom told us that she now has a little notebook to write about what she reads. She´s 10! It is so awesome!
We spent all of church running around, filling out paperwork and figuring out our sector limits. We were a little puzzled as to why the whole stake presidency was here and come to find out, they released our bishop. He had a lot of health problems and could not function as a bishop. We visited a bunch of the members and started sorting through a bunch of old investigators to find new people to teach.
Today
For our Pday, we went to a toy store, grocery shopping, and ran to the offices to get a couple of things and drop off a couple of things. Let´s just say I am super exhausted and Pdays are never really relaxing but Hna. Thomas and I have made the goal that next week, we are just going to relax. We just have to make it to next Monday... ;) Hey hope you all have a great week and hope to hear from you soon!
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Week 34 Glad my daddy taught me how to use a wrench
Hey friends and family!
This week was an up and down kind of week and we also had transfers! Hna. Rojas went to Calderon and I received Hna. Thomas as my new companion. It has been a while since I have been with a gringa companion and it is pretty funny because we speak in Spanglish all the time. She went to BYUI too so I have another BYUI peep! How cool is that!
We were dealing with Hna. Rojas´s stomach problems all this transfer and we got sent to the clinic again. We waited an hour and a half for nothing. We took Hno. Carlos with us to do visits so that he could make friends with our less active, Luis, and it went fairly well. We are hoping that the more friendships he has the more he will want to come to church. After Luis, we went contacting and found a lady named Flor. She is super awesome but super confused about religions. We talked to her and she said that we can come back to visit her.
We went to the clinic yet again and finally got an answer! Hna. Rojas has giardia... How? I do not know... It is a very good question... After the clinic we contacted a reference for a less active from another less active that we are visiting and she is a super cute girl from Otavalo. She straight up told us that she wants to change and to come back to church but that she needs help. That´s what we are here for! We set an appointment for this week. On our way to visiting Joselyn, we found her recently reactivated sister. On Sunday she had asked us to talk to her kids about obedience and she told us that they are behaving so much better! She said that she came home from work and they were cleaning the house. It was super cute.
Today was a busy, busy day. We have had problems with fleas in the house for the past few months and I finally had had it! We began to deep clean the house before our meetings, took apart an extra bed in the house, take all of our sheets to a laundry mat to have them cleaned, and buy tons of spray to kill the fleas! I was exhausted by the time we finished and the day had only begun! It was kind of funny because on our way back from our meetings, I contacted a lady who made comments about my legs having all these bugs bites. She told me that if I drank this special coffee, my bugs bites would heal... Nope! You can´t get me to drink coffee! We had our weekly noche de hogar and the hermano that gave the message was hilarious! He says "chuta" (shoot!) every other word and withing 20 minutes, he had said "chuta" 59 times (yes I counted...).
I had to go to the clinic to verify that I did not have giardia. I am parasite clean which is really ironic because Hna. Rojas and I ate the same things and I was in the coast. Nothing makes sense... We have been teaching a guy by the name of Jorge and he always has the most random questions. Tonight his question was what what the exact date of Christ´s birth? We told him that he really should focus more on the things that will bring him happiness. He´s a funny guy.
We did visits with Hno. Kevin, a future missionary, and the poor guy doesn´t like eating and we got a lot of food. He ended puking on the side of the road for a little bit (We checked, he´s doing better today). The other hermanas in the ward had a baptism, so we went to that and then had our weekly meeting with our ward mission leader. It was a pretty laid back Thursday.
Transfers! Hna. Rojas really did not want to go but we all knew she was going. We had lunch with our mamitas and visited a few people. We were so exhausted from this week that we got home, Hna. Rojas quickly packed, and we hit the pillow hard!
I hope you all have a great week! Keep me updated on your lives!
PS From Megan's Mom: I suspect that when did Megan extensive cleaning that she took apart and reassembled the beds in her apartment using a wrench or when she took apart the extra bed in their apartment.
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