Week 21 I lost my shoe... In the mud... Way too many times...

Hey there my dear friends and family!

What a week! We had stake conference and it was the world wide Christmas devotional. 

Tuesday

While trying to find people this week, we found an elderly sister who had been inactive for over 3 years because she cannot walk very well. In talking to ward counsel, we found out that she had gone to Guyaquil for the past 3 years and did not know she was back but will be working towards helping her come to church or at least having someone take the sacrament to her this week. Later in the evening, we had a family home evening with Bryan (was baptized 2 weeks ago), his brother, and our mamita for Wednesdays, Mariella. We watched a short movie about the life of Christ and then ate lots of empanadas! It rained so much, we were drenched by the time we got home. When it rains here, it pours!

Wednesday

We tried to climb a hill while it was raining... Nope... Did not work out... We could not find the people at home and ended up going to visit a less active. When we got to the members home, she laughed so hard after seeing how muddy we were.

Thursday

I had divisions today with Hna. Silva, the hermana lider for our zone. We had meetings until 3pm (usually we finish by 1:30...). We were able to make a few visits then we had to sit through another 2 hours of meetings with our ward mission leader and ward counsel. Thursdays are hard because we sit in meetings almost all day. 

Friday

We switched back to our normal companions, and Hna Castro and I set off to work. We tried to climb another muddy hill and it took almost 15 minutes to climb this hill that normally takes 3... It was a struggle but we survived! While trying to get the mud off my shoes (the mud here suctions to my shoes and is nearly impossible to get off), I flicked my foot and my shoe went flying. I had to wait some time for my shoe because Hna. Castro was dying of laughter.

Saturday

I have been here in La Costa for a month now! That is weird to think about... It has gone from being super hot to being only really hot but super wet with rain! We had stake conference this evening and it was my first time going to the adult session in my entire life (I am a big kid now). Presidente and Hermana Richardson were invited to speak so we got to talk to them before but we left early because it was 9pm and I do not feel comfortable out of the house after 8:30.

Sunday

We had the normal session of stake conference and then ate lunch with the Familia Mendoza. We tried visiting a bunch of people but no one was really home. We went to the Christmas devotional at the church (you can look for it on LDS.org) and it was awesome! We had a gringo room so I got to listen to it in English! :)

It was a hard week. We had a lot of potential for new investigators and even more to have a fecha but it all fell. I was trying so hard not to be discouraged but it hurt to have so much work feel like it had gone to waste. Last night in the Christmas devotional, Sis. Burton talked about the Plan of Salvation and the importance of it. [I did not know everything but I knew enough.] I also read in Preach My Gospel this morning about the Fall of Adam and that he fell so that we could be here. In our lives on earth, we are here to experience joy but we would not be able to understand the joy we feel if we did not experience pain and sadness. I may not fully understand why all our appointments fell but I know that there is a reason for everything.

Transfers are next week!! Ahhh! I will know Sunday night if I am to stay in La Costa or if I am to go somewhere else!

Until next time, 

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

Week 20 Pictures

 

 

 

Maybe she is taller!?

 

Week 20 It is coming... The rain is coming...

Hola mis queridos!

This week... The rains began... The rainy season for Ecuador had already started but here in La Costa, it doesn´t start until December but hey, why not start a little early? I probably will be wet until I leave here because we never fully dry out and our clothes after we wash them take about 3 days to dry. Wet, wet, wet... :) But hey, that is life here!

Tuesday

We had a lesson with Nicole, a recent convert who has not been assisting. It was fun to talk to her and we are going to try to work with Young women´s to help her. Interviews were good. Mostly we sat and listened to the Assistants and reviewed some other things with Presidente. We were given the challenge to read all of Preach My Gospel by Feb. 25th, that´s 242 pages in Spanish. I am kind of cheating and reading it in English (it´s shorter but hey, still the same stuff). Back in August, the mission was given the challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 3 months but I wasn´t there. Don´t worry, I am still reading it and am trying to finish before Christmas. We also had our area book checked. If the whole zone passed their inspection of their area book, we all get cake. Guess what! We get cake!! Eventually...

Wednesday

We had a bunch of appointments. One was with a gentleman named Giovanni. He spent 5 minutes telling us that we were beautiful people for preaching the word of God. It was a little weird, but that´s mission life. Later in the evening, we watched The Restauration with a bunch of investigators and recent converts. It was a fun night.

Thursday

Thanksgiving! Weird to think that today was Thanksgiving... It did not really feel like Thanksgiving. As a zone, we ate tacos I don´t know what Heavenly Father is trying to tell me but every time we have a meeting for either zone or district, I always give a thought on a attribute of Christ. I guess I am just not as Christ like as I thought I was... Oops... Later in the day, Mariela, our mamita for Wednesdays, gave us tamales as we passed by to see if she could accompany us to an appointment. Tamales and tacos? Good way to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Friday

I had divisions today with Hna. Gummersall. We travelled 2 hours to Quiñide. Since their mamita can´t feed the missionaries after 1pm, we ate chicken and french fries at a restaraunt with creepy owners. We visited a bunch of people, contacted a ton, and then tried to go to the weekly Ward family home evening. Unfortunately, something happened in one of the families that was in charge, so it was cancelled. We ended up talking to random people on the way home. Quiñide is so cooler (temperature) than Esmeraldas. If only... Nahh I love the ward here too much to change.

Saturday

We planned family home evening nights with a bunch of families. They are the best ways to help investigators to get to know the members of the ward. We taught a friend of a recently reactivated member and his neighbor. They are so cute! The kid that we are teaching, Edwin, after the lesson likes to practice little English phrases with me.

Sunday

The people we wanted to come to church didn´t come to church and the people we did not expect to come to church, came to church... I don´t know how that works... But hey, it´s all the same, we all need to go to church! After church, we ate some good ol´ guatita... It´s not my favorite but food is food... It actually was better than the first time I had it. In the evening, we visited a girl named Edith and her mom. Her mom did not really want to listen to us before but now, she told us that she is just like Joseph Smith, looking for the right church. The lesson went awesome and we have a scheduled tour with them for later this week.

That´s pretty much my week all summed up! I was thinking a lot about what I am grateful for and I really do have a lot to be grateful for. Mostly, I am grateful for this opportunity that I have received (again) to serve a mission. I learn so much day to day and can see little by little the changes in me. Sometimes I wonder how I can keep going on but then I spend time with the people here who don´t have this light in their lives. I am reminded that I have to put my worries aside and help these people find this light. It is amazing how this gospel can change people´s lives, if they only just let it in.

I hope y´all have a great week and hope to hear from you soon!

Until next time,

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

PS.

The pictures are of me with Hna Silva, our hermana líder. She loves greeting me on the steps because then she can be taller than me. The other is me in front of el Rio Blanco (oh the irony!)

Week 19: "You're like a mom!"

Hey there my lovely family and friends!

What can I say, I guess I am meant to be a mother... It was funny because in our meeting this week, Elder Vail randomly says it really loud about me. He´s one of the new missionaries to la misión.

Tuesday

Our electricity went out again but this time for the whole building. I could not help but laugh. Thankfully, the power came back on before we came home. (I was extremely concerned for our ice cream we had in the freezer. Priorities, right?) We gave a tour of the church to one of our investigators and it was awesome! I love giving tours because you can always feel the spirit so strong in the church. She at first did not want to come because she claimed she was too busy with other things. We asked her for only 20 minutes to show her the chapel and ended up being there for over an hour and a half.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we do not have as much time for appointments but we were able to pack in 7 appointments today! Oof! Boy were we running to each of our appointments!

Thursday

I had given money to another hermana in my zone to buy me a cheap speaker to listen to music during the mornings and evenings. Never before have I been so grateful for music. It is really calming to have music. I am the English tutor for my district and it was rough for my first lesson but the elders loved it. We are learning hymns in English. Later during the day, we took a taxi back from our mamita and in talking to the taxi driver, he gave us his information to pass on to some elders and gave us the ride for free. He was such a nice taxi driver.

Friday

We had a revision of our apartment to make sure we were keeping it clean and... we passed! Of course... We chatted with a bunch of people and set tons of appointments.

Saturday

One of the counselors in the bishopric decided to come up behind me in the street and pretend to rob me. I was scared to be honest. He thinks he is so funny. Later in the evening we had an appointment with one of our investigators and the bishop. It was an awesome lesson.

Sunday

Sacrament meeting was so funny because a sister got up and while giving her talk about the importance of familias, one by one, all of her small children came up and were clinging to her skirt. It was a hilarious sight. We set up even more appointments for this week with the members of the ward, so it will be a packed week!

Happy early Thanksgiving! Here´s a picture of a turkey we had attack us this past week. I think he knows that Thanksgiving is coming... ;) We have interviews with Pres. Richardson tomorrow! Bum bum bummmm! Wish me luck! Have a great week and hope to hear from you soon!

Until next time,

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

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Week 18 A Miracle from Above... Literally!

Hola mis queridas familia y amigos!

I was sitting in church yesterday when I realized it was Sunday. It felt like only the day before was Tuesday... I am running out of time!

Tuesday

We spent 3 days with Hna. Gummersall (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). It was fun to be in a trio and teaching was a breeze but we were super busy all day. We had 8 appointments and a baptismal interview. It was a pretty crazy day. We were running to appointments.

Wednesday

It rained! What?? I was told that it does not rain in La Costa... Well, it does... Thankfully, the times that it was raining hard, we were inside teaching. After a full day of lessons, weekly planning, being stuff with chicken and rice, and all the other usual activities of a missionary, we took Hna. Gummersall to the terminal to get her companion, Hna Silva, who was coming from Quito. We ended up waiting an hour and a half in the terminal. They came home with us instead of going to their sector because we had meetings in the morning, they would have had to come back anyways, it was late, and it would have been another 2 hours by bus.

Thursday

I really enjoyed today's training. We talked about being disciples of Christ. In 3 Nephi 5:13 talks about being called to as a disciple. We are all children of our Heavenly Father but we are disciples when we decide to follow Christ. The only question that remains is what kind of disciple do we want to be?

Friday

Old people are just so cute. Can I just say that? We have a recent convert who is about to reach his one year mark and he is seriously the cutest 80 year old. He is not quite all there but he knows about when the missionaries are going to visit him so he asks his granddaughter to buy a soda or something so that he can give it to us. He is so sweet. Later in the day, we gave 2 tours of the chapel. It is a lot of fun to do tours and you can always feel the Spirit so strong. On our way back to the house, we passed by one of the member's homes who's daughter was having her quinceñera. We could not stay for the party but it was fun to see all the decorations.

Saturday

We had a baptism today! Well, techinically 2 but one of the does not count for us since Isa is 8 years old. We are working with her dad to become fully reactivated. Bryan looked so happy for his baptism. It was a great night.

Sunday

I love Sundays here because every Sunday, a different family gets up and sings a hymn for breaking up the talks. They are not very good singers but you still cannot help but smile. We tried visiting everybody but no one was home!! Later, when we got home, we did not have electricity! It was an interesting night. Thankfully, our neighbor who lives above, tried so hard to help fixed our problem and gave us candles so that we were not in the dark. She is the best! In the morning, she made phone calls and checked on us to make sure everything was ok. We have power now and all is good in the world!

That is pretty much it for this week! It has been a crazy one but I love it here all the same. (Still dying from the heat... I sweat 20 pounds and then they feed me 20 pounds...)

Enjoy your week and hope to hear from you soon!

Hermana Duff

 

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Week 17 pictures new companion & La Costa apartment's view... I'm thinking

 

 

Week 17 A La Costa?!

Hey there all my friends and family!

Can I just start this letter with never before have I been so excited to take a cold shower in my entire life?? As the title says, I am in La Costa! It is a little weird to be here because when I first came to the mission, I was told that they did not allow hermanas from North America to come to La Costa because it is dangerous... That being said... Here we go!

Monday

I flew all day Monday and got to Quito around 11pm without problems this time! ;) Hahaha Pres. Richardson and the assistants picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at the house of the enfermera. There were 3 hermanas that had completed their missions and were leaving at 3:30 in the morning.  Let us just say that I did not get much sleep that night...

Tuesday

I studied with Hma Pemberton and Hma Garcia in the morning like usual and then they dropped me off at the chapel Iñaquito. I ate lunch with the new missionaries and then had an interview with presidente. He tried to figure out what to do with me (I almost had to do orientation again, thankfully not). It was decided that I would go work with Hma. Hull in her sector. It was awesome to see her since I had not see her since the CCM. We visited a few people but what really got me was when we visited an inactive hermano. His name is Alejandro and it was fun to joke with him. While bearing my testimony at the end, I could see in his eyes that he could feel the spirit. It was a great lesson and a great reminder of why I fought so hard to come back here.

Wednesday

We went about the normal studies in the morning and then had lunch with a mamita that lived in the sector of the elders. It was really weird because the mamita did not eat with us and did not talk to us, we just walked in, ate, and left without saying anything because this is how the mamita likes it. I have no clue why but it made me a little sad. Later on, an hermano bought us a ton of quimbolitos. It ended up being a good day.

Thursday

Back to Quito! We took the Metro back to Quito. The thing about the Metro is that everyone packs onto these long buses and if you do not push your way in, you will not get on. I almost fell off the platform but a gentleman behind me helped make sure that did not happen. We got back to the Iñaquito chapel and I chatted with Hma. Williamson and Hma. Naylor while the new missionaries received a chat about money and health in the mission. Hmo. and Hma. Williamson go home within the next few weeks which is sad but they are excited to see their grandkids, so all is well. I was assigned to serve in La Costa with Hma. Castro! I was really shocked that I was going there because I had just got done telling my mom that they do not send hermanas norteamericanas to La Costa but here I am to stay for a while. We hopped on a bus and after 7 hours, we arrived at our home. It is a really nice apartment. They just recently changed our apartment because the other one did not receive wáter ever. Thank goodness we have our new home.

Friday

It is so hot in La Costa, I am melting! The humidity here is crazy and I vowed that I will never live where there is a ton of humidity after the mission. We had our weekly meeting and I found out that El. Rojo and El. Herrera are in my district and that Hma. Beltran is in my zone again. They were all shocked that I was back because they honestly did not think that I would be able to come back. I was made English tutor for my district which means every week, I check the Latinos progress with their English, teach a small lesson, and email their results every week. It is super easy and should be fun (have to bribe them of course). We ate lunch with Hma. Montaño who was recently made Stake Relief Society president. The first thing she said when she saw me was how tall I was. I get that all the time and always here, mira una gringa! It kind of gets old but I will survive. It had been quite a while since my sector had a gringa hermana.

Saturday

We visited a bunch of people today. People love to give us popsicles, crackers, and coke! We are always given some sort of snack. It is their way of life to give whoever comes little treats, especially if they like the missionaries.

Sunday

Church was a fun experience... Sort of... Everyone welcomed me with open arms and lots of comments about how white I am. We had a family who is now considered fully active! They had their interview and told us that they are planning on being sealed in the temple in December!! Que chévere! Relief society was not so much fun. They like to have the missionaries participate a lot in church but I did not fully understand the question that the teacher had asked me. I was pretty embarassed. Afterwards, a sister who served a mission and spoke English very well, came up and apologized for not helping. She felt awful but I told her not to worry, that one day, I will understand. After church, we had lunch with a family, who´s son recently returned from a mission in Peru. It was fun to compare missions and experiences. Afterwards, we gave a tour of the church to our investigator, Brian, who is getting baptized this Saturday! He is so excited for his baptism! It is awesome!

Monday (today)

For our zone, there are only 3 sets of hermanas and the next zone over, there are not any, so we only have one hermana líder. She had to go to Quito this morning for meetings and had to leave her companion with us, Hma. Gummersall. We just go about our normal routine with her and have had a pretty relax Pday.

Yep. That is my week... It is a little weird to be back but I love it here! The rule here, at least for hermanas is that we have to be in our apartment at 8, no later than 8:30. Things here are done a little bit differently but it is still fun and the people still love feeding us tons of rice.

Until next time,

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

PS. Thanks for all the love and support! :)