Week 25 And we dwelt in our tents in the wilderness... (or...

My dear family and friends,

Happy New Year!? 2016!!! Woooo! What are your goals for the new year?

Tuesday

We went to teach a lady that Hna. Ccoycca found the week prior when we did divisions and she did not seem all too excited. We started focusing more on her mom and her mom accepted the baptismal challenge. The only problem is that she does not live in our sector/district/zone. Dang it! Oh well, the other missionaries can teach her. We are all on the same team, right?

Wednesday

We made a ton of copies today for all of our informes that we had to give to our zone leaders (it was ridiculous how many copies we made). Later in the evening while waiting to have correlation with our Ward mission leader, we left to make copies and to call him. He told us that he had been waiting at the church for a while (he got there right after we had left). Today was the first time that we had Ward counsel and correlation in over two weeks due to holidays.

Thursday

New Years Eve! We visited with Carmen, a less active, and her daught Gina, who gave us super sugary jello to drink. It was kinda really gross because she added sugar. Later in the afternoon, we passed by our ward mission leader and he told us that we should probably go home a little early because everyone was drinking heavily (there were people drinking at 10 in the morning! Ridiculous!). We were suppose to be in the house at 5 but we came back a little early because in our sector, there were way too many men out drinking. Our neighbor above brought us turkey and potatoes and showed us her muñeco. Here in Ecuador, they do two things to celebrate the new year. One, burn paper mache manequins at midnight (muñecos) and two, single guys dress up in black dresses called viudas ("widows") and run around collecting money for beer. It was quite the sight.

Friday

We ate lunch with the family Angulo, the hermano that we recently reactivated. It was fun to chat with them but they were super exhausted from the neighborhood party they held the night before. Later in the evening, we were having a lesson with the family Tul. They are less actives and we are currently working with them. They have the cutest, rowdiest kids ever. The spirit was so strong when we were talking about Joseph Smith and the Restoration.

Saturday

We ended up eating and being stuck at the family Avila´s house because it was raining so hard. We were wet all day long. We taught Katherine and Enrique, a Young couple who we are working with to get them married and Katherine baptized. They are doing awesome and finally were able to put a date on their wedding for the 24 of February!

Sunday

We ran around all morning trying to help get less actives and investigators to church. After church, we went and ate lunch. Hna. Ccoycca was not feeling well so we ended up coming home after lunch and she was throwing up for a good portion of time. She fell asleep so I organized the house a little bit and made brownies (I finally have a good récipe!). She is doing a lot better today!

For Pday today, we went to the centro and goofed off. Then we ate schwarma. I have decided that I really like schwarma.

Until next time,

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

Week 24 A Christmas to Remember

Hey my friends and family!

 

Wow, Christmas really snuck up fast and left even quicker! I hope you all were able to enjoy your day with family and friends. I had a blast here with my peeps and talking with the family!

 

Tuesday

We had Hna. Silva with us so we decided to do divisions. Hna. Silva and I dropped Hna. Ccoycca off with a member and headed off to work. We found a bunch of potential families. We have been visiting a girl named Lady who really likes listening to our messages and reading her Book of Mormon. She tells us everytime that she really likes what she feels when she reads, prays, and listens to us but still does not feel ready to make the committment to baptism. At the end of the day, we collected Hna. Ccoycca and headed home.

 

Wednesday

We had our weekly meeting today instead of Thursday because of the holidays. We talked about unity in our companionships and had 3 legged races. It was super funny to watch all the elders be super competitive. While walking to an appointment, Hno. Cando asked where we were going to skype our families. We told Hno. Cando that we were going to use an internet cafe near our house and he told us no and that we were going to his house.

 

Thursday

The owner of our house gave us a bunch of sugar cane, yucca, and platanos. We looked funny all day carrying around the stuff and giving it to people. We went to the Family Cando and gave them a bunch of the yucca and platanos. I skyped first and then while Hna. Ccoycca was skyping, I baked cookies and chatted with the family about the random things of my life. They plan on helping me find a husband and figuring out my life plan. Gotta love these people. 

 

Friday

Christmas day! Crazy to think it is already Christmas! We spent the first hour and a half of our Christmas calling members to see who we could spend Christmas with. We ended up spending it with the Family Avila and listening to the stories about how when Hno. Avila was single, he got hit on a ton by crazy single woman in the ward because he was bishop at the time. It was funny. We got home and our ward mission leader dropped off some food for us. It was awesome .

 

Saturday

The whole ward went to the beach for the ward Christmas party so we ended up starving... No! Just kidding, we ate the food that our ward mission leader brought us. Afterwards, we kidnapped Hna. Karla who did not go to the activity and made a bunch of visits. We officially finished teaching a less active named Jose and now he is considered fully active again! He was a sassy one to work with.

 

Sunday

We got to church super late... For a good cause! One of our investigators, Sandra, who has been making 9 billion and 2 excuses for why she could not go to church finally agreed to come! And for that, we got to church after the sacrament. She actually really liked church. Later in the afternoon, we did divisions again with two hermanas who are planning on serving missions soon. I went with an hermana named Julie. We got a lot done and it was funny because we went to visit the Family Zambrano and talked about the 10 commandments. When we got to ¨thou shalt not kill¨, they ended up having a discussion about how it was ok as long as it was in defense. They discussed it for 5 minutes and to think I thought it was a simple commandment to follow! Apparently not! ;) Anyways later in the evening, we taught a young couple who is not married but one is a member. They are now getting ready to plan their wedding so that she can be baptized. We went with some members who really helped a lot with their testimonies about the importance of marriage. Afterwards, the married couple told us that they were going to bring us food for New Years Eve since we have to be in the house at 5.

 

That was my crazy busy week. It was truly amazing to celebrate Christmas here in the mission and I loved every minute! I hope you guys have an awesome week and a Happy New Year!

 

Until next year,

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

Week 23 in Atacames Canton

 

 

 

Santa in Atacames Canton

 

Week 23 I feel like I live in a hotel

Buenas tardes mis queridos!

 

This week was full of people coming and going from our apartment. It sometimes feel like we live in a hotel because hermanas come and go. I spent the first part of the week with Hna Beltran and then her companion, Hna Farfan, joined us in the apartment. Last night Hna Silva and Hna Bosse came to stay the night in our apartment. This morning Hna Bosse left to go to Quito to celebrate Christmas with Presidente y Hna Richardson, so Hna Silva is going to be with us for the next few days (I think we are going to do divisions tomorrow so she only has to travel to Esmeraldas once for divisions with us). It is fun though to have other hermanas stay with us. It is like one big sleep over that we have quite frequently. 

 

Tuesday

We visited an old investigator who we could never find because she started working a ton. She was still reading and still praying which is really awesome. She still is not quite ready to be baptized but we plan to keep working with her. Later in the afternoon, we waited for what felt like forever for an investigator to show up but he never showed up. While trying to lock up the church, our key got stuck. We had a bunch of people try and ended up having to leave our key. We got a new one eventually but it was really funny.  

 

Wednesday

It is always funny when you set appointments with members and right as you get to their house, they get on a bus and leave... We had that happen several times today and it was pretty funny. I guess they really did not want us to visit them... Just kidding!

 

Thursday

We visited a ton of people and found a bunch of families with potential. Later in the evening, we celebrated the birthday of one of the daughters of our mamita. We ate ice cream. Good way to celebrate a birthday if you ask me. We were suppose to have correlation with our ward mission leader but he never showed up. Later we found out that it was because he was doing visits with the elders. We went to the terminal to pick up Hna. Beltran and her new companion. They ended up staying the night with us. 

 

Friday

We had our meetings that we usually have on Thursday today because of people training in the zone. It was fun to get to know our zone because a lot of them are new. We were challenging one of our investigators to baptism when her mom came and took her to a doctor appointment! Ahhh! No! Next time I guess...

 

Saturday

 We are visiting a less active named Jose who is a soccer coach. He is a sassy guy and since he thinks he knows it all, we decided to teach him by having him teach us what he knows. It was actually a pretty good lesson. We went to the church to talk to the bishop about some less actives that we need to visit and since there was an activity going on, we were given food. Then we visited a recent convert named Santiago and he is awesome. He told us that his mom is Christian but he did not like going to her church. When he started coming to our church, he felt that he had finally found the right church. He is 18 and super excited to serve a mission!

 

Sunday

 We ate lunch with the family Mendoza today. Well... We ate lunch in their house, they were next door. Hna. Mendoza is president of the stake primary and was in Quinindae. We have rules that we cannot be in a house with only men, so Hno. Mendoza and his son left the food on the table for us and went next door to wait until we were done. This was an interesting experience.

This week is Christmas! And for that, here is a picture of Hna. Ccoycca and I with a creepy Santa manequin. We ate at a Chinese restaurant for lunch and explored El Centro (the center of Esmeraldas). It was fun but exhausting because we did so much walking. We will be with Hna. Silva, the shorter hermana, until Wednesday when her companion gets back from Quito. I hope you all have a Feliz Navidad and remember to look up the video on christmas.mormon.org!

 

Until Next time,

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

PS. Christmas is really weird without snow... but there are tons of pictures here with snow...

Week 22 I felt like Mary...

 

Sister Mary?

 

Goodbye Hermana Castro

Week 22 I felt like Mary this week

Buenas tardes mis queridos familia y amigos!

This week was a little bit of a sad week. We had transfers and Hna. Castro left to go to Cumbaya! It is hard to say goodbye because you really do become like sisters but I am grateful for the time that I had with her! 

Tuesday

We have an hermano in the ward that wants to recreate some of the Book of Mormon to show the community how awesome the Book of Mormon is. We were given parts and we have to prepare them. I am going to be Abish. She was a lamanite that ran around telling everyone to come and see the miracles that Ammon was performing. It is going to be like a little play or something like that...

Wednesday

We had our weekly meetings today because Thursday we would be travelling to Quito to celebrate Christmas with Pres. Richardson in the mission home. For the Christmas dinner, each zone had to prepare something that had to do with Christmas. Our zone did a choir and an elder read a little from the New Testament about the birth of Christ and of course we had to act it out a little bit. My zone decided that I would be Mary (there is the picture of me as Mary). We spent our afternoon visiting people and asking members if we could borrow a baby doll. 

Thursday

To go to the Christmas dinner, we had to leave Esmeraldas at 7 am. The bus ride is brutal because it is 7 hours of tossing and turning but we are allowed to watch Disney movies, so one of the elders bought (the people here pirate movies like crazy) a movie. We ended up watching Big Hero 6, Inside Out, and a little bit of Pinocchio. We got to Quito around 2 and had meetings until 6. For dinner, Hna. Richardson made turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, and a really good brownie. After dinner, we presented our singing and then did a white elephant gift exchange.  It was a good night full of laughs.

Friday

We travelled back to Esmeraldas. Oh how I miss the cold! It was so nice and cold in Quito and as soon as we were nearing la costa, I could feel the humidity cling to my skin... I know I am going to be here for a while. Anyways, we got home and went straight to work. We gave a tour to Raquel, a girl who came up to us and started asking questions. She came to church last week. She loves coming to the church and we are hoping that she will to continue to grow this love for the chapel. 

Saturday

We had lunch with Mariela because she found out that we did not have a mamita for today because all the members went to the temple and she could not because of work. She told us that we needed to come to her house when we do not have a mamita and I am ok with that because her cooking is awesome. 

Sunday

Hna. Castro was a little upset because we were receiving the transfers tonight and she had a strong feeling that she was going. We ended up visiting a ton of the members and investigators. We were talking with Hna. Carla, one of our mamitas, about her temple experience and she said it was amazing because she almost could not go because of the money but was about to get sufficient to cover the costs of the temple trip. To truly appreciate things, we have to pass through a trial of our faith. She could better appreciate the temple because her faith was tried. It is so very true. After we got home and did a few missionary things, we received the calls for transfers. Hna. Castro was to go to Cumbaya (almost Yaruqui) and I am going to stay here in Esmeraldas with Hna. Ccoycca. I have done divisions with her once before. 

Currently, I am awaiting for her to get here with Hna. Beltran. Hna. Beltran is going to be training so she will be staying with us until Wednesday where she will travel to Quito to get her new companion. That has been my week and I hope you all have an amazing week!

Until next time, 

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana

PS. There is a really cool church video available at christmas.mormon.org! I highly reccomend you look it up!

Week 21 Pictures

 

Our muddy climb

 

My poor shoes