Week 39 Blast from the Past! Costa style!

Hey friends and family!

This week was a pretty awesome week! All the members were a buzz with the announcement of the new temple. I also had the cool experience of finding someone that I thought was lost forever. Also, the church was restored on April 6th, many years ago. We had little challenges all week while trying to teach the Restoration to investigators, converts, and less actives.

Tuesday

While I was out in Esmeraldas, we had a recent convert that had almost completed her year named Juliana. She dropped in December and I prayed that Heavenly Father would help her to change her life around. Hna. Thomas and I were looking for a lady that we had contacted the previous day but were not able to find her. In fact, we got really lost. While walking up a road, a girl asked us if we were missionaries. She told us that she had been praying to find the missionaries since December. Turns out, it was Juliana. We talked and she is progressing very well. She has introduced us to a lot of her family and has been giving service to one of the members that lives near her. She has met a lot of the members that live near here and are now looking out for her. I know that it was the hand of the Lord and her faith that lead us to her. 

Oh and a random note, we celebrated Hna. Egas´ birthday today and had lunch with her family. I can now say that I have eaten guinea pig... and rabbit... It was quite interesting...  The rabbit was pretty good but the guinea pig (cuy) was tough but still good. I made Hna. Egas a cake and she was so excited. It was super fun!

Wednesday
We have had this investigator who has been investigating the church for the past year and has not quite gotten to the point where he feels that he needs to get baptized. His wife is an interesting case. She tells us everytime since I have gotten to this area that she is Catholic and that she will die Catholic. Well, since coming to this area, she has had a little change of heart every time that we come. The other week, she had received a Priesthood blessing from our zone leaders (the Priesthood power is very real guys) and when we asked about it today, she said that yes, she still had pain but she was doing so much better. She said that she would not pray with us... wait for it... today because... wait for it... She still was not quite comfortable with the way we pray. This is a huge step that she said that because she was always saying that she would never pray! Little by little, she is changing!

Thursday
We had our mini zone conference and my zone leaders asked if I would make banana bread for the zone for next week to celebrate all of the birthdays in our zone. Those silly goobers are always asking for banana bread because it is hard to bake down here in Ecuador but I have figured it out.

Friday

I know that missionary work is a team effort and that we are all just trying to help people to come unto Christ but it still sucks when you have to pass off an investigator that is progressing really well to other missionaries... We had to give an investigator to the other hermanas in our ward. It makes me sad to hand them off but happy to know that they will continue to progress.

Saturday
We had our house revised by the hermana leaders again and got a really good compliment! They said that they thought our house was the cleanest house in the zone! (Just took two transfers to get it cleaned up...) Our hard work is showing! We were super busy teaching and finding people. It was great day! We had several people tell us that they did not want us to change their religion. I told Hna. Thomas as we were walking away that we would not change their religion but that they would change themselves. That is the great thing about the gospel. It is never an obligation and if people open up their hearts, they will change themselves. Something funny that I just have to include: sometimes men just do not understand that we are not here to date. They are always hitting on us. Hna. Thomas is really funny because if she catches on that guys are trying to flirt or sometimes that is just how she starts conversations, she tells them straight up that we do not date during the mission. She had to say that quite a few times today.

Sunday
We were fed quite a bit today... We were given cerviche by Familia Flores, quimbolitos by Familia Jimenez, and chicken enchiladas and chocolate cake with Familia Cruz. It was a lot of food! We stashed a bunch of it in our fridge as emergency food for when we don´t have mamitas. Oh how I love this sector!

That is all that I can really think of for this week! Hope y´all have a great week! Keep me updated on your lives! :)

Until next time,

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana