#20

Hmmm this week. What´s happened this week...

Monday, we contacted. All night. (well... from six to eight thirty). I spoke tons of Spanish that day. I was really proud of myself. My weakness has always been just talking with people. I can teach the Restoration in Spanish no problem, but just having a conversation is hard for me (in English and Spanish!). So I was really proud of myself that day!

I forgot to mention, but Saturday through Tuesday was Carnaval. Apparently this holiday has some sort of traditional background, but nobody remembers why they celebrate Carnaval. So people throw water and eggs and powder and stuff on each other these four days, but no one really knows why, it´s just what they´ve always done.  Anywho, the people in Valencia all went to the rivers and stuff to play Carnaval all day, so they didn´t really bother us too much. But we were in the bus on the way back to Valencia from Quevedo after our District meeting, and I was sitting at the window, with the window open. Every once in a while a truck would drive by with tons of teenagers and youth in the back of the car with water guns and stuff to throw on the people, so when I saw them coming I´d close the window so they wouldn´t throw water on me. The bus was stopped at a stoplight when a commercial truck drove up and stopped next to us, with the passenger window right next to my window, but sitting in the passenger seat was an old man of 70 or so years, so I didn´t close the window. We were stopped at this light for a minute or so, and right when the bus started moving forward this super old dude took the cap off his water bottle and threw it all right in my face. So that happened. I was surprised. But it was really hot and I knew it was clean water so I didn´t mind it.

Tuesday we also talked to the coolest guy ever. He´s 50 or so, and he plays guitar. He sits out on the sidewalk with his guitar and sings as loud as he can. His name´s Guillermo, and he told us he won´t attend the church, but to call him if we ever have an activity or talent show. He´s got a huge mole right in the center above his lip, so he has a permanent Hitler stache. I´m not sure I´m painting the picture of him right, but just trust me that he´s cool.

Wednesday I had an intercambio with Hermana Fajardo de Honduras, who is just like you Mama! Everyone once in a while she´ll do or say something and I´ll think "wow, that´s exactly like Mom." It was so fun! She is super enthusiastic, and she treats everyone like they´re her best friend. We were waiting for the parents of a family they are teaching to arrive, and so while we were waiting we played volleyball with the kids in a field outside their house, and it was so fun. First of all, the ball was half deflated and super hard, so it hurt like crazy, but it was worth it. At lunch, we got served the weirdest soup ever. Here in Ecuador, the soup is like.. the vegetables in the US. You have to eat your vegetables if you wanna eat the mashed potatoes or whatever. Here, you have to eat the soup if you want the rice. They don´t say this to the missionaries of course, but it´s the general courtesy and rule that you eat the soup. The soup was plaintains mixed with hunks of cheese and egg. It was super heavy, and it smelled weird, and I did not want to eat it: Hermana Fajardo told me that she´s never been met with something that she didn´t eat, but that there was no way she was eating this soup. So she waited for the mamita to leave and in thirty seconds she dumped the soup down the drain and didn´t get caught. It was majestic. But the mamita didn´t leave again so I had to choke down my soup. It was bizarre. I asked other people if they had ever tried this soup and they said too that it was odd.

Also, they have an investigator named John Bravo. Johnny Bravo.

 

The next day, a clown kept bothering me on a bus. It was scary. Then when we couldn´t get off the bus because there were too many people, the clown´s friend announced that Hermana Rousht needed to get off so please clear the way. That part was nice. 

Thanks for the love and prayers and support!
Love you all!

* When I asked Natalie if she had received the missing Christmas packages, she sent the following report:

Kims yes, around New Years!.. Horitos... no. Danielle´s got here last week. Hilliams yes, a while ago. I loved them all! But they´re still coming! Danielle used the red postage sticker, which costs more and takes more time, so if the Horitos used the red sticker than it will probably come. I´m also in one of the areas farthest from the mission home, so it takes about a month to get from the mission home to me, and to get from Guayaquil to the mission home is also a few months. So it doesn´t mean that the packages are lost. Just very slooooooooooow.   It is fun getting them as they come and I thank everyone for thinking of me!! 

As for the pictures..... I don´t really have anything to take pictures of...   I´ll try to take more pictures! 

I can hardly believe that tomorrow I will have been here 6 months..: One third of the way done. I still feel like I just got here.