#55 & #56

 Received on  Nov 17.

Sorry but this is going to be short. I don´t have too much to share anyway, it´s been a fairly regular week. Things are going great with my companion, we brought two people to church yesterday, which is a funny and stressful story that I will tell right now. So in our sector, the houses are nice and people work all day to maintain their lifestyles, no? This means that right now, all of our investigators are old people, because they are the only ones that don´t work all day. It is incredibly stressful to teach old people (we shouted the restoration to a guy - after the lesson my throat hurt)

Anyway, two people came to church yesterday, two old guys. One attended and said that everything was nice, but that he didn´t hear a single thing (that´s the same guy that we have to shout at). The other one that came is .... crazy. He spends all day on the internet and believes everything he reads. Also, during the gospel principles class, he talked about how the Virgin Mary was a prophet and that she and some other virgin prophesied that there would be three days of darkness again and that NASA said that in December that prophecy was going to come true and all sorts of weirdness. 

 He´s an interesting fellow. We invited him to church, just because we invite everyone to church, but we didn´t think he´d attend. But yeah. We finally had people at church. One didn´t hear anything and the other one was teaching some interesting stuff he read on the internet.

I´ve learned patience though!

Love you all!
Hermana Rust

On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 12:04 PM, Natalie Rust <natalie.rust@myldsmail.net> wrote:

1.  How has being a trainer influenced you as a person?  missionary?

It´s been so fun! I am learning that I actually really like teaching others. It´s helped me be more exactly obedient as well, because I know my example is the only example that my companion has right now. Also, I know that I have to be 100 percent ready for everything because if someone says something wacky, I can´t just hope that my companion will respond haha.

2.  What doctrines/principles have been in the forefront of your life at this time?

Chapter six of preach my gospel. The attributes of Jesus Christ. I don´t think those are exactly doctrines but they´re good to know and to study. I´ve been studying/learning a lot about how all the atributos of Jesus are interrelated. Like, how faith means having hope and patience and that you can show your faith by being obedient. Things like that. I´m learning a lot about the divine attribute of patience especially. Sometimes we don´t get what we think we deserve when we want it. But the Lord always keeps His promises, always always always. 

3.  How do you teach about a living Savior and the Godhead and how is it received?

Haha this is interesting. Something that President Riggins has really emphasised is the importance of understanding who God is. We have made whole lesson plans just to teach about the real nature of God. He´s not just love and forgiveness, He is a God of law and punishment as well. Sometimes when we teach that, the people get a little taken aback, but it´s important that they understand that God requires things of us, that we can´t just do whatever we want and expect to get the same blessings. Also, we have to explain from time to time that Jesus and God are seperate beings, but that is easily taught in the Bible so it´s been received pretty well. The people here already believe in a living Savior, they just don´t really understand what it can mean for them personally the fact that Jesus lives currently and that He will come again. That´s somethingreally rewarding, being able to see someone changed the way they think about Christ and applying the Atonement in their lives. It´s great.

This week we went to the temple. I love that place. I´m sorry for cutting things short, my computer was frozen for a good time so I haven´t been able to write all I wanted to.

I love you all! Write me next week please!  (Natalie can receive emails from others so feel free to drop her a line or two to brighten her day! - Mom)

We had a multizone conference (that´s when we went to the temple) and I saw most of my old zone. That´s the only picture I´ve taken this week oops! 

#54

I received my precious daughter, mijita! Her name is Hermana Alacama, and she´s from La Paz, Bolivia. The second she told me where she was from I proudly told her all about Grandma and Grandpa Skousen.  She´s awesome though. She´s the only member in her family, and she got baptized in March of last year, so she´s still a recent convert. Cool huh? She´s got guts. It´s cool though, but there´s a lot to learn! It´s been really fun though. And all the newbies and the trainers went through the temple together, which was awesome. I love the temple. I´ve official been through the temple twice as many times in Spanish than I have in English.

1.  What exactly are your responsibilities as a trainer?Well the church has this dope program that´s called 12 weeks. The goal of this program is that the person being trained can be ready to train in 12 weeks. Each week, they have goals that they should meet and I as a trainer have to teach them certain things every week, as well as how to do all of our daily tasks.  You´re basically teaching all day, every day, from 6:30 am to 10:30 pm. So far, she has met all of her goals (So proud sniff sniff! They grow up so fast!) and this week we are going to learn how to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what we should do in the first lesson with someone. And other stuff but I don´t remember. We have an extra hour of study time in the morning and we have to do practices adn stuff like that with the zone leaders once a week to verify how the progress is going. That sentence sounded awkward, but you understand me.

2.  How do you recognize the Spirit teaching and guiding you as a missionary?
Ahhh I love the Spirit. The Spirit communicates to me mostly through ideas as I´m teaching. For example, I did not know what to say to an hermano that we´re teaching. I felt that we had already taught everything and I wasn´t sure what to do, but out of nowhere I though of a scripture story and decided to share that with him. I know that it was the Spirit because I would have never though to apply that story in that way with this investigator. It´s fun. My own knowledge is very limited, but with the Spirit I am able to be a much better teacher and I´m able to recordar the things that I have studied.

3.  What are the best qualities of the Ecuadorian Saints/people?
They are very giving. We have called people and told them that we didn´thave lunch and they tell us to come on over in half an hour and they´ll have lunch ready for us. Tons of hermanas have told us that if we never need lunch or anything, to not hesitate to call. And they mean it. So we call. They are always very willing to give of what they have.

4.  How do you express your love for the people?

Um........ I think just talking to them is how I express my love. You guys know that before the mission, I wasn´t the type to go sit by the old people in church and ask them about their week, but now, that´s what I do. Listening sincerely. I guess I kinda do physically too for the women, but when you greet everyone with a hug and a kiss, a hug doesn´t mean quite as much here as it does there. 

So yeah! That´s been my week! It´s always fun to be in a training with the President. My companion from the CCM, Hermana Fox, was my companion and spent the night for a day, because she´s training too right now and had to come to Guayaquil for the training meeting and to get her new companion. SO we reminisced a little bit. That was fun. It kinda freaked me out though because every once in a while I realize how much time I´ve been out on the mission and I have a ministroke. So yeah. Imma send fotos now.

 

Love you all! Thanks for the prayers and thanks for those that wrote me!
>Hermana Rust 

 Our first pday together! 

I didn´t get the memo that we were supposed to be cute and normal. My cameras going south, so all of my fotos are kinda blurry.

 Hermana Deforest, Hermana Alacama, Hermana Mckee (Kylee´s sister) and Me doing a peace sign, which we all know is not like me at all. 

I knew right off the bat that me and my new companion would get along. Why? Because when I suggested ordering pizza, she agreed right away.. and then encouraged us to buy two.

#53

Well. This week has been good. Well, actually this week was pretty normal, but I liked it. I decided that I was going to pray and fast to know what I needed to change in order to have more success in the area that I´m in. Also, the mission president asked us to fast as a mission with the purpose of sanctifying ourselves as missionaries and to have desires to be exactly obedient, while asking the Lord "what else do I lack?" So the mission president was right on the same thought track that I´ve been on.

 I´m still not a hundred percent sure what exactly I need to work on, but I´ve been given a new learning opportunity - I´m going to train! Hermana Isama had cambios and so today I´m in a trio and tomorrow  or Wednesday my new companion is going to get here. Also, the new companion of Hermana DeForest (Hermana Espinoza is going home today :( ) is the sister of Kylee McKee, Noelle´s old roommate! So she´s living in th ehouse with me too. Three gringas together. I don´t know if I´m going to train a gringa or a latina, but I´m pretty sure it will be a latina. I doubt they´d put four gringas in one ward.

 I can´t really think of anything else to tell you - I´m just so excited! Before coming to this sector I never ever ever wanted to train, but now I´m so stoked! Also, I´m running on zero right now, because I did not sleep last night. Last night I took a benadryl and got ready to sleep, and at 10:45 they called us to give us instructions on what to do with Hermana Espinoza and then said that Hermana Isama had cambios too and then threw in that I was going to be training. We had to be in the mission office at 8 this morning, so we packed and cleaned all night then got up early(earlier than usual) and we haven´t stopped going since then. We had to go to the mission office, then back home, then to the bus station, then back home, then to the shopping center, then back home, and to write. I´m exhausted!

But this morning was great because I got to see my beloved Hermana Chil (she goes home today too). I got to catch up with her and it was a blast and I got to tell her that I´m going to train and she was so happy.  Also, on Saturday night we had the last hurrah for hermana Espinoza, which included a chocolate fountain. Always a good time with a chocolate fountain. Tuesday we had the final district meeting with Hermana Espinoza and celebrated by carving jackolanterns in whatever fruit you wanted (I carved some weird zucchini type round thing and a bell pepper) and we ate a huge thing of lasagna. That´s what´s in the middle of the group zone picture that I sent.

Questions!

1.  What is one thing that you have discovered about yourself since being on a mission?
I have discovered that I actually really like people. I always thought I didn´t like people that much, but I love just talking to people and getting to know them. 

2.  Tell us about your interviews with Presidente Riggins.
HE´S SO COOL. I´m sure he´s just 100% guided by the Spirit because he always says what I need to hear. I´ve only had two interviews with him and the first one was really hurried, but I absolutely adore him and his wife.

3.  How is the ward that you are in now?

It´s different! The gospel is the same all around the world, but the church is way different. I don´t really know how to explain the differences, but let´s just say that the challenges in the wards back home are way different than the challenges here. It´s a ward that needs help, but the members are really great. It´s different though because my other two wards had tons of young people, and here there aren´t any. I think there are two young women. Here it´s lots of adults and small children.

4.  How has your mission prepared you for the goals you have in the future?

I´m a lot more marriage ready haha. I think being without a companion would be awful. Also, I´m learned how to study - before the mission, I had never studied! I think that´ll help me a lot in my goals in the future. Also, PATIENCE. I´ve learned patience. Well, better said that I´m learning patience. It´s a long, slow, sometimes painful process haha.

5.  What has been your most rewarding experience thus far?

Oooh.... That´s a toughie. I´d have to reflect on that to come to a good conclusion. There´s been so many rewarding experiences, nothing too huge or great, but lots of little tender mercies that have made my time here very rewarding. 

Ahhh I love being a missionary!
Thanks for writing, thanks for the questions, thanks for the pictures, I will never ever ever get tired at looking at pictures of my nieces, so keep em coming!)
I love you all!

Me and my sector. We went to the top of an apartment building. 

Our sector during the holiday weekend - empty.

Our carved fruits and vegetables for halloween! I made the minion in the middle out of a bell pepper (it looked better in real life), and then I carved some other stuff but I don´t have pictures. 

my zone!

 Halloween District meeting. We had some time. Love these fabulous hermanas.