#70

*It is with  mixed emotions that I  tell you this will be Hermana Rust's final post as a full-time missionary.  We will be having a little "Welcome Home Hermana Rust" get-together on Saturday evening, March 14th at our home around 6:00 - ? and would love for you to come, talk, hug, cry and be with Natalie and have treats too!  She will be speaking in sacrament meeting on Sunday, Mar. 15th @ 9:00 am Overton Chapel and we would love to have you there as well. 

You will notice Natalie only sent pictures this time, no letter.  I sense that she just couldn't bring herself to write a final letter. Thank you for your love and support of her during these glorious eighteen months.  We are grateful for good friends and family who have shared in our joy. 
Lorri

Me and my beloved familia Selaya

#69

Whale whale whale.

This week has been marvelous. I can`t really put my finger on what made it so good, but it was just a really good week. We had stake conference and Presidente Riggins gave a two talks that blew everyone´s minds and we have a goal of 4 baptisms this week if my dear Familia Collantes gets married (if you guys want to pray that they can be able to get all their paperwork figured out to be able to get married this week, I wouldn`t mind. Their last name is pronounced Coh-YANT-tez.)

What else can I tell you? I`m sending some pictures from when I went to Valencia.

 I`ll just say that being in the mission has been and is the best experience that I have ever had, and so very necessary for me, personally. I feel much better prepared to make decisions in my future thanks to what I am learning here. 

SDJFÑLKSDJñlaksjks

I`m sorry, I literally have no idea what to tell yáll. 

And I haven`t even written anyone else. And there goes my time.

I love you all!
Hermana Rust

#68

I got to do an intercambio en my beloved Valencia this week! It was fantastic!" The only bummer is that I had some serious eye issues going on so my eye is either crying or halfway closed in every single picture that I took. In the picture with Lina my eye is normal, but you can see the rocky mountains bursting out of my forehead, which is a bummer.

Also, I didn`t get to see the Bishop and his family which was very disappointing, but the sister leader said that we can probably do another intercambio before I go.But it was great! It was like I never left, I still remembered everything and everyone and I was so excited I was shaking most of the time haha. 

But this week has been wonderful! It`s Carnaval right now, which means we have to tell the people in the street to please not throw water and paint on us, but so far they`ve all been obedient haha. They respect the badge. 

It`s been a wonderful week. I`ve been able to see the Spìrit working with us and helping us help others. We`ve found people with lots of weird ideas about the Church and we`re helping them receive testimonies. It`s a grand feeling. 

I can`t say that I have had any movie-worthy experiences, but the most wonderful and terrific thing that anyone can do is help someone to put the Atonement into action in their lives and change and accept the truth. So... that`s pretty fantastic. Holly, you`ll be able to do just that, and it will be marvelous. 

Darn it my camera doesn`t work with these computers, so I`ll be sending pictures next week. I love you all! Thanks for writing! 

#67

Well the wonderful family that wants to get married so they can get baptized made bollos this week, which are a liquidy mixture of plantains and fish and ground peanuts cooked in banana leaves ..... not my favorite haha. I still bought a ton though to help out. It was kinda fun though because we walked around with all the bollos we bought and went and gave them to some of the more humble families.  

We´re really excited because we´ve been finding more families to teach. My goal is to have 15 families to teach before I go, and we´re halfway there. I really like contacting, it`s just that we´re working the two of us where there were two companionships working, so we have a lot of area and not much time between lessons to contact, but I like talking to the people in the street.

It is RAINY! I love it! The weather rotates between torrential downpour and blazing sun. I prefer the rain. When the sun comes out, it turns everything all vapory and it isn`t too fun. But the rain thunders down all night and I sleep like a baby and when it rains I am happy as can be.  My companion is not fond of getting wet though haha and it shows. Poor thing. A few nights ago the rain was falling so hard that the water coming off the roof had higher water pressure than in the shower... so I went ahead and washed my hair outside in the tube with the roof water (it had already been raining hard a few hours so it was clean water). My companion thought I was bizarre but she took a picture. You can`t see just how hard it was raining but just trust me -  there was a lot of water.

Our cute little new house. It`s small and perfect and I love it. Upstairs is the bedroom, under the bedroom is the kitchen and under the stairs is the bathroom. The bedroom has air conditioning and it is relatively cockroach free so I`m happy. The bishop owns the apartment and so he put those big gospel art printouts of Jesus´s baptism, of Christ in the Americas, and in the bedroom there´s Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. by far my favorite missionary house. I thought I`d show ya. 

This is a park near the chapel. Big fish. 

Thanks for writing!
I love you all!
Hermana Rust

#66

I totally forgot to tell yáll last week that my companion is no longer a caterpillar, but is now a full fledged butterfly as she has completed her training. It`s kinda funny, one of her goals in her eleventh week of training was taking the initiative in every situation, and her 11th week was our first week here, so everyone thought that she was training me haha because she was in charge of everything that week. 

What can I tell you about this week?

We have been running around like crazy. Our sector is huuuuuge, and beforehand it was divided and was shared by two companionships, and we figured that another companionship would be arriving in a few weeks, but nope. It`s just going to be us. So we´re covering the area that two companionships covered beforehand. There is a lot of work to do. Lots of people that joined the church when the church was still new here but still haven`t gone to the temple to be sealed and invested, lots of people that are attending church but living without being married, about 450 less active members.... Lots of work! But I love reactivated. That is the funnest and most challenging thing for me in the mission. It`s fun to teach people the same things that they`ve heard for years about the Book of Mormon and Jose Smith and covenants (things that they`ve heard but never developed a testimony) and invite them to act and know. There are lots of opportunities here. 

The lovely family I told you about that wants to get married and baptized is going to sell something called bollos this week to raise the money (it`s like a Ecuadorian fish tamale with peanut and stuff... it sounds funky but it`s pretty good). And I will buy every single bollo if I have to so that they can get married and baptized in the next two weeks. We`re pretty excited because we already have half of the bollos pre-sold, and once we advise the other missionaries in the zone, I imagine that they`ll be helping out quite a bit as well. So get ready for some pictures! I don`t have pictures to send this week because I don`t take my camera with me (it`s a little sketch here). 

What else... umm....  

We`re moving to another house. The church was renting two apartments but now they just need one so we`re going to live in a cute little apartment that the bishop build specifically for the missionaries. It looks like a beach house on the inside.
We`re excited about that. We`ve been cleaning and packing all morning.

Yup. 

Pa, I loved what you wrote. I have been thinking a lot about that very same scripture this week, la esperanza de un mundo mejor. It`s been a little hard on me and my companion as we`ve seen the suffering of some families and we`ve felt that we haven`t been able to help them too much. It`s hard, but there´s a reason why we keep visiting these families. I really do know that if we live the gospel, everything works out, and everything is okay. It seems like such a basic, non profound statement, but when you think about it, it`s a miracle. I think of the blessings we`ve received as a family, and with everything we`ve experienced, with every trial, everything has worked out. We`ve all been okay. That is nothing short of a miracle.

 

I SAW MEET THE MORMONS. You guys saw that right? It`s going to be coming to Ecuador in a few months and we`re going to use it as a missionary tool. That movie contains tons of miracles stories of people who have seen miracles because they have lived the Gospel.  I looooved it. We watched it in a zone conference with the mission president on Saturday. So good. Watch it. Love it. 

Well, my time is far spent.

I love you all! Thanks for writing!

#65

 This week has been wonderful. This area has challenges very, very different from the challenges in my former area. I want to tell you about two families that I absolutely love. 

First, there is a sweet little couple that was baptized a few months ago. They are in their seventies (but look much younger. Ecuador`s really good about keeping you young. I think it`s all the bananas) and very, very humble. They barely have anything, they have a house about the size of my old cave room with the sheets and they are recent converts. 

They were living in free union before and had to get married to get baptized - but here`s the dealio. The spouse had a stroke a few years ago and mentally is okay (a little slower than before) but physically is a child. The husband takes such good care of her -  she literally can`t do anything on her own. 

THis week, we have been doing short little visits to them, reminding them the commandments and singing them hymns. This week, we`re going to sing hymns while another hermana (who I adore and will be sending a picture of her to you in the future) has volunteered to paint her nails. They live decently far from the chapel and can`t afford a taxi, so every Sunday the husband puts his wife in her wheelchair and he pushes her to church. And it`s far. And they live out in the boonies where the streets aren`t paved, and it is not easy to drag a wheelchair over rocks and through mud.. It`s been wonderful to see the faith of this sweet little simple man who is just doing everything he can to get along and take care of his sweetheart.

The other family is a family of investigators that the hermanas were teaching before. They also live in very humble circumstances. They have attended church very faithfully since October. They`re just waiting to have enough money to get married so that they can get baptized. We went to visit them, just to get to know them and verify if the other hermanas had taught them about tithing, fasting etc. and they bore their testimonies to us about how the Gospel has changed their lives - and they`¡re not even members yet! The spouse reminds me a TON of Dad. A ton! I don`t even know exactly what it is, but something about him just makes me think of Dad. It has been awesome to get to know them because they are so GOOD and have such a great desire to follow Jesus Christ. 

Questions for today.

1.  What was your greatest success this week?
Hmmm.... I can`t say that I have had a particularly successful moment. We`re still just trying to get to know everything and everyone and working to find more families to teach. We actually have found a ton of people. It`s been really fun because the members here are super supportive. They ask us when they can present us to people, when they can accompany us in the lessons etc. It`s a nice change because in our previous ward getting members to help us out was like pulling teeth haha and here we don`t have time to work with all the members that want to work with us haha. 

2.  What was your greatest challenge this week?
The greatest challenge this week... it`s hasn`t been too challenging either. It was really, really, really hot. I am burnt to a crisp. That was challenging. We got lost yesterday and it was just about the hottest day ever and the sun was so strong. And we were lost. And it was Sunday, so we do everything possible to not buy water, even if we are about to die. Luckily we found a members house and she gave us water and we did not die. But it got close.

3.    How were your prayers answered this week?
Haha in many, many ways. Too many to count. Each time someone tells me something and I don`t know how to respond, I pray real quick and a scripture comes to me or the Spirit tells me what to say. So... there have been many silent prayers answered.

4.    How was the influence of the Holy Ghost present this week?
Well... like I said up there haha. When we`re teaching, if it`s not by the Spirit, I`ve just kinda learned to cut the lesson short, because it just doesn`t work if we don`t have the Spirit, it´s not even worth it. The words that I can think of on my own can`t help the people change their lives and come unto Christ, but the words that the Spirit puts into my heart can.

5.    What is the greatest change in you?

Is this talking mission wise or just this week? One thing I was thinking about a few nights ago is that I don`t get mad. I just don`t. That`s pretty cool I think. I don`t like getting mad. Frustrated yes, but mad, nope. Cool right?

Me and my companion went to downtown Quevedo to buy her some shoes. It`s pretty close. You cross a big bridge to get there (Quevedo is called the city of rivers) and bam you`re in downtown. Not that downtown is a big deal either haha Quevedo is pretty small city wise. YESTERDAY we ate lunch with the cutest family ever. Seriously they are so cute. They met in the MTC haha and they`re not newlyweds but the way they talk to each other and hold hands makes you think that they were, but anyway, they put on Piano Guys while we were eating lunch and it was so much fun. I really miss music haha. 

ANYWHO.

Love you all!

Hermana Rust

Some fotos from my old sector that they sent me. I can`t save them to my camera so I`ll just send em to you guys. There`s a good explanation for that clown picture, I promise. 

#64

Hello!

Tell us about your new area, ward, missionary work, and still being comps with your hija. 

Well it looks like my hija is gonna kill me - mission wise. But I`m happy about it haha. The new ward is fantastic! Tons of fun! The members are all very friendly and want to help us get to know the sector. It`s huge and parts are very humble. 

I held a monkey yesterday! A little baby monkey. I`m afraid I will not be sending many pictures because I won`t be carrying my camera around, it`s kind of dangerous around here. Not like, life-threatening dangerous, just stolen purses etc. dangerous. 

We are working with a lot of families that need to get married! We`re trying to work some sort of deal out as a stake with the government office to help these people out, because the cost of getting married is difficult.  

How is the new district and zone?

My new district and zone are fine. They are all really young, age wise and in the mission haha and lots of gringos so it`s a bit different. There are only 4 Latinos and 2 of them speak English so we speak a looot of English. We played volleyball this morning. That was fun. 

How many hermanas in your apartment?

It`s just me and mijita in our house, it`s really quiet. It`s even quieter too because I talk to her in English in the house and she`s still not too fond about responding haha, but the area seventy told us all about how important it is to learn English so we`re gonna do it!

You have been there 17 months!  Are you used to the humidity yet?

IT IS SO HUMID.  My skin went all haywire this week and now has the same  bumpiness, and dampness of that of a frog. I imagine I smell about the same too. 

Will you be able to visit your beloved Valencia as it is only 20 kilometers from where you are now?

THE LIDEREZA IS IN VALENCIA SO I AM GOING TO REQUEST AN INTERCAMBIO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE: I just about died when the assistants told me that the lidereza was in Valencia, so I hope to be able to visit very, very soon. Oh yeah...  the lidereza is the sister leader. Like... she does the intercambios.

That`s about it. 

#63

I`m sure you`ve already realized that I had cambios. They called last night and told us that not just me, but also my companion had cambios. So now the hermanas aren't going to share the ward anymore (better) and we went to the bus station and the assistants told us that we would be opening a sector and that I would continue training my hija. So we`re opening a new sector and I`m in Quevedo, which is close to Valencia! I`m thrilled. I`m exhausted, but thrilled and we`re ready for  the adventure.

We had quite the issue finding our house, the zone leaders only sent us a message with the address so we hopped in a taxi and poor guy had a ton of patience with us and helped us find the house. So we finally find the apartment building and we don`t know which apartment it is - so I tried the keys on all the apartments. I`m really glad that no one caught me trying to put our keys in their doors.

I got your Christmas package and read through it earrrly in the morning when I was packing. I don`t really remember what was in it because like I said, I`m exhausted and I had to pack all night (okay... I didn`t really pack all night. Mostly I was just talking with Hermana McKee. We`re really gonna miss each other) but I remember that I liked it haha so thanks! When I`m more mentally able I`ll look through it again. 

I`m trying to think of what else I can tell yàll. I`m so exhausted. We were in a bus for quite a few hours. This is going to be a fantastic adventure. We don`t have a map, the missionaries that were here before didn`t write directions down, and the members don`t answer their phones, so we`re going to lose ourselves in the cities a bit. I`m stoked! 

We took an awkward family photo. My companion didn`t understand. But we were taking pictures because we never thought we would keep on being companions!

A girl in the ward named Pati liked the snowflake headband, so I gave it to her. She`s 22. I feel like her and Britney would be good friends. 

Also, I think I may have only put make up on one eye this day....

I don`t know if I already send you this picture. This was dinner on new years with my beloved convert Hermana Rosario. 

My old zone celebrating Hermana Jorge`s birthday. She`s peruvian! She`s great! I`m so excited for Holly!

Ten points to whoever finds me in these pictures!

#62

Hello family!

*  These are the questions and things I asked Natalie to share in this week's letter.  - Lorri

Share your testimony of the work that you have been called to do.

I absolutely know that what I am doing is the work of the Lord. When I read the scriptures, they talk about servants that are bringing about the work of the Lord, and I know that I am one of these said servants. I know that it is a sacred responsability. What we, as members of the church, are doing is helping to bring about the eternal purposes of the Lord, which is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.He wants us the know Him, to love Him, to honor Him. He wants us to be with Him - forever - and not just to be with Him, but to be as He is, exalted, and perfected. He wants to bless us and give us all that He has. As we share the Gospel, we help others realize their divine potencial and help them achieve it. The blessings aren´t just far away either, (plus, it´s hard to make anyone listen to your message if it were to just promise blessings in the next life). The blessings come immediately as well. We can help people have happiness now in spite of their trials and they can have the hope of never ending happiness later on. 

Why was it important for you to go on a mission?  My own testimony has been strengthened. I´ve always had a testimony, but I feel like it´s become much firmer, because I´ve had to rely on things and people that I haven´t been able to see or hear - the Spirit, the gift of tongues, the Savior etc.. I´ve relied on things unseen and received help. That has been an amazing testimony builder to me that testifies of the basic truths - the God lives, and He loves me, that He blesses His children.  And while I still have many questions, I don´t have doubts. It was important for me to go on a mission because I´ve learned to know and rely on the Lord. I´ve overcome many fears, and I´m learning more and more about the Lord´s grace and about what He wants me to do and be. I have a clearer idea of what´s important and how to achieve it. 

How can Holly and Hannah, who have already made the decision to go on a mission, continue to strengthen their commitment  and desire to serve ?

Just keep strengthening your testimony of the basics. You don´t need to understand it all, but you do need to have the habit of praying and reading the scriptures daily. It must be a habit! I know that we hear this all the time, but it needs to be like eating - it needs to be something we do often and I would add that it needs to be something we enjoy (because we all know that I enjoy eating - even though the fried burrito story has kinda stifled that desire right now. On a related note: never order a Jalapeño burger from Carl´s Jr. You will have similar outcomes. Sorry I just got lost a bit there.).
So yeah. Pray every day please. Talk to the Lord. It´s not necessary for all women to go on a mission. For me personally, I feel that it was very necessary, but talk to the Lord and He will tell you what you need to do. Read your patriarchal blessing. Something that helps me as well is think of the future and what I want to accomplish with my future family. This helps me to stay focused in the important things right now.

Okay, my time is far spent.
Thanks for writing!
I love you all!
Hermana Rust

#61

1.   How has a mission prepared you to be a mommy?

I have learned that I really love cooking and cleaning and all those household chores haha. If anything it has just made me excited to be a mommy. Once again with that whole patience thing - I think that´s the main lesson I´ve learned, and that is something that will help me be a mom. 

2.   What has been your most rewarding teaching opportunity?
Okay that is a hard one to think of right now. Recently, I taught a less active family that had left the Church because they were offended about something, and I was able to share with them how the Atonement helped me forgive, and about how being angry just hinders our own progress. They came to church yesterday! It was fabulous! 

3.    Share your eating situation with us?  Do you meals?  What is your specialty?

Well, we eat lots of chicken. Lots of rice. Lots of soda :(. I´m not a fan of soda. I have developed some quite expensive tastes while I´ve been here. My latest obsession and what I make in the house is mango juice (I will cry when mango season is over) and goat cheese and apple toasted sandwiches. Not that those are common things here, it´s just that last week I decided to buy goat cheese and man is it tasty. The truth is that I don´t really remember what we eat in the US on a daily basis, all the stuff we eat seems pretty normal to me now. I drink/eat 7 mangoes a day. That might explain some of the issues I´ve been having.

4.    What do you desire to accomplish this week and how are you going to do it?

This week, we want to strengthen this ward. Without going into details about some of the challenges we´re facing, we´re going to focus helping all members, including the active ones, to better fulfill their responsibilities in the ward. Yeah. This time period in my mission is very different, we´re not doing the normal mission tasks, but we are definitely doing the work of Salvation. It´s going to be fun.  

I wanted to thank you guys for taking us to old people´s homes for family home evenings and things. I have thought about those experiences a lot lately, and I´m grateful that we didn´t limit ourselves to sitting at home every FHE. Thank you for that. A lot. 

Okay, I´m sorry, I have to go, but I hope that you have a happy new year!
Hermana Rust

 Reunited with my dearest Hermana DeForest in the mission Christmas activity. 

 Me and Hermana Olsen. I´m mostly just sending these pictures just in case something happens to my camera. 

Muchísimas gracias querida familia Gavilanes! Les deseamos un feliz año nuevo!
Gracias por su amor y por ser nuestra familia aquí en Ecuador. Les queremos muchísimo!

Hermana Rust y Hermana McKee

#60

1.    How do the people you teach respond to learning of Joseph Smith?
Well... Here´s the thing. There´s a very popular evangelical church here and the pastor{s name is Jerry Smith. So sometimes people think we´re talking about him haha. The truth of the matter is, there are lots of false prophets down here. I swear there´s a new church every other day, so there are lots of people claiming to be prophets. It´s not something that different or strange down here. What is really fun and what I really like to explain is about the priesthood, about the laying on of hands. The "prophets" down here become "prophets" because they say that the Holy Spirit descended over them and gave them visions, so when we explain that Joseph Smith received the authority of the priesthood by the laying on of hands from the original apostles of God, they see the difference. The laying on of hands is something I have studied a lot on the mission, I love reading the Bible and finding more and more instances of priesthood ordinances being done by the laying on of hands  - it´s nothing new, it´s the way it´s always been done, and it´s the way things are being done now too. It´s cool. I love it. It just makes so much more sense, no.

2.    Can you share thoughts and feelings on teaching others how to offer their first prayer?
Haha that´s another thing that´s really different here than in the US. Everyone here is Christian. Everyone prays - it´s just what you do.  So usually the only thing we have to teach is that you have to end in the name of Jesus Christ. I really love teaching though that it is a two way communication, and helping people identify their answers to their prayers. There are tons of people that have prayed every day since they´ve been born, but don´t really know why, so it´s really fun when we help them realize that God is talking back.

3.    What is the worst/scariest thing that has happened to you thus far?
The scariest thing that has happened to me... happened a year ago. Almost exactly a year ago. Nothing big even really happened, we were just scared. We had a meeting or something in the church in Milagro, and it ended late, so the zone leaders helped us flag down a taxi and we got in and told him our address and left, and as we were sitting in the car we just felt the most awful feeling ever, and we were speaking in English about how creeped out we were (I was with Hermana Chil) - and then we received a text from the zone leaders telling us that they felt weird about the taxi we had gotten into and that they wrote down the license plate number and that we should call them when we were safe at home. So yeah. We told him that we had mistaken the direction and got out a few blocks before our house so he didn´t know where we lived and started walking in a completely different direction until he left and then we went home. I think I already told you that story. As for recent scary /weird things.... I have had some pretty strange and scary health problems haha but I will not be going into detail about those .

4.    How has the Christmas season affected your teaching opportunities?

It´s been great for inviting members to share teh gospel. We give them the He is the Gift cards and challenge them to invite others to see the video and then meet with us afterwards. How great is that video by the way? I just love it. It´s better in English. 

Well.. we´ll be chatting on Friday... so I´ll let you know how everything goes then. Tomorrow the entire mission is going to the temple in shifts, and then we´re cleaning  chapels and then having a mission dinner. We´re so excited! 

 Easily the coolest activity ever. The man with the beard that isn´t Santa is the coolest guy I know. He´s in our ward, his name is Salvador and he´s from Argentina and he does LEGIT high quality shows in malls and stuff like that. The elf man was singing in English in an awesome Michael Buble swing style and I wanted to hug Santa and dance so bad - but I didn´t.

Did I send you this picture? My zone with the mission president and his wife and the area president and his wife. 

#59

This week was good! I can´t say that I have gotten the exact results that I wanted, but since when is it about what I want, right? Little by little, things are getting better and we´re moving forward! You´re right, the results are coming in different areas than what I want, but the results are coming. I am learning a ton about PATIENCE. It´s not that fun learning patience haha but apparently for me it is very necessary. And I´m learning it. When I think about who I was a year ago, I hardly recognize myself mentally. I don´t know if that makes sense but it´s true, I definitely don´t think the same. 

This week has been fun because in the training program we are studying about learning to help our investigators to recognize the Spirit, which makes you focus on your own spiritual experiences and how we´ve come to know that these things are true. So much depends on humility, because a prideful person will not give heed to the feelings that the Spirit gives us. 

I¨m so sorry,I am out of time! I will repent and be better prepared for next week!

 Malecón with Hermana Marta. I let her cut my hair last p-day... and that is all that will be said on the subject.  

 This is a picture that I never sent from when we went to Malecón. These are two important people in Ecuadorian history.

 We had lunch in Oswaldo´s workshop a couple weeks ago.

Hermana DeForest had cambios today and we´re rather heartbroken. We´re gonna miss her. 

#58

1.    What advice, council would you give to Hannah for what she should be doing right now to prepare better for serving a mission?
Learn to love the Book of Mormon. If you don´t have your own personal testimony of it, get one. If you already have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, ask God again, He´ll let you know again that it´s true. I really think that getting the habit of studying will help a lot. I treasure my personal study time, it´s my favorite hour of the day. 

2.    How have your prayers been answered this past week?
Great question. I have been fasting and praying a lot to know what I need to do in order to have success. It´s been a little frustrating to see the other hermanas having lots of success and us not getting anywhere. This week, we had two meetings with Elder Uceda, the área president, and it was amazing all the things I learned. I received some very specific promptings to know what I needed to change. We have been looking for families to teach, and this week we found two families. They are families that will probably progress slowly, but still, two families! We´re thrilled. I could keep going and going and going, this week has been a week of answered prayers and revelation. 

3.    What has been your greatest joy this week?

My greatest joy this week..... I loved the Christmas devotional. I think you were probably looking for something profound, but yesterday had been a stressful day, and I was irritated about some things (which isn´t good. I´m working on that still) and I wasn´t ... gellin´. But in the devotional, I was able to relax and feel the Spirit and the spirit of Christmas. And I don´t remember what hymn it was but they sang one hymn and I think it might have been the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. 

4.    What talent(s) have you developed since being a missionary?
I don´t know if this counts as a talent, but I´ve gotten a lot better at just talking to people. We hop into a taxi and before we get where were going I know how many kids he has and what he does in his free time and all sorts of stuff. Of course, he also has a pass along card, but I actually enjoy talking to people now: As far as other talents, like actually talent talents... I´ve gotten better at singing. I have to sing loud, because the majority of the people here are tone deaf, so I sing loud and proud. I´m no Holly still, but in my own little way I sing well haha. I´m still struggling to learn to play piano. Every minute of extra time I have in the chapel I´m painfully slowly practicing playing the hymns.

 

I´m out of time! I love you all!

Las cuatro en Malecón con el árbol grandote!

#57

  I tried barbecued pig intestines yesterday. They were tasty. On to the questions! I got lots of pictures too, a member from Valencia was in our capilla yesterday and last pday we went ot the parque de las iguanas.

1.    What are your biggest struggles as a missionary?Ummm.... People´s agency! That sounds awful but it´s true, sometimes I just get frustrated when the people understand what they need to do, and they feel the Spirit, and then just choose not to do it. In the District videos, Sister Voyles made the brilliant observation that it´s helped her to learn a little bit of what God feels when we know what to do, and we just don´t do it. It´s irritating!

2.    How has your relationship with the Savior changed?I don´t know if I could explain this in an email, especially because I only have 10 minutes left (sorry - I had to read a lot of things and yeah... sorry!!) But let´s just say that I feel His love, direction, and correction more in my life, and it´s wonderful.

3.    What part of the gospel is the most fun for you to teach and see accepted by those you teach?There is nothing funner and more satisfying than when someone understands the Restoration and tithing. Those are my two favorite lessons, because with the Restoration, when they really just get it, they are in awe of the fact that there is a living day prophet at 12 apostles, and when you stop to think about it, that really is cool! And then I love it when people can trust the Lord enough to pay their tithing. Lots of people are afraid to teach tithing to really humble families, but I love it, because I can just testify of the miraculous blessings that come through obedience to that commandment. Alkjadfklj it´s awesome, and then afterwards, they testify to US about the blessings they´ve received. It´s awesome.

4.    What does the Savior's birth mean to you specifically at this time in your life?These are really good questions! More than anything, as I´ve studied the Atonement, this time of year has turned into a time of profound gratitude. Okay, have you all seen the He is the Gift video? Tell me that didn´t bring you to tears. Also, the Easter video. Tears. I saw the videos for the first time yesterday in the house of our ward mission leader and I was just sitting there bawling.  It means that thanks to the fact that He was born, and He walked totally alone and experienced every painful experience and sadness alone, I don´t have to.

5.    In what ways have your companions prepared you to be a spouse?
Haha I don´t want to answer this almost. I´ve learned patience (is that spelled right?). I´ve learned how to love someone even when they do things that I don´t like. I´ve learned to admit that I´m wrong. I was thinking about it the other day too, and I don´t get as mad as I used to. All rather good qualities to be a spouse I think. 

 We went with a family in the ward and they thought this was funny.... 

 I think I´m funny. 

 Me and mijita

 Some statues .... 

 I made a new friend!

Can this be the picture on my missionary plaque?

#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.