#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.