#7 Letter from Ecuador

Oh my goodness I love my companion! I was so excited to email and say that things are going just swell companion-wise. She is so fun and bubbly and we are already basically best friends. I was worried that my Spanish would suffer because there`s such a strong temptation to speak English, but I`ve found that it`s easier to speak Spanish with others and not be afraid to make mistakes in front of a good friend.

This Wednesday will be my three month mark since I reported to the CCM. Whaaaaa¿? I feel like it`s been two days.... Time is funny.

Here`s more great news, my zone going to the temple Wednesday! We`re also spending the night in the temple apartments which means I get one night with a warm shower! 

I think a Cambio was exactly what I needed, and Hermana Chil is exactly what I needed. When Hermana Diez left, I was freaking out because I still didn`t know my sector very well and I was pretty sure I was just going to fall apart. Buuuut I didn`t! I had to really step up and now I know how to get places and I talk to taxis and I haven`t even had one try to rip me off too bad yet! I also had to be the one to talk to the members and remember names and introduce my new companion and now I feel even more at home here. I`m really glad I`ll be in Milagro for Christmas! 

We have had some issues that have slowed things down in our ward. Every once in a while, the members or the youth will have references, and without fail, they live in the elder`s sector of the ward. Basically, right now, we don`t have anyone progressing.¨

We received permission from the parents to baptize Jairo and Allan, but we`re not sure if it`s the right thing to do, because their family refuses to listen to a word from us, and we`re not sure it`s a good idea to baptize these kids.... I mean, if they have a real testimony, then it would be fine, but we`re worried that they`re only attending church and all these other things because they like the activities and they like my hair, and those aren't good enough reasons to make a sacred covenant... so we`ll see. I`m trying to not let my monthly goals motivate me to push someone towards something they`re not ready for.

Did I tell you about Digna? I think I did, but anyway she didn`t attend church and her husband won`t let us talk to her more than twice a week... He`s a little bizarre.... He`s super catholic but he likes reading the Book of Mormon and we`re just not really sure what to make of him haha.

Since we don`t have many investigators, we have had to resort to contacting (which any missionary I`m sure agrees is the absolute worst thing ever). It`s not great because you can talk to a contact for half an hour and they`ll say thanks for the conversation, it`s all interesting and I like that you talk about Jesus, but please don`t come back again. Ehhh what can you do? So one day we were out contacting, and I swear everyone on that street was ticked off about something. We were getting ready to call it quits and head somewhere else, when Hermana Chil looked up and saw a guy on the second floor of a house just looking out the window. So we called up to him and started talking to him. He couldn`t leave his house right then because he shattered his leg in a motorcycling accident and he was hooked to an IV thingy, and we couldn`t go up because he was home alone, but we fixed an appointment to meet up with him and we would bring a member with us. We went and he told us that he had been in the hospital for a long time, and that he vowed to change his life for the better. We`re excited to see where that will lead

. 

We need more people to teach! Contacting just doesn`t work! Right now, we`re really focusing on rescuing. We are looking for the home of the less active families and teaching them, as well as recent converts. Elder Mestre said in the training meeting that the more we rescue, the more we will baptize. We`re putting that promise to the test! We were able to finally meet with one family that before always refused to meet with me and Hermana Diez. We were just walking in the street when we saw their grandson, who always likes to call out and say hi to us. I just felt like we should ask if his parents were home, and they were, so we went, and through some miracle they agreed to sit and chat with us. Me and Hermana Diez always tried to talk to them, and they always had their kids tell us that they weren`t home. Miracle I tell you!  We`ve met with them twice, and we`re not really sure why, but they are just not ready to come to church (well, at least that`s what they feel. We know they`re ready). But we stopped by after church and met with them again, and part of their family came to the Christmas devotional last night! Also, we invite everyone to church and we invited tons of taxi drivers etc. to the Christmas devotional, and one of these contacts actually came! We don`t know how he felt about it yet, because we had to skeedaddle because the devotional ended an hour after we usually are supposed to be at home. But we`re going to try and meet with him too and see how he liked it and hopefully teach him more.

I don`t have too much to say right now, but I have pictures that I wanted to send last week and one or two for this week, so yeah, I`ll send those. I love you all!

Wait hold up I got the most bomb package from the Notoez! I was so excited! If there`s food in the packages, we can open it during the district meeting, so my ZL opened it up and took out the candy for me, and I shared with everyone and it was great. Also, I loved the knee-highs. It`s nice to have knee highs that are actually knee high haha. So please tell them thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU! Muchìsimas gracias. I will try to send them a letter, but I don`know when I`ll be able to, because as of right now I do now know where the correo de ecuador is.....

Yeah I love you all, thanks for the prayers and the emails!
Hermana Rust

Apparently I picked the one computer in this cyber that doesn`t have a USB port...
Guess you`ll get three weeks worth of pictures next week...

Ergh. ´

Yeah.¨