#26

It has been a splendid week!

I want to tell you about two miracles this week, their names are Angelica and Angel.

Angelica is a 17 year old. She started attending church in Quevedo and decided that she wanted to learn more. Her cousins gave her a Book of Mormon and she started attending church in Quevedo. She attended with her boyfriend a few times, because he`s a member, but he`s less active. But even when he didn`t go, she went. Well, she decided she wanted to be baptized so she told her boyfriend and her boyfriend told the missionaries, my zone leaders. They called us, told us to find her house (because she lives in Valencia and pertains to our ward) and schedule an interview to get her baptized! I already told you about the whole wrong Rosa ordeal (Angelica`s real name is Rosa...) but we found her and got her interviewed. She had another interview and then this Friday morning, she had an interview with the mission president. She came out of the interview SO HAPPY and told us that Presidente Amaya told her she could be baptized that very day if she wanted (and she wanted). So we scrambled and planned a baptismal service for that very day. I don`t have pictures, but I think the obispo put the pictures on facebook. She`s a doll, and on Saturday she attended Stake conference with us in Quevedo. The stake conferences are a little different here I think, and the stake president was calling on people to read scriptures and what not and asking for volunteers, and I think Angelica read three times. She raised her hand to read scriptures the second he asked for volunteers and we had to scramble to find the verses that he had indicated, because she volunteered before we had time to find them. It was so precious, she`s so excited and she always has lots of questions. SHe wants to know it all.

Angel is our other miracle. Angel is a widower with three young children. We found him contacting, and within the first 30 seconds of meeting him, he accepted the baptismal invitation. This actually isn`t a miracle, lots of people say that they are going to be baptized, but 2% actually get baptized. But we went back, taught him the Restoration, and invited him to church. He told us that he can`t work a lot because he can`t leave his kids at home alone, and his mother was in Guayaquil. The poor man hadn`t worked all week, and was really worried. Sunday morning, his boss called and told him that there was work for him that day. But he told us that he figured it was more important to attend church than work. I teared up, and we promised him that the Lord will absolutely bless him for the sacrifice he made.

It wasn`t normal church either, we had a stake conference via satellite. Elder Scott, Hermana Wixom, and Elder Holland spoke to all the stakes of Ecuador, and believe me when I say that I have never enjoyed a session of conference so much, stake or general, in all my life. The spirit was so strong!

Elder Holland had a translator voiceover for his talk, but he bore his testimony in strongly accented spanish, and I cried and cried and cried. His extremely simple testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ and the Savior of the world, and that the gospel is his most precious possession conveyed the spirit so strongly, and even though it was a bit difficult to understand, I felt so strongly that he was definitely an apostle of the Lord. Elder Scott speaks spanish, and he spoke so beautifully about the Atonement and the Resurrection (I had forgotten it was Easter). It was exactly what Angel needed to hear, and he really really enjoyed church. We also invited his cousin to church, and his cousin attended. That night, we went to teach them both. The cousin, Jose, told us he had a question. He told us that when he walked into the church, he felt something in his chest, and that he felt happy, and he had no idea why, and asked if we could please explain. Our smiles were so big and we explained that that feeling he had was the Holy Ghost telling him that the church is true and that it was where he needed to be. This was all before we had taught him anything, we had just seen him outside the house sunday morning when we went to make sure that Angel and his family were going to attend and Hermana Flores told him to come to church. He told us that he had been invited to many churches, and he had no idea why he accepted our invitation when he had always made excuses beforehand. We then invited him to be baptized, and he said yes. The Spirit in this lesson was so strong I tell you! The members that were with us afterwards were just like.... wow.... okay... wow... did that really just happen?

So yeah. I`m happy. It was a good week. I`ve been a little sick, but that just means that people give me more juice and that makes me happy. Also, the members have started giving us jewelery which is also fun. Today we`re going to the 7 cascadas, seven waterfalls. Apparently it`s super gorgeous, so look forward to pictures next week! 

I love you all, share the gospel please, it`s the best.
Love you, thanks for all the prayers. 

#25

I hardly know where to start. This week has been so strange, but so fun! I`m trying to remember all that happened to us this week.

I can finally say I`m a true missionary because 1) All my shoes have holes in them. It`s been really rainy and all the walking mixed with constant wetness has destroyed my shoes  2) I got bit by a dog. So I`m a full-fledged missionary now. The dog was a little one and it only bruised me a bit, didn`t break the skin. But it counts. Speaking of bites, the bugs here are vicious. They don`t just bite and then you itch, they bite enough to draw blood. Me and Hermana Flores were waiting for the rancherito to pass by to return to Valencia and I looked down at my hand and I was bleeding through two little bites on my hand, and then I looked at my legs and I had blood coming from a dozen or so bites! It was rather horrifying. And the bugs are tiny little things that you can barely see, but they are vicious. We were up all night scratching and trying not to scratch and right now I`m about ready to saw my legs off. 

What else happened this week... We got a call from our zone leaders telling us that they had talked to the boyfriend of an old investigator in our ward and that this investigator wanted to repent of her sins and be baptized and they asked us to please find her and schedule an interview with the leader for baptism. The elder told us her name was Rosa and that she was 18 and that she was the Rosa we met with Hermana Jeronimo. So we went ot visit the 18 year old Rosa that we met with Hermana Jeronimo to schedule the entrevista, and she wasn`t friendly and we had to fight with her and persuade her for hours to come to the interview. Seriously, we worked with her hours and we couldn`t figure out why in the world the elderes wanted to talk to someone who obviously wasn`t interested. After a few hours of teaching, she finally conceded to come and talk to the elder. We walk in, and the Elder welcomes her and leads her to the interview, and then turns to us and says (basically) who the heck is that?

So we wasted a huge chunk of a day with her and I can`t really tell the story too well because the humor was in his tone of voice and the look on his face, but it was funny. We did meet the correct Rosa eventually though. We have assigned the guilt to the Elder and have chosen to blame him for the waste of time.

I finished the Book of Mormon is Spanish this week!

I don`t know if they already put the picture on facebook but I broke a chair at the bishops house yesterday at lunch...... I really love their family!
As I`m writing this right now there are three kids behind me marveling at the fact that I know how to write English haha, even though reading back it seems like I´m losing my ability to form coherent sentences in English.

 We found a family! They attended church yesterday and when the Relief Society teacher put flowers on the table he asked who died. He thought we were in a funeral haha. They´re precious and have lots of questions but I like talking to them because they are one of the few families we have met that are 1) legally married and 2) happily married. There`s lots of unhappiness in the families and lots of them don`t want to work on bettering their relationships,  and so I really like being in a happy home. You can feel the difference immediately.

I don`t know lots of funny things happened this week but it`s just not the same to tell the stories in writing in English. 

I have tons of fun with my companion and we work hard! I love having a compañera that knows how to work hard but also knows that we are most definitely allowed to laugh and have fun. The woman talks a million miles an hour and to be honest I don`t understand half of what she says when we`re just talking normally just because she says it so fast, but I love her and we are going to work miracles here in Valencia!

We really love patacones, fried plaintain disc type thingies, but neither of us has learned how to make them, but we tried anyway. So this is a photo of Hermana Flores practicing her patacones making while practicing her smile. SHe doesn`t like smiling in fotos but I forced her to try. This is the result of her efforts.

We received permission this week to visit Buena Fe today, where Hermana Flores was before. The bishop there makes the best sorbets and hamburgers and invited us to eat with them, and I`m always down for free food so that`s where we´re heading after writing this. 

These are our attempt at patacones. If we can get our hands on some good green plaintains at home these will be my entry in the next Rusty Whisk competition. I kid you not, patacones with a fried egg or a bit of queso fresco are addictive and probably the best things ever. Or avocado... It`s like a mix between McDonald's hash browns and french fries and banana chips....We´re a few hours from breaking our fast and I`m really hungry... 

*The following are excerpts of  Natalie's letter that the average reader may not understand as they mostly pertain to her family.  But in true Natalie-fashion, they are insightful, honest and humerous so I included them in this post for your enjoyment. - Lorri (her mommy and blog administrator.) 

Walter is the bishop. Oh I love them! At lunch yesterday they showed me the pictures of Noelle´s belly, they think she is just the cutest thing ever and they can`t believe how tall Eric is
.
Tell Lindsay I am so proud of her and that the temple is the best and that she is going to be the cutest stinkin missionary ever! I was thinking about how different our missions are going to be. I suspect that her primary focus will be helping people understand who Jesus Christ is. I can`t imagine what that`s like. Here, everyone is already catholic or evangelist or testigo de jehovah. I can`t remember how to say testigo in English but you know what I mean. Our focus here is trying to get people to leave the wicked and blind traditions of their fathers and live the law of chastity!   Her mission will be fascinating.

I did not take a single foto with me this week because something decided to wage war on my face and I kid you not, the results are horrifying. The bishops wife yesterday asked me what happened, because my face before was perfect (those were her words and I`ve chosen to accept them as fact) and now... it`s not. So yeah. No fotos until world war III ends.

Okay my time is up, I was going to write more but I`ve forgotten, but I love you all! Thanks for writing me Ma and Pa, it´s always a little weird but nice to see that life continues on whether or not I`m there. Seriously. Seeing Molly all big weirded me out big time because I feel like you are all in pause. Weird. 
Anyway yeah I love you, bye!

#24

Okay I have to start things out by saying that I absolutely adore my new compañera. Her name is Hermana Flores, she`s from Mexico, and she`s a powerhouse of a missionary and we have tons of fun together. She talks so stinking fast! But I love her, we hit it off right away. We`re finding tons of people to teach and together we`re just having a ball while getting stuff done!  I`ll include a picture of her. She doesn`t like to smile in pictures but I`m working on that.

We started off this week well by celebrating as a zone meeting our goal. We celebrated by all going and eating lunch together on the mission president`s dime. It was fun. I didn`t contribute to the goal at all but it was nice to enjoy the fruits of other`s labors haha. Then the next day we had interviews with the President. This was my first interview with him since my first day in the mission field, and that day I didn`t understand a thing he said so I was only in there for about 30 seconds, so for this interview this week I was scared to death! I`m not really sure why I was so nervous (it could be that I am very honest with the president in my weekly emails to him.)  But yeah it went swell! We read scriptures together and he gave me come counsels and I`m kinda excited for my next interview, whenever that will be.

We have an investigator with a swastika tattoo in between her eyebrows.... She came to conference and really liked it! Also, we are teaching a brother and sister who are about the sweetest people ever and very humble and teachable and sensitive to the spirit. 

What else can I tell you? Obviously I loved conference. It`s not exactly the same because the translators´ voices don`t shake when the people are about to cry and the translators during the prayers take some creative liberty, but I loved it. I loved the first three hymns Saturday morning, those are my  three favorite hymns and I like to think that was a personal shoutout from Heavenly Father to me. I loved it though, lots of good stuff. I can`t take notes in Spanish very fast and I can`t switch my brain from English to Spanish fast so my notes don`t make much sense at times so I`m really excited to get the Liahona with all the conference addresses next month. 

We were eating lunch in the mall when two young men presented us with paper flowers and said in english "for two women beautifuls"

We responded in a professional manner, but kept the flowers because it was pretty funny. Hermana Scott

Our zone!

#23

Well, here they think I sing like an angel. The four missionaries in our ward sang in the birthday party for relief society, and after that they think I sing swell. Then I sang - all alone - in a baptism Saturday. Just me. In Spanish. In front of A LOT of people. I sang Divina Luz, Lead Kindly Light. They also wanted me to sing in the ward conference but 1) No and 2) I don´t think that´s encouraged and 3) No.

HOW WONDERFUL WAS THE WOMEN´S CONFERENCE?!
When Hermana Wixom had the little girls stand and sing, they did it here in the chapel and you best believe I cried. Unashamedly. 

And then the video with all the people singing I Am A Child of God in all the languages I really really really cried. That conference was so amazing, I listened in Spanish of course, and I can´t take notes quite as fast in Spanish as in English and I can´t just switch my brain from Spanish to English in a jiffy, so I think I¨m going to print off the talks and read them again. By the way, we are very blessed to be able to listen to the people in their own words, because it´s just not quite the same to listen to President Eyring without his husky, low, about-to-cry voice. It was so great though, and we´ve been working with a member that is less active because she has severe resentments towards some members, but she came to the conference and she felt the spirit and it was fantastic. Although we haven´t had baptisms in many moons, I almost like rescuing less active members more, because they have to learn the gospel otra vez and it´s really rewarding when they have  resolved to continue in the gospel. 

What else...

This is from yesterday. Hermana Guitarra, Lina (consejera), Liliana (presidenta de mujeres jovenes) and Rosa (Relief Society presidenta).   

You all know that I´m not one for peace signs and duck faces but this was hilarious. With the exception of Lina, these are full grown women with children and all. Love it.

Me and Hermana Fajardo. She´s a dear.

My two biggest fans. I´m not great at their names....

But they love me and they help me with my Spanish and talk to me about Justin Bieber (not that I want to talk about him, but they do anyways)

Thanks for all the prayers this week (I´ve needed them!)

#22

Hello family!

First of all, I am absolutely in the most beautiful place in the world. This week, we ventured to a place called la Cayambe, which is a tiny little town in the middle of the banana and rice and fruit fields. We have to travel twenty minutes to a town called La Esperanza and from there we climb onto a big truck. It`s kinda like a semi, but instead of having a big thing on the back, it has a bunch of wooden benches. So it`s an open drive and we go for an hour through the rice and fruit fields with the rivers winding through the fields and trees and I just sat there and said WOW for an hour. I wish I could take my camera and show you just how gorgeous it is, but it`s dangerous there are night and we never know when the trucks are going to pass by, so I don`t take my camera because I don`t want to get robbed. But wow. It`s gorgeous. 

This week, everyone decided that I`m the coolest person ever (I don`t know why it took them so long to figure it out, but better late then never I suppose)

Seriously. The girls from the ages of 6 to 18 especially love me. They just think I`m the bees knees. I don`t know why exactly, or why they decided this week, but so it is. 

I gave a talk yesterday. They assigned me to speak for ten minutes and who would have ever thought that I would go over my time?! I spoke for more than ten minutes straight in spanish. Please marvel over this with me.

Transfers came and went, and me and Hermana Guitarra remain. We are in the land of desolation. It`s been tough because the other pair of hermanas in our ward will have had 9 baptisms just this month, and we`re at zero... Awkward. Yesterday the bishop was just like.... "so... uh.... what do you guys do all day? Why don`t you have baptisms?" We don`t really know what else to do though, so we just continue onward and praying for a miracle!

The bishop and his family are still my favorites. We continued making plans for when I return to Ecuador to visit them with my rich pilot husband. Also, they think I know how to make pizza just because I`m American. I convinced them that it would be better if we made pancakes (I have mastered pancakes. Need to work on pizza still).

Attatched is a photo of Hermana Guitarra, Lina Velasco who looks gringa but is colombian, and me. Lina is the wife of the first counselor. She`s 24 and kinda my best friend here. She reminds me A LOT of Brittney. A LOT. And her husband reminds me a bit of Daniel which is just a little weird. 

The Hermanas in my zone!
Hermana Jerónimo from Guatemala, Hermana Blacutt from Bolivia, Hermana Scott from Provo (She lived in Spain and already speaks Spanish perfectly. Jealous.) Hermana Fajardo from Honduras, me, and Hermana Guitarra.

Elder Ugarte, my district leader from Peru (he loves practicing his English) Elder Torres from Peru (he calls me Hermana Burbuja because I really like saying burbuja which means bubble) and the Hermanas in my district.  

Three of my biggest fans. They really love me. They sing Justin Bieber and the new Miley Cyrus song to me. 

This picture is for the sisters. The little girls in the ward keep giving me "mini bum" candy. If you don`t think that`s funny, you`re wrong. 

#21

I`m afraid that this week was one of the most difficult of my mission. Our numbers are incredibly low, and it`s a little discouraging because the rest of our zone is having tons of success. I`m not even kidding, as a zone we`re probably going to exceed our goal, even though me and my comp haven`t had a single baptism. I`m happy for everyone else, but I would like to join in on all the fun!

We are at a very difficult place right now, because we`re not receiving references and the people that we do meet aren`t interested or say that they`re interested and then hide from us. We spent lots and lots of time walking this week! 

One day we were in a town called La Esperanza. It`s part of my sector but the missionaries haven`t worked in there for a while, and it`s called Hope, so we figured we better check things out. Anywho one day while we were there we heard someone saying "Mormonas." We turned around to see a woman.  She told us that she was super catholic but that she liked talking to us and that she was really fond of my eyes, but that she wasn`t interested in what we had to say. She was really nice about it though, and she told us that her son needed to be saved, because he professes to be atheist.

Turns out, he`s not atheist, he just doesn`t attend the catholic church. But he`s really fun and we like teaching him because he has LOTS of questions and he actually pays attention and understands things, but he can`t come to church on Sundays which is really a bummer. At the end of a lesson he pulled out his phone and said "Selfie!" and took a selfie with us and I don`t know, something about hearing the word selfie being spoken by a guy named Luigi was really funny and brightened my day.

 

We also have another couple that needs to get married. We taught them about the Restoration a bit and gave them a Book of Mormon and then kinda forgot about them for a while because they went on vacation. Anywhoooo, we decided to visit them one day and they told us that they had been reading the Book of Mormon every day and saying their prayers morning and night. Whaaaa! That doesn`t usually happen with the people that we see every day let alone people that we haven`t visited in four weeks. So that was fun. The problem is getting them to understand that if the Book of Mormon is true, then la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días is the true church, because here the people have the idea that if it talks about God, it´s true, but it can`t all be true! We would like to explain this more to them, but the husband likes to talk more than anyone I have ever seen. In a forty-five minute visit, I think we said 15 sentences. I`m not kidding. So it`s a slow process with them, but they`ve already attended church and we hope that with time they will understand and get married!

Now I will answer the questions from Pa and conclude with a photo of me and Hermana Guitarra.

What is the difference between Milagro and Valencia?

Valencia, where I am now, is much much much smaller. Milagro is huge and is a busy bustling city. Valencia is quiet (for Ecuador at least) and there aren`t people in the streets! We didn`t knock on doors much in Milagro, because everyone was always outside visiting and talking and partying, and it`s much easier to speak with people already out and about because there`s less pressure to always have something to say, it can be more like a normal conversation. Here, the streets are empty and the people hidden. Also, here, everyone works in bananeras. Banana fields and factories what not. I have started a collection of banana stickers, this collection is currently my most prized possession haha. The whole bananera thing makes things difficult because it means that the only times that people are home with their families are from 6:30 and on, but we can`t visit everyone in these two hours between six thirty and eight thirty. It makes for very long, hot afternoons! I am super tan by the way. You will note in the photo. Here, there is also way more problems with the law of chastity. Nobody is married and there isn`t much respect for women here. There`s LOTS of infidelity and lots of teenage pregnancies, as well as relationships that you can see right away aren`t good.  My heart breaks multiple times a day. Yesterday we met a girl who was 17 years old and pregnant with her 3nd child. Her "spouse" is almost 50 and already has children older than her. 

The food doesn`t agree with me here haha. They like to mix lots of things together and make intricate salads and soups, but with less flavor. This is not just me complaining; this is something that they all admit, that the food in other places is better.

 

The ward covers Valencia and a few other towns outside of Valencia. It`s a huge area compared to my area in Milagro. We travel fifteen minutes or so to la Esperanza and our sector goes even farther than that. The stake is pretty big too, the stake center is in the city of Quevedo, about an hour away. We travel there every Tuesday for district meetings. Quevedo is more like Milagro.

We also go to Quevedo every P-Day to grocery shop and what not. There are four zones in Quevedo so the mall there (which includes the grocery store... Funny, huh?) is absolutely swarming with missionaries every Monday. It`s really fun to go and eat lunch in the food court and see all the missionaries and all the people being really confused haha.

My time is far spent, but keep the prayers a-coming, I`m fasting and praying tomorrow for a miracle here in Valencia so we can have investigators and so I´ll have lots of nice things to say in the next email.

Thanks for writing, write me on Sundays so you don`t forget!
Love you all, tell Brando happy birthday and that if he desires, there`s a young single mom with the cutest child ever that is quite taken with him (the mom, not the child) that is willing to move to the US haha.

 

Yeah, that`s all. I love you all!

#20

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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