New Area

05/27/2013

Well heyyyy..

Thanks for all your emails!  I love hearing about everything back in America.  Like Memorial Day.  I forgot that existed.

I love my new area!  The people are a lot poorer but they´re so great.  And the members are sooo nice and excited to help out with the work.  Oh man, there´s one member and he is like the Ecuadorean version of Richard Simmons.  He cracks me up.  But oh man, Hermana Ayer is my favorite ever.  We are seriously the same person.  She´s 22 and from New Hampshire but she went to BYU before her mission as well.  So yeah, we have some good laughs together every night in the apartment.  And in the mornings, we work out togehter and our latina companinos think we´re crazy buff.  Bahahahaha but we´re not at all.

I had my first baptism this week!!  It was a little 8 year old girl named Norquis.  She is the sweetest ever.  So that was happy.  I tried to upload pictures but my card reader doesn´t work...  soooo looks like you´re never going to get pictures of my mission till I get home.  Sorry.  Anyway.  We are also teaching this 18 year old named Vicente.  He is huuuuuge.  Like muscley huge.  And he´s super tall and super black and super quiet.  But he´s awesome.  He´s going to be baptized on the 15th.

Okay, here´s the weekly update on all that I´ve eaten this week.  At Norquis´s house, we ate guava.  It was strange, to say the least.  It was like eating soggy cotton.  And at another member´s house, we ate a fruit called achotillo.  Something like that.  It was the weiredst looking thing ever but it was actually really good!  And at lunch one day I ate a fish with the skin and bones.  So that was fun.  And then the worst ever..... OHHHh i thought it was going to die.  One member gave us this huuuge mug of this awful tea.  I swear, it was like drinking a candle.  Plus it was steamy, and I was sweating like none other and I just wanted to hurl.  But I didn´t so no worries.

Oh they have the coolest things here called tricimotos!!  Look them up.  They´re the greatest.  The one we rode in yesterday was like a carriage from the 1800s but without the horse and a lot dirtier.

Oh my lanta.  So last night, we got a call and found out Hermana Martinez is leaving........  GGAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!  I´ve only been in this area a week and everything looks the same soooooo my new companion is going to be hating me because we´ll just be lost all the time.  So yeah, I´ll get a new companion later today.  I´ll have to tell you about her next week.

Don´t worry, I always wear my flip flops and drink filtered water.  And I´m taking my vitamins and probiotics.

That´s cool Cameron is going to San Francisco!  I loooove that place!!  Tell him to tell me all about it.  oh and have fun at the art museum!  that will be cool.  and it sounds like the basement is coming along just great.  Send me pictures!  K i´m so glad you guys did the missionary night for the youth!  I loved when we did that!!  was it a good experience for everyone?  I hope so.

Mmkay well I think that´s about it.  Everything is slowwwwwly getting better.  My spanish is still suuper rough but I¨m learning.  It´s hard to not get frustrated with myself but it´s all good.  We´re improving.  Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support and prayers!!

I´m so grateful I have this wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord and bring the people here unto Christ!  It´s super hard but definitely worth it.

I love you all!

Hermana Bytheway

Doing lots better...

05/20/2013


Thanks for the email this week!  It´s good to hear about everyone and everything!  and thank you to everyone who wrote me!!  it was definitely what i needed.  but this past week has been a lot better so no worries!!

our mission president has finally changed the rule so now we can email friends but we only have 45 minutes total which is like nothing.  so yeah.

this week has been crazy!  on wednesday night, our zone leaders called us and said that hermana marinez was going to leave to a different area.  oh man i was freaking out.  i have completely relied on her for everything so thursday was basically a nightmare.  hahaha i got my new companion, another hermana marinez but from peru.  she´s great.  she only has been a member for 2 years but knows so much about the gospel!  but thursay, the district leaders were with us to help us in our lessons and such.... oh man.  there i was, leading around 3 missionaries, not having a clue where we were.  so it was fun.  but for the next few days, we just focused on trying to get to know the members better so it was good.  then last night, they call us and tell us i´m leaving.  haha so now i´m in Esteros with my original hermana marinez.  and i guess this area is a lot easier.  the members are more willing to come with us and the people are more humble and willing to change.  and!!  we live with two other hermanas now, one of them being hermana ayer!!!!!  soooo happy!!!!!!  i seriously love her.  so it´s great!  today we cleaned the apartment for like an hour and a half because it was disguuuusting.  it´s still not the cleanest ever but we´re in ecuador.  so it´s as good as it´s gonna get.  but yeah.  so i´m excited!  and my spanish is getting a lot better.  i´m trying to do what cameron said and just fake it and not try to understand every word that everyone says.  so it´s getting better.  and the Lord is definitely blessing me.  so thank you to everyone for all of your prayers!!  i definitely can feel all the love and support from everyone!

oh guess how stupid.  so we met in a mall type thing today for transfers and we were waiting for like 2 and a half hours because oops, the assistents forgot to tell the other hermanas they were changing.  but anyway.  so i had to go to the bathroom so i go in there and my compnaion was like, oh do you have money?  the toilet paper cost 5 cents!!  for hardly anything!  stupid.

so yeah.  things are good here.  sounds like everything is good back in america.  have brenden and rachel decided on a name??  i still havent gotten an email from brenden.  but i got cameron and dallins!  thanks so much!  i´ll write you back sooner or later.  love you both!

sounds like your class is going well.  and your old woman shower party.  hahahaha whatever that is.  ummmm you should wait to go to europe until i get back so you can take me with you!!!! mmkay???  mmkay thanks.  i´m excited!  it will be great!  i´ll be your translator.

well my teaching pool is going to be completely different now so i´ll have to tell you about all of my investigators next week.  i guess we´ll have some baptisms this week? so that will be fun.  it will be my first.  but our mission is the highest in the world with baptisms.  like over 300 a month or something.  so that´s pretty cool.  i haven´t contributed to that number but i will ya mismo.

alright well i think that´s all.  a million thanks for everyones words of encouragement!!!!  it´s helped immensely!!!  i´m definitely enjoying myself more so things are great.  i know i´m here doing the Lord´s work and i´m so grateful for this amazing opportunity!!

I love you all!!
Hermana Bytheway

Re: Loved talking to you!!!

05/13/2013

OHHHHHH my lanta.  Talking to you all yesterday was the best everrrr!!!! It didn´t make me homesick at all, it made me want to work harder, so that was good.  Everything everyone said was exactly what I needed to hear so thank you and i love you all!

i thought i already told you about my companion.  she is 23 and from colombia.  shes great.  sometimes she drives me nuts but i´,m sure i drive her nuts even more.  no, she realy is great.  it just bothers me a wee bit when she picks her nose and her zits in the middle of the street.  and sings.  im scared shes going to make me tone deaf.  and during comp prayers when she kneels on my bed and sneezes on it.  and when she brushes her hair on my bed.  but thats it!  other than that, i love her to death.  i cant imagine training someone who doesnt know the language or the culture, so bless that heart of hers.

josh groban will be so fun!!  thats way exciting!  and tell brenden thats awesome about his concert.  i still havent gotten an email from him though so maybe he needs to send it from a different account? i dunno.

yeah thats crazy dallin is 15.  i think his voice is lower than when i left.  when is he going to get his permit?  tell him sorry i cant help him with his math.  but if he takes calc his junior year i´ll be back by then!  good job on your paper mommy!  of course you got an a.

oh thats way exciting about all of the mission calls and farewells!  haley will be way awesome!  and if nicole goes, she would be incredible!  she sent me an email but i havent read it yet.  ill have to write her back.  hahahahah i dont know if her and cameron would be a good match or not.  i dont think so.  but maybe!

tell everyone hi back!  im so so grateful for everyones love and support and prayers for me!  and thanks to everyone who wrote me!!

oh my lanta.  it was the grossest thing ever.  oh no.  two gross things.  well there are millions of gross things here but ill just tell you about two.  one.  we were eating at a memebers house and one thing they served us was like these potatoe slices with thte grossest sauce ever.  it was a pale greenish color but it tasted like sand.  and it was cold.  so as i was gagging that down, i discovered a black curly hair in it.  lovely.  but.  heres the thing.  the lady who made it had red hair..... soooooooooo yeah i wanted to hurl.  two.  we were at another members house helping her make lunch and my companion was mixing the meat and the spices with her hands and then she licked her fingers to test it!!  raw meat!!  and then she gave it to the hermana and she did the same thing!!  uhhh helloooo thats raw meat , people.  anyway.  its great here.

oh but today was sooo so great.  my companion had antoher training thing so ive been with hermana ayer all day.  we are seriously the same person.  its so nice to talk to english and be myslef and talk to someone who understnads how crazy these people are.  so today has been happy.

okay well im out of time to ill talk to you next week.  thank you everyone for your prayers!!  LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

hermana bytheway

Better Week??

05/06/2013

Well hey.

Here I am.  In Ecuador.  ya know.  just doin the mish thing.  honestly it´s the hardest thing ever and i´m still struggling.  i just feel like i don´t know anything and i can´t speak or understand spanish and so i´ts just hard.  but it´s good.  i´m learning and trying to stay positive so you don´t need to worry about me.  i know i need to be here doing the lord´s work so it´s all good.

the members are really nice.  we eat at different houses everyday so i´ve gotten to know a lot of them.  we usually eat soup (which, hello!!! it´s a million degrees outside!!!  why are we eating soup?? but it´s pretty good) and rice and some sort of meat, like chicken or some mystery meat.  but we can´t eat anything from a pìg.  so yeah.  i´m pretty sure everything we eat is safe, so no worries.

the mosquitoes here are terrrrible!!!  they don´t care about how much repellent i put on.  my legs are covered with bites and they itch like crazyyy.  i´m trying not to itch them so i dont get scars but it´s nearly impossible.  and the cream lasts for like 2 minutes becuase i just sweat it off.  speaking of which.  it´s daaang hot.  all the time.  oh but if the sun isn´t blazing, the people here are like ohhhh it´s cold!!  as i´m standing there sweating bullets.  it´s hilarious.

yeah i usually just ignore the creepers.  but one of them is an investigator so it´s a wee bit tricky.  he´s this 76 year old man and he is a crazy.  he´´ll always call me ´my love´in english and every day he uses a new english phrase that he learned.... hés trying to learn english so he can talk to me.  oh and every time i read a scripture and ask him a question about it, he´s like like ohh i don´t know, i was just listening to your voice.  anyway.  bless his heart.

oh i ate the grooossest thing the other day!!  it was some sort of pudding thing with maduras, which are ripe plantiains, and big fat raisins.  houuuullllgggghhh i wanted to hurl.  i would just take a bite and then swallow it without chewing it with a big gulp of sprite.  so gross.  but the other day i ate a churro and mmmmm it was yummy.  it was full of who knows what but it was good.  oh but i lost the weight i gained in the mtc! so that´s happy.

i don´´t know about sunday.  hma martinez said that for christmas, she called her family beforehand and gave them the number and then they called her on the phone in the apartment but she doesn´t know if it will be the same or not.  no one else seems to be worried about it here so i don´t really know.  but we have stake conference from 10 to 12 so i know it won´t be then!  other than that i have no idea.  i wish i did though!!!!  my mission president is super super super by the book, so we have 40 minutes to talk.

thank you to rachel and madsen for your emails!  hahahah the picture of rachel and brenden is hilarious.  i better get pictures of the baby in 6 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!  and thank you to heather for the dearelder!!  i´m so grateful for everyonés love and support!!!

i love you all!!!
hermana bytheway