Monday, July 29, 2013

Tomorrow's Daddy's Birthday...

Happy Birthday Daddy!!  Woww you are oooolllddd.... hehe just kiddin.  You{re super young.  And hip.  It sounds like the teachers camp was crazy.  And dangerous!  Are your ribs okay?  I hope so.  But I hope you have a happy happy birthday!  Eat some good cake for me.  The cake here is just not the same.

Hahahaha you finally finished Cameron{s mission scrapbook?  After 4 years?  Better late than never.  I}ll be expecting mine in about 8 years then.

Yeah it actually gets really really cold.  I{m not sure if it really is that cold or if Guayaquil just made me a baby against the cold.  Oh but it{s the worst in the morning.  Showering is freeeezzzingggg!!!  I hate showering!  But don{t worry, I shower every morning.  I still only wash my hair every three days though.  But yeah at night it gets pretty cold walking around and I think it{s making me sick.  But during the day the weather changes about every 3 minutes.  It rains, and then it{s cold and then the sun is super super strong.  But it{s a lot better than Guayaquil!  And maybe it}s because I wear tights everyday but I don{t get mosquito bites here.  My legs are scarred from Guayaquil though.  They are merciless on the coast.

I{m so excited to get my boxes!  Thanks so much for sending them!  I thought of another thing you could send... Pictures of the Draper Temple!  I miss that place so so much and the only picture I have of it is fading because it{s in my planner.  So maybe just send a couple of little ones?  Like the little card with the schedule in it?  That would make me happy :)  also printed pictures of my baptism.  And of my converts baptisms.  Thanks so much!!

The four hermanas came, two of them are new from the states.  I think there{s 22 total in cuenca now.  But it{s just us 4 in the house still.  President is focusing a lot on cuenca and loja right now.  He told us that before he came here, he had a dream that he was going somewhere with white walls and red roofs.  And if you look up pictures of cuenca, that{s exactly what it looks like.  He also said that he saw each and every one of us and felt like we are all his children.  Our president is way awesome and so so loving!  I{m super grateful he is our president.  We{re just waiting for the rules to change.... hahahah

We eat with a member everyday for lunch and dinner doesnt really exist.  Some of our investigators always give us bread and aromatic tea or we}ll buy some bread in the evening to eat.  And then when we get back to the apartment at night, we{ll eat a lil suh um suh um.  But yeah, we hardly ever cook.  I cook eggs every morning, but that{s about it.

Sadly Elizabeth and Alex didn{t get baptized this week.  The day of their interview, they disappeared and we couldnt get a hold of them.  They just left out of town randomly and they{re still not back.  it was super disappointing because they were so excited and then they just left.  But we{re going to find them this week and see what happened and how we can help them.  Gabriela{s papers should be done next week and she should be baptized on the third!  I love her so so much and she is so ready to be baptized!  She has such a strong testimony and is always so eager to learn.  She{s going to be a leader in the church, for sure.  Here in Cuenca, more people are married because they have more money.  In Guayaquil, almost no one was married because they just couldn{t afford it.

And that{s so happy Keltsey and Krystal are getting married!  I got a couple pictures of Morgan and jen{s wedding and they were absolutely GORGEOUS!!  Crazy, everyone will have husbands when I get back.

Haahahaha Mommy I can just picture you as a crazy grandma that just pours over little Brenden.  Send me a picture of you with him!

That{s so weird Dallin is learning how to drive!  I want to see a picture of him in his marching band uniform.

Mmkay well I{m out of time.  Thanks so much for all of your letters and love and support.

The church is true.

Hermana Bytheway

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Pictures from Cuenca

Gabriela, Hermana Pascual, Briggitte


Hermano Tipan, the ward mission leader

 Centro


Send Peanut Butter...

Hahahahaha here{s the answers to your survey....

I don{t really need anything for my birthday.  I don{t have a microwave nor an oven.  We have a little toaster conventional oven thing though.  I would cry to receive a jar of peanut butter actually.  I miss that stuff more than any other food.  But just make sure the box isn{t over 20 pounds or else I{ll have to pay 50 dollars to get it.  I dont really need clothes but if you want to send me some then sure.  It{s always happy to get new clothes :)  Yeah, you could send me a copy of the conference ensign.  That would be happy too.  YES send me pictures of the babyyyy!!!!!!!!  Or just send the baby.  Anything you want to send I{ll be happy to get.  Letters with words of motivation and love are always good to get.  Anything with peanut butter or chocolate.  PEANUT BUTTER BARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  that{s what I want.  I just decided.  With anything else peanut butter.

Put a picture of jesus on the box.  it gets here faster and safely.

I havne{t had a problem with bed bugs but I{m usting the flea collar.  And I wear tights here so I havent{ had as many mosquito bites.

My president is presidente torres but I dont know his wifes name.  we{ve just had that one trainign here in cuenca so i dont know when we{ll go back to guayaquil for interviews or anything.  but we{re waiting for the changes.  they{re bound to come soon but we{re just waiting waiting.  but today were cambios but all four of the sisters are staying so that{s happy.  but there will be four new hermanas here in cuenca so that{s crazy.

On saturday, Briggitte was baptized.  It was so happy!  There were like 40 or 50 members there to support her and it was so happy to see the change in her countenance.  Elizabeth and her son are super excited for their baptism this saturday.  And Gabriela is still waiting for the papers for her wedding.  I don{t really understand the whole process of getting married here but yeah we{re just waiting waiting.  But she is so ready!  Yesterday in gospel doctrine she was saying how excited she was to be baptized and how grateful she is for the gospel and how she has never felt like this before.  She is the cutest ever!!  Other than them, we don{t have many investigators.  We´{re still trying to figure out how to find people here.  But yeah.  the work is movin along.

mamita is like little mom.  basically in spanish you can put -ita on anything.

the accent in the sierra is different than the coast.  Here they say otchra instread of otra and it{s more choppy.  but i{m pretty much used to it and can understand for the most part.  so thats good.  the gift of tongues is real.

i{m glad the dogs still remember me.  and that you{re going to teach little brenden who I am.  he better love me when i get back or ill be so mad.  no i wont be mad.  yeah i will.  he is the cutest thing ever and i just want to cry every time i think about him.  but yeah if he hates me then their next baby will be a girl and she{ll love me.  i already decided.

this week has flown by but i just want to say that I LOVE THIS GOSPEL SO MUCH!!!  I know I sound like such a missionary but the Gospel is so beautiful and perfect and I just love it so much.  it{s so true it{s ridiculous.  Heavenly Father loves us so so much!!  Read the Book of Mormon!  It is the greatest.

I love you all!!

Hermana Bytheway

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Happy Belated 4th of July!

07/08/2013

OHHHHHH MY LANTAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That baby is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  I{m crying right now.  I just want to hold him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Please teach him who I am so he loves me when I get home??

Cuenca is gorgeous because there are mountains!!  I have missed the Utah mountains!  They{re not as pretty here but good enough.  Mabye you can look up pictures?  I{m in a sector called  Alamos if that helps.  But it{s huuuuge.  So we use buses a lot and occasionally taxis.  It{s crazy though because in the morning and at night it{s freezing and during the day it{s blazing hot and the sun burns your skin like none other and then it pours in the afternoon.  So it{s fun.  Better than Guayaquil, at least.

We met our new mission president!  Oh my goodness, I love him.  He was born in Idaho and has lived in the states his whole life but his parents are both Mexican so he speaks Spanish.  And his wife is from Cuba but was raised in the US too so they both speak perfect English and have American ideas of things.  Hahaha so we{re just waiting for the changes.  They are both the nicest and have so much love for the missionaries.  But it was hilarious.  Presidente is a doctor so at our training, he showed us how to correctly wash our hands.  Haha but yeah i[m excited to have him as our new president.

My companion is a little firecracker.  Haha she is hilarious and we have a lot of good laughs together.  Sometimes it{s hard because we have the same amount of time in the field but it{s good.

For our english class we use this program that the church made with these poster things.  so like the first one is introducing yourself and the second one is telling about your family and theres another one on how to pray.  it{s actually way fun and everyone here is really excited about it so it{s working really well to excite the members and get new investigators.

We found this lady, Elizabeth and she is the sweetest ever!  She{s from the coast so she{s a lot more friendly and open than a lot of the people here.  It{s so true how the climate matches the people.  But yeah her and her son came to our class and then to church and are super excited to be baptized.  I absolutely love her!  We are also teaching Gabriela who is 20 and is so so so excited to be baptized but she has to get married and her papers are taking forever and a half to fix.  so we{re hoping next week everything will be worked out and she can be baptized.  I{m really starting to really love the Ecuadoreans.  Hahah it{s probably because I{m starting to understand them more and more but I really do love them so much!  One of the mamitas that makes us lunch one day was so cute!  She was saying how she loves feeding the missionaries because angels walk with us so every Thursday when we come, her house is filled.  It just reminded me that our calling as missionaries is real, even though sometimes I dont feel like I{m a real missionary, we truly are set apart and have the authority.

Congrats to Parker!!!  That{s crazy he{s going to South Korea!!!  Tell him I{m super excited for him.

That{s way cool about Dallin in the marching band!  I wish I could have seen it.  And that{s crazy about the job offer to Cameron!  Did he take it?  What is it exactly?

I{m sure the dogs are not as bad as the dogs here.  ohhhh they are awful.  So gross and so loud and their poop is everywhereeee.  I miss my cute puppies.

Sounds like your classes are going well.  Learnin lots!!  Oooooh fun!

Mmkay well I{m out of time.  We still don{t know if the time for email is going to change.  Hopefully it does because 30 minutes is nothing.  But thank you to everyone who wrote me!  Someday I{ll have time to write everyone back...

I love you all so much and I am so so grateful for everyones prayers and support.  This truly is the work of the Lord and I{m so grateful for this amazing opportunity to serve Him.  This church is true, it{s ridiculous.  I absolutely love this gospel!

K yeah, peace.

Hermana Bytheway

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Auntie Katelyn!

07/01/2013

OHHHHHHHHH MY LANTAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The baby is SOOOOOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am dying.  DYING.  All of the pictures are so so sweet!!!  And he looks just like brenden!!!  Oh my goodness, so cute.  And they named him Brenden?  I hope he{s going to go by Ammon because that{s confusing. But oh my goodness, he is the cutest ever.  I{m excited to get printed pictures in the mail.

I don{t have very much time to write because I was having problems with the pictures but yeah, I{m in Cuenca!  It{s absolutely GORGEOUS!!!  It{s hot during the day and then cool at night so that{s nice.  We{re about 4 hours away from the mission home by bus.  The people here are different from Guayaquil and the sector is huuge and we don{t have much of a program so it{s been difficult trying to figure out how to work here.  The ward is a tad difficult but the ward mission leader is amazing so we{re going to work really hard with him to put into practice what they talked about in the training meeting last week.  He showed us President Monson{s talk and it was so so good!  I wish we could have watched the whole thing but oh well.  

I{m teaching English here which is so fun!  There{s another American hermana here so we{re teaching it together every Saturday.  So tha{s exciting.

Yeah I guess we have a new mission president today!  So that will be fun.  Haha everyone is excited to hear about all the new rules or lack thereof.

Mmkay well that{s all.  Love you all!!!  Give the baby lots of love from meeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Bytheway