June 16, 2014

June 16, 2014

the first pictures are of my zone.  hahaha they´re all goofballs.  but it´s great.  when i get home, remind me to show you how elder monje talks.  he´s hilarious.

then the next pictures are of us with hermano victor and angelita and her son christian.  victor is a chef and made us caldo de bolo.  not sure why we all had to do the same pose with the soup.... hahaha his shorts crack me up.  he always wears those.  when i was here last year, hermano victor introduced us to angela and christian and we brought them to church but then i was transferred so i didnt get to see their baptism.  but they are so happy in the church!!  they ALWAYS give us food.  yesterday after they gave us a big bowl of soup and rice and chicken, hermana angelita looks at me and she´s like ¨you´re looking chubby!!  i love when i see the missionaries looking chubby!!¨  so there ya go.

then we have hermano roosevelt´s baptism!!!  he was just a little blessing straight out of heaven.  his son, anthony was baptized a year ago but then went inactive.  we found them looking for inactives on the ward list and they´ve been coming to church the past few weeks.  roosevelt said he was baptized when he was 17 but his records didnt appear anywhere.  but a t the time he was living with his girlfriend so he couldnt get baptized anyway.  then a couple weeks ago he kicked her out of the house!!  yay!!  he wasnt too happy that he had to be baptized again because he said that God saw his baptism and thats all that matters but we explained that if he didnt, he wouldnt be able to go to the temple.  we taught him the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong!  then he was super excited for his baptism.  and then he got baptized.  yay!  he is hilarious.  they have a cat named Bamboocha and the two of them call it in the exact same way and it just cracks me up.  they are the cutest and i just hope he can find a cute wifey so they can be sealed in the temple!!  which reminds me... i have a question.  a single parent cant be sealed to their children, right?  how does that work?

My companion made rice and milk today.... She cant´be stopped.
 
I´ve been reading the general conference talks this past week and it just shows how this church is so true!!  the gospel is so perfect and I just love it so much!

The other day it hit me that I only have 9 weeks left and I had a little panic attack.  And every time I think about it I have another one.  AAAAHHHH!!!  I feel like I still need to learn soooooooo much still!!!  So just pray for me because finishing just scares me a lil.
But dont worry, I am just super happy to be a missionary!!  I have grown to love my Savior so much!!  I know that He lives and that He guides His church and His work of Salvation for all of us.

Thank you for everything!!  I love you all!!!

June 9, 2014

June 9, 2014

So we had our conference with all three missions in Guayaquil on Saturday.  I had to lead the music and I was flippin.  I was so nervous to lead music for an apostle!!  But when we got there, turned out Elder Oaks didnt make it.  Something happened with their flight in Florida.  So Elder Waddel from the seventy was there and spoke, along with all of the mission presidents and their wives.  (ours are the best of course)  and Elder Vallejo.  I think he´s a seventy too.  Anyway.  It was incredible.  Hermana Vallejo read Alma 26:27 and it made me cry because 2 nights before, I was super discouraged and I just wanted to give up and go home.  Hermana Waddel talked about how they welcomed home their first son from his mission and she was bawling so it made me think of mommy crying welcoming me home and it made me cry some more.  And Elder Waddel talked about how Elder Oaks had called him telling him he wouldnt be able to make it but to send us his love.  And as he was sitting there on the stand listening to the other speakers, a thought came into his head saying, do you think the Lord didnt know that Elder Oaks wouldnt be at this meeting?  Of course He did!  So why would He want the three missions in Guayaquil gathered without Elder Oaks?  He told us that the city of Guayaquil is the city that bapitzes the most in the whole world, but we need to become the city that baptizes the most, retains, and activates the most as well.  We shouldnt imagine our investigators in the water, but kneeling at the altar being sealed as a family.  Baptism doesnt do much good if they don´t complete the ordinances of the temple.  The priesthood is to create eternal families, not just to baptize.  He also talked about how the way we measure our success is by looking at the kind of person who gets off the plane at the end of our missions, not by looking at how many baptisms we have.  In the parable of the talents, it didnt matter how many talents they received, but what they did with it.  He told us how his son went 7 months without baptisms on his mission but during those 7 months, he learned about the atonement of Christ because he worked his hardest and did everything possible to improve and complete his purpose.  When he said that I was like ummm AMEN!!!!!!!  That has been the past 2 months of my mission!!!!  OH and he said (2 times) ¨something being difficult is an excuse that the Lord won´t accept.  He didnt accept it from His Only Begotten Son when He asked to remove the bitter cup and He won´t accept it from us.¨  We will always have trials that are hard but like it says in 1 cor 10:13 we wont be faced with something we cant handle.

Anyway there was a lot more but I don´t have time to write it all.  But it was incredible and exactly what I needed to keep on keepin on in this sector!

the first picture is of hno and hna bohorquez, the yepez family with their crazy children (the youngest one looks like a minion from dispicable me) and tania, one of our investigators.

the second one is me, hermana ynoñan (my daughter), hna arizala (hna ynoñan´s daughter: my granddaughter and step daughter), and other hermanas that arent part of my family.  hahaha

and the last one is the grace family.  ohhhh my heck they are the cutest.  they feed us lunch every monday in their restaurant and always give us food throughout the week.  the hermano has a million health problems but just keeps on going in the gospel.  they are the fmaily we visited with presidente torres.

June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014

Sorry I hardly ever take pictures.  It makes me nervous bringing my camera with me in Guayaquil.  So that´s why you only see pictures of me in our house...  But this is my new compy!!  Her name is Hermana Arizala, she´s from Esmeraldas, which is in northern Ecuador.  Her mission was in Mexico but she got sick and got sent home and then sent here.  I´m finishing training here so shés my hijastra but she´s hermana Ynoñán´s hija so she´s my nieta!  What are the odds.  She´s 24 and she loves to cook.... sooooooo looks like the hope of me losing weight went out of the window.  Today she made a dessert with peaches and crackers and sweetened condensed milk.  And tortillas de yuca which is my favorite ecuadorean food!!!

This past week we put tons of fechas but of course they didnt come to church.......  BAAAHHH!!!!  But we still love them and are going to do everything possible so they can be baptized.  

Yesterday we had a training with all of the bishops, ward mission leaders, and missionaries of the stake.  And President Torres was there.  It was awesome and will help this stake grow.  Then afterward President asked us if we needed a ride.  And then on the way he was like is that okay if i go with you to your lesson?  It was so scary but so awesome at the same time!  We visited Jorge Luis who has been struggling for the past 2 weeks and President was able to help him a lot.  We also visited the Grace family who are recently activated and helped them set a goal to go to the temple.  I know these people really well and the problems that they are going through, but President didnt know anything.  But it was incredible to see how he said things that was able to help them with those problems.  Obviously he had the spirit and was able to discern what they needed without knowing.  It was awesome.  President is the best.  

Elder Oaks and Elder Clayton are coming this weekend!  I think Friday we´re having consejo de lideres with him and then Saturday a conference with all the missionaries in Guayaquil.  It should be pretty awesome!   

We´re just so happy here!  Yay!!  Love you all!!  :)

Happy Memorial Day!

May 26, 2014

That sounds fun about the yard!!  I miss weeding.....  Ha.  But at least working in the yard you dont have to look presentable and you can get wet.  Oh my gosh yesterday I was getting claustrophobic I was so hot.  We were teaching in this house with zero air flow.  Seriously I was suffocating.

So rumor has it Elder Oaks is coming next week!  Sooo that should be pretty sweet if it really is for reals.

We are slowly finding people to teach!  Yesterday we brought the most to church that I have in this sector.  One is a TJ and left running at the end.  He is super hard hearted and knows the church is true but he´s too stubborn to be baptized.  We are also teaching this lady and her 3 grandsons.  They are the cutest but they have had problems with people who were members so she´s not too excited about getting baptized.  She also has a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  So hopefully we´ll be able to help her.  We are also helping this less active joven whose parents arent members.  Well his dad says he is but his records are nowhere to be found.  But they need to get married.  And this other couple too.  So hopefully we´ll be seeing some weddings going on here soon.  Because we still dont have anyone with a fecha which is suuuuuper frustrating.  Saturday night I was like what in the world am I supposed to be doing here. Obviously the Lord wanted to teach me faith, obedience, humility, and diligence.  In great depth.... because I feel like He´s been trying me for sooooo long.  But I really am grateful for all that I´ve been able to learn.  I know that I wouldnt have been able to learn all of that any other way.  I´ve realized that we really need to be constantly improving, each and every day.  Maybe our level of obedience or faith was okay for yesterday but not for today or tomorrow.  If we want to reach our divine potential, we have to be constantly improving.  The Lord expects more and more from us as we learn each day.

My hair dries at least once during the day and at night.  I´m taking the biotin but I dont know if it´s helping or not.  It´s helping my nails grow faster and the hair on my arms and legs grow faster but I´m not sure if it´s keeping me from going bald.  But i´ll keep taking it.  It´s my only hope for right now.

bahahahaha it made me laugh hearing about your ppi.

Hahaha you are so funny Mommy.  It´s okay that you´re trunky.  I know it´s only going to get worse so I´m not going to fight it.

The pictures are of lunch I made.  I made arroz con gafas and maduro frito.  which is rice with glasses (eggs) and fried really ripe plantains.  oh and beans.  Not gonna lie, I´m pretty awesome at making ecuadorean food.  simplified version.   and the other picture is of an iguana in the tree in the park by our house.  they are huge and everywhere and kind of a little bit scare me.  oh one time we saw an iguana, like a foot long, run under the gate of a house and when we looked in the gate to see where it was gonig, we see this huge husky run over and kill it!  gross.  people eat iguana here if you didnt knowt that before.  i hear it´s good.  oooooh yesterday the mamita made us brownies!!!!!!  i was sewwww heppy!!!

anyway.  we´re out of time.  but know that I love you and I´m praying for you alllll the time!!!  I plead with the Lord to bless you all for the service I´m giving Him here.  I know He hears my prayers!

Love you all!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Bytheway

IS IT MONDAY ALREADY?

April 28, 2014

so elder uceda came this week and it was incredible!! seriously i felt like i recieved so much of what i needed for the last 4 months of my mission.

wednesday we had a conferece with the 5 zones of guayaquil.  everything went well with singing and leading and playing the piano, and he never did interviews so it was good!  he is super loving and nice and not intimidating!  he talked a lot about obedience to the mission manual and especially never being alone for about 20 minutes and we found all the refrences aobut not being along in the MM.  i tried thinking about how that applies to not mission life and I decided it should be the same concept in a marriage and a family.  we should always be united with them to avoid any problems... dang it i cant really explain it in words but the spirit made it make sense in my head.  hahaha he also talked about our purpose.  how it´s INVITE OTHERS TO COME UNTO CHRIST.  öthers¨includes our family back at home, our campanion, members and non members.  our purpose is not just to baptize.  that´s why disobeident missioanries have baptisms.  inviting very much includes giving people their agency.

then that night they had the ward council with all the ward leaders.  that was awesome.  i think it got the members excited.  and then ten minutes before 9 elder uceda told president torres he could say goodbye to his ängles¨.  cute!!

yesterday we had the consejo de los lideres and basically the whole thing was how to work with members.  thats something that i have been struggling with becasue i feel like i dont know how and the ward here isnt too willing to help.  but he told us about how we need to have faith in the Lord´s way of doing HIs work and know that it is the best way.  He told a story about a guy selling shoes.  his boss sent him to africa to sell shoes but when he got there he saw that no one wore shoes and went back to the states saying there was a mistake.  so the boss sent a different guy and when he got there seeing no one wearing shoes, he got excited and saw that everyone was a potential client.  we need to approach our areas the same way.  when we see a weak ward we should look at it positively, excited that there is a lot of work to be done.  yesterday i recieved the answer of why i have been sent back to almendros.  and that is to strengthen the ward.  yesterday only 70 people were at sacrament meeting.  elder uceda said that we are not here to get numbers or to just baptize alone.  we are here to establish and strengthen the church.  i am so excited to work this week with the members and to reactivate families.  I know that this is what the Lord wants us to do here and will bless us as we do His will.  i know it will influence missionaries in the future when they come to this ward too.  it´s going to be hard but we´re going to do it!  if we want something we´ve never had we have to do something we´ve never done!  so there ya go.   oh he also told us how when he was trainging to become a mission president, president packer said taht one dya there would be so much wickedness in the us that south america would have to sustain the church.  that humbled me reeeeal low.  i have always been super prideful of how the church runs perfectly in the states, sometimes wishing i could be there, underestimating the power of the poeple here.

anyway.  that´s just a fraction of what i learned this past week.  i wish i could write it all.

oh an hermana in the ward gave us crab.... nassstyyyyy.  my companion was trying to get me to eat the poop juice covered insides in the head part but i was like uh uhhhh.  i ate the meat in the legs which wasnt too bad but not worth all the vaina trying to break it open.

oh my heck mayra emailed me and sent me a picture of her at the temple!!!!!!!!  she is the cuuutuest!!!!  all of the missionaries in tarqui always tell me about how she helps so so much in missionary work.  i just love her!!  the house is so pretty!!  i love it!!!  i´m glad you put a carpet rug there.  that makes me happy.  and the couches look suuuuper comfy!  i cant wait to take a nap on them :)

my companions feet are not doing well at all.  she said she thinks she wont be able to make it for 9 more months with the pain.  poor thing.  but shes so awesome.  she just wants to work so she wont call the enfermeras so she just deals with it.  pray for her feet!

just bear juan your testimony and tell him that he just needs to keep building his faith by reading, praying and going to church.  and at church he can find someone to chat with about his questions about the gospel.

mmkay well i´m out of time.  i want you to know that i have a testimony of this gospel.  i know it is true!  i know Christ is my Savior and that His authority is only found in this church.  I know that by that authority, our family is eternal.  i love you all so so much!!!

hermana bytheway

Happy Belated Easter

April 21, 2014

hey i dont know if you can send an email to my convert juan. juanesher@yahoo.com he is struggling and he needs some help but i´m not allowed to email him.  he understands english!  he just needs some encouragement.  tell him i´m not allowed to email him but i´m sending a letter through the missionaries this week.  thanks!!

yeah that was the santander family.  they left for holy week.  the whole world left on vacation this week.  so hopefully we´ll be able to see them this week.  my companion hurt her foot so we were stuck in the house a lot this week.  but we´re teaching this 18 year old jonathan and he is so cute!  it´s taken a while for him to open up to us but he´s awesome.  he´ll be baptized the 10th.

the zones make tshirts when they break records usually.

hahahahahaha i looooved hearing about easter.  i wish i could have been there!  i love how our family is.

thats crazy daddy is going to be released!! how do you feel about that daddy?  who is going to be in the new bishopric?  what is your new calling?

oh this week elder uceda, the area president is coming.  today we practiced how we are going to take pictures with him and sit in our seats and sing the songs and everything.  it reminded me of graduation practice.  i have to lead the music and play prelude and sing in a quartet so i´m kinda nervous.  and he´s going to interview 5 missionaries.... please pray he doesnt pick me.  but it will be awesome!  i´m super excited to learn from him!

mmkay well i think that´s all for this week.  thanks so much for everything!  i love you so so much!!

hermana bytheway

April 7, 2014

April 7, 2014

yeah this is a letter from manuel, the crazy guy from los esteros... hahahaha he seriuosly is a psycho.

and me and my new compy.  and my new grocery card! yay!

so we actually got to see the morning session of saturday and both sessions sunday.  the rule was that we had to bring investigators in order to watch it.  so that´s what we did.  jorge luis came to 2 and loved it so that was happy.  we also brought a joven named alfonso who accpeted a fecha there so taht was ahppy too.  conference is the best!  it makes me trunky but it´s my last one so i wont be trunky anymore here... hahaha

but i loved hearing the messages!!!  i loved hearing the testimonies of these men called of God to warn us of what is coming.  we really are in the last days and we need to prepare ourselves!!  i feel like everyone was warning us that hard times are coming but also there is hope if we live the gospel and accept Christ in our lives.

well i´m glad to see you had too much fun in disneyland so you didnt have enough time to write me.... it´s fine.....

k that baby just makes me want to die, he is so dang cute!!!!!!!  really though.  he better love me when i get back or it will break my heart.

oh just got your email.  i dont have time to respond to everything but it sounds like this past week was an adventure. hahahaha yeah i have to take those buses allll the time here to go from city to city.  not fun.

mmkay well i´m out of time.  i love you so so so much and i´m so grateful for your love and support!!

hermana bytheway