Buenas tarde mi familia!!
Ay! So much to say! I have two hours to write now. ¡Que dulce! Mi epañol is still in need of MUCHAS ayuda (lots of help) but todos està bien. The weather here is fairly temperate, it is quite cold and when it rains it RAINS. It is so different here por ejemplo, I`m certain every person has a dog and every dog has a dog. There are so many dogs here! It is o hard for me not to pet them! Especially the puppies but I am being strong because I don`t want fleas. Haha But the biggest difference is the people they are so open and friendly! Me encanta! Mi compañera se llama Hermana Aldàs, she is so sweet. Super helpful and super friendly! She is great! She is from Ecuador, the coast, and is here waiting for her visia to Mexico. She has only been here for hmm 12 weeks. Yeah. After 12 weeks I could be training! How crazy is that? My first area se llama
Baños, and no not baño like the bathroom haha that is what I thought when I first heard it. But it is SOOO incredibly pretty and apparently it is the area all the other missionaries wish they were in. It is simply gorgeous! It is very touristy. Look up pictures and you will be blown away. Daddy, not to make you jealous or anything but there is a great view of a waterfall outside our casa. Not to make you jealous...:P There are only hermanas in this area and it was split just before I came. The other sisters here are in a trio. Hermana Jones is here too. Haha I love how we have just kinda stuck together this whole time. Pretty much all of the busy part of the city is in the other area. Pero està bien. I´m working on contacting and it is hard because I know what I´m saying (sometimes they don´t) but I don´t know what they are saying. So I can ask them for their name and they start talking and all I can do in nod my head and try and repeat back what they said. Hahaha. But spanish is really getting better. I feel bad for Hna. Aldàs because she is used to speaking really fast (that is what it is like on the coast) and with me she can`t talk fast. Ay... It is also hard for me because I don´t like being talked to like I don´t understand but in all honesty I don´t unless she breaks it down like one would for a child. Don´t get me wrong she isn´t being mean at all! No not one bit. She just has to explain things in simple terms and that is the only way I can really understand. Pero està bien.
In my studies I was looking up The Fall and in the Bible Dictionary (in english) I love how the topic right after The Fall of Adam is Family. It was just someting little that I noticed but I love it! The Fall lead to Families. How beautiful is that! Love it! But the scripture I really want to share with you is John 4:39. If I wrote it down correctly it is the one that talks about how many people were converted because of the woman at the well and her testimony. The power of a testimony is a beautiful thing. Right now that is pretty much the only thing I can do. But I want to challenge you all to take advantage of the times you have to bear simply testimony of what you know to be true. You never know it could be just what someone needs to hear just just never know. So be of good cheer and do not fear.
Ay! So much to say! I have two hours to write now. ¡Que dulce! Mi epañol is still in need of MUCHAS ayuda (lots of help) but todos està bien. The weather here is fairly temperate, it is quite cold and when it rains it RAINS. It is so different here por ejemplo, I`m certain every person has a dog and every dog has a dog. There are so many dogs here! It is o hard for me not to pet them! Especially the puppies but I am being strong because I don`t want fleas. Haha But the biggest difference is the people they are so open and friendly! Me encanta! Mi compañera se llama Hermana Aldàs, she is so sweet. Super helpful and super friendly! She is great! She is from Ecuador, the coast, and is here waiting for her visia to Mexico. She has only been here for hmm 12 weeks. Yeah. After 12 weeks I could be training! How crazy is that? My first area se llamaBaños, and no not baño like the bathroom haha that is what I thought when I first heard it. But it is SOOO incredibly pretty and apparently it is the area all the other missionaries wish they were in. It is simply gorgeous! It is very touristy. Look up pictures and you will be blown away. Daddy, not to make you jealous or anything but there is a great view of a waterfall outside our casa. Not to make you jealous...:P There are only hermanas in this area and it was split just before I came. The other sisters here are in a trio. Hermana Jones is here too. Haha I love how we have just kinda stuck together this whole time. Pretty much all of the busy part of the city is in the other area. Pero està bien. I´m working on contacting and it is hard because I know what I´m saying (sometimes they don´t) but I don´t know what they are saying. So I can ask them for their name and they start talking and all I can do in nod my head and try and repeat back what they said. Hahaha. But spanish is really getting better. I feel bad for Hna. Aldàs because she is used to speaking really fast (that is what it is like on the coast) and with me she can`t talk fast. Ay... It is also hard for me because I don´t like being talked to like I don´t understand but in all honesty I don´t unless she breaks it down like one would for a child. Don´t get me wrong she isn´t being mean at all! No not one bit. She just has to explain things in simple terms and that is the only way I can really understand. Pero està bien.
Oh in my short little clip when I got here I said that I placed my first Book of Mormon! Es la verdad. Haha well it is actually a funny story. So, on the way to Ecuador we got to fly first class (it was SO nice, I didn`t know what to do with myself) but the man I sat next to was very friendly and spoke both english and spanish. And he started asking me questions about the gospel! Crazy! But apparently he had met the missionaries before but they hadn´t talked about the gospel (shame on them!) but as I was explaining in broken spanish/english he would help me. I would say it in english and he would translate in español. It was really helpful. But in the end he said that he doesn`t believe that you have to belong to a church to recieve revelation (which is true, but he didn´t want anything to do with an organized church) and he didn`t see why it was important to have prophets. But any who I tried explainin the Book of Mormon but I was so excited that my thoughts were all over the place and it wasn´t very good so I said, That if he would like to understand better then he should read it. So I gave it to him and sadly he said that it could probably go to better use for someone else but if I wanted him to have it he would take it. So of course I said I wanted him to have it. So he took it. Hopefully he reads it.
Oh, and another funny story. So with the 12 week program they have for missionaries now the newby (me) is supposed to be the one to extend all the baptismal invitations. So first real day here, all the appointments that we had before fell through and so we were just contacting (which is just picking a door and knocking, who knew, not me) pero, we went to a members house for references and we went to one of the member´s neighbors and she let us in. Hna Aldàs taught a beautiful lesson and then in was my turn to extend the invite. So I do. And the lady nods her head and I´m thinking "Wow! this is fantastic!" untill I find out that she wasn`t paying attention. Hahaha so I have to repeat and then she says no. Ay. Now I can laugh about it.Oh and cool story. We have this one investigator who was really close to baptism but needs to attend church more and she said she would be there this sunday and we were waiting and waiting and sacrament was about to start and she still wasn´t there so Hna. Aldàs suggested we pray and I prayed in my poor spanish that she would come. And just like 5 minutes later there she was! It was beautiful! We also had another investigator come to church with us. It was a good day.
So, for the first two days we didn`t have any furniture, nada. No beds, nothing. It was bad. And the other hermanas the trio only had two beds. So we had to push all the beds together and share for the first night. Loco. Then the next night we stayed at the home of a member, she is so sweet! Then the thrid day we finally got furniture. It was quite an adventure. But the hermana that let us stay the night is sooo sweet She reminds me of Sister Z but she only speaks spanish and I can´t really understand her. Haha.
In my studies I was looking up The Fall and in the Bible Dictionary (in english) I love how the topic right after The Fall of Adam is Family. It was just someting little that I noticed but I love it! The Fall lead to Families. How beautiful is that! Love it! But the scripture I really want to share with you is John 4:39. If I wrote it down correctly it is the one that talks about how many people were converted because of the woman at the well and her testimony. The power of a testimony is a beautiful thing. Right now that is pretty much the only thing I can do. But I want to challenge you all to take advantage of the times you have to bear simply testimony of what you know to be true. You never know it could be just what someone needs to hear just just never know. So be of good cheer and do not fear.
OH Mommy! Thank you soooo much for the package! I love it so much I look at the pictures all the time and I love showing it off! Oh and thank you for the CTR ring. I didn`t discover it till today and it was such a blessing! Thank you! Oh and I was wrong, the weight limit for packages is 8lbs not 4lbs it is 4 kilos and so I was confused. Haha. I LOVE hearing how everthing is going! Thank you THANK YOU! So good to hear about the wedding! It made me laugh and almost cry because it made me so happy. Mommy thanks for sharing about gilrs camp, made me smile so much. Daddy I absolutely LOVE how you explained the law of chastity with the bread! Fantastico! Daddy I really hope your leg/ankle gets better. How is grandma doing? I`ll try and send pictures. We`ll see how that goes. Les amo mucho! You are all siempre in mi prayers. Haha spanglish. I hope there isn`t anything I`m not supposed to share in here. It is really long. But I love you all so much and I know that even though I can`t really understand everything the spirit is still the same. I hope all is well with everyone.
LES AMO!
P.s. gracias tio.
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