What my week has looked like! haha
Me ready to leave for the first time in 5 days! Yay!
Me, her and her new daughter, my sister, Hermana H-----!
This is the "family pic" hahha this is my district! We call ousrselves the "familia tuca" hahaha. It's like saying the big boned family haha I love it!
Teaching my companion how to pose like a diva :)
Hahahaha this is a guy who directs traffic by our house. He's hilarious. He's a lil coocoo but he's hilarious and I was diggin his shades this day so we had to take a pic! hahaha :)
Hey everyone!!
so this week has been amazing! A couple hiccups but hey that's life, right?
So recently I've been trying to increase my faith in the Lord. And I knew for a fact that one of the best opportunities we have to increase our faith is through our trials. So Saturday night I prayed, and I pleaded with my Heavenly Father to send me a trial. To give me something in my life that will help me grow my faith and relationship with Him and my Savior Jesus Christ. That night I woke up in the middle of the night with a suuuper bad pain in my left knee. In the morning I called the mission nurse and she made me an appointment to see the doctor the next day. So today I went to the doctor and he asked me about my knee pain, then felt around my knee and had me bend it and twist and what not. Well at one point during this bending and lovely stuff I felt as if he broke my knee. I bursted into ugly crying and my companion grabbed my hand and told me it would all be okay. Well he told me it seems as if I have a very inflamed meniscus. Depending on the results of the MRI and XRAYs we had done today is whether or not I have to have surgery. I'm on bed rest and after bed rest I can't walk hardly at all. But I know that the Lord is guiding me and taking care of me through this.
So this week we should have our first baptism together! We have been teaching a woman whose future husband is a member. They've been working on getting married so we decided to jump in and give them some help! This week they should be able to finally tie the knot and she can be baptized the following day!!! We are so excited! And its so amazing to see how the hand of The Lord has been helping us in this whole process!
So we have also been teaching a man who is 94 years old!!!!! We had an amazing lesson with him the other day. At first he just laughed at us when we talked about how he needed to be baptized so he can live eternally with God. But then I mentioned his wife who had passed away, and if he wanted to able to live with her forever after this life. He began to cry and talk about her and his mom who had passed away. I extended a baptismal date to him for the 8th of February and he accepted... although the next day he didn't remember of it. haahhahahahaaha BUT he has a desire to learn and to grow in the gospel so I know that if he doesn't get baptized here he def will in the next life.
Its rain season!!! That's the flooded street! Thanks Dad for the rain shoes!! Love you!!!
Me making tortillas all by myself!!!
Over all things are great! Love y'all! Happy Birthday shout out to my amazing Mom! She turns 50 this week!!! And still smoken hot! Thank you for being an amazing loving and caring Mom! I love you so much!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!
Hermana YounceKissesMy companion and I are BEST FRIENDS. Literally. She is from Guatemala and she is amazing. She comes from practically nothing and the circumstances where she is from are suuuuper tough. But she has the best attitude! She takes all the trials she is thrown and turns them into blessings and strengths! I admire her so much! I had an interview with president Dennis today and told him how I felt about her and how I felt like she really just gets me, and sincerely loves me and that's exactly what I needed. He told me that he knew we needed to be with each other and because she is here in this area so am I. Because I needed to be with her. It made me just light up!Hey everyone!Things are going great here in Ecuador! I'm super happy and somewhat healthy! hahaWe had a conference on Wednesday with President Dennis. And at the conference he told us that in the zone I am in right now is where they were sending missionaries who are strong because this zone is a very tough area. He said if you can baptize in this area you can baptize anywhere! And I have been seeing just that! Haha it's been tough but honestly I'm the happiest I've been in my whole mission!
over all things are great! I love it here!! Hope all is well at home! Sending lots of love from Ecuador!
Mi and mi compi
Me and my compi from Guatemala!
All of us sisters that live together! We have become best friends in less than a week! They're amazing!
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| It's rain season! Hahaha me and the super sick rain boots my parents sent me! |
Me enjoying the rain!
My super amazing companion left this for me on my study desk last week! I can't believe its already been 8 months!!! I'll be home in November! Crazy!
Enjoying P-day
Sooo I've been transferred!!! My oh my was it an ugly ugly cry fest when they called me! I was balling mamita C----- and her mom and mamita A----- and her mom and X----- and her sister all came over to say goodbye and we all balled our eyes out and they helped me pack my bags. In the morning at 5:30AM mamita and her husband walked me to the bus terminal and bid me goodbye. Not gonna lie I feel like it was harder to say bye to them then it was to actually leave in the first place. I had been with these people since the very beginning of my mission and I was there for 7 months!!! But I know that the Lord needs me here! I can already tell! Although when I first arrived I had an awwwwwful migraine and ended up puking everywhere haha. I love it here! I'm in an area called Colón 2. It's in the very center of Guayaquil. It's suuuuuuuuper hot and the rainy season began last night! My companion is Hermana Z-----! She is from Guatemala! Last night we made tortillas from scratch! Omg I about ate a thousand. She is adorable super funny and an amazing teacher!
Us after the first night of walking in the rain!!!!
Me, my companion, and another sister who lives with us! We all four rocked the Ecuador soccer jersey together for P-day haha
Me and my companion
Me and an over look of my area!
Not a whole bunch else going on here! But I hope everyone's New Year was great and safe! Love you all tons!
xoxokissesHermana Younce
SO MANY EMAILS. OH MY GOODNESS. I had soooo many emails this morning! So if I don't reply it's simply cause I didn't have enough time. but thank you soooo much for all your birthday lovin!!!!!
This passed week has been good! Christmas was very low key and honestly wasn't that hard for me! My compi had a way harder time than I did. But we got through it! I think my birthday was harder for me. But it was still fun! It was a working day and we don't have any investigators right now cause its soo hard to meet with people during this time of the year cause everyone is working or out of town. So once January hits we are going on the hunt. But anyways, we had lunch at mamita C-----'s house! She made me a secco de pollo. SO GOOD. Shout out to Josh Mundy for recommending that plate. Then we went and visited some less active members. At one of the houses was a member who had been excommunicated. And ever since I got here to playas I've been working with him to try and little by little influence him and his family to come back to church. And for him to work on cleaning up his life so hopefully he can be re-baptized one day. We visited them last Saturday and invited them to come to church with us on Sunday. They agreed that they would go for an hour then go to work after. So about 5 minutes after the meeting started, I see their WHOLE FAMILY walk into the chapel. I've NEVER seen their older son come to church.... NEVER. And everytime we go over there he tries his hardest to ignore me... which I'm not really sure how that's possible considering ya can't really miss me. But lately he's been opening up to me and listening and he prayed with us yesterday! It was great! Anywho, so they came to church all of them! And I about flippin cried when they walked in. My face lit up! So when we visited them on Saturday I asked the dad to think about some goals he wants to make for the new year and on my birthday we were gonnna come over and talk about them! So on my birthday we went over there and he wasn't there... and at first I was like ok lets get going. But then I felt like I needed to wait. So we waited and about 30 mins later he got home! I was so excited! So we all sat down together and I asked him about his goals. And he told me he had a lot, but that he was going to share one with me. And that goal was to come to church 10-20 times this year, because this past year he had only gone 3-4. He told me he wanted to start coming back and eventually become an active member again. He continued to tell me that he even talked to the branch president on Sunday and told him, "to lock your other 99 sheep up, because I am a lost sheep and I need your help". He told me that he wants to do this but it is going to be very very hard for him. And that he needs our help. I told him I wanted to make a little mini goal for him, to read for 5 minutes everyday in his scriptures. He said he would try and asked if every Saturday evening we could come over and read together with him and his family. And I obvi was like uh YES! haha... Then things started to get super tender. He started to cry, and he looked at me and he said "Sister, I want you to know how much I love you and appreciate you. And I want you to know that I don't know your dad... but I know that he loves you and appreciates you so much too. And I hope you never forget about this family." Then I started balling of course. And it honestly was one of the most tender and beautiful moments I think I've ever experienced in the mission. I just wanted to hug him. He got up and so did I and we exchanged a very firm handshake. Ha. I don't have words to describe the spirit and the love I felt and still feel from him and his family. I know that this year, he will reactivate and I will do everything in my power to help him.So after that we had been invited to mamita A----- house to celebrate my birthday. I bought a cake and we headed over there. Well we all sat around and chatted a little bit... They cut the cake, we ate the cake and left. They didn't even sing to me :( It made me kinda sad. But mamita C----- had plans to have another little thing for me at her house with her family. So after we left there we went to mamita c-----'s! And her husband bought me a huge chocolate cake. They put a big tinker bell candle in it and all sang happy birthday to me! It was so fun! It was mamita, her hubby, her 4 kids, two grandchildren, her sister, and her mom. and obvi my compi! We all ate cake and laughed and had fun together before we had to come home. It was so great! I was so happy and so grateful I just fell into mamita C-----'s arms and started crying. We both cried together and told each other we loved each other. Her and her family really made my birthday so special for me. I am so blessed!
