Subject: 4 Days Makes a Month Out. WHAT!? Such a good week!!
Date: Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 4:45 PM

Well where to start... hahaha

1) the shower. the showers in my apartment take my breath away. not because of the view...but because we have no hot water and the temp of the water is like jumping in Mona in  the early winter. Its like borderline icy water. hahaha---------   Breaking News-- We have no more water. Like..we just don't have water. hah We don't know what happened, but we've had to go across town to shower at the other sister missionaries house. ha ha ha.

2) Oh my gosh it rains here. it rains so hard!! haha and the storms are so intense that it takes out the power all the time. I LOVE IT!! haha its crazy!

3) the busses and riding the bus is crazy because a lot of the roads are dirt roads and sooo bumpy, and because sometimes we ride the bus when the school kids get out and the busses are absolutely full. like we are standing in there like sardines. Friday I punched a kid in the head on the bus, fell into someones lap twice and smacked my companion in the face twice hahaha. I thougth wow. what is next?  Well, today us six sisters had to go to the offices in Quito and let me tell ya. No comment. getting off the trolley/bus was insane. they don't wait for everyone to get off which is hard because we're like sardines in there. hahah Today we were getting off the trolley and the doors started closing but we somehow squeezed/pushed ourselves and others through and ..... Hermana Stephenson and I...tackled some poor old lady with a cane. She.. wasn't the happiest. haha But..hey in our defense, it's always like that getting off the trolley and she should have known better. sorry old lady.. she is okay though!!! hah

4) Much like in Casper where sister Stebbing is serving, people here love their dogs. In fact, Hermana Espinoza was bitten by a dog this week. It bit her calf and bit into the muscle pretty deep. It didn't help that the dog was owned by the person whose house they were going to. It was so deep that...the mom sewed it back together. Tha'ts right. Sewed it back together. Hna. Espinoza tried to say no a million times, but the mom insisted. It looks fine now, but she just went to the doctor to get some blood tests done to make sure she didn't get any disease of any kind from the dog.


Alright, the good stuff. This week, like all the weeks had its ups and downs. Everyday, my companion, Hermana Calderon, and I had many appointments, but unfortunately a lot of people forget and a lot of our appointments fall through which is hard, but when that happens, we just say a prayer and go contacting on the streets =)   We taught Gloria and her sister on monday and they are both excited to get baptized. Gloria has a date for the 9 of november and her sister wants to, but wants to learn more about the Gospel before she makes such a grand commitment. She says she is going to get baptized though because she knows that this truly is the Lord's Gospel =)  It was kind of a hard lesson though because that day it was raining so hard and seriously every time we started teaching, it would rain super hard and we were like yelling so we could hear each other because a lot of the roofs here are like tin and make a lot of noise.

We have a less-active recent convert, Hna Lilain, who owns this little garage along one of the main strreets and she sells plantain tortillas and some other kind of tortillas and we always go to visit her. We go probably once a day and we love to contact there because every time we do, she bears her testimony which is great. It's so powerful, and it helps her too. =)  So, we go, we visit her and get her excited, we contact, and we support her little business. One night, we were just eating and contacting and this girl overheard. She asked what religion we were and told her we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or also known as Mormons. She said she never heard about us, so we were like oh we could come and share our message with you!! and she was like alright! so we got her contact info and tried calling her for like 5 days, but she was never there or we could never get the call through. One day, we had an appointment, but she wasn't there so we just sat waiting with her little brother who totally reminds me of Norman haha It was so funny. We just talked and stuff and the power went out again because of the storms. We had to go though because we had other appointments. We called her and actually got the call through and she begged us to wait for her and that she really needed to talk to us and she was on her way home, but we never found her. We were pretty sad, but knew that we would find her. We went to our other appointment that night and that was awesome. We visited Ricardo and Yuliana. Ricardo just got baptized 5 months ago and is soooo awesome. His wife Yuliana is excited to get baptized too, but she has school and work everyday for the next 6 months and can't miss a day because she is finishing some special program. So it's a bummer, but we know that she is going to get baptized and is already accepting the Gospel and has seen so many changes in her life =)
 Friday, we SOMEHOW were able to get a hold of Sofia, the girl we met at Hna Lilian's. We came over and she warmly welcomed us in. we just talked and got to know each other a bit and she is super cool. She used to be catholic, but doesn't believe in those things because she realizes that worshiping and praying to saints is putting other gods before God and she just never felt right there. She was telling us abut how she started going to a Christian church and loved, loved the messages about Christ, but she moved and hasn't gone back to a church. We began to share our message and OH MY GOODNESS the Spirit was soooo strong. She had invited her mom to sit in the lesson too which was awesome!! The power went out again, but it was just in time because it was so quiet and you could just feel peace all around. They were so excited about the <Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I invited them to be baptized (which was a little scary because i am brand new here) but Sofia was so excited and she wants to get baptized. Of course, we were all crying and so happy. She has a baptismal date for the 16th of November. Her mom was crying too and we know that she felt the Spirit. She didn't know about getting baptized, but we left them with the Book of Mormon and the promise that they can know for themselves if it's true. I know that her mom is going to get baptized after Sofia. =) I know it!   that was a very special day.     after that, we went back with Hna. Lilian and just talked with her family there for a while and joked around. it was super fun and super cool because they lived in Italy for 5 years or something like that, so we talked in italian}. It was super fun!

The next day was hard because all our appointments fell through and we felt like we didn't do anything, but we KNEW that "tomorrow would be amazing" and indeed it was. There were a lot of drunk people out who are surprisingly very curious about the church haha   I contacted 4 drunk people and they were all very excited about hearing about the Gospel. Obviously we contacted with other people which was equally pleasant =)    Then, we were just walking along going to hna Lilians and I passed a dad and his two daughters, being followed by 4 dogs. I was like wow! all your dogs!? and he was like haha no just these two. and then they walked away. Then, I saw the guy come back and he waved me over and asked me and my companion if we could help his family know more about the Bible and the Gospel. We were like.... YEAH!!! hahah He was like yeah I have been looking for videos or people to help me and then I was like well as a matter of fact, I have a video right here! and I gave him the card for a free video of "finding faith in Christ". (we're giving them the video this week)   he then explained that his wife left him and the three daughters recently with some other guy and he has been having a really hard time and is searching for God's help. The earliest we could get an appointment with them was Saturday, but that's perfect. I feel very strongly that they will get baptized too and I am so excited!!!

That was super awesome. We had a great time contacting and came upon some very sweet people =)

Sunday was awesome too!! Church was amazing and we were accompanied by one of the sisters that just got back into the church and is sooooo happy =) she brought her two daughters! she was baptized young, but then they moved and became inactive. Now, after over 10 years, shes back! and stronger than ever =) after that, we had lunch at a members house and found out that the son is famous here in Ecuador. Hahaha he has set up his own foundation,. crazy!!
uh oh I have to go !! love you all and life is great!!


Hermana Tangedal