Somehow this week turned into February and now we`re only a week away from Valentine`s Day, which means it`s practically St. Patrick`s Day, and then Mother`s Day. Which means I`m pretty much already talking to my family again on the phone.
This week our mega triumph was talking Pablo into giving up his emo wristbands that he ALWAYS wore. And he promised to never buy anything to replace them again. So now I am the proud owner of one of those nasty things. We almost talked him into cutting his hair too, but he wasn`t quite convinced. Baby steps, I suppose.
Speaking of the familia Chuñir...I absolutely adore them. We had a couple fun lessons tihs week, and the 4 year old daughter Nieli made my laugh my guts out. She loves singing the Barney song and telling us stories. "I know one about Shrek!" shel`ll say. And then she tells us about all kinds of ogre adventures. And when you tell her "sientese bien" she crosses her tiny legs and clasps her little hands on her knee. Is it fine if I bring her home with me?
Hermana Borja has been sick since Tuesday, which means I have spent some quality time in our apartment staring at the yellow walls and chicken tiles in the kitchen. I feel really bad that she`s been so sick. I don`t think I`ve ever seen anyone sleep so much in my whole entire life. But she`s on the upswing of things now (we hope) so she should be better in no time. But it`s actually been sort of nice to just have a million hours to do lots of random things .I have studied more than I ever did at BYU for finals. And I read all of Our Search for Happiness (why didn`t I ever read that book before?!), played Bananagrams and Speed, took the most glorious nap ever in the tent I made on the back porch, watched the construction progress of the building next door, and made up awesome dances to church music.
On Friday Hermana Haggard got sick too, so all 4 of us have been stuck in the house. But I am secretly glad that all of us are there together because it`s a thousand times less boring. Hna Glanzer and I made up a billion games to keep us entertained.
Saturday we had Mayra Chuñir`s baptism!! Glanzer and I did splits because the other two couldnt come. The baptism was kind of disorganized because we didn`t really have a chance to get everything put together due to being stuck in the house .But aside from some mega stressors (like not having enough priesthood holders and everyone showed up super late), everything turned out well...minus the fact that the water was freezing and that Nieli was the only one from Mayra`s family to attend.
She was supposed to get confirmed on Sunday, but couldn`t come to church. It`s a big, long, frustrating, dramatic story, but I am too lazy to explain it all. Basically she had to stay home with her baby brother all day and there was no way for her to leave the house. So now she has to wait another week to get the Holy Ghost. Bleh.
My challenge of the week: remembering why I`m here serving the Lord in Ecuador. I put in my mission papers almost a year ago and was scared to death of what the future would bring. But I took a deep breath and did it anyway because I know that God loves His children and wants all of them to have a chance to be blissfully happy in this life. And I knew that I had this beautiful opportunity to play a small part in helping people find this happiness .I didn`t come to fill an agenda with numbers and have more baptisms than any other missionary in the world. I came to love people and to know them and to help them feel God`s love. It`s hard sometimes to do this work the way I feel God would want me to when number-focused messages are constantly being shoved down my throat. It`s mentally exhausting to replace an all-number mentality with a pure-love mentality. But the reality is...as long as I am working hard and loving people, it doesn`t matter to me if people tell me every week I didn`t do enough. This work is between me and the Lord. And I firmly believe that He will be pleased as long as I do my best. Also I am in love with this scripture: D&C 124:17.
Delightful discovery of the week: there`s this beautiful river right by where we live with a trail along it. Morning exercise in this natural wonderland? Yes, please.
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