The Agony of Parting‏

I think it was George Eliot that once wrote, "Only in the agony of parting do we reach into the depths of love."

I have had my fair share of partings in my life. Leaving to come on the mission was a big one. It was hard to leave behind people I loved and every aspect of my life. I traded it all in for Spanish, scriptures, and frumpy skirts. It has definitely not been easy, but it is for sure worth it. Through all of the goodbyes and the distance I have come to realize in a very real way how many people I loved and how much I loved them. Sometimes it takes parting to realize that. 

And now I am reliving the whole agony of parting thing. I got a call last night out of the blue that I had changes this morning to Guayaquil. I was to be in the terminal at 8am. My five months of Cuencan bliss came to a screeching halt in the middle of a change (changes were supposed to occur 3 weeks from today), and now I am here in Guayaquil. Almendras ward. With my new companion, Hermana Moran from Colombia. It´s weird to say the least, but I´m handling it.

I had this overwhelming realization of how much I had grown to love the people in Cuenca. I loved my ward. I absolutely loved my companion. I loved my converts. I loved the people we were teaching. I loved the people who rejected us. I loved the woman on the side of the road that sold toilet paper. I loved the little girl who asked me if I knew English and always insisted that I speak it to her. I loved the guy at the laundromat who waited for us every Monday. I loved everyone. Perhaps I had to leave to realize how much I really loved them. 

Yesterday during church (before I knew about changes) I was sitting on the stand because I had to lead the music. I was looking out over everyone and thought about how grateful I was to be part of the lives of so many incredible people. Words don´t express the excitement I felt when investigators walked through the door and found their seat. Yes. It is cheesy. But also it is true. I think it was a mega tender mercy that I had that opportunity to look out over everyone and thank God that He blessed me with 5 months of Cuenca. I didn´t get to say goodbye to anyone because it was such short notice, but at least I was granted a small realization of how lucky I was to spend time in the most beautiful place on earth.

So now I am here in Guayaquil. And I will love it...or learn to. My companion is way rad. She´s from Pasto (where Sarah Bastidas´ family was from!) and is ending the mission in 3 weeks. We are opening a sector, so we will be learning it together. We live in a very...quaint...house. Ha. It is microscopic! Fam...remember the barbie apartment we stayed in in London? Shrink that by about a million and that is what our house is like. It´s hilarious. I have no idea where I am going to put all my stuff (somehow the quantity of my stuff doubled in my 5 months in Cuenca). But. Life is good.

In other news...this week we had another baptism! (I forgot my camera, so no pics. sorry.)

We have been teaching this guy, Miguel Loja, for a couple weeks. He married a member about a month ago and came to church one Sunday. The other hermanas went to visit him, but he totally rejected them and wanted nothing to do with the church. But my comp and I decided to try again and so we ventured up the mountain to his house. This time he let us in. Reluctantly, but he let us in. So we taught him. He was amazing. He loved everything about the gospel, especially repentance. He wanted to get baptized, but the problem was we had a lot of stuff to teach and very little time. He is heading back to the United States next week. So we had to put it in high gear and teach him tons. 

On thursday we went to his house with the intent to teach all of the commandments, follow the prophet, sabbath day, chastity, and word of wisdom. Oh, and tithing. Yep, all of that crammed in one lesson. We started in. Follow the prophet. He had a testimony of Joseph Smith, so we thought it would be easy. But he said he didnt believe prophets could exist on the earth today. Finally he accepted. Next subject...Sabbath Day. Rejected that one, too. We spent over an hour talking about the Sabbath and trying to figure out how he could complete with this commandment. No luck. We didn´t even finish the lesson because we had to head home. We walked out thinking that his baptism wasnt going to happen. We did our best and figured it just wasn´t his time yet. 

I talked to the zone leaders that night and they said they wanted to go visit him in the morning. We went up there with him, but couldn´t enter the house because there wasn´t another woman. My comp and I went to a different appointment, and they stayed at taught Miguel. We got a phone call a few hours later. To our surprise the zone leaders taught everything, did his baptismal interview, and everything was set for Saturday evening. 

The baptism was great. They arrived an hour and a half late...but they got there. He bore his testimony after he was baptized and he thanked Hermana Cando and I for helping him find the sweetness of the gospel. I love that as a missionary we get to be a huge part of people´s lives here. We help them find light and happiness and change for the better. 

In other news...we don´t really have any other news because we spent most of the week either standing in the rain waiting for Miguel to get home so we could teach him, walking in the rain because we missed the bus, contacting every single person that came within 20 feet of us, and...that is about it. It was rather exhausting, but good. Lots of rejection, but hopefully we planted some seeds.

Also. On the bus ride to Guayaquil today I looked out the window and saw wild llamas roaming through the Andes mountains. Yep, that is real. I think my life is now legitimately complete.

Conference is this week! I am super stoked. I have been reading all the talks from the last conference, and I can´t wait to hear what the prophets and apostles have to say this week. It will be different listening to it in Spanish, but good nonetheless.

I am obsessed with so many things I have read in the past conference issue. I will share just one:
"Some suppose that humility is beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. We don´t discover humilty by thinking less of ourselvesñ we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves...
We are the tools in the hands of God. When our heart is in the right place, we do not complain that our assigned task is unworthy of our abilities. We gladly serve wherever we are asked. When we serve wherever we are asked. When we do this, the Lord can use us in ways beyond our understanding to accomplish His work."
-- President Uchtdorf, Pride and the Priesthood

I think the last bit was written for my current circumstances. Ha. Funny how the Lord works, right?

I hope you all have the loveliest week of your lives.