I dont know how it happend that I am sitting here emailing you again. I promise I just barely was doing this yesterday. Is it true what they say that once you hit your halfway mark it is all downhill from there? Yikes. I hope not. Also the keys on this keyboard are all crazy, so excuse any lack of punctuation, and as always excuse my incorrect spelling and grammar. Ha.
Well. Now that that is out of the way on to my week. Got to Guayaquil on Monday. When I wrote last week I hadnt even really seen my sector..we just literally set everything down and then came and wrote and then went back and worked that night. Our sector is rad. Every morning while I am studying there is this man that walks through the streets yelling "camaron!" which is shrimp. Also there is a lady who runs around selling lottery tickets in the morning. There are tons of parks in our sector, which is rad because there are 2 parks in the entire city of Machala. It is weird to be in a richer sector now because I was so accustomed to very humble circumstances in Machala, and parts of our sector here are pretty wealthy. There is a lot of variety in our sector. Freak, I dont know how to explain it. Guess you will all just have to come here and see it for yourselves. Darn. Part of the sector is called Los Claveles. The streets are narrow and winding and it reminds me of a very dirty version of Europe. If you ignore the garbage on the ground and the potential robber around the corner it is quite charming. And then the wealthier area is called Los Acacias. There are a bunch of mini gated communities and it sort of reminds me of an Ecuadorian version of Day Break or something. Ha. Seriously there is no way to describe it. I will try to take sneaky pictures someday maybe. Its just sort of dangerous to whip a camera out, but Ill figure something out.
Bleh. I cant find the apostrophe on this computer. Its really crampin my style. I think someone switched all the keys around.
Anyway. The work is good here. We are finding some good people to teach and should have some baptisms next Saturday. The good news is that the word on the street is that familia Duran from Machala got baptized on Saturday. Gah I was so bummed to miss it. The mom is having her baby this week too. Its so crazy how quickly I get attached to people here. Being a missionary is so rad because you become so involved in peoples lives and get to learn so much about them and the things that are the most important to them. I am obessed. It just sucks when you have to say goodbye. And then what is even worse is that you dont really get to say goodbye, you just have to leave. But. Life goes on and we meet new people to fall in love with and to help find the truth of the gospel in their lives.
The ward here is great. I still dont know a lot of people, but there are a lot of returned missionaries in the ward and lots of good leadership, which is new for me. I forgot what it was like to be in a ward with people who work hard. The church in Ecuador is still fairly new comparively speaking, so it is still in its baby stages and sometimes people dont really know what they are doing. It was really obvious in Machala, but here they have things figured out a little more. The members are really great and are helping us a lot. I just wish they would give us more references so we could teach their friends. Missionary work is impossible without the members.
We dealt a lot this week with getting parental permission for people to get baptized. There is this boy named Mikey. His sister, sisters boyfriend, and cousin all got baptized about a month ago. They were all over 18 and didnt need permission, but Mikey is 13 and his mom wouldnt let him get baptized. So pretty much all hope was lost until he turned 18, but then we randomly visited them one day and the daughter told us that her mom would give Mikey permission! So that was a slight miracle. Apparently she used to be way grouchy and wouldnt even talk to the missionaries, but now she wants to be our best friend and give us haircuts. Weird. Also fantastic.
We are also teaching a 16 year old named Gigi. Her mom signed her permission form, but her dad refuses. It is such a bummer because she is such an amazing girl. She loves church and the Book of Mormon. Shes only been to church 3 times and already has this crazy strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. We will continue to pray that her dad opens his heart and just lets his daughter get baptized. We had a lot of really good lessons with her this week and the members are helping us a lot, so we shall see what happens. Hopefully good things. Pray hard.
I keep getting frustrated time and time again here in the mission with people because so often they know that what we say is true. They know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. They know they need to get baptized. They know they need to make changes in their lives and put their trust in God instead of in men. But for whatever reason it is just hard for them to accept it completely. Its so frustrating to see someone right on the brink of decision, but they get scared and back away. I just wish sometimes I could give them a glimpse of what eternity would be like if they make righteous choices...get baptized, keep the commandments, read the scriptures, etc. I dont think any of us fully comprehend what an incredible thing it will be to be with our families forever in the heavens with a loving Father in Heaven. I wonder if people just glimpsed that for a tiny second if that would be enough to movtivate them to just say that theyll read the Book of Mormon and get baptized. I wish I could make people understand what a blessing it is to enjoy the little things that come from being a member of Gods true church...sitting around on Sunday afternoons with the family talking about the scriptures, conversing with God and knowing He listens, and having the blessing of always having the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. Why dont people get it!?! I wish I could make them see what they are missing.
The most awkward thing that happened to us this week was when my companion marched right up to this couple sitting on the bench in the park right in the middle of a romantic moment and contacted them. You should have seen the looks on their faces as we just stood in front of them and told them we are missionaries and have a message we want to share with them about how we can have eternal families. Ha. I lost it. I was laughing so hard and just wanting more than anything to get out of there.
I feel like this is a really boring email. I wish I had more interesting things to say. Hm. I will think of things for next week. I feel like a good list is in the works.
Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. Give references to the missionaries and maybe give them an ice cream cone because we like those kinds of things.
I love you all more than 80s dancing and spandex.
Have the best week of your lives.
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