Wow! This week was a full and
super fast week! Monday was p-day and
we hung out with the elders, went to the mall and ate some ‘mexican’ food..not
that good...Tuesday started so early! We
got a text from our querido obisbo (Bishop?) at 5:38am --we had somehow
forgotten to put the phone on silent so it was a loud ring that startled us
awake, I tried to read it and couldn’t
get my eyes to focus, but after a few attempts I got it-- but neither of us
could make sense of it, so we went back to bed for the last hour. When we got up, we reread the text and this
time understood….Hna Vero, that had cancer, passed away Monday night and would
we please basically coordinate everything!!
So, at 6:33am we called the elders and they were quite shocked to get a
call from us so early! But, we told them
what was going on and they said to keep them posted with what they could do to
help. So, at 7 we went downstairs to
talk to Anita and Milton, but they weren’t there, so we went back down at 7:30 (we were thinking of the funerals in the
states and were thinking like, yeah, we will have the funeral on Thursday no
big deal we have time to plan and get everything figured out....NOT the funeral
is the same day and they told us that it was going to be at 11!! WHAT!!)
We called the RS president to see if she knew what was going on and she
was on her way to Quito when we called and gave us a list of stuff we needed to
do before the funeral for the funeral. So we ran upstairs and changed, called the
elders to see if they could help us clean the chapel while we went to buy
flowers and get a picture of her printed and framed and all that jazz. The
elders are amazing! So, they of course
headed over and got that set up and cleaned and then we met them there once we
had the flowers, they came back with us to the house to pick up the frame and
then we were going to go back to the church to get their stuff they had left
and then we were going to lunch and then back to the church to meet the family
and open the church.. well it was us and our DL and his companion, --the other
elders don’t have a phone so we had no way to get a hold of them- and it was
the weirdest thing!!! Honestly, they don’t
make the body look very good- her mouth was still open and she had dried blood
in both nostrils and her make up was crappy!
She and her sisters are members, but her parents are not, they are some
indigenous people which means that the whole family and friends that came were
as well and they don’t smell all that good.. and the mom was like
sobbing/chanting/singing ...it was so weird and people kept giving her
money...idk fue ful raro!!! We were
there all day, when the normal LDS part of the funeral started, the four of us
sang Nearer, My God to Thee, it sounded kinda good...really good for
here! We left at 9:15 PM and went home.
Wednesday we had a study in Ambato with all the hnas in the zone, with
our Hna leaders, it was fun but we didn’t get home from that until 3:00, so
went straight from the terminal to the church because they think they need to
have more than one day to see the body- the mom wanted until Saturday...! But
they settled on Wednesday afternoon, so we went, sang a different song, then
finally they all left when they took the casket to the cemetery. We stayed got everything cleaned up and then
finally we were good to go. We went to
lunch with the elders and then to our lessons that we had for that night, we
visited Hipatia, a part active and got her to commit to coming to church again
on Sunday, and Maribel, she has fecha to get married and we just need to work
with her husband to let her come to church, because if she can’t there is no
point in baptizing her…
Thursday we had a mini-conference in Ambato and then came back and had
lunch, then went to a reference from Joel and she couldn’t meet with us so he
showed us the house of a different one and they weren’t home so we went to
visit a ex obisbo and happened to be able to talk to him, then had our
correlation mtg. Friday we went and did
a fecal test for my comp and found out she has an intestinal infection.. poor
thing! Then had a few citas. Saturday
we had a district study and made pancakes and talked then went to the bishop’s
moms house and did service for 3 1/2 hrs!
Moving a mountain of dirt from the main street level to the third
floor...we all hurt so bad yesterday because we had to take and carry bags of
little rocks mixed with dirt by the shovel full!!! The elders only could carry so many and us
too, so it was a slow process in which the bishop and his family did nothing to
help except offer us soda and ask if we were tired...what kind of question is
that?!!!! I just carried like 50 lbs.,
at least, of dirt up the stairs --how many times?!!! and you are asking if I’m
tired?!!! Sorry, it was just annoying! Then we went to lunch and did visits. We
visited the familia Hidalgo and found out that Lisseth is pregnant and her mom
hates her and blah blah blah..that family needs to come to church!! They need the help that only living the gospel
can bring!!
Then Sunday after church, we had consejo and it was the best one I have
ever had! Guess why...the stake
president was there! Then we had lunch
and talked with the elders for a bit hoping they would get the call to know the
cambios, but we ended up going home after a bit and then they called us and
asked us if we wanted to find out over the phone or in person.. in person of
course!!! So they came over and first
played a mean joke on my comp. telling her that she was going to be an hermana
leader and she doesn’t want to be and almost started crying and then they told
her that she was staying and training and I was leaving to Rio Bamba and going
to be comp. mayor (senior companion)! and here we are, we went last night to
say goodbye to the familia Hidalgo and hna Encalada..you have pictures. It was so sad!, but I am hoping that this
change goes just as fast as the last one and that I can learn a lot and my Spanish
will improve!
Well, that was my week!
In the last sector they cooked for us, but we will see what is going to happen
with this sector.. I am assuming it will be the same, but we shall see. Hope you know how much I love all of you!!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!! I LOVE YOU ALLLL SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!
Have an amazing week and know you are loved from all the way down here
in Ecuador!!
Love always and forever
Karlee Jo
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