As Sisters In Zion...: March 9th

March 9

Well, this week was better, but still not perfect, a lot better than the others and we will continue to try to have us be great friends by the end of these last two weeks that we have together! I think she did!

I will let you know as soon as I know anything about Mothers Day!

As far as our traveling, we do a ton of it!! And no, we don’t have a separate fund for travels, it all comes out of our apoyo that we receive every 15th and 30th. But for right now, we are doing okay!! I'll keep you posted!!

If you sent clothes or are going to if you could send them a tad bit smaller, esp. any sweaters- that would be great, cause all of mine are too big.. but doing well!!

So, this week was kinda fun! We had a fun p-day last week, we made a cake with the Elders in the home of a part-active, and it turned out pretty well… it was a basic yellow cake, but the Hermana put raisins in the batter right before it went in the oven, then we put strawberry jam between the layers and frosted it with a frosting that wasn’t all that great…but it turned out good in the end--and they have a weird custom here in Ecuador where when you make a cake you cut out the center..like the pinnaple..and some one eats that ....I don’t really understand why…but there you go!! haha!

Well, as I mentioned last week, we have started the pensionista program...and I’m not really the biggest fan of it...besides the fact that we, the Hermanas, don’t really have a pensionista-- it is still basically a mamita, since they can’t find anyone in our sector that can give us lunch Tuesday to Saturday, we have someone for dinner, just not for lunch...and dinner is another thing that I am not really liking. The whole first, ...well, up until now, we just didn’t eat dinner, we were busy working and members always gave us food when we went, and it is hard too because we have to eat dinner at 5, and that takes away an hour of our time when most of our people can meet with us, but we have zone conference on Wednesday, so we will see if we can change that somehow-- that maybe we can just pick up the food and eat at home later, or something...

We had a lesson with the husband of Hermana Fabiloa, who is a CR, and the best way to describe him is a hippie...long hair, facial hair, tiny little glasses that are like sunglasses, but he wears them all the time, and he has some very strange beliefs!!

On Wednesday, we have capacitaciones by the missionaries for the members to help them know how they can help in the Obra mission, invite their friends to church. Then, after the branch has what they call a noche de amigos, and they have a little message, then play games! This week was super fun! We played mafia and fruit basket since it was the Obra mission that ended up in charge of this week!! It was super fun!!

We had a crazy /great lesson with an investigator named Renato, and he is the son of the hippie, but more normal…anyway, we had a cool lesson with him. We met him at the little shop where his sister works and we were like, hey, can we talk with you, only more normal, and we have had a few lessons with him before, so not so weird, and he was like yeah, so we were walking cause we needed to have another woman with us to teach him and we started walking in the direction of a family and then we weren’t and we looked at each other like where are we going? -- -we ended up at the house of a part-active, her son is active and they were both there for what ended up being a great lesson! They helped a lot and we were very upfront with him in this lesson, cause he wants his life to change, but he is stuck living in the past and with that, can’t progress. So that will be a trick and a half to get him to change! But we have faith and with God, nothing is impossible!

We had a baptism...well, the Elders did...on Saturday and the poor lady- the water was cold and she didn’t understand very well what she needed to do or what was going to happen when they baptized her so they ended up having to try like 5 or 6 times, but they did get her baptized and she was confirmed yesterday! It was awesome!!

As far as our sector, it is pretty much city. I have no idea how many people are in the city, but it is really pretty!

pics....

the group picture we all have the rope wrapped around our necks because we did an activity where we had the rope wrapped around all of our legs and had to walk as a team around this hill, it was really hard, but really fun at the same time! And we had to do it as companionships up the hill. That was really funny and not quite as hard! It was a great day! Then we went to lunch in the mall and ate Carl's Jr! It was a pretty fun p-day!

I don’t really know what was the best part of the week, our lesson with Tster, she has a very hard time hearing so we just sang hymns for her, and took the picture after. The noche de amigos where we played games, was pretty great! The worst…we didn’t have anyone to make us lunch on Wednesday so we called an Hermana and she was like sure, we'll meet and go to a restaurant...yeah, cant spell...I walked in and looked at my companion and was like no, no, no, no, no, no, everyone was eating fish...and that is all I saw on the window where they have some pictures of what they serve, and we walked in and sat down and luckily, they had something else for the main meal, but they always have a soup first, and I was okay after I ordered the meat, until I got the soup.........first off, they served it with sangre frita, avocado, and lime on a separate plate, the soup had trishmishqui, and watita...and if you don’t know what those are...it is intestines, and cow tongue...yeah, it was disgusting!!! Never again do I want to have to eat that,...but I still have a year here in this ..beautiful country...jk I love it, I just don’t love their food! Yup, that has got to be the worst part of my week. The fact that I had no other choice, but to eat that nasty food that should not ever be eaten...but, oh well! Luckily, we don’t eat that in the states!!!

I know this week has been hard and I was talking with my dl and he told me some advice that he had learned from someone...yes, this is a trial, this is one of your many trials in this life, but God gave us our trials, he can’t do them for us! Man have I learned that! I know this is a trial and I need to be grateful for the rain, as well as the rainbow, be grateful for the trial while I am in it and not just after, there is something that I have to learn from her and from this partnership; I don’t know what yet…other than a lot of patience and the importance of obedience and maybe it will be that I am training next partner and need to learn this to help in the future...I don’t know.

But, I do know that I am never alone! My Savior knows me and knows how to help, all I have to do is rely on Him, put my faith and trust in Him that knows everything and know that He will help! I know this church is true and I am so grateful to Joseph Smith that he had the faith to continue even when things were so difficult, that he endured to the end so that we can now, at this time, have the restored gospel on the earth and have the Book of Mormon to help and guide us through this maze of life! Love my mission and I love you all sooooooo much!!

have an amazing week!!

always and forever

Karlee Jo