March 14, 2011

¡Hola familia! WOW, what a crazy week it has been. I still can't
believe I'm in freaking Ecuador!!! I feel like I am on a
rollercoaster. At some moments I feel beaten down and that being a
missionary is super hard and then at other moments I am thinking "I
LOVE THIS" haha. I'll give you a play by play of my week:

Wednesday- After I emailed you guys, Hermana Parrales and I went and
bought some food. After, we took everything to our apartment and went
to a member's home for lunch. We do this every day for lunch. It's a
different family each day and we call the women that cook us food
"mamita". We had rice, beans, and this wierd meat thing. I was
thinking "Seriously, is this what I have to eat every day?" It was bad
of me to think that because it put me in a bad mood. After lunch I
had a little breakdown. I feel so confused all the time and it's so
hard to speak and understand Spanish. However, we went to the house
of the Bishop and met his wife and family. They were so nice and I
was able to actually have a conversation with them. They told me that
I speak good Spanish too. During this week, I have realized that when
people say they can understand me and that my Spanish is good that I
have more confidence and speak more. But when people tell me "Oh
you'll learn it eventually, little by little" I get discouraged and
sad.

Anyway, in the afternoon we were all over the place, visiting recent
converts, ward members, and investigators. At 4 we went contacting
and started teaching a woman named Kathy and her son. They listened
to our message and said they would come to church on Sunday.

Thursday- Thursday was a little bit different schedule because Hermana
Parrales had training in the morning. In the morning I went
contacting with 3 other sisters. One of them is named Sister Robison
and she is from Utah. She's 6 weeks into her mission and her Spanish
is pretty good. She gives me knowledge that my Spanish will increase
tremendously in 6 weeks. Hermana Parrales returned for lunch and we
ate at the Bishop's house and the food was much better haha. There
were 2 highlights of teaching in the afternoon. We got to teach a
group of kids (between the ages of 8 and 14) and I loved it. They all
listened and thought it was cool that I was from the states and could
speak English. Our last lesson was with Sandra and Xavier Lamota who
are getting baptized on the 19th. They are so awesome and nice and
I'm so excited for their baptism. They have been investigating the
church for a long time. They said I am the 20th missionary that has
been in their house.

Friday- Wow... Friday was even more different than Thursday. We got
up in the morning and did all our studying. Hermana Parrales was
supposed to go to training again, but we got a call in the morning
that said her training was canceled and that we were both supposed to
meet our zone at the mall and to come with a change of clothes and
PJs. We seriously thought "What the heck is going on?" So, we did
our planning for the week and then went to lunch where we find out
about the tsunami in Japan and that it could effect Ecuador too.
Honestly, I was kinda freaking out in my mind, because I didn't know
if it was super serious or not...which it turned out it wasn't serious
at all for us in Guayaquil. Anyway, so that afternoon we just had training at the mission home with almost all the missionaries in our mission. We all returned to our sectors
that night.

Saturday- The funny thing about Saturday is that I woke up thinking
"Ok, this is going to be a ¨typical¨ day in the mission and I won't be
able to speak English at all". Well it turned out, MANY people tried to
speak to me in English. There were many "Hello my friend" "Hello you
are beautiful" and the best was "I am crazy for you". I even had one
old crazy man come up to me and was talking to me in all English but
it didn't make a lot of sense. He said that he loved the church and
Joseph Smith, but then my companion said he's crazy and when they
invite him to come to church he says he´s sick.

We had a lot of great teaching experiences Saturday, but the coolest
was teaching this girl named Samy. We taught her whole family except
her dad. She is 9 years old and she wants to be baptized. She is
going to be baptized on the 26th. Her parents even signed the paper
that says they will allow her to be baptized. We are going to
continue to return to prepare her for baptism and teach her Mom,
Jessenia, and her brother Jonathon.

Sunday- Sunday was great! Church was a little overwhelming because I
struggled to speak Spanish. Most of church was me being super
confused and not understanding alot, but it was good. The members are
amazing and super strong in the church. They are so willing to help
with missionary work. And they are so loving to me. We find ways to
communicate with eachother and they are just overall nice, kind
people.

After lunch, we stopped by this woman's house named Gigi. She is less
active and lives by herself. She was in an accident and is in a
wheelchair and has difficulty speaking. I literally could not
understand a word she said. She was so happy to see us. When we
asked her if she lived by herself she started crying. We sang a hymn
with her and I started crying. We talked about the love God and Jesus
Christ have for us. We talked about how we're never alone and that
she has family and friend from the ward. I can't really explain all
that happened but I seriously felt the spirit so strong and I was able
to say the things Gigi needed to hear.

Another cool experience was teaching this girl named Dayanna. She is
16-years-old and wants to be baptized, but her parents won't let her.
Sunday night we stopped by and got to teach her, her mom, and Dad.
Hermana Parrales said she has taught many lessons to Dayanna, but her
parents have never been there. Her parents explained that they don't
want to her to get baptized because they don't have enough trust in
her to make such a big decesion. We talked alot about our missions
and they said they believed that our parents have a lot of trust in us
to be serving missions. I got to talk to them about you guys and how
it's super difficult to be so far away, but that I am here because God
sent me to Ecuador to be a missionary and share the gospel. Long story
short, they like us and we are returning Thursday night to teach them.

So many other great things have happen, but there is not enough time
to share it all. It is SO hard not being able to speak Spanish well.
I find ways to comminuicate, but it's hard. Some moments I think "
there is NO way that I will be able to speak this language fluently",
but I know with time and the help of the Lord I will be able to.

Huancavilca is so amazing. The members are strong and the baptisms
are high. Even though my feet are swollen, I have bug bites all over
my legs and feet, I sweat all the time and reak, and I can't speak
Spanish... I love it here.

I don't have much time left, but know I am keeping you all in my prayers

Just a side note about Dear Elder. Dear Elder letters are printed in
the mission home here in Ecuador. My district leader said that we get
them every week at our district meetings, and so I assume we get our
other letters and packages then too. As I had said last week (or the
week before) I didn't receieve any letters in Peru. Just Dear Elders
from Mom, Dad, Hannah, and Jordan Landes. So if people sent letters
there, I'm so sorry that I didn't get them

Ok, it's time for me to go....

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND MISS YOU!

Please keep me in your prayers

Love Always,
Hermana Smith