16 Mayo 2011

Wow famila, the days are FLYING!!!! It's probably because we've been
super busy and working hard. Hermana Barker and I have been sick with
colds this week, but we're enduring to the end and working working
working...well, resting a little when we have time which hasn't been a
lot....BUT it's been paying off! Let me tell you about our week...

Monday was SUPER awesome, because it was the first real pday that I
had had in a long time! We cleaned the house, wrote letters, rested,
bought our groceries, etc. In the evening we had some good lessons.
One funny story about Monday... we taught Jose and Karena (they went
to church the Sunday before and they're pretty receptive to our
message). But, they were asking me what my name Smith meant in
Spanish. I explained to them that it is my last name and that there
was no exact meaning in Spanish. Karena turns to Jose and says "Let's
name our next son after her, we like the name Smith for a boy".
Hmmm....bueno... looks like there will be a little chiquetito named
Smith walking around Ecuador in the future!

Tuesday in the morning we had another lesson with Nelly again and
Hermana Arteaga (our neighbor who is a member) joined us. And once
again, the spirit was super strong. In the end, Nelly was in tears
and so grateful for this new knowledge she has of God and the
restoration. The challenge with her is that her husband is not
supportive of the church because their family is Catholic. We are
hoping and praying that one day he will be supportive. We are
planning on putting a baptismal date with her and her kids in June.

In the evening we had another lesson with Richard Guzman who had the
baptismal date of the 21st, but his mom won't give him permission to
be baptized because their family is Catholic (yes, there are SO many
Catholics here in Cuenca). So we'll probably visit him and his family
every once in awhile.

Wednesday in the evening we had a lesson with Valeria and Karla Tacuri
and their neighbor Silvia, and her daughter Michelle (We taught them
the Sunday before and they were very interested and Silvia had told us
that she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet). The lesson was SUPER
awesome! We read in 2 Nephi 31 and talked about baptism and they were
super receptive and understanding the importance of baptism. We asked
them to be baptized on the 28th and they said YES!

Thursday we taught Familia Salinas again (this was the family that we
visited the Sunday before between my phone calls). This was actually
the 3rd time we taught them this week because the love learning and
want to get baptized. Lidia, the mother, is going through a divorce,
and the husband is HORRIBLE! But they've seen the blessings and
changes in their family members (Familia Quituysaka who were are also
teaching) and in themselves. Lidia's neighbors and friends have been
coming to listen to the lessons too, but their husbands are not
supportive of it.... Gosh, there really are horrible men here in
Ecuador!

Friday we had our weekly planning session and then in the afternoon we
went to visit Jacqueline in Lenta (2 hours away). This lesson was a
bit of struggle, because we had intentions of moving her baptism date
up to the 21st because she's had all the lessons and is ready, but
when we got there she shared with us that she has all these fears and
how her family isn't supportive and how she wants to wait until she
feels 100% for sure about baptism. We told her that she wouldn't feel
100% for sure about baptism and that she is going to receive SO many
blessings after her baptism. We also testified that the gift of the
Holy Ghost is going to help her so much in her life.

Saturday we had some pretty good lessons also. We taught Julia; she's
been an investigator for 8 or 9 monthes, but can't get baptized
because she's not married and is from Peru. BUT, her and her husband
are going to Peru in the beginning of June to get married! So we put a
baptismal date with her for the 18th of June!

Sunday we had a stake activity called "A Day like a Missionary" which
meant that members of the church would help us out. We'd do divisions
so we could teach more lessons. So we met at the stake center at 7am
and of course it was ALL boys and no girls to help the sister
missionaries. We were a little upset because we thought we'd have
help so we could pick up all our investigators, but we had to do it
ourselves. We had to walk a TON and FAST...ALL over the place to pick
up our investigators and NONE of them were there. We went to pick up
Valeria, Karla, Silvia, and Michelle, but they weren't home and we
don't know why because they said they would come. And then we didn't
have time to go pick up Ana Jimenez (another investigator). We got to
church late and the Familia Salinas wasn't there, only the Familia
Quituysaka, Jacqueline, and Julia. We were pretty bummed because we
thought that we were going to have 13 investigators in Sacrament
Meeting.

But then the sun started to shine... A 24-year-old girl named Indira
showed up to Relief Society and said "I'm sorry, I was supposed to
meet you at the stake center in the morning, but I wasn't feeling
good. But, I am here now, I want to help, because I just put in my
mission papers and am preparing to leave" ...and she had a car! We
taught Jacqueline after church and it was great! We answered all her
questions and calmed her fears (at least for now) and we planned her
baptism with her for the 28th!.

After this lesson, we went with Indira to lunch, and then after we
taught this girl named Francia. The Elders in a different ward were
teaching her, but she just moved into our sector, so we had our first
lesson with her. She's 19 and from Haiti. She doesn't speak a lot of
Spanish, but believes the church is true and wants to be baptized.
She hasn't come to church yet (she needs to attend at least 2 times),
so her baptismal date is for the 11th of June.

Then, we went and taught this girl named Ximena. She's dating a
member of our ward and wants to take the lessons. Right now she is
studying in school and can't attend sacrament meetings on Sundays
because she has class, but her semester ends in June and then she can
start coming to church. We asked her to pray about being baptized in
the middle of June. We are planning on teaching her this next Sunday
and putting a baptismal date with her.

Indira dropped us off at the church and we hustled over to visit
Familia Salinas and Familia Quituysaka. We were in such a hurry and
we ended up having to walk a ton to get to their house. When we got
there they said "Teach us about baptism!" (because that was the lesson
in Sunday School, but famalia Salinas wasn't there because we found
out that they accidentally slept in....). But anyway, they told us,
also, that they want to be baptized!!!!!! We put a baptismal date with
ALL of them (7 in total) for the 11th of June! BUT with Lidia and her
two teenage sons we're going to try and move their date to the 28th of
May because they are ready and we found out that they don't need the
permission of their father (this is why we said the 11th of June with
them).

AHHHH... this week was awesome! Even though we were/are sick, we
worked SUPER hard and we had a lot of success! Right now we have 10
baptismal dates (and hopefully a few more after tonight). Hermana
Barker received a personal email from President today congratulating
us on having 11 investigators in Sacrament Meeting the week before. He
told us we need to have more baptismal dates than 3 (what we had the
week before) and have at least 20 lessons each week. Well this past
week, we had 10 and taught 24 lessons! We have this goal of showing him
that we can have just as much success and baptisms as the missionaries in
Guayaquil(because Cuenca is a lot harder). In this last week, every time we've called our district leader to update him on our numbers, he's told us that
we our the idols of the missionaries here in Cuenca! I'm hoping that because
of our hard work, I'll be able to stay here for the next transfer or
more and be here for all these baptisms we will have!

Well, that's pretty much it on this side of the world! Today we played
ultimate frisbee with with Elders and it was super fun! I SUCK and
they were definitely not passing it to me BUT I caught the winning
goal/point which was AWESOME!!!!!! My team ran together and started
jumping and hugging, without me of course because I was the only
sister missionary on our team. They were like "We're sorry Hermana
Smith that you can't be apart of this hug, but way to
go!!!!!"....hahahaha! Oh the life of a sister missionary!

I'm glad everything is going well with you guys! Thanks for your
letters and love :) I hoping mail comes this week, because it's been
FOREVER since we've gotten it!

I LOVE YOU!!!! Have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Smith