May 9, 2011

¡Buenas Dias Familia! It feels like I just talked to you
yesterday...wait, I DID talk to you yesterday and it was so great :)
I was happy that we were able to have time to finish our phone call in
the evening, because I was super sad that we weren't able to for the
full hour at first. I'm sure it was a surprise when I called again,
hahaha.

Well, anyway, even though we talked on the phone for a good amount of
time, I wasn't able to let you know what has gone on this week. So
here we go....

Last Monday after writing emails we had to RUSH home to grab our stuff
and head to the bus terminal to leave for Guayaquil. We were freaking
out that we wouldn't make it in time, but we got there with about 40
minutes to wait until our bus left. We got to the temple in the early
evening. We had time to walk around the temple, chat with all the
other missionaries, and then had a Family Home Evening. Even though
this temple visit/training with President was for all the new
missionaries, it was only the missionaries from the south part of the
mission. The new missionaries serving in Guayaquil went to the temple
the day after us. We ended the night pretty early and headed to our
rooms (we stayed in the hotel right next to the temple) and went to
bed early because we were all exhausted.

Tuesday morning we went to the 8am endowment session in the temple.
It was sooooo good! I really love the calm and peaceful feeling in the
temple. It's not that often I get a moment to relax and "take in" the
spirit. And unlike the sessions I did in Peru, I did not have a
translator head set, so it was all in Spanish....but I practically
understood everything, which was great! After the session, we had a
late breakfast in the temple and then had a conference with President.
We talked a lot about our weekly and nightly planning sessions and
how we can better plan, so we can have more success. I learned a lot
and this time, didn't epically fail when I talked in front of
everyone. After our training, we quickly ate lunch and headed off to
the terminal to go back to Cuenca. We stopped by a church store by
the temple and I bought a ton of church DVDs for super cheap. When we
were on the bus, we asked the bus driver if we could put in one of our
DVDs and he said yes! So we watched the Joseph Smith movie. Kinda
funny because all of us missionaries were excited thinking we'd get
some references or new investigators, but nope, practically everyone
fell asleep and the only ones watching the movie were us
missionaries....hahaha. We got home right before 9 and planned for
the next day.

Wednesday was a pretty good day, especially in regards to my Spanish.
We didn't teach tons of lessons because we had to go visit and teach
Jacqueline (who lives 2 hours away and has a baptism date), but in
every lesson, when I spoke, I didn't have troubles (well not like
usual). I had prayed for the Lord to help so I could communicate and
had tons of faith that he would help me, and he did. My companion
even was like "You're talking a lot more today" and I responded "It's
definitely not me, it's the help of the Lord"

Thursday we had our district meeting. Our district leader Elder
Keables asked Hermana Barker and I to teach a 15 minute lesson. Phew,
that was a bit of a struggle... I was talking and everybody was just
staring at me and patiently listening and trying to understand me. I
don't know, it's kind of a funny mental picture...but I'm glad it's
over. In the evening we went downtown to teach the grandson of the
Guzman family. His name is Richard, he's 10, and went to church with
them the Sunday before. We taught him about baptism and committed him
to baptized on the 21st of May and he said yes!

Friday we had our weekly planning session. We planned REALLY well and
actually planned for a lot longer than we had time for. I'm really
excited to see the results of this coming week because we seriously
planned super well and we are going have a busy and hopefully
successful week. In the afternoon, we had a mini zone conference in
the stake center with the mission president (for some reason, I've
been having a lot of conferences with him). This conference was good,
because the stake president was there and he talked a lot about the
help we can get from the members, and then President Montalti talked
about how we have to apply the Atonement in our lives still because
we're imperfect and need to better ourselves.

Saturday morning we went downtown to teach this family that was a
reference from a member. She owns a bakery, so after the lesson we
helped her make some bread, which was pretty cool. Except, I can't
roll bread the right way :( Saturday night we had a lesson with Nelly
and her kids. Elder Keables came with us too. It was really good.
The frustrating part was that I had prepared for this lesson, I
studied it in the morning, practiced with Hermana Barker, but then we
were there, I stumbled over my words but couldn't speak. It was like
preparing for a big performance and then getting stage freight....ugh!
But as the lesson continued, it got better. We asked them to be
baptized on the 21st and they want to be baptized, but their dad
doesn't support it. I was then prompted to share the story about one
of my best friends who got baptized and her parents didn't support the
decision. I told the story and shared how happy she is now because
she has the companionship of the Holy Ghost and I promised them the
same happiness and peace. I didn't tell the story as well as I
would've liked because my Spanish was limited, but as we left, Elder
Keables told me that my story was powerful and that I as told it the
spirit was strong.

Sunday was an adventure....oh my gosh. At 6:15 in the morning we
received a call from one of our old investigators (Familia
Quituysaka). We had stopped teaching them because they weren't coming
to church and not keeping their commitments, but the mother asked when
church started and told us their family was coming! Before sacrament
meeting, we did divisions, meaning my companion and I separated with
members and we went to pick up our investigators to come to church. I
was little nervous because I don't know our area super well and that I
would have to keep a conversation going, but I did it. We had 11
investigators in Sacrament meeting, which is the most there have been
thus far in my mission. Familia Quituysaka also brought their
extended family (the sister of the mother and some of her kids).
Lydia, the sister of Hermana Quituysaka, told us that she wants to be
taught the lessons, so we had set up an appointment for 630 and to
have a ward member come with us.

Well, after lunch we went to teach this 18-year-old girl named Valeria
who we had contacted on the street. This is a long story, but to make
it short, we ended up teaching her, her sister Karla, and her neighbor
Silvia and Silvia's daughter Michelle. Silvia told us that she had
met with the missionaries a few years ago and liked it. We taught the
Restoration and Silvia told us that she believes that Joseph Smith was
a prophet and restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They all said that
they would get baptized after they prayed and received the answer.
When this happens, they'll get baptized on the 28th of May.

After this, I called you guys :) I was so upset that the cabina we
were in only had one phone for international calls, so we only talked
for 25 minutes. Right before we left to teach Lydia, Hermana Barker
ended her phone call with her family and decided that we'd call our
families again after this appointment because we didn't get to talk
for a whole hour. We rushed to this appointment. We went with 2 ward
members in a truck, but when we got to the house of Familia
Quituysaka, Lydia wasn't there. We got the directions for her house,
but as we started leaving, the truck we were in got stuck. We had to
find help and ended up having these drunk men help us. Then we
struggled to find the house, but ended up finding a neighbor of Lydia
who wants to be taught. Once we FINALLY found Lydia's house, we ended
up teaching her, her kids, another neighbor of hers (who she invited
to hear our message), and Familia Quituysaka. The lesson was awesome
and we're going to teach them some more this week.

When we finally got near our house, we found a cabina that was open
and that had 2 phones to call internationally!!!!!!!!!!! Dad sure was
surprised to hear I was calling again, but it was great to talk to you
guys again and finish our hour phone call. Thank you for letting me
"eat dinner" with you guys. After the phone call, we rushed home and
called in to report our numbers. When we told Elder Keables that we
had 11 investigators in sacrament meeting and 17 new investigators
this week he responded "Shut up!!!!". It was truly a miracle that we
had this many people. The Lord has really blessed us for our hard
work and diligence. This week we are planning to put baptismal dates
with these investigators!

Well, I need to get going... I've spent forever writing this email,
but Ï wanted to share all these cool experiences and stories.

I hope you all have a fabulous week! I'm thinking of you and praying
for you! I love you :)

Love,
Hermana Smith