sista b: Hugs & Slugs

Hi Fambam,

Monday was great! We had Prep Day and it started POURING, torrential down pouring, a great welcome for my "daughter" (trainee) hahah. But we still went out and worked.

Real OGs chillin in Ecua

Elders like to talk, too. :)

I think that the weak times of our life (or mission) are our strongest because we are able to rely more fully and trust fullllly in the Lord. And then we are being shaped into the person that we are meant and destined to be... I have been studying my little heart out with the Book of Mormon. I am fascinated. It's so great waking up early and escudriñar-ing (studying) the scriptures. And also my patriarchal blessing is SUCH 'manna' from heaven. I love it so much. Get your patriarchal blessing if you haven't yet, it's like personal scripture, incredible. Also, I am very thankful for the miracle and INSANELY awesome blessing and tool we have, that is prayer. Because I can't pick up the phone and call y'all, but I can call the Lord at any time, and in any place. I know we will be able to see miracles here in Quinchuqui.

Melanie and Gabriel got baptized!!!!!! AHHHH-- LOVE THEM, Gosh, I was so so so dang happy. IT was the cutest because even though I got transferred out of Peguche, we went to the baptism (with some of our investigators), and Melanie got SO excited, because she thought I wasn't gonna come. She said I was her fave...heh. But it was SO special. Both of them have come so far and their Momma was there! Bryan, their neighbor who is 11, who we were also teaching, gave the closing prayer and IT WAS SO GOOD. Hermana Urbina and I were all teary eyed, because the first couple lessons with him, he refused to pray because he would get frustrated and then embarassed. And then he stood up there in front of everyone at the baptism and gave a flawless prayer. I was so happy for him.

Mel and Gabriel, my little angels. I love dem.

We also did a lotttt of service projects this week. I love service because it's a great way to buid confidence with the members (especially since we are newbies in the twig, I mean branch) heh. We planted potatoes, picked avas, sledge-hammered a ton of concrete in someones front yard, etc. etc. It's been great. We have been familiarizing ourselves with our new sector, and got lost a couple times hahaha, but it's all good. The members in our branch are dope. The few, the powerful. There's so much potential in Quinchuqui, wooooo!

Obsessed with our zone hehe IMBABURAPAKCHURIMIKANCHIK

My new trainee/"daughter" is a BOSSSSSSSS. She's great in all of the lessons and she is learning everything so quickly and so well. She came very prepared. Love her.

We found like four new families this week, which is basically unheard of, and they are awesome. Hopefully they can keep progressing. I love all of them already. Theres an older couple that literally treats Hermana Rojas and I like their daughters. They are DARLING. Mercedes and Segundo -- they gave us soup and corn and peas and all this other stuff. So cute.

These girls. Rihanna and Estrella. :D

Speaking of soup, I definitely ruined our phone because I did the sneaky Ziploc trick with my soup, but the bag had a hole in it, and my whole backpack was full of potatoes and rice and watery broth, and our poor little phone was swimming in it. It died. Rest in peace, camera phone. No more selfies. We even tried putting it in rice, nope. So we now have a really old caveman phone, that was obviously previously in the possession of elders. But whatever, its sweet we even have a phone! Im really good at T9 texting now. Does anyone remember that?! hahah.

Oh, I totally got called up to speak on Sunday, during the opening song they were like, "hey can you speak¿?¿?¿?" And I'm like, "SIIIIIIIIII." It was great though. I love speaking, it's so fun. Woo. I spoke on the Atonement. I am so grateful for Christ. He truly is our big brother who loves us more than anything!

We are gonna be in the Quinchuqui choir and sing some songs in Quichua for the branch conference next week, I will be sure to take a video. Woo woo

We had to go straight home after the first hour of church because it was Election Day and it gets rowdy up in hereeee whenever its anything to do with politics. But I definitely scored a couple t-shirts of each political party. Yay for free stuff. ALSO, Carnaval is getting out of hand! Little mocoso travieso (naughty brat) children throw water balloons at us all the time. GRINNNNNNGAAAAAAAAS (American/Blondies) I think I am the preferred target... So we have decided that anytime we leave the house, we must do it armed. One can of foam spray on each side of the backpack. Don't mess with Texas, y'all. They also throw flour and eggs. We have yet to been hit with those, thank goodness.

Carnaval is SO FUN, we had a water and foam fight with Waria, one of our recent converts.

HAPPY B-DAY TO MY MOMMA on THURS. AND HAPPY B-DAY TO AUNT TERRY NEXT WEEEK AND HAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPY BDAAAAAAAAY TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ON SATURDAY. Two decades. I have grey hair already, just call me grandma. heh.