Well, hello!
Here's a selfie. I know y'all miss my selfies.
My trainer 'mommy' left me! I shall miss Hermana Oropeza. Love her. She got cambia´d (transferred) to go to Quito. But shes going home ('dying') in 6 weeks. El fiiiiiiiiiiiiin se acerca y haaaay poco tiempo. (The ennnnnd is near there is little time remaining.) But anyways I love her so much. I learned so much from her. Aww. Who wants to go to Peru with me to visit her post mish!?
HOW IS MARCH ALMOST OVER?! AAAAAAAAAH. The days are flying by. I can't believe I´ll have been out for 5 months next week. WHAT...
Just a casual jumping pic in front of church........ ignore my frighteningly fat calves. It's the camera´s angle, I promise.
Ladron cogido, Ladron quemado. aka, Caught thief, Burnt thief. Watch out, because here they still believe in castigo indigena, which means like, indian punishing. So instead of going to jail, they just hit you with ortiga, or burn you, or beat you up. Pretty intense stuff...
Oh lemme tell yall a bit of their story. Elena who is a menos activo (less-active member) from like 30 yearrrs ago, whose son passed away a year ago. She had a dream with him in it saying that he was still alive, that he was in a good place, and that he wanted her to be happy. The next afternoon, Hermana Rojas and I showed up on her doorstep. She wasn't even registered in the branch records, we just happened to be led to that house in particular. Her brother (who is active and lives in Otavalo) did baptisms for the dead for her son, and she is convinced that she needs to follow Christ and reactivate in the church. Lo and behold, we were guided to that very house, that very afternoon. Crazy how many miracles we have been priviliged to witness. She has assisted twice and progressing beautifully with the lessons. Her husband, Alfonso is always present and Wary, her daughter has a fecha (date for baptism). This is a very special family. I feel like I know them from the pre-existance! They're great. I know that the Lord prepares people specifically for us.
Me and my favey, Wary. She's SUCH A CUTE LITTLE MUNCHKIN!!!!!!!
Us with Wary, one of our investigators. She made us a cute drawing on a piece of wood and painted it for us. Such a sweetheart. I LOVE HER! We really are hoping that her Dad will give her permiso (permission) to be baptized. She LOVES Primary. She used to go to Catesismo, which is catholic classes so they can do the Primera Communion (First Communion) , but she said, YO AMO PRIMARIA, no quiero regresar a Catesismo! (I LOVE PRIMARY, I don't want to go back to Catechism.) Hahaha, she's so cute.
We memorized the Cristo Viviente (Living Christ), and oh man. It is so cool. The promise that is made in Doctrine & Covenants about getting knowledge and then speaking with the spirit and having those exact thoughts put into our hearts in the exact moment that we need it is REAL! I have been able to use the Cristo Viviente in lessons and everything. It's a powerful message. I encourage everyone to read it! :) (click to view larger)
When we were in Quito I hung out with the nurse for a little while and we went to the nicest hospital in all of Ecuador. (No, really, I felt like I was in the States.) The past 5 weeks I have felt really dizzy and faint and fatigued and all these other lame symptoms coupled with a ton of heachaches.... It's really annoying and frustrating because I just want my body to function properly but sometimes it doesn't listen to me. Meh. So I got all these tests done and my blood drawn. (Reminded me of the days when I would sell my plasma hahha...) We don't have results yet but it's all good. I'm sure I'm fine.
Me and two of my faveys, Elder Meriles and Elder Delgado. They're the best.
Verfication was great! We had a lot of fun getting lost in Quito. But Elder and Sister Nelson hooked us up with like 23 copies of the Book of Mormon -- wut wut wuuut. So excited, we had run out at home. ALSO WE BOUGHT THE BOOK OF MORMON SCRIPTURE READER Reader – Scripture Stories: Book of
Mormon Stories
like the kiddo version that we always used to read when I was a little wawita (kid). Me and my companion read one story every night before bed, hahaha, we are so cute. It has come in handy for the kids we are teaching because there's pics and it's short and easy for them to understand. Annnyways. We got lost twice and finally made it back to Imababura at like 9pm, hehe. Adventures!
OBSESSED WITH THESE THINGS. They're sour or sweet and they're so fun to eat because they look like little sea urchins. It's like 25 for a dolla, holla. They're called achotio, or lychees. Or ceilo en tu boca (heaven in your mouth).
Jaime got baptized! So happy for him. His wife left him a while ago and since then, he had been drinking, losing time, just sad. But the gospel has illuminated his life, and he is doing SO well. He is such a great example to me. We can overcome anything with the help of our Father in Heaven, and Christ's Atonement. It doesn´t matter how dark or depressing your past may be, you can always flip a page, begin a new day and start to trust in the healing power of Repentance and the Atonement. AH LOVE HIM! He's super thoughtful and already has lots of friends at church (which is good because he needed to put a bit of distance between him and his old friends). I am so happy for him and the changes that he is making.
JAIME GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEE
Some food for thought this week:
"Only in losing yourself, may you find yourself. Only by enriching others, may you be enriched. Only by giving, may you receive..." El que pierde su vida por causa de mí, la hallará. Mateo 10:39Hermaniiiiiiita (little Sister) Bowman
PS. To answer a question from my Mom, yes, I do wash my clothes in a bucket. All of my clothes. By hand. Every Monday.......... it's great. The water is fweeezing. I LOVE LAUNDRY MACHINESSSSS. I want one when I get home. I'm going to go to Best Buy and buy three and send them all here. I love these people so much, they deserve the world.
Here's a pic of us at the Taxopamba waterfalls from like 10 weeks ago. It was quite the hike to get there. So fun though. Reminded me of Hawaii a little bit! I'm the awkward one on the left. Yep.
One more thing:
“God is good and faithful, and He performs His work in ways that sometimes are not comprehensible to our mortal minds.” - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
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