Alillachu kankichi! Kankunata nanda yuyani! Tukuy shunkuwan kuyani. :) (Hello dearest fambam, I miss y'all! and I love y'all with all my heart.)
I'M BASICALLY FLUENT IN KICHWA NOW. Be jealous. I am now trilingual. Here's the most important phrase: yarkajun mikuna ishan! (pronounced yar-ha-hoon, me coona, ee shan...which means I'M HUNGRY AND HAVE NOT EATEN!) Hahaha. I love learning new languages!
Well WOW.
We had leccion (lesson) 2 with Elena and Wuary this past week -The Plan of Salvation- and it was so incredible. Before, Elena would always always always cry at the thought of her son, but after bringing this Plan back to her rememberance (we talk about it like every day we go over, but we had the official lesson again this past Tuesday), she has been enlightened and she remembers him with happiness now.
She knows that he is in a good place and that he would want her to be happy where she's at. It's really cool because she really has desires for Wuary to be baptized. We were able to find her records of baptism from like the 1970´s (Thanks to Hermana Allred, the senior missionary who works in the offices WHO IS FROM SHERMAN TEXAS, like wait what!? We were totes in the same Stake back home. I love her, she's like my mission Gma. She's such a sweetheart.) and also with the knowledge that the necessary ordinances of baptism have been efectuados aquí en la tierra en el santo templo de Dios for her son, Victor. She also now has the vision of going to the temple herself. I am so thankful everyt day for all the miracles we have seen with this family. I know that they are one of the reasons why I am here. To be an instrument in God´s hands. She gave her testimony on how prayer is so powerful and that she knows just how much her Heavenly Father loves her and how pendiente and aware He is of her situation. Yall, God HEARS AND ANSWERS our prayers. A Child´s Prayer, the primary song, is absolutely SO true and SO powerful. Just like how Pres. Eyring was talking about how hymns and scriptures are the things that stick the longest, it is so true. Personally, I totally think that we all sang Armies of Helaman before we came down to this earth, its suuuuuuuuuch a great song that truly brings the missionary spirit. MMM, LOVE THE GOSPEL, LOVE IT!!
Us with one of our FAVORITE FAMILIES! The daughters have been coming to church for a couple weeks now. They´re way special. The oldest, Ñusta (which means reina, osea or queen) was saliebdo como madrina (i have no idea how the heck to say that in english, sowee) which is basically like she was nominated for princess of fine arts or sweetheart (omg, remember when I was sweetheart nom?! Ahhh the glory days hahahha jkjkjkjk) and so we were taking pics with her whole fambam. The mom, Maruja, is SO sweet. They are so special and they are truly seeeing a change poco a poco en sus vidas (little by little in their lives).
We have been working with both Luis and Marison and the both of them truly opened up to us this week. I don´t know what it was about Wednesday, but everyone was just telling us their life story. We used preguntas inspiradas (heaven sent questions) and we were able to figure out truly what their needs were, and teach accordingly. I love that no matter who you are, what you´ve been through, where you come from... There is ALWAYS a facet of the Gospel, a principle, something, that applies directly to your situation.
But one encompasses all, as we were reminded this past weekend in Conf, GOD. LOVES. YOU. You are so precious to Him. The Plan of Happiness is for you. Especially for you. Christ loves you SO much that He came to this Earth, and walked these difficult and often dark, seemingly lonely roads, so that He could know how to help you when you pass through those times. He knows exactly how you feel. He has gone through it, for you, out of His infinite love. You are never, NEVER, alone.
But one encompasses all, as we were reminded this past weekend in Conf, GOD. LOVES. YOU. You are so precious to Him. The Plan of Happiness is for you. Especially for you. Christ loves you SO much that He came to this Earth, and walked these difficult and often dark, seemingly lonely roads, so that He could know how to help you when you pass through those times. He knows exactly how you feel. He has gone through it, for you, out of His infinite love. You are never, NEVER, alone.
MY FAVORITE GRAFFITTTTTTTI! This is on the way to Otavalo and we pass by it all the time. It says, la preparación es la base del éxito. Which means, preparation is the basis (or base, or prerequirement, or is necessary) for success! And it´s too true. This quote has always motivated me to ¨get ´er done¨ whenever it comes to studying and preparing for the day. Like Doctrine & Covenants 11:21 says :) WOO
A dog bit my hand last night, so that was cool. I hope it didn´t have rabies. But I did get to check something off my mission bucket list. Heh.
SOMEONE BROKE INTO OUR HOUSE. It was scary, we had pepper spray and scissors to defend ourselves... We called a member who lived nearby to save us. It was really intense. But then later we found out it was just the owner who was supposed to be in Spain... (lame... we felt reaaaaaallllly dumb for overreacting but whaaaaaatevaaaaaa) It was actually cool because my testimony grew even more about how much our Padre Celestial nos esta cuidando (Heavenly Father is watching over us). :)
K so did something happen at like 8am last week Thursday? Because we were studying all chill and whatnot and then all of the sudden I got really nervous and my stomach dropped and I started to cry. It was odd. But then we said a prayer and I felt better. But I hope all is well with all y'all.
HAHAHA Hermana Hancey is SUCH a sweetheart, she just got here from the Mexico MTC like a week ago, and we were practicing memorizing the articulos de fe en español (Articles of Faith in Spanish), and we were doing number dos (two), which is Nosotros creemos que los hombres serán castigados por sus propios pecados y no por la transgresión de Adán (We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression). But she said, all men must be punished for sus propios pescados (their own fish) hehehe jejeje jijiji. Pescados (fish) it was so cute and so funny. She's a little ray of sunshine and I am way thankful we are in the same area.
Aw conf was really great. All the gringos (white folk) were in a teeny room together and we brought a tonnnnn of food and basically just laid on the floor (because there weren't enough chairs) and took notes (I have 30 pages. I was acutally gonna take pics and send them to y'all pero me cogió la pereza [but I forgot] jejej) but then we got macheted (talked to, or in trouble) for the food. But then we explained its part of the American culture to eat a lot. We had banana pancakes, oreo truffles, cinnammon twists, mozzarella sticks, no bake cookes (all home made...) OH and canguil! (popcorn) It was glorious.
It was so funny because in the first sesh when They announced that Elder Holland was going first, we literally all freeeeeeaked out like woo hoo yayayayay! And every time they would announce a speaker we would all just do the Napoleon Dynamite ¨Yessssssssssssssssssss¨. I love love love love love love love love love love lvoe lveolveovleovelvoe LOVE love love lvoe General Conference. It was incredible So much personal revelation and answers to questions and just AH! I love it. I can´t wait until the Liahona comes out!
I was so stoked because now that I have been studying the scriptures more (I WISH I COULD REPEAT SEMSEM NOW!!!! I MISS SEMINARY AHHHHH. Sorry Sister Summerhayes for not listening better. You were the bomb.com and I love you and all your litle rhymes for the Scrip mastery! I have them written in my quad! "Revelation is great! Don´t sleep late! Prayer conquers Satan. Testimonies stick! Converts awaiting." I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! You´re the best. Do you have those catchphrases for the other books!? And not just Doctrine & Covenants?!) I was totally able to pinpoint any phrase (okay, not any, but a majority) that had a scriptural backbone - it was so sweet. I would put a little s with a circle hehe, I like note taking systems. There were also a couple scriptures, phrases, and general ideas that were repeated a ton of times, and I know that when the Lord repeats stuff in the scriptures O REMEMBER REMEMBER! aka remember, heh.
It was really good. I think the biggest themes were: family, just how much our heavenly father loves us, enduring to the end, and being the best you can be. You should read it on lds.org. Or just re-watch it. There's such power in hearing the words of our Prophet. And the music was positively glorious. I know that we can have the courage and faith to apply all that we heard and learned and be able to build upon the foundation. We can go out and do. Act upon the feelings we have felt as we have listened to these inspiring messages. I loved thinking that so much of the world was singing a hymn at the same time, or saying "amen" at the same time. We were all truly more united as a grandiose (large) fambam in this wonderful Gospel!
Aw conf was really great. All the gringos (white folk) were in a teeny room together and we brought a tonnnnn of food and basically just laid on the floor (because there weren't enough chairs) and took notes (I have 30 pages. I was acutally gonna take pics and send them to y'all pero me cogió la pereza [but I forgot] jejej) but then we got macheted (talked to, or in trouble) for the food. But then we explained its part of the American culture to eat a lot. We had banana pancakes, oreo truffles, cinnammon twists, mozzarella sticks, no bake cookes (all home made...) OH and canguil! (popcorn) It was glorious.
It was so funny because in the first sesh when They announced that Elder Holland was going first, we literally all freeeeeeaked out like woo hoo yayayayay! And every time they would announce a speaker we would all just do the Napoleon Dynamite ¨Yessssssssssssssssssss¨. I love love love love love love love love love love lvoe lveolveovleovelvoe LOVE love love lvoe General Conference. It was incredible So much personal revelation and answers to questions and just AH! I love it. I can´t wait until the Liahona comes out!
I was so stoked because now that I have been studying the scriptures more (I WISH I COULD REPEAT SEMSEM NOW!!!! I MISS SEMINARY AHHHHH. Sorry Sister Summerhayes for not listening better. You were the bomb.com and I love you and all your litle rhymes for the Scrip mastery! I have them written in my quad! "Revelation is great! Don´t sleep late! Prayer conquers Satan. Testimonies stick! Converts awaiting." I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! You´re the best. Do you have those catchphrases for the other books!? And not just Doctrine & Covenants?!) I was totally able to pinpoint any phrase (okay, not any, but a majority) that had a scriptural backbone - it was so sweet. I would put a little s with a circle hehe, I like note taking systems. There were also a couple scriptures, phrases, and general ideas that were repeated a ton of times, and I know that when the Lord repeats stuff in the scriptures O REMEMBER REMEMBER! aka remember, heh.
Here we are with the best fambam ever! María, Diana, and Tati. Who came to confconf! THEY LOVED IT!!! And they came to the sesh where our beloved prophet spoke. When they shared their feelings of excitement and testimony, and expressed that they wanted to take some pics in front of church (usually it's my idea, hashtag selfies) I wanted to cry! They are awesome. :) Love it.
It was really good. I think the biggest themes were: family, just how much our heavenly father loves us, enduring to the end, and being the best you can be. You should read it on lds.org. Or just re-watch it. There's such power in hearing the words of our Prophet. And the music was positively glorious. I know that we can have the courage and faith to apply all that we heard and learned and be able to build upon the foundation. We can go out and do. Act upon the feelings we have felt as we have listened to these inspiring messages. I loved thinking that so much of the world was singing a hymn at the same time, or saying "amen" at the same time. We were all truly more united as a grandiose (large) fambam in this wonderful Gospel!
When we were leaving there were some guys who wanted to kiss me (I hope I have this problem when I get off my mish and go to BYU hahahahahahaha) and then Elder Bacab stepped between us because the guy was pretty dang persistent (musta heard Elder Ballard´s talk, lolololol jk he wasnt a member or anything, he was a hippie that was juggling stuff at the stoplight.) and he said, "No, dude back off..." and then the guy gets on one knee and tries proposing (this is now the third time in 5 months, mind you) and then Elder Bacab goes, "NO SHES ENGAGED ALREADY... IN THE LORD'S WORK!" Hahahahaha. It was so funny. But it's so true doe.
Does it feel like I have been gone five months!? I can't believe it. On one hand it feels like a century. On the other, it feels like 3 weeks.
Does it feel like I have been gone five months!? I can't believe it. On one hand it feels like a century. On the other, it feels like 3 weeks.
CON AMOR (WITH LOVE),
Hermana (Sister) Bowman
HAHAHAHHA MCGEE/BOWMAN INSIDER. Meeting point. Meeeeeting point. MEETING POINT. I died, I thought it was so funny. It was at a restaurant on Saturday in between confconf sessions. I miss all y'all. Let's go on a cruise when I get home please and thanks. (Even though that is 13 months away heh heh... Plus, I am never gonna leave Ecuador since I love it here... And good luck with trying to get me to take my placa (missionary badge) off......... yep)
“Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day. It is an effort of once and for all.”
PS. Fax me some fruit leather. :) heh heh
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