YOU MAY NOT EAT IN THE CHAPEL

Wellllllll hi family. 

Me and le compcomp, aka my other half. HAHA she was eating at church because we were dying of starvation and the awesome members had brought us a little morsel of food (rice and chicken, delish) and then a Returned Missionary, Hermano (Brother) Samuel was jokingly like, ¨HERMAANA BOWMAN NO SE COME EN LA CAPILLA.¨ ("SISTER BOWMAN, YOU MAY NOT EAT IN THE CHAPEL.")

¨Pero oye, hermano, yo no estuve comiendo!¨

("But listen, brother, it wasn't me eating!")

¨Pero su compañera sí. Son uno.¨

("But your companion was.  You are one.")

Which is so true. We are one, we stand, heartache to heartache. No but really we are unidas (united) and happy about it. Comps are a divine thing. There´s a reason why we preach the gospel two by two. (Also, the reason why Returned Missionaries get married so fast when they get home, because they´re used to someone by their side for 24/7 for 18-24 months, lol) 

Monday: We went to an English class in Nayón because the teacher (someone we had contacted) wanted a ¨real life English speaker¨, aka me. We also talked to Alonso and helped him differenciate between the negative thoughts and the positive promptings... 

Oh, hey. Costa Rica in Nayón. Random. 

Tuesday: We visited Stephanie, Nelly´s daughter (a recent convert) and Stephanie is super stoked to get baptized but her Dad is crazy and even though he isn´t even really a part of her life, nor supports her or her 3 other siblings, and is basically always just drunk.... he wants her to do the first communion and confirmacion (confirmation) in the Catholic church before she get´s baptized in the LDS church. Which is sad because she´s way pilas (smart) and knows all the answers to all our questions. She´s 9. We also had consejo de barrio (ward counsel) which is always fun. I love our ward, everyone is so willing to help and work hard.

YAY, CORN FIELDS.

Wednesday: We met a reaaaal big atheist. He has really good questions and a ton of knowledge. It was really interesting talking to him because for every. single. question. he had, we could BAM back it up with the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. We left him a copy with like 394 little post-its marking answers. We also went over to the R's house (gringos who were packing to move to Miami) and we entertained their six kids for a while by playing "Mother, May I", "Ninja", and everyone made their own little Plan of Salvation coloring page thing where they cut it out for a future fam home evening lesson. It was fun because we ate American rolls and I got to speak English for a bit. We visited some of our investigators and talked to a lesser active, Alison, and she described allllll the blessings she´s seen as being a member. It was awesome to hear her testimony.

Ecuador also got kicked out of the world cup. Sorry. BUT COSTA RICA IS WINNINGGGGG. Yeah budddddy. Go Ticos.

Mundial. FIFA World Cup.

Thursday: We had our district and zone meeting. It was fun. We talked about how June went and set more goals for July. I am SUCH a goal oriented person now, hahah, like dang. But our leaders are bomb. It was fun because then they gave us cake. Just for kicks and giggles. Yay. Then we did ¨invasions¨ in Bella Aurora, where all the missionaries in the district go out and contact in a specific sector. We visited Alonso and the little punk was drunk so we just went into his house and threw shoes at him until he woke up and then we taught him a lesson on the Word of Wisdom and then he chose to throw all his stash of alcohol down the toilet. We have a vid, it was cool because it was his decision. Then the next day, he remembered everything (we´re not really supposed to teach people when they're drunk) and thanked us. So that was awesome. 

BEST ZONA, Quito Este (east). Notice how I think every zone I´m in, I think is the best zone, hahah. 

Positivity problems. (:

Friday: There was a baptism! And we gave a really awesome spritual tour of the chapel to Alonso, he stayed for baptism and is stoked for his now too. 

This is ROSA. She´s an interesting one. She´s Doulgas and Steven´s momma. And she´s literally an ETERNAL investigator. And finally this week she said, You know what hermanas (sisters)? "Thank you, I´m going to get baptized (YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS) ............... in the other church that I visited once like 6 years ago. (WWWWWWWWHAAAAAAAAAT). So that´s an interesting situation. But it´s all good. She'll come around soon. We explained sacerdocio (priesthood) and how THIS church is the only one that has the true and complete authority to baptize and confirm here on the Earth, and we explained the Restauracion (Restoration) and what not but we shall see what happens with that. We have been praying and fasting for her. Cuz her two kids are baptized and one got the sacerdocio (Priesthood). 

My multiple failed attempts of taking a cool nametag pic.... yeah it never worked.

Sunday: I spoke in Sacrament meeting, it was nice. And then we taught the third hour lesson about...drumrollllllll, missionaries and members working together! Haha -- what a surprise! It was really fun because we got people involved and did practices and what not.

Today (Monday) we had a really fun BBQ with our zone. We also played Ecuavolley, which was waaay fun. It´s more intense and it´s with a soccer ball? I think I bruised my forearms indefinitely. 

I am so grateful for my Savior and Redeemer Christ. I am grateful for the Atonement in my life, and my favorite time of the week is la Santa Cena (the Sacrament). It´s my favorite part to teach too. How awesome that weekly, we get to renew our covenants. I´m just happy for this Gospel in general. I can´t imagine what life would have been like without the Gospel, nor do I want to. And that motivates me to share with others yayyyyyyyyyyyy.

Love y'all.

MAKE GOOD CHOICES

Con amor (with love), Hermana Bowman

Quichua language.

I miss Quinchuqui.