sista b: Middle of the World

Well, where do I begin!?

On the bus smilin´

On the bus thuggin'

There were cambios (transfers). Bittersweet. But more sweet than bitter. I know that I was sent by inspiration here to this new area! I´m really stoked to get to know the ward and the people, and the sector, everything! I love new things. I am now in Pusuqui in Ofelia. It´s likeeeeee, I dunno, an hour north of Quito, if that. Hermana Rebeca Richardson did the grand favor of taking me and my bags to my new house. I´m stoked.

Every morning (practically every one) when we pass by this fruit shop, our little friends hooks us up with a mandarin or an orange. Today it was an apple. I´m gonna miss that, aw.

HERMANA RICHARDSON!!!! She´s so cute. The two Ticas. Viva Costa Rica!

We´re literally at the center of the Earth. Mitad del Mundo (middle of the earth) is in our ward boundaries, so I'm literally serving the Lord on the EQUATOR OF PLANET EARTH. I´m also really excited because I´m comps with Hermana Landero, she´s from Belize and we happened to share Quinchuquí a few months back. She only has 4 months left here on the mish, so I´ll be able to learn a lot from her too! We´re both compañera mayor (senior companion) though. She´s hilarious and knows how to make tortillas. Sooo, y´all already know what´s for dinna tonight!

New COMP! Loooveee Hna. Landero! She´s from Belize and only has 4 monthsleft of her mish! We shared the Quinchuqui branch a few months ago. She´s awesome. Super funny and quite the hard worker. I´m stoked.

Me in my new sector HOLLAHOLLA Pusuqui! in Zona Ofelia.

We got home to drop off all my bags (Isn´t it incredible how you can pack your whole life into 3 suitcases and a backpack?! It was a miracle I got everything to fit. I was like, standing on my suitcase to zip it closed this morning!) We had a missed call from someone saying, ¨Hi, I live in Pusuqui and I wanna know if maybe y'all can come visit me this week, I got your number from some missionaries¨ UH HI, OKAY. We shall be right over! Blessings. I love this work.

Here are some cuties we always run into in Nayon! They´re darling. We were walking by, and their Mom was like "HEY, do y'all speak French or Spanish?" And then wanted us to teach them English, ha.

Another view pic. From the terraza (balcony) of an investigator´s house in Nayon.

Dang, what happened this week!? It´s a bummer, I forgot my journal, it´s buried at the bottom of one of my suitcases. But from what I remember...

I HEART ECUADOR napkin

- I FOUND OUT I AM NOW LACTOSE INTOLERANT.

-We were contacting one night in Zambiza and came across this kid who said, "COME TALK TO MY MOM!" So we followed him to his house and started talking with his Momma! She was pretty interested so we whipped out the Restoration pamphlet. The kid that led us there started leafing through it and when he got to the pic of Christ in the Americas, where it decribes the Book of Mormon, he got waaay excited and said, "HEY, I´ve seen that picture before! I have it!¨ So he ran and grabbed it, and it turned out it was a pass-along card with me and Hna. Velasquez´s name on it! aka from like May or something. We had contacted his Dad, and he kept the card! They even had it like, hanging up in their house. THIS IS WHY I LOVE CONTACTING. You never know what kinda seeds you´re planting for the future!

Eatin' at Blanca´s casa, with EDISON and his fiancé

(YES, THEY'RE GETTING MARRIED - IT'S A MIRACLE) Patty!

-We were gonna make tobacco tea with Carlos and a couple in our ward. It´s where, if you wanna stop smoking, you take your cigarettes and empty all the contents into some water and make tea out of it. YOU WILL THROW UP. And every time after, you´ll remember how utterly terrible that was and you won´t wanna smoke. Works like a charm. But I got transferreeeedddddd. So they´re gonna do that tonight.

Us with Estefa and her fambam.

-We went and visited Estefanía and her Atheist (inactive member of the church from like 40 years ago) Dad came out saying, ¨YOU KNOW WHAT?! I don´t believe any church. Wanna know why?¨ (and at this point we´re like rolling our eyes just waiting for some atheistic remark or something) ¨Why, Manuel, tell us...¨ ¨Because they say that angels live in heaven but there are two right here.¨ And then he gave us bread. It was really weird but really cool because although he still won´t pray with us, he lets his wife and daughter listen and go to church. It´s great. Poco a poco (little by little)! :)

Us with Estefanía and her momma- she said she´d send me pics of her baptism. Aw.

Me and the mamita that was obsessed with me. Heh. Cocina fulllll rico.

-We had mini-conference and my comp and I trained the zone this past conference, the Zone Leaders asked us to. We did it on being happy! It was really cool how it turned out. We played a game where they had to race to stick their faces in flour and look for the piece of gum and be the first to chew it and blow a bubble. It was so funny. Then we shared a ton of scriptures about being happy and how this is God´s work and stuff like that. Then we watched a really funny short vid. It was really great! We did 40%, 20%, 40% without even realizing it, ha.

Our zone. Aw.

Dynamic Duo

-We literally saw THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD. I don´t know what was going on but God definitely put everyone in our path on Saturday and Sunday! We saw every investigator and a ton of less actives. And every last person wanted to give us food. It was pretty crazy. We had some really solid citas (appointments) with a couple of less actives, who actually sought us out, our investigators, and the fam that came to church with us on Sunday. Keep ´em in y´all´s prayers, if you would: Estefanía, Luis, Fernando and Vanessa.

Us and one of the fam´s that come to church. I love them. They´re so cute. What the dad, Christian, loves the most about this church is that it is SO incredibly centered on families.

-On Sunday, everyone wanted to take pics with me because we were all betting if I´d stay or go. (obviously, I went) It was kinda sad becuase the Bishop was all like,¨Hermana Bowman, we really have loved having you in our ward, you work so hard, you´re so outgoing,¨ blah blah blah and I almost cried. I loved El Edén. I stayed like from May until September there! It was real.

I was attacked with stickers during sacrament meeting so two little toddler girls would stay quiet. Worth it.

Me and my fave little monkey from the ward. He´s so incredibly ADD, and he always shouts, AMEN! At the end of any prayer hahaha, I love Jason.

-I am so grateful for this past week, bueno (well), this past cambio (transfer), and also the whole time I was able to spend in El Eden. It was marvelous! I learned and grew, and loved and laughed, cried and progressed. It was incredible.

Paty is pregggers!!!!!

-Today I am very grateful for the fact that we can have eternal families. Teaching families is the best. This Gospel is so perfect. We taught a family on Saturday night and had a really spiritual experience. The wife had recently lost her mother and we were able to talk about eternal families. They asked HOW they could possibly do that? Well, we explained that through covenants with the Lord in the Temple, they could become sealed and an eternal family. So then we asked if they wanted that specific blessing, and they said, yes, more than anything! So then, we explained baptism, and they were so incredibly receptive. Because it´s true, baptism is but a step in the direction to having the blessing of being an eternal family.

Dang it, my time is up. But I love all y'all. Know that the Savior does too, and that this Gospel is positively perfect!

As we keep the commandments and follow Christ, we are happier. Just like it says in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 5:27, we will live after a manner of happiness. The Gospel is so simple.

MAKE GOOD CHOICESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Con amor (with love)

desde el mitad del mundo (from the middle of the world)

Hermana (Sister) Bowman