I teach the lessons in my sleep

FAM, friends, neighbors, missionaries, salutationssssss!

So much to write, so little time.  And today I am especially ADD, so I apologize in advance. 

Here on the mish, we have a little something called ¨La fe de febrero trae los milagros de marzo¨. (The faith of February brings miracles in March.) where we work extra hard as a mission (even though we aspire to do that daily, do all our studies, only listen to MoTab {swag}, don't do zone activities, & things of the sort. In addition to all that, President has asked us to sacrifice something, and then add in something that will increase our spirituality and our testimony. 

What I did for Preparation day today. 
It rained. So I ate and studied. and slept. 
holllllllerrrrrrrrrr

Well, for me the times in the AM and PM are very precious times of preparation and relaxation - but I have decided that I'd like to get to know Christ a little better. So, I will be reading the Book of Mormon by the end of March and I will also read about His life and teaching in the New Testament for a chunk of those times and record my insights and impressions in a little journal I have titled, ¨This is the Christ¨. Hermana Deveraux and I are doing it. It was her bright idea about the New Testament but I have actually received that prompting to read the New Testament the last two General Conferences but I never really got around to it because we´re always studying for our investigators and stuff. BUT, it's been great so far. (It's an improvement from last year when I sacrificed drinking Coke... yeah) :)

All of these people are so awesome. I love zem allllll!

Familia Muenala a fam of recent converts, they're super strong and super awesome. I love them. They've been to the Temple! And Kevin went to the mini Missionary Training Center activity. 

Carnaval is in full swing. I think I explained it last February, cuz I was in Otavalo at this time last year. Hmmm, I was also training last February. History repeats itself... Whaaaat. Anyways. The children love throwing flour and buckets of water. AND foamy spray that they spray outta car windows and I seem to be the favorite target since I'm the only blonde in a 500 mile radius. I love carnaval though. :) It´s part of Pawkar Raymi, which mean party of the sun in Kichwa. I LOVE THE INDIGENAS AND THEIR TRADITIONS. It's so cool. 

It's like a mini club! With statues of indigenous people! 

TRUNKY PARAGRAPH: I turned 15 months old. I can't believe it. Now I know why old people disregard their birthdays. I HATE GETTING OLDER IN THE MISH. Time is such an odd thing, y'all. It feels like I've lived here my whole life and I know nothing other than the life of a missionary, but then at the same time I feel that I've only been here for 3 days.

Chicken feet!

Cutting the nails off of chicken feet for soup!  

Yum.

AH, in light of my return... I have a CHALLENGE FOR ALL READERS OF EMAILS AND MY BLOG (Members and non members). Listen up y'all... Who's down to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days?! It's the best way to do it. I invite all y'all to find a blank copy of the Book of Mormon (Ask the missionaries. I guarantee they have hundreds laying around in their apartments.)

Hahahhaha look at Cristina's face. 

Illariy and CUI.

And a blue and red pencil (or pen, whatever y'all prefer. Pencils are better though.) And then read the Book of Mormon with a purpose or question in mind, marking all thing that pertain to said focus in blue. Then, mark all things that have to do with Christ in red. I PROMISE that it will change y'all's lives if you do it with a spirit of prayer. Then, you can share your impressions, insights, and testimony with me when I get back! Win, win! 

Food update. We. Ate. Blood. Soup. And. Guinea. Pig. Again. This. Week. WHYyyyyyyyy. Nooooooooo whyyyyyyy nonono. I had bicicleta for 3 days and thought I was gonna die. I got all dehydrated and then had to drink 2 bottles of suero (no idea what that is in english). I love the mission! Hahah.

Me and my suero for diaihreihreaaa (I'm almost 21 and can´t spell that word still.)

Weather update, it has been raining cats and dogs. Some members were like, y'all should go home, y'all are gonna get sick! But hey, rain or shine we are still called to serve, eh? But yeah, there have been a couple torrential downpours, gotta love it! We play in the rain. :) 

Our awesome giant member present lesson we had last night, 

it turned into a Young Single Adult Family Home Evening. 

We had a miracle this week. We had prayed really hard the night before, the morning and the afternoon of Tuesday to find a prepared family. Our citas (appointments) had fallen through and we were walking, and said a last specific, faith-filled prayer and then the Lord put a super-prepared family in our path. It was awesome. They were really hesitant to listen at first but then we just started teaching. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and they were really attentive and at the end we asked the father of the family what he liked most and he said, ¨All of it... I never thought I could be with my family forever.¨ It was incredible. This is why I came on a mission! Because Families really can be together forever! :)

This is my artistic side - hahahaha. I am trying to fill up my old journal because I have a new pretty one (THANKS MOTHER) and I wanna write in it. So I'm drawing lots of pictures. 

We did some service projects this week in a hospital and at an old persons' home. They're so cute. We cleaned the kitchen in the hospital. I can't believe it counts as a hospital... There were cucarachas (cockroaches) everywhere. "La cucuaraaaaachaaaaaaaaa, la cucarachaaaaa, ya no puede caminar." hahah. But it was great.

We had food, it was good. 

We were walking home one night and our mamita from Wednesdays was frantically climbing up the hill and shouted, ¨YA NO HAY PAPAS!¨...(NOW THERE ARE NO POTATOES!)... there was a wedding that night and she's the Aunt or something, and of course, the family is in charge of the food. More than 500 people had shown up and they ran out of potatoes so then we peeled like a whole quintal of potatoes. I couldn't feel my fingers afterwards. It was fun though. They said I'm gonna be a good wife becuase I know how to peel them fast and well. HAHA, okay, thanks. I love doing service. I always have. It's also a great way to de-stress :) Everyone look for a way to serve this week! Do it, dooo it. 

We peeled like 39,408,329,423 potatoes. 

With the Amaguaña fam and one of our investigators, Lourdes. 

She's the one in the grey hoodie.  

They don't have potato peelers here, y'all.

WE ARE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE, TOTO. 

Fun fact, my companion says I talk in my sleep (everyone that has been to girls' camp with me already knew this) but I teach the lessons in my sleep. Hahahaha. What.

I was reading in Jacob this week and I really like verse 5 in chapter 4 because it says that through obedience, they ¨pointed their souls towards Christ¨. This is so true. As we are obedient, we can attain more hope, a more unshaken faith, and we will have our faces pointed towards the light of the Son. :) As we recognize our weaknesses, we will receive His grace and power to overcome them. :) Christ loves us. All things are stacked in our favor to return to our Father in Heaven -- all we need to do is believe and then act. I know that Jesus is the Christ! I know that this Gospel will apply perfectly to any and every need that we have. It's custum made for us, y'all.

REMEMBER WHO Y'ALL ARE AND MAKE GOOD CHOICESSSSSSSS! :)

Con muchísimo amor (with a whole lot of love), 

Hermana (Sister) Bowman 

She's so cute hahah. All the kids here always wanna play with my hair because they say it's like Barbie hair. It's cooot. This is when we were waiting for her big sis to come out and show us a referral. (WE HIKED LIKE 8 MILES TO GET THERE).

Candid. Picturesque. 

Shout out to Hermana Smith's Momma :) hahahah. Hi.