2 months, 1 baptism, and 1 Hermana in Ecuador

Hola!

How are you all doing? I  hope  life is great  in Oregon. I miss the cold weather. I wish that was the case here. It is still super hot here. When I got to bed it is still 80 degrees. Crazy right. When I get out of the shower I sweat instantly so it is pretty pointless to shower. Yeah right. I shower all the time here. The air is dirty so when you wear a skirt all  day your legs, arms, and face get really dirty. As soon as the day is over I just want to shower before I get in bed. 

This week I  thought I would start with  things I love about Ecuador and  things I would love to have here. 

So first the things I love about Ecuador:

1. The mango trees - If only we could find mangos that we could get without climbing trees I would love the trees even more.
2. The sunsets   - When we are out walking at night we see sunsets that are amazing. We get a glimpse of them over the houses
3. Night when it is breezy and there is no sun
4. Jugo de everything  - When we go to members houses for lunch, they make us fresh juice. I have had everything you can think of.
5. That I am learning everyday
6.  I am being blessed and so are you.

Things I miss:

1.  My family of course.
2. Warm showers - The water here is cold, every day. There are no options for hot or cold. So every morning when I wake up and take a shower, it is ice cold.   
3. Salads - I eat a lot of fruit but wish I could be a rabbit and eat salad
4.  Strawberries  - We cant eat the ones here so that is not fun
5.  Wearing  makeup  - Every time I do my makeup it just melts off my face. So I guess I didn´t need to bring so much lol. 

On to the things of this week.

I read my scriptures every day for an hour and wish I could get more time. I  am finally done with Alma and have moved into 3rd Nephi which is all about the Savior, when he was born, when he died, and when he came to the Americas and spoke to the people here.

I also started reading the New Testiment beacuse I want to learn about the Saviors life during the Holidays.  Are you all reading your scriptures? I hope you are, it is through the scriptures that we learn how the Holy Ghost feels, and the same feelings we get when we read are the same  feelings we will get when we ask the Lord to answer our prays. The Lord always answers when we ask for what we need. We just have to learn to recognize how the Holy Ghost feels. 

I have felt the Holy Ghost a lot more this week. As you can tell from the title of the email. This week we had one baptism. P got baptized on Friday night.  I am so happy for him.  He is 70 and lives by himself. His family is Catholic and Evangelicos and they did not want their father to be baptized in the MORMON church. His baptism was originally scheduled for Thursday, but P´s son told him he couldn't be baptized, so P decided not too. 

On Friday our Zone Leaders Elder Tercero and Elder Moreno, came with us to P´s house and  P`s son and daughter also showed up. We taught them all the first lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel, they even accepted a Book of Mormon. P was then baptized on Friday afternoon. He received the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday at  church. He is the newest member of the Alegria ward!  We meet with him everyday at 3 PM and read the Book of Mormon to him because he cannot read or write.  (We meet with him everyday and read to him while one of us follows along with him as we read.)

 

He speaks Quichan and Spanish, but doesn't  know how to read or write that either. So we work with him everyday. On Tuesday this week when we meet with him he showed us our pamphlets and that he tried to write our names on the back of each one. It broke my heart. So we went to the tienda near his house and bought him a notebook at a pencil and now we write out letters for him each visit so he can practice writing the alphabet and also words. He is so kind and such a great person. 

Funny story but not so funny, on Thursday we went to the church to fill the baptismal font. The baptism was set for 7 and it was 5 so we turned the water one, filled it, turned it off and left. We came back an hour and a half later and the entire church was flooded!

The water apparently was not turned off all the way so we spend 2 and half hours sweeping water out of the doors so it would  go the drain outside. I wasn't even sure how it happened but it is the second time this week that the church has flooded with water.Last  sunday it also flooded because one of the drinking fountains broke and spilled water literally everywhere. The good news is the entire church got cleaned and the floors and slick and clean haha.

We are also working with the Family V, the mother and two of her three daughters are baptized but they have not been to church for a while. When we first meet with them we only meet with the daugthers K and R. They are two great girls, 15 and 18. They were baptized in the last two years. We taught them about reading the Book of Mormon and prayer. We came back the next day and taught their family, their Mom and Dad, and younger Sister A. Their uncle E was also there. So for the past two weeks we have been meeting with them every night at 8 PM. 

The mom and dad own a resturant and said that on Sundays they make $100 and that they cannot close it to go to church and that is why the mom is now inactive. The good news is that they are planning on coming to church in the next few weeks. The daughter K, she is 18, and goes to university here in the city. She has come to church two weeks in a row with her uncle E who is going to be baptized on the 30th of this month.  K even started reading the Book of Mormon and is in 1st N ephi. She is great and  comes to church for all 3 hours with her uncle. 

On Saturday when we were out looking for recent converts, we contacted a lady named M, she lives across the street from a reconvert. We taught her  the first discussion and she  agreed to be baptized on the 14th of December! The work is coming along here in Alegria! 

This week has for sure been better than the lasts. Not  just because we baptized P, but also because I am starting to learn more of the language and I am able to communicate with Hermana Yamo. That  was probably one the hardest things at first was not being able to communicate with my trainer who I am with 24 hours a day.  I am learning a lot about patience as well.  Really!  

It still doesn't feel real to be a missionary, but that is what I am. I love it.  Thank you for all of your letters and love! 

Have a great Thanksgiving this week. Don't be to crazy on Black Friday and stay safe! 

Love you,

AnnaAlicia

Obra de Salvacion (Work of Salvation)

Green Mango's!

Me again from Ecuador where it is still 80 and hot. I tried to take a nap today since it was Pday, but it was way too hot for that.  I just laid there with the fan. 

This week has been a bunch better than the week before. The language is coming along and I am able to speak more. I wish I could understand more than anything the conversations but that will come with time. I just keep reminding myself I have only been here for 18 days and when I was at the CCM I spoke mostly in English. This last week I have been feeling the spirit more and more and know that it was there the entire time.

Today I went to central Guayaquil to get my visa authorized because today was the last day to do it. So I got to see a few of the missionaries that I came here with. All of us are struggling with the spanish so I am not alone. My companion also wants to try harder to learn English so we are reading the Book of Mormon in English and Spanish alternating verses. So we both know how the other feels. It is hard to explain English lol, I can tell you that. I was never the best at Grammer but Spanish Grammer makes a lot more sense. Kind of funny I know.

This week I have been studying the scriptures a lot and trying to get better at remembering where scriptures are at in the Book of Mormon and Bible. I have never been good at that so I have been marking them up like crazy and trying to make it easy to find them. I am finally out of Alma! Woohoo. I also finished Helman and am now just starting 3 Nephi. I am planing on finishing the Book of Mormon in English and then reading it in SPanish. One of the Elders here who has been on his mission for a year said that he started the Book of Mormon in Spanish and once he got past the Isaish chapters he could understand about 90%  of the Spanish used in the scriptures. He promised me if I only read things in Spanish I will get things a lot faster. So that is my goal. I only read PMG in Spanish and then look up words I dont know. It will come to me. The more I study the Book of Mormon the more I am able to contribute in lessons because verses I find somehow apply to the lesson that day. Which is great! 

This week we meet with the two girls who are inactive and sisters. R and K. They are 15 and 18.We have been meeting with them and their family almost daily. The other day we taught them about the importance of Reading the Book of Mormon and I shared with them Helman 5:12, which talks about building yourself on the ROCK of the Savior. We went to their house on Saturday night and K started to read the Book of Mormon in 1 Nephi and had questions on why Nephi killed Laban. Which was a question I got at the CCM from one of my investigators so we explained it to here and I was so happy that she was reading! 

The Temple in the distance

We also started to teach their under E, he is 45 and single and lives with them. He really wantes to gain an understanding of the Gospel and even came to church on Sunday. He said he wants to feel the spirit, so I shared with him my experience this last week and told him the first thing we must do is learn to recognize the spirit and the only way to do that is through reading the book of mormon. Once we learn what the spirit feels like that same spirit will give us the answer if the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. He said he would read, study, mediate it in his heart, and pray to know. He also said if he gets an answer it is true he will be baptized one 11/30/13!

The vision of Missionary Work has changed. It is now the Work of Salvation. We are focusing on inactive members, recent converts, and investigators. Our ward back at home arleady does this. But here they have not been so much. So we are working with everyone to help them gain a stronger testimony of the commandments and the savior. There is also a special broadcast on November 24th from 5-7 PM. I am not sure what the hours are there. But be sure to watch it!

I am out of time. I will write more next week. I love you all and pray for you daily. Have a great thanksgiving! Make something special for me and then eat it without me lol.

Love Hermana Weller

Sweaters in 80 degree weather! And they think I'm the crazy one...

Hola!

It is summer here, actually I am not sure what it is here but it is hot. When I go to bed at night it is 80 degrees and when I wake up it is 80 degrees. It does get a little cooler at night, but it is still way warm. Although the sun is not out and its cloudy, it's still 80 degrees! 

Lol, everyone asks me how I can walk around without a sweater. Sometimes I just look at them and smile lol. My question is how can they walk around with sweaters when it is 80 degrees outside! lol. It is really pretty here. We are in a suburb area of Guayaquil. There are mango trees everywhere we walk but the mangos are green. I didn´t even know you could eat a green mango but you can. You just eat it with salt. Kind of weird but it is actually pretty good. 

This first week here in Ecuador has been super hard for me. It is a new place, so far from you all, and obviously in a different language. I am picking up more spanish each day for the most part but still get frustrated when I cant understand everything. I have a great senior companion and she helps me a lot. Her name is Hermana Y, she is 20 years old and a convert to the church. Her mom is a member and her father is not. She is the second in her family to serve a mission. Her father is Catholic and her parents are divorced but she is so strong and has so much LOVE for me. She asks me each day how I am doing. 

Our apartment

For the most part I tell her okay but today I had a breakdown. All week I have not been feeling the Spirit all the time. So when we do contacting which is just walking around and getting promptings from the Spirit on who we should talk too, I get frustrated, that and I dont know a lot of Spanish so I never know how to start or what to ask. I have been feeling really alone, even though I am not. But today we talked and she said it is normal to feel that way. So when she reminds me of that, then my spirits get turned around.

Overall, we had a great week and found so many new people to talk too. We had 4 investigators come to church on SUNDAY!. Yes I said 4. This week, we started teaching an elderly man named P, he lives by himself and owns a little tienda (store, or market) that he runs from his house. He is 76. We started teaching him last Saturday and teach him daily at 3 PM. He is a really funny man. Sometimes I am not sure if he understands me or what we are trying to explain to him, but he enjoys our company and listens to the lessons. He came to church with us on Sunday and stayed for the first two hours, then walked home. 

I wash my own laundry now. Reminds me
of Jessica's cloth diaper rack lol.

It was so amazing that he came with us to church. We walked by his house to help him find the church, and as we were walking away, one of his customers walked up and asked to buy a cigar, he told him he couldn't sell him one because it was Sunday and he was going to church. It was like Satan walked up and wanted to tempt him. He showed so much faith and told him no and that he would have to go to a different store. I was so PROUD of him. He sacrificed $1 of sales so that he could go to church. That is a lot of money around here. He also has a desire to get baptized and has a date for the 23rd of this month.

Our other investigators are D and A. A is an inactive member who is 22 and has two children with D. They have been together for 7 years and have lived together for about the same time. D is not a member and A was born in the church but has become inactive. They are an amazing couple. We are working with them to get enough money so they can get married. It costs $36 dollars here but that is a lot. D wants to get baptized and he loves when we teach them about Eternal Families. He works 7 days a week, but they came to church with their two daughthers as well this weekend. It was so exciting to see them there. 

Our other investigator we have been working with is P, she is 60 and lives by herself. She has a lot of questions about the restoration of the church but she came to chruch too and loved it. We are going to meet with her on Wednesday this week again and teach her some more.

This week has been a hard week but I love that I have a great companion and that their are people here in Ecuador who want to hear our message. My spanish will come as I put my faith in the Lord and I will be prompted by the Spirit when the time is right. This is the hardest thing ever but I am glad I have the Lord on my side and the truth. 

I love you all and cant wait to hear from you again this week. Thank you for all the letters.

Read D and C 46: 30-32 Ask God and thank him for all blessings and read Alma 57:27 and Jacob 3:2. These scriptures helped me a lot this week.

Love you, 

AnnaAlicia

I am in Ecuador!

When I first got here I wasn't really sure what to think. I thought I would be so scared to be in a country that wasn't my own and in a new area that I had never been before but surprisingly I am not scared at all. The Lord protects us when we are obedient and follow his commandments. When we walk on the streets I am not scared either. So dont worry I am safe, just keep praying for me that I will continue to be safe and that people will want to hear our message. For this week I thought I would just recap what happened.

I arrived in Ecuador on the 1st and that was pretty much the longest day of my life. We traveled for 24 hours and had only a few hours of sleep. All I wanted to do was figure out where I was sleeping that night, eat, and pass out. But it didnt exactly happen like that. When we arrived, we ate lunch at the Bishops house and then had our orientation. Afterwards, we went to the mission office and had interviews with President D. That is when I found out that me and my new companion were being assigned to a new area and it is a place that girls have not been before in our new mission. 

I was pretty nervious and not to excited about the whole thing but what can you do. So, after waiting what felt like forever me and my new companion Hermana Y headed to our new area called Alegria which is about 10 minutes by car from the Guayaquil Temple. The night we moved in our apartment had just been painted so luckily we had fans to get the smell out.

Saturday we went with the Elders in the Zone and walked our entire sector which is our area here in town. We meet the members and got referrals and set appointments for Sunday after church. The members here are great! They do not have much here compared to America but what they do have they share with anyone. If anything it is the way we should live. Anywho it is nothing like I expected. People actually keep their appointments. It is a little different in America. So we walked a lot on Saturday and meet a lot of people.

On Sunday, we got up early and went to church. Church here is at 8 AM! Yes 8 AM. Church was one of my hardest days here so far. I understand a lot but sometimes I dont and it gets frustrating. I was frustrated all Sunday at church and just keep asking myself what I was doing here. After church we walked home and did companion study and then prepared to meet with our appointments. I told Hermana Y that I was sad that I didn't understand more and felt inadequate and she told me to pray to feel the spirit. So I did. I prayed twice cause I wasnt sure if I really felt it yet. 

Our appointments went well. At first I didnt really talk much because I was trying to understand but by the second appointment we had it was way better. We actually pulled out the same scripture to share, the one in Helaman 5:12, love that scripture. So as the day went on I was doing a lot more talking. After we finished with our appointments we did street contacting and found a new investigator who agreed to being bauptized on the 23 of November! It was a great Sunday! We have more appointments tomorrow and a goal for 2 baptisms this week! 

It is crazy how much Spanish I use here. I am using more and more spanish each day and learning even more words than ever! I am pretty excited and miracles do happen when it comes to exact obidence. My spanish is getting better each day I am so grateful for that.

Ecuador is pretty humid and hot. Right now they are going into their summer. Crazy right, cause I am pretty sure that it is rainy and cold in Oregon. I am greatful that one some days it is cloudy though because we walk everywhere. I didnt think I would be prepared for that but I am. It is suprising how much my feet do not hurt. Pretty crazy because I thought they would fall off at the end of the first day. I just keep reminding myself that the Lord prepares us! 

I love you guys so much and cant wait to see you!

Just in case you dont have it my mailing address is:

Hermana AnnaAlicia Weller

Ecuador Guayaquil West Mission

Casilla de Correo 09-04-206

Guayaquil, Guayas 

Ecuador

AnnaAlicia