Week 8 email (11 27 2019)

Sadie with view of Ibarra

Hola!

My last email was short because I was trying to navigate a Spanish keyboard and sketchy computer equipment and we kept losing electricity in this little street tienda we were at. Such is Ecuador life, and you know what, I’m here and I love it! The weather is always beautiful, lots of rain, and the people are so kind.  My Spanish is coming along, understanding it is easier than speaking it, but I learn more every day.  I’m trying to not be frustrated with it, haha. I know the Lord will qualify me for this calling, and even send a little more or the gift of tongues my way :)

 Everything here is different: the transportation, the food, the language, how we wash cloths (by hand—it is the worst!), the sounds, the smells, the stores, what they call things, the greetings, manners, customs, plants, routines, the way they tell time (with 18:00 military style), and of course, my own personal life has just been totally turned upside down but I’m so grateful for it all.  While change is overwhelming, with the right mindset it can be exhilarating!  To be honest though, I’ve had some pretty crazy disgusting food: chicken liver (which I bit into thinking it was some sort of mushroom), chicken feet soup (that has chicken feet (with toenails still on) floating in it, and sardines with skin and backbones. And, no joke, that was all one meal.  Brutal.  Do the missionaries a favor when they come to eat at your house and just make them some nice mac and cheese- haha that’s my dream but they don’t have that in Ecuador. 

We’ve been doing a lot of contacting and I am already well acquainted with being sworn at, spit at, screamed at, having doors slammed in my face.  But I’ve also known the thrill of placing a Book Of Mormon, of having the spirit so strong in a lesson that the person is taken back, when they hear for the very first time that Christ appeared in the Americas; that I have the book that bears record of that glorious event, and then their jaws go slack :)  It all goes hand in hand, the good and the bad- and it is all AWESOME!  Even if I went home tomorrow, I would be so different.  I’ve learned so much and I am inexpressibly grateful to be a servant of the Lord in Ibarra, Ecuador.  Thank you for your sweet emails- I read each one and treasure them- it means so much!

 Bouganvilla everywhere

 Family they eat with almost daily for main meal

 making Ecuadorian mac and cheese

 A little tienda she passes by often with Graham's name :)

 donuts for pday

 her companion, Hermana Andrea Anibarra

District on pday

With the elders, the one right next to me is Elder Canon the district leader. Big guy is in Cpt America shirt is Elder Hopper (the only one besides me from States- he's from OREGON)  Next to him is Elder Seranque, and his comp on the far right is Elder Pajarito