July 13th

Hey!! So today we are starting our second week as the Guayaquil West Mission. We have three stakes from the South Mission and I think five from the North. It`s pretty much the coast of Ecuador. I`m here to help out as the nurse. It`s really cool to be part of a new mission. I`m grateful that I got to see most of the South of Ecuador (Milagro,South Guayaquil, Machala, Cuenca) because now all of those cities are outside of my mission and I can never go back before leaving.

My new mission president is President Dennis from Utah. His parents are from Mexico. He and hsi wife are extremely awesome. They had conferences with all of the zones last week. When they spoke to us the first time I almost cried. They love the missionaries (us) so much, you can feel it so strongly when they`re with us. I`m really happy and grateful to be serving with them.

Right now I`m in a ward called Colón in Guayaquil with Hermana Sanchez, my companion from a few months back. The ward is super awesome-- the members and the area. It`s  blessing to serve there.

It`s weird to think that I have less than 5 months left here. I have mixed feelings when I think about the clock ticking down.. One thing that President Dennis mentioned to us was our time.. Our time in the the mission as well as the time we have in this life. If we waste it, there`s no going back. If we choose not to take advantage of opportunities, more than likely they aren`t going to come back to us. So we need to choose to do the will of the Lord today so that tomorrow we`ll be that much closer to who/where we want to be.

I love you all and I hope yàll have a great week!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Williams

Mother Day

Hey!!

I hope everyone is doing well in Carolina. Happy Mother´s Day to all of the wonderful women there who have influenced my life. :)

We have the baptism of Norma today. She´s a really sweet lady that we met a few weeks back. And she´s finally ready! I´m also attaching a few pictures from Joseph´s baptism last week. That kid is so legit.

Hermana Chavez and I are rocking it as the nurses. We don´t always understand things 100% and people always get us confused because we´re two gringas but it´s cool. We have SO much fun together and I´m super grateful that we´re companions.

I´m about to hit my year mark in about two weeks!! That´s crazy! The time has gone by so slowly but at the same time flown haha. Every day I´m learning a little more about how to be a better person and who the Lord wants me to be. It´s not always easy but it´s worth it.

I love you all! Follow the Spirit and look for the will of the Lord. Have a great Mother´s Day!

Love,

Hermana Williams

More pictures!

Sisters!

Missionary kids, (:

How cute, (:

I'm pretty sure these pictures were taken during Christmas time.

Sorry for the delay!

Merry Christmas! Haha (:

Time Flies

Hey, Everybody!!

Time seems to be moving quicker lately. I hit my nine month mark and I have half of my mission left but I don´t feel like it´s much time. 

Yesterday we had a conference with Elder Waddell from our area presidency. I think he´s from California and in one of the quorums of the seventy. He is amazing and it was such a privilege to have him here to speak with us. He served his mission in Spain and later was a mission president there. His Spanish is a bit different (Spaniard) but he speaks really well. Some of the things he touched on yesterday (all of this is my translation to English)...

He asked the question: ¨Why do we meet together in church?¨ And I think this is a question that a lot of people have---why do people need to go to church if they can have Jesus in their heart wherever they go? We looked at a lot of scriptures to come up with the answer to this question... Jesus Christ taught His gospel when He came to the earth. There are a lot of doctrines very specific and precious. It´s important that we learn together to obey His commandments with exactness. Like it talks about in 1 Samuel 15--sometimes we think our way is better than the Lord´s. But really His way is always best and we need to follow His commandments with exactness to receive His blessings. For this, we have to study the pure doctrines, strengthen and prepare ourselves together so that we can do His work in His way and not our own.

He mentioned a story of the Martin and Willie handcart companies that were stuck in the mountains in the winter. The prophet sent a group to search for them. After making an effort they couldn´t find the companies so they headed back for Salt Lake. They met up with Arza Hinckley and a group that was also going to search for the companies in trouble. They told Arza that it was in vain to continue on because they were nowhere to be found. His response was, "I have been called by a prophet of God... I will find them or I will die trying." Wow. It really makes you think about your responsibility as a missionary... or even in any other calling. We need to have this same confidence and drive--that this is our responsibility and we need to give everything we have to complete our calling.

Sometimes I talk to people here about my "real life" before the mish. But Elder Waddell made a comment about this too... How sometimes we think that the mish is just a period of time that we serve but I love what he said... "Life doesn´t get any more real than this. There is nothing more real than the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing more real than the priesthood and the power to seal families together for eternity. There is nothing more real than Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. There is nothing more real than the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is real life."

Those are just a few of the highlights from what we went over yesterday. It was such a good experience. I love the gospel. I hope everyone is doing well at home. I love you all!

Love,

Helena

I forgot to post this in Feburary.. sorry y'all.

Hay fam and friends...

It`s already February! Time is going by super fast, and even faster since I´ve been in the office. They brought me in to be a nurse a couple of weeks ago. It´s a more stressful job than to be a normal missionary but overall I feel more comfortable here. I think it´s because my real calling is to be the nurse, not to be a normal missionary. It was really interesting the change I felt when I came from the field to the office. I know this is where I´m supposed to be.

I´m with Hermana Riera from here in Ecuador. She studied public health before the mish and I think she wants to be an OB nurse or a midwife after the mish. We have a lot of fun together, trying to figure out what we´re supposed to do and make sure that all of the missionaries are taken care of. It´s like having 200 little brothers to look after haha. And my Spanish is definitely improving. I can´t remember if I dream in Spanish or not... there are some times that it´s definitely in Spanish but other times I can´t remember.

This weekend and Monoday and Tuesday is Carnival here. Everyone is going on vacation and planning fiestas. Apparently there are a ton of traditions here for carnival... face painting, fiestas, throwing water on people, etc... I´ll let yáll know how it is after I see it.

My new sector is called Las Peñas. It´s basically downtown Guayaquil. The people are more well off than those in Milagro. Most people live in huge buildings of apartments. It´s pretty much the exact opposite of Milagro with the houses of caña. There´s one street that almost looks like it could be New York and there´s a riverside park-walkway that´s cool. Basically this area is more touristy. But the ward is pretty nice and I´ve enjoyed being here. The people aren´t as open but that´s to be expected. Not everyone can have the same love as the people in Milagro.

I guess that´s about it for now. I hope all is going well for everyone in the States. Take care!!

Love,

Helena

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to everyone from Ecuador!!!

Things have been really good here in Ecuador. The schedules around the holidays were kind of crazy but we all survived. Hermana Sanchez and I watched them burn their monigotes (they make large dolls and burn them as if burning the old year and stating over). It was pretty interesting. Just before midnight they pour gasoline on their dolls and throw a flame on. While it´s burning they throw in handfulls of fireworks. There were tons of explosions to start off the new year in Milagro.

Last night there were transfers but Hermana Sanchez and I are still together in Porvenir. Everyone, including me, thought I was going to Guayaquil but thankfully I get to stay a little bit longer. I have 5 months here so far and I love this ward, these people. We are working really hard and teaching a lot of people. We´ve been working with a woman named Mara for a while. She´s 20 years old and is going to get baptized in a couple of weeks after she gets married. She´s got more faith than almost anybody I´ve seen. She truly is converted. Yesterday she came to church alone with her 3 girls because her fiance didn´t want to come. Hermano Carillo and I both passed by for him at different times to bring him to church but he wasn´t dressed and gave us excuses not to go. It was testimony meeting. Even though she isn´t baptized yet Mara wanted to share her testimony. She went to the front and shared her simple but powerful feelings and her desires to be with her husband in Christ´s church so that they could both share the joy of being a family together forever. She asked for everyone´s prayers for her family that her fiance would open his heart and feel what she feels. A few minutes after she sat down from giving her testimony, her husband walked into the chapel. He had gotten ready and come on his own. She immediately started crying and praying, thanking God. I am so happy for Mara because she has had tons of reasons the past couple of weeks to give up but she keeps holding on to her faith and her prayers are being answered. She truly is an inspiration for me.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon in español today. I love that book. Now I´m going to start on the New Testament in Spanish. It´s a bit harder to understand but it´s super interesting. I absolutely love reading the scriptures in Spanish. It´s almost a whole new perspective on Christ and the gospel.

I hope everyone at home is doing well, enjoying the cold weather. It´s gotten a bit hotter here lately and it´s started raining sometimes. I am so grateful for the rainy days when it doesn´t feel like we´re in an oven haha. Good thing the South is pretty warm so I won´t miss that part when I come home. And I come home this year!

I love you all and I´m praying for you!!

Love,

Hermana Williams

Christmas Lights in the Middle of a Super Long Summer

Hey, Everybody!!

I hope everyone is enjoying autumn back home. Here you can´t tell the difference between seasons. I feel like I´m stuck in one super long summer. The only indication that it´s getting to be the end of the year is that people are putting up Christmas trees and lights.

Friday I´ll hit six months out. One year left. I had a dream the other night that I was in my living room with my family and we were decorating for Christmas with lights and garland and a tree. I told my family, "I want this room to look just like this when I come home next year." And then the alarm went off. So, Mom, remember that.. lots and lots of lights. ;)

There is a tradition here of burning muñecas for the New Year. They are basically these figures made of paper/plaster. Some of them are pretty impressive--every super hero or cartoon character you can think of (Spiderman, Sonic the hedgehog, Bart Simpson, Mickey Mouse, the Hulk, etc). Some of them are small, some of them are huge. They burn them for New Years to say goodbye to the old year and bring in the new. I´ll have to try to get pictures of some of them. But I like the tradition. I´ll have to do it in the States when I come home.

Things are going well here in Milagro. I´m still in Porvenir with Hermana Sanchez. This is one of the best barrios in the mission. There talking about putting two more misioneras here this next change because there´s tons to do. They want to split the ward sometime next year. So there will be el barrio Porvenir and la rama Las Piñas. I´m super lucky to be able to serve here. I´m thinking I´ll be here for the next few months as well but really you never know in this mission. Cambios (transfers) are next week so we´ll see.

I´ve been learning a lot recently about a lot of things. I love meeting and interacting with the people here. It´s so easy to love them. And as missioneries we spend a lot of time thinking about what they need. It´s humbling to feel the love that Heavenly Father has for each of these people. Everyone has such a potential for good but it all depends on the decisions they make. It all depends in them. And sometimes it´s heartbreaking when they choose not to overcome their challenges. But it´s so sweet to see the people that make the change in their lives to follow Christ more fully.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Enjoy all of the many blessings that the Lord has given you. I love you all!!!

Hermana Williams