Ecuadorian Good Times

Adorbs.

Sister Missionaries!

Birthday tradition insists that the aging one (in this case three) stuff their face(s) in the cake before anyone eats it!

Cake stuffers!

Fabulous.

Yum yum.

Smile.

She has a way with children.

"Suffer the children to come to me."

Happy Octubre!!!

I can´t believe it´s already October!! I wake up very morning and expect the weather to be turning to fall but instead it´s just toasty as usual.

Today we had cambios (transfers). My new companion is Hermana Sanchez from La Paz, Bolivia. She´s super sweet. I´m glad to have a Latina companion now because I feel like the Spanish is going to come faster. It´s funny though. We had a bunch of missionaries together this morning to receive the changes and it was the first time I´ve met most of thm. We were all talking together and one of the Latinas asked me where I was from--los Estados Unidos. And then she asked me if my parents were Latinos. All I could do was laugh because I´m obviously super white with blue eyes and goldish brown hair. She thought I had learned to speak from my latino parents because I speak pretty well. But we weren´t talking long enough for her to know how bad my grammar is!

This week has been pretty good. We have tons of people that we´re teaching. We found this new family. There are about members in the family and they are super humble. They all live in a one room house about 1.5 times the size of my bedroom. They are all very sweet. I especially love little Maria--the 2 year old grandaughter. She never talks but she just stares at you with her little brown eyes. If only she could come home with me!

We´ve also been teaching some people out in el campo (the country). I love it out there, reminds me of South Carolina but more tropical. It´s almost legit jungle but not quite. It´s kind of sad though because a lot of people can´t come to church because they can´t leave their houses without anyone there to watch it. Someone always has to be at the house because people get robbed a lot here. Houses made of caña aren´t the most secure of structures.

Oh my gosh, I´m gaining wight! I love Porvenir but everyone wants to feed you a feast! And you can´t tell people no because they´re giving to you from their heart and from what little they have and you can´t waste. We were visiting the trips the other day and they´re cousin was saying that I look fatter (they always tell people here that they´re fat, it´s not rude like in the States) than in my pictures. I told her I was going to not eat for a few days and she said, "No! You´ll go home and they´ll think we didn´t feed you here in Ecuador. You need to go home healthy." Right.... Oh, I love the trips. They told us that if we were going to get changed to another ward to come hide out at their house and we could live with them. But anyways, yeah, diet starts today.

That´s all I´ve got for now. And it´s time to check out. Thanks for the letters and emails I´ve gotten. I´m working on getting back to yáll but sometimes the communication is a bit slow. I love you all and I hope everyone is doing well!!

Love,

Hermana Williams

Pictures from Ecuador!

Hola!

Companions!

Baptism.

Familia

Ecuador missionaries!

Utah MTC, Photographs

U.S. MTC

The sisters.

"I'm just so happy to be here!"

Home to mission field!

Juuust chillin'.

 These are pictures from when Helena was at the MTC in Utah.

4 Months in!!

Hey Everyone!!

Yesterday was my four month mark!! But no, I`m not really counting down... Time is flying though!

I`m still here in the city of Milagro with Hermana Adams. I`m really enjoying being here in this area with the people I`m working with.

Elder Christofferson came and spoke to us a few weeks ago. There was such an awesome spirit with him. He spoke to us about being servants of Christ and how best to go about it. He`s got pretty good Spanish.

Speaking of Spanish, learning it is going really well. Gifts of the spirit are so legit is all I have to say. I had my first interview with President this week and he asked me where I learned to speak such good Spanish. Don`t get me wrong, I have a ways to go til I`m completely fluent but for 4 months in, I am speaking really well.

So far I haven`t done anything nursing here--just the regular missionary thing. There`s another girl from Utah that`s doing the nursing right now. I expect they`ll pull me to the office in a few months to train with her.

We`ve had 7 people get baptized so far this month and we should have 2 next week.. This past weekend was the service for a set of identical girl trillizas (triplets) that were turning 9 the same day. They were so fun to teach and I love their family so much. We had a huge cake for them at their baptism. They have a custom here that whoever`s having a birthday bites the cake so they all bit it and they all ended up with clown smiles painted on their faces from the frosting. It was the cutest thing! I want to bring them home with me.

My most exotic experience recently was shaking hands with a monkey. It was somebody`s pet and he was just tied up outside. He was pretty ugly. He tried to jump on me but luckily his chain wasn`t long enough. I might have died if he had actually jumped on me. Monkey`s are much cuter as drawings.

One thing that I love about Ecuador is that everyone uses hammocks. Almost every house has a hammock strung up in the room with the TV where you can just chill and watch. A lot of people have their houses elevated on stilts for the flood season so they`ll string hammocks up underneath their houses when it`s dry. I even saw a man napping in a hammock strung up under his transport truck. Gotta love Ecuador. So, fam, be thinking about where you`d like to put the hammock. ;)

One not so cool thing here is the mosquitoes. They`re like paranas of the air. No.me.gusta. And every season is mosquito season because it`s always hot here. And apparently it`s going to be getting hotter because we`re about to go into their summer in a couple of months. Sweet.

That`s about all I have for now. I hope all is well with everyone at home. Congratulations to everyone that got/is getting married or having babies. I love you all and miss you all. And a huge thank you to everyone that sent a letter or note or email. Even though I don`t answer back right away, I really appreciate hearing from yàll. Until next time... Have a wonderful day!!

Love,

Hermana Williams

Three Months Down!

Hey!!

So I hit my three month mark last week. Woot woot! Only 15 more to go!! haha Thanks to everyone that has sent emails or letters. They are much appreciated! And sorry that I can`t get back in touch with everyone in a very timely manner. Communication is a bit limited here..

The hardest thing when I first got here was the dirt. We walk dirt roads pretty much all day every day and come home absolutely filthy. And the dirt is just everywhere no matter how hard you try to keep things clean. So if you`re a germaphobe, be warned. I was not happy with this at first but it`s good once you resign yourself to the fact haha. But I call first shower when I get home. So somebody mark the calendar--November 23, 2013. ;) And if I come home any color different than when I left, please don`t be confused that I may have gotten a tan. It`s really just dirt.

The Spanish is coming along well. I have a new companion (I got transferred after 3 weeks) and she is la Hermana Adams from California. She and I work really well together. And we have an absolutely fantastic barrio (ward) with an Obispo (bishop) that is phenomenal. I really love being here. The people are fanstastic as well. They don`t have a ton and they live pretty humbly but they are very loving and giving. I am so grateful for all they`ve done for us--to help with the work or really anything we need.

We eat really well here. Every day we have lunch with a mamita from the barrio. The staple food here is arroz (rice). So every meal is a plate full of arroz with a couple of sides. I really love the food here but I do kind of miss all things sweet because most everything is salty.

Funny story-- One of the people we are teaching is named Jesùs. He was a reference from some of the Elders and when we were looking for his house the other day we kept asking people "Do you know where Jesùs lives?" I think they thought it was some kind of joke--missionaries asking where Jesùs lives (we didn`t know his last name). But we eventually found him and he`s super awesome. His work is making and selling jugo (juice) de caña. I think it`s kind of like sugar cane. He makes the juice by putting the caña through a handcrank machine he owns. It`s really good. Dad, you need to start growing caña so we can make it at home.

So all in all everything is good down here. I am working with the most awesome companion, zone leaders, and barrio. They make the mission fun. And it`s so cool to help people change their lives. I can`t wait til my Spanish is better so that I can do a better job. This is definitely a humbling experience in all aspects.

That`s all I have for now. Thanks again to everyone for all of your notes of encouragement. :) I have to run now but I hope everyone is doing well!! I love you all!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Williams

Two Weeks in Peru!

Hola!

 

I've been in Peru for two weeks now but I feel like I just got here.. let me back up.

 

The end of my time in Provo went by so fast. I was dreading leaving there and every time someone talked about it I would tear up a bit. I gave my first Spanish talk the last Sunday there on the Santa Cena (sacrament). I wrote it myself but I don't really know what I was saying at the time I was giving it. Everyone said it was really good though--definitely more the Spirit than myself, I'm sure. The night before I left Provo was a sad day.. I cried so much saying adios to my district. Myself, Hna Buzan, and Hna Warner left behind our 7 Elders and Hna Mangum who didn't get her visa for Peru yet. Hopefully she will be joining us soon.

 

We left the MTC at 6:00 on a Tuesday morning. We arrived in Peru around 11:00 that night and got to the CCM (MTC) here in Lima around 2:00 in the morning. We all just crashed. Adjusting here was kind of hard at first. In Provo they were all about being exactly obedient but here it was really hard to be obedient at first. Mostly because our first day or so was very unstructured. It was kind of frustrating, not knowing where you were supposed to be and what you were supposed to be doing. I was definitely a bit home sick for Provo.

 

There are about 90 or so missionaries here in the CCM. About 1/4 of us are Norte Americanos. The Latino missionaries don't speak much English so there is a ton more Spanish than in Provo but we still get to speak English amongst ourselves (which we probably should try not to do). I was really surprised at how much I understood when I first got here. I get the idea of most conversations and every day I understand more and more. My speaking is still pretty slow but it's so much better than in Provo. I have a Latino companion, Hna Diaz from Argentina, and a North American companion, Hna Asay from Provo. All of the hermanas here are super sweet and we laugh a lot together. And all of the Latino missionaries in general are very helpful with the language although they do remind us of how slow they have to speak for us.

 

A few of us will be moving up to be in a full Latino district next week. This means only Spanish all the time. I hope I survive it haha. I'm excited for the opportunity to learn more though. Our teachers for these past couple of weeks have been fantastic--Hna Flores and Hna Chipana. Love them! But we'll have to get new ones next week.

 

I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of Peru (can't wait for Ecuador!). It's like China in a lot of ways... All of the houses and establishments are pretty much gated. It's very smoggy and most days the sky is just a blue/grey smear. However, there are mountains and everyone here speaks Spanish so that sets it apart.

 

Since being here I feel like I've been able to focus better on what I'm supposed to be doing (there are definitely less chances for social distractions when you can't speak the language). Studies have been really good and I'm learning so much about the gospel, about Spanish, about the gospel in Spanish. It's kind of funny because I understand most everything I hear until we get onto subjects other than the gospel. My vocabluary hasn't progressed that far yet.

 

All in all it's been a good experience so far here in Lima. The people (and missionaries) here in South America are so amazing. They have a humility and love for the Lord that is unlike anything I have seen. One of my roommates is an angel, I'm pretty sure--Hna Ibarra. It's very humbling and a privilege to be able to meet and interact with these amazing individuals.

 

Time is almost up, gotta go! I'll email everyone again before I leave Peru. Hope all is well in the States!

 

Con amor,

 

Hermana Williams