tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26557841156253004652024-03-13T21:08:58.882-07:00Hurricane Kendra hits EcuadorHermana Kendra Harlos will be serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from July 2013 to January 2015 in the Ecuador Quito North Mission.
This blog consists of her weekly emails home.LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-69671063972247196342014-03-03T14:53:00.000-08:002014-03-03T14:53:07.612-08:00Of llamas, slugs, and chicken feet<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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this week:</div>
not too much has been going on. still no major carnaval disasters but most middle schoolers shy away when i give them a stern look. </div>
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weve been teaching the muenala family (mom dad and 4 kids) and the mom and daughters are pure gold and already know its all true and have given up everything that even remotely crosses the line (coffee, shoping <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_863112562" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on sunday</span></span>, being a "dama" in a quinceñera which include having to go to a catholic mass) they also denied some jehovas witnesses that had been stopping by, so that was pretty cool. (they have been invading on our territory recently) the dad and brother however like to drink and play volleyball deep into the night, but came to a ward activity and had a good time. so were trying to work with them so they can all get baptized the 22nd.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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once we went up to this sweet hut they have, the kids found a slug and ate it.</div>
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they also gave us lunch which consisted of: FIFTEEN cooked potatoes, a chicken foot, some other mystery meat and tomatoes. its a pretty normal dish and i dont mind it too much, but after the eighth potatoe i kind of wanted to puke. we said we had to leave really fast and took the potatoes to go. this hut place is up a pretty steep mountain which is only accesible by foot on steep dirt trails. on the way down, the dust (after 3 hours of rain) had turned to mud and thus became a slip and slide. i fell a few times and my companion found it quite hillarious. but thats a pretty normal day here in otavalo.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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thats pretty much it! </div>
enjoy the bipolar weather!</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">hermana harlos</span>LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-45144349667979260012014-02-25T15:45:00.001-08:002014-02-25T15:45:23.240-08:00Carnaval is coming<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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so we found rebecca through some members..she came as a live in nanny and they brought her to church every week because she was like yeah whatever. cool story though....so she went home to tell her parents she got baptized, and they werent to happy about it. the next day (<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_532115255" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">sunday</span></span>) she came to get confirmed and her dad and brother came with her. he was pretty mad, and he came with the purpose of finding whoever baptized his daughter (even though she hasnt lived at home since she was like 14 and they dont really get along). well they ended up coming late and were outside the door during the sacrament. she said he looked in the door and saw soo many indegneious, all super reverent and "something made him think" (i.e. the holy ghost) so he ended up calming down and said its your life i dont hate your decision but i dont totally support it and he left without any problems, so that was cool. </div>
not much else is really going on. we found a pretty cool family who thought we were the jehovas witnesses that had been visiting them, and later realized we werent the same people after they had already given us a bunch of food. but they said they are open to anything and we could keep visiting them. the dad is somewhat of an alchoholic and has another family in quito, but the mom and kids are super nice. the mom couldnt come to church <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_532115256" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on sunday</span></span> because she had to go to quito to vote, but the two little girls (nicole and carol) are super cool and accepted a baptism invitation. basically all of our more or less progressing investigators (jesus, martha & joel, nicole & carol, and edwin) are just kind of stuck in the middle. progressing enough that we dont want to leave them but not progressing enough to get baptized. hopefully we can kick it into high gear these next few weeks and have some baptisms in march.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s4WjoqrNtNc/Uw0jaaCg1FI/AAAAAAAAAk0/zKEI7kSTi0I/s1600/060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s4WjoqrNtNc/Uw0jaaCg1FI/AAAAAAAAAk0/zKEI7kSTi0I/s1600/060.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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However there is a slight road block (and this is where the whole letter comes together). Yesterday was elections, and we werent allowed to leave the house the whole day after sacrament meeting) AND the <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_532115257" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">1st through 4th of march</span></span> is carnaval, so we arent allowed to leave the house then either. (<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_532115258" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">this saturday</span></span> through <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_532115259" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tuesday</span></span>)...we are only allowed to leave for lunch with the mamitas and if we have a super confirmed legit appointment with an investigator... </div>
..i.e. we are spending money on food to eat since we cant leave and things to do (coloring books, crafts. etc)</div>
...i.e. we have to try really hard to stay in daily contact with all the investigators so they dont think we hate them...so we will see how that goes. </div>
i cant say i hate 4 days of vacation but after just a few hours yesterday i got pretty bored and missed missionary work.....these 4 days should be interesting. </div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Editor's note: Carnaval is celebrated in several countries in Latin America, most famously in Brasil, and goes on for several days before Lent begins. Similar to Mardi Gras, it may involve parades, costumes, shaving cream, and lots of water balloons or even buckets of water being dumped on passers by.</span></div>
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i also got my ears pierced today because my holes have long since closed up and they think you are in a cult if you dont have your ears pierced ....it was a pretty sketchy spot in the meat market, but they lady was nice and gave me a bottle of rubbing alchohol to help clean them so they dont get infected...it also costed 4 dollars which is nice. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">jill sent me home made pajama pants (i dont know if you gave her the idea or what) and they are absolutely amazing so if you could thank her a billion times i would be thankful.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">thats about it today...</span>LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-13723785667518382822014-02-17T17:40:00.001-08:002014-02-17T17:40:28.136-08:00Rebecca's Baptism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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this week: </div>
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i got a little sick <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1523849717" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tuesday</span></span> through <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1523849718" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">saturday</span></span>, mostly due to just being sick, but also because we were helping this lady get ready for her son to come home from the mission, and she gave us some pretty questionable yahaurlocro, and i dont think the large chunks of innards were cooked all the way. it was kind of a bummer, but i wasnt too bummed to lose a few pounds. the nurse said if it doesnt get better i have to take a stool sample and send it to a clinic, but once i actually got around to buying the pee cup, i felt better. who knows if it was all psychological or what, but im feeling better now and am back to eating normal (at least by ecuadorian standards).</div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1523849719" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">monday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> through </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1523849720" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">wednesday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">, we were with hermana wright, one of my white friends, while she was waiting for her first daughter </span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">(the first brand new missionary she will train)</span><span style="color: #222222;"> to arrive. it was cool to be able to speak in english for a few days.</span></div>
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<br /><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1523849723" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on friday</span></span> the zone split, but we actually had our first zone meeting together (the two new zones) anyways because no one had phones yet and no one knew where or when to meet. but starting next week we will be officialy zona otavalo norte. as the reigning kichua queen of the zone, i was delgated the job of coming up with a new catch phrase. before, it was otavalo manda shinlli kanchi, which means we are the strong/hard of otavalo, and now (with the help of alot of mamitas) we came up with otavalo ñaupama shuk shungulla maki purashun, which means otavalo norte, working with one heart and one hand....or something like that. translating between 3 languages gets a little confusing.<br /><br /> that night we had rebecas baptism. while we were setting up for the baptism we found a few kids that had come in the gate and were "washing limes to sell.." these kids are between the ages of 9 and 11. two are brothers, and the other one is another friend. they started asking us questions about why were we in the church, and why were we filling up the bathtub. we explained about baptism, and ended up giving them a tour and the first lesson. afterwards they were like yeah come meet our parents. so we went by and introduced our selves and set up appointments for the next day. the two brothers ended up coming back later for the baptism and told us they wanted to get baptized. we went to go teach the other kid and his mom who are evangelicals, but one of the moms sisters just got baptized a few months ago in another ward, so she was pretty open to the whole idea. they accepted baptismal invitations, but said they couldnt go to church yesterday, but next week for sure. wellll during lunch yesterday, our mamita told us that the mom of the little boy is acutally the lover of one of the excomunicated members in the ward and he fathered the boy that we found washing limes. to make things even more interesting, said ex-member is the boss of the girl that got baptized last week, along with the rest of the family who are 100 percent active. needless to say, we dontknow if shes going to end up getting baptized, or the son...but were going to see what we can do about it. the other two kids have a bunch of family members who are members in other wards, but the mom said basically that shes catholic and she wont change. but she is down to give permission for her kids to get baptized if they want to so we will see how that goes.</div>
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the baptism went well, and during her testimony after her baptism rebeca was totally crying and it was the most heartfelt testimony i have ever seen. she was so prepared, i feel like we didnt even have to teach her. </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #222222; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #222222;">yesterday at church we all went in anaco because the stake presidency came, and after lunch our mamita taught me how to put it on alone. its actually a very lengthy process, and it takes alot of practice, but im learning little by little.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"> then after church we went to go see a couple that weve been teaching. hes less active and shes not a member. they got together pretty young and have two little girls. shes thinking about getting baptized but cant get baptized until they get married. they have some pretty strong marital problems, so we are working through that hurdle first. anyways, the family that they live with (i think the mom is the aunt of the husband of the couple...or something like that) are members who are pretty active but they attend the other ward, even though they are in our boundries (it happens alot in otavalo because there are so many chapels). in the middle of the lesson, the 4 elders of the other ward came to teach another non member that lives in the house...even though its in our sector. i wanted to hit all of them, but i resisted the urge and went on our way after our lesson. 90 percent of the manual labor in otavalo is people working in the flower planations up in the mountains. apparently almost all the flowers exported come from these huge plantations since its like perfect growing conditions here. anyways the family gave us a few of the "leftover" flowers that they get to take home after valentines day and i cannot express how perfect these flowers are. thats pretty much all the news for now, and were working on finding new investigators to get baptized in march, so we will see how that goes.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #222222; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #222222;">i also realized i have a slight shopping addiction here in otavalo (or...at least more so than before) so to justify my shopping i got super artsy this morning and took a bunch of pictures of all the things i have bought. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">HERMANA HARLOS</span>LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-10926071333529194922014-02-10T18:08:00.000-08:002014-02-10T18:12:37.805-08:00The tall white girl in anaco<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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this week:</div>
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not too much happened. weve been teaching rebeca regularly (our investigator who has a date for <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1508946063" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">this friday</span></span>) and she passed her interview yesterday so that was fun. its pretty funny because we have two rebecca perguachis that we are teaching, and i was joking around one day and said what if they are both named rebecca maria perugachi campo. ( everyone in otavalo has the last name of campo, lema, perugachi, saransig or burga...and all latinos have at least one maria or rosa in their name) well it turns our they are both named maria rebeca perugachi and they live side by side....when we told our district leader that we had two new investagators and they had the same name he didnt believe us at first but he finally realized it was real life. we were also teaching two deaf people (seperately) but one moved away and we havent been able to find the other one who is named jesus but thats a pretty typical ecuadorian situation.</div>
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i put on my anaco <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1508946064" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on sunday</span></span> and it is literally the most comfortable thing in the world. you wouldnt think that a sheet held up by a strip of fabric would be comfortable but i really like it. and thus i am buying more. it also really helps us get people to talk to us. apparently old indegenous people think its interesting to see a Young White girl in anaco.</div>
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changes were yesterday and hermana Aquino<br />
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this is Elder recalde. hes from paraguy and has been in my district</div>
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my whole misión (we got transferred together). buttt hes going home</div>
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this week so we had a very oficial Exchange of a tie and some pictures.</div>
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apparently elders give everyone their ties when they are done to remember</div>
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them....i dont know what im going to do with the tie but oh well</div>
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and i are staying together here in otavalo, but they Split the zone and so now no one knows who is their zone and or district leader. we got shirts made as a zone so that was a fun trip to the lake.</div>
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every year the misión does this thing where feburary is super strict and its supposed to give you alot of baptisms in march. "febrero de fe, milagros de marzo" and so now we cant have any activities on p day or listen to music that isnt found in general conference. kind of a bummer but theres only a few weeks left and hopefully well baptize a few more in march.</div>
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thats about it for this week.... </div>
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hopefully this baptism goes through!</div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-58008910869792714252014-02-03T14:42:00.000-08:002014-02-03T14:42:16.199-08:00The lost sheep in lock down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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sucks to be peyton right now. i was very surprised to hear that the seahawks were even in the super bowl. any good commericals this year?</div>
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and how was the snow? its still a toasty 75 degrees here and i will be in for a shock next january stepping off the plane. only 10 and half months left! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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after the waterfalls last week my bug bites decided to swell up and be huge and i couldnt walk for a few hours because my ankles were so swollen, but the swelling went down that night and im back to normal. then <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_610807128" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on thursday</span></span> i got a little bit of a cold and been sneezing like crazy, but that also has gotten better. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so we played a game where you tie a balloon on your ankle<br /> and have to pop the other peoples....the ward really liked it.</span></span></td></tr>
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other than that weve just been teaching people like normal and trying not to get mauled by the rabid dogs. we have a baptism the 14th which is exciting too....</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">as far as the food goes, we got fed a soup called yawarlokro twice this week. its a normal soup, but with sheep and cow innards (heart, lung, spleen, etc.) and fried blood. its not too bad, but its better not to think about what you are eating when you eat it.</span><br />
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-13355842705114391642014-01-27T20:54:00.001-08:002014-01-27T20:54:46.118-08:00An ox in the mire (or a cow in this case)<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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This Week:</div>
buying news...so anacos are pretty expensive....the cheapest ones are like 30 and can go all the way up to 120 depending on the fabric. its pretty hard to find anacos that are also long enough for me..BUT theres a market near our house on saturdays and i found anacos for 4 dollars! i realized a few minutes later that they are used, but for 4 dollars i dont really care (yes mommy, i am turning into you) but i went home to wash them and one of them has a weird smell when wet. so im gonna wash it again and see if i can get that taken care of. </div>
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while we were waiting around one of the elders saw that there was an old lady trying to get her two cows out of the river/small creek/muck. so we go to help her but none of the elders wanted to get dirty so i was like well what are we waiting for??? i took my shoes off and hopped on in, trying to keep myself above the moss that had grown over the muck...well the farther out i got the more it changed from muck to muddy water and the moss got thinner. i ended up falling in up to my knees and elbows but finally got the cow out. it was pretty fun. </div>
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by the time we got back from the cow adventure, it was time for second soup..they really like soup here. more and more peple kept showing up...each one carrying 6 three liters of soda and two cuberta (a pack of 36) eggs. it turns out in the small towns here, they invite everyone whenever anythign big happens (wedding, birth, construction, etc) and that is the accepted gift. soda and eggs. i swear by the end of the day there were at least 35 3 liters of soda...the family in turn then gives soda and eggs to all those who came to help. so we made out with a 3 liter of a cheap version of sunny d and 10 eggs as our payment. anywyas so all these people show up, still waiting for the mixer and pully system to arrive. the machines finally get there but it takes about an hour to get them both set up and working. its like 2 by this point and its time for third soup.</div>
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because there were so many other people there to help, they gave the missionaries the job of lugging water to and from the nearby stream that i had fallen into just hours before. then came time to finish cooking. they gave a huge plate of rice and chicken and potatoes to every single person there. i have never seen pots so big. and they probably cooked 50 pounds of rice at LEAST. they decided they needed more chickens so i got to help kill two chickens, but my camera died so i didnt get to take pictures of that part =(...anyways it was definitely an interesting experience.</div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">then </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1490320908" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on saturday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> a little girl from the ward got baptized </span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">(top photo)</span><span style="color: #222222;"> and they also cooked a large amount of rice and chicken and potatoes (can you imagine what i eat every day yet?) but not nearly as much as what was cooked before.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;">then </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1490320909" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on sunday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> we were eating at our ward mission leaders house and their little girl was playing in their cabinets but no one was really paying attention to her...anywyas a few hours later we realize shes gone and we start looking for her and cant find her anywhere. turns out she fell asleep in the cabinet...so that was pretty funny</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">and today we went to some different waterfalls and i ended up falling in..again....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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and we played capture the flag at a park there which was cool but there were a TON of mosquitos and i look like a POW from the knees down. </div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">thats all for now!</span></div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-60418804914240941402014-01-20T14:04:00.002-08:002014-01-20T14:04:45.630-08:00The furry chicken<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">on monday we found two really cool, married families, with kids in baptismal ages and they have a car! (i.e. one in a million here) and we are working to get them to church now. for whatever reason church attendance seems to be the main roadblock here. then on thursday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> we did splits with the hermana leaders, and i got to be with hermana quizhpe (one of my friends from my last zone). That was a pretty good time. we played a game where you have to use a random word during a contact,and if you dont use it you have to buy the other person ice cream. my word was alien and i used it succesfully. her word was giraffe, and failed to use it. thus i was bought delicious hand scooped chocolate ice cream by hermana quizhpe, and delivered by an overly flirty, possibly gay argentinan man.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">on friday one of the less active families we have been working with baptized their first daughter. shes 8, so it doest count as a baptism for us but it was still a good time. this little girl is totally shy, and theres some sort of strike with the gas tank guys, so the water was freezing. the poor girls dress would NOT go down in the water, and she had to get re baptized 5 times. by the last time she was shaking to no end and her lips were purple. luckily the mom was thinking ahead and brought a large blanket for afterwards. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">on saturday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> i bought my first native blouse and belt set, and now im on the look out for the skirt. hopefully next week i can go to church in full anaco. </span><br />
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also if you wanna say i ate rabbit in kichua its</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on sunday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> i also had a first time experience. we went to eat with our normal mamita, and about halfway through i realized that what i thought was chicken had fur on the skin and thus was not chicken. hermana chuquin would NOT tell me what it was! i guessed and guessed and guessed and she wouldnt tell me. finally when i finished they told me it was rabbit. not just any rabbit but one that they had raised (on the roof) and killed the day before. and they had another one upstairs if i wanted to go catch it. so my comp and i, the mom and dad and two kids chased a gigantic white rabbit on their room for 30 minutes, and never ended up catching it to take a picture.but i swear this rabbit was almost as big as rebel. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then today we went to a crater lake called mojanda that is 3,700 meters above sea level (about 12,000 feet) and i thought we were going to die scaling a small mountain in a sketchy 12 pasenger van. but somehow we made it out alive and then went and ate mexican tacos in ecaudor....basically my life doesnt make sense, but its okay. it doenst have too, im a missionary.</span><br />
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-3209856257946084692014-01-16T19:06:00.000-08:002014-01-16T19:06:25.812-08:00Six months in and thankful<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">yes, it is true. i will be celebrating 6 months on friday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> the 17th...however my mission certificate...(a small card saying i am called to preach the gospel and it has my start and end date and president monsons signature) says that i finish the 13th.....but we will count from the 17th. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">its also nice to have to hike up a mountain to eat lunch on sundays</span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> after church and ward council. i have never been so hungry in my life,</span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> yet so grateful for any food they give you. at least there is a </span><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">good view afterwards (above).</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">in the otavalo zone they went from 16 missionaries to 26 in one transfer and they will be opening new sectors next transfer too. we walk to a chapel about 10 minutes away for district/zone meetings and our house was somewhat of a downgrade. its owned by members, whose daughter lives across the hall with their husband whos the 1st counseler in the bishobric (how do you even spell that word?)...missionaries have been living there for 10 years and it has fleas....but its better than alot of the investigators we teach so im not complaining. today we were up washing clothes on the roof where the place you wash clothes is...its more or less like a big cement cube with a hose on one end and a drain on the other....and all the old otavaleño ladies were laughing at how i washed clothes by hand and tried to teach me...its still a work in progress. </span><br />
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here is a picture of the imbabura, an inactive volcano near our house</div>
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">i realized alot of things i am thankful for....</span></b></div>
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it rained on and off from <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_548476860" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">monday</span></span> to <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_548476861" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">saturday</span></span> this past week. trying to scale a small mountain via abandoned flooded train tracks in the dark is an interesting daily activity we embark on.</div>
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and thus i am thankful for...my boots, my new alpaca fur socks, a sturdy umbrella (hermana aquinos did not last the week) and a small but powerful flashlight that clips onto my backpack (thank you christmas present).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">we also found some piglets when we were out contacting. they were <br />very cute and very smelly and muddy. they seemd to enjoy the rain. </span></td></tr>
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we also get followed and almost bitten by dogs on a regular basis, so we now cary a mix of rocks and animal crackers to ward them off. </div>
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the rain finally let up yesterday, which was a blessing</div>
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the bishop yesterday also asked us to give 10 minute talks, 20 minutes before sacrament meeting.</div>
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i gave mine in half kichua half spanish, and even though i butchered the kichua, the members seemed to be quite amused and pleased that i am trying to learn. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">lake san pablo and the side of the mountain that looks <br />like a heart (kind of, and hardly visible in photos)</span></td></tr>
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today we went to the lake san pablo, we ate greenish hamburgers and harrassed some ducks. it was a good time.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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other than that not too much exciting things happened. were kind of in a slump right now as far is investigators go, but hopefully with double the contacting and member references we will be back baptizing in no time. </div>
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kichua time!</div>
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imanalla ñuka familia manda!</div>
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manñapani jaua pachapi taitiko dios que kaipuya cuidaquangi</div>
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hashta chunga ishkai meses!</div>
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ñuka yakini</div>
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shuc punga kaman</div>
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ñañagu harlos</div>
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ps...i got the relief society card, and also the austins christmas card this week...both adorable and gladly accepted! </div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-11149917092057469252014-01-07T16:38:00.000-08:002014-01-07T16:38:30.515-08:00First week in Otavalo<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With new companion Hermana Aquino who is from Bolivia</td></tr>
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otavalo:</div>
the place: otavalo is a big small town. its not quite a city, but theres a hefty downtown area and alot of surrounding villages. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Plaza de Ponchos market viewed from<br /> the other sisters apartment</td></tr>
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there are a TON of tourists that come to the plaza of ponchos to buy stuff and to hang out with the natives. we live more or less in the city and can walk to our big chapel, the stake center and another chapel in less than 20 minutes. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">an average view of the valley from up the mountain<br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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its in a valley surounded by super green mountains and a big lake on the other side of the mountain. (pictures attached) the sector im in used to be pretty big but they gave one of the villages to elders and split our down town area into two. we still seem to have a fair amount of people to teach. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">the steep, dusty, sometimes with gravel,<br /> animal and poop filled roads that we walk<br /></span></td></tr>
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even though its green the roads are still SO dusty. i shine my shoes every morning and by the end of the day they are completely brown again. we still have a little bit of the country in our sector which is up a SUPER steep hill that we climb almost every day. there are lots of dogs that like to bark and chase you, but i have yet to be bitten. and our house is right next to a catholic virgin statue thing so its always interesting to walk by the super devout catholics who are praying and lighting candles and stuff on the way out the door.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">a hairless dead gineau pig...its whats for dinner.</span></td></tr>
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The food: its pretty much the same as it was in mitad del mundo. i helped take the hair off of a cuy (gineau pig) but still havent eaten it yet. they also eat a thing called katso which is a fried beetle. buttt i missed the katso season by a month or two so ill have to wait until next november to extend my pallet to the insect category. </div>
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the people: the people are by FAR the most amazing people i have ever met. cultural coolness aside, they are so nice and will help anyone with anything. the members are even more amazing. they have to literally run to the stand to give their testimony because they ALL have testimonies so strong. they also offered to feed us without hesitation when we added 2 more missionaries. our ward mission leader and his wife are SO cool and have charity like i have never seen. they are so willing to help us and one of the other sisters hurt her ankle the other day. after giving all 4 of us lunch and helping us find people to go to the citas (appointments?) with us, he massaged and wrapped the sisters ankle and offered to take her to one of his indigenous friends naturalist doctors. the wife is going to be my clothing buying guide and their kids are SWEET too. </div>
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the culture: yes, i am starting to learn kichua. i can now (in rough kichua) greet, ask how old you are or what your name is, bare my testimony and pray. other phrases are included as well (thank you, sit down, come here, im hungry, etc). im trying to write down as much as i can and practice every day. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">me in anaco</span></td></tr>
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on tuesday</span></span> the sisters put me in the native clothing called anaco and im OBESESSED. i never wanted to take it off. we ran out of time today but hopefully next week i can buy some and learn how to put it on. basically its a big sheet and you just have a woven belt that you tie on super tight, but you have to do it right otherwise it will fall off and you will be pantsless in the plaza de ponchos. there are women here who wear their anaco every day, and spend a TON of money on their hand woven blouses, and crystal necklaces. i will be opting for the more economic options. other than that its a pretty normal ecuadorian town. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">the ward mission leaders daughter. they start <br />wearing anacos when they can walk....she is 4<br />and probably the most adorable thing i have ever seen.</span><div class="yj6qo ajU" style="color: #222222; cursor: pointer; outline: none; padding: 10px 0px; text-align: start; width: 22px;">
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This week: it was alot of running around trying to help the elders and other sisters open their sectors. </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100221" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on tuesday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> we had lunch with the old bishop, and it turns out his son translated the book of mormon into kichua and their daughter made my scripture cases (who knew?) we had to come home early on new years so i just unpacked and listened to all the crazy fireworks outside. one of our neighbors apparently has a sound system fit for an arena, and i thought our glass was going to shatter because the music was so loud. around </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100222" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">1 am</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> though everything seemed to settle down and i was fast asleep until a presumably drunk man was ringing all the doorbells in our appartment building repeatedly between </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100223" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">5 and 8 am</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">and yes, i wear ponchos now and they <br />are the most comofortable thing in the world</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222;">then </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100224" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on thursday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> we were out contacting up the mountain and found a family of 13 that took the first discussion and accepted a baptismal invation, but didnt go to church and dont seem to be too excited with the whole thing anymore. but we will keep working with them this week and see what progress we can make. </span></div>
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100225" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">saturday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> i had my first tourist experience. i always wanted to meet a white person on my mission whos a member and be that missionary that daddy always harassed whenever we were on vacation. a nice lady from canada was visiting and had been looking for a church the last 3 weeks but never found one. when she saw us she got pretty excited and i explained to her where the church was and they came </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100226" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on sunday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">. it was pretty cool to get to speak english. </span></div>
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</span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100227" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">sunday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> was fast sunday and almost all of the testimonies were in kichua, as well as part of ward council. the majority are bilingual and the chosen language is kichuañol (a mix of kichua and spanish) i could more or less follow the testimonies because the church words are all in spanish like gospel, testimony, miracle, etc. im pretty sure if i stay more than a transfer ill be able to understand it pretty well. but we will see. then today we just went and played volleyball with the elders. we are 26 </span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">(English translation "there are 26 of us") </span><span style="color: #222222;">in our zone now (the biggest in the mission) and in the valley of otavalo there are around 10 missionaries. apparently the church grew super fast in the 80s and its still a pretty dense mormon population. we cant walk 10 feet </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_960100228" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on saturday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> where they have the market and everyones saying "oh hermanitas come here im a member over there" and we dont know the majority of the people..</span></div>
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you couldnt send me the make up brush set? just kidding...make up is the last thing on my mind here. im showering 1-2 a week now a days with no makeup hardly ever. ive been trying super hard to not spend money and ive been pretty succesful so far. in the next few weeks ill be going with a few of the members to buy some traditional clothing but that should only be around 50-100 dollars in total. but we will see</div>
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thats it for now...</div>
<span style="color: #222222;">hasta kashkama! </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ñañagu harlos</span><br />
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-64011693374488009392013-12-30T15:01:00.002-08:002013-12-30T15:01:36.093-08:00OTAVALO!<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">IM GOING TO OTAVALO!!!! i have to be at the bus station in a little bit so i dont have much time to write now, but ill try and get back on later. If not BYE</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">and ill probably spend some more personal cash because its colder there and thats where all the indeginous people are that make sweet hand made ponchos and stuff.... sorry not sorry.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">(7 hrs later)</span><br />
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just got to otavalo...its amazing. its totally green and a nice mix of farmland and old looking city. but with modern commodites. my new companion is named hermana aquino and shes from bolivia. she has one transfer less than me which means im comañero mayor...what is that in english? senior companion? i dont really know. anyways, our new sector is wayyy small compared to my old one. you can walk from one end to the other in like 30 minutes. apparently our ward is like half kichua half spanish so im PUMPED to learn some kichua. </div>
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as far as the skype call is concerned, i dont know exactly what the rules are but president more or less said you have 45 minutes. if you wanna call mulitple family members go for it. but you still only have 45 minutes..... other than that the last few days have been more or less normal. it was pretty hard to leave the members and investigators but im sure i will come to love the people here in otavalo just as much. apparently its a challange to not gain weight here either so we will see how that goes.<br /></div>
the only memorable experience we had this week was that we had somewhat of an eternal investiagor named rosa. she wants to get baptized but isnt married to the father of their 12 year old child. they have been living together for like 14 years or so but this last month he FINALLY got divorced and, being a long time member of the church, had his rights taken away because he wasnt divorced and living with another woman (again, dont know what its called in english) basically one step above excommunicated. a few months ago they changed their living situation so they could comply with the law of chastity and thus be baptized, and we called mission president to get permission to baptize her. he said yes and we were so excitied she was FINALLY going to get baptized. butttt the day before her baptism the bishop went over and basically said no you cant get baptized because you need to get married first. but he never told us that he cancelled the baptism and the morning of the baptism our mission president called us and said she wanst going to get baptized. it was basically a giant bummer, but she didnt seem to upset about it and hopefully they can get all their papers in order so they can get baptized. definitelyh the first time a bishop has cancelled the baptism a day before...<br /></div>
other than transfers and the cancelled baptism there isnt much news. my camera is being alittle sketchy right now so ill send some pictures next week. </div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">BYEE</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Editor's note: We had a nice Skype call with Kendra on Christmas Eve. Although we had some technical difficulties it was fun to see and mostly hear her. </span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Here's a link about Otavalo with some cool pictures. </span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: x-small;"> </span>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otavalo_(city)</span><br />
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-76779026240820597952013-12-16T19:01:00.002-08:002013-12-16T19:10:38.781-08:00Feliz Navidad!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">This week was pretty nuts. we had divisions with the hermana leaders on wednesday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, then on thursday a</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">fter district meeting we had to go back to quito AGAIN so the family could finish up their paper work. they have officially set their wedding date for the 23rd and we've invited the ward to come support them. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Merry Christmas from the zone!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my companion, Hermana Lopez</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">i got a little whistle thing thats acutally a magnet from hermana muir and president gave us all study journals with our names on them (pictures next week) i also FINALLY got the covers for my scriptures, hymnal and preach my gospel.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With the Mission President and his wife</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">we got done super late and went to sleep with the nurse (hermana berrett) because they have like 15 bunkbeds in their house (they call it the hotel) ... we had to wake up at 5am on saturday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> to leave from quito to get back to our chapel because we had "the day as a missionary" with the youth that started at 7am.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The day as a missionary"youth activity </td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it was pretty fun but made me realize how hard it is to train. we also had a nice heated discussion in the street with a jehovas witness (they are always looking to bible bash) and one of the youth just shut up down. it was pretty funny. i hope i didnt destroy their desires to serve a mission too much. i was sooo tired and slept so well that night. i also got a nice sunburn (again) yesterday and today were normal though. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">i got a package from kaylee! (thanks bud) so thats her shoutout. im working on another round of letters and packages to get sent in the next few weeks. we have to travel an hour and half to the nearest post office that i know of. we made the brownies today and they ended up alright. being so high up and in such dry climate definitely changes the consistency. it was still fun though. we have our p-day changed to tuesday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> so dont be worried when you dont here from me on monday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. ill get on like 20 minutes early to write (so about 3:30</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">) so we can work out technical problems then for the christmas eve skype call home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">miss yall!</span><br />
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-48633642350422078982013-12-12T16:46:00.000-08:002013-12-12T16:51:55.100-08:00Technical difficulties, no photos<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222;">it was a pretty normal week. we wasted a solid two days trying to arrange the paper work so one of our investigators can get married and it turned out it was more or less a waste of time BUT hopefully we can get them hitched this week. hermana lopez fell down when we were playing capture the flag so now she has a really nice scab. we helped a nice old lady move her stuff from one apartment to another down the street...old people are pretty much all the same....anal about somethings and oblivious to others...thus accumulating alot of junk without any organazation. we helped our bishops wife assemble and decorate their christmas tree and we have the christmas dinner with president this friday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">. so thats pretty exciting. other than that life is more or less normal. we went caroling again on saturday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> and the elders decided to take a shortcut and we basically scaled a small mountain a crossed a ravine during the night time. i thought we were going to die. then it rained really hard. we also went to the christmas devotional yesterday which was more or less exciting. our family of converts (my only baptisms so far) got robbed a few weeks back and literally have nothing so weve been working with ward council to try and get some basic supplies together. hasta lunes! </span></span></div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-73042442171474025182013-12-03T16:19:00.001-08:002013-12-03T16:19:47.496-08:00My yoke is easy<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">our neighbor / investagor made us lunch on saturday,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;"> it was SOO GOOD</span></td></tr>
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this week<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">thanksgiving was a normal thursday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> here, complete with zone meeting and chicken and rice for lunch (just like every day). there was a company selling satelite out of the back of a truck so i got to see a little thanksgiving football which was pretty exciting. i didnt feel too homesick though. i think because it still feels like summer here i dont realize its december.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> then on friday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> i had a nice spiritual experience. we had a little bit of free time so we went to go look for a reference that a member gave us but the street didnt really exist (or if it does we couldnt find it) so as we were walking back we walked past a street that an old investigator lives on. shes super evangelical and when we explained the book of mormon it kind of all went down hill from there. she said give me a few months to read the book of mormon and then come back. so i figure yeah its been a few months, lets go visit her. so we went and knocked on the door. she seemed a little confused when she opened the door and saw us but she let us in anyways. so we got to talking and she was talking about a few problems shes had lately. i pulled out matthew 11 something about "my yoke is easy and my burden is light" and she started bawling in the middle of it. turns out she was praying to recieve some help from god and she said send me anything and before she even finished praying we knocked on the door. i was like yeah look at me learning how to feel the spirit. it was pretty cool.</span><br />
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then on sunday<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> after church we went caroling as a zone and we played jenga. it was the most exiciting jenga game i have ever played in my life. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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then today we played capture the flag (although the latinos dont really understand it and there was a lot of cheating, im still a little bitter about it) and i got sunburned (as usual) it seems like every day we dont do anything i remember to put on sunscreen but then the days we are outside i forget. oh well. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">im exicited for the upcoming week and counting down the days until i can call on christmas! </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">love you! </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">hermana dozas last day...1 week a 3 days in the mission</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">today with our packages! Mine was already half opened and I couldn't resist the temptation. we got a new gringo missionary in the ward after hermana doza left and she got a package with reeses so we are going to make reeses brownies next p-day (im super stoked)</span></td></tr>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-7687698802277629792013-11-25T15:05:00.004-08:002013-11-25T15:05:57.540-08:00Garage clean-out, hamburger contacting, and Beto--the wonder dog<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">the sisters before transfers last week (tall white girl problems.)</span></td></tr>
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(and last week since i didnt get to write a complete letter)</div>
the german family whose dad died(who kind of looks like uncle ray) is starting to clean out their garage, where the dad left all his tools and things. but the thing is, its not really a garage. its more like a small wherehouse (i have no idea how to spell that) and its not just like a hammer and power saw....its like huge super expensive tools and machinery (a forklift, a generator, two super old cars, and various other machines) and the son that just got off his mission and the mom and the sister are working to go through all of the junk and figure out what they want to keep/sell etc. (it kind of reminds me of the rhonda situation but more stuff and its all in german) so they had this forklift that they are trying to sell, but they need to paint it. so we helped them sand the paint off the forklift so they can paint it again. it was pretty fun, but we were outside from <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526248" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">8 am to 2 pm</span></span> in the very powerful ecuador sun...i forgot to put on sunscreen, and needles to say i am officially a redneck. my farmers tan is so strong right now, and my neck/ears are peeling.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me in orange paint, the sander, and the RM</td></tr>
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we did divisions the <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526249" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">wednesday</span></span> before last, and hermana norton (our sister trainer who went home <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526250" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on monday</span></span>) and i went up to calacali. we found a family the first door we knocked and they accepted a baptismal date, but have been avoiding us since. (a very normal occurance) the daughters names is narly. like gnarly. i thought that was sweet. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Narly and family, with Hermana Norton</td></tr>
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we also are teaching a family with a dad of 19 years and a mom of 21 years...they already have a 4 year old and an 2 year old (which means he was 15 and she was 17) but they are super cool. the two year old is named jeangrey, after the lady from x-men. latinos really like wahtever english sounding name they can find. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ILofziO07IU/UpPPKU7w7EI/AAAAAAAAAWE/HWHGoqJZxo0/s1600/354.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ILofziO07IU/UpPPKU7w7EI/AAAAAAAAAWE/HWHGoqJZxo0/s320/354.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The zone before transfers</td></tr>
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We had transfers <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526251" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on monday</span></span>, but hermana lopez and i both are staying in mitad del mundo. the other sisters from the ward both left (one went home and one got transfered) and the sent in two new sisters. one of them (hermana velasquez) is training, so we were in a trio until <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526252" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">thursday</span></span> when the new sister got here ( hermana doza) by the time <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526253" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">sunday</span></span> came around hermana doza was totally depressed and is going to talk to president today to try and go home. sooo we might be in a trio again, but we will see. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDO69wa5Sy4/UpPO01aJdKI/AAAAAAAAAV8/NABKCbN1hTc/s1600/378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDO69wa5Sy4/UpPO01aJdKI/AAAAAAAAAV8/NABKCbN1hTc/s400/378.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;"> the first lunch of the new missionaries and a sweet garden of the youngwomens president <br />(they have 20+ types of fruit, half of which i have never heard of)</span><div class="yj6qo ajU" style="color: #222222; cursor: pointer; outline: none; padding: 10px 0px; text-align: start; width: 22px;">
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<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526254" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">monday</span></span> night after we finished up in the offices, we were super hungry and decided to go find some food. so we walked into this totally random hamburger place and started to eat. about 20 minutes later the workers and and the other people eating there said hey were members. so we start talking and the main guy says i have a reference, but its for the ofelia stake. we said well were in ofelia...he says but its for pusuqui....were in pusuqui....but its for mitad del mundo...the reference was litterally 2 blocks from our house. we went by <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1737526255" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on tuesday</span></span> to go visit them and they are a golden family...well almost. they dad has a few underlying mental problems and they arent married but they are totally stoked to get baptized! it was sweet to know that the spirit prompted us to go into the restraunt and for the guy to share his reference with us. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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not much else really happend. we had to go an hour and half into quito two days this week, so that chewed up alot of time. the zone got 2 other greenie gringos, both completely awkward with a very thick gringo accent, so we will see how they do. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">beto, the alley dog also got a haircut, he looks like a skinny lion now, but im gonna miss him when i get changed for sure. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;">im still deciding what we should do with the money </span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">(Editor's note: money from the Chapel Hill ward Relief Society for her to use to help needy folks in her area instead of trying to send her something for Christmas)</span><span style="color: #222222;">. im thinking about spending a little bit of it for hermana lopez.</span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="color: #222222; float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">hermana lopez and i made a paper chain to countdown to christmas</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222;"> shes the only member in her family and her family hasnt written her in like 4 months...so i might do something for her. also i might pay for a few marriages for poor families who want to get baptized but dont have the money to get married. anyways ill let you know. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">i dont think were going to do anything for thanksgiving, but we will see. its weird to think its november. it still feels like july here. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-83375080326138254082013-11-11T17:53:00.000-08:002013-11-11T17:53:57.508-08:00Must Love Puppies<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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THIS WEEK:</div>
I had a few interesting experiences. The work of salvation..(i think thats what its called in english) is going well. we have ward council every week and at least one or two visits to less actives families with various members from ward council. we went to go see a family and surprise! they have 15 day old english bulldog puppies ( who im obsessed with). <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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that was <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1019075286" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on tuesday</span></span>, and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1019075287" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on friday</span></span> my companion felt a promting that we should go visit the family again. we didnt have too much to do so i said yeah sure. we head down to the house and the mom tells us that the mom of the dogs got hit by a car and died. so now the human mom (who is having various medical problems and in a constant level of pain and discomfort) has to hand feed the puppies every hour, day and night. she also gave us the news that because the dog died, it sparked a whole new set of problems and arguments that ended up in her husband leaving, taking all the money and the phone, leaving here with two kids, her own medical problems and two puppies who eat 17 dollars worth of formula every two days. although it was a sad situation, it was really cool to feel like we were really following the spirit and were able to comfort someone when they really needed it. we also arranged for her two kids to go to church the next day and they were really into it. </div>
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another cool experience we had this week was also based on spiritual promptings. we were on the bus headed back to our sector, but we had 2 hours before our next appointment. we had already done a bunch of contacting in the main part of town, and i felt like we should go up to a little pueblito about 15 minutes outside of town. so we stayed on the bus and got off at the top of this big hill and just started walking down. were knocking doors for about 45 minutes, and nobody has even tried to talk to us. as were walking down i see this somewhat sketchy stairway going up to a little house. i say what the heck, at least the stairs will tone my butt. so we go up to the house and this lady opens the door and immediately lets us in. we sit down in her humble kitchen on plastic lawn chairs, no table, no sink, and a small gas stove on some plywood on some cinderblocks and start to teach her. shes super friendly and her two kids are so freaking cute. shes in a "union libre" basically a marriage without any legal documents with a guy 10 years older than her whos one of 17 kids. but they fell in love and decided what the heck were gonna live our life and the did. they moved in when she was 17 and and 8 years later they are still going strong. anyways. so about 30 minutes into the lesson i ask her what their last names our so we can pray for them, then it hits me. this family was a street contact almost two months ago, one of my very first days in mitad del mundo. they gave us a rough address but we could never find the house. i ask her if its her and she says "yes i thought you werent going to realize it" apparently she knew the whole time that i didnt remember them, but wasnt going to say anything. she and her husband see us alot downtown, but they were a little bummed we never visited them, and since we never recongized them they thought we didnt want to talk to them. (i guess its alot easier to recognize the only white girl in all of 3 towns than it is to recognize a latino you contacted in the street once) they came to church this week and were gonna go visit them <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1019075288" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">tomorrow</span></span>. </div>
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we also had another family come to church (also not married, there seems to be a theme here) but the womans brother is a missionary in chile and got baptized a little over a year ago. so while were work to get a few couples married, hopefully we can throw in a few baptismal dates too. butttt transfers are this next week, and i dont feel like im going to stay here. so thats a little bit of a bummer but its the mission life.<br /></div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-74983301047207131532013-11-04T16:32:00.000-08:002013-11-04T16:32:01.654-08:00Halloween Ecuadorian Style<br />
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This week: we tried to have a halloween party for the stake, but it was poorly planned and poorly announced so only a few families showed up. it was still fun though. i went as a cat, two elders as nerds, one as a jedi and one sister as pocohantas. dressing up while still keeping the missionary standards is challenging for sure. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">our zone at the halloween party</span></td></tr>
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we planned it for november 2nd which as many of you know is day of the dead. (also called dias de los difuntos here) the ward celebrates by drinking colada morada and eating gua-guas de pan. the colada morada is a super sweet fruit smoothie that is served hot and actually pretty good. the blueberry season here starts in november so its a super traditional and highly anticipated event. they also make gua guas (wah-wahs) de pan which is a bread shaped baby decorated with colored icing. they are sooooo good.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">gua guas and colada morada!</td></tr>
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various relief society sisters and us</div>
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we also helped various families decorate for christmas which was quite fun. everyone always asks about thanksgiving with very confused interest. we also had dinner yesterday with the half german half ecuadorian family that lives in the country...so thats always an interesting time. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="text-align: start;">we also attended a birthday party for one of our investigators. latinos do not mess around with birthday parties</span></div>
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we had two days of training (between interviews and zone conference and other stuff etc.) so we didnt get too much done, but its all in a mission. my baptism last week was the daughter of the family we baptized the first baptism (we didnt know she existed until a few weeks later) but she is the BOMB. she totally ditched all her friends and told them she was getting baptized and needed to live a better life. but then her grandma came and stole all her clothes because she wants her to move back and not live with her mom anymore. this family never really ceases to surprise me. </div>
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the funny story of the week: we were in a lesson with an investigator and it was going pretty well. we ask her to give the closing prayer and shes all about it. shes giving the prayer and all of the sudden the two year old who was falling asleep on her shoulder just pukes all over her, the chair and the floor. it was a small kid but alot of throwup. we didnt really know what to do so we tried to help clean up with some babywipes we had in our bag. the lady came back in and started to finish her prayer still covered in puke, we told her she could go change first and she was like oh really? okay... it was pretty funny. but props to her to keeping the spirit through it all. </div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-12319331650372220782013-10-28T20:37:00.000-07:002013-10-28T20:37:12.347-07:00English is so hard!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THIS WEEK</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">well, as a zone we were a little iniquitous (in iniquity? i dont know what it is in english) on our last p-day (listening to worldly music in the van), so the work was a little slow this week. we got macheted (in trouble? yelled at? english is so hard!) by the zone leaders in a special meeting after they got macheted by the mission president, but its all good in the hood now. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last week's "iniquitous" zone activity to Mindo</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everyone already has their christmas trees up here, and they are ALL about chirstmas. they also think thanksgiving is super weird and dont understand why we eat turkey....actually now that i think about it i dont understand it either. the weather is still pretty much the same, and it hasnt rained too much lately, but every one is worried its going to come late but super heavy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">we had an interview Wednesday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> and a baptism Friday,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> but thrusday we realized there wasnt any water in our chapel so we had to switch to the stake center. trying to plan a baptism in 12 hours is pretty hard, but we got it done. we also only started an hour late, so were making progress (we had to wait for another witness) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">i got a FABULOUS halloween card from aunt dana, uncle ken and corey and all the latinos were obsessed with it in the offices. On Saturday</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> we did a service project with non member family we met in the street. they are so cool and hopefully we can start to teach them. the dad kind of reminds me of daddy. he just decided he wanted to build somewhat of cement igloo in the front yard and just started digging the whole without a plan. he says hes learning everything from youtube....his wife doesnt seem nearly as excited. it was pretty fun to be able to use all of my muscles, and not just walk all day. mixing concrete at noon</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> in ecuador is one heck of way to get a farmers tan. </span></span>LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-21719034810771976742013-10-26T19:19:00.000-07:002013-10-26T19:19:02.299-07:00Three month mark<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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This week:</div>
not too many exciting things....its been raining more and more every day. some days its way cold and wet and i dont like the weather...but some days its totally sunny. i have a pretty nice farmers tan now a days...and im not in the most sunny sector. my hair is also getting blonder...i hit 3 months last thursday....so im 1/6th of the way done with my mission.. its gone by so fast. i also finished reading the book of mormon which i started when we got here to ecuador...a month and a half isnt too bad i guess. i dont know if i said this already but i started sleep talking in spanish..and lately ive been forgetting alot of words in english. adjusting back after a year and half will be tough.... i think. </div>
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We have a really cool family that were teaching right now. the 9 year old has read all of the pamphlets and answered all of the questions with out us even asking. she also is already in chapter 10 of first nephi....shes so smart and LOVES when we come to teach. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Today we went to a place called mindo. its about an hour and half or two hours away (although its still in my sector) and it was AWESOME. first you take this thing thats a mix of a cable car and a canopy tour across a big valley and then you hike and hike and hike and theres a bunch of waterfalls. being the rebel i am i went and stood under one of the little baby waterfalls and got totally soaked (and later really really cold) but it was so fun! my zone is really cool. then we went and ate at one of our favorite seafood restraunts. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">the pictures are way better than my words</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> but </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">this computer place is so slow and were out of time so ill send the rest n</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ext week! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">also i forgot if i said this already but if anyone at church is asking what to send me tell them dry bags of brownie batter! </span>LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-79217222042734297832013-10-15T05:57:00.000-07:002013-10-15T05:57:19.159-07:00If Spanish is too easy, try Kichua<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">the book of mormon cover in Kichua (and yours truly)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This week: well, the most interesting day this week was definitely Friday.</span><br />
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on the way back from a two zone training conference in iñaquito a few things happened</div>
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first: we got in a minor bus accident. nobody got hurt and only the missionaries seemed to notice. there was a little bit of broken glass but we were on our way in no time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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second: one of the other sisters took the bus right before us, and by the time we got to the bus station she had gotten robbed. bummerr</div>
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third: later that night we were hanging out in our convert ana´s food shack thing. some crazy lady came up and started to throw food and spoons and embers at ana to try to distract her so the crazy lady could steal food. well little did the crazy lady know, but ana is super hood and fights like nobodies business. in about 5 seconds she had they crazy lady on the ground in somewhat of a defensive hold and the whole town came out to watch. the member who gave us the reference for her family was standing by eating a hot dog and yelling like we were on jerry springer. it was a pretty good day. </div>
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today i hung out with the family from esmeraldas and they taught us to make empanadas de verde de queso and morrocho. theyre pretty sweet. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">what else.....this week hasnt been too exciting otherwise. we found a cool family who kind of reminds me of the rassmusens. but they arent married and they work</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_937249516" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on sunday</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">...so i wouldnt be expecting a baptism any time soon. the computers are really slow for pictures so im dedicating more time for pictures than words (my words dont really make sense anymore)</span></div>
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other developments this week</div>
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i started sleep talking in spanish...well sleep yelling, but whats the difference?</div>
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i also started to learn kichua. </div>
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hermana lopez served in otavalo for 8 months and has a book of mormon in kichua and a few hymns. its a sick language and makes absolutely no sense to me right now. </div>
LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-83611923243575069492013-10-08T16:34:00.000-07:002013-10-08T16:34:55.173-07:00Babies, baptisms, and bumps in the road<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">us and the oña family before their baptism at last week's "white night"</span></td></tr>
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wheewwww i dont even know where to start. we had meetings pretty much all day every day (mission council, verifications, district meeting, etc) so we didnt really get too much work done. </div>
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we went to this big monument called panecillo. its kind of like the big jesus in rio dijenaro (i dont know how you spell that) but its an angel. apparently a bunch of years ago in the 60s president kimball (when he was still a 12) went to this monument and dedicated the country of ecuador to missionary work. only 3 weeks later the first converts were baptized. it was pretty powerful and the view is amazing.</div>
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Well later on that day we went to one of our mamitas and we started to talk and low and behold her dad was one of the first members baptized in ecuador. she was also the first sister missionary to every leave from ecuador. her story is nuts but shes so cool. she also cooks like nobodies business. her and her husband got married after only one month. He was a missionary in her ward and later on they met up again at a dance. he called her a week later and asked if she wanted to get married. they both prayed and she said yes. theyve been together for 40 something years now and are still going strong. she blows my mind . </div>
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they spoke so much about missionary work and a few mentions of autism and other disabilites. it seemed like it was a conformation of my educational interests. </div>
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then <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2003640809" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">sunday </span></span>night after conference we hung out with a recent member and made tortillas from verde (green plantain) they were okay, but i wasnt a huge fan. this member though is SWEET. shes hillarious and i think we are twins.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">they have a pretty small house but she feeds the missionaries once a week. she has a few kids and they are freaking adorable (pictures attached.) </span></div>
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Earlier in the week we also visited with a less active sister who recently gave birth to the tiniest premature baby girl. she only weighed two pounds when she was born.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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the moms brother showed up and hes somewhat inactive, but we talked about how he should start going back to church so he can give the baby blessing to his niece. it was so sweet. </div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">seriously all of the members here are so loving and would give anything for us. my new comp is named hermana lopez and shes from colombia. shes a little taller than hermana garcia but still shorter than me. Weve only been togther a few hours, but we already went and got chifa </span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">(Chinese food)</span><span style="color: #222222;"> and she seems pretty chill. i hope we will get along a little bit better.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;"> hermana garcia and i cutting her goodbye <br />cake at the last zone conference</span></td></tr>
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life with hermana garcia wasnt bad, but we had our differences sometimes. mission is definitely hardcore training for married life. </span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;"> (Doesn't this look like a wedding photo?)</span><span style="color: #222222;"> other than that ive just being going all over the mission trying to get ready for hermana garcia to leave. its weird to have her gone but hopefully this next transfer will be one for the record books.</span></div>
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lots of pictures attached. (like 40+) (since i missed the last few weeks) </div>
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from your eternally sleepy and strenthening spiritual,</div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Hermana harlos</span><br /></div>
<span style="color: #222222;">p.s. shoutout to kaylee for her 21st birthday </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2003640810" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on friday (picture attached!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Kaylee - not sure which picture of the 40+ she had in mind for you, but here are my top guesses. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Happy Birthday!- Linda</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">but then i ate it and i was happy #suckstosuckplantain</span></td></tr>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-25037224396326257342013-09-30T16:59:00.000-07:002013-09-30T16:59:22.910-07:00The White Night <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">HEY YALL</span><div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
so apparently the rainy season is just starting here, and it gets pretty chilly and wet...hopefully at least it will lessen the heavy amount of dust. i also forgot my camera today so pictures will come next week. your camping trip looked super fun, i miss the beach. sometimes life is like camping here, but it isnt too bad. ive offered myself as a sacrifice to open up a sector of sisters in the jungle to president richardson,but we will see if he actually accepts (i doubt it). we just had lunch at mcdonalds in the mall that looks alot like southpoint. i know i know im a spoiled sister missionary. </div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">daughter - a brand new sister missionary that the "mom" trains. Kendra is Hna Garcia's "daughter".</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Sister (training) leader - A new extra leadership responsibility given to certain Sister missionaries to look after the other Sister missionaries. Kendra did this in the MTC and Hna Garcia is doing it now. It seems to involve going to lots of extra meetings and going to the other sister's areas. Similar to what the guy "zone leaders" do??</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">P-day - "Preperation day", the one day missionaries have free to write emails, shop, do laundry, etc. Often on Mondays.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Transfers - A six week period of time. Some missionaries get shuffled around to new areas or companions every 6 weeks, although not every missionary is effected each transfer. Transfers will be next week and Hna Garcia is finishing her mission and going home, so Kendra will get a new companion.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Trunky - When missionaries who are soon going home think about going home.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">BOM - Book of Mormon, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">THIS WEEK</span></div>
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so as always, life as the daughter of a sister leader is hectic. we only have tuesdays in our sector without meetings, pday, church or transfers. the biggest thing that happened this week was our "noche blanca"in the stake. we brought the baptismal clothes for everyone (14 baptims and 2 baptizers, luckily the other two elders have their own) and we asked every ward to bring a cake....we only ended up with 3 cakes but somehow it worked. our service was supposed to start at 3...and it started at 4.30. so yes, not much has changed with the south american view of time since you left. the white missionaries were deffinitely a little bit more worried about the time than everyone else. but its good because 3 of the converts didnt show up until 4. the baptismal font room is pretty small in the stake center, so we had everyone in the chapel and skyped the baptism to a projection screen. president richardson, his wife, his daughter, the APs and the secretaries all came. i arranged a special musical number for the missionaries to sing. it was a mix of i feel my saviors love, when i am baptized (the rainbow song) and nearer my god to thee. luckily a ward mission leader is quite the musical prodigy so i DIDNT have to play the piano. i did conduct however. i kind of felt like i was conducting a primary program ....but we got through it and no one seemed to notice that none of us have any musical ability. the baptisms went well....we only had two towels, but no one seemed to notice that either. after the service, it was hermana richardsons birthday so we sang to her and gave her a cake. she seemed to be pretty stoked. Anyways that was the white nite. WOO first baptisms! the family we baptized also invited a bunch of people. apparently the mom has a few more kids we didnt know about (some of whom may or may not be twins with the ones we baptized, no one kjnows for sure) and her parents (the kids grandparents) they all live in our sector and accepted a date for the 19th. this might just be the golden family that keeps on giving. weve had a little disobedience in the zone with a few of the latin elders, but no ones gotten sent home yet so we will see what happens. </div>
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Transfers are this <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2061561188" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">next monday</span></span> and i will for sure be getting a new comp when hermana garcia flies home. shes getting a little trunky but nothing too bad. im learining more and more each day, including but not limited to..</div>
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...mission jergas (slang), normal jergas (including cuss words), how not to almost die on the bus, names of various tropical fruits and vegetables (and which ones i do/do not like, there are SO many) and the family relations in the ward. </div>
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im sure i will learn more as this rainy season continues, but i guess we will really see how well prepared i was in wilmington for the rain. </div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">this week we have meetings pretty much all day (various consejos (councils) and verifications) but were pretty sure im gonna get a normal comp this next change so i can actually have a set schedule with studying and </span><a href="http://sleep.it/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">sleep</span><span style="color: black;">.it</span></a><span style="color: #222222;"> will be a nice change...i hope. i also hope i get along with my next comp but you cant have it all. i just finished alma in my 90 day BOM challenge (hallelujah) and in a few weeks ill be starting it again in spanish. (we will see how that goes)</span></div>
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thats pretty much all for now.pictures next week for sure! (if i get to write, we well see how p day goes with transfers and all) thanks for the love! </div>
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hermana harlos</div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-56432520126625258992013-09-25T17:56:00.000-07:002013-09-25T18:01:06.955-07:00Why missionaries go home at 9:30 every night<div style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">
This week:</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>chillin with the alley dog, beto (named by the local grandmas) </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>hes a fluffier rebel with all 4 legs and yellow eyes. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>hes very sweet and very very dusty.</i></span></span></div>
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we had a pretty good week. last monday night we went to go teach a woman that we found street contacting last week. shes pretty heavy duty evangelical, but said we could come by to teach to help her drunk husband and wayward children. so we had this plan set up that we were going to pass by her house and knock on the door like we were just tracting and happened upon their house so he wouldnt get mad at her for inviting the missionaries. well we passed by at the agreed upon time but the husband wasnt there. she says we can come in anyway because she likes to hear about God and the bible. about 3 minutes in her husband shows up, pretty drunk and very confused as to why we were sitting on his couch. so we start talking and turns out he had some mormon neighbors growing up and actually thinks the church is pretty cool. so an hour and half later were teaching the restoration, first vision and all and hes all about it. he said (with out being asked) you know, monday is my drinking day, but ill stop drinking on mondays if you guys keep teaching me. HOLY TOLITO you should have seen the look on his wifes face. she couldnt believe that he agreed to this. but just like the rest of missionary work all good things must come to an end. the clock struck 9:30 and apparently when hermana garcia is disobedient she cant feel the spirit. and when she cant feel the spirit she cant teach. we kept on teaching and the last few principles of lesson were horrible. everything after the first vision just crashed and burned. but hopefully this week we can teach him again and get done before 9:30. </div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>I'm too tall for the doorways. it happens here quite often. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Apparently 5´9" is gigantic for latinos</i></span></span></div>
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Another experience we had this week was with the oña family. its quite an interesting story they have. basically theres a mom and 5 kids. she only lives with the first 3 and they all have a different dad. the first dad ran off with the moms mom, and so the mom tried to committ suicide by pills, but had a vision during her unconcsious state and god gave her another chance to live and she took it. anyways so shes had the dads of all her kids leave her and she makes a living selling street food for 5 dollars a day. regardless of all this shes super nice and her kids are really cool too. her boss is a member and referenced her for us (i think i already told that story) but anyways. so we have been teaching them every day and they are SO stoked to get baptized this sunday. its pretty cool because its hermana garcias last baptism and my first. with a family of 4. its the mom, the son (his name is stalin, which still confuses me) who is 14 and two daughters who are 10 and 9. stalin is really cool but has been struggling in school because of some not so good friends of his. this week we bought him a white shirt and his mom got him some black pants and i have never in my life seen anyone so excited to go to church. he was going to go to a youth conference, but his school had some activity. anyways he has been our main focus lately and after their baptismal interviews on sunday (which they all passed) we went into the chapel and asked them to pray to gain a testimony. so hermana garcia called on stalin to give the prayer. so its the 6 of us kneeling in the chapel and he starts to pray. about half way through his prayer he just stopped and started crying. he stayed like that for 10 minutes. it was incredible to see someone have a life changing experience right in front of your eyess. apparently a few days ago a few of his friends asked him to go out drink with them, but he said no, im trying to follow christ and im getting baptized next week and just left. crazy huh?</div>
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then on saturday we did service for my FAVORITE family in our branch. well, one of my favorites. they are all pretty cool. they are from esmeraldas and the mom (ana maria) only got baptized last october. the dad isnt a member because he works out of town for like 2 weeks at a time and to get him to church and a baptismal interviews and lessons is impossible. anyways he still really likes the missionaries and hes really cool. so we went over to paint their house but it was also the sons 13th birthday. ana maria is an amazing cook and loves to feed the missionaries...alot. if i ever have enough money to open a restraunt im going to move her up to the states and have her teach the cooks how to make her food because i am in love with it. everything is sooo good. this week we had rice (of course. in ecuador its not lunch if it doenst have rice) and whole fresh fried crabs. and a bunch of other stuff for snacks but seriously these crabs. they were boiled/fried in some coconut based sauce. and her homemade lemonade and cakes and empanadas....yum. the son is the president of the deacons and kind of reminds me of sam. but yeah she fed the entire district until we were stuffed. shes the bomb. </div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> <i> </i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>ana maria trying to shove josés face in the cake</i></span></div>
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i hope i can stay in pusuqui/mitad del mundo for at least a few more months. </div>
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this saturday we have a white night for the stake and we have 21 with baptismal dates. a few will probably fall through but still to have 15 baptisms with at least one from every ward is going to be SWEET. and super long. but totally worth it. </div>
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basically im loving ecuador and never ever want to leave. ever. and i only have 4 weeks here. </div>
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LOVE YALL</div>
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hermana harlos </div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-82146793290299335082013-09-16T20:12:00.000-07:002013-09-16T20:12:29.127-07:00Photos in of Kendra coming ashore<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SksWRJc4BLs/Uje9qnbex4I/AAAAAAAAAME/5BKGIQMVMgY/s1600/Imagen+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SksWRJc4BLs/Uje9qnbex4I/AAAAAAAAAME/5BKGIQMVMgY/s400/Imagen+001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: start;">getting our assignments from the mission President...herMAMA Garcia</span></td></tr>
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This ones gonna be a little shorter. basically this week has been really good. we had one family show up to church and they are super stoked about it. and im super stoked for them. two months ago today i was on a plane to the mtc, and its crazy how fast time has flown. my spanish, my testimony, my famers/clarks tan, my hairs blonder, im pretty sure im fatter (but nobody knows for sure) and now i can eat 3 mamaitas in a row and not puke.</div>
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I cant wait to see what the next 16 months has in store. </div>
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One funny story this week was that one of the members sells empanadas and food on the side of the road in front of their house. we went to go stop by and eat some food, and two policemen roll up to eat as well. so were all eating at this picnic table and the two guys are pretty young and obviously interested in us. so they leave and we start going to knock doors on the same street. the show up in their car (obviously looking for us) and start asking us if we can have boyfriends, how old we are, etc. we tell them no, but the girl i was with (we were on splits) is a little trunky and only has two months left so the one guy gave her his number and facebook.....so that was interesting. first time ive gotten hit on by an ecuadorian policeman. </div>
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Then today we went and saw some sweet (and probably fake) ruins </div>
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and then ate at a chinese buffet in ecaudor called toronto. it was canada themed.....why there is a canadian themed chinese bufffet in ecuador i dont really know. but it was delicioussss. </div>
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im also gong to send picture today!! yay!!!!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">puppies and girls, such joy<br /><br /><br /><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A<span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">riels baptism (although he has yet to be confirmed)</span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span></td></tr>
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the little kids in our alley LOVE stickers and candy. alot. and white people, and funny faces</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">A family we ate with. the son (second to the left) just got back from his mission last month. <br />he reminds me alot of kyle. They're a cool family.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;"> Another fluffy pile of love at a members house </span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">and their family. the littlest girl is my spirit animal. <br />The second we got in the house she grabbed my hand and pulled me upstairs to show me her very pink room. </span><div style="color: #222222; text-align: start;">
They had an old school nintendo so we played the original mario brothers. it was a good time.</div>
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Thats all for now. LOVE YOU GUYS see you in 16 months!</div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-14983690467983882672013-09-09T15:08:00.001-07:002013-09-09T15:08:40.539-07:00On bus rides and puppies<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Editor's question to Kendra - What is a "mamita"?</span></div>
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yeah so a mamita is a lunch appointment with various members. some people do it every week, and some once a month.<br /></div>
<span style="color: #222222;">ONTO MY LIFE. well life in ecuador is starting to be more normal. the other day on the way to church the bus was flying (+100 kmh) and there was a nice man and flute duet of that cher song (i think) from the titanic. you know like "here, far wherEVVERRR you are" in spanish, and the bus driver really trusts this bus so he whips it around the turn and im pretty sure we went on two wheels. i was also standing between a woman breastfeeding, somone selling bananas and a drunk man. i would say that pretty much sums up ecuador. theres alot of american influence but its all like 10 years too late. </span></div>
<span style="color: #222222;">we had our first baptism this week, although it doesnt really count for us. it was in the ofelia ward (like 2 sectors over from us) but its a closed sector so we had to teach him his last few lessons (i think i talked about this last time, the kind of weird old guy) and it was a pretty good baptism. but it was cool to see my first one. we also have 2 people with baptismal dates in our sector right now (although neither of them showed up to church </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1694001722" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on sunday</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">). the work is progressing slowly but surely, but i guess thats the way things go when you open a sector. one of our mamitas this week is a sweet black lady from esmeraldas (the beach town) and her food was AWESOME. apparently the best food is out there. and my trainer gained like 50 pounds in her 8 months there. this woman was baptized with her two kids last year and just got called to be the second counselor in the relief society. her fried plantains are to die for. </span><br /><span style="color: #222222;">another thing i love about ecuador is the PUPPIES. so. many. puppies. we went and visited an inactive family and they had 4 little puppies that were only like 2 weeks old. (the also have about 10 other dogs, cats and chickens but thats beside the point) seriously the cutest puppies i have ever seen. or at least thats what i thought. our mamita yesterday is this german family who somehow ended up here in ecuador and theres a bunch of people that are somewhat related. their son is serving in germany right now and hes the first person to ever serve a full time mission in germany from ecuador. theres also a german serving here in ecuador and somehow or another his aunt is best friends with this lady. (it really is a small world in the church). she wants to know what part of germany our family is from...i had no idea. so if you could figure that out that would be great. anyways they have half dalmation half boxer puppies that are around a month old and i wanted to take them all. theres about 7 of them and they are the sweetest, most ferocious puppies of all time. im really bummed cause i cant send pñictures right now. were in quito because we had to go to the office and i left my camera chord in mitad del mundo. maybe next week. </span><br /><span style="color: #222222;">im trying to think of what else happened this week. missionary work is kind of weird. time doesnt really exist and the days all run together. theres so much to do and your always late to things, but somtimes theres nothing to do. its especially hard when your trainer is the sister trainer and your always on divisions. but its pretty fun. we also went and ate chifa (</span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">editors translation: Chinese food</span><span style="color: #222222;">) this week. it was a somewhat sketchy half chifa half beach food place but it was way good and the inca kola....YUM. i think im addicted. we had a really powerful lesson with a part member family. the mom and kids are super active but the dad is way smart and is having a hard time trying to gain faith. anyways so we had a lesson with them and the bishop and his wife and us. the bishop apparently felt the same way back in the day and shared his testimony. it was pretty good. so much happens every day its hard to write it all or even think of it. sorry if this is totally scatter brained and makes no sense....but thats my life. </span><br /><span style="color: #222222;">i guess ill tell you the story of rocío. so we were on divisions, and i was with the quadrilingual sister whos wayy coool. we were out contacting after a lesson with an inactive family, and we werent having too much luck. so we sat down to take a break and decided to pray. after we prayed we started walking and about 10 minutes later we turn the corner and theres this shoe shop with only womens leather boots. like super high heeled SWEET boots. i was like okay okay we will just go look and see if they have any that are missionary appropriate (there wasnt) but we started talking to the girl thats working. shes telling us about her life in columbia and how she came here to work and ended up teaching the restoration right then and there. she was so down with everything we explained and accepted a return appointment. the next day we stopped by and ended up teaching the plan of salvation. she also accepted a baptismal date. the only problem is shes living with her boyfriend and they want to get married but theres some problem with her immigrations status so they cant right now. hopefully it can get resolved because she is sooo cool. it was just a really good feeling to know that the spirit brought us into her life and that shes prepared and open. it seems like pretty much everyone here is a part member family with a husband that for whatever reason doesnt really wanna either get baptized or come back to church. its a bummer because we have enough people to make a new branch in mitad del mundo but there isnt enough preisthood support to make it a functional branch. but thats our goal and we can just work as hard as we can to achieve it. </span><br /><span style="color: #222222;">another thing that happened this week was a big soccer game between ecuador and colombia. colombia won by one point and everyone was super bummed after. i cant wait to see what its gonna be like during the world cup. today for p day our zone had an activity where we made pancakes and played dodgeball. but instead of dodgeball we used toilet paper rolls wrapped in packing tape. (i guess because its safer?) things like that are the essence of ecaudor. they dont have much sense, but somehow it works. thats pretty much it for now, i hope to be able to send pictures next wekk (i have alot). also shout out to sister hagan for sending me a dear elder. (first mail in ecuador) i PROMISE i will send some snail mail next week as well. (its things like snailmail and shopping that we never seem to have time for) oh and theres also a high chance that after my trainer leaves at the end of this transfer i will be training because they dont have enough sisters to train the new ones coming in. almost every sister is training right now, so we will see in 4 weeks. </span><br /></div>
<span style="color: #222222;">peace love and ecuadorian blessings</span></div>
<span style="color: #222222;">hermana harlos</span></div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2655784115625300465.post-39278536429457552222013-09-03T12:55:00.000-07:002013-09-03T12:55:59.044-07:00News from "The Middle of the World"<div class="adM">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT A WEEK. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">i dont even know where to start. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so we flew in and went to the presidents house which was WAY nice. it was all like marble and stuff in this really nice apartment complex. they had a fancy dinner set up for all of us coming in, there were 22 new kids. only 3 white people though. in fact, over 80 percent of the mission is latin. and theres only 5 white sisters right now...so im pretty lucky to be here. after the dinner we had a testimony meeting with all the new kids. then on wednesday we had an all day training session that was like a mini mtc. the did it mostly because the latin missionaries were only in the mtc for 2 weeks and they had to go over mission specific rules. and we had to go get registered as volunteer aliens or whatever at the government office and that took about 3 hours. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then on thursday we got our first assignments! the presidents wife made these pictures things with our qualities we wanted to develop and our favorite colors. they called us all up one at a time and then announced our trainers and zones and areas (they are called sectors here). my trainer is named sister garcia, and shes a very small guatemalen woman on her last transfer. apparently she had been praying to finish her mission as a trainer, for a gringa, in pusuqui, where she started her mission. when they first brought in all of the trainers to the meeting apparently she saw me and immediately said thats going to be my last daughter (shes already trained 7). lo and behold, they call up sister garcia for me. she was so stoked, but it was an awkward first hug to say the least. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so we are in the ofelia zone/stake in the pusuqui ward BUT its a big area so they just split it into two sectors. my sector is oficially called san antonio but its better known by mitad del mundo and wouldnt you know it, the equator is a five minute walk from our house! many pictures to follow. <span style="color: #6fa8dc;"> (Editors note: "mitad del mundo" translates as "middle of the world", here's a photo from the web as Kendra couldn't send any yet)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">there are 8 sisters/4 companionships in our zone (2 companionships in each district). so after transfer meeting we all got in a taxi and went to the first sisters house. there are two sets there, and the view is AMAZING. we went (all 8 of us) to our first mamita. Instead of dinner here, they feed you lunch and its called a mamita. this specific mamita was ever so kind to feed all 8 of us and it was delicious. later on we had to call another member to take the 4 of us that dont live there to our house about 45 minutes away. the 3rd set of sisters live in one half of the ward and we live on the other half in mitad del mundo. so since technically we are opening a sector we have a new house, which is pretty big. its got a big kitchen, study area, dining area, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Its a very interesting place. some things are very nice like the tile in the bathrooms/floor and the appliances, but somethings are a little bit more sketchy like the cielings are all plywood and the showers are just heated by electric shower heads. (i.e. not very well) we also got there right as the sun was going down, but surprise there were only 2 lightbulbs. so we had to go out and buy some light bulbs, toilet paper, and food just enough to last us until p-day. we also had to start a new area book (called carpetá de area). after we did those two things it was already time for bed. it gets pretty cold at night here, but our blankets are good enough. getting out of bed is the hard thing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then on friday we had district meeting. our district leader is a white guy from utah who doesnt have too much going on upstairs and probably said bueno 50 times in the lesson. there also and elder from the san francisco area but both his parents are latino, so hes not too gringo. We ride the bus...alot....with what seems like all of ecuador on the bus, breastfeeding, selling things, sleeping, etc. all the busses are different on the inside, but they seem to have a pretty regular schedule and route. each ride is about 25 to 35 cents depending on where you are going. we get 90 dollars every 15 days, so its not too bad. food and housing and gas is really cheap here, but clothes are pretty expensive. i dont really get their economy, but i try to not ask too many questions. some busses are tricked out on the inside with fringe and various depictions of jesus/other saints and any amount of detail of fake wood/flames / whatever design they wanted to do that day. you never really know what your going to get. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">after district meeting we started doing some street contacting. since its a new sector with no area book and we hadnt been to church yet, we didnt know any members, have any references or know our way around. so we just started walking and the first person we contact, SURPRISE! member. we went to go see an investigator whos a 60 year old woman named rosa with about 10 teeth and wayy long black hair. she wants to get baptized but is waiting for her significant other to get a divorce so they can get married and hence get baptized. shes way nice though and her kids are all baptized. the youngest is like 11 and the oldest is 30 or so. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">later that night we went on divisions (splits) with hermana muir (from the mtc) and her trainer hermana quizhpe. hermana garcia (or as i call her, my herMAMA, im so funny) is the sister trainer so usually we go on splits, but since it was only our second day for both muir and i we just went as four. we went to go teach this family, but on the way there we had to get off the bus and take a taxi because it was a little bit of a dangerous area and it was dark. so we were already late for our lesson, and there were NO open taxis. eventually one stops with a woman inside and shes like "hermanas get in". turns out to be a member who let us hop in her taxi and paid for us too. the members here are seriously so amazing but more on that later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so we go into this lesson and its a young family with one daugher whos about 5 and the moms sister and her kid whos also like 4 or 5. so its 3 adults, 4 missionaries and 2 kids. their whole house is a kitchen and one other room with two twin beds, a tv, and a makeshift closet. the moms sister and her kid were only visiting, but it would still be tough to live in basically one room as a family. they were way nice though and progressing really well. they are also just waiting to get the paper work to get married so they can get baptized. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then on saturday we had to go to ofelia for our mamita. its about a 45 minute bus ride. we get off the bus and its this WAY steep hill like steeper than the top of stateside and its way long and my comp says "see that house wayyyy up there? start walking." it didnt end up being that bad and the view at the top of the hill was also amazing. the couple is a newlywed couple who are pretty well off and still in the newlywed stage. he served his mission in argentina and they just got married last year. every mamita has rice, a mixed vegetable salad of peas, carrots, corn, other mystery vegetables and mayonaise, and a mystery juice drink. but boy is it good. im pretty sure ill get fat here, but we will see. we dont really eat dinner and theres alot of walking. i havent been too sore yet though. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so we came back to our sector to do some more contacting and met a few cool people. also passed by a house with a sign that said carolina. i didnt even notice it and my companion stops and starts yelling "california california!" it took me a minute but i finally realized what she was talking about. she also has some trouble with my name, but shes getting better. then later that night we had to go back to ofelia to meet with an investigator with a baptismal date for this sunday. they pulled the missionaries out of the ofelia sector of the ofelia stake because the members werent helping with the missionaries or feeding them or anything so this is their punishment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">anyways so hes a single guy whos about 50 and we could NOT find anyone to go with us. <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">(Editors note: missionaries aren't allowed to teach or even go inside the house with a single person of the opposite sex unless there is another person present, not counting the 2 missionaries who are always together anyway.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so finally we decided we were going to go get him and take him to an FHE of a family one ward over. we go in and he runs a little sketchy herbalife smoothie shop in the front 30 squarefeet of his appartment. there was a family in there with a mom and so we were like okay well go in and then just leave whenever they are done. well appaarently this is a 10 course smoothie dinner on plastic picnic chairs and plastic little ottomans with the dad, a breast feeding mom (to a kid who was eating the fruit and granola as well) and a 9 yearold. so we start talking and ask if we can share a spiritual thought. they say yes and we start to do our thing. my trainer and i werent totally on the same page and in the middle of it the breastfeeding 3 year old LOSES IT and starts screaming. absolutely no one is listening and it was just a trainwreck. the family leaves and its just us and the old guy and were back at square one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we had to go sit out on the side walk but it is what it is. so were talking to him to see where hes at and hes telling us about how he wants to go to the other ward because theres a 20 year old that hes in love with and hes going to another church and has NO idea what the restoration is and its just bad news bears. apparently the elders who were teaching him before werent doing so well. so we just get out as fast as we can and get home at like 10 oclock. whoops.. we arranged to have a church tour with him the next day to see if we can salvage any sembelance of a progressing investigator. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so then on sunday we show up at church and theres this mid-60s year old lady who comes up and just hands us a bag. she had knit both of us scarves (thank heavens cause it gets real cold on the bus at night) and apparently regularly gives hand knit gifts to the missionaries. she also was wearing almost everything she had knit herself. since my trainer had already served in this ward over a year ago everyone was way excited to see her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like i said before the members here are AWESOME. they would do anything for the missionaries with no questions asked. i think alot of them are converts and so they feel a special connection with the missionaries. i have never recieved so many hugs in my life. they are all super imprssed with my spanish but sometimes its tough to understand anyone over the age of 50 or with any particular accent or speach impediment. also impossible to talk on the phone, but that will get better (i hope). its tough to understand english on these phones though too so we will see. back to church....during relief society (sociedad de sucorro, or called suck-suck by the members) the sisters were literally arguing over who got to feed the missionaries. i cannot explain the passion they have for us and for missionary work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">after church we were all standing in the hallway and one of the other missionaries passes out boom right in the hallway. so shes out cold and everyone starts freaking out. shes like convulsing and all sorts of craziness. they move her into the relief society room and she starts to wake up. they sit her up and chair and start to give her a blessing and she starts vomiting and it just a bad situation. so the 4 of us sisters (the sick one carried out by some of the elders) hop in the back of a midsized hatchback sedan, with the sick one going in and out of conciousness, convulsing and dry heaving and the bishop takes off. if theres one person i trust to drive in an emergency in ecuador, its the bishop. they do not mess around about driving down here. i mean we were just flying through red lights and the other sisters are crying but i was just like...i mean what can we do about it. so we get to the hospital and shes complaining of chest pains and all sorts of crazy stuff. aparently the last few nights she had been vomiting up blood but well get to that later. so my trainer goes into the e.r. with her and so its me and another new girl from guatemala and the bishop. we had to call the mission nurse and the mission president and its just all sorts of crazy. finally the bishop is like, your mamita is waiting and theres not much you can do here, so we will take you two greenies to the mamita (we had been fasting for 30 hours by this point) and then take you back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">i have to write the mission president before 6 so ill finish in a minute in another email </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so we went to go eat with the mamita (who was also so gracious and cariñoso) and she packed food for my trainer and the nurse too. we got back to the hopsital and they all ate and left again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that night we had our church tour with our investigator. we started out with the classrooms and stuff like that and we get to the painting of christ in the garden of gethsemane and my companion asks, what is the atonemtent? he had no clue. i was like there is no way this guy is gonna get baptized in 7 days. so we explain it and he totally got it right away. we were asking inspired questions and spitting out scriptures right and left. our mojo was on POINT. he also didnt know anything of tithing, word of wisdom or law of chastity but we were able to explain it all clearly and he was down with all of it. totally a golden investigator once we were able to get the spirit involved. the elders didnt arrive until 8 for his baptismal interview so we were just hanging out with some of the members who were waiting for something else (i dont really know what). again, they were so nice and i was able to have like a 45 minutes conversation with a couple who used to live in new jersey near ocean city. (they didnt realy speak much english though, it was all in spanish) my spanish is getting so much better. i bet in only 2 transfers ill be able to understand and communicate (correctly) whatever it is that i need to say. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so the DL finishes up the interview and he was totally good to go. we start to walk out and the elders are like....oh the busses stop running at 8 on sunday. so its nine oclock and were a 30 minute bus ride away from our apartment......great. luckily the first 4 sisters lived only a five minute walk away from the church so we tell the DL, eitheir you can pay 10 dollars for our taxi or approve us to sleep over with the others. so there we were walking to their appartment. oh man what a sleepover. we made all sorts of food and if you put 6 sisters in one room with mattresss all pushed together you are gonna have a good time. all of the sisters are seriously so cool and we all get along really well. there are two from guatemala, one from ecuador who speaks english, spanish, french and chinese (fluently) and 2.5 gringas. muir and i are the two and then theres one whos parents are latino but grew up in california and doesnt really speak too much spanish. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then today was p-day and we just went grocery shopping and to mitad del mundo and cleaned. we have to wash everything by hand so the two guatemalans did that while we swept and mopped, etc. it worked out pretty well. we cleaned their place this morning and since our house has the best washing...stone? rock? sink? they brought their clothes over here. everything goes so much better when everyone works together. then we went to mitad del mundo and now were here! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">its been a great week and i cant imagine what the next year and a half are going to be like. Smell ya later. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hna harlos</span></div>
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LHarloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164292833339469653noreply@blogger.com0San Antonio de Pichincha, Ecuador-0.00034332275390568974 -78.451480865478516-0.00828282275390569 -78.461565865478519 0.0075961772460943107 -78.441395865478512