On bus rides and puppies

Editor's question to Kendra - What is a "mamita"?

yeah so a mamita is a lunch appointment with various members. some people do it every week, and some once a month.

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. 

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 on sunday). 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. 
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. 
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 (editors translation: Chinese food) 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. 
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.  
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. 

peace love and ecuadorian blessings

hermana harlos