Why missionaries go home at 9:30 every night

This week:

chillin with the alley dog, beto (named by the local grandmas) 

hes a fluffier rebel with all 4 legs and yellow eyes. 

hes very sweet and very very dusty.

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. 

I'm too tall for the doorways. it happens here quite often. 

Apparently 5´9" is gigantic for latinos

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?

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. 

            ana maria trying to shove josés face in the cake

i hope i can stay in pusuqui/mitad del mundo for at least a few more months. 

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. 

basically im loving ecuador and never ever want to leave. ever. and i only have 4 weeks here. 

LOVE YALL

hermana harlos