BOB Burger

Well it has been the craziest week ever down here in the south. Lots more rain of course, I know you are sick of hearing it but it literally rains cats and dogs every day and huge storms at night, fun right?! A member took us to the best burger place in town and yep it’s called BOB burger, it’s amazing and super cheap. Some of the best burgers I have eaten ever or well maybe my standard is going down due to Ecuador who knows?! But the best part is it’s called BOB burger just like dad!

This week for our investigators, things went poorly with Hermano Calvache and let’s just say he is no longer an investigator. But on the brighter side the Mora family I spoke of a while ago has a baptism date set for December!! We are super excited and so are they, if you remember they only live a couple doors down and own an ice cream shop so we tend to teach them almost every day and of course eat lots of ice cream:) I am so excited about them, we might even start teaching the daughters boyfriends family whooot whooo!! Other than that we contacted a ton this week out in the far hills of Conocoto and got tons of references. The work here is white and ready to harvest, so much to be done, so many people to love and serve.

We went on divisions this week with the Sister Leaders, I went to Armenia with Hermana Zola from Bolivia and my comp stayed here with Hermana Queto from the Dominican Republic. I learned a ton with Hermana Zola and I realized my Spanish was actually progressing because somehow I could communicate with her for 24 hours.  Yay! We had a crazy day and in the morning we ended up doing a serve project where basically we just chopped down trees with machetes and they went timber tons of fun!  I worked super hard the member asked me who taught me how to work, oh gosh dad would have been so proud. 

On Sunday we had the primary program, in sacrament meeting. I felt like I was at home hearing all the kids sing and saying there little one line phrases about the gospel. I cried like a baby during one song and kind of lost it. It was great I loved every part. The kids here are especially cute. 

I just have on more week of training with Hermana Castillo :( Sunday is the day of transfers. I have loved the time I have spent here thus far, Conocoto is amazing the people are so kind and opening our area was quite the adventure together. Next week I will have a new comp with new stories!

Thank you all for your love and support, I love each of you all

Para siempre dios este con vos 

xoxo

Hermana Merrill:)

This weeks pictures are me with a pig, basically what I eat for lunch and our area we live in. 

It's November?

I cannot believe its November already, it still feels like the middle of July when I left home, and there is Christmas things everywhere here already. So confusing, I feel like I might be living on a different planet.

This week felt super long. We continued to teach Hermano Calvache. He is going out of town this week for work to the coast for 15 days so his baptism will have to be pushed back. We started teaching some new people we got a couple references on Sunday and have appt. with all of them this week. On Saturday the Elders had a baptism of the son of Ruth. It was the first baptism I have been to on the mission. He only wanted the missionaries and his family to be there so most of our zone came and the Caza family. Hermana Castillo and I sang, yes sang, more like she was singing and I was humming teach me to walk in the light in Spanish. Elder Neal baptized him and all went as planned. It was awesome to feel the spirit of seeing someone making the covenant of baptism. We got a new ward mission leader; he just got off the mission and is super pumped to help us 6 missionaries.

The Halloween festives began on Friday here. Hermana Castillo and I made breakfast for our entire Zone on Friday morning. We made french toast bacon and of course had tons of fruit. Everyone loved the food and we got to enjoy Halloween morning together. We also had some emergency changes and got some new sisters in our zone, they were in the city of Quito got robbed twice in one week so they sent them to our zone out here in Los Chillos. One is from Lima, Peru and the other from Utah, they are nice.  Ecuador doesn’t really do Halloween they do Day of the Dead November 1st and 2nd. Everyone eats roasted pig and potatoes, lights candles for their families’ graves, puts flowers EVERYWHERE and reflects on them all night at the cemetery. We live about two blocks from the cemetery so you can only imagine the crazy weekend we had. The people we live with dad died when they were all little so they explained all the traditions to us and we even got to share what we believe happens after this life. We drank so much colada morada and wa wa pans, which is the biggest tradition here.
Other than that it has been a great week we are getting later into the transfer and I am savoring every moment with Hermana Castillo, only two more weeks and transfers will be here. I have done a lot of reflecting this week, I have learned to just let go the fact that it pours rain every day, that I feel like I am camping most of the time, that I might be the only blonde in Ecuador and that opening an area is hard. I wish that I could express how important it is to gain your own testimony. It is the most important thing we can gain on this earth. Seeing the humble hearts here except the gospel, makes me so grateful for all that I have been given, so grateful for my house, my family, and most importantly the knowledge I have. Showing my love and serving the people of Ecuador have brought me the most happiness I have ever felt it really is true joy.

I hope you all have a great week; you all are in my prayers and heart

xoxoxo

Hermana Merrill:)