Monday, August 31, 2009

Week 38

Everybody-

I know I always say this: I had an interesting week, athough I think this week it has more merit than any other week I´ve used this phrase.

The best news first! Javier Jojoa (Ho-ho-a) and Johana Pineda will be getting baptized this week, on Saturday to be exact. They are both doing so well, and really capture everything we teach. Javier seems to have grasped tithing and even had the tithing forms in his hymnal. The bad news is that they are both moving to Guayaquil September 15th for work. I´m so glad they will be getting baptized before they go. I´m going to miss them both so much though, they are some of my favorite people. Johana´s husband Kenny is on the road to reactivation in the church, which is great because he really does help us so much in all of our lessons.

Marisela is also doing really well, she´s has just about killed her smoking habit. I think she might have depression though because she is always so sad. She always says we are a relief. Hopefully we can help her with the gospel because that´s about all that we can do. Domenica is totally ready for Baptism. She loves everything about the Church. I think Octavio Borja will be coming up to do the baptims, after all Marisela is a reference from them.

Speaking of the Familia Borja...They totally surprised us yesterday by coming to visit my companion and I here in Ambato. Huge shock, the best kind. They had just been to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. Talk about your golden family! I can´t believe how lucky I am. I totally cried when it was time to say goodbye.

We had another big shock yesterday. Elder Calderón of the Area Seventy visited out Ward yesterday. Just a normal day. We have a few problems in our Ward, I won´t bore you with the details, but it was basically a shape-up or ship-out talk. Just kidding, it was great, he really said some things we needed to hear.

We have a new investigator that I really just don´t know how to teach. Her name is Lorena and she is a Hare Krishna. Pretty hard-core too, she was a missionary for 5 years and everything, lived in the temple. They have a lot of the same beliefs that we do. Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and such. Some of it is pretty different. Her Spiritual teacher is coming this week to Ecuador (which is a big deal- It´s like an Apostle) so I´m not sure we´ll be seeing too much of her. I think she is looking for something more though, otherwise she wouldn´t be talking to us. We are invited to have vegitarian cake with her on Wednesday for her Birthday. She made my companion and I a Yoga book because she says it will give us peace.

Everybody keeps writing me about their diets. So I thought I would tell you about mine. I call it the: "Take ye no thought for your nourishment" diet. I found it in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and since they are the word of God, I decided to try it out. So far in 11 months I have lost 40 pounds. Haha, take that you crazy people using injections. Although, I don´t think it works for everybody, my companion has gained 30 pounds in the 4 months she has been out in the field...

Love ya,

Your Favorite Missionary

Monday, August 24, 2009

Week 37

Hey Everybody-

Ecua-fact: Legally a woman has to have permission from her spouse before she can do anything. ANYTHING.

Well, Hermana Ovalle (O-vay-yea) and I are doing really well here in Ambato. We have 4 investigators who are really progressing and have baptismal dates!

Johana Pineda came back from Colombia this week and without drinking. So she will be getting baptized September 5th. Her husband Kenny is a member and returned missionary so we have to get him active. Unfortunately he won´t be able to baptize her, but he is a big help to us. Johana is a doctor, they don´t have any children... although they have 2 dogs, Mencha and Luna, who might as well be.

Javier Jojoa (Ho-ho-a) is also set for the 5th of September, he lives with Johana and Kenny and is also a doctor. He is still doubting the blessings of tithing and fasting, but I´m confident he´ll come around. He´s in Colombia this week so we are a little worried about his resolve with alcohol...hopefully he will stay strong and refrain.

Marisela and Domenica, my reference from the Borja family, also has a baptismal date for the 12 of September. They didn´t come to church last week so we had to move it back a week. They are doing really well. After we taught the Law of Chastity, Marisela broke off her relationship with her long-time boyfriend. She didn´t even tell us about him, she just ended it the same night! I have to admit that it was pretty cool. She is still struggling with smoking, but doing really well. I think Octavio is going to come up with his family so he can baptize her.

Marina isn´t doing too well. After she asked her husband permission to be baptized, and he said no, he pretty much won´t let her out of his sight. So she hasn´t been able to come to church. She also can´t close her Tienda on Sundays. It´s pretty sad, but I´m sure Heavenly Father understands that she can´t be baptized right now...It´s so hard when people can´t do what is right because of other people.

Veronica Santana also has a baptismal date for the 12th of September but she has to get married first...harder than it sounds. Her boyfriend doesn´t want to and he´s a member! Inactive, but still. Sergio is 50 years old and Veronica is only 20, but they have a little girl and everything. We are working really hard with him! Any ideas?

My new companion is doing well, although I think she really struggles. The mission is really hard on her. She cries a whole lot, in her sleep, everywhere. I´m liking her though.

On the weird side of things...President Sloan told me I can´t smile as much. I´ve been getting a lot of unwanted attention mostly from the drunk population. I thought it was pretty strange.

Hermana Tanner

Monday, August 17, 2009

Week 36

Everybody-

Ecua-fact: They iron everything. My current companion even irons her interior clothing. Sheets, towels, and everything.

Anyway, here I am back in Ambato. It´s kinda tripping me out! In just 5 weeks everything is so different. We aren´t currently teaching many of my old investigators. Marina in Picaihua (Pick-i-gua). She has a baptismal date and everything. We are a bit worried about it though because she has to ask her husband permission to get baptized. She doesn´t seem very sure that he´s going to give it.

Rosa and Oscar got baptized while I was in Riobamba. It´s kinda tough because I´m the very person who knocked on their door but I missed the most important part. Now they are members and I can´t believe how strong. Sunday Oscar went with us to almost all of our appointments. The difference before and after really is astounding.

We are teaching somebody that I met in Riobamba and is a reference from the Borja family. Marisela and her daughter, Dominica. They are doing really well and really want to get baptized. They have a date for the 5th of September, although they didn´t come to church yesterday. So we will have to see with them. Marisela also has to quit smoking. She only smokes about 2 a day, so it should´t be too difficult.

We are also currently teaching Javier, he also has a baptismal date for the 5th of September. We are going to have to work pretty hard with him to convince him of the law of tithing. He´s a doctor and told us that he likes to donate his money to medical causes. I thought it was a great opportunity to teach him about fast offerings and the Church´s world renown Humanitarian aide projects. He said he is going to do as Malachi said and test the Lord in the law of tithing. What more could I ask?

My new companion is Hermana Ovalle, she is a lot different than any other that I have had. She is a bit backwoods, she comes from a family of 10 children and they are poorer than poor. A few years back they lost everything in a flood in Guatemala. Everything. She is really sweet and really humble. I think I´m going to enjoy her. She needs a little pushing, which doesn´t seem to be my strongest suit (at least in the mission...) but I´ll do what I can. Yes, there are a lot of Guatemaltechos.

I totally forgot to mention that I totally got headbutted by a mountain ram...yeah. My mission is definitely unique, but I suppose they all are. Don´t worry, nothing broken.


Blogging from Ecuador

Hermana Tanner

Monday, August 10, 2009

Week 35

Everybody-

Ecuafact: When cutting the cake the cut a cirle out of the middle and then cut slices. I´ve no idea why.

Mission fact: We have a rule that we cannot brush the dirt from our knee´s after we pray in the homes of our investigators or members.

I´m doing really well, although it has been a week of challenges! To say the very least. One of our Investigators, Ivan Augilla who was progressing so well, didn´t come to church yesterday. Which isn´t super surprising in and of itself but we went before church and he said that he would be coming. So we stopped by after church, and he was drunk. He´s got some major problems and just doesn´t know how to cope. Later it turns out he beat his wife, Gloria, a new convert. It is just so sad what alcohol does to people. They don´t have alcohol laws here so he´d been drinking the pure “moon-shine”. It´s so sad because he was just doing so well.

Rosio Pilco and Pilar were also tough this week, the family of Rosio is catholic and won´t let her talk with us anymore, she´s 27 but she lives at home. Pilar was also hard, her husband won´t give her permission to talk to us either. It´s sad to leave behind people who want to learn about the gospel but can´t for their circumstances.

On the up-side, Edison Cando is doing really well, he has a baptismal date for the 29th of August. I don´t know what happened to change his mind because a few weeks ago he said: "Sisters, I wasn´t looking for a religion." Now he is excited. almost all of his family are members (recent converts). It´s been really fun to see how the gospel really can change lives.

Vinicio and Veronica are also doing really well and planning on getting married next week and they also have a baptismal date for the 29th of August. They are still so great and always come to church without any help from us.

This week we had a service project to clean up the church grounds. It was one of the best moments in my entire mission. Only 10 people (of the 157 active members)showed up, but 4 of them were recent converts. It was such a blessing to me to see my converts really really "join the church". I can´t even describe the feeling.

Unfortunately I won´t be here to see him get baptized. I´ve been changed again to Ambato. Yes, my former sector. So I´m torn, I love Riobamba but it will be nice to have more time in my old sector. I still am moving every transfer. I´m going to be senior companion to Hermana Ovalle, also from Guatemala. I´ve been able to learn so much from Hermana Castillo and I´m grateful for the experience.

The good news is that all of the family of Octavio Borja lives in Ambato so I´m going there to convert them all!

Love,

Whitney

Monday, August 3, 2009

Week 34

Everybody-


Ecuafact: They have some of the scariest natural medicine techniques. Pretty sure the members are trying to kill me. I had a nasty case of parasites this week and everybody kept trying to give me aguitas made with weeds. I´m fairly certain one of them had a drop of gasoline. It tasted horrible and it isn´t the first time. Supposed to clean you out...ew. I don´t think my organs are going suffer though. I´m safe for now.

Another good week gone, the mission really is going by fast! I hit my 10th month mark and I can hardly believe it. I still feel like a greenie, but really I´m over the hill. The winter is coming on fast!

Veronica and Vinicio are doing really well, they´ve finally decided to get married and are still coming to church without any coaxing from us! They still seem to have insurmountable problems though, although we did convince them to close their bakery Sunday. We also found out that Veronica is not a member of the church which is good because she really wants to be baptized and really didn´t grow up as a member of the church. We are hoping they will be baptized in about 2 weeks!

Fabian and Alexandra are also progressing really well. They came to church yesterday and were fasting! Some members don´t even fast! They can´t get married yet though because Alexandra is only 16 and doesn´t have permission from her parents. I think she´ll get it soon though! That was the purpose for their fast.

The family Borja is doing well still, they really seem like members for years! Octavio doesn´t have a job still and money is super tight. I think their trials are a bit longer than they planned on...we are trying to keep them excited. They are still really firm in their testimonies though, no worries there!

I love Riobamba, the people here are so great and really want to learn. I´m still really glad to have Hermana Castillo for my companion as well. I´m learning a lot!

Love you all,

Whitney

Happy Birthday to my boys!

Garrett- Happy 17th Birthday!
Jared- Happy 12th Birthday!

Familia Borja


The Family Borja with Elder Squires, and Presidente Villena (the big guy).