So I have survived my second week in the mission field! It was honestly a lot better than the first. I had some ups and downs, but I love this work! Just to clear something up, a few people have asked me what hna means. It is an abbreviation of hermana, which is sister. Out here, I am referred to as sister sorensen, so hna sorensen. Sorry for the confusion. I definitely shouldn´t assume that you all know Spanish! But, thank you for your emails! I love hearing from you and how your life is going! For those of you who have written me, I can only email directly my family until I get permission from my mission president. In the mean time, can you send me your address so that I can respond and send you a letter or a postcard? For example, Mr. Shoop, I would love to write you back, so send me your address! I miss our talks! And anyone else not related to me, send me your address! I am pretty good at writing people!
So, this week has been incredible! I have worked a lot and met some really incredible people! I´m not sure if I included this, but the day before I left the MTC, I met a missionary there that is from Ecuador. I met him while doing my laundry. I was totally freaking out about leaving and wasn´t sure if I could handle it, and then I met Elder Pepinos. We had a huge like two hour talk and he completely calmed me down. He was from Quito and just told me all sorts of things to get excited about. He was only baptized like two years ago with his mom and brother, and then his dad was baptized a year ago. They were just sealed together before he entered the MTC. So, he gave me his parents names and everything and was like, I doubt you´ll ever be in their area, but just in case. Well, I was eating lunch at this lady´s house and she mentioned the name Pepinos. I was like, wait a minute! Do they have a son on a mission?! It is so the same family! I met them at church on Sunday and showed them the picture that I took with Elder Pepinos and they were in tears becasue they were so excited! They are such an incredible family and I am so excited that I get to know them more! The Lord is aware of us and what we need. I am so grateful that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and cares for me and blesses me with these experiences.
Another good experience, we were trying to find this house that we got from a reference. It was a taxi driver and we had the right street names, but the house number was incorrect, which is not really shocking becuase lots of times they don´t even have numbers. So we start asking around seeing if anyone knows this man. We meet this really old woman and find out that she in already a member of the church. She hasn´t attended in two years becuase she moved and then didn´t know where a church was near her. We told her that we would pick her up this week and also visit her. We asked her what else she needed and she just started to cry. She told us that she was just so thankful that we had found her so that we could take her and talk to her more. She was just so sweet. We set up a time to meet wtih her this Thursday, along wtih a neighbor of hers. We never did find the taxi driver, but I know that we were supposed to be there for a reason.
Now for some not so fun stories... The people here are so blunt to the point of being rude! They just don´t thinkt hat it is rude! We were talking to this lady on the street and she calls me gordita, which means little fat one. I was like, excuse me you´re fatter than me! I don´t have thick skin, so it took awhile to shake that off! But then like, a minute later, she was like, what is the name of the pretty one? I didn´t answer, because I didn´t think that the fat one would be the pretty one, but then it dawned on me that they were waiting for me to respond. I was like, so I am fat and pretty? Just confused is more like it!
We also met with a new convert. We were talking to her and teaching her some more, and then she asked to do our makeup. I was about to say no when Thelin was like, Hna Sorensen would love to have her makeup done. This girl is like, 17 yrs old! Well, I had bright blue and teal eyes and she gave me a scarf to match! Well, I wasn´t going to let Thelin get off that easy, so when she finished me, I was like, Thelin is dying to have her makeup done too. We looked so funny! It was great, we blended right in because women here either wear a ton of makeup, or non at all. there is no in between!
Last story, I tried cow stomach. It´s called Guaquita. Not tasty! So, that is pretty much my week in Ecuador! Sorry, I´m running out of time, so until next week! I hope all is well and know that I am so happy and loving this work!
Kaylee
aka Hna Sorensen
