Hello Everyone! So good to hear from you! As always, it has been another busy week in Ecuador. It seems like every day there was something big that had to get done. But, busy is good and it means success!
Let me tell you one thing I love about Ecuador, and this is completely sarcastic, and that is the people that throw parties right outside our window in the alley by our apartment, from about 3am to 8am. Oh my gosh! Both Friday night and Saturday night! Me and my comp were dead from lack of sleep! They blare this music so loud, and it is literally right outside our window! And Saturday night they were all really drunk and started fighting, which I was glad because I thought that would break up the party, but no, it kept going on until we left for church. And we had to speak in church! Again, which I was fine with, but it is hard when you are going off little or almost no sleep for the past two nights! I actually did better on my talk this time then the last time. I got lots of compliments and I feel like my Spanish is really improving. I get compliments a lot on my pronunciation. Now I just want a Latin comp so it can get even better!
To my subject line: The goy goy noise. Some of you might know this noise, in fact most of you probably do. Annie taught me in like elementary school, where you put your fist to your mouth and say girl and comes out sounding funny. I do this to entertain my nephews. Well, people here have never heard it because they would never think to say girl with their fist to their mouth. So my zone heard me doing it and demanded that I do it at the talent show. All of hte missionaries in our zone hosted a stake talent show and we put together a bunch of funny sketches, and they wanted me to do that noise since I can do it to songs. I didn´t think it was that funny to do, but agreed to it and wow, they thought I was the best thing since Bon Jovi! I even got an encore, but here they just say, otra, otra. I was like the only one to get an encore! I did it to two hymns, the Battle Hymn of the Republic and to Choose the Right. Who knew that I could entertain people so much!
Which brings me to my next point. After the talent show, this young woman comes up to me, low 20s, and just says hi. She is holding this really small baby and introduced herself. I had no idea who she was, but she just wanted to know me! She went to another ward, her entire family are members, but her husband wasn´t and our zone was having a Noche Blanca, where lots of people in the stake get baptized on one night. Well, she told me her husband was getting baptized first that night. She was just opening up to me about all sorts of things. I had to get going, so I told her I would see her the next night at the Noche Blanca and how excited I was for her and her husband. So the next night, as soon as she sees me, she comes up to me, wants me to meet her husband, has me hold her baby, everything! When the program was about to start, she handed me a necklace and told me she wanted me to have it. I had only met her the night before and she loves me! I have no idea what I did to deserve it! She had me take a picture with her and her family before the baptism and everything! She was so excited for her husband, and she cried when he was baptized. It´s like I just know that this family is so strong! They are amazing! Even though she is not in our sector, we are going to try to get permission to visit her.
Which brings me to Daniela, one of our investigators. She is 23 and has been investigating for about 6 months, maybe more. She wants to get baptized in about two weeks. But yeah, she came to church on Sunday and just opened up to me about everything in her life. I told Thelin later and she was shocked because she never told her any of those things. She is going through a divorce, her husband is basically a creep, and her family is against her being baptized. She then bore her testiimony to me, saying that with all of that, she still wants to be baptized because she knows it is true. She knows it is a good way to bring up her three young kids too. She is strong and always wants to learn more. It´s just crazy because it feels like this past week, people have been opening up to me in a whole new way that I didn´t think was possible. It makes me love this work even more!
Ecua fact of the week: Here in Ecuador, like most Latin countries, when you greet people, you give them a kiss on the cheek. I got used to that when I was in Mexico. However, you are supposed to do that with everyone, men or women. Well, as missionaries, it is against the rules for sister missionaries to do that to men. This has created some akward moments when men who are not members and we meet them for the first time, they always go to give us the usual, kiss on the cheek. Most of the time you can get out of it by sticking out your hand real fast, but other times they shake your hand and at the same time kiss your cheek, so then as a missionary you just feel awkward after knowing you just let that happen. So yeah, good times!
I hope all is well with everyone at home! I loveyou all and think of you often. Until next week!
Hna Kaylee Sorensen
