HOLA FROM ECUADOR!!!!!!!!! Wow! I can't believe that I have already been here for a week! I have only been in my area since Thursday night! I will wait to tell you where it is... or maybe you already know! I bet that the mission presidents wife emailed and told you. It sounds like you guys had such a fun New Years Eve! Want to know what I did for New Years Eve? I slept haha a couple of the other girls woke up and started running around the apartment we were staying in, but I slept through the whole thing! I was so tired from everything!

Ok so we were in the mission home for about three days and it was actually really fun! I LOVE OUR MISSION PRESIDENT AND HIS WIFE! They are soooo freaking cute and nice. Hermana Richardson gave us cooking classes and everything. I think she forgot that we are full time missionaries and have absolutely NO time to cook! But it was really cute and sweet. We had a couple more classes with the mission president and his assistants about the rules of the mission and how to stay safe and everything. It was really fun! Then on Wednesday night they gave us a welcome dinner at their house! Oh my goodness! Their house is sooo nice! It was absolutely beautiful and they had pictures all over of people in the mission when they have their first baptism and things like that. They are so sweet and cute! Oh and the food that Hermana Richardson cooked was wonderful! Then on Thursday we got to find out where we are going and who our first companions are! I was so afraid that I was going to go to the coast where they only have one companionship of sister missionaries because it is so dangerous. AND It is super hot. I was soooo scared haha but Hermana Smith ended up going there and she was so freaking excited! She is going to be so amazing! Anyways.....My companion is Hermana Irepan from Mexico and I am in Otavalo!!!! It is soooo amazing! I love it so much! It was the one place that I really wanted to go! And I am in the Latino ward so I don't have to learn ANOTHER language! I just have to suffer through Spanish! And I am in the city part so I don't have to live up in the mountains (even though I kind of want to)

Otavalo is seriously the best mission in Ecuador! I wish that I could stay here my whole mission! The people are seriously the nicest people in the world. Everyone is soooo friendly! Its so fun to see the women in their traditional clothing with babies on their backs selling fruit. AHHH! I just keep thinking that these are the people in the Book of Mormon! It makes it so fun to read it when I am with their descendants right now! The area we are in is really really nice. Our house is beautiful and huge! Way too big for two of us! I will send pictures of it later! Oh my goodness I love Hermana Irepan so much! She is so good to help me with my Spanish and everything (Why do I feel like my Spanish is getting worse?) She actually knows a lot of English and sometimes when we get home at night we only speak English so she can practice and my mind can have a break. I thought I would be done with all this studying when I left the CCM.... Nope! We still have 4 hours of studying in the mornings because I am a new missionary and am in the 12 week program, but after these 12 weeks I will only have 3. It's two hours of companionship study, one hour of personal, and one hour of language. So we don't even leave the house until 12 then we meet with someone for an hour and at 1 or 2 we have lunch with a member! They are all so sweet here! The food isn't bad at all. Its just a TON of rice! haha. I'm sure after a year and a half of this I am never going to want to eat rice again! So in the CCM they drilled it into us that knocking doors just doesn't work anymore so we won't do it at all.  This is true in the states and Europe, but here we knock doors all the time! People are so friendly that they will almost always listen to us. The problem is getting them to commit to anything. They are all Catholic (Not that they go to church or anything) and they get really offended that we think their religion isn't right or they need to be baptized again. It makes it hard. Plus this is Hermana Irepans first time in the area too so we came not knowing anyone or having any referrals or anything. But the ward is sooo nice! I cant even take it! The Bishop is amazing and really helpful. When we first got here he was waiting at the bus stop to help us with our bags! 

We have about four investigators so far and one of them is progressing (which means she is keeping commitments and has a baptism date!) We just met her last night! She is 18 and has a baby. I am not really sure what the story is with the dad but she lives with her parents. She is really cute and sweet and we are meeting with her again tonight! I hope that she is still interested! This is a really great area. The Elders in our ward said that they have about one baptism a week! That seems really hard right now cause no one really wants to listen to us, but I´m sure we can do it! I love you guys so so so much! You can't even know how much I love you! I miss you! I will send pictures! 

Pretty area in Otavalo

My companion Sister Irepan

Eating Pizza with Sisters in the area

Fun at the House

Made it to Ecuador!

HOLA FROM ECUADOR!!!!!! I am so so sorry that I didn't call from Columbia! I thought that we would have like two hours, but we ended up having to run to our next flight so I didn't have time to call! The flights were fine. The first one I sat by two girls who didn't want to have anything to do with me haha. Then on the next one I sat by two girls who were 8 and 14. The one just talked the whole time about how much she loved Brad Pitt. I explained what I was doing going to Ecuador and stuff, but I couldn't exactly teach them a lesson because they were so young. It was really good to practice my Spanish! They were so cute and I hated having to say goodbye to them! We were so worried about knowing where to go, but as soon as we got out of the airport there were a bunch of missionaries waiting for us with a big sign that said, "Welcome to Ecuador!" It is sooooo beautiful here! I love it so much! We are staying here in the mission home until Thursday for training and everything then on Thursday we get to meet our first companions and find out where we are going! I AM SOOO EXCITED! We have met the mission president and he is super cool! We have interviews with him right after this! I love it here so much! the weather is absolutely perfect and the people are so nice! I cant wait to go out and start teaching people! They only gave us like 5 minutes so I have to go but I will get 2 hours to email next Monday and I will send lots of pictures! I love you guys so much! And I LOVE ECUADOR!!