House Hunters International With Fleas!

Hola Familia! 

    Cambios!!! I am still here in Calderon, but I have a new companion! Her name is Hermana Wright! I met Hermana Wright back in Otavalo and I like her a lot! I am really glad that we are companions! She is from Maine, but has a lot of family in Utah and went to BYU for a year before her mission. I am really really glad that I have a little more time here in Calderon. We are working with some really great people right now and I am excited about the work!

      So this was a pretty great week! Last Monday we went to make cookies with the Stake President and his family. It was really fun to hang out with them and after we went and delivered cookies and a Book of Mormon to their neighbors. It was really cool to do that with them! None of them wanted to listen to us but, that's OK. It was fun to help that family feel the spirit of missionary work! 

     Friday we had the baptism and it was awesome! Abigail`s husband baptized her and it was so sweet to see them both in white! My talk went well and Hermana Page played a song on the piano which was beautiful! After the baptism, Abigail bore her testimony and it was so amazing! They also talked a lot about how their goal is the temple! Yay! After the baptism she pulled us over and gave us a big hug and thanked us for "coming to soften her heart" and told us that it was the best decision that she has ever made. I love her and her family so much! There were also a ton of people there from the ward to support her. It was wonderful! 

     Janneth is doing really great. She is still really excited for her baptism on the 20th of this month! This week she told us that about a month ago (before we started teaching her) She saw us on the bus! She said that she saw me talking to a man and his kids and that I invited them to church before we had to get off. She said that she felt really offended that we didn't invite her to church too, and she almost followed us off the bus to ask where our church was, but she was too late. She spent the next few weeks trying to ask someone when and where the Mormons had their church, but then she gave up. Then a few weeks later she saw us on the street and stopped us to ask us and we have been teaching her since then! I know that she is prepared to accept the gospel and I am so glad that we have had the opportunity to teach her. I feel like she is definitely one of the people I was supposed to teach and one of the big reasons that I am here on the mission! .... also she gave me a pair of earrings this week that remind me of Lord of the Rings haha I`ll send a picture!

        We now have a total of 6 investigators that can't get baptized because they need to get married and they don't have the money. Its really sad. :( Two of them are named Carla and Pedro and they have two little kids that are 1 and 3 years old. We saw them on the street the other day and they told us that they literally didn't have anything to feed their kids because Pedro lost his job and he can't find a new one. We felt so bad and we really can't give them any money as missionaries so we just went to a panadaria (bread store) and bought them a big bag of bread and left it on their doorstep. It really is heart breaking to see how poor people are here. 

      So they are going to bring two more missionaries in our ward! (making the total 8!) We have been put in charge of finding an apartment for the new missionaries! I told Hermana Page that it's just like House Hunters International, but we aren't as rich. We have looked at quite a few house,s but they are either WAY too crappy or WAY too much money. On Thursday night we went to go look at an apartment that seemed perfect! It had two bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a place to study, and a place to wash clothes! We were super excited so we called the owner to ask if we could come look at it and he said we could! After we had been looking around for about 2 minutes I looked down and saw tons of little black bugs jumping onto my legs! Of course I started freaking out and slapping my legs like a crazy person. The man that was showing us the house was really old and just kept on asking Hermana Page what was wrong with me. hahaha Then I just ran out of the house. I was really concerned the rest of the night that I was now infested with fleas and I really didn't want them to get into our house! When we got home we put all of our clothes in plastic bags and ran to take a burning hot shower hoping to kill them or get them off of us. I think that it must have worked because we haven't had any problems! Point is that we didn't buy that apartment.

        I love you guys and miss you so much! I love the gospel, I love my mission, I love the church, and I love Jesus Christ! 

Making cookies at the Stake President's House

My LOTR earrings from Janneth

Abigail`s son Renato! I love him!!!

Hermana Wright my new companion

Baptism on Friday!

Mitad Del Mundo

Hola!!! HAPPY FATHERS DAY YESTERDAY!!!!! Dad I love you so much!!! I´m sorry that I couldn't spend it with you, but just know that you are the best Father I could ever ask for! You guys will have to send me pictures of what you all did! They do celebrate Fathers day here, but we didn't really do anything special.Wow this week went by so fast! I cant even believe it! Today there were changes, but we didn't have any because we have only been together for 3 weeks. A lot of people in our zone had changes which makes me kind of sad because I really liked all of them. Changes are the worst part of the mission! Its sad because you don't know when you are going to see these people again! Oh and this week I am going to finish 7 months in the mission! Isn't that crazy!? I have less than a year left! Time is going by so fast that it scares me!

    Ok so today we finally got to go do something! We went to Mitad del Mundo ( Middle of the World)! It wasn't as cool as we thought it would be, but we took a lot of pictures so I will send them later! We just went by ourselves and walked around looking at a bunch of touristy things to buy and took pictures with the monument that they have there. Oh also we went to the planetarium but it was kind of disappointing... 

     This week the work has been a little hard cause everyone is just obsessed with the world cup! Hahahaha we were knocking doors (well ringing doorbells and talking to people through their speaker) the other day and we were playing the game like they do in the movie Errand of Angels where they try to get the person to talk to them for more than 10 seconds (but we are in South America so we did it for a minute). It was really funny! Apparently there was a soccer game going on because when a guy answered and we told him who we are he almost started crying and said "What? Why are you talking to me right now? Don't you know that I am watching soccer? Why would you do this to me!?" and then hung up. We were laughing so hard!  

      Oh so thanks to Fathers day and Ecuador playing yesterday no one came to church! well one of our investigators did, but even half the members weren't there. Oh and guess who gave a talk yesterday in church!!!..... Hermana Chamberlain! I talked about the importance that we endure to the end and cumplir (whats that word in english?) with all of our baptismal covenants! There are so many members who are inactive, but still have a testimony just because they think that it is too hard or think other things are more important or are just lazy! THIS IS OUR SALVATION ON THE LINE! And all of us missionaries in our ward sang a special number. Hermana Finley has such an amazing voice! Like one of the best I have ever heard!  

       I have really learned this week the importance of companionship prayer! So for a few days Hermana Finley and I hadn't been doing our companionship prayer, not because we didn't want to just because it always worked out that we were so tired that by the time one of us was out of the bathroom the other one was already asleep. I didn't think that it was that big of a deal, but I think it was really effecting us. One night I was kind of annoyed (I don't even remember why) and Hermana Finley asked if we could do our companionship prayer before going to bed. As soon as she started praying I immediately felt peace and I didn't feel mad anymore! I know that Satan really tries to get us in any way that he can but if we are always doing the things that we should then there wont be room for him in our hearts! I love you guys soooooooo much!!!! 

We Sang in Church!

Mitad del Mundo

Mitad del Mundo

First Week In Quito

HOLA!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!! This has been a pretty crazy week getting used to the new sector and everything, but I am really liking it here! So today we were going to go to the zoo and we were super excited, but then we found out that it is closed every Monday :( That was pretty sad. But there is another one in Quito that technically isn't in our mission, but we are going to ask president if we can go! So we just ended up hanging out around here oh and we went and got Chinese food for lunch and it was wonderful! First time in 6 months eating Chinese food! Yay!! 

    So I will tell you a little more about Hermana Finley! She is super cool and super crazy! Just imagine a mix between me and Bekki. She is from Oakland California and is half Samoan.She is half Bekki because she is super funny and crazy and a little rebellious and like me because we both really love musicals! (someone finally understands me!!!) I am having so much fun with her! We talk about everything! I think that she is my best friend in the mission! She was the trainer of Hermana Conder! Oh and also she is an Hermana training leader which means that twice a week she does divisions with the other sisters in the mission. There are two hermana training leaders in this area so when they go I am with Hermana Nethercot, the companion of the other leader. I am with her two or three times a week so its really kind of like I have two companions! Its kind of hard because we switch off working in my sector and hers and I don't really know my sector and I want to work in it but that's ok! It has made me depend on the Lord so much because when I am with Hermana Nethercot I am the senior companion and she doesn't really know any Spanish so I really have to take the lead. I can feel Him helping me so much. I could not do this on my own. I am so grateful that He is so mindful of us and our needs in every moment!

     The ward here is great! I don't know them a lot, but them seem really nice! Oh we ate with a member this week and we had my favorite soup! can you guess what it is????..... Yay cow foot soup!!! And this hermana that gave it to us stayed at the table the whole time and told us that she wasn't going to move until we finished everything.... that was pretty painful haha. Other than that the food has been pretty good! Nothing else that made me gag! The ward is really big! There are three companionships of missionaries in our ward. Two other sister, us and then the elders. It's fun to have a lot of missionaries here! We found a TON of new investigators this past week! The normas de la mision is that we should find 12 new investigators and normally we find about 6 or 7, but this week we found 22 new investigators!  I have no idea how but it was super cool! The problem is that only 2 of them came to church :( 

      I have really been working this past week to think about converts and not just baptisms. Elder Waddell talked a lot about that with us the other week. We really need to help people be converted to the Lord and want to do HIS will and not just want to please the missionaries (which is the problem that they get in poorer countries) I know that to help these people be converted to the Lord I need to be completely converted first. I really feel like every day I am strengthening my testimony and that my will is becoming more in line with that of our Heavenly Father!  I am still reading the Book of Mormon with you guys and I love it! I love you guys so much and I miss you like crazy!!!

Mision Ecuador Quito Norte:

Lideramos por ejemplo

Servimos con amor

Cumplimos con obedencia

Returnaremos con honor

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Transfer to Quito!

 Ok, I don't have a ton of time to write so I will just tell you guys the most important things that happened this week! So this week we had a visit from Elder Waddell from the 70! Wow that was soooooo amazing! He served his mission in Spain so he has an accent haha, but wow seriously his teachings were amazing! Oh and he picked a couple missionaries in our mission to have interviews with him and guess who was one of the sisters!....... Hermana Chamberlain! yay!!! It was super cool to talk to him and I told him a little about dad cause they both went to Spain on their missions (different missions and different times) and when I told him about how dad has cancer he was like hey whats their home phone number? I think I want to call them. haha Yeah so that was super cool!

     Jamie and Veronica are doing great and they are all ready for their baptisms this next week! I am super happy for them! 

     So last night we were all happy getting ready to go to bed and we got a phone call from Elder Lino our district leader. We knew that there were going to be some changes for the Elders cause There are a few that are finishing their missions so they are in Quito today and tomorrow they are going home. So when he called we asked him what the changes are and who the new elders are in our district. He told us about the changes of the Elders and then he was like oh and by the way you guys have changes too. We were just like hahaha yeah elder very funny. But turns out it was true! So I had to wake up at 5 in the morning and pack all of my things to go to Quito! It was super sad cause I didn't have ANY time to say goodbye to anyone. We just talked to a few members that live close to us and then I had to go. We were the only sister that had changes so I traveled to Quito with three other elders which was a little awkward.... But now I am here!

       Wow Quito is sooooo different than Otavalo! There are TONS of people and cars and buses hahaha oh and we went to the mall to eat lunch when I got here and I seriously felt like I was in the states. This mall is huge and super nice! It reminds me a lot of the really nice one in Virginia that we like to go to.... it might be nicer. My Companion is Hermana Finley! She is from California and is SUPER funny! (like to talk in English... hope I don't lose my Spanish) She is an Hermana Lider which means that she goes on splits with the other sisters every week so I will have to go with other sisters in our zone while she does that... I heard its hard to be companions with an hermana lider but I´m sure that everything will be fine! Our house is super nice! I will send pictures! 

The toast that Hermana Moran made for Marley's 6 

month celebration of being on a mission!

Hermana Chamberlain and her new companion Hermana Finley

So many have asked how Marley is doing on her mission AND how she is doing since she heard the news about her dad's cancer. We all appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received and thank you all! We feel incredibly blessed and so grateful! I haven't been very good the last few months about posting her letters home, BUT I will do better. This is the email she sent the day we told her the news and as you can see she LOVES her mission, has incredible faith, and through prayers, faith, and obedience feels that we will continue to see miracles in our lives. Love to you All!

Email from 5-5-14

Hey so I have had a pretty chill p-day. After I got your email we went over to the house of a member (the Familia Chamorro) they are really really great, they have been like my second family here. Hermano Chamorro is great and he gave me a blessing that was really beautiful. He talked a lot about how this is just a trial for our family and that everything will be ok. Their whole family was really great and they said to tell you guys that even though they don't know you, they love you and our whole family is in their prayers. Then President Richardson called to ask how I was doing. He says that he wants to talk to me in person, but I really don't want to go to Quito.... we will have to see. He also gave me D&C 31 to read which is great. You guys should read it too. 

   I just want to share with you some of the miracles that I have seen in my mission so far, some of them are small and silly, but they really are miracles and blessings from the Lord.
   First, I can’t tell you how many times we come home at the end of the day and when we look back on our lessons it isn't possible that we visited as many people as we did during the day.
    Edwin was a huge miracle. I didn't know that it was possible that someone could be so prepared to accept the gospel.
    Also for his baptism his wife had to work that day and she said that her boss is crazy and that in her 14 years of working there he hasn't let her change her hours, but this day he did and she was able to come to his baptism.
    One day after we finished a really long and muddy service project, we went back to the house to shower our water wasn't working. haha We were so disgusting and really just wanted to shower and after waiting for a while we decided that we really needed to work so we would just go out and shower when we came back for the night. We tried to turn on the shower one more time and it worked! It worked just long enough for both of us to take hot showers and then the water turned off again. haha kind of silly, but it was a miracle.
   We have been trying to have a lesson with this lady named Miriam for the past like 4 weeks, but every time we go she says that she is too busy or that she doesn't want to right now. This week we decided to try one more time before giving up and when she answered the door she immediately welcomed us in and thanked us for coming. Before we even started teaching her anything we asked if she had any questions for us and she said "I really want to be baptized. What do I need to do?"

   I was actually really disappointed last night when they said that we didn't have changes (I was hoping that I would be a trainer in this transfer) but now I am so grateful that I am still in this ward and with the sweet Hermana Moran for one more change. 

    I love you guys so much. I know that the Lord is always with us through these trials to comfort us. I have so much faith in our Savior and that we can see miracles in our lives thanks to our faith and obedience. I am so grateful for the amazing family that I have been blessed with and the wonderful experience that I have to serve the Lord at this time. I know that we will see the miracles and tender mercies of the Lord now more than ever. I love you guys so much! 

Hermana Chamberlain and Hermana Moran

Visting a cultural museum in Otavalo

Zone Conference in Quito

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!!