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!!

Christmas in the CCM

 Christmas Day

GUESS WHAT!!! We got our flight information!!!!! we thought we would be leaving next Wednesday because that's what it said on our calender, but turns out we are leaving the CCM Monday at 3 am!!!! AHHHH I am freaking out! I cant wait to get to Ecuador!!! I will be there in less than a week! 

This morning was wonderful! We woke up at 6 am and gave each other all of our presents and I opened the ones from you guys! Then our district went in our classroom and sat with our chairs in a circle and had our secret Santa gifts! Then we went around sharing our favorite scriptures about Christ. Then for breakfast we had muffins and hot chocolate because we didn't want the workers to have to work on Christmas. And then we practiced singing because we are having a choral festival tonight (I have a solo ahhh!) This Christmas has already been one of my favorites even though I can't be there with you guys. I don't think I have thought about Santa, or elves, or snowmen, or anything like that at all. This Christmas has been completely centered on Christ, just like it should be. I love it so much.

The Day After Christmas

Hola!! I loved seeing all of the Christmas photos!!! It looked like you guys had so much fun! I love seeing pictures! So first I will tell you more about yesterday! It was an amazing Christmas! After we emailed we got to put together kits for newborns. It had things like cloth diapers and soap and little shoes and stuff, it was so cute! It was also sad to think how many people really have nothing. Then we got together with another district (cause ours is so small) and shared our favorite scriptures and sang our favorite hymns! Then we had an amazing devotional with Elder Bednar (Broadcast from Provo) ahhhh it was sooooo good! He had a question and answer session where they handed out cell phones to everyone in the audience so they could text him their questions (we could email them in) after they handed out the cell phones he said "If you call home I will hunt you down and do bad things to you" haha it was sooo funny to hear him say something like that. From Elder Holland maybe Id expect it, but from Elder Bednar.... haha The last devotional we had with Elder Holland he said "If you come home early you won't want to see me in a dark ally." It's so fun to have devotionals where they are talking to the missionaries specifically. ANYWAYS! Elder Bednar gave the best advice about how to be the best missionary you can possibly be. It is to forget yourself. Really forget yourself. I know that my mission isn't about me at all. It is about everyone else but me! I want to be the kind of missionary that can completely forget about myself and concentrate on everyone else. I CANT WAIT TO GET TO ECUADOR!!! After the devotional we had the festival of choirs! I had a solo in one of our songs and I don't remember the last time I was that nervous! I was seriously freaked out haha, but it went well! Then we had our ham dinner with cheesecake and chocolate cake. It was delicious. Then we watched a bunch of bible videos about Christs birth and sang more songs. I don't know if I have ever sang so much in my entire life! It was an amazing Christmas and I loved every minute of it!

Since we are leaving early we are all done teaching Octavia and Abram. I am soooo sad! Even though I will still see them the next few days as my teachers I don't like thinking about not teaching them anymore! Oh Sunday was crazy! I had to give a prayer in sacrament meeting AND give another talk! I talked about how as missionaries we are both the star that leads people to Christ and the wisemen that need to come to Christ with gifts of our hearts and willingness to serve. And it was all in Spanish this time! Then We had to lead Sunday school in our district so we just went through and talked about the life of Christ. Then a small group of us sang a song for the devotional. I felt very involved with everything! We are all really involved because there is only about 200 missionaries in the CCM right now because of Christmas! After the beginning of the year there will be about 1000. I have really liked having a small group. We are all very close with everyone here and I probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to know all the leaders so well. haha President Pratt calls us four the fearsome four cause we are always together. Hmmmm other random things about the CCM.... There is one Elder who calls me Scandinavia because he asked me once if I had ancestors there and I said I think I did on my Dads side so after I sang yesterday he told everyone I sounded like a Scandinavian angel  haha that was pretty great. Our houses are kind of by the huge fence surrounding the CCM so sometimes we can hear mariachi bands playing and we are reminded that we are in Mexico haha. I love it here! I really am going to be sad to leave. We started packing today because they don't really give us any other time. I cant believe this time next week I will be in Ecuador! AHHH I love you guys so much! I don't have very many pictures but I will send a few!

 Our District Christmas Picture

 Christmas Day

Our "Christmas Tree" = 2 palm branches decorated with cards and candy wrappers!

Halfway Through The CCM

HELLOOOOO!!!!!! I love you guys sooooo much!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATUM AND DEVIN!! It looks like you guys had soooo much fun! I wish I could have been there! Wow! 16 and 9! you guys are sooo old! This week was the best! I got two packages AND cinnamon rolls from you guys!!! Thank you so much it was amazing! The cinnamon rolls were delicious! But it said to warm them up in the microwave and we didn't have one so we used our blow dryers hahaha it was sooo funny! I'll send pictures. Have you guys gotten my letters yet? Oh and don't send any letters or packages after this week cause if they get here when I'm gone they just throw them away! I love you guys soooo much!

       Wow I cant believe that I am half way done with the CCM! It really is insane! I feel like I can understand the language a lot better but speaking it is still really hard! I cant wait for the day when it just comes naturally! So we went to the temple this morning which was amazing but SUPER hard all in Spanish! Ugh I felt like such idiot! And all the temple workers were trying so hard to help me but I couldn't understand what they were saying! Ok Sundays are the best here in the CCM! We get to watch two devotionals and a movie! This last Sunday it was the Joseph Smith movie and it was amazing! For sacrament meeting you don't know who is giving the talks until they announce it right before the songs..... so everyone has to prepare one haha luckily I haven't had to give one yet, but Hermana Conder had to last week! It was great! Its super stressful though! Our investigators(teachers) are coming along really well. Octavia(Hermana Olmos) seems really excited about the gospel and willing to do what we tell her. Abram(Hermano Vera) is less excited about reading scriptures and stuff but we got him to commit to baptism and come to church! But the next lesson we need to talk to him about the law of chastity so that should be interesting......I am so freaking excited for Christmas! It is going to be so hard to be away from everyone but I think it will be super cool and spiritual! We all feel kind of bad though cause Hermana Smith doesn't have any presents so Hermana Conder and I got her some today from the store by the temple. I love all the girls in our district! Hermana Smith is like the most spiritual person I have ever met! She has so many cool insights about scriptures and stuff. Hermana Obendorf has the exact same taste in movies and TV shows and stuff so we always quote Arrested Development to each other. And Hermana Conder is really just like an angle. I love her to death. 

        Even though I have only been here for three weeks I feel like my testimony has grown so much. Go watch the video The Atonement: How it Applies to Missionaries. It is absolutely amazing! also I have found such a love for the scriptures. I study them all day and at night I never want to go to bed at 10:30 cause I want to stay up and read. I know that we can receive personal revelation from them and they are amazing. Go read 2  Nephi 11. This gospel is truly amazing. Missionary work is the most important work in the world and they trust a bunch of kids with it. It just proves that through the Lord weak things are made strong. Also it proves that we most definitely aren't the teachers. Its all the spirit and we are just the vessels for it. But I'm going to be the best darn vessel there ever was! I love you guys so much! 

It said to heat them in the microwave, but this kind of works too....

Decorating for Christmas

Language Study 

P-Day Temple Trip

First Week at the CCM

HOLA!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I love you guys so much!!! This week has been so hard without you guys!!! Oh my goodness I don't know where to start! So the first day was crazy and really was the longest day of my life. We had a ton of power points talking about all of the rules. That's pretty much all that the CCM (MTC) is a bunch of rules. We cant even give the Elders high fives or sit by them at lunch! Oh AND I was sick so that defiantly didn't help. Hermana Conder is my companion and I love her! We get a long so well and she is really good about helping me with Spanish! Ugh I am so frustrated with this freaking language. I guess I just thought that it would come really easy cause of Argentina but its not haha I just need to work harder I guess! Tomorrow we are going to try to talk only in Spanish so that will be interesting! So after being in the CCM for one day, ONE DAY we had to teach a lesson to an investigator in all Spanish. haha that was pretty painful. 

        So a typical day is... we wake up at 6:30 and get ready then go to breakfast then we have an hour of personal study where we read preach my gospel or the scriptures, then we have about two hours of language study and another hour to prepare our lesson for that night. We teach a lesson in Spanish every night! The style of teaching is pretty crazy. They pretty much don't tell us anything about what we should teach or how to speak Spanish and just throw us into everything! BUT I can say a prayer and say my testimony in Spanish so that's pretty exciting! Then we have lunch and then MORE studying. We pretty much stay locked up in a room studying all day every day and only three of the hours are with a teacher so its hard to be productive, but I am working really hard! Then we have gym which means Hermana Smith runs around the track and Hermana Obendorf, Hermana Conder, and I stretch and do handstands and stuff haha. Oh Hermana Obendorf and Smith are the other girls in our room and I absolutely love the heck out of them! I will try to send pictures so you can see us all! Then we have another hour of language study which again is really hard without direction. Then we have dinner and get to teach our investigator! Our investigators name is Carlos and he is super cool! We got him to commit to baptism yesterday!!! But it is so freaking hard to teach a lesson in a language that you don't know and when no one is telling you what to teach! 

       I love you guys so much! Today is our Pday so we got to go to the temple which was super cool! I loved it! We got to wear headphones so it was in English but next time we go we have to do it in Spanish! And we just had our thanksgiving dinner (lunch is the big meal of the day so it was really lunch) I am going to try to send pictures now! I love you so much! Keep the emails coming! I love you guys and miss you more than you could possibly imagine! 

Love, Hermana Chamberlain 

My District

                                                                   

Hermana Smith, Hermana Obendorf, me and Hermana Conder

On the Way to the Temple!

Mexico City Temple 

Happy Thanksgiving in the CCM!

On Her Way.....

Sent my darling daughter off yesterday...so joyous and painful at the same time! This last week has been wonderful being able to be with family and friends. Thank you so much to all of you who have made this experience so beautiful! Marley arrived safely at the Mexico City MTC last night and is happy and excited to be there. Love to you all!

Getting Ready!

Where has the time gone?! It seems like yesterday I opened my call and now I only have 28 days until I leave for the Mexico City MTC! I can't wait to preach this wonderful gospel to the people of Ecuador. Here are a few of my mission pictures that my beautiful Mother took last week! Enjoy!