Week Twenty-two: The married people miracle!

Hola mi querida familia! 

I can´t believe I´m already sitting down to write you all again! This week passed by so quickly! My favorite weeks are the weeks when P-Day comes so quickly it catches you by surprise and I was definitely caught by surprise this week! So many great things happened this past week. To start off I´ll share about Fe de Febrero or Faith of February.

So as a mission for the months of February and March we will be doing a challenge of President Christensen. 

As a mission we will: 
- Read the Book of Mormon from start to finish focusing in and studying the word and doctrine of Remember 
- Do 15 or more contacts daily 
- Do a mission fast - Repent and fix something we aren´t following in the mission handbook 
- Develop one of the Christlike attributes from Preach My Gospel 

 I am so excited for this and as a companionship we have all seen so much progress in ourselves and so many miracles! 

 So this week are miracle has definitely been the miracle of the married people! One I got called to serve in Santo Domingo the first thing they told me was to learn how to drop people when they aren't progressing or get really good at getting people married. More often than not because getting married here isn't financially possible for everyone, the first option is what we usually have to go with, which is really hard for us because we love these people so much! Well these past two weeks have been amazing with Fe de Febrero.When the zone leaders told us about Fe de Febrero, they told us that the 15 contacts for these two months is the equivalent of our mission rules, so if you don't contact 15 people it's the same as being disobedient. My companion and I took that to heart and we are putting in a lot more effort to contact and we've been contacting 15 or more people every day and I kid you not we have found all of the married couples in Santo Domingo!!!!!! 

It's like Where´s Waldo but instead of Waldo it's Where´s the Married People, because there are hardly any here in Santo Domingo. But we've found them! We have been finding one or two married couples every day, which is so rare! We've also been finding a lot of single moms. Heavenly Father is definitely blessing and helping us to find people who are ready and able to progress in the Gospel. We are so excited to teach these people and continue enjoying the miracles of Santo Domingo. 

We had stake conference this past weekend and it was the best! President Christensen and Hermana Christensen came because they were here for interviews with us and the Temple President and his wife came as well. I am so grateful for my mission president! I know he is a true servant of the Lord. Slowly but surely as we follow the council and standards he has set for us we are seeing changes in the culture of the mission. Something I've learned is that the work of the Lord is perfect, but His servants are not. There has been a lot of disobedience in our mission in years past and you can tell by how the members interact with missionaries. They invite us to do things that are clearly against the rules and are shocked when we say no. It's sad to see but I´m grateful that we´re starting to change that for the members and the mission. The work we do as missionaries is so important, and there is no time for disobedience. It loses the trust of the members and prevents the work for moving forth. The goal is to one day see another temple in Ecuador, and we can't do that by having a disobedient culture as a mission. 

 I know that there are quite a few members who read these emails and if you've made it to this part of my long email I invite you to help the missionaries to keep the rules. Please don't invite them to do anything that is contrary to mission rules. Many people think that missionaries shouldn't be reminded to keep the rules by the members but it is so much easier for a missionary to work with the ward if they are in a supportive environment. This work is so important and we need to work together to help the work of the Lord roll forward! 

 Back to the Stake Conference. It was so great to have President Christensen there because he spoke specifically on this subject, of how the members can help the missionaries be obedient. It was such a great talk and I know that it made a difference. I was still invited to take a nap after lunch by one of the hermanas but hey, little by little right? :) 

 Speaking of lunch yesterday! Wow. I can't quite grasp the concept of the portion sizes here. The hermana loaded up the entire plate with rice and since we knew we were going to die if we ate that much we asked her for less. She didn't have any problems with taking back the plate but then when we got it back it looked like she took off a spoonful! The people have such big hearts here and think that no one else feeds us during the day so they feed us a ton! And then when the hermana sat down with her plate she had served herself a normal portion size in a little bowl! Hahaha it was so funny to us. We've gotten pretty used to that but it's still funny every time. The people are so loving here. 

Speaking of rice haha. We contacted a lady the other night cooking food outside of her restaurant. My companion and I were just talking about how we didn't know how to make good rice so we contacted her and asked her how she makes her rice and she invited us over to teach us how to make rice the next day. We told her we'd love to and that we would love to share our message while the rice was cooking. Now we're teaching her whole family! 

 I love Ecuador so much. The people's hearts are so big and they give more than they have and they are so ready and receptive to have the Savior in their lives. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ so much and I am so grateful for this time I have to be here and share the blessings I've received in my life with these people that I love so much! 

Until next week's miracles!  

Hermana B 

P.S. My scripture to ponderize this week Jacob 4:6