Week Fifty-five: The fourth floor

Fun times in Los Chillos!

Hola mi familia!

I don't have much time to write but this week has been amazing! We had a ton of miracles and the women's general conference was the best! 

Speaking of which...I only heard the last talk. It's a long story haha but anyways the conference started and we noticed that it was in English! And no one could understand! Haha. So we went to see what was going on and we tried helping (I even tried translating for a few minutes but that was a trainwreck considering how quickly they speak) haha but by the end of it we had it all working by the time President Uchtdorf spoke and LET ME TELL YOU. That was the best talk EVER! I went into the conference with the question in mind of how can I strengthen my faith and I got an instant answer! It was actually a pretty emotional talk to listen to with my companion because these two weeks haven't been easy by no means. Not just for the people but for the sector. We have a sector that if you want to go anywhere, you're either going up stairs or going down. We are working on a hill haha. And so when he spoke about going to the fourth floor I could definitely relate. 

Well one of the fourth floor miracles this week was Martha! We found her when we decided to look for a contact that lived up a HUGE set of stairs. Every time we go up we have to wait to catch our breath before trying to talk to anyone because they're going to think we're weird trying to talk to them when we're huffing and puffing and can only say one word every few seconds haha. Well the contact didn't want to receive us so we started knocking on doors on the way down. We thought we had knocked the last door when two young boys passed by to enter their house and I heard the younger one ask his brother for forgiveness for hitting him as they laughed and opened the door to head to their apartment. I took a few steps more and stopped, absolutely stunned at what I had just heard. Since when do young boys ask their older siblings for forgiveness like that? Haha. So I asked my companion if we could knock one more door. We knocked on the door expecting the boys to leave but instead Martha (a neighbor) opened the door and we offered to sing her a hymn. She just walked away and we thought she was rejecting us but she said "come on in" I was stunned! Martha turns out to be an older lady who lives alone. Her son is a member of the church in Denmark. We taught her the Restoration and she accepted. She's probably the most prepared investigator I've ever met in my life! I know that God prepares us and blesses us when we go the extra mile to serve Him. I love being a missionary!

Well sorry for the short email but there is just so much to say and do and so little time! I want you all to know that I know that the church of Jesus Christ has been restored and that the keys of the priesthood are on the earth today! I know that the Book of Mormon is true!

I love you all!

con mucho amor,

Hermana Beutler

Best friend!

​This is what my companion made me.

She made fried chicken and mashed potatos with gravy!
I almost cried! Hahaha

Much excitement!

Post p-day sports day lunch with the nurses!

Never a dull moment!

We made Colombian arepas con guacamole y chorizo. SO GOOD. 

Divisions with Hermana Brimhall and Hermana Gardiner who was in my first district! Crazy how time flies!

​La zona

Look what I got!

The best part of my package!

Week Fifty-four: Miracles Galore

Celebrating on the rooftop! One year on mission.

Hola mi familia!

Where do I even begin!!?!?! What an incredible week it has been. It's probably been the hardest week of the mission, but not because we got rejected every ten seconds of the day, but because opening this sector HASN'T BEEN EASY. Haha. Don't get me wrong, it's been a blast. Hermana Mosquera is the BEST! She is such a great companion and I am learning a TON from her. She has such an amazing conversion story and spirit to her. She joined the church three years ago. Her mom and brothers are members but her dad is very against the church. She didn't have any support coming on the mission, not even from her mom.  So she paid her way to be here. She's incredible! I admire her a ton. She's a hardworker and we have a ton of fun. She is also a fellow Polaca lover so I'm pretty pleased about that. Long story short, she's great. It's been a good time. 

For times sake I'm just going to jump right to the miracles that occured yesterday. Like I said, it was a hard week. We haven't been able to find ANYONE from the area book. Either they don't answer, or their directions aren't very clear for where they live. We passed the week knocking on doors, contacting in the streets, and visiting the members. I've never visited so many members in one week before. So by Saturday we were feeling pretty frustrated. We prayed and prayed and prayed and we knew that we needed something more, so we fasted. Once again I have gained a strong testimony of the power of fasting. Towards the end of sacrament meeting an hermano pulled us out to meet a lady that just RANDOMLY WALKED INTO CHURCH. Her name is Natalia. And she's AWESOME! She said that she talked with missionaries before and that they invited her to church and that she was interested in finding out more! WHAT?!?! Ok! So we're going to meet with her tomorrow. We´re so excited!

The other amazing miracle happened when we went to a meeting with our ward mission leader. The Elders were going to be there too so that we could talk about our plans for the change. Well we showed up and it turns out the the brother's mom wasn't there and he forgot about our rule that we can't enter a home without a woman older than 18 years there. Well. We didn't want to lose the oportunity to meet, so the brother went looking for his neighbor to see if she could sit in with us. Well she wasn't there, but he knocked on a different door and found Odalis! Oh my miracle. So we were going to go ahead and have the meeting but we decided to teach Odalis the Restoration instead. Guess who has a baptism date now! ODALIS! She is so awesome! God works in such mysterious ways! 

I am so grateful for the oportunidad to fast and for the miracles that God shows us when we do so. We are so grateful to be here in this sector and this ward. I have fallen in love with my sector. It's the prettiest sector in the mission. We have the colonial part of Quito. It's THE BEST. Sometimes I'm just walking down the street and I have to pinch myself. I feel like I'm in a dream! The mission is the best thing this life has to offer! I know that the Book of Mormon is true and the Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the chosen prophet of the Lord today and that if we follow his teachings that we will be happy and be so very blessed!

Winter has definitely started here. It's really cold, all day, everyday. But we're really happy! I love you all so much and hope you have a fantastic week! 

Con mucho amor!

Hermana Beutler

Finishing the last p-day with a sandwich and smoothie. Yum!

Luggage & leaving

I can´t get enough of the look on her face hahahaha. XP

​1 YEAR!

My little chipmunk

Faces!

Cute!!!!!!!

Mi loquita

Eating cookies to celebrate is the best way to go!

Don´t forget the soda pop!

Amazed with the delicious fritada that awaited us.

​So happy!

​The best cyber in all of Chillogallo.
Our friend Blanca even gives us aguita while we write. :) She´s the best!

Week Fifty-three: Cambios & nurses

Hola mi familia!

I'm still in Quito! :D But not in Chillogallo. :( But that's alright! I'm super pumped for this change! Honestly when I received the phone call I was super confused, because they told me that I was going to train the mission nurse, and I thought, "are they assigning me to be a nurse too" because the new nurse already has trainers. I honestly thought it was a joke. Haha. But it turns out that I am training the mission nurse! Isn´t that awesome! Hermana Mosquera is my new companion. She already has one change in the mission and was with the other part-time nurses, but we are going to have two full-time nurses and the other is getting here this change.  So, the other hermanas are going to train the new hermana while I work with Hermana Mosquera as a normal missionary. She is the best! She's from Cali, Colombia! I already know that we are going to have a great time together. I can't wait! We are working in La Colon. Which is funny because I never in a million years thought I would be working in downtown Quito but here I am and I am so excited! Missionary work is the best!

I have to tell you all about last week! It was the best! Hermana Herrera and I worked the hardest that I have ever worked in my entire mission! It was an exhausting week but we saw so many miracles and we found golden families! One of which we found in the bus. Well, we found the dad. He was reading his bible and my companion sat down next to him because it was the only seat left. I told her that we should talk to him and so she started up the conversation. He was really receptive and we went and met his family the next day and they are the best! I'm sad I won't be able to keep teaching them but I know that they are going to do great things in the church! 

Every day we are striving to get better as a mission. We always talk about elevating the vision. Well we have received new standards of excellence and let me tell you, they are pretty high goals. Well Hermana Herrera and I planned and planned and planned up until we found the way to reach these goals and then we got to work. And guess what! We got so close!!!! And the best part was that we felt that we gave it our all and learned how to plan EVEN BETTER this week so that we can not only reach the goal, but go past it. We should always set goals! Remember that the prophet taught that we know where we're going! We know what the goal is! Now we have to do our part to make good decisions to reach that goal! 

I love this work and I love all of you. Next week I'll fill you all in on more details from the week!

Have the best week ever!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Beutler

Andrea & Mayra

My crazy Ivana

Crazy kids!

One of my favorite families.  I'm going to miss them so much!

I'm not sure what happened here, but I love it.

Who's the weird girl in the background?

We showed up and found him like this . . . 

Two goofs!

My little Dana

​She is getting a little more creative with her silly faces.

I'm going to miss this little snickerdoodle.

Hija #1 - Hermana Herrera

Hija #2 - Hermana Mosquera

Tarzan burger with Hermana Mosquera

Happy!

Really good beef comes from really good cows. Ecuadorian cows.

Week Fifty-two: Ice Cream & Aftershocks

Cool monument that probably isn't all that historic in Downtown Quito

Hola mi familia!

So this week was super fun! Really different that's for sure. Let me let you all know why haha. So first off, guess who I found in the mission offices today! Hermana Callirgos! She got to the CCM the same day as me! She was there my first two weeks and I didn't know how to speak Spanish for the life of me but she was always helping us. We lived in the same room and when we got back from classes she would always help us practice what we learned that day. She even helped me write my first talk in Spanish! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw her. We were leaving the offices when I heard someone scream "Hermana!" Hahaha She is serving in the Quito North mission. Turns out that we started training at the same time. And even funnier fact, her daughter was in the CCM with mine! Hermana Herrera shared a room with the companion of Hermana Callirgos! What a small world. That was so fun to see her today.

Next fun fact, well during the 12 weeks of training, a missionary has certain goals that they have to achieve. Well, the goal for last week for my companion was to take all of the initiative in every single finding and teaching situation. Well, let me tell you, she did a great job. My companion practically taught without me all week. Well. She did. Haha. Yes. I was in the house all week. With a weird virus. Don't worry mom. I'm perfectly fine now. But it wasn't fun. I wasn't planning on telling you all because I'm fine and healthy now and don't want to worry you all with something not so important.  But, I thought about it and I think that it's better that we don't just put our experiences to the side but that we learn all that we can from them. 

I'll spare the details, but I had to stay home because I was without energy the entire week. It was crazy. My mind and spirit had all of the energy in the world but the second I would try to leave the house and start walking a few blocks I felt like I was going to fall on my face.  I was so worn out, haha! It all started with a weird cold and then nausea and then before I knew it, the mission nurses sent me home to sleep. :( It was pretty sad.  I had a doctor's appointment and he sent me home with a few prescriptions and 2 more days of rest. They were 2 really long days. But thanks to the help of the sisters in the ward, it was a cool experience. Ivana, one of the sisters who is preparing to leave on her mission in Paraguay left with my companion during the week to visit the people and I had half of the Relief Society taking shifts to keep me company, haha. 

Okay, not half . . . but quite a few sisters helped me out. Haha. And by the way, they make really good homemade chicken noodle soup here. It's probably the first time I've actually wanted soup on the mission, since I was actually sick. Hahaha. And it was great talking with the sisters. I felt like I was teaching lessons in my own apartment.  We would talk and talk and they would share their struggles or concerns about the callings or family and I got to share scriptures with them and help them out. 

We also have a little DVD player in the house and one of the sisters is less active and a nurse, so she helped me out a ton and we watched the Restoration together. The next day she came again to sit in the house with me and her spirit had changed completely! She said it was all thanks to the movie we saw, and that she never knew before all of the things that Joseph Smith went through and that it motivated her to keep pushing through all of her trials that she was going through. It was a really uplifting experience for me. It made me feel a bit more useful, haha. 

Well by Sunday morning I was feeling fantastic and ready to work. We got up that morning and went to church and gave the lesson in Relief Society. We taught about the importance of Visiting Teaching. It was a ton of fun! We gave the same training that I gave in Santo Domingo but just a little tweaked for this ward. It was awesome! 

Fun moment of the week. On the way back from the offices today we were sitting on the bus when an ice cream man came on to sell ice cream. They're kind of like otter-pops but not as sketchy as I'm making them sound. Anyways. They're delicious and we enjoyed our ice cream.  I wanted to throw my wrapper away because there's usually a little garbage bin on the buses. Well, I didn't see the garbage anywhere and I kept looking, but eventually gave up. Then about fifteen minutes later I got bothered again by the wrapper in my hand and looked more closely to see the garbage bin right beneath my seat....how embarassing. Haha. I learned that at times we limit ourselves to find the answers we're looking for because we blind ourselves to the truth that's lying right in front of our faces, something I've experienced several times in the mission. Life is a learning process. Many times it's uncomfortable because it requires us to go outside of our comfort zone or put an extra effort forward but what we gain from it in the end is so much better than living in ignorance or sitting with a sticky ice cream wrapper in your hand for 45 minutes. Haha.

Yesterday was pretty weird. We got back to the house a little early to catch up on some planning that we couldn't do during the week and I was feeling kind of anxious. All of the noises in the house were scaring me. I told my companion, "I just feel like something is about to happen" and I kept remembering the earthquake. About 20 minutes later we had a pretty big aftershock again haha. Pretty scary but it only lasted long enough to grab our emergency kit. Haha. All is well in Chillogallo.

Hey! I'm going to have a year on the mission this week! Weird how the time flies right!? Gotta love it! Not sure where I'll be next week with the changes we have this Sunday, but whatever happens I know I'll be happy being a missionary de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días! I love you all so much! Have an amazing faith-filled virus-free week!

Con mucho amor y cariño,

Hermana Beutler

Look who I found in the offices? Herrera Callirgos from the CCM.

Look how much we've both gained weight! Gotta love the mission!

It was so nice to finally be able to talk to her for real! 1 year later!

Zone Conference

Hermanas & Cookies

Zone Conference session at the whiteboard

My first real meal after a week. I went all out :) And it was delicious.

Our new district shirts! Chillogallo! For two changes up until the other sisters had emergency changes we only had nortes and peruvians in the district. The front of the shirt has the word chillo and a chicken(gallo) = Chillogallo :) I'll have to get a picture of the back to show you all

​My cute companion and her new glasses. She´s no longer blind!