Hermana Beutler in Ecuador: 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