Monday, November 28, 2016

Week Sixty-four: Temple. Go.

We got them a picture of the temple because they're going to get sealed next month and this picture just kills me because of the way Pili with her baby belly had to scrunch down for the picture. She's so cute!

Hola mi familia!

Christmas bells are ringing and temple trips are in the air! Our ward is going to the temple in two weeks! ISN'T THAT THE GREATEST! I took advantage of having a temple so close when I was at home. Now it's like going to Neverland. Seriously. Having a temple in Quito is going to be SUCH a blessing for the members here. Instead of having to pay 20-30 dollars for the trip they're going to be able to pay 50 cents. 25 to get there, 25 to get back. And even though 20 dollars doesn't seem like a big sacrifice it is a HUGE sacrifice here. Especially when they want to go as a family. I am so grateful for temples and for family history work. We have been encouraging our recent converts about it a TON and the ward is working really hard on indexing because we'll be getting a real chapel that's the size of two stake centers practically in January and they want to be able to have a Family History Center in the building. But we've got to work hard to get it. This week I have learned that the spirit of Elijah is SO REAL. We contacted a lady last night and started mentioning about family history and the spirit of the contact changed COMPLETELY. She mentioned that her husband passed away a year ago and opened up way more than she would've in any other contact. I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! Missionary work exists on both sides of the veil and is just as important! GO TO THE TEMPLE! It's the greatest experience ever. I can't wait to be able to go back. I spoke in sacrament meeting on Sunday about missionary work and my shared a quote by President Monson that my companion shared with me when he said that whatever sacrifice it takes to go to the temple is worth it. It doesn't matter what we have to sacrifice! We're talking about salvation here! It's the most important thing there is! No price we can pay can replace it or exceed its worth! 

Our ward mission leader and his wife are going to be sealed in the temple this trip and it is so exciting! They have been fighting for so long to get to this point! Pili had two kids before meeting Galo (our mission leader) and they were nervous that they weren't going to get the father's permission for them to be sealed to them but he signed the paper on Sunday and then after ward council the Stake President's councilor came in and handed them their recommends! I wish I could've filmed that moment for you all to see. It was the greatest thing ever. Galo looked like he had just been given a huge chocolate cake just for him. He was almost jumping up and down like a little boy. They are so excited and ready to have their eternal family. They have had SO much opposition, but they have also had SO many miracles. I can't wait to see pictures! It is so exciting! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! 

I know that temples are the House of the Lord. I know that it is only there where we can truly reach eternal progression. I know that President Monson is a prophet of God and that whatever sacrifice it takes to get there, that we should do it. I invite you all to go to the temple. Whether it be inside or out, just go. Say a prayer while you're there, and ask your Heavenly Father how you can keep learning and growing to return to live with Him. I know you won´t regret it. 

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic spirtually filled week!

con mucho amor,
Hermana Beutler

JUST LOOK AT THE LOOK ON THEIR FACES
WHEN THEY GOT THEIR TEMPLE RECOMMEND!
Yes, I will be framing this picture for them.
BEST. THING. EVER. Eternal happiness in a picture. 

We dropped in to surprise hermana Ccompara on her birthday. It was great.
Silly faces!
My companion saying her last goodbyes to Hermana Crowther
Me taking a selfie of their goodbyes but I got caught haha
Hermana Ccompara
I ATE CALOSTRA DE VACA - that is, the milk from a cow right after it gives birth. Not too shabby. 
Tres leches is the BOMB.com...and so is Erika's face.
One of the greatest meals I've had in a while.
It was pretty delicious. Sadly it wasn't on Thanksgiving day, but I still counted it. :D

Monday, November 21, 2016

Week Sixty-three: Miracles & Prayer

IT WORKED! OUR PRAYERS WORKED!

I love this family!
Hola mi familia!
I know you guys read my email last week and helped me out with your prayers because Brayan's parents attended the baptism! THAT'S RIGHT! THEY ACTUALLY WENT! This is hands down the biggest miracle I have ever seen on the mission! The night before the baptism we went to do a family home evening with Brayan and we asked his dad if he was going to go. Well right in front of his son he said "No, I'm not going. I'm not going to do something that's against my will." And that was a blow to the heart for us but even worse for Brayan. But we didn't show it and we stayed positive knowing that the most important person was Brayan himself. His mom also had said no but that she wasn't too sure. So we prayed and prayed and left it in the Lord's hands, and He worked miracles!

So all week we made sure we were doing EVERYTHING that we could to make this baptism go off without a hitch. Come Saturday everything is going great. We invited everyone to show up at 5:30 (without telling them that the baptism itself started at 6:00.....Ecuadorians are SO not on time.) and everyone showed up a little before 6! It was perfect! But then SO MANY PEOPLE showed up that we had to move the service to the chapel. And then at about 5:59 they told us that his parents were on their way! It was crazy! So we told them that we would wait for them to start. We ended up starting quite a bit after 6, but it was the sweetest thing in the world to see his parents sitting up with him on the front row and seeing the whole middle section of the chapel FULL! I have never seen that at a baptism before on the mission, or anywhere! It was SO GREAT! The service was beautiful! We sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows" with the bishop's wife and it turned out really nice. I sang a section in English and I totally had a flashback to my baptism 12 years ago. I love that song! Then his brother baptized him who just got baptized 3 months ago. That was super special. After he was baptized he gave this AMAZING testimony thanking his family for being there and sharing his experience how he came to know that God loves him and that this is the true church. He said that the first time he went to church with his brother he felt the spirit SO strongly and he felt for the first time in a long time that Heavenly Father hadn't abandoned him. It was so sweet. 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

My favorite scripture this week is in Doctrine and Covenants 112:11 I know the church is true. Heavenly Father hears our prayers. He loves us. Never stop praying. Never stop believing that He IS THERE!

I love you all!
con mucho amor,
Hermana Beutler

LOOK AT THIS MIRACLE!
Brayan! Ignore the tears in his eyes.
He couldn't stop crying after his baptism. He's the best!
 
I LOVE THIS PICTURE.
Cutest sibling picture ever. 
Our motto for life: BELIEVE (ps. it works)
I love this.
Our post celebration treat!
Analyzing the lane. figuring out our plan of attack. haha. 
Me and the comp. Fun times.
The view from bishop's house on sunday. and that's Brayan's house on the right.
I LOVE ECUADOR. 

Monday, November 14, 2016

Week Sixty-two: Brian and Chicken fingers

Chicken fingers !!!!!!!!!
Hola mi familia!

How's everyone doing? I have heard way too much about the United States these days. And when people ask me how I feel I say I don't know because I haven't been there for so long and I have no clue what's going on. I'm so grateful for that. :) Haha. 

Life is GREAT here in Turubamba! Brian is getting baptized this Saturday! He is THE BEST. He's definitely going places that kid. He always wears his CTR rings, studies the lessons before we get there, and gave the opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday. IT WAS AWESOME. He prayed that everyone would be able to keep the Sabbath Day holy. It was seriously the best because we had just taught him that commandment about two days before. He's great. We are just hoping and praying that his parents decide to go to his baptism. They support him and all but his dad is super Catholic and his mom is inactive and doesn't want to cause problems in their marriage. So we'll see what happens. Please pray for them that they'll go! It'll mean the world to him! 

As you will be able to tell in the pictures, we ate chicken fingers this week. Not sure how I got away my whole mission without eating them hahaha. But it wasn't too bad. But it also wasn't very good. haha. But we made a good time out of it. 

That's how the mission is. That's how life is. WE have to decide how we reacct to the situations we come upon every day. We have basically two options. Let it bring us down or let it bring us up. I'd personally be up than down so when challenges come, rise up! It's a great feeling. We can all do it with Christ on our side. He is always there with his loving embrace to help us back up, but what are we doing to reach up to Him?

Are we reading?
Are we opening our hearts in prayer? 
Are we striving to keep the commandments?
Are we partaking of the sacrament weekly?

If we aren't, we should just get better! Let us not be discouraged by the distance we have to go but let us rejoice for each step of progress we make! 

I love you all so much and hope your week is great!

con mucho amor,
Hermana Beutler


Just to gross you all out.
My companion joining in on the fun.
Trying not to taste it too much haha. 
While the members weren´t looking!
HAHAHAH! Framing this picture.
​Then she got brave. haha
I love Hermana Crowther! She is so cute.
Her hair went a little wild at the end of the day. Hahah.
Hard at work.... 
So we joined her in the crazy hair party.
Antonela and Stefania! She is the cutest little one and a half year old around!
She already knows how to lead music! :)
Look at her!

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Week Sixty-one: Eternal Families


Hermana Beutler and Hermana Mosquera chatting with UN Conference attendees on the streets of Quito
Hola Mi Querida Familia!

This week has been great! I am definitely adjusting to the new assignment with all of the things we do to help the hermanas out. We had about a billion consejos this week of all different types and we did divisions with the sisters and did a couple studies too! It was great! I learned A TON and felt a renewal of my testimony of the love our Heavenly Father has for His children. We had to help a couple hermanas out this week that have been going through a rough time this change to the point that they were hiding some of the health issues that we were having. At first I was really frustrated for them hiding the truth from us and their other leaders and when we got to their house I was still pretty frustrated. We talked as a companionship about the reasons why it had happened and what we could do and so we decided to pray. After the prayer I decided that I was only going to open my mouth to say something to them if the spirit told me to, just as it instructs in D&C121:45-47. So I did and let me tell you...it was HARD. But we were able to help them and figure things out and I felt so grateful for the spirit! There is so much I have to get better at and so much patience and love that Heavenly Father wants me to develop but I am grateful for the Atonement and my Savior Jesus Christ for making that all possible for me. 

This week we had a LOT of opposition contacting. We contacting pretty much everyone except the people who wanted to listen, but it was GREAT! Because I felt my testimony being stregthened SO MUCH! It's so true that when we bare our testimony that it grows. And we saw the evidence of that in one of the recent converts in our ward who got up to bare his testimony this week on Sunday. He got baptized two months ago and he has the coolest testimony ever. It's simple. But there is no denying it. And I believe that that testimony is the strongest one of all, the one that can't be moved by any trial or hardship we face. Better yet, that's when our testimony should grow! Remember, doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith! 

We also were able to help out a family this week that are active members but the husband has been having to work on Sunday's and he wasn't sure what he was going to do about it. We spoke about the power of daily prayer and scripture study along with fasting. We taught them about the importance of eternal families and making sacrifices with faith even when we don't know how we're going to put food on the table. Guess who we saw baring their testimonies TOGETHER on Sunday. THIS FAMILY! The spirit was so strong as we saw them get up together and it motivated us to work even harder this week to help the children of our Heavenly Father!

Time to get to work!

Con mucho amor y cariño,
Hermana Beutler

P.S.it's always better to believe

#BELIEVE
Mission Leadership Conference  
These pictures were all taken in Consejo de Lideres. It was awesome! I loved seeing the Hermanas! Half of them are going home this change. :(
She's so cute! I love my companion!
Hermana Willson who I met on Facebook a year and a half ago before we left on the mission and I finally got to get to know her for real this week! She's going home this change! She's the best! 
Hermana Riley is the cutest! 
Oh how the mission has changed us. 
Hermana Benavides is the best! And not just because she has Carmen and River's last name!
I came up to them and just said "hey! selfie!" and snapped the shot. this is how it turned out and i love the look on Hermana Solar's face hahaha
Then we took a real one. They're so cute.

You know you like colada morada when you'll accept even in a gatorade bottle. 
That's what I'm talkin about! -Hermana Martinez