Week Twenty-three - An apostle in Ecuador

Hola mi familia!

This week has been AMAZING! Probably one of the hardest weeks as well. Carnaval was this past monday and tuesday, and we couldn't leave the house at all unless we had a really scheduled appointment, which is pretty impossible here, so we didn't teach much. Then we just had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning to work because Friday afternoon we travelled to Quito. 

And I have been so so so very excited to tell you all why! I'll start by saying that there is nothing like the feeling of when an apostle looks you in the eyes and you can tell he is seeing everything in your soul. 

We had the great privilege to have Elder Jeffrey R. Holland come speak to our mission this past weekend! Wow. I still feel like it didn't really happen as I type this out. But I promise it really did happen! Maybe some of you aren't going to believe me but oh man it was like a dream! Elder Holland is here in Ecuador for two weeks and it´s the best thing ever! I can't hardly begin to express how amazing it was to be in the presence of a true disciple of the Lord. When he got to the chapel we were waiting in the outside gym ready to take a picture and as he walked down the stairs we sang called to serve. Wow. The spirit that he brought was like a heat wave! 

I learned so much from this experience and know that I have so much to fix and be better at to live up to the expectations our leaders and our Savior has for us.   

I found out at the conference that Paty (my investigator from Ambato) really did get baptized! She had been investigating the church for three years and we had her baptismal interview right before I left and I was really sad to miss her baptism but I was more nervous that she would flake out again but she didn't! She got baptized!!!!!! Oh my I am so happy for her! I also found out that Pamela is doing super well in her calling in the church and everything! The gospel changes lives and miracles are real! Wow! 

I feel so blessed to be a part of this work! We saw a miracle this week! One of our investigators who we felt would have a hard time progress told us only after two lessons with her that she talked to her husband and he wants to get married so they can get baptized! WHAT!? That never happens here! So many miracles! We also found out that there is a guy named Javier who has been asisting to church for a couple weeks now without anyone visiting him. He just showed up because he is seeking more peace and happiness in his life and he feels like he can find it in the church! Well he is so right! Turns out he lives in our sector! We thought he was an investigator of the elders but no! We are so excited for him and he has a date to be baptized on the 27th of this month! 

I can't even describe all that I have felt and learned this week but I just want to say to all of you that I know without a doubt in my mind and I feel with every fiber of my being that Jesus Christ lives, that our Heavenly Father loves us so much, that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God, the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and we have a living prophet and twelve apostles who are truly disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. I love this work and can't imagine being anywhere else doing anything else. I just hope that Hermana Morán and I get to stay together for this next change! 

Stay tuned for more miracles and transfers next week! I love you all and hope you have an amazing miracle filled week! 

God loves you! 

Con todo mi amor, 

Hermana Beutler 

P.S. 2 Nephi 4:20-21 (my ponderizing scripture this week!)

My other addiction from Ecuador.  Polaca.  We are not quite sure what is in it, but it is basically like drinking sweetened condensed milk.  Or in other words, the best thing on planet earth.

I got the packages!!!!! On Thursday I got the one that took forever during our zone conference and the next day we were in Quito and my Valentine´s day package was there just in time! It came in just one month! How crazy! Thank you so much! I am so grateful for you guys! And the socks mom are literally a life saver! I really needed those! 

​View of Quito from the nurses apartment in the morning

Reunited with my mom Hermana Chipana!!!!!!! I missed her so much!

​In the elevator on the way to see Elder Holland! So exciting!

​Me and my awesome companion!

​With the two other hermanas of Santo Domingo eating breakfast in Quito!

We fasted all day Sunday (which we don´t normally do but we were travelling home from quito on saturday so we had to) and we ended our fast this morning with a good traditional plate of Ecuadorian clasics. Rice, eggs, and patacones(double fried verde...it is an addiction of mine now).

​Me and Josselyn, the cutest little girl on the planet. She just turned 6 :)

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

Week Twenty-one: Every day is different . . .

Hola mi familia!

Every day is different here in Ecuador. One day it is blazing hot, the next you come home drenched from the rain. One day you have ten progressing investigators, the next you have none. But the great thing about the mission is that you´re doing the work of the Lord. So you always know that there´s sunshine or new people to teach just around the corner. 

 This week definitely had it´s ups and downs, but I learned this week that the only thing we have control over constantly is our attitude about the situation. This week wasn´t easy. I found myself really questioning why we weren´t able to see the fruits of our labor. No one was progressing and our less actives weren´t showing any desires to come to church. I was getting pretty down about it. Then we had a family home evening in our ward to welcome back a missionary who just got home and our stake president said something that really helped me this week. He said ¨As a missionary you experience a lot. You experience rejection, disappointment, and sadness for the people. More often than not, there are more sad experiences than good. However, you could experience rejection every day of your mission and have one spiritual experience where you know you are making a difference as a missionary and it would make it all worth it.¨ It is so very true. The work isn´t easy. And more often than not we experience rejection and disappointment. However, the moments that make it all worth it are there too. It´s like running. While you´re running you might feel like you want to slow down or give up, but the second after you finish a great run you feel like a million bucks! And that same feeling is what pushes you on your next run. It´s the same on the mission, it´s tough, but it is oh so worth it. I love being a missionary! 

 We were very blessed to have a world wide conference this week for all missionaries! It was like general conference but everything was about missionary work! It was the best!!! I learned SO much and was so reenergized to go back and work! I am so grateful to be serving in a time when we have the technology to have such a special event like that. Oh I wanted to tell you all about a really cool experience that I had this week with one of our investigators. So Ines is an older lady with eight kids who lives alone because her husband works in a different city and only visits once a month. She wanted to get baptized last transfer but she wasn´t willing to tell her husband about her baptism. The missionaries had to drop her. She called us last week and my companion told her that we would set up an appointment when she would come to church. But before Sunday came one of the members told us that she had talked to her husband. So we stopped by and had a lesson with her. It was one of the hardest lessons I´ve ever been in! She talked a ton and repeated everything she said even when we were talking about something completely different. She kept saying that she had so much knowledge of God and the scriptures like she was trying to prove it to us. It was really hard for me to teach in that situation, and since my companion had already grown to love her with time I knew I needed to find a way to do the same. We didn´t feel like she was being very honest with us about her reading assignments of the Book of Mormon, and so I told my companion that we needed to be really direct with her. As we started the lesson we talked about the importance of being honest and our calling as representatives of Jesus Christ. We went over the Book of Mormon and asked her some general questions about what it´s about and where does it take place and she couldn´t tell us. She then had a question about the Godhead and so we pulled out the Articles of Faith to go over the first four with her and she was so shocked. She didn´t understand why noone had shown them to her before. She could actually understand and grasp the concepts of the Articles of Faith. Long story a little bit shorter it turns out she was reading the Book of Mormon. She almost read it all, but she didn´t understand any of it. She broke down crying to us and told us that she hadn´t received any form of formal education before. To read something and understand it for her is very difficult. It was such a huge change from the Ines we met with before. She just wanted someone to accept her, and so she tried convincing everyone that she knew everything about the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We explained to her that Heavenly Father doesn´t need her to prove to others her testimony or have a perfect knowledge of these things. He just needs her to have faith and try little by little to learn. She has never been taught how to listen and learn before. It was such a humbling experience for me. The love that I felt for her in that lesson was tremendous. It´s going to be difficult for her, but little by little, article of faith per article of faith, we´re going to help her to not only learn about the gospel but also learn how to listen to others and learn. 

 I feel so fortunate to be a part of this work. There is nothing like it in the world. The blessings and miracles I have seen in my life and in the lives of others has taught me so much about the love our Heavenly Father has for us. It is such a privilege to have the scriptures in our lives to read and ponder. They are awesome! They can be our best friends when we´re experiencing tough times. Don´t forget to read this week! I know it will make a big difference in your life as it has mine. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know it with all of my heart! I love you all! 


Con mucho amor, 
Hermana B

We went to a place today where they sell livestock...not really sure why we went...but we got some good pictures.

A bunch of burros

selfie with the cows.
I´m pretty sure the black and white one in the back is posing.

We celebrated your engagement Carm with some fro-yo,
gotta keep up with traditions ya know. 

Week Twenty - "Same height advantage"

Hola familia!

I don´t have a ton of time to write but I will try my best to type fast! So I forgot to mention last week that it turns out Hermana Morán and I met before the mission! We realized it one of the first nights when we were getting ready for bed. We kept feeling like we had seen each other before. Turns out we went to EFY together back in 2011! Haha! We weren't in the same group or anything but we sang together in the choir! What a small world we live in! My companion is awesome! I attached some pictures so you can all finally see what she looks like but we´re the same height so that´s fun. All the people here like to stare but that´s alright it makes contacting a lot easier :) 

It rains everyday here and the bugs are up and moving always! It´s a lot more tropical here but I have yet to see any cool birds or rare animals. Unless you count the frog on my door the other night. 

The work this week was a bit different. It´s hard to summarize in an email my week and my thoughts are a bit scattered but I hope what I have to share will make sense to all of you. 

I´m not really sure where the time went but we experienced a lot and learned a lot of new things. The mission truly is a conversion process, and I have learned during my short time here what a blessing it is to have the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I can´t imagine my life being any different and I am so grateful to have had the blessings that the Gospel brings in my family my entire life. 

Prayer is real. God answers us when we speak with Him. I have never felt that more strongly in my life than I do now. 

The calling to be a missionary is so special. I have learned more about my calling as a missionary this week. As we work to bring others unto Christ, we too come unto Him. As we strive every day to be better and be more like Him, we will see miracles. I know that is true with all of my heart. There are guardian angels watching over and protecting us as  missionaries. I love this work. I love the change I see in the eyes of my investigators as the Spirit testifies to them that what we are teaching is true. It is truly the best feeling in the world to be a missionary! We should all decide to be missionaries every day of our lives! Everyone needs the love of our Savior Jesus Christ in their lives. Don´t forget to share this love with the people around you! I put a quote in the back of my planner to remind me during the day to talk to the people. "They are your brothers and sisters, TALK TO THEM" This has helped me so much and I have seen miracles! I invite you all to remember this in your day to day lives and talk to your brothers and sisters this week about the blessings you've seen in your lives from the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Hermana Morán y yo

Bomboli una montaña en Santo Domingo en la mitad de nuestro barrio
(pero que bueno que no es de nuestro sector jaja)

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

Hermana B

P.S. Scripture this week is D&C 14:8

Week Nineteen - "You know you're in Ecuador when . . . "

Hola Familia!

You know you´re in Ecuador when the snails are as big as your fist!

Sorry this email is a bit of a long one but it has been a such a great
first week here in Santo Domingo! Yes I have seen some huge snails and
a few cockroaches but besides that everything is normal here on the
coast! I think I've lost the rice weight from Ambato just from one
week of sweating here in Santo Domingo. But the real challenge will be
working off the Santo Domingo rice. The food is REALLY good here. And
they feed you a lot more. But the members are pretty good about giving
us smaller portions. Running is helping a lot though. The first
morning we went running here I felt like I could run a marathon! The
elevation change was super weird for me. I didn't really notice it
when I went running in Ambato, I just thought I was pretty out of
shape. But when I got here I realized that my lungs were just being
suffocated up there in the mountains.

The people are super nice here. Members are great. I am in a ward
again which is awesome. We live in the house below the Bishop and his
family and his wife cooks our lunch everyday so its really easy to get
in contact with him and get the work we need to done with the ward. We
have three ladies that cook food for us. Thankfully its not all at the
same time but they´re all great. Funny Ecuadorian ladies.

My companion is AMAZING! I love her so much! After only a week we are
already great friends! Hermana Moran is from Orange County,
California. She was studying at BYU-I before the mission but
transferred to BYU Provo which is so exciting! She has three months
more than I do. She goes home in December. We´re having a blast here
in Santo Domingo. Life is great. Despite the ants and cockroaches we
make it through with a smile on our faces and a funny story to keep us
laughing even in the pouring rain.

Speaking of rain. It rains a lot here. Everyday. We run in the rain.
We teach lessons in the rain (not a joke). Everything is in the rain.
But it´s great because it´s never cold so we love it when it rains.
And because of the humidity my shoes aren´t drying out very quickly
but it´s okay we always find a way to make things work.

I am so excited for the lesson we have tonight! We contacted this lady
who was doing her laundry outside of her house and when we walked up
so many people left the house. They just kept coming! I think it was
because they saw gringas coming and wanted to see if we could speak
Spanish or not. Haha. But we set up an appointment for tonight and
then last night we were walking in the street when one of the people
from that same house contacted us to remind us of the visit! Haha
usually its the other way around. But I have a great feeling about
this family. My companion and I are so excited!

The work here is very different, and I am learning so much everyday.
Contacting is a lot more effective here than it was in Ambato so I´m
getting used to contacting a lot more again. We also work with A LOT
of less-actives. There are SO many here. That´s why it´s so important
to have baptisms of people who are truly truly converted. So many
people in South America just get baptized because they like having the
missionaries over. It´s part of the culture that we´re working hard to
change.

 ¨The first convert on the mission is yourself¨ is so true! If we as
missionaries don´t become converted on the mission it doesn't matter
how many baptisms we have. You experience a lot during the mission and
it´s hard not to experience this conversion automatically but if you
aren´t open and willing to change it won´t take an affect on you. I
believe its the same before and after the mission as well. If we
aren´t open to apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our daily lives
He will still be there for us, we just won´t get to enjoy the
blessings He is reaching out to give us. The only thing we have to do
is open up our hearts to Him and do our part to reach out and take
hold of what He has waiting for us. The Atonement and Gospel of Jesus
Christ is such a blessing!

I feel so very lucky to be a missionary. It is so very hard at times,
well, most of the time. But when I am reminded, whether it be by my
companion, leaders, or the Book of Mormon, we are here as missionaries
to help the people come unto Christ, in all parts of their conversion,
not just through baptism. Maybe we go to teach a family the first
lesson, and we are only able to teach about prayer because they have
never learned how to pray before, and maybe we aren´t going to be able
to see this family progress in three weeks because they need more time
to truly be converted. But if we think about what we were just able to
do it´s absolutely beautiful. We were able to teach someone how to
talk with God, their Heavenly Father. It´s like helping a child learn
to speak. How happy would that parent be to hear their child speak
with them for the first time after years and years of silence! Imagine
how happy our Heavenly Father is when one of His children speaks with
Him for the first time! No effort is wasted in the work of the Lord
and no prayer goes unheard. I am always so deeply humbled when I am
able to recognize answers from prayers because I am just one of
billions and billions of Heavenly Father´s children. It´s amazing to
think He has time for us all but it´s true, He does. He is listening.
He wants you to know that He is there.

I am so excited for this next week I have in Santo Domingo. I have
absolutely fallen in love with this city. It is so beautiful and so
green. It is definitely a privilege to be a missionary in Ecuador and
breathe the fresh air and walk drenched through the rain. I love this
work and I love being a missionary!

I hope you are all doing well and I hope you all have a wonderful
week! God loves you so very much! Don´t forget to pray and speak with
Him! He is your loving Heavenly Father!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana B

P.S. My companion and I are meditizando...I don´t remember how to say
that in English...Mosiah 18:26

Week Eighteen - Transfers!

Hola familia!

This week a less active of 11 years showed up to church yesterday after two months of visits! It was a miracle! I am so grateful for miracles!

Wow. This week was a hot one in Ambato. The sun is super strong here. But we endured it. I'm convinced it was to help me adjust to hot weather because GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!! I'm in SANTO DOMINGO!!!

WOOOHOOO! I am so pumped. I didn't think Id get to come to the coast! Theres only one zone in the mission on the coast. There aren't any beaches or anything but it doesn't matter anyways cause I can't swim as a missionary. Haha.

Don't get me wrong. It was so hard leaving Pradera. It definitely is my home here in the mission. And I cried saying bye to Pamela and Nancy and her family last night, but new adventures and experiences await.

The bus ride here was four and a half hours long from Ambato, and it was GORGEOUS! I felt like I was in the Jungle Book! We were driving through the jungle/forest for about three hours on this windy road through the mountains and I felt pretty carsick but luckily I made it all the way without getting sick. It was so awesome, there were waterfalls around every corner! And the trees were so beautiful.  I knew immediately when we had made it into the coastal region. It was like a big wall of hot mist hit my face. It is SO humid here. It's like standing in a bowl of soup. But I love it! It was really dry in Ambato, the weather was perfect, but really really dry. It's going to be interesting adjusting the the weather but I'm looking forward to it!

My new companion is Hermana Moran. She's from California and has one transfer more than I do. She is super nice and I am so excited to work with her! The computer is being really slow today so I'll send pictures next week.

I'm really excited to learn new things and get to know another sector in the mission. I'm going to miss out on one of my baptisms back in Pradera (Paty our eternal investigator is finally getting baptized this Sunday!) but I know that Heavenly Father needs me here and I need to be here to learn. My bishop in Pradera also asked me to give a talk this Sunday which I'm actually really sad I won't get to give. I have yet to give a talk in my ward and it would be really nerve racking but also a really great learning experience to overcome my fears with the language.

So many new experiences await and I am really nervous but really excited too! I can't wait to tell you all about Santo Domingo and about the amazing people that I am sure are here :)

The best part of my week this past week was to see Pamela give her first talk in church yesterday. Being able to see the people you love progress in the gospel is hands down the best thing in the world.

I was reflecting about our work as missionaries and how the members often like to say that the missionaries are angels. It's something that makes most missionaries pretty uncomfortable, myself included. This is the work of our Savior, as missionaries we are merely instruments. If we are talking about musical instruments, we know that without someone to play the instrument the instrument is capable of nothing besides sitting on the shelve. We don't praise the instrument as much as we praise the music that comes from the instrument. It should be the same with missionary work. The work is impossible without the Savior Jesus Christ. The music of the gospel is the changes we can see in the lives of the people we interact with or in ourselves and its the most beautiful music in the world. As we learn to make the gospel central in our lives the music will become even more familiar and with time and the spiritual experiences we have, even more beautiful.

I am so grateful for gospel in my life and for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and instrument for the Lord. I have a lot of work to do to fix, refine, shine, and polish the instrument that I am but thanks to the love our Heavenly Father has for His children, He still allows music to flow through broken instruments like me who are striving to be better. We all can be instruments in the Lord's hands to help others hear the music of the gospel in their lives. I invite you all to do something in this next week to learn more about, or apply more specifically the gospel in your life or in the lives of your friends and family around you.

I love you all so much and pray that all is well. Your Heavenly Father loves you!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana B

Week Seventeen - Feliz Año Nuevo!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great New Year´s! My New Year´s Eve was spent all day in the house and it was really hard. We were itching to leave but we got a lot of stuff done so it was great. I made french toast in the morning and later we had spaghetti...sort of...and then I made rice pudding! It was great. We were finally able to organize our kitchen and catch up on some things that just don´t get done during the week. It was like an extended P-Day. It was very strange. Haha. 

We had a bit of a rough week this week. Our investigators aren´t doing so well and we didn´t have a lot of teaching opportunities, but we´ve learned from it and we´ve decided to make this last week of the transfer the best one yet! Speaking of transfers...I´m really nervous for transfers. It´s the first time that I don´t know what´s going to happen, and I really don´t like that. I LOVE my area and the people here are my family. I can´t imagine leaving, but I know that wherever and whatever the Lord has planned for me is what I need to keep learning and becoming better each and every day. But I´ll definitely be praying to stay here in Ambato with Hermana Chipana. 

I´ve been studying lately about the missionaries in the Book of Mormon. I LOVE the example of Ammon. I invite you all to go read about his experiences in Alma 17 until 20 I believe. We can learn SO much from him. Everything he did and all of his desires were to help and teach the people. He did everything to gain their trust and confidence. And then when he taught he taught with power! When King Lamoni asked him a simple question if he had been sent by God, he not only was able to answer his question but also teach so much about the Plan of Salvation and so much more. He was a consecrated missionary. I want to be like him. It´s hard when we have so many discouraging moments throughout each and everyday, but if we remember to follow the example of Ammon and do everything we possibly can for the work of our Savior we will see miracles and will rejoice, just as Ammon did. 

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and I receive so much strength from reading it everyday. There are promised blessings just waiting for us if we decide to start reading more and applying the principles in our lives. I´ve seen blessings and miracles from this sacred book, and I can´t imagine what my life would be like without it. 

Hopefully next week I´ll be writing to tell you all that I´m still in Ambato, but if not all is well. I´ll try not to be too sad leaving my Ecuadorian home. :)

I love the mission and I love being a missionary!

I hope all is well in your families and I wish you the best of luck with your goals this year. Anything is possible through the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ!

I love you all!

Hermana B

Baptism of Nancy, the grand daughter of my companion's convert from the start of her mission

​A rooster and a chicken in a normal field in the campo.
It looks like a ¨chicken with it´s head cut off¨",
but I just had good timing haha.

​The dog of Pamela. I fed him Ritz crackers before I knew he was her dog, about two months ago, and now he follows us a ton when we´re in her neighborhood. He really needed a bath this day.

​Firefighters burning their doll, one of the traditions here in Ecuador.
They burn life sized dolls at midnight to burn away the bad things of the past year.

We finally made tostadas New Year´s Eve. I´m quite sure I´m addicted.
They´re so good but I don´t know why.
It´s just toasted corn. But it´s the best.

Typical Ambato sky