Hermana Abbigail Harper: I WISH I had GRINGO TEENAGERS to HELP us ALL the TIME....

Hey there everyone,

Shout out to my cousin Blake and his new wife Breanna! Congrats guys. I heard the wedding was beautiful! :) Also thanks for the package family and Shelley! Loved it all, you guys rock, don't ever change ;) As always my mind is running with where to begin....I guess I shall start with Tuesday! We were on our way to lunch when we get a call from the zone leaders telling us to come to the church because there are a bunch of gringo youth who are gonna go on splits with all of us. A bit confused

we went on over there and it turns out that there was a hugeeeeeeeeee group of gringos who were here doing service, like families. The majority of the dads having served their mission in the Guayaquil South mission over 20 years ago! One of which being a dad from San Clemente, Chad Fatheringham (don't know if thats how you spell their last name) there with his 16 year old son Cole. And they know Jim and Robin! Cole told me he would watch Deanne's kids some times. haha It was way cool being able to talk with people from home, reminiscing over Sano nights and what not. haha But anyways they helped build houses for some really poor people, chicken coops, and also gave free dental work to kids and missionaries! (there were like 6 dentists)

So Tuesday two cute girls, Ellie and Shayla, came out with us for a few hours! We took them to our cita with Ximena and then contacted for a bit. We got a lot of attention with 3 gringos walking around together, especially since Ellie is way blonde. haha It was fun. I translated for the girls so they could share their testimonies while handing out folletos and a Book of Mormon or two. It was a really great day as sometimes mission life can be so routine and having something different to do was way fun. Which was why I was way stoked when we got the same call the next day!! This time only one girl went out with us, her name was Morgan. With all the girls, I had them pick people to contact when handing out their Book of Mormon so it would be a little more meaningful to them later and Morgan picked an older lady selling empanadas and juice and stuff like that. She didn't live in our sector nor did she really accept the invitation to go to church, but after Morgan gave her the Book of Mormon and I translated her testimony of it for her, the lady got teary eyed, said she would read it, and said that she was really grateful that we took the time to talk to her and then gave us some juice. pretty cool. I wish I had gringo teenagers to help us all the time. haha

So then the next day we went back again so my comp could get her teeth checked. They ended up pulling 2 of her wisdom teeth so we were there a while and there were a couple dentists who didn't speak Spanish so they had me help translate. So there's this 6-year-old boy in the chair and his mom is there with him, obvi. The dentist sees that he has 4 baby teeth on the bottom that are soooo rotten they have spread infection into the bone and the bone had disintegrated. I explained that to the mom and that the doctor wants to take them out and she said ok. So the doctor tries to numb the kid and the kid just starts screaming and crying and writhing around. So the assistant has to climb in the chair with him to hold him and his head down, while another assistant comes over to hold his legs and I'm holding his hands. After a long battle, they finally get the shots in. The dentist then realizes he got a jammed needle and the medicine didn't come out. It was one of those you have got to be kidding me moments that is just so ridiculous we are laughing. But luckily the mom or kid didn't understand what happened. haha But still they had to go again. round 2. Alright, so the kid is finally all numbed up, but now it's time to pull them. Oh my gosh, it was like the kid was being tortured he was screaming so bad! The doctor was only able to get 2 of the 4 out and then the mom had me stop him saying ya, no more, he's crying too much. Which is really sad cause he needed them out, but despite the dentist's and mine efforts to get her to understand the importance, she was like no, we will just wait for them to fall out. While in the mean time, his bone continues to disintegrate but what are you gonna do? So that was crazy.

One last experience this week is that we contacted a lady whose spouse of 12 years recently left her and her 3 kids, and whose cousin, who lived with her, got murdered a mere 3 months ago. The crazy boyfriend of the cousin killed not only her, but also their 3 year old daughter together. so tragic. We were able to share and testify to her about the plan of salvation and she cried, saying that she wants that for her and her family and that she wants to come closer to God and help her children do the same. She accepted a baptism date for late August! However she couldn't go to church on Sunday as she had to go out of town to take care of her aunt or something like that. So pray that next week she can come! Her name is Diana. :)

Well life moves forward here in Huancavilca. My skin continues to suck, the challenges keep on rolling, but the blessings and miracles are rolling as well and I really do love being a part of the work of salvation in these crucial latter days. I know this is the work of the Lord. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else at this time in my life. Love you all!

Con amor, Hermana Harper

The lady who I always buy balones from in the morning! Balones are balls made from verde (plantains) mashed up and usually have cheese and pork. We can't eat pork so we just get them with cheese. They are sooooo good! I'm obsessed.