SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!!!

Waddup Harpsters y Otras:

Oh man oh man, it feels like it's been a month since I've written you guys. Well I guess it has been like half a month....SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!!! Well first of, I guess I should let y'all know that HERMANA HARPER SE FUE A CUENCA!!!! Dat be right. I'm in the beautiful sierras of Cuenca. My sector is called Monay and I'm in the Cuenca Norte Zone.  

I didn't write last week cause my mission has the most unorganized stressfull transfers known to mankind. We got back to the apt after shopping and eating to find a jillion missed calls from the leaders and when we called them back they were like Hermana Harper and Hermana Jolley have transfers, be at the terminal in an hour and a half!! and this was at like 2pm. They didn't tell us where we were going or anything. We went to Guayaquil, got there at about 10 pm, and then from there I went to Cuenca. So ya, I didn't have time to write. Super Lame. 

BUT CRISTINA WAS BAPTIZED!! Yes, the tringa has a baptism. What now? Everything was crazy, cause her dad was supposed to baptize her but then that didn't happen. Cristina was really upset and didn't totally understand and we were scared she was gonna back out on us, but we calmed her down. Her seminary teacher baptized her, we ate cake, and all was well. It was sad to see the tringa end, sad to leave Boyaca and all the members and families who I have grown so close to, and all of my converts who I just love so much. But I do feel at peace to know that Monay, Cuenca, is where I need to be right now. 

My sector is GINORMOUS!!! Like I really wanna find out the square miles just so you all could have an idea of its enormity. Guess what else? My comp and I are the first sister missionaries that this ward/sector has ever had. Crazy right? And I totes know why, cause it's such an elder sector! (there are still elders here, we just share it with them.) We have to take buses wherever we need to go. There's like an area surrounding the capilla where we work but the rest of our sector is like a 20 min bus ride into the valley. El Valle is so incredibly huge. After getting off at the bus stop, it's like another 20 min to get to the houses cause they're all just spread out all over the hills amongst dirt roads. It's crazy. But it's absolutely gorgeous. I love it so much. I feel at home here. 

But if a giant sector isn't bad enough, we live outside of our sector...like a 45 min walk outside the sector with 2 hermanas from another sector...so that's way hard too....but wait there's more!! Because we are the first hermanas here, that means that we are both new...neither of us know the sector. We don't have a carpeta de area con antiguo investigadores or nada....do you know what they call this?? Opening a sector. and guess what else?? I'm senior comp. And guess what else?? My comp is a fellow gringa who is still in her 12 semanas. So technically I'm training, but I'm like her second step mom. And luckily she doesn't need much training cause she basically already has got everything down. 

Her Spanish is the same as mine if not better. Actually, I'm gonna go with better cause she's got a good latina accent whereas my accent is as gringa as you can get so the people still tell me they can't understand me sometimes....it kinda stinks. I need to work on it. It doesn't help that I talk fast too so I think if I slowed down it would help. But I'm not gonna lie, it's been hard having a companion who only has a month and a half in Ecuador yet the people understand her better for the most part. And I just came from Machala where everyone had seen my progression and I was getting compliments on

My comp, Hermana Clark! We are the cutest.

my Spanish left and right. But that's ok, cause she studied Spanish a lot before the mish and practiced with friends from Chile and what not so it makes sense she's already at this level. And frankly I'm glad, because if we only had my Spanish to get us by, we'd be in trouble. Oh, I forgot, her name is Hermana Clark (first name Danielle) and she is from Bear Lake Idaho. She's only 19 and just graduated high school in May. I feel so old!! haha. But she is so great and we are having so much fun together.

It's been hard opening a sector and communicating with people without a Latina or someone way experienced to help us but we have already learned and grown so much from this past week. We're learning to rely on the spirit and trust in the Lord like no other. In fact, I think I've had more spiritual experiences just this week then I've had in my entire mission thus far. And guess what?? Even though we only had 5 days of working in the sector, starting from scratch, we had 5 people in church on Sunday!! A family no less. A mom, a dad, and 3 boys. We found them by contacting one of the boys, a kid named Alexander who is 13 in the street. He brought us to his house where we met his dad outside and set an appointment to come back the next day to teach them when the mom was home. They're named the Bravo family. When we went back the next day, the whole fam was there, sitting down, ready to listen what we had to say. I probably felt the spirit the most in this lesson than any other. They were all so involved intently looking at us, internalizing everything. Hermana Clark told me that when I shared the first vision that they were even teary eyed. It was incredible and we left the house just so incredibly happy and on cloud 9. We definitely thanked our Heavenly Father in abundance that night. Oh and that was Saturday night by the way. And on Sunday morning, when we passed by their house, they were all ready to go to church. Such a tender mercy from the Lord. I will have to tell you more about them next week cause I'm running out of time.

Us with the Elders in the ward. Elder Filmore and Elder Flores. Elder Flores is that one Latino Elder from my group from the CCM with us 7 gringa Hermanas. He's so legit, and were like besties since were from the same group. haha. But he loves making fun of how I attempted to talk to him in the airport way back then and failed. lolz.

But the ward here has been so great so far. Everyone is stoked out of their minds that they have hermanas in the ward now. We have been told that we are a blessing sent from the Lord over and over again. Some Hermanas have even cried after meeting us and finding out we are serving in Monay. We just feel so humbled and grateful to be here. We know we are here in Monay for a reason and that there are people here waiting for Hermana Clark and Hermana Harper to bring them the truth. And we plan on doing just that. :) There's no doubt in my mind that this gospel is true. There is no doubt in my mind that this church is the Church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth today. There is no doubt in my mind that I am his representative, and even though I am imperfect and lack so much, that he is by my side helping me. There is no doubt in my mind that I am doing what i am supposed to be doing. (no matter how itchy and scabby and red my skin is. hehe) Yo se todo de eso sin ninguna duda. Familia y amigos, les quiero muchisimo, y ojala que todo esta bien en sus vidas. Por favor ore para la familia Bravo y para nosotras que podamos buscar la gente que el senor ha preparado para aceptar el evangelio en este tiempo!! Hasta la proxima lunes!! (I know all of this without a doubt.  Family and friends, I love you very much and I hope that everything is good. Please pray for the Bravo Family and for us that we can find the people that the Lord has prepared to accept the Gospel at this time.  Until next Monday.)

Content in Cuenca,

CUENCA!!! on Friday we had lunch at a members house who lives like a solid hour into el valle. el campo, man. love it. so incredibly beautiful. Also this family's house is legit.I  gotta tell you more about it later.

Hermana Harper :)

Me this morning outside the apt. I forgot to tell you it is so hot here during the day and absolutely freezing in the mornings and night. I feel like I'm camping at Rock Creek or something. But bundling up and wearing boots is fun! :)

Random chicken painting we thought was funny and weird. Cuenca.

Cristina's baptism!!! She's so cute, I just love her so much.

Totes forgot to tell you that my last pday with the tringa, we got permission to go to this shopping center. It was like an actual grocery store that sold some American things and it had this store that was like a Staples. We were in heaven. Shopping centers don't exist here so we took  pics cause we felt like we were in the States. haha

Also, my last pday in Boyaca, Hno Cueva took us to lunch. He's the cute man we live with. Well, we live in a diff house of course. Ours is just behind,  but he owns it and everything. He's the best; I miss him.

At the terminal. Tringa with the ZLs. Loved my ZLs. They are so funny. Miss them too.

                                                zone pics. zone el oro.  Machala

Valeria and Hermana Tejada. Diego's mom and sister. :)

ECUADOR ES UNA TIERRA BENDECIDA (iS A BLESSED LAND)

Hey Fam Bam, 

So you were right Mom, Hna Yagual did indeed leave for Mexico. It was kinda sad when she left and I definitely miss her, cause she was so cute....however, I was joined here in Boyaca with two more gringas!!! Hna Jolley and Hna Bennett!! We are a trio, a trio of gringas. aka a tringa. It basically is the most awesome thing ever. Hna Jolley is from Alpine and has 13 months in the mission and Hna Bennett is new; this is her first transfer and she's from Las Vegas. We are having so much fun together, it's kinda becoming a problem cause we can't fall asleep cause we keep talking. haha but it's great. I have been learning a lot from both of them and not gonna lie, speaking in English and being able to be my sarcastic self and actually having people understand me has been great. I mean I was always aware of the challenges of culture differences with my Latina comps but now that I'm with gringas it's just like wow, there are soooo many things that are different. I'm kinda rambling now but basically I love my trio sisters and am stoked to be here with them. Although we are all pretty sure I will be living Boyaca when the transfer ends next week. So we shall see what happens!!

Ok so Christina is doing awesome. She was really sad that Hna Yagual left and always mentions that in her prayers and it's kinda really awkward but we are doing our best to make up for it and brought her cupcakes for her Bday on Saturday and stuff. We are just trying to make things as least awks as possible. But she's progressing well and I think her baptism is gonna happen on saturday!! I really hope so since it's most likely that I will be out of here by the 23rd and would really love to be here for her baptism. But she has everything she needs to be baptized on Saturday so I think I should be here still :) So excited. 

Well other than Chirstina, we don't really have much in ways of investigators. We spent all week visiting members and menos activos to try and get some solid references and to try and stay obedient to not using contacting to find nuevos but it has been kinda hard. We've been getting a lot of references but it's hard to find the houses and then when we do find the houses, the people like aren't there half the time or live in another sector, etc. So not much progress this week as far as finding new people goes, but I have faith that this week is gonna go a lot better and we are going to find those people who have been prepared by the Lord to accept this gospel. :) And besides that, we got the tringa power. haha For real though, I was already used to the occasional shouts in botched English from random men sometimes just because I'm white, but now that there are THREE of us, and Hna Bennett is tall and blonde, we literally cannot walk one block without being hit on. It's pretty hilarious but also pretty annoying.

So I learned something the other day. Apparently the missions are like sectored into zones, and the zone of South America, that my mission is in, is the highest baptizing zone of missions in the world. And apparently my mission, Ecuador Guayaquil South, is the most highest baptizing mission of this zone. So I guess you can say I am part of the mission that baptized the most in the world? Talk about cool. Talk about crazy pressure. Now it makes more sense why the leaders are so hardcore. Apparently I got a lot to live up to here. But I also feel very blessed and humbled to be serving the Lord in a part of the world where the people are also so humble and readily prepared to accept the gospel of Christ into their lives. As they say, Ecuador es una tierra bendecida (Ecuador is a blessed Land). I truly believe that. It's so weird how I can feel so un-at-home here yet so AT home at the same time. I think it's because yes, it is a foreign world filled with different cultures, language, standard of living, etc. But it's also where I am supposed to be at this time of my life. I have no doubt about that in my mind. :)

Welp, I'm gonna go live up my first and most likely only pday in a trio of gringas. Stoked. So glad things are going well at home. Love all of your letters; they make my week so much better and give me the strength that I need to seguir adelante (press forward). Sorry bout the Spanglish. Love you team Harper!!! y demas (and others) !! :)

Love from Machala,

Hermana Harper

ps- ya the eczema no es tan bueno mom, but I'm working on it. I got an IV full of allergy meds the other day in the clinic and it seems like it's helping. I've come to the conclusion that it is the crappy water that's doing it. Cause like you said, the climate is better so it's weird. But don't worry my comps are taking good care of me and I'll ask for a blessing :)  I love you Mom!! Your letters always lift my spirits so much. Oh, I almost forgot! All 3 of my Christmas packages arrived! at the same time too. haha So all good there. Just got to wait till December to start the festivities and then till Christmas to unwrap the presents! You're so awesome Mom. My family is so awesome. It's just crazy how blessed us Harpers are. Ok I'm gonna send some pics. Love you mommy!!!

CRAZY HOW THE SPIRIT KEPT LEADING US THERE........

I love to see the temple!!!! But what I really would love is go IN the temple and not just see it. haha. I wanna do a session here so bad!!!

Hey Familia,

Well another Lunes has arrived. First off, Yes, I talked to the finance guy again and he said he only has control of my mission account so he's gonna put the money in. I'll let you know when I see it in my account when I'm at the atm next. 

President and Sister Torres!! They are just the best.

So this week has been an interesting one. Starting with the mini trip to Guayaquil. I don't know if I told you but we ended up staying the night at the temple to break up the trip. Thank you president Torres! After I wrote you guys last week, we had lunch with everyone and I got to sit by President

and his wife. They are so great and she is so funny and real. I just love them. I wish I had more opportunities to get to know them better but what are you gonna do? They complimented me on my Spanish!! I've noticed that I've actually been getting a lot of compliments on my Spanish lately. So that's been nice. However there are still a ton of people who still can't seem to wrap their brains around Spanish with an accent so they just don't listen and say they can't understand. That's the worst. I mean ya, I know I'm Gringa and got an accent but I also know that I'm talking in Spanish and if you just listen you can understand me!! haha. But I do need to work on my accent. This not-being-able-to-roll my Rs thing is just not cutting it for the people. But I don't know what to do because my tongue literally does not have the ability to do it! But whatevs.

So Halloween was this week!! The people don't do anything here. There are some stores that have a small selection of Halloween stuff to buy and some people get drunk, dance and party but that's about it. My comp luckily likes the states and was down to party with me. See attached pics. Yes, I wore black and orange and put the Wonder Woman ¨costume¨on my hand. At least my hand was dressed up!! haha. We had a good time taking pics. Which we did again the next night for the 21st bday of Hna Yagual! I bought us some slices of chocolate cake at a pasteleria but other than that not many people remembered it was her birthday so that was kinda sad. But what are you gonna do, life in the mission. 

So this week we were basically told we are not allowed to contact, we have to work with the members. So during the times that we had nothing to do and would normally start contacting, we visited members like obedient little Hermanas. And boy were we blessed!! We stopped by one members house to ask for a reference and his 14 year old daughter who lives apart with the mom happened to be visiting! And she lives in our sector! And she had randomly had a change of heart and had been thinking about going to church with her dad when we showed up. Supes perf. So we taught her the restoration; she said she'd come to church and she did. We invited her to be baptized after, she said yes. The dad was afraid the mom wouldn't give permission, but we talked to her and she did no problem! And the craziest part is, she lives in a house that we have contacted twice already. Each time we had talked with someone different. Crazy how the spirit kept leading us there cause there was someone there being prepared by the Lord and we eventually found her!!! The Lord works in mysterious ways and this just shows we need to trust in his timing. Her name is Christina and she is like the coolest person. She even had a fossil watch. We are already besties. 

We also had another family come to church, neighbors of a menos activo we stopped by to visit. (not contacting!! being obedient pays off. and working with members is a cussload more effective.) Her name is Gladys and she has two kids named Randy and Adriana. They didn't want to accept baptism dates, but they said they liked church and want to keep learning so we will see what happens with them. 

So I attended like the 3rd farewell of Diego on Sunday. haha. The poor kid kept getting his report date pushed back at the last minute for visa issues. He was originally supposed to report in August....then September....then they skipped October and just said November. haha He's getting set apart today and leaves tomorrow. I really hope he's reading this right now and getting angry than I'm talking about him. He hates attention. And he's really good with English so he can understand all of this. But he made us all these awesome T-shirts that say Obra Misional Del Barrio Boyaca. They are so sick. He hates pictures but I forced him to take some last night. It was fun. He was like the back bone of the missionary work of this ward though so it's gonna be sad when he leaves Wednesday ...but he's gonna kick butt in Brazil, and I'm proud of him. And we still got his sister Valeria who is awesome and helps us out too. 

So ya those were the events of the week! Oh, I almost forgot! On Tuesday I got fed sooooooooooooooooo much food. Like it's always a lot but this was literally my weight in food. But of course I shoveled it all down....and I may or may not have barely made it out of the house in time before my stomach shoved it all back up and I threw up in the street right outside the house. I wasn't even nauseous; my stomach just literally did not have the ability to hold in all that food. How gross is that??  Ok gotta go. Thanks for all the letters. Glad you guys had a fun Halloween!! 

Love you all!!!

Love from Ecuador,

Hermana Harper

Lovely sister May. The new nurse for me here in Machala. She goes home in December but we sat next to each other on the bus and had a solid heart to heart in English. She's great. She also asked the bus driver to put on The Testaments as the movie and he did. lolzzz. It was funny. Everyone on the bus is like what is this?

Oh and eating pizza with my zone leaders in Guayaquil. They are the funniest.

IT'S REALLY NOT ALL THAT SCARY : )

Harper Clan y Otras,

Well how goes it in good old America? All is well in Ecuador. So guess what? I'm in Guayaquil again!!! Hna Yagual was called to be the new Hermana Leader of our zone. So once again estoy aqui por consejo de los lideres....except I'm not a leader so i just hangout with all the other junior comps. fun stuff. (I'll try to hunt down and talk to the guy of reimbursment, mom.) 

So Jhordan and Pedro were baptized on Saturday!!! Like always, baptisms are just the greatest thing. And these two boys I can't even explain how prepared they were to join the church and how incredibly smart they are. When they bore their testimonies afterwards, it sounded like they were born and raised in the church. Seriously better than testimonies I've heard from kids who HAVE been raised and born in the church. haha. Jhordan, the 10 yr old, just kept saying how awesome it felt to follow the example that Christ gave us to be baptized   and Pedro how much peace he felt when he came up out of the water and how he knows without a doubt that the church is true and how he hopes that we, the missionaries, can find more people who are willing to accept the gospel, etc. Seriously, my heart. I'll send some pics of course but ya they were confirmed the next day and everything was great! 

Hna Yagual and I bought them a cake and everything; it was great. So now we gotta work hard this week to find some more golden investigators because we have nobody. I mean there's always people willing to listen so we have people we are teaching, we just don't have people that are progressing. We do need to put some fechas and bring people unto Christ. So this week will probs be a lot of knocking doors, wish me luck! haha. 

Well I don't think I got much else to say. Just that I feel very grateful to be a participant in this great work and am humbled every day. Especially from experiences like the Fernandez boys. Their sweet simple and quick acceptance of the gospel and willingness to obey the commandments is just such a great example to me. Like always, I just feel so incredibly blessed to lead the life that I have with the family and friends that make it so great. :)

Glad to hear things are good at home, and I hope you all have a fun Halloween!!!! I got the card by the way mom, it was awesome. I shared the stickers with my zone :) I think they were all scared by the photo of you and dad on the back of the card. hehe. My comp and I bought a few decorations and are gonna have a little combined Halloween/birthday party in the apartment because her birthday is on the 1st! Do some good Trick or Treating for me, ya? 

Love you all! Oh, and share the gospel, ok? its really not all that scary. :) Talk to you all next week!

con Gozo de Guayaquil,

Hermana Abbigail Harper

I, Mom, adore this photo!!

SHALL WE NOT GO ON IN SO GREAT A CAUSE?

Well Madre, I hope you're satisfied with the outpouring of pictures :) haha. We took a ton this week. and Dad, I'm gonna to do my best to get some solid candid shots but the thing is you just can't set up a tripod for a selfie because it would get stolen in 2 seconds....which is also why you can't ask a random stranger in the street if they would please take a photo for you....or even stop in the street and take one yourself for that matter. I really don't wanna get robbed and lose all my photos so I try and be really careful.  I need to buy a jump drive to back everything up. Well anyways, as you can see from all the pictures, this week was great!

Ronald's Baptism Day

Ronald was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!! woohooo!!!! The baptism was crazy stressful.  Our mission leader didn't show up so we started an hour late, leaving all of our other investigators and the family and friends of Ronald waiting.  We ended up having to merge with the baptism of another ward and I may have yelled at a couple Elders (I can be angry in Spanish) but you know what it all comes down to is that Ronald Tejena is now one of the newest members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints and I am just so dang happy. Although I have had other baptisms before him, I really feel like he has been my first CONVERT. and maybe that's just because I could understand what was going on more and participate more...but also, he really is just such a special kid. Hermana Yagual and I always rant on and on about how awesome he is. We're hoping he might even serve a mission! He's 23 but he was asking the elders about the age requirements in priesthood class on Sunday and in his confirmation he was blessed that he could serve a full time mission if he had the desire to do so. !!!!!!!!. That seriously is the dream. To have a convert serve a mission as well. I can only imagine how awesome it would feel to have my labors cause that great domino affect in the work of the Kingdom of the Lord.

Ronald's Baptism

Ronald's Confirmation

Missions are hard but man they are so amazing. This is the first time in my life that I've really ever felt productive. Where literally everything I do is for others and not for myself. And not only is it for others, but it's for the salvation of others, to bring lost souls unto christ. To find those celestial brothers and sisters of ours who have yet to find their way back to the gospel of our Heavenly Father. The cause is not only a great one, but it is THEE cause. The only reason we are here on this Earth. And to quote are beloved prophet, Joseph Smith, ¨Shall we not go on in so great a cause?¨ This quote gives me strength daily and I encourage each and every one of you to strengthen your personal missionary efforts. If I can invite a person to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ after only 5 min of conversation, you can invite a friend to a mutual or relief society activity....Yes, I'm talking to YOU ;)

Well all is well with Jhordan and Pedro as well. They are all set to be baptized on Saturday! They are seriously the smartest most prepared little kids and their mom, Carmen, is becoming more and more supportive every day and we are hoping to comit her to baptism this week! But they all attended Ronald's baptism and then church yesterday as well. They are all so excited and we are just so excited for them! True happiness right here only comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ folks :)

We'll I'm glad you all had a great week. Jealous of your trip up the coast Mom and Da. Sounds like it was a fun little getaway :) Love you all so ridiculously much and can't wait to hear from you next week! until then....

con gran amour,   Hermana Harper

 Me standing in our little farm outside the house

Went back to parque colon aka the giant boat with Hna Yagual because she hadn't seen it yet. So just in case you didn't get your fill of the giant boat.

Family Home Evening last Monday night (after we wrote) making arepas from colombia with the Matamoros family and Ronald. We watched, Finding Faith in Christ and had a good ol time : )

Baby bananas and giant hamburgers. Ecuador really has it all! haha

So I've been wanting to take pictures in this ¨park¨ like ever since I got here cause I just think it is so funny that the wall declares that this is a park and then there's like one slide in a pile of dirt and that's it. So I finally convinced my comp to go take pics there. :)

We went to el centro today and bought some knock off Ecuador jerseys for 5 bucks. GO ECUADOR!