HEAVENLY FATHER NEVER LEAVES US SOLO....

Buenas Tardes Familia Mia,

IT'S A MONDAY.....(points to whoever emails me with the reference to that quote.) Well here I find myself sitting in a cyber once more with my mind completely blank....let's see what come out shall we...

Well firstly, the Bravo boys did not get baptized on Saturday.  Miscommunications do tend to happen every once in a while when you got two gringa newbies teaching. But it's all good because now they will just be baptized this coming Saturday instead....which honestly we feel totally ok about because now their dad will be able to be there!!! He will be able to feel of the spirit and be a part of this really important and special day of their lives. And the truth is that Hna Clark and I had already been thinking about if we should wait for their dad. Heavenly Father has a plan and timing for everything. :)

Thursday the Christmas Choir tour came through Cuenca!! Had I told you about that? President set up this thing where a few weeks ago he pulled out like 8 musically talented people from their sectors and gathered them all in Guayaquil where they planned and practiced a Christmas program for a couple weeks and then toured all the zones of the mission!! The members were all invited and we all invited our investigators of course. Unfortunately the Bravo family couldn't make it cause they had a school thing that night, but the abuelita of a really active family here that we invited came! So that was cool. 

Before the program, President met with all of us and gave us gift bags with candy for Christmas. Also, all the people who have completed 12 semanas got a pin of the mission logo. I felt like I was in boy scouts as the hermana leader pinned it on me. haha. It was pretty cool though and it was good to see President and to talk with Sister Torres too. She is so funny; I love her. And then the program was just absolutely beautiful. There were only 3 gringa hermanas and 1 latino elder who sang, but also a latino elder on the flute and a gringa hermana on the violin, and a gringo elder on the piano. It was seriously so awesome; the spirit was so strong. And then all the missionaries in Cuenca, so me too,  opened up the whole thing singing the primary song I feel my Savior's love, and then we closed it singing I Know That My Redeemer Lives. All in Spanish of course. It was a great night. 

And then Friday night was the farewell of Monica, a girl who has been helping us here. She reports this week to the Lima Central Mission. Bishop asked us 4 missionariess to arrange a special musical number so we sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again. All 4 of us sang the first verse in Spanish, the 2nd verse just us hermanas in English, the 3rd verse just the elders in Spanish, and the 4th verse them in Spanish and us in English at the same time. (there's 4 verses in Spanish.) It was pretty legit. Everyone loved it; Monicas mom even cried. One pro to South America: is they all think I can sing really well :) It's quite funny. And then on Sunday, the abuelita from the Christmas program came to church!! It's actually the abuelita of Monica, and I think with her grandaughter leaving to serve a mission, she has become more receptive. She's never been to church before and her family has been members for 20 plus years. So we shall see if she will let us teach her. I really do hope so. :)

One cool story this week....on Saturday I think it was, we didn't have much time before we had to go to the church to be picked up for lunch (cause its like a 30 min drive into the campo) We randomly felt like we should go stop by this lady's house, someone we had contacted and taught once, but she never progressed. We found her crying, full on sobbing. She couldn't even talk. She finally tells us about some family problems she's been having wither her son and we were able to comfort her. She said she was so grateful for us and felt a lot better after our visit. It was a really cool experience. She also said she was going to go to church, but she never showed up. :( And she wouldn't let us go get her because she said if her husband saw us he wouldn't let her go. This is the 2nd time she said she was going to go to church and then didn't. So maybe it's not the time in her life where she has been prepared to accept the gospel, but regardless, we were able to follow the spirit and help someone in a time of need. 

Just goes to show that Heavenly Father never leaves us solo. We are never alone, and in our times of need, he will give us tender mercies so show his love. For N this day, we were her tender mercy. I challenge all of you to be someone's tender mercy. Be observant of others and help them when it may seem like they need help. Share the gospel always. You never know who has been prepared by the Lord, and if we don't open our mouths to speak, we will never find out. 

So crazy that Christmas is right around the corner. Not gonna lie, that thinking about the piano recital, Fashion Island trip, and Follow The Star traditions makes me wish super bad that I was home enjoying the Christmas season with all of my loved ones. But there is a time and a season for everything, and in this season of my life it is time to be a representative of Christ, and work in his vineyard. I hope you all are remembering the true meaning of Christmas and the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I love you all to pieces....until next week....keep it real.

Christmas-time in Cuenca,

Hermana Harper

Making Empanadas with The Bravo Family

My old ZL, Elder Osorio at the Christmas program

WEARING HIS NAME EVERY DAY REALLY is THE BIGGEST HONOR in the WORLD

Hola Querido Familia!

6 months babyy!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY DEAREST!!!!

Well today my companion and I were stuck in the house half the day because we were locked in from the inside!! The hermanas we share an apartment with had already left with the keys and the old people that live on the floor below us must have left after the hermanas and they locked it from the inside....which is super dumb... They are always so paranoid! But luckily they came back, we got out, and we actually did something fun on Pday! We got permission to go to centro and did a little bit of shopping and took some cool pics with some cool buildings that I shall send your way.

Well this week was a week as normal as ever in the mission field. Nothing super exciting happened that I can remember...just talking to people in the street and visiting the Bravo family and menos activos, etc. We did find one guy who is an old investigator who seems really promising. His name is Fernando and he likes studying and reading the Book of Mormon...the only problem is he doesn't feel the need to go to church....so we will see if we can get him there and if he can progress or not. But other than that, we don't really have anyone else in our program...which is really bad cause after this week, the Bravo boys will have been baptized and we will officially have 0 fechas. Which is basically just not allowed in the mish Guayaquil Sur. You get macheted daily by the leaders. But idk, even though our program is baja, I don't feel like bad or anything....I feel like I'm doing my best to teach others about the gospel and ya, maybe we've only had 2 progressing investigators since we got here, but at least they are people who actually have questions and who are actually learning and finding things out for themselves. 

Seriously, the Bravo family is so awesome. Especially the mom, Alexandra. She reads and studies all by herself and asks us questions about what she has read and half the time ends up answering her own questions! Sometimes I feel like she's teaching us! haha. I know if she was married she would be getting baptized this week with her sons....and we totally can get her married but her husband not being here is a bit of a problem. But he comes home onv the 18th and then we are gonna work really hard with him to get them both married and baptized. :) 

So we started free English classes this week on Saturday....an idea that we've been super stoked on, thinking that it would help us find tons of new people to teach.  I think we gave invitations to about everyone in Cuenca throughout the week.....and only one person showed up to the class....even worse, that one person was an investigator of the Elders that they had invited....lolzz. haha. But that's ok, it was the first week. It also started to rain really hard right at the time class was set to start so I think more people will show up these coming weeks....at least I hope so. 

Don't have much time this week cause of the being trapped ordeal, but man it looks like you guys had a fun week at home what with mom's bday and what not. Shopping at The Lab, Howie Day, etc etc. Not gonna lie, superrrrr jelllyyyy. Especially of the Urban sale and Buffalo Exchange. !"·$%& Things i just can't think about.....the thrifter and deal-finder in me is dying.....it stinkss having my only creative output cut off for 18 months but what are you gonna do....I hope you guys picked up some good finds for me to rock despues la mishhh. gracias ;) hehe. Also jeally about the Christmas tree shopping...looks like fun. You better be taking care of my Neff beanie Iz. haha. And Grandma, your little birthday shindig for my mom looked so cute!!! It also sounded really yummy from what my mom told me. 

Oh Mom, I got your letters with the pictures and from FHE this week! Muchisimooooo gracias. I love all the photos and shared them with my zone when I received them in our meeting. Seriously the best. Oh hey, almost forgot, completed 6 MONTHS on the 5th!! only 12 more to go ;) Seems like a lot left but the past 6 have flown by so I know the next 6 will too, and then last 6 after that. I gotta take advantage of the short amount of time that I have and help as many people as I can come unto Christ while I am a representative of him. Wearing His name every day really is the biggest honor in the world. Im here doing my best to do and say the things to the people as if He were here doing and saying them himself. Talk about cool. Another big honor is wearing my family name, Harper, everyday, as I'm here representing them as well. I love my family so incredibly much and would be so lost without them. Maybe I'll just never get married so I don't have to change my last name ;) hehe. Well gotta go, but next week should come up fast. LOVE YOU ALL SO DEARLY!!!

Caged in Cuenca (well at least for 3 hours),

Hermana Abbigail Hanna  Harper

The Bishop's little girl Ada is so cussing adorable....we may just be best friends. haha

The bishop and his family who we ate lunch with on Sunday.

WE FOUND A SPOT TO PRAY & STARTED WALKING AGAIN SINGING ARMY OF HELAMAN

Gorgeous view of part of my sector!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Glad it sounds like you guys all had fun in Arizona. Totes wish I could have been there, but ohs wells. Our Thanksgiving here basically went unnoticed. But luckily our Hermana leader, Hna Adams, came and visited us and brought us each a little turkey-hand card and we read some cool scriptures and took pictures and stuff. It was cute. There are 8 hermanas in our zone right now and 7 of them are gringas. lolz. Other than that, Hna Clark and I just celebrated at night by drinking hot chocolate and eating bread, which we do like almost every night anyways. haha. But I glued the card from Hna Adams in my journal and then wrote around it things that I am grateful for. I'll send a pic of that journal entry :) Welp that was Thanksgiving. Let's see what else happened this week....

Well first of all, let me tell you a little bit more about the Bravo Family. They are so awesome. But unfortunately, the oldest brother is in the military and left to report last Monday, so we haven't been able to see him and I don't think we'll be able to teach him either cause they don't know when he'll be back....AND the dad has this horrible job where he works far away for 22 days and then is only home for 7 days before he leaves to work another 22....He left last Monday and won't be back til Dec 18th....We are gonna try and teach him when he returns of course but it's gonna be hard cause we will only have 7 days! The mom we still teach with the 2 other boys and they are all learning and progressing a lot! Hernan and Alexander have baptismal dates for the 14th. They are super awesome and already seem like members when at church. The mom, Alexander, studies the Book of Mormon and the folletos a lot between visits but she can't progress until she gets married and she can't get married to her husband because he's not here, obvi....so it's really hard. But I have faith that something will be worked out so the whole family can be baptized...the parents may not be able to til later, but I know the Lord will provide a way. :) 

Other than them we still don't really have other investigators. We've had a lot of good lessons with individual people but then they don't want to go to church so there's not much we can do with them. On Sunday however, the ward put in a good effort to increase their participation in the missionary work. The bishop announced new callings and started naming off families to stand up until everyone in the congregation was standing....everyone was really confused and then he told them all that they have been called to be member missionaries in the barrio de Monay, etc etc. It was really sweet. They even made mock call letters to pass out to everyone. Now we just gotta wait and see if it works! 

It's just really hard since our sector is so spread out and there are many members houses that we can't even get to unless they take us there themselves in a car. But the bishop drove us around to different places after church and now we know where a lot more people live and I think that will help us with the work this week. It's just really hard to find people contacting in Cuenca since the people here are even more traditional and Catholic than in other areas. 

The other day we had an interesting experience...a jehovahs witness lady approached us to talk....and she was American. It was so weird talking about the gospel in English. She was nice enough but both Hna Clark and I just felt yucky after talking to her. She is just so confused.  So afterwards we found a spot to pray and I said a prayer in English and we just felt the spirit so strong and started walking again singing Army of Helaman. 

I'm just so glad and incredibly grateful that we have the truth in our lives, having no doubts that this is the restored church of Christ and just so stoked to share it with others. So even though it started out a weird unsettling experience, it ended up being a really good testimony strengthener. Welp, I think that's all I got for you all today. Hopefully I'll have some more exciting stuff next week as the work in Monay continues to progress....love you all and Happy December!! (don't worry mom, I know your birthday is Saturday!! ;) and yes, I started the advent calendar picture thing. You are seriously the best. Love you so much!!!)

Caridad (charity) en Cuenca,

Hermana Harper

pps- pray for my skin cause it's getting so bad I'm worried it might affect my mission. I had to go to a dermatologist and everything but they don't know much here. but don't worry. k thanks!

Me and Hermana Adams

The girls in my zone

Our Thanksgiving ¨feast¨ in the apt later that night. hehe

We taught the Bravo Family on Thanksgiving too

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.