I SCREAM, TURN AROUND & SEE a RAT FLYING THROUGH the AIR

Well Fam it has been a long interesting week,

I've been sick for a lot of it so not much happened. Stupid bacteria and parasites gotta stay outta my system! haha And on top of that, I went to Guayaquil Thursday to see a doctor. She tried telling me my Aquaphor causes cancer? Ya, the health system is not so reliable here. Later met with President and the nurses in his office. I have more creams and pills but nothing is doing anything. But on the bright side, I found out that eczema is also called atopic dermatitis. Sounds more official, no? Well my atopic dermatitis is eating me alive. I feel like I'm more red than white! So lots of health stuff this week. But hey, a cool thing is that President was already planning on going to Naranjal so when we finished up at the office, we got to drive back with him in his nice air conditioned car and not in the smelly bus! So that was a plus, and he even treated us to lunch. haha

Ancelmos and Nancy didn't get baptized. Nancy says she wants to but she can't right now and says she can't tell us why. Super mysterious and vague but what can you do? The girl has her free agency. and Ancelmo keeps dodging us so I just don't think he wants to, but he's Ecuadorian so he can't just tell us that like a normal person. So that was a huge letdown this week, and a little discouraging, but life moves on. 

I'm feeling really confident about our baptism this week. Eduardo Cuello. He's a great guy and has been enduring despite all the trials. Not sure if I mentioned his background before but basically there are members in the church who like hate him and don't want him there because he is dating their brother's ex wife....which is stupid cause their brother cheated on her and it's his fault they got divorced. and now Olga, the girl he's dating, wants to break up to not cause problems with the family of her children. It's really sad cause he's like so in love with her and so good to her and it's just so sad. Olga was really surprised when Eduardo still showed up to church on Sunday despite all the controversy going on, which just proves that he's doing this for his salvation and not just for her! He already has a strong testimony and prays and reads the Book of Mormon by himself all the time. He's like halfway through it! It's crazy. 

The family Lucero will either be baptized this week or the 31st. Their fechas are for the 31st, but we have a branch temple trip on the 30th!!! So we are gonna teach about temples and animate them and encourage them to do it sooner so they can go to the temple! We will see how it goes. But I love the Lucero family so much. I have felt from the very first time we met them that they have potential to be a strong stalwart family in the church here in Naranjal. :) 

Funny story of the week: we were standing in the kitchen at night and Hermana Nazer was microwaving something and I was talking to her. She was telling me something random about her Swedish grandma and all of a sudden she screams in English there's a rat in the house! and I scream and turn around and see a rat flying through the air, landing on the floor and running under my companion's leg, who was sitting at her desk, and then disappearing into the other room. We never did find the rat....nasty creatures. But it was pretty funny, even though the latinas didn't understand, they could tell something was wrong and started freaking out too. haha

Also, I think my camera is lost. Long story short, we almost caught, killed, and ate iguana one day at a member's house but then it rained so we couldn't. But I had my camera with me to take pics of the iguana experience, and even had it out at their house to be prepared for the iguana before the rain started and ruined our plans. I'm like 90% positive it got left at their house. We left in a hurry because we had wasted so much time there already. My zone leaders called them and they said it's not there. I'm planning on stopping by myself tonight to look for it.  Pray that when I go over I will find it. I've been way stressed about it for these past few days :/

Well that's all i got. Hna Yñonan has 17 Miracles so we watched it today on pday. Always makes me cry. Shout out to all of the pioneers. Enserio, when compared to all of their hardships and trials, all that they endured and suffered, what I'm doing here in Ecuador is NOTHING. It's a good reminder and always very humbling as well. So grateful for them and all they did for the church. I know the church is true. There is not a doubt in my mind of that. If there was, I wouldn't be here in Ecuador on a mission, just as the saints wouldn't have trekked across the plains if they had doubts in their minds of the truthfulness of this gospel. This work is  the work of the Lord; it is greater than us. Even though it can be hard, I'm so grateful to have been given this opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord for this short amount of time in my life. Love you all, until next time....

Hermana Harper

He Actually Thinks he is Jesus and it's so Weird...

Mother's Day Skype

Familyyyyy,

Well once again Happy Mothers Day to my sweet mommy :) It was so awesome talking to you guys yesterday but it seriously feels like a dream or something and that it didn't even happen. A whole hour but yet what did we even talk about? don't even know. haha But it was nice to feel for an hour like we were all hanging out talking around the kitchen table like it normally is in the Harper household and that my fam is still as weird as ever ;) love it. Can't wait to do it for real in 7 months. 

So this week was a blur, as with the transfers the week before evreything got mixed up a little. I can't remember if I told you that my new comp was just in the other companionship of sisters here in Naranjal so she just had to change rooms...and investigators. haha and then Hermana Nazer came to be with her companion. 

So as I already mentioned during Skype we had the first branch conference here in Naranjal as Elder Uceda has officially declared us a real branch. So we are finally recognized by church headquarters! haha But I think I already told you guys that. For the conference President Torres and his family came and spoke. But since it was Mothers Day the church attendance was really low because here everyone drinks and parties on Mothers Day while the mom cooks up a bunch of food for everyone. go figure, right? haha So that was a let down. 

Our investigator J, who I may or may not have told you about was totally drunk when we went over there to get him for church and that's like the 4th week in a row that has happened. It makes me really sad. Especially since we have really spiritual lessons with him and I can see in his eyes that he really wants to change but he still gives in to temptation every time it's presented to him. Seriously so sad the amount of people Satan has control over. The Second Coming really is so near. Any second now Christ is gonna come again I'm telling you. 

But the Lucero family is doing well and so is Eduardo. (not sure if I've told you about these people.) Nancy and Ancelmos are still mas o menos so we shall see if they get baptized this week or not. I really hope they do. They both want to but they are both just scared. So pray for them! 

Funny story of the week. There was this weird crazy dude dressed as Jesus who went aroud setting up shop to preach the word in differnet parts of town. One time he set up right outside  our apartment so I took some pics out the window. He actually thinks he is Jesus and it's so weird. We didn't talk to him though cause we didn't wanna start anything. haha

Well honestly since we just talked I don't think I got much else for you...oh but I think I forgot to tell you guys yesterday that I am now the Young Woman's President! haha They even announced my name when they read through all the presidency stuff how they always do in ward conferences and stuff. so lolz. Oh and they had to put my records here to do it so now I officially don't exist in the Las Flores ward, so that's weird. haha

Alright, well it sounds like you all had a fun 5 de Mayo! Keep on updating me on the California adventures being had back on the home front. Want to hear from all of you! I pretty much now only get letters from Mom, Dad, Grandma, Izzie and most of the time Riley. and some of my missionary friends and home-forwards. All of my other friends have bailed on me. cool beans. but that's ok. We have the atonement so you should all repent and write me next week if you're even reading this ;) I know this gospel is true and that Christ is our savior. Apply the principles to the gospel to your life on a daily basis and you will be happier and you will be blessed!! This I promise and leave all of my love in the sacred name of Jesus the Christ amen :)

Love from Naranjal,   Hermana Harper

Hermana Nazer's Birthday

Getting a little emotional when it was time to say goodbye

SO BEAUTIFUL......

Hey fam, literally no time so here are some bullet points:

Hermana Herrera had transfers. I'm still here in Naranjal and they told me Hermana Nazer and I were going to be companions, Hermana leaders together. Needless to say I was stoked! Well Hna Nazer is here and we are Hermana leaders of Naranjal together but we aren't companions :( They broke us up with the 2 hermanaas that are already here. So I'm now with Hna Arizala and Hna Nazer is with Hna Ynoñan. crazy stuff.

Isela got baptized!!! So beautiful. There's a mini waterfall where we do it. It was dusk though so the pictures are kinda dark and blurry but oh well. Ancelmo didn't because he lacked a church attendance but I know that he will be soon! I also hope Anncy will soon too! 

These pictures are with a new family we found, the Lucero family. They are so awesome! I'll tell you more about them next week :) but it was the daughter's birthday so we made a cake it was fun. :)

See  you Sunday for Mother's Day!    Love Hermana Harper

PROBABLY the MOST INSPIRATIONAL THING of my LIFE...

Hey Fam,

Well this week was as crazy as I told you it would be last week….but even more so because the schedule changed last minute. Let's start with Thursday. Wake up wayyyyyy early and go round everyone up to bring them to the capilla at 8am. President Torres and his wife along with Elder Uceda and his wife show up a bit after 9 and the whole thing lasted probs like a half an hour max. First Hermana Uceda talked for about 5-10 min and started to cry. She said she was expecting to arrive to a group with only a handful of people and was shocked when she arrived to a full room on a Thursday morning when people have work and what not.  Then Elder Uceda spoke about faith in Christ and enduring to the end and having FHEs, family prayer, etc. It was really sweet, and afterwards all the members talked about how much they felt the spirit and how much they loved the meeting. Then they took pictures of us and stood at the back while everyone waited in line to meet him and shake his hand. 

When they did this about 25 people also handed him envelopes with their tithing (we aren’t an official branch, more just like a project of the mission. So for church headquarters we don’t exist, so the members can't pay tithing. There's not an account for it to go to) Anyways, so after a few envelopes Elder Uceda tried to hand them over to President Torres, but President was like I can't take those, we don’t have an account here, they're yours. So Elder Uceda was like hmmm…we'll have to fix that problem.  But apparently it'll take a couple months to authorize things but I feel like way soon we're gonna get our capilla! 

Then Saturday as planned we left at 5am to go to Cuenca. The training started at like 1pm and went to like 6:30. But honestly it didn’t even feel like 5.5 hours! It felt like 2 or something. I didn’t even get drowsy at all after traveling red eye. A miracle. But for real I don’t even know where to begin with how much we learned. Probably the most inspirational thing of my life. I took like 10 pages of notes. But they were all things our mission needed to hear. One of the main focuses was OLA. Oracion. Libro de Mormon. Asistencia a la iglesia. We need to ensure that all of our investigators have the complete chance to develop their faith in Christ through reading the Book of Mormon and experience a true repentance and conversion through true personal communication with our Father in Heaven through prayer BEFORE they enter into the waters of baptism. 

He also talked a lot about how specific prayers are powerful. We can't just ask the Lord for revelation about an investigator, we need to ask him specific things that we can do to help an investigator and from there study until the inspiration comes. And that we may have to wait a while but when the Lord makes us wait, it’s a win-win situation. We learn. We progresss. We develop our patience. We develop our relationship and communication with the Lord.  I'm not explaining this right but it was pretty much 5 hours of pure inspiration. Incredible. 

Hermana Lujan, mi mama! Reunited!

From there we traveled right back to Naranjal, got home at like 1am and then woke up a few hours later to round everyone up for church.  We had to move sacrament meeting up from 10am to 9am this week as at 9:30, so still in the middle of the meeting, we had to leave to catch the bus to Guayaquil for consejo. Well me and my comp and the zone leaders.  We arrived, ate lunch, and then had a short and sweet consejo with Elder Uceda for like 3 hours. (apparently consejos are normally like 6) I think it was short cause he had to catch his plane home. Once again, pure inspiration. I'll have to show you guys my notes one day. Haha but he talked a lot again about helping investigators to learn to do things for themselves, and also about working with the members. The period has ended where the missionaries find and teach and baptize by themselves. Gone. Doesn’t exist, this mentality anymore. The new vision is that we gain the trust of the members and help them to help us in the obra. But consejo was great. I saw Hermana Catmull, Hermana Wiscomb, and Hermana Nazer! And also Hermana Lujan and Hermana Brenes! Good times good times.

Ok... Well, this week we might have a baptism of an older couple named Isela and Ancelmo. They are both super sweet and pretty much accept everything we say. I love them so much. But after these training sessions with Elder Uceda, we are gonna wait and see what happens this week to see if they are ready for baptism. We are gonna help them even more to develop their faith in Christ, etc.  Well I have been so spiritually edified this weekend I have barely even scratched the surface of everything that I have learned. I am so excited to get to work and apply everything that Elder Uceda taught us. I'm out of time, but things continue to be going great here in Naranjal. I'm loving every minute of it. Update me on your lives everyone! Love you!

Xoxo Hermana Harper

My comp is Hermanaa Herrera and she's from Honduras

Us outside of our garage chapel. We were cleaning it Wednesday night before Elder Uceda came. haha

The streets outside the capilla was flooded so we were scooping the water out with a bucket. lolz.

Enjoying being above the clouds as I once more make the trek to Cuenca :)

In the background is my capilla in Cuenca! I never got a pic with it so I took advantage.

Hermana Nazer 

Hermana Catmull, Hermana Wiscomb

Where I ate lunch today. haha The sketchy salchipapa truck!

LOTS of MIRACLES HAPPEN in NARANJAL...

Hey Family,

So this week was Semana Santa....Holy Week and the Catholics were going crazy. I'll attach some photos that we took from our window of the processions and parades that they did in the street with people dressed like Jesus and the thieves holding crosses....and then later in the night they passed by carrying a coffin.....umm I don't remember that ever happening in the Bible. hahah Seriously sooooo many people though! It was crazy. 

Well so much has happened this week, I'm not even sure where to start. First of all, Naranjal is awesome. It's so bloody hot and I sweat all day every day like crazy but there are so many people to teach! We definitely put at least ten baptismal dates this week.. Unfortunately not all have progressed since then and only a handful came to church, but the awesome part is that each and every single one we put were with people who actually wanted to!! They weren't just saying yes because we were being really convincing and persuasive. And all the members, aka recent converts, basically ALL have friends and family for us to visit. So it's just like a chain effect, which is the greatest and most effective way to do missionary work. 

So on Saturday, President showed up to our meeting. We were sitting outside the "church" waiting for the leaders to show up and unlock it when President just comes rolling up in car, nbd. haha He came to talk to us more about Elder Euceda, the 70 who is visiting the mission this week. He's going to be coming to Naranjal this Thursday. He's only going to stay for a half an hour and we have been rallying all the members to come so he can see how rapidly the church is progressing here and so he can approve the construction of a capilla! We're really excited. Then on Sunday, we show up to church and the assistants were there. We had a special transmission for Ecuador, which I thought was weird. Why only Ecuador?? but whatever, it's cool. Elder Holland and Elder Scott both spoke. Elder Scott speaks Spanish, so he gave his own talk. Elder Holland doesn't, so much of his was translated but he started it addressing us in Spanish, so cute, and ended it bearing his own testimony in Spanish too. I cried. SO POWERFUL. and to hear it in Spanish, but in his own voice, was seriously so incredible. So that was  a great experience. I love Ecuador. 

So this week is going to be crazy. Tomorrow night we travel to Guayaquil for consejo de los lideres, leadership council. Oh I forgot to tell you that I'm an Hermana Leader now with my companion. Not gonna lie, I was kind of hoping I'd never be called to be an Hermana Leader. I don't want the responsibility!! haha but it's ok. Elder Euceda is gonna be at the consejo too. So anyways, that will happen on Wednesday so we wont get back to Naranjal til Wednessday night. And then on Thursday is when Pres Euceda will be here in Naranjal. Then on Saturday morning at like 5 am were gonna travel to Cuenca to have our multi-zone conference with President Euceda. So I'll be back  in Cuenca for a day! haha should be fun to see everyone. And then on Sunday, we have our branch conference. It's gonna be crazy but I'm excited. 

No Naranjal....those pics I sent last week were of centro, where we live. The nicest part of town. It's pretty much all dirt roads and very humble houses. Definitely the poorest area I've been to in Ecuador. But I love it because it makes for humble people who are ready to accept the blessings of the gospel into their lives.

Ok, so the only investigators I'm gonna tell you about for now for times sake are the ones who are closest to getting baptized, Nancy and Grace. They are sisters. Nancy is 26 and Grace 21. Grace has only been to church once but Nancy has been 3 times already. They are so awesome and want to get baptized but are scared of making the committment. We will see how it goes!! 

Well I wanna tell you more but I'm short on time....next week entonces....but We have had so many powerful spiritual lessons it's insane. Lots of miracles happen in Naranjal and being Hermana Leaders, and having an equal teaching plane is nice too. Speaking of my comp, she is awesome! She's so cute and fun and we get along really well. I have already learned so much from her! Well I've written alor but still feel like I haven't even told you half of what I have to say....I'll try and organize my thoughts better for next week to tell you more :) Love you all, thanks for all the love and support!! :)

Love,  Hermana Harper

Living without Power for the past WEEK and a HALF...

On Sunday with Hna Mayra! She's a recent convert that helped us all the time in Tarqui! love her and miss her.

Well I feel like talking about this next week is almost pointless as.....I have been transferred. Got a call last night at 10:30. I was already sleeping because for the past week and a half Hna Martin and I had been living without power in the apt. It got cut off last Friday. So honestly a lot of the week was dealing with the Elders, trying to get them to help us fix it, going to centro to visit the light place, and running around charging our phone in random places since we couldn't charge it at home! haha It was crazy. Other than that, Marcelo is progressing well, and I have no doubt he will baptized in a couple of weeks! Just sad I won't be there. 

So I have been transferred to a little canton called NARANJAL!! It's like in between Cuenca and Machala, kind of but more towards the coast. It's only like a 2 hour bus ride from Guayaquil. So I'm back in the heat and the dirty coast. haha I feel like I'm in Machala again. But it's all good cause I love the coast.  I just loveeee love loveee Cuenca. But I had a good solid 5 month ride, and even though I already miss the weather, the views, and the culture, I am so stoked for what is to come here in Naranjal. 

So there are a total of 8 missionaries here. 4 elders and 4 hermanas. They just opened it up to missionary work about 8 months ago. Where we meet for church is even more ghetto than where Baylor meets! It's just a garage type thing in the middle of a road that used to be a little tienda. It doesn't even have a sign or anything! (I like Bay's legit ghetto sign. haha) Anywaysss, so apparently us 8 missionaries do everything since all the members are recent converts.  I'm kinda nervous about that, especially since one of the Elders is the old assistant whose gonna be finishing his mission soon. He's WAY intimidating! But he's nice I guess so it's all good. My comp is Hna Herrera and she's from Honduras. Don't know her that well still but she seems nice so I'm sure we shall get along just swell. 

But apparently there is a lot of pressure on us, as President really really cares a lot about Naranjal and comes to church here almost every week. He even has his church records here so he's an official member of the branch! woah. And in a couple weeks a 70 is coming to visit the branch and decide whether or not they're gonna build a capilla here. BUT apparently they baptize like crazy, because the work is so new and fresh. And they do their baptisms in the river since there's not a capilla, so that will be fun :) 

It was way sad to leave my hija, Hna Martin, but she's staying in Tarqui and guess who her new comp is???? HNA CLARK (Abbie's last companion whom she helped train)!!! So my step daughter is now the step mom of my daughter. messsed up. haha jk. I love them both so much and so I'm really happy Hna Martin is in good hands :) 

Well I'm about dead on my feet as I didn't get a wink of sleep other than a tad on the bus and I was actually throwing up all night while packing in the DARK. that was fun. haha But it's all good. I'm here safe and sound in Naranjal and I am sooooo soooo stoked to work here! I know this is where the Lord needs me right now. Apparently the Elders have known for 3 weeks now that I was going to be coming to Naranjal! Don't know why nobody told me. haha Well fam bamily keep on keepin on back in the good ol US of A. 

Shout out to my homebro BAYLOR ANDERS HARPER WHO IS COMPLETING 19 YEARS OF LIFE TODAY!!!!  holy cow. Love you so much Bay. You are such an amazing missionary. I look up to you a lot!! Loveeeee youuuuu. And love the rest of you as well. Pray that I'll acclimate well to being back on the coast ;) haha Can't wait to hear from all of you next week!!!

News from Naranjal,

Hermana Harper

Pics I snapped real quick from our apt window in Naranjal after bringing up my luggage and before leaving to write you. I'm definitely not in the Sierra anymore. Back on da coast baby.

I about DIED it was so Cuteeeee!

Hey Family whom I miss so dearly,

So the letter I just wrote to President basically sums up my week so I shall attach that for starters:

Hello President!!!

I have learned a lot this week about how I need to focus on the needs of an investigator and what the spirit is telling me more than on the pressures of my leaders and numbers. We were supposed to have a baptism this Saturday, but it was one of those situations where she was basically only going along with it because she felt pressured.  She somehow passed her interview and we were planning everything for the baptism, but the day before when we went over there to visit her and teach her more about baptism and confirmation, she was in tears. She told us: Hermanas, I know you two and the Elders really want me to get baptized tomorrow, and I want to as well, but I really just can't. And when we asked her why she said it's because she feels that she hasn't fully repented of her sins and even though she has the desire to change and become a better person, she hasn't reached that point yet. And she told us that she felt if she were to go ahead and get baptized anyways, it wouldn't do any good because she wasn't fully repentant. She said she had only been going along with things because she felt pressured and obligated. She also said: I believe it when you tell me that after I'm baptized I will be completely clean of sin, but I also believe that in order for that to be true, I have to change and repent first, because if not, it will be like mocking God. 

Boy am I glad she opened up to tell us that. It really was a wake call for me. Yes, we are here to invite others to come unto Christ through baptism so  they can receive salvation.  But in our objective, the key word before baptism is REPENTANCE.  Sure we can get people into the water, have another fecha filled out, the leaders are happy, all is well. But if we baptize people when they haven't truly repented of their sins, we are actually making it worse for their salvation, because they will be entering into covenants with God that they are mot prepared for.  

I LOVE this woman who we almost baptized SO much. I CARE about her and want her salvation. BUT I almost let the pressure of my leaders get in the way of listening to her her needs. Since then I have studied Ch 12 of Preach My Gospel very thoroughly, and I hope to improve my spiritual sensitivity to really knowing if someone is PREPARED to make such sacred covenants with the Lord or not. The Lord is continuing to teach me new lessons every day, and I am trying my best to follow Him and improve myself every day. We are continuing to teach this woman and I have hopes that we can help her truly come unto repentance so she can make these sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father in the right way. I love  Ecuador. I love Cuenca. I love Tarqui. I love my companion. and I LOVE this work! Thanks for everything President! :)

Love,

Hermana Harper

So there you have it. Sonia didn't get baptized, but I feel good about it. She was not prepared and was not ready to make that covenant with the Lord. But like I said, we are going to continue to help her get there :) Other than that, during the week we went to visit a less active member and his non- member wife, who had actually both come to church the week before. BUT, they are not married for real. Union libre no mas. que bestia. And actually when we got to the appt, neither him nor his wife were there. but his brother Marcelo was! So we taught him, and he actually already knew a lot, as he had been in a lot of the lessons when his brother got baptized 2 years ago. But he never got baptized cause he never could go to church cause of the job he had he always worked Sundays. But now he has a different job! So he accepted a baptismal date, and came to BOTH sessions of general conference on Sunday!! So awesome. So we are really excited to see how he progresses :) 

So there is a part of our sector that has all this awesome graffiti. It's along the street. We finally stopped to snap some photos this week while walking by. Today, we also went to a part of our sector called Turi that has a cool old church and an awesome view of Cuenca! Oh and the little boy in the pics is Pablo, Sonia's 3 year old son. I love him to death. Whenever we go to visit him he always opens the door and yells "las hermanitas estan aqui!" So cute. and we were helping his sister Daniela with her english HW yesterday and there were 3 pictures: a table, a pig, and a book. He points to the table and says "una mesa!" So then I point to the pig and ask him what it is and he says "un chanchito!" so I continue and point to the book while asking what it is and he goes, "un Libro de Mormon!" I about DIED it was so cuteeeee! He wasn't even prompted or anything. He came up with it all on his own out of the blue so funny, and so stinkin adorable. 

Well anyways conference was good. Even though I understand Spanish now, it still kinda stinks cause it's not even CLOSE to how it is in English. Even having the difference of voice makes it so much less powerful and impactful. Picture a Holland talk without Holland's voice of authority. Picture a Bednar talk without his sense of humor. Picture a Monson talk with out the kindness and love emanating from every tone. Just not the same. But that's ok, I still learned a lot :) I'll just watch it all online in English when I get home. haha Sounds like you guys had fun in San Diego! seriously so jealous. stay-cations are the best, wish so hardcore i could've been with you all :( oh well, next time. Hit my ten month mark a couple days go. 8 more left. time is just flying by! Thanks for all the support, love you guys!

Con Mucho Cariño de Cuenca,   Hermana Harper