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!

I'M ABLE TO FEEL THE SPIRIT WORK THROUGH ME MORE OFTEN AND IT IS THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD

Fam Bamily,

First of all, loved all the pics! You looked cute iz!! Funny, I bought that dress on sale at Urban a few years back thinking hey maybs I'll wear this to a dance in the future. never did, but I'm glad the dress made it to a dance eventually regardless. haha ok.  So I may have procrastinated my fam letter...only got about 10 min but that's alright. 

Ok, so my new comp is great for the most part. All Latinas have a tendency to be extremely hard on themselves and grumpy like half the time and overexcited and chatty the other half. But as opposed to my previous comp, this one loves English and loves American music so it's great because I love teaching English! I taught her part of the song, She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5 because she loves it and wanted to learn it. haha pretty lolz. But ya we get along great. The best part is that we are definitely on the same page when it comes to loving our investigators. For example, we left a lesson with Ronald the other day both just absolutely giddy with joy and overwhelmed with the love that we have for him. We had just finished teaching him about the priesthood and he was just so humble and in awe of the fact that after his baptism he can receive the priesthood and have that power of God to help his family. He's just one of those golden investigators. Or as they say here ïnvestigador del oro.¨ His baptism is this week and we are just so gosh dang excited! 

Our other baptism dates are two little boys named Jhordan and Pedro. They are brothers of 10 and 12 years old. not sure if I told you about them yet but they are just so eager to learn and every time we go to teach them they voluntarily tell us that they have been praying and reading the Book of Mormon. They're date is for the 26th but they need to attend church this week for it to happen so pray that all goes well and that they're mom will let them go! Because the main problem right now is that the mom isn't supporting. She's not against but she's not for it either. She gave us written permission but you can tell she's still kind of weary of the idea. But I know that these two kids have been prepared by the Lord because it is seriously so insane how smart they are and how much of a desire they have to be baptized. It really humbles me. 

As the language is starting to come more and more, and I'm starting to focus less and less on what I'm saying and more and more on the needs of the people. I'm able to feel the spirit work through me more often, and it's the best feeling in the world. You all know me and how over anxious of a person I can be...well I think that anxiety has been getting in the way of me being a more effective representative of Christ, so I've been trying to slowly get rid of that anxiety and just focus on the spirit. And it definitely has been working. 

I should have some better stories next week what with the baptism of Ronald and everything. Glad to know all is well at home. and Daddy, HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!!! I made you a card but then forgot to take a picture of it to send :( so you'll get that next week but just know I love you so much and will be thinking of you all day tomorrow!! and to answer your question, yes, you do look 50 ;) JKLOLZ  You're the youngest looking soon-to-be 50 yr old I know. People are always telling me how young my parents look when they see my pictures for real. So make it a good one. Don't be sad, and enjoy your weekend getaway at Pismo! Love you Dad! and love the rest of you oh so very much as well. You are all always in my prayers. until next week....

Love from Ecuador,

Hermana Harper

LIKE ALWAYS, THE LIFE OF A MISSIONARY CONTINUES TO HUMBLE ME AS I GROW AND LEARN EVERY DAY.

Querido Familia, 

Only got 15 min so let's jump right into it shall we....first of all, not gonna lie. The news from home made me a tad jealous. I would have loved to hit up Anberlin with Rye and the Iz like no other, and also am wayyyy jealous of Izzie's Hollywood date seeing Matt and Joshua with you guys, Mom and Dad! How come I never got Daddy Daughter dates like that! wattttaaajokeee. ;) hehe jk. I'm glad you all had fun :) 

So this week was a lot of highs and a lot of let downs...We found a couple great families and have had awesome spiritual lessons with both of them....The Pinta Family and the Diaz Fernandez Family...However, since they don't want to accept baptismal dates right now, our zone leaders are telling us to drop them....for me that's really frustrating because I love these people so much and I know that they feel the spirit when we teach them and that if they had more time to learn and receive answers to their prayers that they could progress. I feel like fulfilling my calling as a representative of Jesus Christ and being obedient to our leaders are contradicting each other. I know when people don't progress we have to search out the people that will....but these families we only met this past week...I'm pretty sure Christ never gave up on people, especially those who still had a desire to learn like these families do. So that has been frustrating...but I think if they attend church this coming week, the leaders will let us keep teaching them.  I know there is a lesson for me to learn in all of this.  I just need to figure out what that is. So we will see. And we still have Ronald who I told you about last week. He truly has been prepared and continues to learn and progress with enthusiasm. Hermana Yagual and I just love him so much. 

Well I can defs relate to Bay with General Conference. In my mission, the missionaries aren't allowed to watch on Saturday. I was pretty bummed about that and then one Elder told me all the gringos were going to go into a room to watch conference in English on Sunday and I was stoked....So when that turned out not to be true, I was a bit let down to say the least. I mean I'm to the point with my Spanish where I can listen without getting a headache and can understand the basic themes....but it's still not a spiritually edifying experience as conference would be for me if I could hear their actual voices and understand every word effortlessly. Man, was I, and still am, dying to be spiritually fed. I'm not gonna lie, during President Eyring's talk in the morning session I just started crying.  I could hear their voices, in English, faintly in the background but the Spanish voiceover was so loud I couldn't make anything out...and also it always takes them a second to transfer voices so the very beginning....like the first sentence...of every talk was in English with the actual voice of the person. So it was way hard having modern revelation from the prophets of the Lord being so close yet soo soo very far away...especially since I was yearning for that spiritual edification. But Motab was still in English so those few minutes of every session the spirit was just overwhelming for me :) 

But despite that, I was definitely humbled as well. My companion was way excited asking me if I've ever been to the Conference Center and when I told her only once she went on and on about how awesome that would have been and how she would just die from excitement if she ever had the opportunity to go. I felt embarrassed that I had that opportunity so close to me my entire life and only took advantage of it for the first and only time last year. Like always, the life of a missionary continues to humble me as I grow and learn every day. I feel truly blessed to be a child of God in these days where we have the fulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on this earth. Welp I'm out of time so until next week...

Love from Ecuador,

Hermana Harper

Me and Hermana Yagual eating lunch at a local restaurant

My Zone after transfers

HEAVENLY FATHER HAS TOLD ME THAT I CAN, SO DO IT I WILL! : )

Holaaaa familiaaaa,

Starting letters is always like the hardest thing to do. Well let's see....I indeed did get a new companion. Her name is Hermana Yagual and she's from here in Ecuador. She lives in the Guayaquil North Mission boundaries. But this actually isn't her mission; it's Vera Cruz, Mexico. She's just here waiting for her Visa. But she's been here 4 months so they made her senior comp. It's her first time being senior comp AND her first time having a gringa companion. And she's new to the area so doesn't know anything. I feel like the senior comp half the time. haha. So ya, it's been interesting but she's nice so I think we are gonna get along just fine. It's way weird being with anyone other than Hermana Lujan though. She wasn't transferred very far, just to a different sector in Machala called Aurora. Aurora is also in my zone so I will still see her a couple times a week at meetings. AND her ward meets in the same building too, just at a different hour. So ya, it's been a lot harder than I expected not being with her. I've legit cried over it, because she really is like my Mom here. But all is well. I know there are still people here in Boyaca who I need to find and teach.

Speaking of a new family, the family Matamoros, moved into our ward and they are awesome. They always have tons of references for us. One of their references is this awesome kid named Ronald. He's 23 and we've only taught him twice, but he's super receptive and eager to learn. He accepted a baptism date for the 19th and I feel like he's gonna progress rapidly. The only thing is he wasn't able to go to church on Sunday because he had some sort of special work meeting or training. So that was a bummer. In fact, that's basically the story of what happened with all of our investigators this week. Marlon and Fredy, our two fechas for the 12th, weren't home when we went to get them for church. So their fechas fell. So that sucked. And then this other family we had committed to attend church didn't come either. In total we had 12 people committed to attend and we only had one person there....and that person wasn't even one of the 12. (I laughed when I read your letter Rom, cause we were both in the same boat on Sunday.) So I'm gonna say what you said....cool beans. ha. Except it's not. It was a bit discouraging cause I was way stoked on all the people we had committed and thought it was gonna be a way awesome Sacrament Meeting. So this week were probs gonna be doing a lot of contacting to find new better investigators who will actually come to church and progress.

So Madelaine left for her mission this week. She's in the CCM in Colombia. Stoked for her but it's also really sad cause she basically worked with us every day of the week. :( I know she's gonna do great though. And I still got Michelle here. (She's like my best friend.) haha I'm not gonna lie, Hna Lujan leaving, and then after being so stoked on all these people to have none show up has gotten me in a bit of a discouragement stupor. I've been really really homesick the past couple of days and 14 more months seems like it's gonna take 14 years. But I take comfort in my Patriarchal Blessing and in all of you guys and your words of encouragement. Ultimately I know this is where  I need to be, and I have a desire to share this gospel and to bring others unto Christ, but sometimes I just feel like I can't do it. But Heavenly Father has told me that I can, so do it I will. :) 

So I decided I'm going  to share some fun Ecuador facts with you today:

1) Everything liquid is sold in ¨fundas¨...bags. Water, condiments, cleaning products, beverages, EVERYTHING: When you're thirsty you just buy a baggy of water from a tienda, rip a corner with your teeth and start sipping away! haha

2) Bananas aren't called platanos. They're called guineos. No ifs ands or buts about it. haha

3) Apparently Ecuador is the only place where you can find every banana sticker in the world so it's kind of a thing to collect them...especially with the missionaries...they're called calicsos...or something like that. Maybe I'll send a pic of my budding collection next week. :)

4) Something we eat basically on the daily are called verdes. They appear to be unripe bananas but they are actually a lot darker green and have a salty, starchy taste, not a sweet one. and the peel is more of a shell or cast, and doesn't just peel away. You gotta hack it off with a knife. But they're really yummy sliced and fried. And once they are overripe, they become sweet and are called murduras. And murduras fritas are like the yummiest thing ever. mmm mmm good.

5) Chuso. Not even sure if that's how you spell it. But I say it all the cussing time. It's almost like ¨cuss¨or ¨freaking¨except it can't be used as an adjective like those words can be. Just if something happens it's like öhh chuso¨. Oh another phrase is ¨que bestia¨. Like if someone is doing something dumb or if something was said that's weird or not right, siempre decimos, ¨que bestia.¨. haha. The exact translation into English is ¨what beast¨, which doesn't even make sense.

Ok so I forgot!!! On Tuesday, before the transfers happened, while I was still with Hna Lujan and Hna Nazer, I encountered something during a meal for the first time where I literally thought ¨there is no way I can eat this.¨ What was it you may ask? Oh you know just a set of lungs and a kidney floating in my soup. Blegggh. But there's no way I couldn't eat it cause it took up like half the bowl! and Hna Nazer, that lucky duck, didn't have an organ in her bowl, but the kind soul that she is, she offered to share it with me. SO while the members were in the kitchen and not looking, I quickly chopped it in half and slipped half of it into her bowl. We counted to 3 and each took a bite at the same time. It was nasty. Or in the words of Hna Nazer, "Ya, that's not normal." We started sucking down water from our filter fast and did so after every bite. After it was all gone, we slyly high-fived each other under the table. It was nice to have a fellow gringa to go through that with for the first time. But it actually wasn't THAT bad. The texture is nast and the flavor odd but it's more the thought of eating an organ and the fact that it's not like cooked into anything but literally in its obvious organ form that gets me. But I actually feel lucky that this is the first time I've encountered a weird body part. I'm sure there will be plenty more to come. fun stuff.

Well I gotta go, I'm gonna send some pics of my farewell with Hna Lujan. Some pics I took with Hna nazer, and finally pics of my apt as well!! haha I love you all so incredibly much! and a special shout out to my Grandma Joycie whose birthday was yesterday!! Love you grandma!!!

So this is my little apartment! I took this one with my back against the far wall in the kitchen and you can basically see the whole thing from there. haha 

This is the back room where we keep our clothes. I basically live out of a suitcase on the cement floor but it's all good! :)

haha. My hair cause Hna Nazer made my hair look thicker than it is! It's like a sock bun but without a sock! magic. (this was waiting in the aurora apartment for my new comp to come)

Love from Ecuador, 

Hermana Harper

ps - Super intrigued about the Christmas jammies Mom!! Also I can't think of anything special I left, and whatever you send me will be special :) Oh but maybe a handful of 3 by 5 cards (I don't need a lot cause I can reuse them) and a couple of nice black and blue like gel or felt pens? I want nice pens for journal writing or something. shmanksss :)