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

IT TRULY was a MIRACLE that WE WITNESSED...

Hey Familia,

Well so as not to hold you all in suspense, the Morocho family got baptized!!!! Alexandra and her two sons, Jonathan and Justin. Everything went decent for a South American baptismal service....sure the capilla was out of gas so we couldn't fill the font with hot water and then the person who was supposed to fill the font never showed up to do it and someone giving the talk bailed.....but they got baptized and the spirit was felt and all was well :) It truly was a miracle that we witnessed to see this family go from not even letting us in their house to dressed in white in the baptismal font. Talk about incredible. Seeing the Lord work miracles in his vineyard is one of the biggest privileges we have as missionaries in the field. 

Well, unfortunately I wasn't able to see the women's broadcast. We weren't allowed to go which I thought was weird, but I'm super bummed cause I heard it was awesome! Also, so crazy they had it all women 8 and up and not just young women or just relief society. sounds cool though. So other than the Morocho family, not much has been going on. We dropped the college kid investigators cause they don't want to progress, don't want to go to church or listen anymore, etc. Kinda sad but oh well, we gotta find those who have been prepared. So we kinda don't have investigators right now and need to find some new ones! 

Love this girl!

However, we are working on Alexandra's sister, Sonya. Shes a little brava as they say in spanish (not a good word for it in English) and harder to reach. But she's gone to church these past 3 weeks and went to the baptism and everything, so we have hope :) In other Tarqui news, there's a new cute gringo couple in the ward! just moved here a few days ago from New York and plan on being here for a year. They're bloggers and have a really popular blog apparently. So that's pretty cool. 

OH and something so awesome happened on Sunday! I ran into my best friend from Boyaca Machala, Michelle!!! She just got married last week and is here with her new husband honeymooning and they came to our sacrament meeting! We like freaked out when we saw each other; it was a happy reunion. I just love her so much! And she was able to update me on my converts who she knew and I was pleased to hear that Ronald, Pedro, Jhordan, and Alejandro are all doing well. Made me so happy :) Well I think that's all for now, folks. So crazy that you have spring break next week! My how time flies. Enjoy conference in English as I suffer through it in Spanish. haha for real though, modern day revelation people, make it a priority in your lives! Thanks for all the support and letters, I love you all!!

Con amor,   Hermana Harper 

WE DECIDED TO TAKE THE LOVE ROUTE...

Well family it has been a loooooooooooooong week.

First of all, Leonor didn't get baptized :( She started listening to her family members and old pastora who forbidded her to talk to us and to be baptized. and it's so sad how much Satan can have an affect on us when we don't make ourselves spiritually strong and are therefore weak to his persuasions. Leonor was soooo so so excited for her baptism, and then overnight she completely changed and wouldn't even let us in the door the next day. Super super sad, but maybe it's just not her time. We have hope that in the future she will come around and return to those truthful feelings of the spirit that she has experienced. 

But on the bright side, the Morocho family is progressing nicely. Have I told you about them? Probably not. The mom Alexandra, is a single mom with 3 kids, Jonathan 14, Justin 10, and Jocelyn (will be 8 in a couple weeks) Also Alexandra's sister Sonya, who has 2 kids, Daniela 7 and Pablo 3. They all live together in a very humble home and they are a really special family for us. They had baptism dates a couple months ago but they fell because they never went to church. They told us they felt too pressured by the constant talk of baptism and nothing else. In fact they were so weary of the past missionaries that when we went to visit them the first time they didn't even let us in. They just talked for a bit with us at the door but nothing else. So we decided to take the love route. Not pressure them into baptism but just kindly invite them to church and gain their trust by sharing sweet and simple messages. Well it was a slow process. After a few times of just standing at the door talking, they brought chairs outside to chat there. And then after a couple times of that, they finally let us inside!! That was a great moment for us. That first Sunday they all came to church, the 2nd Sunday only Alexandra and her kids but then this past Sunday, all of them again! They say they love church, and this past week Hna Martin and I were planning out the best way to bring up baptism again without offending them or losing the trust we had gained. 

As we were in the process of working out the best way to do that, the Elders show up to lunch on Wednesday being all giggly and weird and when I asked them what happened, they just said nothing. Then they start asking me about Alexandra and if we think that they'll get baptized and we told them firmly, yes, they will. It's just a matter of going about it sensitively. Then they're like oh well do you still wanna work with them? We said yes, of course. Then they said oh well they have fechas for the 29th. -_- . I was so incredibly angry. The nerve they have to go see our investigators without even asking us, nor notifying us. And then the nerve they have to put fechas without even consulting us, telling us, or going with us!! And even worse, he's my DL and the Zls went with them to do it too. Needless to say, I felt way betrayed and lost lots of trust in my leaders. Luckily we were able to go see Alexandra and do some damage control and now they actually do seem to be on track to be baptized the 29th, which is this Saturday. So luckily, it didn't do too much damage, but I just definitely would have liked to have been notified and to have been present as well. But through prayer, and chats with my leaders, I have gotten over it. They aren't bad Elders, in fact, they are good ones. They just sometimes get too caught up in breaking records and having as many baptisms as possible in their zone regardless of the situation. But my goals lately have been to be humble, let go of my pride, and just love everyone. It's hard, but its the better route. :)

So apart from that, we found some cool investigators. Some college students who live together in a pretty nice house and they just have jam seshes all the time because they have a drum kit, an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, acoustic drums, a banjo, etc. It's pretty legit. Their names are Javier and David. They came to church on Sunday but left like halfway through the Sacrament meeting because they had family come in town. So we shall see how that goes. 

Another cool thing this week is that we helped and old gringa lady in the ward sweep her floors! She just had surgery (in Ecuador, sketch right?) So she can't do much. Afterwards, she made us some really yummy tuna salad and then she told us that she had found a legit cafe!! So we went today for Pday. It's an American family from Virginia. The mom is the chef and she makes awesome desserts. Like I'm talking rich chocolate fudge cakes, etc. And the food is my FAVORITE. Yummy paninis, soups, and salads. I can't eat the salads but paninis and soups are good enough for me! They even have bread bowls! and pesto! and 90% of the clients are old white retired people so you pretty much only hear English. We basically feel like we are in America when we are there. Like some sort of time vortex. It's pretty cool; I kinda love it. 

There are soooooo many old retired gringo living here in Cuenca. So mom and dad, if you can't afford to retire in the states and need to live out of the country, Cuenca is where it's at. haha So another piece of Cuenca gringa news....we found a lady in another ward, from Sacramento, who has a beauty salon in our sector! I've been wanting to cut my hair for a while now but was always too afraid to just go into a random place off the street and have a Latina do it. Explaining hair in Spanish is just sketch. So I went to Sister Lord, the white lady! and she did a great job. and since I had been wanting to cut my hair, I was waiting to take my 9 month pregger photos until i did it, because it's like a cliche for pregnant ladies to have short hair. They're pretty funny, have fun with those pics. (Mom note: I didn't know this but I guess Sisters take pregger pictures at their 9 month or half way through point.  Whereas the Elders burn a white shirt.  Lolz)

Welp I think that's all the news I got for now. I have learned a lot this week about humility, patience, and love. All 3 are great attributes of Christ that I am trying to work extra hard on developing. Whenever I feel myself getting upset I just try and remember what Christ would do if he were in my situation and usually my anxiety and stress rates slow down a little. It's so crazy to think about how much Christ endured and suffered during his short time on the Earth and how he endured and suffered it all with the utmost poise. Never losing his temper, never getting annoyed or impatient, always treating everyone with love. He really is the greatest example of all, and should be who we look up to, our role model, for everything. I am so very thankful for My savior and redeemer and the bar that he has set for me to try a little harder, to be a little better each and every single day. and that luckily, I don't need to reach perfection, because through the grace of his atonement, trying is enough. as long as we are always trying :) Love each and every one of you so incredibly much and can't wait to hear what you all have to tell me about your lives next week. Love hearing about it! Keep up the good fight... Love from Cuenca,

Hermana Harper

WE FINALLY HAVE HOT WATER!! after cold bucket showers for a week

Helllllooooo Familia,

Well this week has gone by super fast yet super slow at the same time, but I guess that's just the mission in general. hehe Honestly I can't even really think of much that happened other than NICOLAS ARIAS WAS BAPTIZED!!! It was pretty crazy cause we had English classes at 5, the ward had a talent show at 6, and the baptism was scheduled for 7. It seems a little tight but doable right? No, this is Ecuador. So of course the talent show didn't start until 7:30, an hour and a half late, leaving the baptism not starting until a little after 9. But honestly, Nicolas's mom didn't get there till the last 10 min of the talent show anyways so we actually probs wouldn't have been able to start much sooner regardless. But still soooooo stressful. Not to mention that I have been sick all week and Saturday was the worst day of them all.  I may or may not have thrown up out back of the capilla in the middle of the talent show....typical Abbie moment ;) But it ended up being really great. 

When Nico came back into the room after changing, him and his mom hugged for a reallllllyyyyy long time, kinda awkward but at the same time really spiritual. She was just sobbing and she's not even a member or even interested at all. Just goes to show how powerful the spirit is and how much of an affect it can have on people. Then when Nico bore his testimony, he started crying too and it was really just a sweet baptismal service over all. I obviously love all of my investigators but Nicolas has been really special for Hna Martin and I.  I really feel as if he is my naño (little brother). He is so awesome. (side note: Hna Martin and I were thinking earlier this week crap, I bet Nicolas is gonna want a white tie for his baptism since he's into style. We will have to ask one of the Elders if they have one that he can use. Sure enough, the very next day we are over there and he was like hey, I saw a photo of a baptism in a church manual that Juan Santiago has and the dude is being baptized with a white tie! Where can I get one of those?? We just laughed and were like, Don't worry, we got your back. We ended up just buying him one though so he can keep it as a recuerdo (memory?) from his baptismal day. He was way stoked on it when we gave it to him.) 

So anyways, Juan Santiago is the brother of his neighbor friend, David, who is on a mission. Juan Santiago baptized him and then confirmed him the next day as well. It was basically just a well rewarding weekend :) So our investigator who had baptism dates for this Saturday are a mom and daughter. Leonor who is 63 and Carmen who is 90. But unfortunately Carmen was really sick this past week and couldn't come to church so now she can't be baptized cause she doesn't have 2 asistencias. We hope Leonor will still have the desire to follow through with her decision though! They are both really cute ladies. Leonor's sister, so Carmen's other daughter, was baptized around 6 months ago so we are really trying to work hard to complete this family! We have had such awesome spiritual lessons with them. They have the desire to learn and know what's right in their hearts but sometimes get hung up on what other people think instead of listening to how they feel. So pray for them! especially Leonor! 

Once again due to time constraints I'll have to tell you about the other people we are teaching later. But hey, HAPPY ST PATTY'S DAY!!! My comp and I wore green for the occasion, don't you fret. Also last night, we went over to visit an old gringo couple in the ward, the Martins, and WE ATE WAFFLES!!!! That and talking in English was pretty much the best little treat ever. Also, the birthday packages!!!!! You guys are the best. Dad, the shoes ROCK!!!! for reallzzzz, I was so intrigued by this indie spiritual thing you were talking about and it all makes sense now! haha Seriously so awesome. My comp is way jealous, she loves them :) And Mom, THE RING!!! loveeeee it loveee it. You are the best, So incredibly thoughtful. and thanks Wrights and Butlers for the bday cards you guys wrote on Christmas Eve! love them all. and of course all the goodies. so fun. and Grandma, your package as well was awesome! Love all the treats and the ring is sooooo cute! see pics :) 

Alright I think that's all I got time for but I have really seen the hand of the Lord here in Tarqui this week, and can't wait to be a witness to even more miracles as we hasten the Lord's work here in Cuenca! President always says that Cuenca is the promised land of our mission. Sure it might be easier to get baptisms on the coast, but the Sierra is where we are seeing miracles. I feel so grateful to be here, and I love every day. Fam, we're totes coming back to Cuenca one day so I can show you the city and we can visit all of the wonderful people that I have met and helped :) Being an instrument in the Lord's hands really is a wonderful thing and I pray always that I will be able to feel the spirit, recognize His will, and do what needs to be done! Love you all! Until next week...

abrazos,

Hermana Harper

ps - We finally have hot water!! after cold showering/bucket showering for a week, the Elders FINALLY came over to check out the problem. Turns out the water heater that is like outside the apt (we live on the 4th floor, so it was not easy to get to. The Elders did some acrobats) just needed a new battery!!! hablaaameee enserrrriiiioooooo. but whatevs hot water is back! (showering in cold water in the morning in CUENCA is like showering in ice. so. cold.)

Nico after his confirmation

This weird/cool statue thing that kinda looks like it might a nativity scene that we found the other day. haha

Some one day the other week (don't remember which) was apparently Woman's Day!! weird huh?? So they gave us roses in relief society.

zone pic (like almost all hnas)