THANK YOU EVERYONE for the amazing birthday wishes! I laughed so much and smiled and even teared up--you don´t know how much it means to have so much support and love from you all. Thank you so so so much!
Also--you can email me! They never said anything about that. I just can´t email back :( I am way sad about that especially because mail takes 2 weeks each way but hey it could be worse and be like a month! So I will hand write I promise and please please keep emailing me because it gets me through some hard times and I love you all! The mission address is on my fbook for packages but the pouch mail is what you use for regular mail!
Ok--WARNING--this is going to be LONG. REALLY LONG. I have so much to say and talk about haha so sorry for everyone who reads this!! I will cut it down next time when all this is normal haha.
Alrighty, so saying goodbye to the people at the MTC was so sad! It was like saying goodbye to second family because we had all gone through the exact same emotions--that's what I love about all of us being together. My comp and I stayed up way too late just talking in bed even though I had to get up at 4 am the next morning! How I ended up loving that place, the Spirit, its environment, and the people! It was incredible to talk to you, family on Tuesday. I´m eternally grateful I didn´t wait until Miami to call as we found out I had like 3 minutes. I´m gunna tell the last week like it was :)
So I got to Guayaquil and somehow knew that my luggage wasn´t going to get there. Yup--they lost all my luggage. So the two office elders that met me at the airport took me back to the temple dorms. The assistants met me there and had some food waiting leftover from the earlier dinner with our Mission Pres but since I got there so late I went up to bed. One of the sisters inside gave me some pajamas and shampoo--bless her heart. The pillows here are like the fatness of 5 pillows put together haha. I didn´t sleep hardly at all due to the humidity and how sad and frustrated I was feeling about my luggage and missing home and the language, etc. First night was kinda rough.
The next day we had orientation and trainings all day going over rules (turns out my mission is one of the strictest for a lot of stuff my comp and I were talking about!) I left with the secretary to go get my bags from the airport to find out they would get there that night hopefully and didn´t have them that morning. Haha that was the cherry on top. My interview with President Amaya during training was good but very short. He taught me some great things though from Preach My Gospel and taught about that when I work hard, I will have the Spirit, which in turn will make me happy. He and his wife are really sharp. Not super loving or parent like but have good things to teach us. I kept falling asleep all day which didn´t help but I felt probably the most depressed I´ve felt in my life for a long long time that second day. The thought of not seeing family and my loved ones for over a year made me want to die inside!
*I am a firm believer that people would be fully dedicated, focused, happy, productive, etc. if missionary work were as families! Let´s do that--I´ll write Pres. Monson, k? :) think about it--I dont see any downsides haha* I think about Logan every single day and wonder about his experiences--I can´t wait to hear from you Logee!
So continuation: on the way to the 6 pm temple session I was just so weighed down like I said that I was just so glad to be going. Good thing I have been many times to the temple to know what was being said and going on because everything was spoken so fast haha! I love the temple SO SO much. It is absolutely incredible how much more peace and a much better attitude I had immediately after. It´s amazing. Afterwards, we chatted with all the new missionaries and it was so great to get to know people better, sing American songs they knew and speak English with the only other gringo newbie (Elder Barker is from Kaysville). Poor guy--he is so lost and overwhelmed but so happy and taught me a lot tonight about good attitudes. Also, they didn't feed us dinner hahaha its been kinda disorganized at the beginning. So that second day was wow rough but also great at the end and just a confirmation of the temple and how much we need to go!
We woke up the next morning and because they didn't know plans, we ended up going to another session. I really think that was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father--I could literally feel the extra strength and peace these temple sessions gave me in my life to be able to handle what I was feeling and feel the love and peace of my Heavenly Father. We then had a training meeting and when a sister asked a question, for some reason I knew she was going to be my trainer. Her name is Hermana Angulo and she is from Columbia! We are proselyting in an area called Manta, 4 hours on bus from Guayaquil. It is a beach, coastal town and I think it is the perfect area for me to be. Heavenly Father knows the beach is my happy place :) Also, the wonderful air cools it down a lot and we don't sweat as much as we would if we were in Guayaquil. Blessings! On the bus ride to Manta, we talked the whole time and I was just so excited! I know I was being blessed by the Lord and the blessings of the temple to feel that way. Everything here reminds me of living in El Salvador! I'm really really glad I did that to prepare myself for actually living in another culture--not just visiting. Also, Ecuador is more well off than Central America from what I can observe. It's still humble of course but that's what I've observed!
We live in a nice, open, house and the shower water isn´t ice cold--it feels pretty nice each morning so I'm very very lucky here! We live on the 5th floor so that was absolutely hilarious. Climbing the steep stairs with my two 50 pound suitcases and 2 carryons that probably weighed the same. Hahaha two girls in skirts doing that was a sight to see I'm sure! My comp doesn't really speak English. It's hard when I want to find words to express myself, but somehow I usually find a way or we look things up in the dictionary!
My first day en el campo was good! We had lunch with the Sambranos--the family of the ward mission leader and they are seriously awesome! They are hilarious, have such strong testimonies and I loved it. My first meal was....fish!! It's a coastal town after all :) It was actually good! People serve SO much food here and I can't finish it ever haha. Hopefully they can feel my love as I turn down more food. We then visited Jennifer--she is a recent convert and is 17 years old. What a faithful, darling young girl! We visited other investigators and converts. Everyone LOVED the hermana that I am replacing so it´s hard for them but hopefully can see and feel my love for them. I like this place and I like walking-talking with my comp. We had fun and after an excessive amounts of calls from people on the side of the street in English acknowledging a gringa, I started saying Lo Siento! No hablo ingles! She thought that was hilarious. We say sooo many prayers during the day and I know we need it!
Second day, we had a very busy and productive day. We knocked doors in an area that hadn´t been visited in almost 4 months. We shared a lesson with a wonderfully musical and talented family we found at home--the son has 3 guitars and played some Linkin Park haha. But I have missed listening to guitar :) They are awesome and I´m excited for our next lesson. While my comp was using the public phone outside a store, she encouraged me to contact the lady running the store right inside (inside meaning the bars that = the door here so I wasn't away from my comp dont worry!) I just began to chat with her and she told me how badly she wants to visit the USA. I told her about some places there and laughed with her and she asked why I was here. I told her we were missionaries and what church and she jumped up super excited and asked if we had time to come inside. DUH we have time!! We had time to chat, talk about God, giver her a pamphlet and then she said the prayer and mentioned how we illuminated her day and was grateful. The rest of the prayer was beautiful and she is so humble. We have a follow up appt tomorrow! We visited Laura, an investigator and she accepted a baptismal date!! She was so excited. She had her friend there too in the lesson and we have an appt with her tomorrow as well. Her hubby is from New York and we spoke a bit of English. It´s funny how enthralled people can be with just a normal girl because I have white skin and blonde hair. I actually think the Lord needed a gringa here to maybe get some people to pay attention to what we represent as weird as that may sound. This night we visited Jennifer´s family and her sister is investigating. The whole family participated though and I felt much more close to them like they could feel my love. However, we had a bit of a more dark, scary lesson with them and their friend who was there. I won't go into details and it wasn´t crazy at all but we tried to teach them truths and answer their qestions, calm their fears but we left feeling weighed down, a bit scared and more dark. Dad told me I would encounter many people that had scary and dark experiences because of the commonality of such experience in Latin American and that is so true. How grateful I was for prayer and a safe home to go to.
My comp is awesome and teaches superbly and I think we are a good pair because sometimes she has a hard time just chatting with people and wants to only teach them. She said she has struggled to show love and feel it sometimes and she is very very preoccupied with obedience so that's awesome. I think I will be good for her and I really think she is good for me. We are different but we have fun and get along and I´m learning lots too :)
I'm very in awe of the reception and normality and acceptance of singing hymns and everything wityh us and random people we contact and share lessons with! It's so awesome here--that would never happen in the states! People believe in God and LOVE talking about spiritual things. They are so accepting of religion. Our major problems are having them let go of family traditions (if they are Catholic just cuz their family is), seeing a reason for organized religion, having them actually follow through and show conversion--no one came to church that promised they would but we have faith and will work hard and poco a poco!
I woke up a bit sad on Sunday as it was my bday and Sundays are always harder but how wrong I was. As soon as the Sambrano family entered--they gave me extra hugs and kisses and made a big deal about wishing me happy birthday (they had remembered from a brief mention a few days back!) So then everyone else waiting for church to start wished me happy birthday and told each other it was my bday--I love the Latins! Testimony meeting was great. The little Sambrano boy touched my heart so much and I started crying. He has such a sweet spirit and is always smiling. We had a wonderful lesson later with our next door neighbors and they were very receptive--it was lovely. I hope things continue! We had lunch with the Salazar couple-.-he is 23 and she is 27 and they are super powerful and awesome! They fed us a great lunch and pulled out cake they had rushed to buy after finding out it was my bday hahaha oops. They lit a huge candle and it was way fun to be with them. We then had a member in her typical clothes (SO cool) come with us to lessons. We had a great lesson with Lucy (Jennifers sister) and her friend. Lucy is practially already Mormon ha! She just needs to feel that she knows and get an answer for herself instead of feeling confused but we testifed and I shared my feelings and she promised to pray about it specifically so we will see! We then visited the Delgado family--members with their recent convert brtother. After our message, they all of a sudden pulled out a cake that said Feliz Cumpleanos Bryan and had two 2 candles in the middle they had bought! I was so so so touched they did that without knowing me and only from hearing it at church. Also I made 2 families break the sabbath but because of their wonderful intentions it doesnt count, right? :)
We then had ward council with the Bishop who I think was very receptive to our advice and questions--we need to work hard with our ward for attendance and conversion but we can do it! He is a man who thinks the more time a missionary has in the field, the better they are. So I followed President Amaya's advice and told him I had less than a year in the field when he asked. He took it as I was super experienced....but President Amaya said to specifically say that for those people who think like that ha! We went to Laura's tonight and she already is facing major opposition after deciding to get baptized with her boyfriend and 4 year old son. She still wants to get baptized--I just hope she can pray for the strength to resolve the rest of her life and feel the love and strength of the Lord during this hard time. The adversary doesn't want us to make good decisions in our lives and we have over and over again shared Joseph Smith's experience with the adversary right before the First Vision because right before an incredible experience from God, the adversary comes and tries to stop it. Anyway, there is work to be done, people to find, and love to be shared to help the work of the Lord progress and keep moving forward.
It still is hard for me that I won't see anyone for 16.5 months but I´m learning a lot and I´m trying to be what I need to be. Missionary work is awesome--I just hope I can be guided by the Spirit in my teaching and litle by little I´m learning! Also, I feel very blessed in communicating in Spanish. There are some times I struggle and I definitely struggle to understand everything--people speak soo fast and some eat their words and it's cool cuz they really do speak sing-songy Spanish but I like speaking and learning :) I´m so excited for the day I don't have to think about it and so excited for the day I will be able to experience the fruits of our labors. This church is so true. I get emotional when I bear testimony to pèople about the first vision and about the Book of Mormon. I truly can feel God´s love and peace. I wouldn´t be able to do this without all of you. I LOVE YOU!!! Email me I cant wait to hear from you :)
Love,
Hermana Bryan
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