Headed down

Well Ive hit the hump and Im headed down! I cant believe that I already have been out half of my mission. The last 9 months have blown by and I am so grateful that I still have 9 more.

This past week has been great! On Saturday we were able to go and help another ward with a missionary activity that the young women were having. We are the only sisters in this zone and so they called us to see how we could help out. It was really cool! The young women president had made fake tags for each of the girls that said "Sister --- Missionary for a day." Then they split up and went with us to visit some of the less active young women in the ward. I think it was a cool experience for the girls to help out with the missionary work and get excited to serve missions of their own soon.

The rest of the week was filled with wonderful experiences and some very funny ones as well. Ill include some of my favorite quotes from the week that people have told us.

"You know my name? How do you know my name? This must be the power of God!" -drunk woman (right after she had introduced herself)

"It isnt ok to worship idols because God is the only God. But you CAN worship beautiful women...like that American there" (during a lesson on the 10 commandments)

"Mi perro murio siendo virgen" (My dog died a virgen) -(less active during a lesson on the plan of salvation)

We had an interesting lesson with Amaury on Saturday about faith and putting the Lord first in our lives. He is supposed to be baptized this Saturday and we are still not sure what is going to happen. He has great desires to be baptized and knows that the church is true but is still worried about what his girlfriend will think. We talked a lot about how the Lord doesnt work by coincidence. There is a reason that we chose to visit him again and it was completely the spirit. I know he feels and recognizes the spirit too. He was supposed to tell us yesterday what he had decided but we havent been able to get ahold of him. We are keeping the faith and I know we will be able to see Amaury get baptized very soon.

We also had a cool experience with a less active, Rafaelina, this week. We taught her a few months ago and then she left for 6 weeks to go visit her boyfriend. When she came back a few weeks ago she wanted absolutely nothing to do with us. So we started to pass by and just say hello. Then last week we were able to have a lesson with her. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and she told us flat out "no." So we told her we would pass by each day to help her start reading just 1 verse or 5 minutes every day. The first day we passed by she wouldnt let us in the house so we read the verse to her through the window. The next day she was outside on the street and we were able to read a couple verses with her that day. Each day she let us read just a little more. Eventually she let us start reading the full 5 minutes with her. Then yesterday she opened up the door for us, let us sit down, and we read for 10 minutes. When we said we needed to go she asked why we couldnt keep reading. We told her she was more than welcome to keep going! She told us yesterday that when we pass by we should start reading an entire chapter together. We came from not being able to enter her house to her wanting to read a chapter every day in only a week. The Book of Mormon definitely has a special power...and thats because it is the word of God and contains the fulness of the gospel. If you are not currently reading it, I invite you to do so.

Well everyone, I know this church is true! The Lord loves us so so much and is looking out for us every step of the way. Every day on this mission makes me learn and grow a little bit more. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here and I know that miracles are happening all around us every day. Dont be afraid to open your mouth wherever you are and with whoever is around you. You never know the difference you may make!

Lots of love

Hermana Ewell

P-Day Santiago only comes around once a transfer and this day we can go wherever we want to in Santiago!

 

We went to Sweet Frog which is a frozen yogurt place and partied it up USA style

 

The zoo in Gurabo

The Pomeranians in the zoo just about cracked me up

 

Baby Monkey at the zoo

That sign says "Lions...Prohibited to Pass"  DUH

 

The guy was cleaning the turtle cage and just sweeping the turtles out of the way

The sign says these are ponies...I am still not sure what exactly they are

Feeding the cat to the crocodile

 

Nice and close to the ostriches

 Holding the monkey's hand

 

Our bathroom has had a leak in the ceiling for about 4 months now and the dirty sewage water from the people upstairs has been falling on our toilet. This week they finally came to try and fix the problem so that we don't have poop falling on our heads! Woohoo!!!!