December 9 & 16th letters

Dec. 9, 2013

Dearest familia,

As you know, I've been doing this choir thing for a week now and we've have 4 performances. All of them have gone really well! only one instance where the piano pages were in the wrong order and one forgetting of the words... which I'm not really sure how that happened because we hold the music but i don't think anyone here knows music well enough to know it was wrong so it was all good. after our first practice with the president, he came up to me and said that he knew i sang for our heavenly father before this life and i loved it so i should remember those feelings and transfer them to the people here in Ecuador. IT was really tender and i was all teary afterward... of course. Presidente Torres is AWESOME! So this week we've just had performances around Guayaquil and we have one more here and then we go to Loja on Wednesday Cuenca on Thursday and Machala on Thursday.. i think. i never know whats going on but I've learned not to worry about things  because i'll eventually get where I'm supposed to be, if i just follow ... someone that knows whats going on! haha

So sadness of the week: both of our baptisms fell through. i understand though because we haven't had any time to work with them this week! and we won't have any time next week but i think eventually both of them will get baptized. The president wants a "white Christmas" and in Ecuador that means everyone has a baptism the week of Christmas! so hopefully we will have 3 from all the people that have had to put it off because of the choir performances!

well that's about it... For Karli     HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I love you all!

Hermana Whitmore

December 16, 2013

Dearest Familia,

This week was crazy! i literally went to every part of the mission in 5 days.

But first! we got to go to the temple on Tuesday, do a session and then sing for the temple president and his wife. That night we had our last performance in Guayaquil. We left Guayaquil Tuesday night and took an 8 hour bus ride to Loja.  arrived in Loja at 6 in the morning.went to the sisters house and took a major nap. Practiced and then performed. I got to see Elder Whetton. That kid is awesome. His 4th day in the mission he got called to be 2nd councelor in his branch presidency... yeah hes cool. From Loja we went to Cuenca... my old sector. for Lunch we has shrimp with arroz... practiced and performed. Dinner salchipapas (hotdogs and french fries). (side note: my life is really healthy in these 5 days.) friday was Santa Rosa and the same schedule went down. In santa rosa I got to see Elder Kotter, Henline and Allen (elders from the ccm) and Elder Duzett (the kid i know from high school) Crazy!!! it was awesome. i love catching up with everyone :) we stayed that night in Machala and i got to stay with ...Guess who??? Hermana Bennett!!!!! Yeah probably not the best idea because we stayed up talking until 2... Saturday we performed in Machala and stayed at H. Bennies house again. Sunday we went to the new sector wankavilka. it was interesting to see the beginnings of a new sector. it was so small and humble. For lunch, the elders hunted... yes hunted... iguana.... yes iguana. and the members cooked it up for us and yes... i ate it! it really actually wasn't that bad... just very ... extremely chewy. i decided it was be good as jerky.

So my spiritual thought for the week really isn't that spiritual but i have a greater testimony of the Holy Ghost and how it can help in times of need. Because on the days that i was more focused on sharing my testimony through music, i sang so much better. and if my first song was awful i would say a prayer , refocus and my 2nd song was so much better! i know god has ways of teaching us the things we need to work on and learn! i love being a missionary! i love ecuador even if i eat iguana and rice everyday!

I love you all!

Hermana Whitmore