August 2014

Blue Bible Guy

August 4, 2014 2:41 PM

Hola Familia! 

Alright, imma try to give you all a lot of information because i epically failed last week. So you all know I'm in cuenca, and that's just a little different then Machala and Guayaquil, in every way possible. The teaching, the climate, the terrain, the food, the accent. and dad to answer your question the normal accent is por ejemplo: normal is Perro, and Cuencano is Perzhro... something like that! But its been good! I've learned sooo much in the past two weeks and I've read 200 pages of the book of Mormon! Woo! i have a goal to finish it in 2 months which is very doable because if i read 10 pages i can do it! Well, fun facts about my sector... our capilla is tiny. And there is an attendance of about 50 people on average and i was contemplating how lucky we are to live in a place where we can go to church and see a full chapel and have 350 plus members in the ward to fill all of the callings. There is only one counselor and the RS only has a president... I'm not sure about the other organizations but i do know that none of them is complete! So in other words WE are blessed to live were we do! 

OK other things that happened this week... Hermana Adams cut my hair... I did intercambios with my ex comp and now I'm in intercambios with H. Iverson! HEY! ha ha So we are just partying it up like its 1999! AKA Chicken nuggets, OJ, Oreo balls, Smores, chocolate... all things healthy! 

BUT the biggest bit of news is that we still don't have a house so we are still traveling everyday to Azogues. To answer your question mom, to find a house we look everywhere and call every number available and then find out its already rented or its not actually an apartment, its just separate rooms added together to make an apartment... So yeah that's the current situation. 

Ok and to explain the Blue bible guy, I was on intercambios with Hrn. Adams and went to visit one of their investigators and he told us a story about how one time he was asleep and he heard a voice that said "I want you to learn more about me..." and he looked to his left and saw a BLUE bible... coincidence? i think not! So we gave him a BLUE book of Mormon and went on our way :) 

Well that's all i got for you this week.. i feel like its a little more informative then last week :) I love you all, I love this mission. Les Quiero mucho! 

Hermana Whitmore

H. Iverson broke her foot!

La Virgin and Cuy Hello dearest family of mine, This week was full of adventure and normal things too... My first adventure was eating cuy (Guinea Pig) yay.. I have the same feeling about Cuy that i do about Cangrajo (Crab). it tastes just fine but it just doesn't vale la peina (isn't worth it). Because it takes soo much time to eat it and there is hardly any meat. BUT i can now add that to my list of crazy things that i have eaten on the mission.  My other adventure, we went on today. We went to visit la Virgen de la Nube. Its a giant statue of the virgin Mary and its a staple of Azogues. So we went to visit her... It is really interesting, the catholic church, but my very good friend said that  "Without them, there is no way Christianity would have arrived with such vigor to South America!" and its true. Soo now our job is to help them understand the bible and follow Christ!  We still live in Cuenca and are traveling to Azogues everyday, and we are doing the work, it just moves a lot slower here then in the coast. BUT I love it! its a great learning experience and i really am learning a lot!  I love you all! Have a great week :)  Hermana Whitmore Another week in Paradise!    Aug 18, 2014 Hola Familia, Well this week was normal... I'm still here in Azogues and i didn't think it could get any colder, BUT it has and it will keep getting colder until October or so... my season senses are sooo off! Pero bueno, I love it here in Azogues and although the work is hard its worth it. I'm still learning so much and I'm so happy about it! i actually feel like I'm growing spiritually ... and getting stronger physically.. seriously though these hills are killer! We haven't had much success with finding people but after church we went out to contact some references that we got and found some pretty promising people. So pray for their hearts to be open and that they will accept the message of the restored gospel.  I found myself talking to a Jehovah's Witness in English this week... that was interesting. It really tested my translating and teaching skills. I taught lesson 2 (Plan of Salvation) in ENGLISH. Wow that was very, very difficult. It took me like two minutes to remember what the spirit world was called... ha ha, almost an epic fail but the holy ghost helped me out with that one! It was interesting because i learned a lot about what they believe because he actually explained to me their point of view instead of trying to prove my religion was wrong. BUT Hrn. Iverson had a JW bible in English so we spent almost 4 hours reading it! haha Lets just say its interesting... not the bible itself but the guide of questions in the back. I learned .. a lot :) I haven't eaten anything crazy this week, just the regular soup and rice and chicken... i tried zapote? I'm not really sure what it is but its like a sweet potato squash thing....  I'm not going to go all "I've hit the year mark" until next week and i promise i'll write somethin real mushy for ya´ll :) haha Well sorry i don't have much to say this week, just know that I'm doing awesome and the work of the lord is moving forward in this little part of heaven!  Love you all!  Hermana Whitmore NOT QUITE A YEAR YET FOLKS!     Aug 25, 2014 3:29pm Dearest Familia!  Wow! tranquilanse! I still have 3 days left until my year mark :) and I'm going to enjoy them! So I will wait until the next week to write my year mark soliloquy.  I do have some good news. We finally moved into our house in Azogues and its been so great to have a full day in the sector! The apartment is a little creepy and old but hey its better then nothing! Also, its better then it was before... the first day we moved in, we spent all day cleaning! BUT! because I've had the most fantastic upbringing in the world, I was unfazed and i went to work! We bought some white cement and a putty knife and i filled in those holes like there was nothing to it! it also helps that I'm kinda tall and everything here is kinda short... also, if it looks like poop.. it doesn't really matter because ... yeah.. lets just say it fits right in! :) Also, the putty knife came in handy for cleaning all the grease corners! that was strangely satisfying :) haha i definitely felt like mom in that moment!  So other then the house, we haven't had anything too amazing happen, BUT we do have a real life investigator! I didn't even know if those existed still! He is the boyfriend of one of the members and we had family night with them tonight! We put the fecha with him yesterday forseptember 20th! prayers would be appreciated for Martin.  In church yesterday i had the quite fantastic experience of leading a song that no one has ever heard before. I'm the uncalled ward chorister... so every week i lead the music... usually i can just buffalo through it because someone knows the song }, but this time is was definitely "en el voz del tres, uno dos tres..." nothing! everyone started on different notes and i was trying sooooo hard not to laugh! haha, yeah from now on i think i'll just change the song!  So funny story; last night we had absolutely nothing to do and no one to talk to because all of Azogues closes down on Sunday, so we think to ourselves... where can we go? To a members house to "ask about menos activos" (which really means, who will give us food)... Who is close; "la familia Lopez"... So we walk over there and who do we find? not one compañionship of elders but both of them! haha oh my gosh! great missionary minds think alike eh?  Well that's all folks! I love you all! have a great week!  Hermana Whitmore (con mas)

August 11, 2014 3:14 PM