Second Week in Ecuador!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,
 

Let me first start by thanking everyone for the much love and support!! I love getting e-mails and updates from home! I don't have much time this week to e-mail but know that I will reply ASAP. This week has been better than the first, I'm adjusting to the drastic change well. I can now pick out several words that people say to me instead of none! Everyone tells me not to stress that the language will come but it is so hard for me not to worry! I don't like not being able to understand what is being said or convey my feelings completely. It is definitely a humbling experience. I feel like my personality is fading! I can't interact as much, might be a good thing. Ha ha! But all is well and my Spanish is getting better. 

All of the boys in the ward call me Hermione from Harry Potter, it is quite funny! The ward is so great and actually just split so now there are 2 wards. There is no air conditioning in the chapel so I about died during sacrament meeting. I think the days just keep getting hotter and hotter. It doesn't help that our Mamita cooks us hot meals for lunch. We arrive around noon; she feeds us hot soup and then meat, rice, beans and vegetables. So we are sitting there sweating cats and dogs and she serves us hot soup. I want to DIE every time we eat with a member. Half the plate is rice....and it is offensive not to eat everything. My companion tells me that pretty much everyone here gets a rice baby (a nice round belly from all the rice.) I refuse to fall into the same fate! We have started running every morning and I’ve been doing some exercises in the apartment. Thank gosh we only eat with members 4 times a week. This morning we actually got lost running and ran for a good 40 minutes trying to find our way back! The city is fun to run through.

Hermana Williams and I have started making bags of common medications such as Tylenol, ibuprofen, Pepto-Bismol, decongestants, Nyquil, thermometers etc. for the missionaries in the mission. They are not selling it over the counter here in Ecuador at this time so it is way annoying that we have to order these common medications through the pharmacy etc. They are not selling ibuprofen due to dengue fever and Tylenol for the flu. Some days our phone rings NON-STOP! There have been a lot of sick missionaries this week and we have to make appointments for them, try and track down medical records, surgeons etc. We actually met the Area Medical Advisor this week, Dr. Piepgrass. He is living in Bogota, Colombia and is over several missions in Ecuador and Colombia. We also met the guy above him for the Region he is living in Lima, Peru. They both were so helpful and helped clear up questions. I feel comfortable calling them for things I might need in the future. They also informed us that the church is changing insurance coverage and companies for the missionaries so I will have to do some training for that in the near future. There will be 22 new missionaries from the CCM in Mexico arriving this week so we will actually do some preventative teaching at the conference for the new missionaries. I am actually attending that as a new missionary since I arrived 2 weeks before everyone else so it’s kind of funny that I will be teaching at a conference that is for me.  It will be nice to see some familiar faces from the CCM!

Wish I had more time to write!

Con Amor,

Hermana Lyman