Settling In!

Dear Family and Friends,

Once again thank you so much for the letters, photos, and videos! It really makes my week and I love seeing and hearing how everyone is doing! So I am quite jealous to hear about the weather getting cooler. I would love to be able to even put on a cardigan for that matter. I forgot that fall and winter even exist so thanks for the reminder! I actually had a dream last night that Hermana Williams and I were proselyting in snow. How likely is it to snow at the equator? This makes me wonder if it has ever snowed in Ecuador outside of the Andes of course. It has actually been slightly cooler here at night getting down to what feels like the low 80´s with a nice cool breeze. Everyone has been wearing long sleeves and some even jackets at night time which is CRAZY! It is still warm! People have even been asking us why we aren't wearing long sleeves the few nights it has been cooler than the normal blasting heat.

My companion, Hermana Williams, was originally the nurse of the Guayaquil South mission but after they made the new West mission they sent her to the West. The President of the South Mission is actually a doctor so they sent her to the West. So I have been in my mission the entire time. Hermana Williams leaves to go home in a month, November 18th I believe. She has mixed emotions about it but for the most part she is not wanting to leave. I am going to be very sad as well when she leaves. She has been a great trainer and we get along great. I am surprised at how similar my companions have been. President Dennis talked with us yesterday about how things are going and what he is planning for when Hermana Williams leaves. He said he is thinking about putting me with someone who is bilingual so if I need someone to translate my companion will be able to help out. This will be nice since I am far from being fluent. But he told me I can always call him if I can´t understand etc. President Dennis is awesome! He is constantly making jokes and his wife is so sweet. I have actually been taking almost all of the phone calls from sick missionaries this week and have been able to communicate pretty well with the Spanish speakers. Just hope the stress does not overwhelm me when my companion leaves.

This week we ordered more medications for the new missionaries that will arrive next week, reinforcements for some of the zones in the mission, and the people that are going home. When missionaries go home we give them ¨La Bomba¨ or the bomb which consists of Albendazole and Tinidazol. This is just to kill any and everything that they could have gotten while in Ecuador such as a parasite or bacterial infection.

Last Sunday was quite an eventful day! Saturday night we went to the church to fill up the baptismal font for Rafael´s baptism that was planned for 8 am, an hour before church starts. Two of the young guys that always go out proselyting with us covered the drain to the font with a plastic bag and a large rock on top. The font was taking such a long time to fill up that we actually started hauling buckets of water from a spicket and dumping it unto the font. It took us two hours to fill the font! The next morning we showed up to the church and the water had completely drained over night. Apparently the drain hadn´t been covered correctly. So we turned on the water to fill the font 15 minutes before the baptism was suppose to start and once again began hauling buckets of water to fill the font! Rafael´s baptism started 15 minutes before church started and we ended up being late to sacrament meeting! Everyone was stressed but it ended up working out! I think we need to get a more effective top for the drain, but a plastic bag and rock is what the ward has always used. We have another baptism tomorrow morning before church so we are going to show up extra early to make sure the font will be filled in time since we can´t trust it to stay filled over night!

Last night the ward had a talent show which was actually a lot of fun! I got to see some Ecuadorian dancing and a lot of guitar playing and singing. The ward goes all out for their activities!

And the cat problems continue!

Love and Miss everyone,
Hermana Lyman