Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas Week

Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas was fun we had Christmas lunch in the mission home with President and Hermana Dennis and the office elders. We also were allowed to watch a Disney movie so we watched Frozen which was a super cute movie. We slept which I think was my first nap EVER on the mission and in 17 months and read the BOM. It was nice but also made me miss home especially after Skyping with y'all. It was so awesome to get to talk to everyone. I cant believe how big Bruce and Clark are!! Super cute and talkative. I am excited to see everyone in February! Sarah, the mission president´s daughter is on vacation from school right now so she wanted to do a mini-mission for a few days with us which was fun. She is 16 years old and super animated and smart. She has such a great testimony and our investigatores loved her! She went back home today so we are a little sad. This transfer is going to be 7 weeks due to the holidays which means my last transfer will only be 5 weeks. That's really going to make the time fly by. Two of the families that I baptized with my trainer, Hna. Williams, will be getting sealed this upcoming week so I am hoping to be able to attend! It is such a wonderful blessing and I am super happy for them!

Love y'all,
Hna Lyman

My last day in Portoviejo.




Christmas Card from My Mission President

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Queridos Elderes y Hermanas,

Adjunto les mandamos una tarjeta de Navidad de parte de nuestra familia y la tarjeta que vamos a mandar a todas sus familias de parte de todos nosotros en la misión.  Qué tengan una muy Feliz Navidad!  Les queremos mucho!!!

Presidente y Hermana Dennis (y Sarah)





Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Birthday Fun!!!

Monday, November 3, 2014



The Guillem family spoiled me.  It was also the birthday of their daughter Julia so we celebrated together.




Ice cream cake from Hermana Nancy and Isabel.  It was so good.  This was me biting the cake before they shoved my face in it.


 24 years old!



Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Lots of Cooking!

Monday, October 13, 2014

We made blondies today! They were so GOOD!!! We also ate Tongas in the house of Lizardo, our convert. It is rice and chicken with a peanut butter sauce that they wrap in banana leaves and then cook in a fire. We will try this when y'all come to pick me up!




Sister Conference and General Conference!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Photos from the Sisters Conference October 1st! In the bus to Guayaquil at 6 AM! With Hermana Saucedo my compañera from 4 transfers ago! 

With Hermana Quist, Hermana Saucedo and Hermana Vera. Nurses! With Hermana Blas! She picked me up from the office on my first day in Ecuador.

The Guillem Family!

We used the Gel Pens to take notes during the Conference! It was perfect for Julia! Who knew all you needed was gel pens to get a 15 year old to pay attention to conference! Thanks for the gift mom, I'm addicted to them!  

No Cambios!!!!

Transfers happened last night and guess what......... I DIDN'T have cambios! YAY! I have at least 6 more weeks in Portoviejo. A lot happened this week we had the sisters conference and traveled to Guayaquil which is always fun but tiresome. We also had general conference this weekend so we were busy making invitations and inviting everybody. The conference was PERFECT for our investigador, Mariana. She practices a spiritual practice called Tao which originated in China. She believes in the book of Mormon and bible but also in other books that have been written by other religions etc. She also believes in reincarnation. She is an engineer and is a reference from my last convert, Lizardo. She is awesome, prayers for her please. Don't have any more time left but hope everyone has a great week! 

Say your prayers
Read your scriptures
Go to church
Have family Home Evenings
Attend the temple regularly

Richard G. Scott said it all.  

Love,
Hna. Lyman

Photos!

Monday, September 29, 2014

La Familia Guillem.  Hermana Guillem has cancer, kidney failure- with dialysis, diabetes, and a broken foot.  She looks so beautiful!  We have been teaching them for 5 weeks now and they are pretty much family. 


We have been on a lot of road trips lately.  Always traveling to Guayaquil or Manta.










Tuesday, September 9, 2014

One Year!

ONE YEAR......
 
I am really dying now.  
This week went by really quickly. We traveled to Guayaquil for a 2 day tri-mission nursing training with the mission Guayaquil South and North. I got to meet the new mission president's wife from the north. She served a mission in Mexico and her husband in Santiago, Chile. Dad I think y'all might have served at the same time. His last name is Riggins and I believe he is from Idaho. She said he was serving when they split the mission into the north and south. It was a fun training and neat to meet nurses from the other missions.
As for Portoviejo.... I am as happy and content as I think I could be. I feel like it is my Ecadorian home. Still working with Juan and his addiction and now his wife is participating in the lessons and starting to read the Book of Mormon. We have some other good investigadors that we are excited about.

Love,
H. Lyman

 
Here is a photo of the entire mission in celebration of the mission's one year anniversary.

Portoviejo

This week we were very blessed to have the baptism and confirmation of Danilo and Cecilia. President Dennis and his wife attended with about a third of the ward which made it that much more special. We are so happy for them and I feel like they are family. We have a family home evening planned with them for tonight and are going to teach them about The Family Proclamation to the World. Which is so incredible and I want to start using it more with inactive families. Juan is progressing well but is still struggling with his addiction to tobacco. He went 2 days without smoking but he has been having withdrawals and it has been very difficult for him. He had severe left chest pain and shortness of breath during one of our lessons and had to step outside to smoke. I told him he needed to see a doctor to get checked out.  I hope he doesn’t have cardiac issues. It kills me to see the look of disappointment on his face when he tells us he has smoked. He has such a strong desire to quit. The bishop gave him a blessing on Sunday and he has started to attend the addiction recovery program at the church. Many prayers are needed for him please.

I feel so much love for these families we are teaching. I am so happy here in Portoviejo and learning a ton. I feel like this is the place is going to be my favorite. I am going to cry when I have to leave it but know the Lord knows best.

Hermana Bassett is so AWESOME! I am training her to be the next nurse for when I end the mission. She is the sister with dark hair that is in my photos with Danilo and Cecilia. She is from Nevada.

I haven’t been happier in all of my mission.
One year y’all!
H. Lyman


Danilo and Cecilia baptism
 

 
                               
Hermana Saucedo and my Ecuadorian haircut.  Almost all of the women have their hair cut in a V shape....so I thought why not?
 
 

La Paz, Portoviejo

This week has been super crazy with a lot of unexpected happenings. My companion ended up having to go back home because of the side effects from the medications that she was taking. She was taking a medication for her acne that started here on the mission due to sun damage and dust. Hermana Garrett was awesome and I miss her but I’m having a lot of fun with my new companion Hermana Bassett too. She is from Elko, Nevada and I haven’t felt so American in all my mission until her. She has 4 months in the mission and is so sweet. She is always doing my hair or giving me food. I am very content here in Portoviejo.... Mom and Dad we are coming here when you guys come to pick me up. It is 4 hours from Guayaquil, but only 45 min from the coast.

We have been working really hard to help Juan an invesigador that we have been teaching for about 3 weeks now. He has an addiction to cigarettes and has already quit drinking coffee. It has been really hard for him to cut back on his cigarettes, but we are going to make goals for him and we are going to assist the addiction recovery program with him that the church offers. He wants to quit so badly. He is progressing very well in the gospel and reading chapters daily in the Book of Mormon. Prayers for him please.

 Today we had an activity to help raise money for the couple that we have been teaching Danilo and Cecilia. They are getting married on Wednesday so we helped them make Ceviche, the BEST Ecuadorian dish there is, and sold it to members of the church and also the 18 missionaries that are in Portoviejo. President and Hermana Dennis were actually here today because we had interviews with him today and have a tri-zone conference in Manta tomorrow. They also came to buy Ceviche so it was awesome to have them in the home of our investigadors. It was so much fun and really animated Danilo and Cecilio! It was neat to see how excited they were to talk to all the missionaries from different countries. I also told them that when my parents come we are going to cook Ceviche with them. It took Danilo 3 hours to clean and cut the fish for the Ceviche but we sold about 40 bowls of it. Danilo is finishing up his residency at a hospital in Manta and they have the cutest little baby girl Bellamia. They are getting baptized on Friday!

Love and miss y’all,
H. Lyman
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, June 28, 2014

MANABI MANABI MANABI

I Love Manabi. Love it Love it Love it!

The town of Portoviejo is so neat, reminds me a lot of Fredricksberg, TX. The houses are so old but it has a nice small town feel. The apartment we live in is so beautiful and we have HOT water! Could I ask for anything more?? Haha! I will send pictures next week. There are a lot of people here with light eyes and skin so I pretty much fit in here as a native! They eat a lot more seafood here because it is only about 45 minutes to Manta, the coast. Ceviche is a popular dish that has fish, shrimp, lime, tomatoe, and herbs. It is like a shrimp cocktail on steriods. 

Our bishop is awesome and every Saturday we have a movie night in the church for the ward and investigadors which has turned out to be very successful. The spirit is always super strong and it is great for animating our investigators to attend church the next day.

We have 3 investigadores that are so awesome and progressing really well. President Dennis has been directing us towards really teaching the doctrine well and not inviting people to be baptized until after teaching about the Resturation and bauptism and confirmation unless the spirit indicates otherwise. That the people need to understand who they are and their value. We now start almost every first lesson with teaching about the nature and purpose of the Godhead, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. How they function and their natures. As well as who we are as children of God and our value and potential. My favorite scripture to share for this is Romans 8: 16-17. President Dennis shared with us Moses 1 several times and how when we know who we are and our value, Satan does not have power over us. Guayaquil as a city (including all 3 missions) has the most baptisms than anyother city in the world. Elder Waddell from the 70 at the tri-mission conference we had 2 weeks ago said he wants to see it be the city with the most retention. That baptism without the temple ordenances doesnt value anything. I have the BEST mission president in the world.  He truely only cares about converts.  

Love and Miss yall,
H. Lyman

Monday, June 9, 2014

A Week From Heaven

I am so spritually happy I don't want it to ever end. I feel like I'm in a moment where I wish I could hold on to it forever. How can you feel so happy, so full, so sure of who you are and why you are where you are? I have never felt the Saviors love so much in my life. I wish I could express all of the wonderful things that have happened this week, to put to words how incredibly blessed I have been, or how I feel, but I can´t.

This week I received a phone call from my last convert Jorge, that lives in La Florida, my prior sector. He traveled to Bahìa for his job for several weeks the day after his baptism. I was so nervious for him because he would be working in an area 2 hours away from the nearest chapel and would not be able to attend church. He also had a problem that was hard for him to overcome. However as long as he was reading his scriptures he was able to stay strong. I wrote him a letter and gave it to him at his baptism. In the letter, I expressed to him how grateful I was to be able to teach him and be a part of his conversion. I also told him that he had to promise to read his scriptures everyday to stay strong and fight temptation. Especially since he wouldn't be able to attend church for several weeks. He called me this week and told me, ¨Hermana Lyman, I read all of the Book of Mormon and the Bible...I just got back to Guayaquil today and I cant wait to go to church on Sunday!¨ I cried. How wonderful is this gospel, how blessed am I?

Today we had a conference with the 3 missions in Guayaquil. The apostle Dalin H. Oaks was suppose to come, however was unable to make it due to travel difficulties. Instead, the mission presidents and their wives spoke as well as one of the 70, Elder Waddell. When President and Hermana Dennis talked at the conference, I was so proud to be from the west mission....so proud to be from the BEST mission in the world. I have noticed in the last zone conference, womens conference, and this conference with Elder Waddell that President and Hermana Dennis GLOW. I saw the same glow in Elder Waddell. The light of Christ shines through them and I thought about Alma 5.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my personal conversion. Thinking about who I am and my purpose in the mission. I have a lot to learn and still have a lot of things I need to do to progress as a missionary and daughter of God. I feel like the time has just flown by and that I don't have much time left. I want to make my Heavenly Father proud of me. I am going to do my best to do that and try and use every minute I have left on the mission to being a better missionary and daughter.

I also have been thinking more about who I am. In doing so, I am beginning to feel more and more the love of my Heavenly Father and a greater love for myself. A closer relationship with Him. I have already seen a difference in my attitude, etc. as I have pondered more about who I am. This also lead me to think more about my family history and who my ancestors where. I am so proud of who they are and what they did. Knowing who my ancesters were and that I am a daughter of God has really helped me. I cannot wait to learn more about them....to honor them. Knowing who they are makes me feel like I know myself better...my purpose better.

Con Amor,
Hermana Lyman

Monday, May 26, 2014

P-Day

It was such a blessing to get to talk with everyone Sunday! I miss everybody so much and everyone looked wonderful.  Glad to see that the Lord is blessing my family at home. This week went by so fast but was mentally exhausting.  We barely spent any time in the sector and most of our time researching clinics online and an endless stream of phone calls. We will leave tomorrow for a 6 hour bus drive to Bahía in Manabi. From there we will visit Manta, Montecristi, Portoviejo, and Daule. I am pretty excited to travel but it is going to be very exhausting and make for some long days. I hear that some of the roads are not paved so I am going to pack some meds just in case I get motion sickness.

My companion and I love our new Zone. Our zone leaders are awesome and the Elders are hilarious! Not sure what it is but all the missionaries end up getting sick in our zone. One has chicken pox and is stuck in the house for 21 days. He has to stay out of the sun to prevent scaring, his papules are almost all gone and healed but he still can’t shave because there are still some on his face. We call him mountain man with his full on beard.

Another Elder in our zone recently decided to cut his ingrown toenail off himself but only made it about halfway. We give handouts when missionaries arrive to the misión on prevention for certain illnesses and one for ingrown toenails since it is so common. On the handout is a picture of the toe after a doctor has removed part of the nail. He told me that he thought he had to do that since it was on the hand-out. The zone leaders tried to help him cut it out too.  His toe looks pretty gross and I am surprised he cut it out as much as he did. Haha we are going to revise the hand-out and put in bold- DOCTOR WILL REMOVE THE TOENAIL IF NEED BE.

Wanted to send pictures but my memory card doesn’t fit in the computer tower.

Love,
H. Lyman

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Portete

Portete is a nice area, our sector includes 4 gated neighborhoods that aren't very big. The sector is very small and a lot less walking distance than La Florida. We still haven't had much time in the sector. We are trying to get to know the members more because we know absolutely nobody! We are having English classes Wednesday and hoping that we can receive some references that way. The phone reception is awful and almost non-existent in our house. I'm not sure how much time I will have here but I imagine until July. That is our goal to have everything organized in the nursing department by then. We are going to be making plans to travel this week probably for the 3rd week in May to all of the Provinces. I am pretty excited about that! I will get to see many different parts of the mission. Our zone here only has one other companionship of sisters with tons of elders which is way different than my last zone.

This week I completed 9 months in the mission! I had completely forgotten about my halfway mark. We are in a Trio right now because Hermana Taylor from Nicaragua arrived this week and is with us until President can find an apartment in Mapasigne for another companionship of sisters. We went out to eat with President and Hermana Dennis when she arrived and Pres. asked me when I hit my 9 month mark...and realized it was that day! He told me it was all downhill from there.

Love,
H. Lyman

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Cambios

So this week I had my first transfer. Almost cant believe that I am 9 months into my mission and finally had my first cambio. I am still in Guayaquil but more central western part of the city in Portete. I really like the area it is a lot nicer and cleaner than La Florida but also a lot harder to teach. We live in a gated urbanization in a cute little house and we have started running in the mornings again. We run to a bridge that's over one of the rivers that flows through Guayaquil. There is a little park in our neighborhood that has a running course. I am still with Hermana Saucedo and 2 other Hermanas live our house also. One is from Argentina and I love her accent in Spanish! She is way fun and reminds me of you mom. So far we have only had one day in the sector this week...more like half a day because we have been going to doctor appointments etc. We had a small group of new missionaries arrive this week and half of them got sick. Without fail several of the newbies got sick, every time. Last night I was in the ER with a Hermana until midnight for swelling, inflammation, and redness to both legs. The doppler ultrasound of her legs took almost 2 hours! I am becoming well known in these clinics. I got a little homesick being in the ER.

Hoping we can find people to teach, the sector is small and we know absolutely nobody. The sector includes 4 gated neighborhoods and also a sector with housing for the policia. This Sunday we are excited to meet some members and get some references for less active families.

With love,
H. Lyman

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Updates from Ecuador

This week was a really good week. The other 3 hermanas that live with us are ALL sick. So we have been in and out of clinics since Thursday! They are all doing better now but it has been quite heck-tic. I am loving being in the clinics....it makes me want to go back to school that much more! I am developing more love for Guayaquil and not sure if I´m wanting to leave it whenever time for transfers comes. My companion and I started working out in the mornings which has been great. It makes the rest of the day run smoother. We have stake conference today and tomorrow and our investigador Jorge is going. He is AWESOME. He is so prepared and started reading the Book of Mormon on Sunday and has already read to 2 Nephi 18. Sister Smith and I contacted him one day in the street back in January and visited him twice. His neighbor is the second counselor to the bishop and invited him to go to church this last Sunday and he went. He attended a baptism with us yesterday and is so excited to get baptized! He showed up in a suit and tie with his Book of Mormon. He was singing the hymns quite loudly and it was the coolest thing ever. It is so amazing to see the change in people that the gospel brings.

H. Lyman

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Libertad

I am sick...the nurse is sick.

I have had congestion and a cough for two days now and it looks like my cough is just getting worse. The good news is I feel well enough to work and I am sure It will run its course here in a few days.

This week was a busy but successful one. We had a conference with an administrative representative for a laboratory in guayaquil about the new insurance and about our motives to have a contract with them. They have several different laboratories located throughout Guayaquil and we will be able to send missionaries to the laboratory without seeing a doctor or receiving a script for exams. In the past we have sent missionaries to clinics, the first day they have a consult with a doctor, the second day they have labs done such as blood or urine, 3rd day imaging if needed such as echogram or xrays etc, and then they return a fourth time to read all the results with the doctor. This has taken so much time out of the sector and a lot of money.  This sparked the idea that maybe we could just send missionaries to a lab and order tests that we want and send the results of the exams to the area medical doctor in Bogota, Colombia for evaluation for treatment. This means the missionary will only have to go to the lab to drop off a specimen or have blood drawn and we can receive the results by internet. Cutting down 4 visits to 1 as well as costs for doctor visits. Dr. Piepgrass and President loved the idea however I was not sure if it could be done. We made a lot of calls and visits to different laboratory facilities. Last we heard, the insurance company and the laboratory we had a conference with were starting to make the contract yesterday. I am beyond thrilled that this is coming to pass! Also come to find out this company also offers an ambulance service that will transfer from smaller clinics in other provinces and imaging.

Yesterday we traveled with president to Libertad (the peninsula) and I got to see the BEACH.... from the car window but still… first time to leave Guayaquil. My companion Hermana Saucedo, who I am training right now for nursing, and Hermana Smith, my last companion, performed health interviews for all the missionaries in the zone. We have a medical history sheet that they filled out and explained any complications on the mission or before etc. Also they did a lot of teaching on prevention of illnesses and my favorite.... how to use a thermometer. We use the glass ones here and about 70 percent of the missionaries do not know how to use one. This makes it very difficult to explain to them over the phone etc. They also took blood pressures and pulses and talked a lot about diet and exercise. While they did the interviews, Hermana Blas, the other new nurse, and I assessed 3 clinics and talked with administration about the new insurance etc. There are actually about 9 clinics in Libertad and the neighboring town Santa Elena. We didn't have time to assess all of them but found a fairly nice clinic that we are most likely going to use. Hermana Blas and Smith will assess the other 6 clinics.  It was a lot of fun to tour the clinics and see how things work here. We also taught a few small lessons about the gospel here and there to staff at the clinics. It was nice to visit Libertad but for some reason I was happy to be back in Guayaquil. Guess it is kind of like my home in Ecuador.

The office elders call us insurance salesmen and President and Hermana Dennis are so thrilled about what we are doing. One week into the projects and so far so good!

President and Hermana Dennis will be traveling this weekend so they asked Hermana Saucedo and I to stay the night Sunday with their daughter Sara in the mission home. We are so excited and Hermana Saucedo loves working as a nurse! She now wants to go to nursing school when she gets back. We are still taking all the calls of the sick missionaries but hopefully in 2 weeks Hermana Smith and Hermana Blas will start receiving calls from the zones in Guayaquil and we will receive the calls from the 5 zones outside of Guayaquil.

Love,
Hermana Lyman

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Nursing

Lots to report from Ecuador!

I received a new companion on Monday, Hermana Saucedo, from Arkansas. We have only been together 5 days and it feels like months. I have never laughed so much in my LIFE!!! She is loving the nursing aspect of the mission and so excited to be a nurse. We had another conference this week with President Torres from the Guayaquil South Mission. He is a doctor so he gave us a basic overview of how he runs things as far as missionary health. We received some great ideas from their mission however feel that more organization is needed. We have spent so much MONEY on clinical visits in the 6 months I have been here alone and so we have some great ideas on how we want to cut the cost of missionary health down. Hermana Saucedo and I have done a lot of research this week and had a 2 hour meeting with President Dennis and Hermana Dennis last night about our ideas and things we want to do. They LOVED our proposal and want us to have another meeting once we decide how we want to prioritize our projects. With this being said we are no longer proselyting missionaries. Due to the amount of research and reports that will need to be done for this to come to pass we will be spending everyday in the office and a lot of time traveling. We only have a few clinics outside of Guayaquil and NONE of them accept our new Insurance Aetna-GMMI. We will be traveling to every zone in the mission to assess clinics, speak with administration about contracts with the new insurance companies, missionary trainings in district meetings, and health interviews for every single missionary. I will also be administering the FLU vaccination to every missionary.  Here in the southern Hemisphere, flu season started this month.

The new insurance also provides contracts with imaging and laboratories. Part of our project will be assessing medical equipment used for imaging for the make and year or generation. A lot of the imaging machines here are old equipment that was bought from the USA. This makes a huge difference in the diagnosis process for the doctors in Salt Lake. For example we had a sister that was sent home in February for a meniscal tear in the knee, however when she returned home and received another MRI, it showed it was an old tear. With an old generation MRI machine it is unable to detect certain things such as small brain tumors etc. With this being said we will be writing reports on every clinic and lab about the equipment and how the tests are performed to verify.

Will keep everyone updated on our projects throughout the next several weeks. We will be starting with clinics and laboratories in Guayaquil.

Love and Miss Y’all,
Hermana Lyman

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Privileges

So new news for this week is that with transfers coming up this Tuesday we have been preparing for the new missionaries to arrive. We have 7 Hermanas and 5 Elders coming. This is so STRANGE that there are more Hermanas than Elders! Also President and Hermana Dennis are going to leave me in La Florida for 6 more weeks to train a new nurse that way I can leave Guayaquil one of these days and experience life outside the big city and see the coast! I love Guayaquil and the office but ready for a change. It will be so nice to have more time in the sector as well! We currently only have one assistant and a new secretary being trained in the office so it just won’t be the same without the original office crew that our mission (being new) started off with. We also have a new Region Medical Doctor, Dr. Bart, in Lima, Peru who is awesome. I’ve had the chance to speak with him twice this week and he about talked my ear off about how certain labs here don’t have the adequate equipment for certain testing and imaging procedures. Makes me super nervous for our missionaries that have to have surgery when the need arises. We are really blessed to have him and he is very helpful. This week we wrote a monthly report for the month of February with all of the missionaries with health problems that impeded their work.  This was by far my longest monthly report! Also two other reports, letters for zone leaders, and organizing binders for the other future nurses.  

Monday and Tuesday we were pretty much locked into the apartment all day because of carnival. During this time we went exploring and discovered that the 4th floor of our apartment building has stations for washing clothes and a WASHING MACHINE!!! WHAT.....almost 6 months of washing some of my clothes by hand. Oh well building character, right? Made me think of a lesson that Hermana Dennis gave in our Sisters’ Conference last week about ¨living below our privileges.¨ She showed us a Mormon video about a man who took a cruise and only ate canned beans and stayed in his room for the duration of the trip. At the end of his trip he came to realize that the food and activities aboard the ship were included in the travel fee and he had rights to everything the ship had to offer. The moral of the story is that Heavenly Father is willing to give us so much...and more. However most of the time we don’t care or even think to look outside of our own view to access all of the marvelous things this life and our Heavenly father is wanting to bless us with. Are we ¨living below our privileges? ¨

Love and Miss Y’all,

Hermana Lyman

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

This foto is of 3 of my conversos--Rafael, Oswaldo, and Richard moments after they received the Melchizedek priesthood! What a wonderful day this was! Rafael (21) and Richard (20) are preparing for their missions and have been accompanying us with lessons. This week we I gave Richard Preach My Gospel and he was so Happy to receive it. Rafael went to a missionary get together with conversos, menos activos, and investigadores last night and bore his testimony about the gospel and thanked me for teaching him and the change the gospel has brought to his life. I teared up a little bit and it meant so much to me to hear that. He has also gone to the temple a few times and is so faithful! Oswaldo is gold through and through. 


My Compi, Hermana Smith, My New Yorker. She speaks a bit of Chinese, completed a year at BYU, plays the harp, lived in Beijing, China for 6 weeks and loves Chinese Medicine.




















Some random cute kid with his gorgeous hair! Everybody drives motos here...family and all.

 
This a view of some of the houses in part of our sector, Las Lomas. In one of the photos you can actually see the church at the end of the street. The chapel is beautiful with big palm trees.




















My most recent convert, Michelle (22) I just LOVE LOVE LOVE her and her BEAUTIFUL family. This week she invited us over to teach her about family home evening and Monday we are planning on having it with her family. She is so gorgeous. This photos are after her wedding....wonderful day.




Michelle and Orlando in front of the temple.




















Michelle holding her wedding licence...she was GLOWING all weekend!


Hermana Chillagillo one of my favorite Mamitas! She is an awesome cook.


El Centro, edificios bonitos!


My converts Rafael and Bella. Rafael baptized his mom shortly after his baptism.



Elder Lopez and I in the CCM in Mexico City! Sure he is doing great things in Chile!


Miscellaneous pictures!