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