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

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!

Sister Appreciation!

This week we actually had a women's conference for all 40 Hermanas which was so wonderful. We attended a temple session Tuesday night which was well needed and therapeutic. We stayed the night at the temple housing which was so much fun, like a slumber party with the sisters and the view was incredible of the temple at night from our room. The next day we had a conference at the mission home and President gave a talk about his wife and their life together which was so amazing to hear. He teared up a few times and really gave a wonderful talk about the influence of mothers in their homes. Also Hermana Dennis gave an inspirational talk and had a lovely lunch. It was such a stress reliever for all of the Hermanas myself included! We are going to have these conferences at least 2 times a year however H. Dennis wants to be able to do them every 3 months.

With the increase of sick missionaries and clinical visits I have had little to almost no time in the sector this month. President told me he was going to move me to a sector closer to the office and that I would be more of an office missionary but I really want my time in the sector. It is what makes me happy and especially on bad days. Teaching the gospel to others works wonders. So I have some WONDERFUL news that I am very excited about. There will actually be 4 hermana companionships assigned to 3 different zones that will receive calls for those zones. Right now I have started training my companion and in 2 weeks with transfers she will train someone else and I will as well. I will receive weekly calls from the other nurses to receive reports on their zones or if they need help or anything out of the ordinary they call me. This is how the Guayaquil South Mission has their nursing system set up and it seems to work really well for the mission. President Torres from the South came to the office this week with 4 of his nurses and gave a presentation on how the system works etc. They also have an R.N. and it was so neat to meet her. She told me that she is able to focus more on the documentaion in EMED log, reports, stats, and prevention with other nurses in the zones. Needless to say I am very thrilled about this! Also she explained that she is able to do the work that requires internet outside the office at cybers to do her documentaion and right now is actually serving in Cuenca outside of Guayaquil. So I might be able to go elsewhere in the mission!

This weekend was wonderful! We had our investigador, Michelle, get married yesterday and baptized today. Her husband has been menos activo for years and now is coming back to church! They have 2 beautiful children and we love them so much! It is amazing how fast people progress in the gospel and change from the Book of Mormon. They have been reading their scriptures faithfully and it has been a marvelous wonder to see the change in their lives. After their civil wedding we walked the temple grounds and actually got to sit inside the temple. They are so happy and excited to get sealed as a family in a year. Michelle is GLOWING. This is why I am here in Ecuador, a beautiful reminder.

Love,
Hermana Lyman

Busy Week, But Still Fulfilling

I had quite the stressful week with 15 people who had clinical visits and there is actually an elder in the hospital right now with new onset diabetes. His blood sugar was 500! It has been staying around 200 now that he  has been on an insulin drip and getting fluids for a day. We hope he will be released today. We had two sisters that had endoscopies because they can´t eat anything without vomiting and or diarrhea for 2 weeks or more despite every medication known to mankind including La Bomba. We also have several missionaries that have pre-existing health issues that they did NOT list in their mission papers so I have 3 people I need to write reports on for the area medical doctor. The increase in sick missionaries has gotten out of control! This week my companion and I are actually going to be spending a lot more time in the office to organize treatment regimens and intreventions for prevention of illnesses. Many of these Elders only want to drink Cola even when they are SICK! Or want to help owners catch their dogs and refuse to take the rabbies shots after the dog bites them. I hate to be stern with them but they just dont get it sometimes.

We actually had a cool thing happen this week. We had a reference from a member that we went to contact and actually followed the directions exactly but turned out to be a different family and the member had given us the wrong direction.  The father, Wilmer, was so friendly and introduced us to all 6 of his kids. We made an appointment for the next day and 3 of his kids are getting baptized this month.  His ex-wife left him and her 2 kids from another man so he has their 4 kids and 2 of hers from her prior spouse. They don´t have running water and live in a tiny cinderblock house with a tin roof.  Wilmer works everyday and can´t attend church but wants to be baptized so badly.  He does EVERYTHING for his family and is so loving.  We are excited to teach him about keeping the sabbath day holy and tithing and the blessings he will receive!  I actually teared up in ward council meeting talking about them.  To have nothing but yet be so loving and giving of the things you do have.

Love and Miss Yáll,

Hermana Lyman

One Year Left

It has been quite interesting to me to see how my weeks go.  I have weeks were I can focus mostly on our investigators and work in the sector and weeks where I am spending most of my time in the office or on the phone with sick missionaries or doctors. This week was almost completely nursing with only a few hours in our sector this week. Our numbers are so LOW....never ever have my numbers been this low.  We have only been averaging about 2.5 hours daily in the sector this week. Yesterday alone, we counted, and I had 18 different missionaries call for varies health issues. I have to report all of these to President, document in EMED log, send them different medications and treatment regimens, and make appointments. With this being said the Area Medical Adviser, Dr. Piepgrass, and I have become pretty good friends. He is going to make a great reference for my job application one day. Also I am really wanting to go back to school when I get back for nurse practitioner....hopefully it will still be a masters program when I get back and not a doctorate.

Love and Miss Yáll,

Hermana Lyman 

6 Months

Ecuador.

So I will hit my 6 month mark this week...not sure if it has flown by quickly or slowly.  What I do know is this is the BEST decision I have made in my life.  I have learned so much and grown so much in so many ways.  Recognizing more and more the love that Heavenly Father has for all of his children and the countless miracles he provides us with. 

Love,

Hermana Lyman

The Worst and the Best of the Mission!

I cannot put words to the week I have had. It is more than safe to say this past week has been the toughest week of my ENTIRE life. Everyone decides they want to be sick the week before Christmas....I will never understand that. I have also been sick this week and had a headache for 4 days but I am feeling much better. My cell phone has been constantly glued to my face and multiple people sent to clinics. The clinics in Guayaquil tend to be very reliable however making appointments outside of Guayaquil and finding specialist takes some time and about a million phone calls. Everybody at the new insurance company knows me by name because we have had so many sick missionaries lately and I have called at least 2 times every day. Wednesday we had 5 missionaries in clinics for multiple reasons, a gallbladder removed, and wisdom teeth removed.  I spent a good several hours on the phone with Aetna, missionaries, and Clinics. I cried my eyes out at the end of the day. This week we also had 18 new missionaries arrive from different MTCs and only 2 new Hermanas. President called me Friday morning and told me I was going to be a trainer....I thought I misunderstood him but the assistants called me and told me that Hermana Smith, one of the new Hermanas was going to be my new companion. I got that nausea feeling in my stomach and thought that President must have lost his marbles because my Spanish is far from fluent and I am stressing so much with my responsibilities for nursing. He explained to me that it is only for a week or so until after the holidays when he can focus more on changes for the Hermanas. Yesterday was the best day of my mission. Never have I felt the help of the Lord so much in my life all at once. Words were just flowing from my mouth and promptings of what to say and do kept coming to mind. No doubt in my mind that this is the Lord´s work and that he is literally carrying me through these days.

I love the Lord, in him my soul delights!

Feliz Navidad!