Week 3 in Ecuador!

Hola!

This week has flown by unlike the first two weeks. Ecuador is beginning to feel like a reality and part of my life. I am beginning to love the people and the city more and more. The ward is great and shows us so much support. Our bishop is all about missionary work and even goes out with us tracting sometimes. Our baptism last week went very well. My companion and I actually sang a duet at his baptism which I would have NEVER done in the states. We sing all the time here and I actually enjoy it very much. He also asked me to give the closing prayer in English. Richard is a 19 year old who is attending school and working. We are the 2nd set of missionaries that he has gone through and he has progressed so much! He wants to learn English so badly and I have actually been teaching him these last two weeks. He now knows how to pray and bear his testimony in English. Today we have another baptism of an 11 year old boy Leyton.

This week we had a 2 day conference for the 17 new missionaries that arrived from the CCM in Mexico and in Colombia. My companion and I did preventative teaching and handed out first-aid kits and teaching charts that we had made. We have already had 5 of those missionaries call us with gastro-intestinal problems and sickness from the altitude changes etc. Due to the change of health insurance for the Church, we are having to have a list of Doctors, Clinics, Imaging, and Laboratories that we plan to use in the Guayaquil West mission for the insurance company by Sunday. If we do not have the Doctor or Clinic listed, we cannot receive insurance coverage for the future. Hermana Williams and I spent several hours yesterday going to various doctor offices and clinics in Guayaquil. Then we had to document all this information into the Church medical program, eMed log. It was neat to see the different offices and clinics and meet several doctors. It was a lot of stress due to the time constraint.

Wish I had more time, but we have a lot to do today!

With love,
Hermana Lyman

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

Ecuador!!!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Hola de Guayaquil!

I arrived here around 11:00 am this morning. Presidente Dennis and his wife picked me up from the airport and they are so sweet!  They took me out to eat at a Chinese restaurant here that was really nice. I also met their daughter Sara who is 15 and attending an American Academy in the city. The city is a lot different than I expected. I guess I thought it would look more like Mexico City, however it is a lot nicer.  It makes me excited for y'all to come pick me up. The mission office is way nice as well; it is in a new building right across from the temple. I have met my companion, she is 25, a nurse, and leaves in November. Hermana Williams is her name and she seems to be cool. However I miss Hermana Berrett :( It is so incredibly hot here and they say it is cool for Guayaquil. Feels like Houston in the middle of summer. The rest of the new missionaries actually arrive 2 weeks from now. There will be 22 new missionaries in my mission arriving. I am so incredibly TIRED!!! I was able to sleep on my flight to Bogota, Colombia which was 4 hours. I am looking forward to getting some sleep tonight. Presidente Dennis told me that they had 87 baptisms in my mission a few weeks ago but it usually is around 30. Well don't have much time left, but my P-days are now on Saturdays so I will write more then!

Con Amor,
Hermana Lyman

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Hola de Ecuador,
 

Saturdays will be my P-Days now because that is when the office has P-days which is nice. The few days I have been here have been quite different and well let’s just say a CULTURE SHOCK. The area of Guayaquil that I am in is called La Florida Norte. The people here are so sweet and open to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We already have a Baptism next Saturday and 3 more in the upcoming weeks. A few weekends ago the mission had 87 baptisms from what Presidente Dennis told me. All the women kiss our cheeks anytime you enter and leave a house or even at church, when someone walks through the door even if they don´t know you, they greet you with a kiss on the cheek before they pass.  

So far I have not seen a mosquito or any bugs....pure happiness there. However there is a serious bird, cat, and dog problem here. Our apartment is on the 3rd floor of an apartment building and there is a cat that will get on our balcony and use it as it´s personal liter box. Also there is this bird that perches itself on our window and makes the weirdest sound at 6 am. Some guys came to fix one of the showers in our apartment the other day and removed one of the bird´s next from our balcony. There were 2 baby birds that were big and ugly in the nest that he took home to EAT!!! How disgusting is that? He first put them on our floor in our apartment while he was cleaning out the balcony and while he was doing so the baby birds used the bathroom on our floor. They stink so badly. The little kids here like to play with the cats and kittens. They pick them up by their arms and swing them around and around. I feel so bad for the cats!  

We take the buses everywhere and it only costs 25 cents! I love that the currency here is American money but I am not use to using so many coins. We do not have warm water in our bathrooms so I am still getting use to the cold showers. There are 5 hermanas total in our apartment and they are all so sweet. My companion is from South Carolina and the other 3 Hermanas are from Bolivia and Colombia. It is so funny because I can barely communicate with them but they help me with my Spanish and I help them with their English. My companion is great, we get along well. She is also a nurse and training me in the office 3 times a week with medical records and documentation as well as the missionary life. I am nervous for her to leave in November. I'm trying my best to get the language down but it is so frustrating not being able to communicate much. In the lessons I pray and bare my testimony. I am able to follow what my companion is teaching however I have a hard time understanding the natives. They speak so fast and mumble. It doesn't help that my Spanish vocabulary is very limited. I am walking around with a hand-sized dictionary and doing as much language study as I can when there is a free minute or two. My companion is getting several calls a day with sick missionaries so it is quite a busy workload with proselyting and coordinating appointments and information to the missionaries and Hermana Dennis, the mission president´s wife.
 

The food here is pretty good, lots of bananas and rice. I am being extremely careful with things I eat and washing my hands and using hand sanitizer like crazy. I can't wait to be able to speak more and teach people.  So far things are going well just trying to keep the stress light which is very difficult at times.

Con Amor,

Hermana Lyman

Terminal Semana in el CCM!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Hola de el Ciudad de México!

This is my last week here in the CCM! I will receive my flight itinerary tomorrow so as of now I believe I will be flying out the 12th. Most of the missionaries leave the CCM around 1:30 am so it would not surprise me if I leave sometime around then as well. There are quite a few Hermanas that will be flying to Ecuador with me which will be nice. I am not looking forward to packing all of my things back up. Wish you were here to help me with that again Mom and Grandma. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. However I can't wait to serve the Lord and the people of Ecuador.

Hermana Berrett and I played tennis a few times this week and I have decided I might want to take lessons when I get back or when I'm old and want to play tennis with all the ladies. She is really good and fun to play with! She also likes to golf so we joke and say we are going to live near each other so when we are old we can just go play sports when we aren't working at the hospital. The longer I'm here the more I am convinced that I want to do traveling nursing when I get back. A few months in Spain would be so ideal and I find myself thinking about it a lot. We will see! There are so many things I want to do when I get back. I feel like being here has made my perspective of life that much bigger. I have a desire to learn and progress in so many things. The gospel is so fulfilling and I am so happy here. I know that there is nowhere else I am supposed to be and I am so grateful for this opportunity. 

This week we also discovered that Hermano Brown, one of our instructors, is 4 months YOUNGER than me. I am older than my teacher....that is definitely a first! He is such a great instructor and Hermano Sagers, our other instructor, reminds me a lot of Tanner. They both are so great and teach so well.  It is actually pretty chilly in the mornings and nights here. It is the rainy season right now so it gets chilly when it rains as well. 

We do not have air conditioning because we really don't need it. We use to open the windows at night and we still slept with a blanket. It is getting too cool now to have our windows open at night. I am trying to enjoy the cool while I can because Guayaquil will be HOT all year long.  While cleaning last preparation day we found 2 cockroaches! I am surprised that there really aren't that many bugs around here. There are about a billion mosquitos everywhere but luckily they don't like me here. The soda here has a crazy amount of sugar in them because they have no regulations on how much can be in them. I can only drink half a soda. I love these chocolate chip cookies called Chokis here; they taste just like Chips Ahoy. The Cheetos here also have a nice spice on them. Dad you will be proud of me, I eat salsa every day on my tacos at lunch! They have a different kind of salsa every day sometimes hot sometimes mild. My favorite is a verde salsa with avocado but they are all good. My tolerance for spicy has gone up a few notches.

Today we went to the temple again and it was such a wonderful experience. I love the all the workers in México they are so sweet and strong in the gospel. The temple is so beautiful and I am so glad we got to go again before we leave. My love for The Book of Mormon has grown so much! Every chapter, yea every verse is just so great. I have felt an increased closeness with Heavenly Father and can feel his love as I have read and prayed daily. I am a daughter of God! He loves me, he blesses me continuously. He wants me to be like him and enjoy a fullness of joy. This is why he sent me to earth. To learn, progress, obtain a physical body and have faith in him so I can return to live in his presence. Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. Through him I can repent of my sins and follow in his footsteps. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. Our flesh is weak, but our souls willing to follow Christ. 

My challenge: Read 2 Nephi Ch 4 and read or sing the hymn "Be Still My Soul."

My favorite hymn with my favorite chapter.

Con Amor,

Hermana Lyman

Temple today!!! 

These are my 3 roommates, we are the only Hermanas in our district as well.  Hermana Berrett, my companion, is in the light pink and black polka dots

Getting Closer to Ecuador!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Hola!!!

 

It has been yet another quick week that has passed in the CCM. The days seem to last forever and the weeks tend to fly by. Being here has made me feel so much of my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for me. I love it so much here and can´t wait to get to Ecuador! Sorry this e-mail is going to be brief. 

 

This week we were asked to invite others to come into Christ. We decided to sing hymns to some of the workers here and it was so much fun! The 3 Hermanas in my district and I decided to knock on the Mission President's door ( his home is not far from our classroom) and we shared a scripture and sang him and his wife a hymn. We were nervous about it and not sure if they would mind so we said a prayer before and had a good feeling about it. They invited us into their home and talked to us for about 45 minutes. They are so sweet and it was nice to feel like we were in an actual home with people who loved us. The closest thing to Grandma and Grandpa! The spirit is so strong when we sing and I love singing in Spanish. Our district will be singing "God Be With You till We Meet Again." Next Sunday in sacrament since it will be our last. Not sure if we will be able to make it through the song without crying. 

 

This Sunday we had beef diaphragm which was actually AMAZING. Tasted a lot like a roast in a crock pot. Hermana Walton, one of my roommates was talking about brownies all week long and how wonderful it would be if we could some how get a brownie mix from Costco. We tried to get our instructor to get us some but he said he wouldn't be able to. However, this Sunday after church the Bishop's wife had brought us BROWNIES!!! We were so happy, although I enjoyed the cookies she brought better, it was so nice to see our Branch excited to have some American food. 

 

I actually met the Mission President's daughter of the Guayaquil South mission at a devotional yesterday! She was sitting next to me in the auditorium so it was nice to talk to her for awhile about Guayaquil etc. She told me the drivers there are so much worse than the ones in Mexico City which is hard to imagine and that it is very humid and HOT! No surprise there. It made me that much more excited to get to Ecuador. I feel like I'm ready, not my Spanish by any means, but I am so ready to get things started. I feel like the best way to get the language down is to be in the field. Glad it is no longer 9 weeks here, 6 is enough for me.

 

My current favorite verses, thought I would share!

 

2 Nephi 4: 34-35

 

34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

35 Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.   

I miss everyone so much.

Con Amor,

Hermana Lyman

Halfway Through the MTC!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hola,

It is crazy to think that I am now half way done with my time here at the CCM! Time has really picked up from the first week and it makes me sad to leave this place. This past week has been another incredible one. I am learning so much each week and growing more in love with this place and the people here. The days are starting to blend together and it´s hard to remember life before this. It rains everyday here, usually just a light drizzle, but enough for a daily usage of my umbrella. Trying to write in English is becoming harder because everything appears to be spelled wrong.... Spanish is messing with my English! The other night I dreamt that I was at the hospital and I was trying to explain where I was hurting in Spanish but I couldn't remember a word so the Doctor couldn't understand me. I was so upset in my dream that I woke up in the middle of the night. I guess dreaming in semi-Spanish is a good thing. It's quite funny because almost every night someone has a night mare and screams or is speaking Spanish in their sleep. I have learned that if everyone spoke Spanish like my instructor, that I would more or less understand what was being said, but when a native speaks it seems to sound like gibberish! Cannot wait for the day when I can understand despite the mumbling and insane rolling of the letter ¨R¨.

Sundays here are probably my favorite day. I love sacrament meetings and our branch presidency is made up of some of the best men. They are natives and so strong in the gospel. Their families attend and they have such a wonderful spirit. We also have 3 devotionals on Sunday which are always way good and I learn so much from them. We are still hoping that Elder Holland will figure out that it is necessary that he make an appearance at the new CCM for a devotional (fingers are crossed). It only makes sense, right? Haha! This Sunday was a little bit sad, Elder Dennis (mission president´s son) left for El Salvador. He was suppose to leave on Tuesday but his flight itinerary changed and he left 2 days early at 3 am! He was excited but nervous at the same time. He is going to be a great missionary and I just know I am going to love his parents! It is going to be hard to leave this place and the missionaries I have grown to love. At the same time I am eager and excited to be in Ecuador! It will definitely be a bitter-sweet thing. 

Today we went to the temple in the city and it was so BEAUTIFUL!!! It was such a great spiritual experience with my district and fun to see parts of the city on the drive. After the session my 3 roommates and I had to check out the bridal room which was so gorgeous. My future hubby better have a lot of groomsmen because I have added 3 more bridesmaids to my list. I LOVE these Hermanas so much! Drivers in Mexico City are CRAZY and traffic is awful!!! People are all over the place and cutting in front of buses etc. I hear Ecuador is just as bad though. There are tons of VW Beatles and of course I thought of you Miss Sara O´Dell. I have been very cautious of what I eat because there are a lot of missionaries here that are getting sick with gastrointestinal problems. 

The other day at lunch Hermana Romney sat at our table and of course I had to ask if she was related to Mitt. Mitt is her dad's cousin and she is actually from Dallas, Texas! She is quite the classy lady and super sweet. She did her last 3 years of high school in Mexico because her parents were actually mission presidents here. So she is pretty much fluent in Spanish meaning she will only be here 2 weeks. Hermana Berrett (mi companera) and I joke and call ourselves the Abuelas of the CCM. Everyone is 18 and 19! Mi compenera wore my placa de nombre (name tag) ayer and we didn't notice till halfway through the day. There is actually another Hermana Lyman here. During a devotional this week President Pratt announced that Hermana Lyman would be giving the opening prayer and that she was going to Alabama. I was scared for a second until I realized that the Alabama was not me! The rest of the day I had random elders telling me that they thought I was going to give the prayer or telling me I did a good job. Haha!

I am having the time of my life here and loving almost every minute of it! I LOVE IT HERE!!! I see Elder Lopez about every other day so that is always nice to have that connection to home! and his district LOVES him! All the elders hang around him, it makes me so happy to see! 

Our lessons are going well with our investigators! Nosotros tenemos dos commitments para bauptizmo! Nosotros estaba el primer en nuestro districo tener un commitment para bauptizmo! Translation: (We have two commitments for baptism! We were the first in our district to have a commitment for baptism!)

With Love,

Hermana Lyman

2 Weeks Down... 76 Weeks to Go!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Hola,

It feels like I have been here for 4 months, cant believe it has only been 2 weeks! Things are still going well, the spirit is so strong and I am learning a lot. I never knew just how hard missionary work was though. I'm sure I won't really get just how hard it is until I'm in Ecuador. Most of the missionaries here are amazing and truly special spirits!

Iggy (the stuffed TY beanie baby iguana that Sara gave me at the farewell) is quite popular in the MTC! So this past week he came up in class and I told the Elders one of my tall tales. I told them that I had brought my pet Iguana with me and the church let me bring him because he is trained to lead blind kids. And they BELIEVED me......oh dear so funny. 18 year old boys!!! Of course I told them the truth later that night and it just so happened to be that on his tag it said his birthday was 8-12-1997. So Iggy´s birthday was yesterday, so my district celebrated his birthday and all the elders were so funny and excited to meet him!!! It was so much fun. We ate dessert from the cafeteria and one of the elders bought him a future missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints missionary tag from the store here!!! It looks so cute on him!

This is Iggy the Iguana

At the Farewell party with Iggy

Hola,

This past week has gone by so FAST compared to the first week.  The days are meshing together and flying by so quickly now.  Classes have been going well and Spanish is coming along however I feel like there is so much I need to learn.  One of our lessons with Carlos went on for over an hour when it was only suppose to last 20 minutes.  He is very stubborn! We have another investigator this week named Rogelio who is very nice and responsive unlike Carlos haha.  The investigators are our teachers so it is pretty intimidating to teach your teacher! However it amazes me that we are able to teach discussions in Spanish without notes.  This past Sunday I was called up by the branch presidency to give a talk on the apostasy at the beginning of the meeting so I was glad I had just taught Carlos that lesson the week before and was able to do give a 10 minute talk in Spanish.  I was able to bear my testimony and feel so strongly of the spirit.  Hopefully I don’t get called up this Sunday to give a talk again, they call you out of the audience however I’m hoping I can relax this Sunday!  We had a televised devotional last night and Richard G. Scott of the 12 apostles spoke.  I was able to sit next to Elder Lopez so it was good to talk home with him.   It was such a great devotional and he focused a lot on prayer and our relationship with our father in heaven.  He blessed us with the gift of tongues if we have faith and are obedient.

I actually met my mission president´s son, Elder Dennis, who is going to El Salvador! He is a super cool guy and I talked to him at lunch one day about his parents so I just know I’m going to love them! He leaves in a week and it just so happened that a sister I talked to the first week I was here met him and remembered me! She ran into me the other day and said ¨Sister Lyman your mission president´s son is here! ¨ So my companion actually spotted him one day in the cafeteria and now I see him all the time!  He told me he has a 15 year old sister that is living in Ecuador with his parents right now and going to a private school down there.  He will attend BYU when he gets off the mission and said that the church is actually paying for his schooling until his parents get back from their mission.  How cool is that??

 My companion and I also went and talked to the MTC president, President Pratt yesterday and as soon as we introduced ourselves and told him we were nurse specialist he was so NICE!! He said you are the two going to Ecuador!!! I’ve been wanting to meet you two Hermanas!!! He talked to us about Ecuador for awhile (he lived there for 7 years, and some of his family) and thanked us for being here.  We met with him to get special permission to use the computers for the medical program we will be using in the field.  I have access to all the missionaries’ files in my mission and Hermana Berrett actually attended 2 day training at the Provo MTC prior to coming here for nursing.  She told me they called her and asked her if she could attend.  Wish they would have called me, I would have flown into Utah for the training but I guess they figured since she lived in Utah it would be easy for her to go.  Oh well Hermana Berrett is going to show me the ropes! We have also started meeting with the MTC doctor during our gym time in order to be trained by him.  He is so sweet and nice and I love meeting with him. He taught us where to numb a toe before removing part of the toenail since ingrown toenails are frequent problem with the Elders.  He said to look it up on YouTube if we forget or just send them to a podiatrist! He is such a funny guy and I’m looking forward to learning more from him.

 Love ya'll

Hermana Lyman

This was the building that I had my classes in the first week! Had to take a picture with it since its named after my great X4 grandfather!!

The Ecuadorian flag Sara bought for a penny hung up in our room.

 This is the rock wall and fence that cover the entire 90 acres!!! Pretty cool, huh?