September 8, 2014
Hola mi querida familia!!!! I think I jinxed myself
last week when I said it would be really hard to leave Babahoyo....well it came
true! I have been transferred from Babahoyo to Duran and it was SOOO HARD
to leave Babahoyo. There were many tears and final hugs...AHHH I highly
dislike cambios [transfers].
Marcos, Wilson, Leonela, Katy, la familia Conforme, and my
Zone all came to the Bus Terminal to say goodbye. For others, I was able to call and say
goodbye and I wrote like 50 letters last night so Hermana Latorre can give them
to all the dear members of Barrio Olmedo. Marcos and Wilson were BAWLING!
It was one of the sweetest moments ever with them, as I really saw how
happy they are from coming to know their Savior through me. Freaking
Marcos - just get baptized already!!!! Hopefully Presidente Riggins will
give me permission to go to his baptism here in the near future. I am
going to miss Babahoyo with ALL my heart.
However, great news! I
AM SOOOOO excited to be in my new sector here in Duran.
[Duran, Ecuador has a population of ~230,000 people and is a "dormitory" or bedroom community, with most of the residents working in Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. Duran is located at the convergence of the Babahoyo and Daule Rivers which becomes the Guayas River. Duran appears to be a very diverse community with both very poor and very rich areas.]
But, I can tell that it is going to be a big
change. I have only been here for like 2
hours but it is COMPLETELY different than Babahoyo and Salto. The houses
here are HUGE!!!!! :O I’m not quite sure if they really are that big or
if I just got used to the humble conditions of Salto and Babahoyo. I can’t even imagine what it will be like
when I get home. On the
car ride to our house we were all silent just in awe at how nice this place is.
We live in a gated community, with guards and everything! This is going to be a completely
different experience.
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| Duran, Ecuador |
[Jessica's aunt, Lorena Moody (Brent's sister), served part of her mission in the City of Duran about 25 years ago. However, Lorena served in a much poorer part of the city than it looks like Jessica will be serving in.]
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| Aunt Lorena in Duran circa 1989 |
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| Aunt Lorena in Duran |
I was truly able to see the humility of the people in my
sector in Babahoyo. In my new area we
have mostly gated communities so we can’t do much contacting through door to
door soliciting. Also the missionaries that were here before us told us
that everyone works during the day so we have a window of from 6pm-8pm to visit
our investigators. The ward here is HUGE
with 300 plus members attending church each week!!! WHAT?!
And everyone
here dresses so nice and cute, that means I have to try now. :) HAHA
shoot.
Oh my heavens, I just realized I didn’t even announce my new
companion. Se llama [her name is]
HERMANA PEREZ, she is from Florida and she will be finishing her mission
soon. She is also a Lideresa [Mission Leader for the Hermanas] so we
will be having many intercambios [exchanges
with other missionary companionships] throughout the week. That means I will get to meet even more
Hermanas. ¡Eso! I actually stayed my first night in the mission with
Hermana Perez, and she gave me INCREDIBLE advice for the mission, so I am super
excited that she is my companion. My companion is super sweet
and VERY spiritual. Also she loves to eat healthy so hopefully we will
both lose weight here!
I will dearly miss Babahoyo but I know that Hermana Perez
and I are going to knock the socks off the people here in Duran! ¡Super
animado! [I’m very excited!]
Well here is my final report on my beloved people in Babahoyo...
1. Alberto.
OH Alberto is seriously the best convert EVER! We went to the cemetery
this week to find information like birth and death dates of his family who have
passed away so he can complete his family tree, hasta la [up through the] 4 generation. Sadly, the Guayaquil temple is closed
until September 14th but he is SUPER excited to go. Alberto
also received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained to the office of Priest in
church yesterday. He has been memorizing
the sacrament prayer so that he can bless the sacrament. Although he will
not be able to read the prayer he is memorizing it perfectly. Many of our
visits with him this week were repeating the sacrament prayers over and over
again and he pretty much has it all down. I took a video of him
practicing the prayers, and I am going to try and see if the computers in Duran
are more high tech and will let me send a video file, but Alberto uses his
hands to help him memorize, so he slowly moves his hand further and further
away from him as he follows along with the prayer. Sometimes he is trying to reach so far that
it looks like he is going to fall off the chair. :) I can’t wait to go to
the temple with him here in a few weeks.
2. Leonela. She is the real mom of Luis who is the young
12 year old boy that got baptized on August 16th. We began teaching her this week with her 7
children!!! She is the most humble and HAPPY person I have ever met in my
life. With 7 kids, they are sometimes short on food and they don’t have
much clothing. It almost broke my heart the
other day when her daughter HAILEY (shout out to my little sis Hailey- who
probably isn’t so little anymore!) came running out of her house down the dirt
road to meet us in clothing that was meet for a little boy. Without thinking, I asked her where her shoes
were and innocently looked up at me and said, "I don’t have
any...." We are....well now Hermana
Latorre and her new companion are going to buy a big bag of a variety of children’s
clothing that they sell for 2 dollars, and hopefully she can find shoes as well
so we can help her cute little family. Oh I really hope that Leonela and her
3 children will be baptized this week.
3. Odette. Yup, just like the princess - swan princess?
We contacted her and she is just the cutest girl EVER! She is 18
and LOVES to read. When we told her that
we have a book she will love, her eyes just BEAMED! She promised to read
the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we left and we said sarcastically said
that if she wanted to she could read the whole thing. When we went back 2
days later she apologized that she hadn’t read all of it, and that she had only
gotten to Alma. WHAT?! That is more than okay Odette! She is also studying English and wanted my
help but now Hermana Latorre will just have to help her.
4. Edwardo.
We were on our way to see one of our other investigators and we said
hello to this cute old man sitting in his hammock watching soccer (typical man
here in Ecuador). We felt impressed to
stop and ask if he needed any help. He
told us about his mother who is 98 years old and can’t walk and that he needed
help carrying her into her bed. With the help of the bishop’s son (who
was accompanying us to our appointment) we were able to place her carefully
into her bed. Then we smelled an...awful smell. The caretaker that
usually comes wasn’t able to make it that day so no one had changed her diaper
all day. So with all the pure love of Chirst I could muster....I changed
this little old lady’s diaper. AHH it wasn’t that bad, so maybe I should
look into working at a nursing home when I get back ;). As a result of our visit, Edwardo is listening
to our message and is planning to be baptized here in the next coming weeks.
The other highlight of the week was a meeting we had with
only the HERMANAS of the mission. GIRL POWER!!! (And YES, I was
able to see Hermana Toledo again, possibly the last time before she heads home
to Chile.) The meeting was held at the Mission President’s home and was
with the 60 or so misioneras [lady
missionaries] of the greatest mission in all the world. We had something like a little tea party with
mini sandwiches and juice, all that was missing were the fancy hats. :)
I absolutely adore our Mission President and his wife.
Hermana Riggins shared many experiences from her mission and how she has
kept in contact with many of the families that she taught. She told us that many of the children of
those she taught are on missions now, and how she has seen first-hand that with
one family saved we are actually really saving hundreds.
One thing that I loved from the meeting was the emphasis on
LOVE. When we truly love the people we will see miracles. I am so
excited to love the people here in Duran and like my new companion said, we are
going to see miracles here in this sector.
Thank you for all the love and prayers, they are truly felt.
I love you all SO SO SO much! Have a wonderful week.
Con mucho
amor,
Hermana
Bartholomew
P.S. Of course, I
forgot my cord to send pictures!!! I AM SORRY! They will come next week I
promise! Love you all!
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