90 Days without peanut butter!!

Hola! (November 18)

After today I am officially done with my second transfer! What the heck? Where is all the time going? Seriously goes by so quick. We don`t know if either of us are getting transferred. But we assume that Hermana Espìritu is getting transferred because she has been here for 5 months already. I sure hope it isn´t me because I want to have Christmas here!! But I don`t know!

Speaking of Christmas, I have no idea what I want. Peanut butter. The peanut butter is so expensive here and if you have cheap stuff, it isn't any good. Anything else I am not really sure.... Uh colored pens?? Hahaha I don`t really need anything. I have pretty much everything. If I think of something I will let you know. But if you want it to get here by Christmas you should send it sometime soon haha.

Continued.... (November 25)

Hola again!

Last weeks baptism of Alexis Vaca

Today was crazy we had to help the other girls pack up their stuff this morning because they are headed off to Guayaquil for a special musical number. The new sister, Hermana Murry, brought her violin and is playing it for something this Navidad.

Me, Hermana Espiritu,Hermana Murry, and Hermana Campbell



Anyway because of this I have a total of 20 minutes to write. I am so sorry that the rest of my last email didn´t send. It actually makes me so mad that not all of it sent. Because I spent nearly all of my time typing it. But I will hand write it next week and send it. We had a baptism this week of my most favorite person in the world Xavier.

Xavier's baptism day

He had three boys and lives with his wife brother and nephew. He is the most inspirational person. I am sorry I can´t write more. But I would love to say that I am doing well. I still have Hermana Espiritu and I am working super hard. Mom it is crazy to me that I have been out 90 days!! But I miss you all terribly and I wish you all the best week.

 

LOTS OF LOVE,

Hermana Pack

Go, and do thou likewise.

Hola!

 

Can I just say I have the best looking siblings in the world. Seriously! All of those pictures you sent me are awesome!! You all look so good!! OH! and mom I absolutely love love love my mission plaque.

Emily's mission plaque hanging on the wall at church

I cannot wait to see it in person haha. I cannot believe you all watched the district!! I had to watch that before my mission as a requirement! I also watch a lot of the district videos for my 12 weeks of training in the mission!

Birthday party for our Zone leader

OH and I got your package!!!! I LOVED IT!!! Finally! haha. Best Halloween gift ever. My district was so jealous. I shared all of the licorice with them. I found out that the average Latino does not like licorice haha. But snickers. Man I had to fight everyone off for them haha. I loved all of your letters. I am sure you don´t even remember writing them because it was over a month ago but I loved them.

Yeah! My package and Halloween candy!!

This week has been crazy... Mom I got my very first Ecuadorian sunburn. and let me just tell you it hurt. I haven´t needed sunscreen until this week. It has been so rainy but the rainy season is finally over!! And there is plenty of sun to go around. I hadn´t realized how burned I was until I lifted up my sleeve and holy crap it is was bad. I could only shower in cold water at the beginning but today I took my first warm one in three days haha. But don´t worry I am wearing sunscreen now. The members that we run into during the day remind me all day haha. But overall it hasn´t been terrible.

So I have two really quick stories. The first is about an investigator named Patricio and his family. We found his wife and taught her a quick lesson about the Sabbath and how we are to keep it holy and attend church. Then her husband came out and I was scared. He did not look happy. In fact he wasn´t. He did not want to have our message. So we quickly finished and decided to come back at another time. Anyway, that night Hermana Espíritu felt that we should visit them again. I was scared to death. Someone let us into their apartment building and showed us their apartment door. I can honestly say I hadn´t prayed for my safety so hard in my entire life. And let me tell you God answered my prayer. He was an entirely different person. Almost as if he changed personalities. But we taught a quick lesson and he came to church with us on Sunday so that was awesome. God sure answered our prayers. He sure works in mysterious ways!

 

The second story is related to Luke 10:30-37. The story of the Good Samaritan. We were on our way to visit an inactive member of the ward and we passed a woman who was sitting in a tire off the side of the road. This was not unusual because people always do crazy stuff here haha. But She had her hand extended to me and said "ayudame" over and over again. Which means help me. We were in a hurry and had a lot of things to get to so we just kept on walking. But all of the sudden I felt completely overcome with the thought that Christ didn´t have an agenda and if I am truly a representative of Christ then I don´t have an agenda either. I stopped my companion and we went back to help the woman. She reeked of alcohol and she was soaking wet in her own urine. It was an adventure to find a taxi driver that was willing to drive her and us to her home. But we managed to make it happen with a good amount of money. There was a lot of time and effort spend but we got her home. This morning I read the story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible and verses 36 and 37 stuck out to me. "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him, Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." We all are asked to go and do likewise. Christ is the ultimate example. We can learn so much from him. I am so grateful to know that I have a Savior who suffered for me and who knows me personally. Wow, God is so good.

I love you all and I am so grateful for your support. I would love to give you all a big hug. But I am happy to be here in Ecuador serving.

Mucho mucho mucho amor,

Hermana Pack

 

 

Hola! Como esta?

 

Danielle and Ben (UHS Alice in Wonderland performance)

Hola!!

The play looked great!! I am so sad that I missed it! All of your costumes looked so so so great! Danielle your hair was SWEET! I wish I had gotten to wear a wig during one of the plays!

Ben I am sure you were a little rock star on the stage. Dad said that your part was funny I am sure you both were awesome!

Neil and Mike!! You guys had sweet costumes!! I am totally jealous that you got to celebrate Halloween. They celebrate Halloween here but don´t go trick or treating. I saw a total of one Halloween costume. It totally made me sad. You guys got lucky with all of that candy!!! Holy crap!! Jealous!! The chocolate here isn´t as good as the stuff at home. But the stuff they had in Mexico was heaven. In fact I have been pretty sick the this last month (mom don´t worry the mission president is a doctor and knows what he is doing.) But I am not allowed to eat anything with caffeine in it including chocolate wahhhh!!! I miss it haha.

Chocolate covered bananas! Yummy!

 

Dad, I don´t think the Towncar would make it to Ecuador. Too many hills to Cuenca. The brakes would probably catch fire hahaha!! But really I am up in the sky. Sometimes clouds will pass through the town. So basically I am in the sky and in the clouds. Oh and no we don´t observe daylight savings. So now we aren´t in the same time zone sad!!

Mom, I withdrew some cash from my account. We literally ran out of money today and had a total of 4 cents and needed 50 cents to get to the stake center for a meeting. It was a rough day. But it is great because God sure does know how to provide. We only had eggs for the week, but somehow people knew our need and we were given a ton. God is just so good. It reminded me of Matthew 6:25-34, God will provide for those who are righteous!! I can buy pretty much anything I need here. I am so lucky to have a Latino companion though because she knows when a person is cheating us out of our money and she calls them out on it. Especially taxis. It´s like they see a white girl and think oh okay charge her two dollars more than I would any other person. Yeah. uh no. But I can get anything I need. Also, if I don´t know what a food is, my companion makes the meals and is teaching me how to make food with things that I have no clue what they are. haha! But it is all good.

 

I wish I had a picture of my legs. I look like I broke out in hives because of the fleas that we have in our apartment. YUCK. But I think we are going to bomb our house with a flea bomb to get rid of them.

 

 This week was crazy hard to be a missionary in Cuenca because it was the weekend of the fiestas of Cuenca and let me tell you the crazies were out. Holy cow. I saw so many people passed out on the ground. Crazy Crazy Crazy. But it sure was hard being a missionary in my area because everyone was only there for the fiesta and definitely not interested in going to church with us this Sunday. In fact it was hard getting some of the recent converts to come. Ugh. But we did have three baptisms. Luis and his twins. They are so great! Now we just have to work on his wife.:)

 

Anyway, I love you all and GOD IS SO SO SO GOOD. The people are amazing here and I am beyond happy.

 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Pack