First week out of training!! April 28, 2014

Okay so what a week!! Opening a sector is HARD! We literally started from scratch! QUE BINA! (Thats Spanish for "what crap!") haha!! So basically, On Tuesday we got to our apartment and put everything together and then we got on a bus and traveled for about an hour to the Bishops house. YA...our bishop lives an hour away from us! We live in Tambillo and the Chapel and ALL the members live in Sangolqui. sooooooooo we´re moderately toast when it comes to lessons with members present! haha! Literally we have one family of members and they are inactive and no one knows where they live. WHAT IS THIS?! hahaha everyone keeps telling us that about 80,000 people live in Tambillo and one day it could be it´s own stake! Thats prety cool! Hermana Monzon and I are literally the first missionaries here...EVER! we´re makin´ history yo! HA! But yeah it´s been a rough couple days...LOTS OF CONTACTING! we found some people and they accepted a baptismal date but they didn´t attend church yesterday so we gotta change it! We made a goal with our Zone Leaders to have 4 baptisms in the month of May and we WILL gosh dang it! :)

Speaking of our Zone...it rocks. We´re the largest Zone in the whole mission. We have 35 missionaries! in my other zone we had like 20...MAX.  ITs WAY fun. but people keep saying that they´re gunna divide it this next transfer sooo.... tears :( Elder Heyrend from the MTC is in my zone now!! It was so funny cause when we saw each other we almost hugged! and then we were like WAIT we´re missionaries...awkward! hahaha! On Saturday we had a service project where we help this old indigenous lady tear down her house and then next Saturday we´re gunna help her build a new one! :) At least I think thats the plan.....

Hmmm...what else... OH our house......is amazing!! It´s so clean and new and ...the veiw?? TO. DIE. FOR. I´ll send ya pics for sure :) Hermana Monzon and I keep saying that its a blessing for opening a sector! Cause the work is harder but the house is better :) 

OH! and we basically live in a bus. I mean like we are ALWAYS traveling! The Stake center is like an hour and a half away and we go there every Thursday for our zone meetings! and then every Sunday, Wednesday, and sometimes Saturday to our chapel for other activities! and also, for right now, we are eating lunch with the other hermanas or our ward and so for every day we travel about 45 mins to their sector to eat and then come back and other 45 mins to work...when people ask us where we live we usually tell them either "El cabo del Mundo" (at the end of the world) or "En fetchin´ Tambillo." and they usually laugh and then cry with us a little and we move on ;)

Hmm...what else...today was really fun! We went to this mall called San Luis and its like...WAY nice! and they had TONS of American stores! Like Gymboree and Payless (which is actually pretty deceiving cause their shoes cost an arm and a leg here.) We ran into a few Elders from our zone and then we ate lunch together and Elder Harmmer (also from Utah) and I were freaking out cause they were playing American Music like flippin Imagine Dragons and Jack Johnson!! and our latino comps where like..."WHAT is wrong with you guys!" Elder Harmmer´s comp knows a little English and so he kept saying "Why do you hate my Hermana Gamble?" and i was like "Elder I don´t Hate you!" and he just kept asking me why i hated him! hahaha all in all, a good day :) 

And now I´m here in a internet Cafe on sketchy Ecuadorian computers hoping the power doesn´t go out in the middle of my letter! (that´s happened before) haha Tambillo is a really pretty city! they call it a "pueblito" Which basically means "a little people" ITs pretty cute! there´s not much, but it´s pretty cute :) We have a little Plaza with a little fountain and I LOVE IT! haha Hermana Monzon and I have decided that we´re coming back here with our husbands cause at night it´s very romantic! haha!! :)

Anyway! any questions?? I definitely want a pictures of Logan at Prom! I´m very happy that he´s going! I´m freaked out that Chris is MARRIED! and that Jesse will be too! GAH!! The new Bishopric sounds great!! That´s SO exciting! and I bet Tay and Aja are dyin´ for their kitchen to be done! are they living down there already?? Que Peina! (That stinks!).

Love you guys!! WRITE ME!

Hermana Moey :)

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!! feliz cumpleaños a ti!

this is my comp unpacking all of our stuff for our new house!! yay!

So these are of our service project this past saterday! one is of all the Hermanas in my zone and our huge pile of rocks! and the other is of Elder heyrend scaling the mountain with a bag of rock in his bag! (what we had to do what take this HUGE pile of rocks, find the good ones and put them in bags and then the Elders carried them up the mountain! CRAZY) and the last one is of the place where this lady´s house used to be! and the Elder with his arms in the air is my Zone leader Elder Lopez! from SPAIN! he´s really cool! :)

So this is the veiw i get to see every day when i wake up! And yesterday there was a rainbow...I LOVE ECUADOR!

Week 12! Last week of training!!

Okay so this week was Pascua (Easter)...
IT WAS THE PITS!!

No one was home!!

No one!!

    But it´s all okay!! Cause we had the most amazing stake conference on Sunday! It was a Country Wide affair! and it was transmitted through satellite to all the capillas here in ALL of Ecuador! Elder Scott spoke and Elder Nash of the Seventy and then Elder Holland too! Scott and Nash know Spanish so they just spoke, But Elder Holland had a translator voiced over until the very end when he bore his testimony in the cutest, simplest, and most horrible Spanish that I´ve heard since the MTC!! But it was BEAUTIFUL!! I almost Cried!! hahah!

    So Yes, I got transferred! which made me really sad cause I was with My kindred Hermana!! Seriously I´ve made a friend for life with that Hermana Hamilton! But     she´s training a newbie now!! and I´ve been transferred to Los Chillos!! Its in the valley and its WAY hotter here! maybe now i´ll actually need that sun screen you made me drag all the way down here! ;) My new Comp is Latina again but she´s actually really cool...which is rare for sure! I´m pretty excited! We´re opening up a sector down here which scares me a little! but it should be fun! Every keeps saying that President must trust us alot if he sent us to open a sector!...hmm! 

    So yeah, as of today I´m not in training anymore!! yay!!! haha I´m so excited cause now we only have 3 hours of study in the mornings and not 4!! haha! 

    And, I get to Skype for mothers day! I´m not completely sure how it´s all gunna work yet but i guess we´ll see!!

sorta a short email but I don´t have much more to tell! this next week should be pretty interesting to say the least so I´m sure that next week I´ll have full cosas para escribir! (A ton of things to write) :)

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

Hermana Gamble :)

Week 11

 So this past week was pretty chill! It went by really fast!! Hermana Hamilton and I have been kinda sick so we sorta lost a day going to the Recreo which is a mall here and we went to their medical clinic to get a little test to see if we had parasites or not! I didn´t have any money on me so i couldn't do it but hermana Hamilton did and she doesn't have parasites! YAY! haha So if my bicicleta continues i´ll go get it check out i promise! (OH bicicleta is the missionary word for diarrhea...or however you spell it!)

    any way! Veronica, our golden investigator that we found couldn't go to church this week so her date for baptism needs to be moved back so she can get all of her attendances in! :( sorta a sad day but its okay cause she is SO excited! haha every time we teach her she has the best reactions! she like GASPS when we tell her what happens when we don't keep commandments or like when we watch a video about Christ with her! haha its so cute! she´s SO perfect! haha 

    I have a feeling that i might get transferred this coming week so I might not get to see her baptism which makes me a little sad :( but it´s all gunna be okay :)

    We had the coolest activity today! we went to this place called Panecillo...It´s this giant angel statue on top of this huge hill (that we had to hike up) and its SO COOL! Its also the place where they dedicated Ecuador for missionary work so it has a little church history behind it :) we went as a district and we just had so much fun! After wards we went to eat PIZZA haha it was SO GOOD! i love american food!

    our DL Elder Fonseca is SO cool! we get along with him really well! he is from Honduras and he is always making us laugh and all that Jazz! he´s really cool! but other than him and Hermana Rojas our whole district is North American! I sorta feel bad cause sometimes we slip up and go off in English and it makes them feel so bad :( I tried really hard to talk all in Spanish though!

    Speaking of Spanish! Its really coming along! Its So much fun to speak another language! its awesome!! I can´t wait untill it´s like second nature! Cause I´m pretty good right now but i still have a way to go! hehe :)

    This week is the last week of my training so HECK YEAH TO THAT! haha I´m so excited! But the program we use to train is to make it so that in 12 weeks I´m ready to start training other people!! like....WAAAT? haha so who knows with this transfer coming up! hahaha! hopefully not though! I still feel like i have a ton to learn! but i guess we´ll see! :)

    I´m still working on uploading my pictures from today and this past week but I´ll send them to you when i can cause really, you gotta see this place we went to today!

Love you guys! It sounds like the receptions was really cool and i can´t wait for pictures!! haha!

Con todo el amor de mi corazón!

Hermana Gamble :)

Moriah Goes Native

So this is us just inside the big ball thingy and then a pic of the veiw on the way down (in my new alpaca fur jacket!!) and then the cute little pizza place we went to today for lunch :)

EDITOR's NOTE: These pictures are the best so far. We feel the alpaca fur jcaket indicates that Moriah has "gone native". And Moriah hates pizza, but we suppose compared to fish scale soup, it tastes great to her now.

Titanic Style

 this is all of us at the top then a selfie with H Ham and then us pulling a titanic! :)

More Pics

okay so the one is of H. Ham and i washing our clothes this morning all ecuadorian style! and the other two are on the way up to Panecillo :)

Panecillo

 climbing up and then Panecillo and then us at the top

Comp Pics

Pictures from Zone Activity

week..9? I´m still confused!

okay this week was GREAT! we found this AMAZING investigator! well, actually, she found us! She came up to us and offered to pay us to teach her English cause we´re obviously american :) but we told her that we´re missionaries and that we could do it for free!  We visited her the next day and brought all of the folletos in Spanish and English and when we came back again she had read all of the pamphlets and had chosen for herself to talk about the Law of Chastity (she´s not married and has a child with her boy friend who lives with her and her family.) WE taught her that not obeying the law of chastity was depriving her of blessings. and not only her but her baby too! When we said that her eyes got all big and she said (in English) "So when i Don´t obey this commandment MY BABY can lose blessings and it´s all my fault?" Hna. Hamilton and i just shook our heads yes and then she GASPED! and was like "y Ahora?!" haha! She LOVES learning! we taught her in English which is a little weird for me and Hna. Hamilton! haha but we always makes sure she understands everything! haha :) She came to conference Sunday morning and loved that too! Next week she´s bringing her brother, dad, boyfriend and possibly an other friend! (yes she´s already giving us references!) haha :) We were teaching here was a "Redneck" was and we told her that it was kinda someone with out much education and she just goes "Like Honey Boo Boo?!" and hermana Hamilton and I had the BIGGEST face-palm-slash-oh-my-poor-country moment. PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE OF ECUADOR KNOW WHO HONEY BOO BOO IS!!

We also found another lady that has a lot of progress too! Her name is Patricia and we´re going to visit her right after this! I´m so excited cause for a while there we weren´t really finding anyone and now they´re poppin´up like daisies!! haha :) I´ve been praying SO hard to find some nuevos and for a while there i thought that i wasn´t getting listened too! but nope! He heard me :) It just wasn´t the time!!

OOOOHHHH General Conference. I LOVED IT!! I got to watch it in English with all the other Gringos in my Zone :) it was in a tiny little room on the tiny little computer monitor but it was still AMAZING! I took so many notes! I even made...wait for it...SCONES! and they were FLIPPIN DELICIOUS! so yes indeed...my conference was complete! :) everybody loved my scones too! So I´m pretty proud of myself!

So we were contacting this week and we knock this door and this lady answers and we start our shpeel and she just goes OFF about this history of her life and how she didn´t really want to have children but god made her get pregnant like the Virgin Mary and how much of an honor that was for her! and also that she could kill us right then and there cause she "has a lot of violence in her heart" but it´s god that controls her and tells her not to kill people! we were like "yup, well, bye!" haha The DL´s were accompanying us too! so they were like "Corre Hermanas!" basically just telling us to run away from her house! haha! She was insane...for sure!

The wedding sounds like it was alot of fun! I´m excited to here about how the reception goes!! SEND MY PICTURES!! haha :) 

we had a zone activity today which was really fun! I GOT TO WEAR PANTS IN PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ALMOST 4 MONTHS!! haha we just played some fútbol and then went to the mall and got some lunch...not a bad day. not bad at all :) I´ll send pictures. Hermana Hamilton and i were matching :)

MUCHO AMOR DEL MEJOR PAÍS EN EL MUNDO!

Hermana Gamble :)

Conference

Conference Scones

okay wait..i think this is week 8!

okay so FIRST OF ALL: HAPPY CONFERENCE PREP WEEK! :))

I´m so excited can ya tell?! haha  we all are :)

so this week was a little rough! we only taught 7 lessons in total :( we are just trying to find new people! and we just can´t!! no one is EVER home :( and we just are ready for a new week to begin thats for sure :)

something funny that happened this week:

   Hna. Hamilton and I were greeting people and this man comes up to greet us and something they do alot here is kiss people on the cheek and he just comes right up to me and kisses me on the cheek and I about had a heart attack cause i haven´t been that close to a man in like 4 months and he goes to do the same to Hna. Hamilton and she just shoves her hand out towards him and he takes it all confused and shakes it and then she started just LAUGHING HER HEAD OFF. I was like about to DIE and she was LAUGHING!...not cool comp, not cool! haha learned my lesson there!!

haha this week was just a week full of awkward moments cause another one was when Hna. Hamilton went to kick a soccer ball back to these kids that were playing and she just missed horribly and almost sent it flying into a window of a near by house! everyone outside just started laughing at the greenga who cant play soccer!! she was all like "ya me voy!" which basically means yup "i´m leaving now!" haha we were dying!

also today our taxi driver ran over a dog. also i got lots of creepy comments from men this week so...that was nice. also I´m dying for some real donuts cause here they´re just like fried bread with ALMOST chocolaty sauce stuff. also, our ward mission leader is like the funniest man EVER! especially when he tries to speak English! also, remind me to make you guys some patacones when i get home AMAZING! also I sang at 2 baptisms this weekend! neither of which were mine but one was a reference i gave to elders and then the WHOLE FAMILY got baptized. so cool! 

anyway overall it was a really good week we just really want to have a better one this week :) haha!!

Love you all!! 

Hermana Gamble :)

week...i dunno..8? or something?

This week was pretty chill! At church yesterday we had 1 investigator and 3 less actives! 1 of which was a whole less active family!! YA HOO!

The most exciting thing that's going on right now is with our investigator William! His wife and kids are members and up until Hermana Hamilton came her didn`t even want to talk us and now he`s talking about how he wants to get the priesthood in time to baptize his youngest son in June!! He hasn`t accepted a definite Fecha quite yet but he keeps telling us "muy pronto mis hermanas, muy pronto" :) He`s just trying right now to stop drinking and as soon as he does that he`s good for baptism and I`m SO excited :) we had a lesson with him and the bishop and it was BUENÍSIMO! haha He`s really comming along and we cand see that he really wants to change his life :) just from these past two weeks I`ve seen a real difference in him and his family!

Hermana Hamilton and I are getting along just swimmingly! haha we really are like the same person...and it`s not even annoying in the slightest! haha!

We saw THE WEIRDEST THING on Saturday. Okay so here`s the story:

   we`re just chillin with a recent convert, Romel, helping him with his English and we hear this alarm go off and it sounds like a tornado warning or something and we asked Romel what it was. he`s like "Oh, it means that there`s a neighborhood meeting right now!" and Hermana Hamilton and I just nod our heads and then he`s like "that...or there`s a robber in the area!" and we`re just like..."¿que?" and THEN we see everyone running through the streets with these sticks of wood and rods of iron and all that jazz and Romel`s like "yup, it`s a robber" and Hermana Hamilton and i just stared at each other like "what is this country that we live in?" we then saw a tiny little lady with a stick in one hand and her child in the other RUNNING to go catch this robber! haha We just died laughing! then the robber came around the corner surrounded by these people and their sticks poised to attack and that's when Romel invited us inside for some food! haha Hermana Hamilton just looked at me and was like "I`ve been here for 9 months and NEVER have i seen anything like that before!" haha!!  If that's not neighborhood unity i don`t know what is. 

Later on Saturday we had this Noche de Videos which was really great and WAY spiritual! we watched the Joseph Smith video and i almost cried! I love that movie!! :)

Another funny moment was when we were contacting on Sunday and we knocked on this door and a little boy opened it up so we asked him if his parents were home and he opened the door wider to a man sitting at a kitchen table completely shirtless! and i just leaned over to Hermana Hamilton and whispered "he BETTER be wearing pants" and she started to chuckle quietly. The man stood up and I THANK MY LUCKY STARS he was wearing pants. they then received us and we taught them the first lesson!! haha this life is SO entertaining!

anyway things are going really great! but i ate the nastiest soup this week! haha It`s called Cebollado its got like sardines, onions, tomatoes, carrots and other junk that i couldn`t even understand. you eat it with these little fried potato slices (they`re are kinda like potato chips but thicker and spicy) and of course...rice. Hermana Hamilton LOVED it and i was about to puke. It`s not fun when you can see the shiny scales of the fish swimmin around in your soup...but it was from a member and i HAD to eat it sooo...gross.

haha Really though things here are fantastic! I`m learning so much and I`m starting to actually have a personality in Spanish which is the BOMB! I love joking around with people! especially all of the elders in my district! Elder Fonseca is our district leader and he was sick the other day when we called to give our numbers and we said to him "usted necesita una bendición de salud?? porque tenemos el Mujerdocio!" which basically means "do you need a blessing of health? because we have the womanhood" (like priesthood but for girls) cause the word for priesthood in spanish is sacerdocio...and woman is mujer.. entonces..mujerdocio.

haha lots of fun being had here in Ecuador! and lots of work getting done too!

love you guys!

Hermana G:)

In celebration of DAD's birthday

New Companion - Twins!

Week 1 of Transfer 2

Howdy Y`all!

Okay this week was great! 

On Monday I got my new comp and we got her all settled and at night we tried to go visit people but I didn`t know who we could go to and she doesn`t even know where our house is so that was a bit of a struggle! but we`re getting better day by day!

On Tuesday we went contacting and found a really great girl but turns out that she`s not divorced from her past marriage and is living with a man that she can`t get legally married to so we had to drop her which STUNK!

On Wednesday we had a lesson with William Iñacarta and WOW! we got to the part where we invite to baptism and we could hardly say "le gustaría.." before he was lie "¡Sì!"...uhh okay!! but he`s got a drinking problem so BOO. we`re working with him.

 

On Thursday it rained harder than i have ever seen it rain here. and it was right in the middle of our hour of contacting that we had planned! :( my shoes are mojado todavía! no me gusta! :(

 

On Friday we had Entrevistas with Presidente Ghent and everyone was SO nervous it was SO funny! He reminds me so much of dad it wasn`t even scary for me! even though all the Elders tried to freak me out by saying that if i didn`t say everything in perfect Spanish i would get in trouble!

Saturday it rained AGAIN. I`m gunna die!

Sunday we had a great family home evening with a less active family and we had so much fun!!

Today Hermana Hamilton and I went to the mission offices in the city and we got some more pamphlets and other fun things and THEN...we went shopping! Picture in your head a perfect Ecuadorian street market and then put Herman Hamilton and I right in the middle and that was our day today!! AHH!! then we had lunch at McDonalds so I can die happy!

haha I`m having so much fun down here and learning SO much!! :) 

Yo pienso en ustedes MUCHO y oro también. necesitamos vivir felices, ya? y se que podemos si vivimos en el manera del Señor.

les amo mucho!! hasta lunes!

Hermana G :)  

Transfers!​!

So Hi everyone! I do hope that all is well for you guys back there in Utah! And thank you all for your support and prayers! They are needed and they are felt! :)

So this week was spent with A LOT of Less active members! WE HAVE A TON HERE! ya know why?? Cause back in the day this mission used to baptize like 300 people every month...It was the most baptizing mission in the world! But...where are they now?? In-active. SO we`ve got a lot to do!!

We have this investigator that is the husband of a recent convert and he was doing so well and progressing a TON and then all of the sudden he just freaked out and was like ``I`m catholic and I was born catholic and I`m gunna die catholic!`` We didn`t know what happened until we talked to his wife and she said that the other day he went to visit his daughter and she said something like ``No dad! don`t listen to those crazy Mormons!`` so now I don`t know what I`m gunna do with him! But we`re gunna keep trying!!

On Saturday we had lunch at a members house and all was well until i stood up to leave and then all of the sudden i felt SO sick! they could all see it too so they opened the bathroom door for me and I barely made it before I totally puked up EVERYTHING I had just eaten (which was a TON.) so that was lame! after that the Hna. was like "here drink this" and i thought it was some lemonade to get the taste out of my mouth but no...it was straight lemon juice so OUCH! it`s for "the healing of the stomach" said the member. NO ME GUSTA! haha!

 

I also have a cold and so the combo of stomach probs and the cold had me more or less incapacitated all of Saturday. The call the cold "el Gripe" here! and EVERYONE has a remedy for it. most of which include putting orange juice on you head and drinking lots of coca cola!

Sunday we had only one investigator attend church which was sad cause we had like 4 different families say they were coming! sooo...sad day for sure!

Now for the most exciting news of the week!

We had transfers today and MY NEW COMP IS AMERICAN!! we both just had latinas for comps and so we are STOKED to get to talk in English and actually communicate effectively!! Her name is Hermana Matti Hamilton and she`s from from Arizona!! the first 2 hours of our companionship were spent just chatting and talking about our family and friends and her experiences in her mission! I`m her first trainee!! She did cheer and stud. co. in high school so we already have SO much in common! so yeah! I`m pumped to say the least! 

I was a little sad to see hermana blas go but I bet our investigators are gunna be more sad than I! They loved her!!

anyway! all is well here in Turubamba and I`m really excited to get to work this coming week! :)

Mucho Amor!

-Herman G :)

Taxis

Typical home

Puppies

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

Companion

Puppies

Family away from home

Baptism