Carnival

¡Hola!

Well its carnival season here in Ecuador. Its been quite the experience. This saturday as we were walking down a street we got covered in carioca (like shaving cream) and it was all over our back. 

And it was perfect timing, because right where we were happened to be a less-active family and they started laughing at us and then the mom came and put the foam on our face, because it was only on our back. They thought it was very funny and it was :) Luckily the foam disappears and doesn`t leave any mark! Then as we kept walking my companion then randomly "Hermana we need to cross the street" and we quickly crossed the street. I was confused at what happened and why we needed to cross the street and then she explained that there were people throwing water balloons off the top of their roof at the people on the street so we crossed to hide. And as we were making a game plan to not get smacked with a water balloon and get soaked, a car passed by and threw water at us and completely soaked us. So we gave up and just went, and they didn`t throw any water balloons at us, which was nice. And then like 20 minutes later as we were still walking on the street a car pulled up to us and seemed like they were going to ask for directions (because people a lot of the time stop and ask for directions from us). But, the guy kept hesitating and I saw his had move and I knew he was going to throw or shoot something so I quickly dodged just in time and got foam on my arm. But I looked back around and my companion was looking at me with her face completely covered in foam! And so I had to help her clean off her face, but I was dying laughing and she was as well after she could open her eyes again :) But, I was content that that was going to be the worst of stuff, foam and water. Its fine, but the worst was yesterday. We left the house where we ate lunch and as we were walking down the street we passed by a bunch of people playing with water and foam for carnival. But someone noticed us and yelled "Get them!" So we started running and the people ran up to us with a tub of PURPLE WATER! They put purple paint in the water and threw it on us. I was completely soaked and my clothes were all stained purple! Hopefully it comes out of my clothes. 

Covered in Purple Water!

Later today we are going to scrub our clothes and everything to hopefully get it all out. This is the tradition of Ecuador, it doesn`t matter who you are or if you know the people or not, you will get attacked with purple paint water. For that we are going to be in our house for today and tomorrow to avoid carnival, because it is officially today and tomorrow, so more days in the house! Yahoo! :) haha I am sure we will work at some point :) But, I am happy we won`t have purple water thrown at us again, hopefully!

We went back and contacted on that street that I mentioned last week and we ended up finding 4 new investigators and 2 are from the same family and we just need to meet the other peole in the family now! They are seem like they have desires to know the truth, we just haven`t been able to have a second visit with any of them yet, so we will see how they progress this week! And we also found 2 other investigators this week and when we contacted the mom she told us her spouse had passed away a couple of years ago and so we shared with her about the Plan of Salvation and how she can see and be with her husband again. And when we asked if we could share more of this message with her, she got super happy and told us she really would like to hear this message. I know that the Plan of Salvation really is the plan of happiness and through this plan we can find dirrection and the knowledge we have of this plan, makes us really blessed. I know God´s plan is perfect and sometimes we don`t plan on the way things work out, but if we are always focused on following God and obeying His commandments everything happens for a reason. So we just always need to ask, what do I need to learn in this situation? So that you can experience and grow through your trials, not suffer. 

A cool experience that happened this week: Our mission has a goal for this month to have 15 contacts everyday. And so me and my companion put that goal and wanted to do everything we could to complete it. One night we went into an appointment at 8, and we had only 13 contacts. So we were there, we shared our message and we were ready to leave at 8:45. Then the husband invited us to dinner, but they hadn`t prepared it all the way yet, and so we tried to ask if we could accept another time, because we need to go. (Because this house is about a 15 minute walk from our house and there are never any taxis either) And they wouldn`t accept a no without being offended so we decided to stay. As we were eating I remembered that we only had 13 contacts and I really wanted to complete the goal we put, so I said a little prayer that we could find 2 people together on the street to talk to them and to share our message. Because here at night, hardly anybody is on the street and if there is someone it is almost always one person. So we finally were able to leave there house at about 9:10 after we had finished eating and everything. And we were ready to leave and start basically running for the house. And as we left we started walking and saw two people about 5 feet from us! So we were able to talk to them and share with them our message! They didn`t accept the invite to listen, but we were able to let them here about the gospel. And we even got to our house with 3 minutes to spare for 9:30! God really does answers prayers and really wants you to be able to complete your goals, when you prayerfully make your goals. 

Well this is a long letter this week, but it was an exciting week! The mission is full of brand new experiences! :) 

And this week I officially completed 9 months in the mission! I´m halfway there! It is crazy to think that I less time left than that I have, I still feel like I just started the mission.. I just have to make the most of the next 9 months!

Editors Note: When a sister missionary reaches halfway through the mission they do a nine month pregnancy picture (weird and funny all at the same time).

I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon