Miming my way to Ambato

¡Hola!

Ya I am not in Guaranda anymore, after 5 weeks, because this change was a week shorter, I got changed again! Now I am in Ambatom still outside of Quito, and I am going to finish the training of Hna Stoneking, and she is from California! So now I am going to be a stepmom! :) haha A bit of a change, but I am excited to be here and get to work.

Now the reason for miming, is because I basically have no voice right now. I have an infection in my throat, so my throat hurts and my voice is very quiet. A nice change for those around me I am sure ;) I am just hoping for a quick recovery, luckily I can keep working, because my companion can talk fine! Hopefully she is confident with her spanish! 

Easter here in Ecuador is quite different from home, they don`t really celebrate easter, but focus more on the Good Friday, because everyone is Catholic and they put a lot more emphasis on the death of Christ then on His resurrection. I am so grateful that we realize the why He died and the importance of his resurrection that we are able to look at the more positive side of things. I am so grateful for Christ and His atonement for us and the strength we recieve, and I am so grateful he was resurrected so that we too can be resurrected and live with Him, our Heavenly Father, and our families for forever! They do have a couple of traditions here that you can`t eat red meat thursday, friday or saturday, so we had fish two days. And they say that if you eat red meat you will turn into a fish...They also say that if you go swimming these two days you will turn in to a fish as well.. Also they have a traditional soup, that`s called Fanesca, and it is so interesting. It is a bunch of different types of beans, with fish that usually isn`t deboned, and a hard boiled egg (see picture). Not my favorite, but got to try new things in a new country!

We found a new family this week that are so awesome!! They are really prepared to hear this message and want to really guide their kids down the correct path. Even though I won`t be there anymore I am so happy that they are starting to listen and I know they are in good hands with Hna Varney. It is quite weird leaving an area only after 1 change, but I did what I was supposed to and I gave it my all. Now I am ready to do what the Lord needs me to do here in Ambato! 

This week I took pictures of some typical ecuador plates so enjoy these photos!

llamingachos (my favorite ecuador meal, and Ambato is famous for it and everyone says they have the best here, so I am so excited!!)

llamingachos

Rice, egg, and avocado

Fanesca

My fish was going to eat me

I love you all and I hope you have a truly amazing week!

Gracias por todo!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon

Polaca!

¡hola familia y amigos!

Well, first off this week went by pretty quickly, because we didn´t get a lot of working time in our sector. First off tuesday I got sick and so I had no energy so I basically slept all day, first time in the mission, but it was a one day thing and I was all good ready to work wednesday. And wednesday we did divisions with 2 members so that we could get more visits in, and we ended up getting a lot done. But, thursday we stayed in Riobamba after our district and zone meeting because we had divisions with the Hermana Leaders so we were there all day with them and then friday we had a zone conference with President and Hermana Christensen, and we finally got back to Guaranda at 9 that night. Then saturday we had a service project till 1, and then sunday we went to church and then worked. So a pretty crazy week, but we are excited to get out and work this week.

A sad thing that happened this week is that Marly, who was an investigator that was progressing and loving the church and everything. Started ignoring us this week and avoiding us as well. We do not know what happened, but we are going to let her go for now and hopefully a little bit later she will come back and be stronger. The opposition that people have to accept this work is crazy, and sometimes people are still really weak and don´t want to fight the resistance. We always need to keep strengthening ourselves so that we never find ourselves on the other path. Stay on the path of God it will lead you to eternal life. Even though that this path is the hardest thing we will find "estrecho y angosto.. que lleva a la vida eterna", read in Matthew 7:13-14. It was a hard thing that we faced this week, but we found some joy in the work with Angel and Victoria! They are an older couple that loves this message, they are reading the scriptures and Victoria was able to come to church yesterday! Angel wasn´t able to, because he had work, but next week he will go to church! They are reading in the BOM everyday and really what they are learning. And they are reading a lot on mormon.org also, which is helping them answer all of the many questions they have! It is the best when we go and they always have a ton of questions that we find ourselves telling them we will get to the answer another lesson, because we didn´t have time for all their questions and the message that we were sharing that was answering their other questions. It is pretty great! Everytime we are teaching them we feel the spirit so strong and I know they can as well! Hopefully we can keep teaching with the spirit to really help them to progress!

For divisions this week I was with Hna Gardiner, who was in the MTC with me! It was so awesome to be with her for one day working and learning from her. It really put things into perspective at how far I´ve come in the last 10.5 months. I remember being in the MTC confused all the time with spanish, and going out contacting with Hna Brimhall and not understanding anything. Yet this time around with Hna Gardiner, we were in the streets of ecuador contacting and understanding everything they said and really finding ourselves really comfortable. Boy was that a reality check, I have come a long way in the mission! Also it was cool to be with Hna Gardiner for a day and to catch up and see how our missions have been different. Also with her I got to have Polaca again. It is this delicious drink that they have here made from oatmeal and milk, but delicious. It has the texture of like eggnog. And you can´t find it here in Guaranda,so I was pretty happy to have found it and I could enjoy it again. This is something that the states lack!

Hna Gardiner

Today for pday, we decided we wanted to go and get to know Salinas. It is a little town about 30 minutes away from Guaranda, and everyone says that we need to get to know it and buy there chocolate. So we went down there to get to know it, and when we got there we were very lost and confused. As far as we could see it was just a town, and nothing different then Guaranda, and we couldn´t even find where to buy chocolate. But, after we circled around the block, we asked someone where to buy the chocolate and they pointed us to the factory. But, this factory is just a room with some chocolate, that is only 5 cents cheaper then in guaranda... so we bought some and left. We were thinking that we were going to be able to find things to buy, like some souveneir stuff. But, as far as we could see there wasn´t anything. But, after about 20 minutes more of wandering around and people giving us weird looks, we found a shop that had some things to buy! So I bought a poncha and a native doll :) It was a slightly weird adventure and not as exciting as we thought it would be, but we enjoyed ourselves! 

I hope you all have an awesome week and know that I love you!

Hermana Cordon

Totto we are not in Quito anymore

¡hola!

Well.. first things first I am not in Quito anymore!! I finally left!! haha My mission is half of quito and the outskirts of south of quito. There are 4 zones in quito and 4 zones out of quito. I have spent the first 9 months of my mission in Quito and there isn´t a lot of difference between my 2 sectors. But today was changes and now I am the farthest from Quito in our mission. I am now in Guaranda!! I am here with Hermana Varney who has one transfer less than me and is from Wyoming! She seems really great and I am excited to be working with her!

An interesting experience happened today. So for transfers, if you are in Quito you go to Quitumbe. And you wait for people who are going to the same place as you to travel together. As  I was waiting the other Hermana wasn´t showing up. And I was going to go to Riobamba, that is close to Guaranda first and then meet my companion there and then travel to Guaranda. But, as we were waiting my hermana leader and a zone leader were thinking that it probably would just be better if I just go straight to Guaranda and they will tell my companion to meet me there. Well, they put me on a bus by myself and I went to Guaranda. It was a 5 hour bus ride and I felt weird being alone so I wasn´t really able to sleep or focus on reading or anything. Then I got here to Guaranda, not knowing where I was or what I was doing. The bus dropped us off in what seemed like a random parking lot. And so I got off in the pouring rain and struggling to take all my luggage to a canopy thing that was close by. There was a couple of people hiding from the rain there and they were all laughing at me as I was struggling. It probably was funny to see a lost gringa struggling with her bags.. haha Then I asked someone if they knew where a pay phone was and they told me that it was inside the terminal. And I realized that they had dropped us off in the parking lot of the terminal. So I went there and there was no one waiting for me... so I went and called the asistents to ask where my companion was. And they were like "You´re all alone??? Ya don´t worry Hermana we will send them to you right now." I then sat down and waited. Then after about 20 minutes came running over 2 elders and they were like "Hermana, hi we are going to take you to the wife of the district president here to wait with her while you wait for your companion who is in Riobamba still" So then I ended up traveling in taxi with these elders to find this hermana and when I got there after about 5 minutes my companion showed up. I have no idea if this made any sense, but I am just really happy to be with my companion and to not be alone anymore :) hahaha it was quite a funny experience!

Yesterday was a sad day saying goodbye to people! 5 months in one area you get pretty attached to some people! The hardest goodbye was my converts the Flia Medina! They are so amazing and they were really sad to see us go, because both me and my companion left and two new hermanas are coming in. But, they knew that my birthday is this week, so they had bought me a cake and sang me happy birthday and it made me feel so loved!!! They are so amazing!! We had finished our lesson and Enny ran to the kitchen and then the next thing I knew they turned off the lights and brang out a cake with candles and started singing happy birthday in spanish and then in english!! It was so sweet of them!!! They seriously are my family here in Ecuador and it was hard to say goodbye, but I know that they are going to stay strong and be able to go to the temple in december! I have photos, but I left my camera in the house so next week I will send it!

With my birthday coming up I have been thinking about what has happened since my last birthday and who I have become and now who I wish to become this next year. I cannot believe that I am going to be 20 years old, but I am so happy to be spending my birthday on the mission serving the Lord. This will be a birthday I will never forget and I am excited to keep growing and learning on my mission to become an even better person and more like God wants in this next year. I just have to put my trust in God and then He will lead me and mold me to His will.

I love you all and I hope you have an absolutey amazing week and thank you all for the birthday wishes!!!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Cordon