Memorial and other updates

So as most of you know, Ashawnte and I gave our first talks a few weeks ago. Sorry I haven't done any blog updates, I haven't been doing too much exciting stuff. Last week Ashawnte and I went to Otavalo which is one of my favorite places in Ecuador because everything is handmade and super cheap!!! Even the silver jewelry! :-) Then two days after Otavalo, Ashawnte and I asked our friend Paola to come with us to this place called Oasis. Believe it or not, it's actually a wave pool here in Ecuador about 2 hours from where we are staying. I didn't take my camera because I didn't want it to get stolen while we were swimming. But if I would have known what was going to happen I would have definitely taken it! The three of us ended up being the ONLY ones in the entire water park! The only downfall is that on weekdays (we went on a Monday) they don't create waves and they don't run the water slides. So we just had these three huge pools all to ourselves! What a pity! LOL If we go back on a weekday again, I'll be sure to take my camera!

So right at the beginning of our campaign, which was an absolute blast here because it's so easy, Ashawnte and I had a really interesting day in service. I have this bad habit of setting my alarm for a certain time then hitting the snooze button as many times as possible before I absolutely have to get up! Well, Wednesday mornings we have to be at the bus terminal at 8:00 sharp to catch the bus to Julio Andrade (where the service group meets). So the alarm went off at 7:00 and I hit the snooze button, but my alarm didn't go off again, so we woke up at 7:36 and jumped out of bed! We got ready in about 15 minutes and we rushed to the bus stop. Fortunately a taxi driver that's a brother was driving by and saw us so he swung around to pick us up and take us to the terminal. The only good part about the morning was the taxi ride was free (even though it's only $1 anyways, free is still better!) So we missed the bus! Haha! Yeah...well, we get on another one and this old man happened to be the driver, how fortunate for us...NOT! He drove like a turtle! So we get to Julio at about 9:30 and the group meets at 8:45. Yeah, totally late! So I call Jonathan (the brother serving here from Texas) and ask him where the group is working. He asked where were currently were and I told him right in front of this school (can't remember the name of it). He then says, "Oh wow you are really far from the group, I'll send someone to come pick you up. Stay right there." Oh yeah and I forgot to mention it was POURING outside! LOL So the new elder we just got from Milan, Italy - Samuel - came to pick us up. We get to the group, get out of the car and do TWO doors when Jonathan calls me and says, "Yeah umm, it's raining too hard and no one is coming to the doors because it's too cold and wet, so we are stopping." WHAT!? We could have stayed home!!!! So we regroup and Ashawnte and I are sent on studies with a couple sisters who are actually dressed for the weather. The study I went on had no electricity and all concrete floors, and the student left the door open so we could have some light which made it even worse because the wind was blowing! So I used the converter on my phone to see how cold it was....43 degrees!!! So we were out for a while with them freezing our buns off so to speak!

Oh before I forget, some of you know this but most of you don't. Our congregation was sent 17,000 invitations for the memorial. There are 56 baptized publishers in the congregation, 11 regular pioneers, and 24 auxiliary pioneers...meaning each of us were supposed to get 620 invitations! I passed out about 80 and I was quite happy about that. LOL

So as I have mentioned before, we have a group in Julio Andrade that's headed up by our congregation, so there was a memorial in Julio last night and a memorial in our hall. Both were held at 6:00, then another memorial for the other congregation followed at 7:40. Our attendance last night was 134 in Julio Andrade and 219 here in Tulcan.

There was this little girl sitting in front of me last night during the memorial (I wish I got a picture of her, but her family left as soon as they said Amen pretty much). She was the cutest little thing I have ever seen! She would stick her hand through the back of the seat and play with my fingers and during the prayer she reached back and held my hand through the whole prayer! I wanted to take her home with me so bad! LOL And she kept wanting me to play with her Barney that she brought with her. They don't even have Barney episodes here!! LOL Anyways, memorial was great as always! I missed being at home for it but it was pretty cool being in another country for it at the same time!

There is some protest starting today and they are closing all of the highways to and from Tulcan so we won't be able to go anywhere for a few days. I'm not exactly sure what it's about, but as soon as I find out I'll let you all know.

Oh and Ashawnte and I ran out of gas for hot water, so until the gas truck comes back around and we can get gas again, we have to take showers/baths with boiled water out of two big spaghetti pots. LOL Makes you appreciate our hot water heaters at home. Oh well.

Sorry again for taking so long to blog, I'll try to do much better at that!

T.Q.M.

Ciao