Hermana Warburton: Feliz Año Nuevo 2016

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy new year! i hope you all had a great end of the year, and are ready for a brand new year! :) It´s crazy how fast this year flew by!

Hermana Childs and i had a fun new years eve... in the house! haha we werent allowed to leave, and so we had to be in the house at the usual early hour and stay in there. But its a good thing. it was CRAZY!! we were able to look through our window at ALL of the fireworks and craziness that was going on. here in ecuador the people go a little crazy for new years. and when i say a little... i mean a lot!!!! there were fireworks going for probably like an hour! and they also have this tradition here where they burn monigotes- which are paper mache dolls that can be anywhere from 3 ft to 50 feet tall! They put a note inside the doll of a list of things they would like to "burn" or get rid of about themselves so they can become better this coming year. Then they light the doll and burn the old self for the better new self for the coming year. :) It was fun to watch all these fun firework traditions from the safety of our little casa!

As for our investigators, we are being continually blessed to find new investigators and receive help and guidance with our investigators we have now. Seriously i am always so amazed at the patience and guidance that God has for us. He really does put us in the right path at the right time.

This past week we were looking for reference we received about a menos activo family in the ward. So we were looking and looking for the house but were having a hard time finding the direction. As we were looking we came upon a man who was sitting outside his house reading his newspaper. We said hi to him and got talking, and it turns out that he is a member of this church but has just been inactive for 30 years. His daughter who also was there and talked to us, is not a member, but was very interested in our message, especially Jose Smith. She invited us back to visit with her. We actually never ended up finding the reference we set out to find that day! But we found other people that we needed to talk to! God will direct our paths if we are willing to listen to the Spirit and are just willing (and not afraid) to talk to people! :)

Well this time of year in ecuador is the hot hot time of year! its the opposite of utah.... and boy was it hot and sunny this past week! wow! yes... i got sunburned a lot this week... Its also the time for the bugs to start coming out. here there are these nasty bugs called grios which are like a cocroach flying type bug. They are awful! we had 2 in our house last night, and one was flying all over! at one point it even landed on my back! hermana childs and i were screaming and going crazy... and the lady that lives below us called us to see what in the world was going on!! haha!

Im so grateful to be here and to have the opportunity to spend this new year in ecuador serving the people. this gospel is so amazing. it is a gospel of blessings. :) we are able to see miracles in our lives if we just trust in God and turn to Him. His love is incredible, and it will allow us to make it through anything, and have the strenghth to do the things we need to! I hope you all have a great start to this new year, make some new goals, and trust in God and His plan! Love you all lots!

Les amo,

Hermana Warburton