La Caridad y La Lluvia en Ecuador

Hola! Buenas tardes! 

This week was pretty good! We had some new world wide mission changes, and saw and visited some great families this week! :) Also... it rained A LOT this week.... 

On Monday we had a fun FHE with 2 families in the ward. 1 family of members, and the other part members (the familia torres lara). it was fun to teach them all about the Restoration, in a fun and interactive way (my pictionary! ).

On Tuesday we visited the part member family of the familia vera. they are so great. we had a great lesson, that was guided by the Spirit. I am SO grateful for the Spirit in teaching. We are NOT smart enough to know what the people need, and so it is only by the Spirit that we are able to have success and really teach what they need to hear. That night we also visited a recent convert and her family- Luica. She is really sweet, and her 2 little granddaughters were there as well listening to us (and they are not members). The granddaughters enjoyed listening to us as well, and the cute little granddaughter at the end of the lesson asked if she could have my missionary badge. She wanted one just like mine! I said, "well my name tag doesnt have your name on it. How about we make you one of your own?" I made a little missionary name tag with a piece of paper, and put it on her shirt with a bobby pin i had, and she was so happy!! it was the cutest thing ever!

On Wednesday we had a world wide missionary training by the Church Missionary Department. It was great! they went over the training from the year before, and talked a lot about the importance of the Doctrine of Christ and applying that doctrine into our lives as missionaries. it was really great! and then they made the announcement of changes in our daily schedule as missionaries and the numbers that we need to inform!! it was cool!! so now we have more agency to choose when we do certain things. we can now leave earlier in the morning, and the biggest change- p-day now starts at 8am instead of 10 am! wow. it was cool!! 

Thursday we had a zone conference with President to go over all the things that were said in the missionary training and to clarify a few things. I always love learning from President, and the way that he teaches. He teaches in a way that everyone remembers it, and its always by the Spirit. that night it was raining A TON and when we left the church to go to our appointment.. we got soaked! there was so much rain!

On Friday we had an intercambio (exchange) with the hermanas from the ward Paraíso. I went with Hna Quispe (my old comp) in her sector of Paraíso. it went really well!! i love working with the hnas, and seeing all the good things they are doing. in these intercambios, we enjoy teaching, finding, and contacting in her sector, and seeing what goals we can set to be better in all aspects of missionary work. We had a good time teaching and meeting new people!

On saturday we taught a training for visiting teachers and enjoyed helping the relief society. that day we also were able to see Mercedes. She said she wants to get baptized!!! she had been waiting the whole week to see us and tell us that! she was so excited! i just love her so much, and we are working so hard so that she can get baptized as soon as possible and receive the blessings she wants.

This week we taught a lot about the Restoration and the importance of how Christ established His church. i am so grateful for the knowledge we have of the Restoration, and of the great importance it is to each one of us. we dont have to be in the dark and in confusion. we can have the light, because the Church that Christ established is here on earth once more! Also something that President taught us this past week was about charity. Charity is the pure love of Christ, and that pure love that Christ gave is the Atonement. Charity=Atonement. As we apply the Atonement in our lives, we can develop and have more charity, because we are becoming more like Christ! i am so grateful for the Gospel and the things we can learn each day through the Spirit!! have a great week!!

con amor,

Hermana Warburton

the rain!!... wow...

Una Semana de Milagros

This week was great! This week we saw milagros in Milagro, and i really saw the Hand of the Lord in the work we are doing, and how He loves us and blesses us!

This past week we taught a part member family- with Alexandra y Carlos. They are an amazing family and are so sweet! how i love them!! We were able to go with another family in the ward to visit them, and had a great lesson. we explained about the Great Apostacy and The First Vision. Wow. When we shared the First Vision, the Spirit was so strong in the room. We asked Alexandra in that moment if she believed that Jose Smith was a profeta and she said yes! She felt the Spirit, and so did everyone. it was such a neat experience to be there with them in that moment.

On Wednesday we had a great day with lots of lessons that we could teach. it was awesome!! we were so happy to be able to find lots of people receptive and willing to listen to us, and also at home! :) Also we were able to visit a few of the members and their families this week, and as we visited them, i felt so happy to be here in Ecuador meeting people like them. There are families here that are truly incredible, who are so great and have so much light in their eyes. they work so hard to have a happy family and obey the commandments of God. wow. i am so grateful to know them!

Sometimes i feel like we work so hard, try to be so obedient, but sometimes i cant see the results. Yesterday we were able to see the results! Yesterday, Sunday we did all we could to have our investigators come to church. We called, we passed by their houses, and nothing. We were pretty sad, as we walked into church and had stake conference, and our investigators didnt come. it was hard! But when the meeting ended, and we were saying goodbye to the people that came, one of our investiators came up to us to greet us! Wow!! we were soooo happy!!! we had no idea he had come, he had come a little late, and we hadnt seen him, but he came to church with his family!! Wow. we were so happy! 

Then that night as we visited an investigator and her children, she told us she wanted to be baptized as soon as possible! we were so happy for her! :) wow. i know that God knows us His missionaries and is guiding and helping us in every step of the way. its amazing. i feel so grateful to be His missionary and to be able to visit His children and help them with the things they need! I know He will bless us when we do all we need to do and are obedient. Wow. i know that we were guided and blessed this week. i feel SO GRATEFUL to be here and so grateful to be a missionary now in Ecuador! :) I know that the Gospel really is the way that we can find the solutions to all of our problems. i can help each and every one of us with whatever thing we are are going through! I hope you all have a great week!! 

con amor,

Hermana Warburton

there was this bridge and i was SUPER scared to cross it, cause well just look at it! it could break any second and i could fall off the edge!!!!!!

me with a HUGE mango!!! :) YUM

la familia lara! :) i just love them!

Barrio Samanes... Otra Vez :)

Hola! :) Buenas tardes :)

This week was a little different from normal... i had a blast from the past this week!

On Tuesday morning i got a call from the assistents that i would be working in Samanes (my 2nd sector) this week until Sunday to contact all the references that we recieved from the big Christmas event in Parque Samanes. So that afternoon i went with Hna Quispe (in Zona Milagro that also worked in barrio Samanes) to go and work in Samanes! :)

We had a great week there in Samanes. it was so neat to see all the members again. that ward is great, the members are amazing, and the families there are wonderful! wow. i loved seeing them all again. they were all so willing to help us, give us lunch, and accompany us to visit their references. 

We had a lot of walking around and contacting people. thats what we did ALL week long. contact. rain or shine we contacted. and yes it poured rain on us one day, but we kept going, and we were able to visit a lot of the families that went to Parque samanes and took pictures or went to the show. We had a fun time contacting the people asking them if they remembered the girl that sang Ave Maria... and then saying well that was me, "Can i sing it for you right now, and then we can bless your house?" :) They almost all said yes! it was awesome! it was a good way to be able to enter their house, visit with them, sing them a song, and then sing a hymn, and then pray with them! we were able to meet some great families, which will be great investigators!

Sunday i was also able to go to Sacrament Meeting in the Samanes ward, and so it was just like old times! :) i was able to see some of my converts as well, and Amalia my convert. Oh how i just love her!! :) She is doing wonderful!! just as sweet as ever! im so happy for her! :) Wow. i know i said it earlier, but i just love that ward. as i was sitting in relief society meeting, i was just thing about how much i love the people here. they have helped me grow, ive watched them grow, and its been amazing to see how the Gospel touches every one of our lives.

This morning as i was studying i was thinking about the Plan of Salvation and the principle of remembering things. I was reminded of how in young womens and all throughout my life i have always been taught the Plan of Salvation. At times i thought it was a little repetitive and i wondered why we always had the same lesson. This morning as i thought about it, i realized a few things. that the Plan of Salvation is so important and is basically the center of all we do. if we understand this plan, we will make good choices and be happy. we will apply the Atonement in our lives. so we need to always be learning about it! also, as humans we tend to forget things, and its the little things we do that really help us be better and continue in this plan. So while we may think things are repetitive, they are not, because there is always something new we can learn, and doing the small things over time accomplishes the greatest things! So keep working and doing the small things that will help you to stay in the strait and narrow path in this great Plan of Salvation that God has given us. its perfect, and i know that He loves us! :)

love you all! have a great week! :)

con amor,

Hermana Warburton

Hna Gloria Perez y Evangelina (daughter of Francis) with hna quispe (my comp of the week!)

Hna Chacon :) I just love the familia Chacon!

 

cambios!

 

Los Grillos... y Milagros

Buenas tardes!! :) First week of the year! FELIZ AÑO! 

This week we had a good week, with lots of ups and downs and milagros en Milagro! :)

On monday we were able to teach our recent convert Jefferson the Plan of Salvation again, and teach him more about family history and the temple. i am so grateful for this great Plan that lets us see our family again, and have happiness now and in the eternities!

On wednesday we had our zone conference with President and Hna Riggins. it went really well! i always love learning from our President! We watched the world wide missionary training conference from last year.. because lots of missionaries are new and had not seen it. it was a good reminder of teaching repentence and baptizing converts, and about the way we need to teach by the Spirit, and work with members. i was reminded of the importance of listening. listening as we teach-- to the investigators, to our companion, and to the Spirit! Its so important to listen to the Spirit! :)

On Thursday it had its ups and downs... there werent a lot of people home, but we were able to teach Mercedes which was great. She is a great investigator, and each time i teach her i feel the love that God has for her.

On friday...a day i will always remember.... well this day we had the war of the grillos (crickets). i dont know what happened.. we went to sleep thursday night and we woke up friday and there were a billion crickets in the house! the house was FULL of crickets. and we were in an intercambio, so it was with another companion (hna hurtado). the house was full of these insects, and it was sooooo nasty!!! eww! that day i was so excited when we got to leave the house! we worked that day, and had a good day with hna hurtado working in my sector. we were able to find a few new investigators as well. that night after we switched companions  and i was with hna peña again, we came back to the house and there were still a billion crickets!!! we spent about an hour trying to get them all out of the house. it was terrible!! luckily after that we havent found as many in the house (but there are still some in the house)... but oh.. i never want to see a cricket again!!!!!

Saturday we had a cool lesson! when all of our appointments fell, we decided to visit a part member family. the wife is a member, and the husband is not. we visited them, and the lesson was guided by the Spirit. it was so neat! they are not married, and the husband wanted to get married in a few months from now. we talked to them, shared a scripture with them, and as he read, he understood all the blessings that come from marriage and keeping the commandments, and after he read that, he himself said put a new date for their marriage for the next month! it was awesome! i was amazed at how the Spirit worked in that lesson, and that we are not really the teachers, but the Spirit is!

I am so grateful for the Gospel, for the Atonement and for prophets. i know that this is Christ´s Church. I love how the Scriptures truly help us to find the answers to the questions we have and invite the Spirit. i know that the role of the Holy Ghost is so important- to testify of truth, to teach us, and to testify of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We shared Mosiah 2:22 with many people this week, and I know that as we keep the commandments and live righteously, we will prosper, and will receive the blessings that we need. Have a great week! love you all!!

con amor, 

Hermana Warburton

the grillos (crikets) 

thats just a few... there were tons!!!!!!

FELIZ AÑO 2017

HOLA!! FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!! :) wow. Pueden creer que es 2017??! wow. :)

This past week we had a good week. Monday and Tuesday we had an intercambio with the hnas of the ward Porvenir. I went with Hna Warburton in her sector. she is awesome! i love working with her! she is just the sweetest and an awesome missionary!

Wednesday we had a fun noche de hogar with the familia Zambrano and Acosta. The familia Zambrano are a  part member family and the familia Acosta are members that came with us and really helped us in the lesson. we talked about the new year and the goals we want to set! 

Thursday was the beginning of the Leadership Council we have each month with president riggins. Thursday night we went to the temple. i am amazed how there is always something new we can learn each time we go to the temple. when we really want to learn, there is always something to be learned!

Friday we had the leadership council. it was great. we talked about what it really means to be a leader and how we can help other missionaries and the examples that we need to be. we were reminded of a few things we can do better and how we can work better with the part member families. it was great as usual!! that night we came back to Milagro and we were able to go to a small part of the ward party and talk to some great families and find new people to teach!

Saturday we spent the day in las Magaritas. we taught Mercedes, who is doing great. she is amazing and i am always amazed at her strength and desire to learn more and be obedient to the commandments. i just love her! :) That night was new years eve... and here in ecuador its a BIG holiday! fireworks for hours... and they burn monigotes, which are dolls made of cardboard (big or small) and they represent the old year. so they burn the old year and welcome in the new year!! :) its pretty cool!! 

Wow. i cant believe its 2017!! im so excited for all the new year has in store and all the things i have learned in 2016. as i reflected on the past year, i was so grateful for all the things i have been able to do. it has been an incredible year here in ecuador and i feel so grateful to have spent it as a missionary. i have learned innumerable things and there are still so many things i can and need to learn! thats one thing i learned this week... there is always something about the Gospel that we can learn. through scripture study, prayer, church  attendance, temple attendance and other things that invite the Spirit, really we can learn each day something that will help us become more like Christ and understand the plan God has for us! 

have a great 2017!

con amor,

Hermana Warburton

pic of the leadership conference

new years eve

a really big dragon munigote