This is my first PDAY in Ecuador! It was interesting to fly such a long flight and not have a time change! Right now it is 11.15am. My first night here, we had an hour or 2 to work, and my companion asked me if I just wanted to rest and sleep because of my day of traveling. I said no I am here to work! Well in that 90 minutes I recieved almost 40 mosquito bits on my legs! But I will always remember that first night. I know that I am here to invite others to come unto Christ, and every day I am learnng more that this work is not about me.
I am in the area of Los Helechos, in the Santay 1 ward. The people here are incredible. Althought I cannot understand them, I do know that they do SO much for the missionaries here. My companion brought some music with her and so we listen to Nashville Tribute Band ALL the time in our casa. I love it. It motivates me to work, and brings back my favorite memories of Nasvhille. A couple fun stories from this week:
1. My companion is from Chile, and knows fairly good english, which is a blessing and a curse! But, the President has said that during Language Study she is to study english, and I spanish obviously. I can only imagine how strange it looks to see us walking down the dirt streets here, haha. and occaisionally someone will drive by and say in English, "Hello, Gringo!" haha.
2- We took an investigator, Brigit, (17) to New Beginnings Saturday, and it reminded me of a year ago when all 10 of us girls went with Dad to the New Beggings for Young Womens in Nashville. I loved my Young Womens experience! It is still weird for me to attend Relief Soeciety every week haha.
3. Saturday our toilet quit working. Haha. We couldn´t decide if we should buy a plunger or wait and buy one on Pday. We decided, we would need to use our toilet, but as sisters we have to be in our house at 8.30 at the latest, and it was 8.25! So.. instead of buying one, we went contacting... for plungers! haha. We knocked on all of the doors on our street asking if we could borrow a plunger. Turns out a member had one.. it was a funny night though. haha.
Right now we have 13 investigators with a baptismal date!! The Saturday before I arrived was the Baptism of a 20 yr old names Kevin. He was confimed Sunday! And wants to serve a mission. It is so fun to teach him, because he has such a strong desire to learn and progress in the gospel. We teach him at the house of his friend (Brigit) And we are also teaching Brigit, and her Mother, Monica. (Monica reminds me of Heather Rolapp haha) They are really progressing, and we teach them almost every day.
The Relief Society President arranges our lunch every day. And every day I have been here it has been hot soup (which is so confusing to me? haha. Most peope use their napkins at meal times to wipe their mouth...here we use them to wipe the sweat from our face!!) meat, and rice. MOUNTAINS OF RICE. We only have lunch appointments, and no dinners. Usually I am never hungry at dinner time so I havent even thought about it!
My area is about 30 mins outside of Guayaquil, and today we are going to Guayaquil to see the Park of the Iguanas. (ew!) haha. There are alot of little geckos here similar to Hawaii, but I have only seen one iguana so far that was about 3 or 4 feet long. luckily it was quite some distance from me. So no- your package did not arrive. The mission said that any package that is over 4 pounds has to go through some long system and takes months and months to get here.. So they said, by the end of your mission you should have that! I wish they would have said that in our mission pakcet. Anyways, they gave me a new address too, but remember it needs to be under 4 pounds. And honestly, I am doing fine. Anything I need, I should be able to find here. I also found my piano book too. Do not worry about sending anything! I know it is expensive, and I know that you love me! I am doing great!
here is the addres:
Hermana Angelee McKee
Mision Ecuador Guayaquil Norte
Casilla de correo 16160
Guayaquil, Ecuador
this is for letters and packages!
I want you to know that I know this gospel is true. It is amazing to me to teach the people here who have never heard of anything about the LDS church, or Jose Smith, or the Book of Mormon, it just makes sense! If God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, of course he would continue to call prophets! The language is what I struggle with the most. It is easy to be discouraged and feel like I am not fulfilling my purpose because of this, but I have faith it will come little by little, as long as I do ALL I can do. I just hope that I am doing my part.
Aubrey, congrats on you Jr. Miss, i wish I could have been there! Know that I was thinking of you .And thank you for your email. I love that you said, you are praying that I will understand a little more of the language every day. I am too, I know it will come in little by little. Thank you for all your emails! And Kirsten thank you for the pictures! Charlie makes a cute Jack o lanteren! Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes. I love you all so much!
If there is anyway, I would love it if you could email me the photo of our family sealed at the temple.
Con Amor,
Hermana McKee
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