3 Months.....Check!

Today is my 3 month mark! I have been on my mission for exactly 2 transfers (12 weeks) and we had transfers yesterday.... I`m still in Aurora with Hermana Cambal! I am really happy about that because I am finally getting to the point where I can have real conversations and joke around with her, haha! It`s going to be a great 6 more weeks here in Aurora :)

We had 2 more baptisms on Saturday! Their names are Kevin and Dalto. Kevin is 16 years old and reminds me a lot of Jeff. He lives with his aunt and he is really quiet, but he has such a strong testimony. He loves to play soccer and is just a really chill person. After his baptism, he asked, "Am I allowed to shower before my confirmation?" :) He has a really pure heart and he is really trying to do what`s right. He`s awesome.

Dalto is 9 years old, and he such a sweet boy. He is so loving and really loves to hear about Jesus Christ and learn about the gospel. He loves going to church and is always so happy to be there. His familiy life isn`t very good, so it`s been great to get to know him and be his friend, and bring the joy and happiness of the gospel into his life.

One of the sweetest experiences here in the mission is when I get to experience with someone the joy that they feel when they are introduced to God`s plan for them. What I mean is, as a representative of Jesus Christ, I am able to look into the eyes of another person and feel the pain that they are going through, them I am able to testify to them of the love that Heavenly Father has for them and of the help that He is waiting to give. I get to testify of gospel truths and of the incredible act of the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then, I have the privilege of looking in their eyes and seeing the understanding that they have and the love and Spirit that they feel. I am the means of bringing consolation to their hearts and peace to their minds. It`s an incredible privilege.

I hope you all know of the Savior`s love and of your Father in Heaven`s love for you. They know who you are and how you feel. They have a plan for your life. We receive their guidance and love as we follow their teachings. Read the scriptures and pray every morning and night, and I promise you will be able to feel their love for you.

Love,

-Hermana Busath

-Me with the coolest thing ever-- a collection of banana stickers. The people here collect them (because there are so many bananas) so I started a collection of my very own!

 -A beautiful sunset here

-Hermana Cambal and me with a little girl in our ward. Her hair is a little crazy!

 -Hermana Harper and me

-Kevin and Dalto, our baptisms this week!

 -My zone

-The sisters in my zone

Baptism!!

Hola!!! I had my first baptism!!! It was amazing. Her name is Nancy and she has such a strong testimony of the Gospel. She just has so much faith that she believes everything we teach her the moment we teach. It makes sense to her; that`s how the gospel of Jesus Christ should be! We all have the Light of Christ in us, so when we hear the gospel of Christ, if we are prepared, our spirits recognize the truth. The Holy Ghost can testify to our spirits that it is true. 

There are so many people here who are ready and waiting to hear the truth of the restored gospel that I will probably have lots of baptisms here, so I`ll try to tell you a little something about each person when I send pictures. This week we have 2 baptisms planned-- Kevin and Dalto. I`ll send pictures!!

Mom, I really don`t drink that much coke like I thought I would. Like one cup a week, haha We drink lots and lots of water, and a little bit of natural juices from oranges or tomatoes. The thing that I need to eat less of is rice and bread haha It`s incredible how different the diet is here! Oh and could you tell Grams about the coke too? She emailed me last week but I don`t have time to email her back. And please tell her thank you for emailing me! And not to worry.

I love you all! Thank you for your support, emails and prayers. Have a great week!

-Hermana Busath

(I'm thinking Nancy is the woman in the middle?

Angela did not specify which person Nancy was in the pic)

(I believe this is one of her big lunches?

Again, she didn't label the pics, gonna have to remind her on that!)

Halooo!

HOLA!!!

I got a picture with One Direction at the mall!!!! (Check out the picture!!)

The other two pictures are from this afternoon when we made cake with one of my favorite sisters in the ward, Hermana Sabrina. Her husband is the ward mission leader. My clothes are all wet because an egg cracked and splattered all over me! I seriously don`t know how it could have had that much of a trajectory...

This week has been wonderful! We had a meeting with our mission president this weekend, then he spoke in our ward on Sunday. My mission president is awesome!!!!! His name is President Torres. He loves us so much! I really love him and his wife very much. He cries every time he talks to us, and when I had my initial interview with him, we both finished in tears. I feel like I barely know him because I barely ever get to see him, but at the same time I feel so much love for him and so much love FROM him. He always calls us "God`s angels" and cannot express how much of a privilege it is for him to be working alongside us. He came down to Machala this weekend to have a capacitacion (I don`t know the word in English haha) and told us that he`s going to plan for each of the zones to start attending the temple from now on!!!! How wonderful!!!! I cannot tell you how incredibly excited I was to hear that news. Then he spoke in our ward yesterday, and he had us 4 missionaries stand up, and he shared with the ward his love for all the missionaries and how we have sacrificed so much to be here and how we need the help of the ward members and how great of a work we are doing and a lot of other wonderful stuff. Definitely the best mission president there is ;) hehe. Before he sent me to my first area, he told me that my area is full of people waiting to hear the message of the gospel and that I have one of the best trainers there is. Our group from the CCM was his first new group, and he shared with us that before he was called to be a mission president, he had a dream in which he had many many more children, of many different races and they all looked different, and there was even a red-head in his dream. He wondered how that could be possible. Then he got called as a mission president, and he was waiting for us at the airport, and out walks Hermana Nazer (my CCM companion) from the terminal. Lo and behold, the red-head from his dream. He was crying before we even shook his hand! He is so loving. He is brand-new, but his focus, however, is on faith, charity, diligence, and humility. Ahhh, he`s amazing. I hope I get to know him a lot better in the next year and a half. I mean, 16 months haha.

Contacting people is great! We tract a lot, and the people are really receptive to hear our message. We get some REALLY devoted catholics, and then Testigos de Jehova, but other than that the people are really sweet and loving. We always invite them to be baptized in the first visit, and it`s amazing to me how many people accept it! The people here are just so ready for this message. They`re so humble. I love so much watching people feel the spirit for the first time, then praying with them on our knees and looking into their eyes as they feel the spirit testify to them of the truth of our message. I`m really trying to enjoy every minute!

Our baptisms didn`t go through this week :( Both Gerarda and Javier say that they aren`t ready for baptism. It`s really incredible how much Satan works on us right when we are making good choices in our lives. He doesn`t want us to be happy, so he will do everything he can to stop us from following God`s commandments. We need to always remember to stay on guard against the enticings of Satan! Remember that the Lord`s way always leads to happiness, and that we receive blessings after the trial of our faith.

I don`t have much time, but I recommend you should read Helaman 6:3 in the Book of Mormon this week. :)

Love, 
Hermana Busath

Greetings from Guayaquil!

Hola!

Guess who has an hour to write letters now! Wahoo! Maybe now I can respond to all the people who have been writing me emails and letters since I came out on my mission... Starting next week! Sorry about that....

We`re in Guayaquil today to finish up some VISA stuff. I love traveling to Guayaquil, but it puts a damper on our work with our investigators! Hopefully we will have time to visit a few of them tonight when we return back to Machala. 

Someone remind me next week to share the story about the lady with the bum shots... It`s hilarious. Bt I don`t have time now cause we`ve gotta catch the bus home!

The work is so great here! We have 2 baptisms planned for this Saturday! I will send pictures on Monday. Sorry I have no pictures today. And my Spanish is really progressing! How wonderful it is to have the Lord to help me learn this language. As I rely on His strength and serve Him, He blesses me in my efforts. I know that is the same for all of you. Rely on Him, and He will bless you. Follow Him, and He will make life easier for you. I know it`s true! I see it in my life and in the lives of my investigators every day!

Love, Hermana Busath

Mom asked me some questions, so here are the answers:

1. Give me an idea of what your day is like, what you usually do on the weekdays other than Pday, and also how far do you have to travel, and by what method, to get to a store for groceries? And do you have a "mamita", a woman who cooks for you? 

Every day is work, work, work. We wake up at 6:30, get ready until 8, study until 11 or 12, go to appointments, eat lunch with a member, and then tract and go to appointments until 9p. At 9 we plan for the next day for an hour, then get ready for bed and go to bed by 10:30. Lunches are HUGE, so we don`t usually get much dinner. We usually buy bread and fruit from the local tiendas (little stores) for dinner, but don`t really need more cause lunch is so big. And that is my day! Oh and Sundays are a little different. We wake up at 5:30 and leave by 7 to go around and wake up all our investigators for church. They won`t come if we don`t wake them up. So we spend 2 hours doing that before church at 9. Then after church is just the same as all the other days!

We have a mamacita for lunch. We don`t have to pay them, but a different lady every day of the week cooks lunch for us. Lunch is the biggest meal, so we get a lot of food!

2. What kinds of foods are you eating now that you are in Ecuador? 

I eat a LOT of rice. We get a heaping of rice with every lunch, then a side of something and a piece of meat. Also, before the main dish, we get a big bowl of soup. I`m starting to really use my exercise time wisely, because if I don`t, I will be very large when I get home! Let`s hope that`s not the case :) The food is not like what we usually have in USA, but it`s not bad or weird. It`s just cooked with different spices. And we are expected to eat every on our plate, which means practically licking the plate clean and eating absolutely everything off the bones. We drink coke with almost every lunch, and water the rest of the time. I have a really great water bottle with a filter that they gave us, so don`t worry about me getting sick from the water! And they DO eat with only spoons! It was true! The more wealthy families have forks and knives, but mostly we just use spoons.

3. Your pinky toe looked REALLY swollen and red in the picture of your feet that you sent last week. Was that a bite or was that from walking so much? I hope it's not like that anymore!! Made me really sad to see that!! 

Don`t worry at all about my pinky toe; I wore another sister`s shoes (she gave them to me while at the MTC because they hurt her feet...now I understand why) for like 15 minutes in the morning before we left our house. They fit weird and squeeze my toes, and that`s why my pinky toe was red. But I don`t plan on wearing those shoes, so don`t worry! The redness went down in like 10 minutes after that :)

By the way, I really like all the spiritual thoughts you send me! Please send them when you write me! It`s nice cause I print them out so I have them to read over and over. And I don`t really have any other way of getting quotes in English... It`s nice to get a little spiritual upliftment in English :) Thank you.