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