I ate cow tongue!

Hola!

First....the pictures!!!

-The food I bought the other week, all for under $25. I don´t even remember how expensive stuff is in the United States... How much would all of that cost there??

-The member that we live with. She is a hoot. I think she loves her dogs more than her family members... hehehe

-BAPTISM! The man in the middle is my bishop, Obispo Pable Litardo. Next to him is Raul Pita, and next to him is Eduardo Dueñas. (And pay no attention at how gordita (fat) I am right now. It´s impossible to be in this mission and not gain weight. Here´s my excuse-- we don´t eat here like in the United States. The mamitas prepare the plates in the kitchen then bring it out to everyone. So whatever is on your plate, you have to eat. And some of the families, especially the poorer families like in Machala, give the best of their food to the missionaries, so it´s extremely rude to leave anything on your plate. I leave every lunch STUFFED, like Thanksgiving stuffed. And not only do they always give us a huge plate of rice, but also soup before every meal. And lots of times it´s a really hearty soup! So there´s my excuse.)

On to my email....

This weekend was great! We had 2 baptisms, mentioned above. They both bore their testimony at the baptism at the end, and it was really sweet. They´re awesome! After his baptism, Raul said to us, "Nunca pecará otra vez!!" (I will never sin again!) He is so awesome. He´s going to be a lifelong member for sure.

In other news, I ate a fat slab of cow tongue the other day. Thank goodness they didn´t tell me until after I ate it! (And thanks, McKay, for the practice in eating cow tongue before the mission!)

So our chapel is in a really sketchy part of our area-- the most poor area. Sometimes it´s really smelly around there. But the church has a big gate around it, like all the buildings and houses here, so no one can ruin the building. But anyway, there are always homeless men sleeping across the street in front of the building. One day Hermana Camacho and I were leaving the building, and this scragly woman who was standing next to the homeless drunk guys started calling to us and saying, "Vengan y prediquen a sus hermanos! Vengan! VENGAN!" (Come and preach to your brothers!) And we called back at her and said that we had an appointment to get to, and she pointed her finger at us and yelled, "Mentiras! Mentiras! MENTIRAS!!!" (Liars, liars, LIARS!) It was exactly like in that one movie (The Princess Bride? I think not... I don´t remember) where the girl has a dream and the scragly old lady yells, "LIAR! LIAR!" I guess you could say that living in Ecuador is just like the movies... hahaha

Well, I´m loving it here! It´s starting to get really hot, and the rain is going to start soon. But everyone is telling me that it´s not a cool, refreshing rain, but more like a sauna every day. And sometimes the rain hits the pavement and evaporates there. Can´t wait! Thank goodness I¨ve got rain boots. It´s incredible how fast the work moves here. I hope you´re all having a great week!

OH YEAH! To everyone: If you or your kids are dressing up for Halloween, send me pictures! I want to see what costumes everyone is using on Thursday! :)   (angela.busath@myldsmail.net)

Chao!

Love,

Hermana Busath

LOVIN' LIFE!!

(Apparently, her camera battery died and she will hope to have pictures next week.)

What a wonderful week! I have had some amazing experiences this week-- some really amazing miracles happened. If I could describe my week in one scripture, it would be 2 Nephi 5:27 in the Book of Mormon.

First of all, I will say that as missionaries, our purpose is to invite others to come to Christ by helping them prepare for and be baptized. Here in the city, it´s a little harder to find people to teach who are ready to take this step in their lives. Usually we have 1-3 people at any given time that we are teaching who are working toward a baptism date. Well, right now Hermana Camacho and I have 10 investigators with baptismal dates! One will be baptized this Saturday-- Raul Pita. He is amazing. He has a stronger testimony of the Gospel than many who have been members their whole lives! He loves to read the Book of Mormon and learn from us and from the Spirit. He´s really excited for his baptism. For lack of time, I can´t tell you about every other investigator that we have. But the week of their baptism I´ll write more about each one!

On Saturday night, we visited with a less-active member Vilma and her 14-year-old son Gabriel. Gabriel was baptized about a month ago, but didn´t go to church the next day to be confirmed. He changed his mind and didn´t want to be confirmed. So when we were at their house, they were fixing a grill to use the next day. They were trying to bend a clothes hanger to use in the grill, but couldn´t bend it. Gabriel said, kind of sarcastically, "Maybe Hermana Busath can do it with the strength she gets from God." I totally fixed the thing in 2 minutes, haha. Apparently that was the miracle that Gabriel was waiting for, because he said that if that was possible, he would be confirmed the next day. And he was!

Also, we had an amazing experience on Friday. We were walking to lunch at the bishop´s house, and there is one route that we always take to get there. But I had a small thought to walk a different way, so I told my companion. She asked me why, and I told her that I just felt like we should walk that way. We turned the corner and saw a guy painting his gate around his house. After teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ for 15 minutes, he accepted a baptismal date! Yahoo!

I know that the success we´ve had this week has been a direct blessing from Heavenly Father because of our obedience and hard work. President Torres changed one of the mission rules last week-- now we can´t bring just a male member to teach with us, but he has to come with a woman. We have a lot of men in our ward that help a lot with teaching, but most of the women don´t have time in the week to come teaching with us. We knew this change was going to mean that we´d have less members to teach with us, but we made a goal to follow all the mission rules. And look what happened! Now we have 10 people working toward baptism.

I have been reminded again this week that we can do more with the Lord´s help that we can ever do on our own. By following the rules and keeping the commandments, I couldn´t see how it was possible to have more success than before, but I had the help of the Lord, and that is more powerful than anything I could ever do by myself.

Also, I have been contemplating how wonderful it is to have been born into an amazing family with awesome parents who always taught us to be faithful to God and follow His Son, Jesus Christ. Especially here in Ecuador, I have seen very personal consequences that come from following the temptations of Satan. I know that there are 2 very real and powerful forces that we cannot see, but that influence us every minute of every day. Our decisions determine which influence has more control over us.

It doesn´t matter how far you think you are from the help of Heavenly Father or how low you think you´ve sunken, one decision toward Him strengthens your ability to choose better the next time, then the next, then the next, until you rarely feel the influence of the adversary but have, in contrast, more confidence in your ability to choose good over evil. Most of the time, this shift from helplessness and hopelessness to confidence and happiness is a very slow one. But I promise you that it will come. I have really seen miracles from God. I know He lives. I know He is interested in our lives-- His work and His glory is to help us receive all the blessings He has waiting for us. He really lives, and He really listens to us. To all who are reading this, if you have a hard time believing that, find 10 minutes in your day to lock yourself in a quiet room and talk with your Father in Heaven. Listen and open your heart to feel His love. Take the challenge to, "Be still, and know that I am God." I testify that if you do this, you will know Him, and you will know that He is carefully watching and patiently waiting to help you. If you are consciously trying to be better and are focusing on your progress toward the Savior Jesus Christ and becoming like Him, I promise you that you will never be alone.

Keep on keepin´ on, and find joy in the journey through your relationship with your Savior, Redeemer, and Deliverer, Jesus Christ.

Love,

-Hermana Busath

Great Week!

Hello! What a great week! Highlights:

-We are teaching a man named Raul right now-- he´s amazing! He is so prepared to change his life and he understands everything about the gospel really fast. He loves to hear about the gospel and loves being at church. He is really excited for his baptism on November 2, but it will probably get bumped up to October 26. He is seriously a golden investigator!

-We got to spend 45 minutes with President Torres in his car on Wednesday night! The bad news is that we got this privelege because we were in the hospital all day and night. Don´t worry, it wasn´t for me. My companion hadn´t been drinking enough water, and she got really sick and dehydrated. It was an ordeal, let me tell you. But she is doing a lot better now, and it was so wonderful to chat with my amazing mission president. He had been up all night the night before picking up new missionaries at the airport and then having training meetings all day, then he took the time to come to the hospital and drive us home. Also, I´m pretty sure he paid for the medical bill out-of-pocket because my companion didn´t have her medical card. I am so grateful for him and his family and the sacrifices they make for us each day. And don´t worry mom, I drink so much water! I drink 2 bottles every morning before we even leave the house, then a ton throughout the day. You don´t ever have to worry about me being at the hospital for dehydration ;)

-This one isn´t really a highlight at all: So I thought it was bad in Aurora when a bird pooped on my head. Wrong. This week a bird pooped on my face. Luckily we were right next to a member´s house, so I could wash my face there. Lovin´ the wildlife here.

That´s about all I can remember at the moment. Remember that Heavenly Father loves each of you and has a plan for your life. You aren´t here to just wander aimlessly, working and studying until you die. There is a grand purpose that maybe you don´t yet know. Visit lds.org to find out what great purpose your life has :)

Love,

Hermana Busath

(This was for me, her mom, since I expressed my concern for her safety in the city of Guayaquil)

P.S. I am staying really safe, don´t worry. We always take good precautions, and we have an even greater power-- we have the direct protection of many angels and of the Spirit here in the mission. I know that there are angels around me. Thanks for your prayers; I know they bless me and my companion every day. 

Shortie Email :/

Hola!!
This is going to be a short one, sorry folks. I finished my 12 weeks of in-field training today, and transfers are tomorrow, so we`ll see if I get changed again! I`ll let you know next week. I`m loving it here and really becoming more like Christ every day. It is so important that with every decision we make, we are following the Savior`s example. THis life is meant for us to become more like Christ and to progress so that one day we can stand before Him and He will recognize us because we have taken upon ourselves His name (Moroni chapter 6).

I want to invite you all to read and listen to and re-read and re-listen to the conference talks that we were blessed with this weekend (at lds.org). Also, I would to hear from each of you which talk was your favorite and why, and what the speaker talked about. I wasn`t able to listen to all of the conference talks, and the ones that I did listen to were in Spanish, so I didn`t fully understand. I`d love to hear what was said and how it impacted your life :)

Speaking of Spanish skills, my Spanish is becoming so great! I really love the language, and I lvoe the people here.

Read your scriptures every day, love the Lord, and pray to Him to give thanks and to ask for all that you need. He is our Loving Father. He is waiting to hear from you. I know He lives, and I know that He is interested in our lives because we are His children.

¡Cuídense!

-Hermana Busath