Greetings from Ecuador!

Hallo! 

I`m alive! I made it to Ecuador! My first zone is called Machala and (if you can believe it) my first area is called Aurora! How ironic! My trainer`s name is Hermana Cambal and she is really great. She is so patient with my Spanish and really helps me to understand and speak and teach. She knows a little bit of English because she is from Northern Ecuador, and the school where she is from teaches English. So all is well!

P-day for the whole mission is Monday, so you`ll be getting my emails every Monday now! So the way writing emails works is that we come to this computer place in the morning, print off all the emails we received, read them throughout the day, then around 3 or so we come back and write our emails. But we only have 30 minutes to write! Elder Will Carver told me that in his mission they have 2 hours... I`m not really sure why it`s so different. Anyway, I might start writing real letters more instead since I won`t have much time here. So please include your address if you send me an email or a letter so I can write you back!

This week has been so great! I am so in love with Ecuador. The people here are so wonderful, the food is delicious, we have lots of opportunities to teach, the ward is very big and loving, the culture is different but sweet, and the weather is gloriously hot and humid :)

So the way that a lot of people make money here is selling things from their homes or cars, or driving taxis. The taxis are just self-owned cars, but they are safe enough. The driving is crazy, but everyone driving only pays attention to driving-- people don`t talk on the phone or eat or anything. So it`s crazy, but it`s safe. Now about the people who sell stuff: in the town Aurora where I live, there are tons and tons of "tiendas", which are stores in the front of someone`s house. That`s where we sometimes buy groceries and snacks and stuff. It`s pretty funny. Anyone that wants to can just sell stuff out of their homes. It`s the same for restaurants-- many people just make a "restaurant" out of the front room of their house. It`s great! And then other people drive around and sell things, like snacks and produce and cotton candy and fried stuff. Think about the little cart that Nacho Libre drives around... That`s exactly what many people sell things out of. It`s so legit! But as missionaries, we aren`t allowed to eat anything sold on the streets or in those little restaurants. We eat lunch every day at a member`s house, and they stuff us full of rice! It`s incredible. And we have to eat the whole thing. On Saturday, I literally ate until I felt like I was going to throw up, and I had only eaten 2/3 of it. My awesome companion finished mine for me while the members weren`t looking. What a life saver! I haven`t eaten anything crazy yet-- just lots of rice and Coke.

So there are 5 of us living in one big apartment. It would probably be more fun if I could understand them better haha but they are all so nice and helpful. I`ll send a picture of the main part of our apartment. My bed is the top bunk. We`re on the fourth floor, so I can see all of my area out on our porch. It`s beautiful!

Today it rained for the first time, but I guess we`re not allowed to wear rain boots :( I at least have my crocs, so my other shoes won`t get ruined by the rain. Other than that, the weather has been really great. Me gusta the heat!

The missionary work here is awesome. On my first day we had 7 people commit to being baptized! Although only 3 came to church on Sunday. We need to work hard to get people to come to church. But everyone here is so welcoming. We haven`t really had any problem with rude people, and for the most part everyone is willing to listen to our message. I`m learning so much about the gospel here and how it can really bless and change people`s lives. Our family is so blessed to have the knowledge that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ-- we can live forever with our families! And we have the opportunity to make such special covenants with God so that we can have Eternal Life and be happy. The Book of Mormon answers all the questions we have because it is the word of God. Our Savior loves each person very much and is very aware of our needs. When we turn to Him and change our lives to be in line with His teachings, we are blessed and receive the help that we need. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ`s true church on the Earth today. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet who talked with God and Jesus Christ, and I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of the world today.

Keep your chin up-- you`ve got a loving Father in Heaven who watches over you! 

Love you all!
-Hermana Angela Busath

p.s. I tried to send pictures, but they didn`t work. I`ll send them next week.

No email this week, just a wonderful phone call!!

Angela left the Peru CCM (MTC) this morning. She called from the Lima airport, on her way to Guayaquil. She sounded very upbeat and extremely excited about the new adventures that await her in the mission field!

She told me about the last investigator she spoke with on Saturday named Luz, who looked directly into Angela's eyes and asked her if she'd ever see her again. Angela said she hoped she would, but if not in this life, then in the next. Angela then told me that she felt that perhaps in the pre-existence there were those who might have looked into the Savior's eyes before coming to earth and asking if they would see Him again. She imagined that He might have told them that they may not see Him on the earth, but they would meet those who have His light shining through their eyes, and that they would recognize that light.

I am so overwhelmed with the spiritual depth that Angela shows us each week through her letters. She has grown even more in the past 6 weeks as she's been in a place of spiritual instruction, while learning the Spanish language. I feel the love she has acquired for the people she will serve in Guayaquil, the same kind of love that the Savior has for all of us. It is unconditional, and it is never ending.

Hopefully, we will receive an email sometime next week, after Angela has settled into her first area. I'm looking forward to learning more about her experiences.

Have a great week all!
Becky

One More Week!

Hello there! Guess who only has one more week here in the Peru MTC?! I cannot believe the time has flown by so quickly! I leave next Tuesday morning for Ecuador to preach the Gospel to the children of God in Ecuador! I have learned so much here at the MTC. My testimony of the Gospel has been incredibly strengthened as I´ve watched miracles happen every day. My Spanish is 400 times better than it was when I got here, and I can have a real conversation with the locals! I can´t wait to go tracting in Peru one last time on Saturday

, then get out to the field on Tuesday. And my companion is amazing. Hermana Nazer and I are definitely going to be best friends for life!

On Sunday I bore my testimony in Spanish, and I was amazing that I could actually say all that I wanted to! I´m not struggling through conjugations and vocabulary anymore; it all just comes to me and I know that it is a blessing from the Lord to be able to learn this language.

I saw an awesome Mormon Message here the other day called "A Book of Mormon Story". It´s about an African American man living in England. Everyone please watch it! Mom, if you could attach the link to it on YouTube, that would be awesome :)

As I sat in the temple today, I was reminded of the love that Heavenly Father has for all of His children. He wants us to talk with Him through prayer, and He wants to talk to us through the scriptures and through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. I know that He answers prayers. I know that He cares about all of our problems and hard times, because we are His children! He has a plan for us, and He will help us as much as He can if we look to Him for help. If you´ve never read the Book of Mormon, or if it´s been a while since you last picked it up, or if you read it every day, please read it today and take Moroni´s promise in Moroni 10:3-5. I know that the Lord will bless you for remembering Him and I promise that He will manifest the truth of all things unto you.

Love you all! 

Wish me luck in Ecuador, and I wish you all the best in these coming weeks!

Love,

Hermana Busath

(below is the video she wanted me to share)

(hooray, she explained the pics this week)
Pictures: A couple are from the 4th of July-- the cooks here decorated the cafeteria for 4th of July for all of us Americans and had a special BBQ lunch for us with vanilla ice cream and a huge American Flag cake! Then 2 pictures are from the temple and the other 2 are from our bus ride today. It kind of shows what it´s like-- crazy packed and really sketchy, and we are always standing. It´s a fun time every week! We love riding the bus!

Shortie Email

Welp, I just lost the entire letter I wrote to you. Yeehaw. I love
Peru. So this is going to be very short. Oh and the enter button
doesn´t work, so when you see a #, mom, please hit enter for me :) 

# A few awesome things happened this week! First, Elder Christofferson
came to the MTC to give a devotional! Does he know our family? I know
we know some of the apostles, but I don´t know if we know him. When he
shook my hand after, he called me by my name and he pronounced it
correctly! His devotional was awesome. I wish I had time to re-write
about it. But during the closing song, we made eye contact (I was on
the front row right in front of him) and we smiled at each other. It
was really awesome. I imagine that being somewhat like how it will be
when I look into the Savior´s eyes again someday. I felt very warm and

loved. Elder Christofferson is an amazing man.

# Second great thing: Hermana Nazer and I got called to be Sister Leaders! It is a calling
comparable to Zone Leaders, and it means that we are in charge of the
welfare of the North American sisters (about 80 of them). I´ll tell
you more about that in the next letter, hopefully, if my email doesn´t
get erased again :) 

# "So the "investigators" we are teaching, as we teach them, we

pray for them and follow up with them. We also receive inspiration
concerning them and their situations and I can feel Heavenly Father´s love for them as

I teach and listen to them. This week I had a special experience. As I
was teaching our investigator Teresa, she told us about a problem she

had, and she told us that she doesn´t think that God loves her anymore
because she feels filthy after what she has done. I was overcome by a
rush of the Savior´s love for her as she told us her deepest feelings.
To be able to tell someone, when they feel so low, how much their
Father in Heaven loves them, is one of the sweetest experiences I have

ever had. It´s amazing what you are able to feel for another human being when you
are doing the Lord´s work and striving to bring others unto Christ. 

# So I got a couple letters! On Wednesday I got 2 letters from mom and 1 from Bobby
Bell. I am sending some out today, but I can only write letters on
p-day. And I also got McKay´s email version of his dear elder mail

today! I am so happy to get mail from all of you. If anyone else has sent
me a letter, through dearelder.com, I hope it gets here soon! And I´ll try to write you back

soon. But from now on, only send letters to my mission address or my email address, not the MTC :)

I love getting letters! It´s true what they say, "to missionaries, letters are like Christmas presents!!"

# Sorry this one is short. So many great things happened this week, and I wish I could write more
about them. Look to the Savior and you will find peace. 

# Love,
Hermana Busath 

(No explanations on the pictures again this week)

Brrrrrrr!!!

Buenos Días!

What a wonderful week here at the CCM! It seems like I was just in this computer lab writing an email home; the time flies by so quickly here!

This week was really awesome. Hermana Nazer and I started teaching a new investigator who has a LOT of questions. It´s been a different experience from our last investigator, and it was really hard at first, but I´ve learned a great lesson about the Lord answering prayers. He can help us to love and He can help us have patience. He loves all of His children and each one is very special to Him. He has a plan for each of us, and if we pray to Him and follow His direction that He gives us through the Holy Ghost, we will be happy.

Oh and we committed our first investigator to baptism on Wednesday!! We still have a lot to teach her and a lot more to do before then, but Hermana Nazer and I are very happy :)

So if you´ve emailed me over the past couple weeks and I haven´t responded, I´m really sorry. I don´t have a lot of time here on the computer, so I´m going to try hard to make time to respond to all of you. But I can´t promise it´ll be long :)

We were able to all watch the worldwide fireside this week about missionary work! It was so awesome! If you didn´t get a chance to watch it, find some way to do that. It was a really cool broadcast and they used a lot of different types of media during it. I´m excited for some of the changes (even though not all will apply to me, especially the technology ones), but I know that the Lord has His hand in this work.

By the way, for anyone wondering, mail takes forever to get here, so probably don´t send any more letters here to the CCM or else I won´t get them. Start sending them to the mission home. I haven´t even received one letter yet... they come in kind of sporadically, so I´m sure I´ll get them soon. Hopefully I´ll get the ones you´ve already sent before I leave!

I´m really loving it here! It´s been really cold (like 50´s) because it´s winter here in Peru. Apparently Ecuador is never cold. I´ve looking forward to that this week.

I don´t know which pictures are going to send through, cause the internet is really slow here. But whatever they are, I hope you like them!

The last thing that I want to say is, if you are struggling with anything in your life, please look to Heavenly Father. He loves you. He knows what you need to be happy. Listen to the promptings you receive from the Holy Ghost, and follow them. If you ask God for help, I know He will send you comfort and love. Form a strong relationship with your Savior, and you will always find strength in Him.

Love,

Hermana Busath

(Because she didn't know which pictures came through, she did not explain any of them, therefore, no idea where these were taken or what some of them are of.)

One more picture from today.....

This is Angela's mom writing. I received a phone call from Peru this evening, which made me a little concerned as you can imagine. But it was a sweet senior missionary who is serving in the Lima temple with his wife, they have 8 days left on their mission. He said he enjoys seeing the groups of missionaries who come over from the MTC to attend a temple session and he takes their group picture and posts it on his blog. I went to the blog and snagged the picture he took today of Angela and her group. I thought I would add it to her pictures from today's email.

Week of Language Miracles!

HOLA!

I hope everyone had a great week!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOMAS!!!!!

Second of all, HAPPY FATHER´S DAY DAD!!!!!!

I hope you both had rockin days. I sent a postcard to each of you. I love you both!

So this week could pretty much be called The Angela Show. I kept getting either random or special or unique assignments. Every Wednesday, our district has a meeting where one of us teaches about a story from the Book of Mormon (in Spanish, of course). This last week was our first time doing it, and the teacher knew that I wasn´t feeling very good that day. But, of course, he asked me to teach. It´s okay though, I didn´t feel sick at all while I was teaching. I taught about King Benjamin´s Sermon and how we can be more like Christ and turn not only our actions, but our way of thinking into His ways. I even shared that idea that you used in Relief Society, mom, with the muffins! What a great idea.

On Friday, a sister in my district, Hermana Corollo, and I got asked before lunch if we would teach a newly married couple the gospel right after lunch. We were told that they had a "unique situation", and that we had to prepare a lesson for them. So we spent about 20 minutes preparing some scriptures and the outline of our lesson, and then we taught! Turns out, it was our first encounter with the TRC here. For those of you who don´t know, the TRC (Teaching Resource Center) is where members of the church volunteer to be investigators of the church, and we teach them as if it were a real-life situation. In Spanish, of course. It was a great experience. Hermana Corollo knows a bit more Spanish than I do, so it was nice to have her there with me. Oh and the "unique situation" was that the husband was a member and the wife was not. It was great! It was in that lesson that I realized how much Heavenly Father was blessing me with the Gift of Tongues because He needs me to do this work for Him. Without His help, there is no way I´d be even close to as far as I am in the language. He is blessing me with abilities beyond my own. I know it!

Then on Saturday, we got a break in our class, so Hermana Nazer and I went outside for a couple minutes to find a huge group of like 200 youth from a stake from nearby! We were waving at them from the door, and they were all taking pictures and videos of us from afar. A teacher of ours saw us waving and called us over to say hi to everyone! So we walked through them all saying hello and talking with them (in Spanish, of course) and everyone had pulled out their cameras to take pictures of us white girls. A group of them even wanted a picture with us! (Watch for that picture on google. Maybe it´ll go viral.) So after a few minutes we went back to class.

THEN like 10 minutes later, our teacher came in and pulled Hermana Nazer and I out of class and told us to bring our scriptures. As we walked out to the football field, he told us that we´d be bearing our testimony and giving advice to the group of youth. Ahh! 200 people! But it was awesome. Once again, Gift of Tongues. Like all up inside me. I bore my testimony with so much strength (in Spanish, of course) and gave them advice to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it is true to for themselves before they go on their missions and ask other people to do that. It was a really awesome experience where I really saw the Lord helping both me and Hermana Nazer to speak the language to fulfill His purposes.

So the CCM in Peru has a really unique experience that I don´t think the Provo MTC has: We go tracting/proselyting every otherSaturday! So a few days ago was our first time! Usually each North American sister gets paired with a Latina sister, but because there were more white girls than Latinas, Hermana Nazer and I stayed companions. We all rode a bus down to to a place called Ñaña in Choclacaya. When we got there, the teachers gave us pamphlets and copies of the Book of Mormon, then started telling us what to do if we got lost or didn´t make it back to the stake center by 5:30: Catch a taxi back to the CCM. That would have been an adventure for sure, especially since most of the taxis here aren´t "valid", meaning they don´t follow procedure. They are just people in their cars with "TAXI" written on the window. But don´t worry, I didn´t get lost ;) So the area was probably about a middle-class area for Peru. It was really difficult because neither of us speak fluent Spanish, so we don´t always know what the people are saying. But we were lucky to have a teacher with us the whole time and he helped. He didn´t start talking unless we really needed it though. I´m glad he did that because it gave me experience to actually try to understand the people and respond to them however I could, rather than just having a cop-out the first time I couldn´t understand. And, we taught more lessons than anyone in our district, even though most of them were with Latinos/Latinas! 3 families let us come into their homes to teach them. It was amazing. I placed my first Book of Mormon with a sweet old lady who was really interested in our message. She said she would read it and come to church! She was so patient and kind. Overall, it was an awesome experience, and I learned a lot for next time.

The next thing that happened was that I gave the closing prayer in Sacrmament Meeting on Sunday and Hermana Nazer and I taughtSunday School. However, that was the one thing that wasn´t in Spanish ;) We taught about God´s Plan of Salvation, but mostly about our earth life. We based it off of Elder Uchtdorf´s talk from the General Young Women session of the last Conference. Read it; it´s awesome. Our lesson went so well. We had a couple people from our district say to us after things like, "That was exactly what I needed to hear," and, "I wrote down all those scriptures you used. That was a really inspired lesson." That always makes me feel great to know that we are preparing our lessons with the Spirit of God to know what we need to teach in order to fit the needs of the people we´re teaching.

Today was P-day and I´m including some pictures! Also, the one picture with the little cards on it is what Hna Nazer and I made for our Latina roommates who left this morning for their missions. I´ve realized my talent for that graphic design kinda stuff, kinda like what Laurel does. I´ll send more pictures next week of stuff I have done here at the CCM. I don´t have much time to do it, but if I ever get a free moment I like to doodle on there. Anyway, I´ll send you pics next week. And the temple today was amazing, as always. I got the peace that I really needed and felt God´s love for me. I really got down yesterday when we started with a new "investigator" because the lesson went REALLY bad. It was frustrating, but I´m glad we had that experience because I know it will happen in the field. But it really depressed and frazzled me, until I talked with Hna Nazer about it, got some help from my teacher, and went to the temple today.

On a side note, the showers here are just great. And by great, I mean they are terrible. I´ll be rinsing my face off, and the water is pulsing back and forth between burning hot and freezing cold. Gotta love it.

I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ so much. I know that He is my Savior and that if I grow closer to Him, I can be happy. If you don´t already know your Savior on a personal level, I would invite you to do so. It will change everything about your life, for better.

Love,

Hermana Busath

The signs we made for the sisters leaving the MTC.

  Hermana Nazer and me in front of the MTC.

 Our district in front of the temple.

 Me :)

Hermana Nazer and me at the temple.

HALLO!

I LOVE SOUTH AMERICA!!!!!

Hello everyone! Perù has been so good to me! It`s summer here, so it hasn`t really been very hot. There have been a couple "rainy" days, which pretty much means that the air is full of water. So as you walk around, there`s constantly mist all over you. It`s pretty freaky. It`s pretty humid here, and paper always feels damp. It`s really weird.

Anyway, enough about the weather. I`m loving it here! It wasn`t really that way for the first 2 days, though. We always have some studying to do or some class to go to, every minute of every day (except meals). It really wore me out the first few days. But now I am more used to it and the language is coming along really fast, so I don`t have a headache all day :P Speaking of the language, Heavenly Father is really blessing me with the gift of tongues to be able to understand and speak Spanish. It`s really cool, sometimes when our teachers are talking to us or I am talking with a native, I can understand everything that they`re saying and I don`t even need to translate it in my head! Also, I can already speak so well and I can pray and bear my testimony without even thinking. It`s amazing what the Lord can help you with when you trust in Him :) 

Last night we had our first practice lesson with an investigator! Okay, it was actually just our teacher pretending to be an investigator of the church. But man, she is a good actress! The point of it is to make it seem like it`s a real scenario, and it really did feel like that. The Spirit of the Holy Ghost was so strong in our lesson. Hermana Nazer started crying telling a personal story about the power of prayer, and I could really feel love for the investigator that we were teaching. It was a really powerful experience. We`re going to teach the second lesson tonight. Oh yeah, and it`s all in Spanish haha

One thing that is really different about the CCM than the Provo MTC is that here, if you`re learning Spanish, you can`t slack off and just speak English with the other missionaries and teachers and leaders. Almost all the missionaries, teachers, leaders, and cooks are from South America and don`t speak English. You have to learn it quickly so that you can communicate with anyone! It`s been fun/frustrating/confusing/exciting/awkward to try to talk with anyone. Especially our roommates. Thankfully we have one roommate who speaks both languages, so she translates whenever it`s needed. I love our roommates so much. They are tiny Latinas with so much life in them, and they are so loving. The first night we got here, we climbed into bed with barely sheets on our bed and one got up and gave me her blanket to sleep with. The Latinos are so personable. I love them!!!

Okay, so I`ve been writing down funny things as they happen, so here are some good stories:

On one of the first days, I was trying to say "Mediante el Expiaciòn de Jesucristo, podemos liberados a nuestros pecados," but instead I said the word "pascados". Meaning, instead of saying, "Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be free from our sins," I said free from our fish. Hahaha!

We had a fireside the other night where the North Americans had to use headphones to translate. They started playing the prelude of a song, and Hermana Nazer and I started singing when we thought it was time to start. Well, either it wasn`t time to start or everyone else in the auditorium got the timing wrong. We were the only ones singing for a few seconds and we could`t even hear ourselves singing alone! It was embarrassing.

Okay there`s a lot more to say, but for some reason they`re cutting our time short. I`ll email again next Tuesday. I love you all! The church is true!

Love, Hermana Busath

(If you click on the pictures, they will open in a new page and be bigger, easier to see!)

 Meeting up with the other missionaries in the Atlanta airport.

 On our way to Lima~the clouds were beautiful.

 Arrived at the Lima airport, my luggage made it, hooray ! 

 Waiting for our shuttle to pick us up.

 My first companion, Sister Nazer, she's wonderful.

 Photo bomb~with Sister Nazer

Love this girl.

All the new sistas in front of the Lima temple. 

 I love the temple & I love the weather here

Hablas espanol?

First official email from the MTC :)

Hola!! I love the MTC!!

I made it to the Peru MTC, safe and sound (and tired)! We got in to the Lima airport at about 10:30, but, if you can believe it, didn´t arrive at the MTC until 4 AM! It took a while to get our whole group through the airport, with customs and and extra baggage check and stuff, then we ended up having to wait at the airport for like 4 hours for a few other missionaries to arrive on different flights. It was crazy! But we all got to know each other really well and now it´s fun because we are like a little family :)

Hermanas Nazer, Catmull, and Harper were all in my group coming in. And guess what?? Hermana Nazer is my companion!! She is so awesome. We have already had a lot of fun together and we get along so well. She is from Idaho and she´s such a cute girl. I´m really glad we´re companions! We compliment each other really well.

Okay so to be honest, I got off the airplane and saw all the airport workers and thought, "Why are there only 14-year-olds working here??" As I got closer, I realized they were all older than me. Some of them a lot older than me. They are just a lot smaller than what I´m used to! I felt like I was with my people! On the other hand, here at the MTC there are tons of natives, and they are all speaking Spanish a million words a minute. In that sense, I´m not really fitting in at all haha I´m trying so hard to understand and respond with something at least a little coherent, but judging by the looks they all give me, I am not doing so hot. In fact, a group of elders saw Hermana Nazer and me and said, "Hola Hermanas!" So we responded with a big, "Hola! Como estan?" and realized we had made a huge mistake. By acting like we knew what we were doing, we made the elders think we really did know what we were doing. Bad idea. We just kinda kept walking like we were in a hurry and said, "Adios!" behind us hahaha

So I guess to sum it all up, for the 12 or so hours that I´ve been in Peru, I´ve been really exhausted but also excited to be here. I don´t feel nearly as out of my element as I thought I would, but maybe that´s because I am in the MTC. I hope I get to go to the temple soon; we saw it on the way in and it is beautiful.

My P-day is on Tuesday, so I´ll write again then. We only have 30 minutes though, so it´s not a ton of time. The work of the Lord is pressing on! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing we can learn about. Take time to study it and to become like Jesus Christ, and you will be happy! He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

Love,

Hermana Angela Busath

Safe Arrival to the Lima, Peru MTC

Just got an email from Hermana Busath, her first from the MTC to let us know she arrived safely last night....

Hello! I will write you another letter, but I just wanted to send you a quick one to let you know that I am alive so you can stop worrying :)
-Hermana Busath