Dedicated Sacrifices

Hallo!! 
Thank you all for the happy birthday messages! It`s been a great past week, and this coming week is going to be awesome because 
1. It`s my birthday on Wednesday!.......
and 2. Pedro is going to be baptized on Saturday!!! 
It`s been an amazing journey working with him. He is so loving and kind. He told us all about his plans to help save all the people with whom he used to drink and stuff. He´s made plans to rent out an apartment and give those people a place to work making tables and chairs and stuff so that they aren`t drinking. And he`s going to talk to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and for those who want to change their lives as he has, he is going to introduce us to them. He is a really great man. Oh, and did I mention that he is going to cook us steak and make me a cake on my birthday?? He`s wonderful!!

I have heard that it is not very favorable to tell all the members that it`s your birthday because you end up having to eat 40 cakes on your birthday. Well, that was the plan, but my companion keeps telling everyone, and yeah. We already have like 4 families who are going to make us cake. I just love this ward! But I´m forseeing a "sick day" on Thursday...

This past week has been wonderful. I had been struggling with some things here in the mission, but my new companion Hermana Macahuachi has really helped me to remember how to follow the Savior. I wish I had more time to explain. But just know that as we follow the example of our Redeemer and forgive immediately as He would forgive, we are happier.

I have realized this week, I love making sacrifices for this Celestial Work. I love waking up 20 minutes earlier to boil water so that I can have a warm shower. I love carrying a heavy backpack in the hot sun in 100% humidity. I love dancing around the cockroaches and rats that crawl the sidewalks at night. I love hitting my pillow exhausted every night. I love keeping my scriptures in plastic bags to protect them from the rain. I love hiding everything of value that I am carrying so that it doesn`t get stollen. I love boiling water to drink when we don`t have money to buy bottled water. Do you know why? Because it`s worth it. Every sacrifice is worth it. I know that each sacrifice that I make here brings me closer to my Savior and helps me understand Him better. They help me to love Him more and recognize how great is His Sacrifice for me. Without sacrifice, I wouldn`t be able to show my love and devotion to Heavenly Father-- how much His gospel and His Son mean to me. I am willing to sacrifice. I am willing to be uncomfortable. I am willing to forget myself and focus on the people I am here to serve. I really love my Savior and I know that He lives and really helps us in difficult times. It`s okay to sacrifice because the reward is even greater than the cost. I really know that to be true. I am learning it more and more every day. I love being a missionary, and I love being able to make such dedicated and valid sacrifices every day to help build up God`s kingdom among His children.

Love, Hermanita Busath

PICTURES!          DISFRUTE! (ENJOY!)

1. Selfie. Tan and lovin` it.

2. Selfie with the compie on Valentine`s Day.

3. Huge chunk of watermelon that Pedro gave us. He ALWAYS gives us food. 

Word of advice- don`t visit him after you`ve eaten and Ecuadorian lunch ;)

4. A tiny banana. There are a bajillion types of bananas here. 

And tons more different kinds of fruit. I`m in heaven here.

5. A picture of a picture of 2 of the other girls I live with, at a zone meeting. 

Hermana Ureta and Hermana Ynoñan.

LOCOTROCIOUS!!

[I could not open the 2 photos she sent this week, sorry.]

Hola!

First of all, I had transfers this week! Well, not really. I just got a new companion. We actually just switched the companionships of our ward. So now my companion is Hermana Macahuachi. :D She`s great. She is always very happy and optimistic, and tries to look at the good in everything. I know I am going to learn a lot from her!

WE HAD A BAPTISM THIS WEEK!!! It was my first baptism since December 7th. His name is Carlos Macias. It was probably the most stressful night of my life. Let me just tell you a little bit of why... Here`s a little glimpse to the life of a missionary in South America...

2 of the sisters stayed at home because Hermana Ureta and Hermana Ynoñan stayed home sick. So it was my companion and me, but basically just me because she was sick, running the whole night. Hermana Ynoñan had a great idea to have a Book of Mormon theater at the church. Cool. We didn`t plan who was going to lead the night, who was going to be the MC, and every other detail of the activity. Not cool. So that was my job. And while running the show, I also had to plan and secure the baptism that was going to start at 8:00 because Carlos didn`t decide to be baptized until the afternoon. Woot!

The activity was planned to start at 6:00, but it`s just custom here that no one shows up for the first 30 minutes. So we planned to start at6:30. Guess what time we started? 7:30. Remember what time the baptism was going to start? Yeah. So during the activity we literally would run up to the front and announce the next act, run outside to greet Carlos and calm him down, run back up and announce the next act, write the program for the baptism, announce the next act, make sure the food for the baptism was all set up, announce the next, and so on. It was LOCO.

But somehow the baptism started at exactly 8:00. I don`t know how it was possible. It really was a miracle from the Lord. The baptism was great, and I was able to relax a little bit. In the baptismal font, he told the brother who baptized him that he wasn`t sure if he wanted to do it. He almost ran away, haha. But in the end, he decided it was the best decision for his life. Attached is a picture of him hugging his mormon girlfriend, who is scheduled to leave for her mission to Peru on my birthday.

So we got home about 9:20, and we started to plan. But my companion was acting really strange and started to cry. I asked her what was wrong, and long story short, she was having heart attacks. So yeah, to the emergency room we went. We got home at about 1 AM, then in the morning went to take our investigators to church, and had church at 8 AM. I was just a little tired. But anyway, that`s just the life of a missionary! Fun fun!

Oh yeah, and last Monday, after I wrote the letter home, I went to the hospital with my then-companion, Hermana Ureta, for the night. Turns out she had dengue fever. We`ve all been visiting the doctor a lot this week, with my compy and Hermana Ureta. It`s been a crazy loco week!

I wanted to include a couple other pictures, but this computer is too slow. Next week :)

The week our investigator, Pedro, who used to drink a lot, said to us, "You both are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. You saved me. I really consider you my sisters... No, I consider you my daughters." Awww it was so sweet! I am so privileged to be able to work with such a loving and caring person.

I know that our Heavenly Father values each of us as His special sons and daughters. I have learned this week that I can be happy with small changes toward the Savior. I can be happy with little steps of faith, little acts of service, and little resists of the temptations of Satan. I know that the Lord is happy when we follow Him, even if our steps are seemingly insignificant. They are significant to Him.

Love,

Hermana Busath

A Missionary's Valentine

Hello! I had a lot to do in my hour of computer time today, so again I won`t be able to write a lot. But here are some pictures. The gospel of Christ is true. He lives. His teachings and love change lives. The basic gospel principles that we all know fromSunday School really do guide us to happier lives if we live them.

We are working with 2 people who are preparing for their baptisms, Carlos Macias and Pedro Criollo. Carlos will be baptized this weekend (WAHOO!!!!!) and the story of Pedro is incredible. The first day we visited him, he was completely drunk. The day before, his daughter got married, but no one invited him because they didn`t want their drunk father at the wedding. THey just showed up with a bouquet of flowers and told him what had happened. It was really sad. We shared some of the gospel with him, comitted him to stop drinking, and when we came back 2 days later, he hadn`t had any alcohol at all. He completely changed. Now, 1.5 weeks later, he still hasn`t had any alcohol. His life is better. He is literally SO excited to read the Book of Mormon and really looking forward to his baptism on the 22 of February. Oh, it is wonderful. I really find joy in seeing changes like this in the lives of Heavenly Father`s children. This is the reason I came on the mission.

I love Ecuador, and I love the people here. Sometimes it`s scary, sometimes it`s hard, and sometimes it`s a little frustrating. But I try to find the best of every day and lose myself in this work. As we forget about our needs by serving others, Heavenly Father personally cares for all the needs we have. I know that to be true. I have really lived that here in the mission. The Good Shepherd knows every one of His sheep, and He cares for us as we care for each other.

All my love,

Hermana Busath

 The view from our window at night

 I saw Hermana Nazer!!! I love her!!!

My zone with President Torres

Me with President Torres, my mission president!

Some little notes I made for myself and some companions

My zone, Huancavilca

Huancavilca, foto loco

A member family that we work with a lot (the old man is our ward mission leader)

The bishop´s family and us 4 missionaries who are here in Huancavilca ward. His name is Bishop Chavez

 A cute shirt I bought for myself for Valentine`s Day today! (back side of the shirt) Not actually sure if that holiday exists here because I haven`t heard anything about it yet. But it exists for me! 

Yahoo for the most awkward Valentine´s Day I´ll ever have------as a missionary! ;)

Snapshots

Angela said she had no time to write this week because the photos took SO LONG to upload. I guess the computer she uses is an old one, so frustrating! 

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Hola!

Well, here are a bunch of pictures from the last couple of weeks! The mission is so great. You really learn how to follow and serve our Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives, and I know that Heavenly Father watches over each of us. Through our faithful prayers and righteous actions, He blesses us with the things we desire from Him, if they are righteous desires. What we do every day-- share the Plan of Salvation, teach His children about their Savior, and invite others to come unto Christ-- is the best way I know to understand and follow the example of Jesus Christ. God is so involved with this work, because these are His children.

1. "Hello from Ecuador!"

2. I know missionaries aren`t supposed to give besos, but I just couldn`t help myself...

3. I used my raincoat for the first time last week... It was raining cats and dogs! And the houses here don`t have raingutters, so the water just pours down into the street, and the kids go wild. Seriously, it`s like a waterpark on the first Saturday of Summer. I had a little fun too... ;)

4. Our apartment building where we live here in Huancavilca.

5. We had an awesome surprise party for an elder whose birthday was on Saturday.

6. ...and then the elders smashed his face in the $25 cake. But it was awesome. Our zone is so great. I seriously love all the missionaries there. And I really love being the sister leader. It`s such a great experience to focus on other people and how the Savior would treat them, as their Leader. I have been so blessed to have the trust of the Lord here in the mission to watch over His sister missionaries here. We had our Leadership Meeting of the mission again today... more on that later.

7. My companion, Sister Ureta, and me :)

8. The view from our apartment the other night.

9. A white rose that I found laying on the ground outside of the house of a really "strong-willed" lady. There was a lot of contention in her home and in her voice and she was very confused about the doctrine of Jesus Christ, but I stayed calm, kept the Spirit with me, testified plainly and directly, and we left. Then I found this rose outside. I know it was Heavenly Father manifesting to me that He recognizes my efforts with His children and that He is with me.

10. I SAW HERMANA NAZER TODAY!!! WOOOHOOO!! It`s so awesome that we`re both sister leaders and we get to see each other every month now. I really love her.

11. My two zone leaders that are so great, Elder Arriaga and Elder Gates. They have really helped me through some difficult things this transfer, and I am so grateful to have them as my leaders. Oh, and Hermana Cambal is there too :P

12. One of my trainer, Hermana Cambal, and me. It was great to see her, too, at the Leadership Meeting :)

"Missionary"

Hello! 
I only have one cool story to share with you all. On Sunday, a girl who has been inactive in the church who recently returned showed me a post-it and asked me what it said. It was a prayer that I had translated from Spanish to English for one of my compaions. This girl told me that the night before, she was praying to know if she should go on a misison. When she saw the paper lying on the floor (my companion dropped it), the first word she saw was "missionary". She said she knew it was an answer to her prayer, and she talked to the bishop and is starting her paperwork to leave! She also brought a friend to church and is working with the missionaries to teach her friend. Pretty cool! "Through small and simple things are great things brough to pass."

I am learning so much here in the mission about relying on my Savior to carry me through the hard times. I know that when we put the gospel and our eternal progression in the Kingdom of God first, Heavenly Father takes care of the rest. Also remember that there is an eternal prize of infite worth waiting at the end. Love you all!

-Hermana Busath

Blessings Galore

Hola!

This week, I have really realized how great of a blessing it is to be a leader and have the opportunity to serve others. I have come to realize that when I am serving others, I don`t have to worry about myself, because Heavenly Father takes care of me.

We had a training meeting for all the leaders today, and I got to see Hermana Nazer, and a few of my other great friends from the mission! :)   I have missed Sister Nazer so much!! She is my bestest missionary bud!!  

That`s all, folks! Time flies when you`re using a slow computer in South America ;)

-Hermana Busath

{Angela was so happy to see her MTC companion at a leader meeting! They became best friends in the MTC and have not seen much of each other since they left the MTC, but are now both serving in different areas as Sister Leaders, similar to Zone or District Leaders.}

Finding Christ Among the Crickets

Hola!
This week, we had a couple nights of really big rainstorms. That means a couple of things. 1. The mosquitos are coming very soon, and 2. the crickets are storming the streets. And the church building. It`s amazing how many there are here! The baptismal font was literally filled. It`s disgusting. When we showed up at the church for our zone meeting, I took a few pictures of them (below). We also got some pictures with our zone. Hermana Ureta (my companion) is the missionary sitting next to me. She is really great! Enjoy the pics!

I really have loved being in this ward, Huancavilca. It`s such an awesome ward. The members are engaged and active in the missionary work, and I live with 3 Peruvians who are so fun. It`s so stinkin hot here, but better than the cold snow back home ;)

I have come to really understand what it is that Jesus Christ has done for us as our Savior. He lives, He loves us, and He makes it possible for us to find happiness in this life amidst all the hardship, confusion, and trials. He knows how to comfort us, because He has felt what we feel. Lean on Him when you need a friend, and trust in Him to guide you to a "happily ever after".

Love,
Hermana Busath

Happy New Year!

(I think she spent a lot of her time writing to some individuals this week)

Hallo! 
Not much time to write this week, but here`s the scoop:

My companion and I got transferred to the ward next to ours, Huancavilca. So I only had 3 days in Acacias. The ward is awesome, I really love it. I am really looking forward to working with the members, and I know we`re going to have a lot of success here :)  

I was called to be a sister leader for our zone with my companion, so that`s been fun. Lots more work, but I love it.

New Year`s was crazy! Gahh I wish I had more time to write!! But pretty much, the people go crazy here on New Year's Eve. They burn stuff in the street and are up partying all night until 7 am. Loving it.

Gotta go, love you all! Pictures next week.

Love,

-Hermana Busath

...And A Happy New Year!

Wow! "So little to do, and so much time to do it! Scratch that, reverse it." So many things happened this week!

First of all, Christmas. It was AWESOME to get to talk to my family. But I didn´t even shed a tear... Cold hearted, or just having too much fun in Ecuador? ;) Then that night, my companions and I had to be in our house at 6PM, where we ate some food on our balcony, sang some songs, and just chilled in the house. The rest of the world here in Ecuador started their festivities at midnight, where they eat a huge dinner and dance the night away. Even the families. The traditions here are whacked out. New Years should be even more interesting... They all burn "Año Viejos" in the street at midnight to start the new year, then drink for like 3 days. I´ll be sure to send pictures, mostly of the año viejos, but maybe of some borrachos too ;)

So this morning at 3 AM, I left Aurora to be transferred again to Guayaquil. Here I am, in the sector next to where I was before. It´s called Las Acacias. My companion´s name is Hermana Ureta and she is really chill. She´s from Peru. We live in a house with 2 other missionaries again, but this time they are missionaries who work in a different ward. My companion says that this sector is really hard to work in because the members don´t really help very much, but I take that as a challenge ;) It´s a lot hotter here than I remember, but I know that this is where the Lord needs me to be right now, working with these people here. I´ll keep you updated, friends, family, and future missionaries! (because I know now that some of you reading this on my blog are future missionaries who are coming to my mission... I´ve had like 3 people come up to me and tell me they´ve been following my blog before they came here, haha! Lovin it. Read away, future greenies!)

Heavenly Father is here to help. He is our Loving Father. He rejoices when we choose the right, and offers His hand when we stray from the path. Pray to Him, and He will manifest Himself to you.

Love,

Hermana Busath

I have so many pictures to send home from Christmas Week! And what a wonderful week it was. Here are the pictures, with an email to follow. They´re in reverse order from when they actually happened... and next week I´ll have to inlude pictures of New Years, which is going to be CRAZY in the street. Until then... Enjoy!!

¡¡FELIZ NAVIDAD DE ECUADOR!!

-A little shot of what my sector looks like. I seriously love Machala.

-Hermana Jiménez and I after talking to our families on SKYPE!!! WAHOO!!!

-Hermana Mosley and I had a little photo-shoot... 
definitely not going to include the other pictures we took. 
Embarrassing.

-I was a sweaty mess, but there´s a picture of us in front of our 
Arbol de Navidad on Christmas day. 
It was like 200 degrees outside on Christmas! 

-The 4 of us goofing around on Christmas  :)

-The four of us in our apartment all wore pink one day without planning it! 
Too bad it wasn´t Wednesday... (Mean Girls reference) 

 -The headband and earrings I bought for myself for Christmas! I also bought new shoes, 
which I desperately needed. Thank you to all who helped me to buy those!
What wonderful Christmas presents :)

 -The last picture I took with Hermana Jiménez before I got transferred. 
I love her!

-A little shot of a part of Aurora at night. The sky is always hermoso!

-A really delicious fruit that I love to eat, but looks like unhatched baby aliens.

-Here´s what the bathrooms in Machala are. If you thought outhouses only 
existed in the olden days, think again... 
And this one is nice compared to others I´ve had to use... 
Or had to not use... haha

-I found my sister Ali´s favorite word in the dictionary.

-VIVA LA AURORA!

Feliz Navidad!

{Sorry, this is a few days late. We got to talk to Angela on Christmas day. If I can figure out how to put some of what we recorded on Skype here, I"ll do it. She is doing well, she is very happy and loving her mission!}

Hallo! Guess who gets to have a little face-to-face contct with the good ´ole U S of A in 2 days! Wahoo!!! I`m getting really really excited for that. And I don`t know how it is for the missionaries over there in the states, but here in Ecuador we have to be in our house at 6:00 on December 24, December 25, and December 31 because the streets are really dangerous on those nights. So we`re gonna be partying in the house with us 4 missionaries! Woot woot!

So this week was SO hot. It`s a good thing I like the heat... But even still, I was dying. And we had some pretty great experiences the last week. So we come across a lot of people every day that are really religious and when they see us, they come up and start talking just to preach to us and tell us what`s wrong with our religion. Welllll, on Saturday this one man started explaining to us that Jesus drank wine with His disciples, so it`s a sin not to drink alcohol. He flat-out told us we were sinning for not drinking. Loco. There`s always a first time for everything!

Well we`re just loving it here. My companion Hermana Jiménez is so sweet and awesome. She`s really humble and has so much love for everyone we talk to. She`s a lot more homesick than I ever was, but then again, in reality I hardly missed my family much haha (sorry mom). I think the fact that I lived away from home at college before my mission really helped with that. In central and latin america, almost everyone studies while living at home, and then everyone marries someone from the town they live in, and the all live on the same street. I think there are like 2 families in our ward who aren`t related to the rest of the families in one way or another. But I`m really glad that I can travel around and have experiences away from home and feel comfortable wherever I am :) Thanks mom and dad for helping me with that!

Not much else to report... I`m just loving it here! I`ve spent the majority of my mission here in Aurora, so I really really love it here. The ward is like my Latino Family. This Christmas will be one to remember. I am so grateful that I get to spend one Christmas in complete service to my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am hoping that this Christmas will help me gain a greater appreciation for all that I have and help me realize why we celebrate this day every year. Although I will be in a different hemisphere from my family this year, I am going to use this unique once-in-a-lifetime experience to understand more in-depth the Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ and to look for all the blessings He has blessed me with. No matter where you find yourselves this Christmas, I invite you all to do the same.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love to all,

-Hermanita Busath

{We thought we were recording the whole conversation, but turned out we weren't, so we got a couple of recorded clips at the end of our call. The first one she is speaking Spanish with Mike as he is asking her different questions, then she is expressing her testimony in Spanish and the second is a continuation of her testimony.}