A Tough Week

Hola!!!

This email might be pretty short, because . . . . ESTOY CHIRA!!! That means I´m broke!!! But I´ll try to get everything in. So this week was . . . . . REALLY TERRIBLE!!! I´m not even kidding, we faced a ridiculous amount of opposition. First off, Hermana Foster has been having some issues with dental pain so we´ve been spending a lot of time out of the sector and in the dentist´s office, which hits us hard because we already aren´t in the sector all the time anyway and to have added time out really hurts us, so we were both a little bummed out about that. We also have been having a lot of struggles with our investigators. We still can´t find Yoconda and Catalina has disappeared on us too, which is weird because she´s ALWAYS there in the evenings. But everytime we´ve gone, she either hasn´t come to the window when we called or her mom says she´s gone out to do something. We don´t know if she´s hiding from us or if it really is just killer opposition, but either way we´re both pretty worried about it. Eduardo is being himself still, although we did tell his family that they need to chill out because his behavior is typical of 17 year olds everywhere, and in a few years he´ll look at other 17 year olds and say, I was NEVER like that. We also told them that a good way for them to grow closer together was to look for the good in each member of their family instead of focusing on the bad things. We told them that that´s how missionaries manage to get along with their companions, whom they have to be with 24-7 sometimes for months on end (sidenote-this really is true). Hopefully things start getting better between them all. Eduardo really is a good guy, he´s just a normal 17 year old. We´re always like, at least he´s not out doing drugs or getting people pregnant or stuff like that!!! They need to count their blessings!!! But we have some other plans in mind for how to work with Eduardo, so we´re going to put them in effect soon. We´re just a little bummed because this is the last week of the change and the week before that wasn´t so great either, but we´re just looking forward and hoping that this week is just a trial of our faith and that something amazing is going to happen really soon.

I was thinking about it just now and it´s really amazing how much I learned in my first sector, Huancavilca. It´s very difficult there and they don´t have a lot of baptisms. We used to have weeks like this back to back there and I used to get REALLY discouraged. But now here in Bolivar, we´re having one of those exact same weeks and you know what I´m doing??? I´m just laughing it off!!! I really am!!! Somehow I´ve managed to keep a stellar attitude about this whole thing (Hermana Foster´s the depressed one now, but she´ll snap out of it quick, don´t worry). I just KNOW that something awesome is going to happen in this coming change, because Satan is really angry and for that he´s sending all this opposition our way. But we´re going to be fine. You all just wait and see....something incredible is going to happen, really soon.

So the assistants told us something interesting that happened to them today. They said that on Thursday they were teaching this guy and all of a sudden he says, I have to tell you all something, but you might think I´m crazy (always a good way to start, right??) So he´s like, I see visions-I know that Jesus Christ came here and walked in Ecuador, I know that there were people here and that they were baptized like Jesus Christ was, I believe that there are prophets today, and . . . . I knew that the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti were going to happen and that there will be one here in Guayaquil and the whole city will be destroyed. (At this point Hermana Foster and I were like, wait, WHEN???) Elder Coba said that they asked him what it would mean to him to know that the Book of Mormon was true and he said, that I´m not crazy after all!!! So they put a baptismal date on him right then. Crazy huh?? Why can´t we find someone like that??

Ohhhh, what else. President and Hermana Johns are leaving on Wednesday, and President and Hermana Montalti are coming that same day. This is Hermana Foster´s last change and she´s getting a little anxious (and really trunky but I´m helping her out with that, no worries).  I have no idea what´s going to happen this change with the new president but I´m pretty sure we´ll be running around like chickens with our heads cut off. It´ll be crazy but it´ll be awesome. I loved the whole thing about Craig at EFY, so hilarious. I just knew he´d have all the girls following him around, they always are. Craig, you be good when you turn 16 and don´t go around breaking all the girls´ hearts!!!!

Well that´s about it for now. Pray that next week will be awesome for us. Sorry that this letter was a little bit of a downer. I really am okay, I´m trying to keep my positive attitute and just muscle through it. By the way, who can believe that I´ve been out for 9 months already??? That is just really insane to me, I can´t even believe it. The time is going WAY too fast!!! Well, hasta luego y sean buenos y lean sus escrituras y oren cada día y SIEMPRE guarden los mandamientos!!! Realemente es la unica manera para tener felicidad!!!

MUCHO AMOR

Hermana Chamberlain