Training Again!

Hoooolaaaa!!!!

So this is it-my last transfer in the mission.  Can you guys believe it??  I sure can't.  Today the zone leaders gave me my last planner and I thought it was just another planner and then it hit me-this is my LAST ONE OMG.  It was so unbelievable to me that I just couldn't really wrap my mind around it but at the same time I was like I AM GOING HOME IN SIX WEEK WTH.  (I'm even starting to talk in text message talk again, how sad.)  More about this later, we have more important things to talk about right now.

So, given that changes have been on Wednesday for the last 2 transfers, we were all positive that this transfer wouldn`t be any different.  Yesterday I wasn't even thinking about changes, but as we walked up the stairs to our house a thought crossed my mind-oh yeah, changes are tonight.  As we opened the third door (our house has three doors, we're very safe) the phone started ringing and Elder Saban and I had the following conversation:

Elder Saban- Hey Hermana Chamberlain, how's it going??

Hermana Chamberlain: Good!!  How are you??

Elder Saban: Good!!  Ready for your changes??

Hermana Chamberlain: Oh!!  Uhhh . . . sure, guess so!!

Elder Saban:  Okay.  Hermana Robison's leaving.  She's going to Guayaquil.

Hermana Chamberlain: ........WHAT????

Elder Saban: Yep.  And you're gonna train again.

Hermana Chamberlain: ...........WHAT???

Elder Saban:  Yeah.  So your companion is coming on Tuesday and you need to find a member to hang out with you till then.

Hermana Chamberlain: Oh . . . . I can't hang out with the sisters from Argelia??

Elder Saban: Uhhh . . . no.  They're both going to Guayaquil too.

Hermana Chamberlain: Oh.  Uhhh . . . . alright.  I'll figure something out.

Elder Saban: Cool.  So we'll see you in the terminal at 9 tomorrow.

Hermana Chamberlain:  .......Okay.  (thinking: are you serious right now??)

So Hermana Robison is gone after just 6 weeks with her mom, and I'm apparently having another daughter.  Her name is Hermana Cochran and she's from the States too but that's all I know about her right now.  My district leader Elder Johnson is training too and pretty much everyone in the zone went to Guayaquil.  But looks like I'm gonna end here in the mountains with another newbie!!  I'm excited to meet her and train her-I loved training HNA Robison, it was so fun and she really got to love the people here and the work, so I'm excited to help my new companion with that.  It will be a good way to end the mission-training, with my fun zone and the great people that we're working with.  But I was a little bummed about HNA Robison leaving-it would have been fun to end with her!!!

So this week while I was gone my companion rocked it up in our sector and put a baptismal date with Isabel and with another guy named Giovanni that we found a couple weeks ago.  Isabel still has a lot of doubts and so she'll need some more work, but I was SO PROUD of HNA Robison because she put her first baptismal date with Giovanni and she said he was just smiling from ear to ear when he said yes!!  Unfortunately, everyone leaves town for Carnavale and no one was in church, but that's okay, even most of the members didn't show up.  We went to teach someone with HNA Maria Jesus (who incidentally is my companion for the day) and then, finding that he wasn't there, proceeded to help her figure out what she wanted to do with her life (she's gonna go on a mission!!!  YAAAAY!!!)  Then we went and visited her non member brother and his less active wife.  It was fun!!  They were really nice. 

So that's whats going on with me right now.  Not very exciting but we did have some fun week highlights:  Being companions with HNA Laime again for a couple days.  Bonding with HNA Velasquez and HNA Moran.  Not dying of heatstroke in Machala.  Singing the Spanish version of Come Thou Fount with Elder Johnson in the capacitation.  Being asked to sing the next day too.  Singing a minor acapella verse of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief and making up a random harmony on the spot that sounded amazing.  Eating at San Viernes, a really delicious hamburger restaurant in Machala.  Being treated to a marathon of Jean Claude Van Damme movies on the bus ride home (I hate when they play movies on the bus, it's so hard not to watch.)  Listening to a lady hawk a bowel-cleansing product on the same bus.  Laughing hysterically when she asked, how many of you know the number of times we should go to the bathroom every day (I'm serious, there were tears coming out of my eyes.)  Listening to my companion tell me all the things that had happened while I was gone.  Contacting two drunk people who told us straight up-I drink too much but I want to change my life.  Watching people buy cigarrettes and telling them that they shouldn't be smoking.  Getting drenched in cold water by a truck full of guys.  Finding a delicious Mexican restaurant in our sector.  Buying a can of Carnavale foam and spraying everyone that sprays me.  Getting hit in the face by a bunch of it right before church.  Finding out that HNA Robison will be taken very good care of by one of my former companions in Guayaquil, HNA Castillo.  Being excited to train again.  Hanging out with Maria and ruining her Carnavale (just kidding Maria, I love you!!)  Eating food.  Loving life.  Being a missionary!!!

Familia les amo muchisimo y quiero que sigan adelante y hagan lo correcto siempre.  Ya nos vemos!!

MUCHO AMOR

Hermana Chamberlain