The Transfer Blues

Hey Family! As you can tell from the title, it´s been a rough week.

So, it all started Tuesday. A normal day, I was doing my personal study, studying Moroni because I´m studying a different BoM prophet every week, and he talks about how writing in a different language is really hard and I´m just like wow do I feel your pain. Except so far I haven´t been asked to write a book of scripture so we´re all good there. But I was studying and the phone rang, it was our zone leaders with the worst news in the world, there was an emergency transfer and they were sending Hna Flores to Quito and I had to stay here and be in ANOTHER TRIO with Hna E... and  Hna M.... Haha I literally started to bawl and I didn´t stop for like 24 hours, it was the emotional breakdown of my mission. And to make it worse we did splits with the sister leader trainers that day so I didn´t get to work with Hna. F... our last day together.

I don´t even know how to put all of the emotions of this week into this letter, wow it´s been rough haha I NEED YOUR PRAYERS LIKE I NEED AIR. Basically we went out and taught and I bought a quart of Pura Crema and drank it all. Later this week I bought like three things of Pura Crema. So I´ve been stress eating all week but somehow I´ve been doing better with my diet. I don´t really know. Then Wednesday morning Hna F... and I made a GIGANTIC breakfast, like guac, lots of desserts, fried potatoes, and ate it all together, we were both super stressed out cuz she hates Quito and I hate not being her companion. What I was really scared about was that we have all these investigators, and the other Hermanas have their own sector so now it´s basically in my hands to make sure these other investigators are still being taught and cared for. The good news is that the bed bugs are dead, I think. Side note. Anyways, Hna F... pep talked me for an hour, the same thing happened to her more or less, so she gave me tons of advice. But after that oh my gosh this is the hardest part of the mission...we ran around saying goodbye to all our investigators and when we got to the B... Family, and Johanna asked Hna F... when she would come back, I´m pretty sure my emotions short circuited or something because that´s the thing: we don´t come back. Except I´ve 100% resolved to come back and visit Ambato with my husband for our honeymoon or something because seriously, I can´t just leave these people here, I´m going to have to bring them home with me. But as soon as we dropped off Hna F... I was just like okay I´m going to kick myself into gear and I was like okay, let´s work (this email contains the worst grammar of my life, sorry, I´m writing fast cuz I have a ton to say). And ah, it´s been difficult. First, me and Hna F... hit it off like two peas in a pod, we worked well together, we contacted well together, everything. My comps do things veeeeeery differently than I do, not that their way is bad, it´s just super different. So...that is my companionship right now.

But, now is time for the good!!! The good news is that I know I´m learning a ton from this whole experience. I think every missionary has the mentality, yes I need to work hard, yes, I know I need to be exactly obedient, it´s just that some work on those things and others don´t. I´m learning a ton about responsibility, hard work, diligence, love, because I feel so alone, I´ve thrown my heart and soul into the people I´m teaching, and the members. Sometimes I go on divisions so I can take better care of the people in my area, and I´ve been doing divisions with a less active sister in our ward, haha, which has been good because now she´s coming to church. But I do my 12 week training during personal study, I fill out the area book by myself, stuff like that. I have to know where people live now, that scared the heck out of me. I´ve just been a lot more diligent this week, or at least learned a lot more about it. But really my companions are great people with genuine desires, and I try to focus on that a lot.

BUT NOW FOR THE GREAT NEWS. Throwing myself into my investigators and the members has been the best because I feel so much love for them and I feel like they are my friends and family here. So as far as investigators, we had FOUR people with fecha in the church yesterday, and Eddy (Ecuadorian Randy) is going to be baptized the 26th because he´s going to get married this week. And Johanna and Dominica (of the B... family) finally came to church so they were able to have their interviews yesterday!!! I was super worried the whole time, because I wasn´t sure if they were super ready, or their understanding, but they both qualified. I wanted to cry, seeing this kind of stuff is what is holding me together. I´m genuinely so excited for her to feel clean of her sins, she´s had a hard life, ah I just want this for everyone!!!!!

Well, that´s all I can think of. FALSE. Haha THE CRAZIEST THING HAPPENED THIS WEEK. And I´m immature so I think it´s funny, my comps weren´t even phased and I was just like how can you not be phased at this, this is really funny and also super terrifying.

So we went to visit a contact and a man answered the door and he was like oh yeah come inside we´ve had a death in the family and I was like okay, lesson two, let´s do this. So we walk inside and by death in the family I didn´t realize that the dead person was still in the house but yep there she was lying cold and dead on the table. I didn´t know what to think, but I wanted to laugh and cry because I was scared but also like man I´m supér excited to tell the family about this one. So we just sang a song and said a prayer and I gave them a Lesson 2 folleto and we left. Good times on the mish.

Well that´s all. I love you all A TON!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please pray for me!!!! Seriously, I love you a ton, thanks for being great!!!

Love, Hermana Carter

And here are my mission tweets for the week:

There are a lot of different words in the mission that mean different things. For example, "trunky" means "homesick." In this case, "emergency transfer" means "stress eat nutella and peanut butter with a fork"

Ecuadorian holidays are so weird. There is literally a white guy rapping in Spanish outside my window. The adventures of companionship study.

Thor 2 trailer in the mall. Must. Not. Watch. Must. Be. Consecrated.

Ecuador logic is lets put the toilet paper outside the stall #why

That awkward moment when you say something embarrassing in English and then realize that the elders can understand you.

Losing your companions in the super market is actually a lot scarier than losing your mom #condemned.

There is no mission tweet good enough for walking into a house and there´s a dead lady lying on the table. #adventuresinecuador