Semana 23 - More rain & free quesadillas

Hello all!

I should never have mentioned I liked the weather in my last letter because this week it turned on me.  It hardly rained so it was miserably hot, but when it did rain, it poured and flooded streets, which makes it kind of hard to get around.  On Tuesday it poured, it was like the clouds opened and dumped all they had on us.  We got free (FREE) quesadillas that were amazing.  I was hungry but we were technically still in proselyting time so we went to eat with the intention to contact the owner.  I decided not to buy a quesadilla though because it was kind of pricey and so to get out of talking about God with us he seated us and gave us free food. 

On Wednesday we went to Bonanza, one of our pueblitos in our area, and ate Super Spicy Meatballs.  Apparently in Ecuador spice doesn’t exist because Hermana Arellano was dying and was sick later.  The whole table was sniffing though, that’s how you know how it’s really spicy.  We were eating a lot of cactus salad and tortillas between bites of spicy meatball but it wasn’t helping all that much.  After we headed out to La Bendecion to search out an investigator but it probably took us an hour to get there because of rain. The streets in and leading to La Bendicion are 100% dirt and rock so when the streets flood, you REALLY don’t want to cross.  We were already soaked (even with ponchos and umbrellas) but we didn’t want to wade through the streets more than we had to and the entrance to La Bendicion was super super flooded and we managed to get about halfway down the street but our way was blocked by a lot of plants.  Some of the plants are spiky or can cause rashes and ALL of them harbor mosquitoes.  So we were super stuck and we tried waving down taxis but they took one look at the river between us and them and kept going.  We did finally make it through, but it turned out to lead to more water and alternate paths.  We took some really round about ways and got super lost in fields of cows and trees.  We were actually hiking up and down hills and stuff it was so bizarre.  We were walking and all of a sudden I had a thought that I should reapply bug spray.  I ignored it but it came back 2 more times.  So we stopped and applied and as we continued walking, the next bend was a path lined and covered with greenery and plants (aka Zika).  So that was cool that the Lord was protecting us with that prompting, even if in a very simple way.  We ended up teaching a little old couple and they sent us off with papause so that was nice. 

On Thursday the married missionaries who are here are finishing up their mission, so they brought all their furniture and stuff to our (tiny) room/house.  It is now a bit crowded in el cuarto.  On Friday we went to another new area, about 30 minutes away by car.  It‘s called “La Vainilla” and it’s also where the Branch President lives.  He introduced us to a new fruit and also to all of his neighbors.  It was great.   On Saturday we rested a ton because Hermana Arellano was sick.  On Sunday I gave a talk in church on Repentance and we had our highest count since I’ve been here – 25! Wahoo!  I quoted Spencer W. Kimball in my talk and I only have the quote in Spanish but it’s really good so I’ll paraphrase. “There is no other real way to repent, no privileged path that leads to forgiveness.  All men must follow the same course, whether they be rich or poor, educated or unprepared, tall or short, prince or pauper, king or citizen.”  That course is Jesus Christ.  There is NO other means by which we can repent and receive forgiveness but by His name, His Atonement.  In Alma 34: 31-32 it tells us that TODAY is the day or repentance, the day to change, the day to prepare to meet God.  Do not procrastinate.  That’s my spiritual thought for the week and hope all is well at home.

Con much amor,  Hermana Dangl 

 Our messy cuarto on Pday we are cleaning it.

Laundry time! 

 A new fruit called Guayava - you eat the seeds. 

Lime Papaya

 Where our branch meets for church.  That is the keyboard that I play, but it doesn't work very well.

Our district of missionaries.