PDay CHanges

We´re splitting up PDays this week due to the new year. It´s a more effective way, because we can teach more in that manner. I was super happy to see you all!!!! It was a little boring for us this Christmas to be truthful. Here are pictures from our latest baptism! His name is Bryan Villamar!

Hello Everyone y Feliz Navidad!!!!!

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas season up until now! What have you all done? I'd love to know, I really miss you all and I wish you all a Merry Merry Christmas because I love you all!!! Basically, here in Ecuador, the people have a really cool tradition where they all put out their nativity scenes an wait until Christma Eve, And then prepare for a giant party. When it comes to be 12am, midnight, the first hour of Christmas day, they put all their baby Jesuses in their nativity scenes and start partying! They don't eat anything basically the day before, but at thid party, they have a HUGE dinner, with turkey and bread and epanadas and EVERYTHING!!! They sing and put on Christmas music and have so much fun! And my district leader told me there's basically no rules on Christmas day! Haha, just kidding. There's still rules. After comes the New Year! And they burn cardboard statues called monigotes, which are in the form of basically anything, like Spiderman, Ironman, Sid the Sloth from Ice Age, Bugs Bunny, Anything Disney, and so much more. It's so cool because it's like anarchy with everyone setting fire to all their monigotes (safely), and they do it right in front of our house too!!! So excited!!!! Hna Purnell and I moved out our beds to the window overlooking the balcony, so we can see all the festivities! I've been so happy here in Duran Sur de Ecuador, the people are lovely and we meet new ones every day. A couple of them (Elen, Katherine) have run up to us and asked us to pass by. We're going to be working with their families this week as well as the family Salizar! We hope they have their wedding soon, we're going to make the cake!!! I hope you all have a very very Feliz Navidad, and I hope you all check out this video! It's about Jesus, the real gift of Christmas, and the most important gift of all. I love you all! Les amamos! Tengan una Feliz Navidad, y amen a sus familias, recuerden Jesucristo, porque estos son los regalos màs importantes de la Navidad que Padre Celestial nos ha dado!!! Love, Hermana Avalon Johnson

Yay! She got one of the packages!!

we've had a fun week with 16 less actives and 7 investigators and 2 recent converts in church this sunday, and it was really a miracle because we hit the district goal and pulled us through. It was so hard to do, but you know, when you work hard, the Lord will give a miracle. ALSO I got the package the young women sent!!!! I was so happy!!!! We don´t have basically anything of what you guys sent here, not even candy canes!!! --- Sí, estoy bien. Solo, a veces yo no puedo hablar con todas las personas cada semana, basicamente, estas semanas pasadas, sólo pudo hablar con algunos de mis hermanas y mi mamá. Me frustre este correo electrónico y el tiempo limitado que tenemos. Sola una hora es tan pequeño, y siempre me pone triste, es bastante estrés. Hemos estado muy MUY ocupadas recién porque hay bastantes personas y bastantes problemas que tenemos cargar en este sector. Es una cosa de la misión. Enseñamos casi 30 familias en una semana, y cada una tiene sus problemas respectivas, y ellos nos confían bastante y dicen cada una a nosotras, porque como misioneras, tenemos apoyarlas. Siempre pasamos casi cada una en la semana, y caminamos a TODAS estas casas. Algunos viven en el cerro, algunos por el río, y algunos por nuestra casa. Por seguro, es un sector gigante!

Las Penas and Transfers

Today we went bowling with a ward missionary, Yimabel! She leaves in a couple weeks for columbia! We went and climbed this hill that I don´t know the name of. It was 500 steps uphill and they told me it was only 400. But we went up it, and then we went up the lighthouse steps and took pictures and had fun in the park below! It basically is commemorative of the spaniards who came, and it was right before we left for Duran. Funny thing, we were right in our new sector, and we didn't even know it. --- Found out Las Peñas is the place we went three weeks ago. The place we are preaching in is called Ribera, Duran Sur, Guayaquil. The people here are a bit more helpful to the missionaries, and we have hamakas on the roof so we can hang out while we plan our days in the nighttime. We also have lavadoras!!!! We don´t have to wash it manually! The other day, we actually were able to finally find the family Gonzalez. They haven´t gone to church in 5 years. They didn't tell us the reason, just that they decided as a family to leave. We felt compelled to tell them that God was calling them back, that He needed them, and that it was essential for them as a family to return. The mom rejected us again. They weren't in church this sunday, but we´re going to keep going past them, checking up on them because we promised them we would and told them that God didn't want to abandon them. Yup! I love the mission, it´s great, and it is nice to meet new people and help them come unto Christ. He´s really the only one who can help anyone.

En español

Hemos trabajado muy duro esta semana y cada miembro y casi cada MA quieren que vengamos a su casa para comer. Este Domingo todos los miembros estaban pidiendonos que vengamos a sus casas y necesitábamos decirles que teníamos hacer citas primeras! Por supuesto, no entendieron, y nos fuimos a sus casas en vía de los citas. Estamos enseñando una familia Encalada, y yo pinté un Jesús en su pared, y hemos enseñado mucho a ella! Tiene un nonmiembro en su casa, Mariano, y él no puede leer, entonces vamos a enseñarle por medio de Mensajes Mormones (Hna. Purnell tiene el CD! :) ) y los élderes van a ayudarnos con el CD por La Restauración! Va a ser chevere. También estamos ensñando a un investigador, Bryan, y él nunca quiere que salimos, enotnces, vamos a las lecciónes consigo y enseñamos mucho más a él en nuestas otras citas, jajajajaja! Es bien divertida. Espero que su familia y Ud y Hna Riggins están bien! Éxitos!!!