Writing letters on Preparation Day and feeding the wildlife in Parque de Iquanas!

Stellar youth in the ward!

Lauren with a grown woman and new friend!

Lauren with her 1st companion in the field, Hma Smuin.

10/8/13 Update

ThuI've been on my mission a month.

Whoa.

Only a month! 

But whoa.

It feels like forever, in a good way. Every single day is jam-packed with things to do and people to visit and rice and beans to chow down and testimonies to strengthen. Man, my life is pretty stellar right now.

Since I'm now such an impressively organized missionary (I can't even imagine what would happen if I dared leave home without my agenda misional), we've going to organize this week by days of the week. Sound good? Chevere.

Tuesday: We had our zone and district meetings. Our leaders are awesome. Man, I feel like I've lucked out in every area of my mission. It's such a blessing to have an obedient and hardworking companion, but then obedient and hardworking zone leaders? Life rocks.

For lunch, we ate some really chewy meat. Although the texture was weird, I tried to look past it and swallow. "Do you like the meat, Hermanas?", Maria asked. "Yeah, its great!", we responded in our overly cheery missionaryness. The cat's out of the bag. That's COW TONGUE. No wonder it's all bumpy and extra chewy. I gagged a litle bit, slyly spit it into a napkin and hid the evidence under my plate. I'm getting good at this sneaky sister missionary style.

Hermana Smuin and I gave a Libro de Mormon to Tania, one of our dearest, wonderfulest investigadoras. Feeling good!

Wednesday: This morning, I woke up exhausted. You're tired every day on the mission, but this morning was extra extra rough. Before studying with my companion, I asked Heavenly Father to give me a little pick me up. As missionaries, I know that angels walk beside us at all times to uplift and protect us, so I asked that Heavenly Father would just let me know when we walked surrounded by angels. The day pressed on and the hot sun beat down on my glowing gringa skin. Exhaustion struck again. My legs felt like 100 pounds each. Suddenly, a little white butterfly appeared near us. Immediately, I knew that that butterfly was the little sign from heaven that angels were walking with us that very moment. I testify that angels walk this earth. We receive help from heaven every day. We need only recognize it.

 We walked through a war zone of Jehovah's witnesses. There were J dubs lining every doorstep on the street. What do you do when you're a giant sized gringa walking through J dub territory? You smile and say "buenas noches" to everyone you meet. 

Tonight I pulled a pretty quality prank on Hermana Sanft. The lights were out all along the street and Hermana Sanft was explaining how she is so afraid of the dark. I hid in te armoire in our room, picture the wardrobe that leads to Narnia, because that's what it looks like, and quietly waited. she came back for something in her closet, so I screamed when she pulled open the door adn she let out a blood curdling screamand fell backwards. We laughed so hard that we cried. 

Wednesday: rsday: The power of the priesthood is real and intense. I wish I could share more but I'm low on time!

Friday: Around 3:00, we had stopped by so many houses to make our visits, but no one was home. Every door we knocked. No. One. And one family saw us at the door and never answered. Exhausted and dishearted, we sat down in a park and did the only thing we could. We prayed. We humbled ourselves, told God that we needed His help and just begged to know what to do.

Immediately, Eva (an old investigator) walked by. Coincidence? I think not! She invited us into her house and we gave she and her 13-year old son Luigi (thaaaat's amore!) a beautiful lesson about the Plan of Salvation. She accepted our invitation to watch General Conference. We'll call that little number Miracle One.

Then we stopped by Tania´s place and talked to her about repentance. She talked us about a lot ot confidential things and the Spirit guided us to know what to say. Miracle Two.

It's kind of amazing how miracles happen all of the time here. I'm lovin' it.

Saturday and Sunday. General Conference was so, so, so good that I could cry with happiness right here, right now, sitting it this little Cyber Cafe in Ecuador. But I shal restrain myself and tell you that I LOVE THE PROPHET. General Conference witnessed to me that we really do have a prophet of God here on the earth, named Thomas S. Monson. Since General Conference focused so much on missionary work, I feel honored to be a part of tis exciting wave of missionaries! It will be so cool to tell my kids that when the prophet announced the missionary age change, that I was personally affected by it. And I am on a mission at 20 right now because of it. From General Conference, I was also reminded that the end is at hand. We just need to stick it out a littel longer. Try a little harder to be  alittle better.

Sunday night, we stopped by Eva's house for her little birthday party. We shared a little message about how life with the gospel is so full of joy and happiness. I love bearing my testimony of the joy this gospel brings me. It just makes me want to dance. Really, that's true.

I am so happy every single day because I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Okay, time to peace.

I love you all and I am so grateful for your support! 

God lives and He loves you!

In some sticky, sweaty gringa skin,

Loves from Hermana Scott