2020: year of The Missionary

Hello Hello!!!! 

Hope everyone had a happy, Happy Christmas! Although it was hard to be away from my family during this time I made lots of new memories over here in Rio Coca Ecuador! The other sister missionaries live in the same apartment complex as us so we spent a lot of time with them on Christmas eve and Christmas day! We weren't allowed to leave our house on these days so, our time consisted of: making Christmas cookies, jamming to Christmas hymns (haha), a yummy little Christmas breakfast picnic, and Santa STILL came to Ecuador! I also got to talk to my whole family on Christmas which was so fun to see all their smiling faces!
 

Christmas breakfast picnic on our patio

Santa came to Ecuador!

Our little Christmas card!

Other than Christmas, this week was FULL of miracles! My companion and I have really been trying to include God more in our work because it is HIS work and not ours! As we've been making an effort to do this, we really have been blessed EVERY day with something; some different way that God is manifesting His love and support to not only us but all of His children. Here's my favorite thing that happened this week: 

As I've mentioned before, there are a lot of Venezuelans here in Ecuador currently. And we LOVE Venezuelans. We love Ecuadorians too, of course, but every Venezuelan we meet is just the nicest and most amazing and open person. Here's an example of how amazing these people are:  The other day we were walking in one of our areas (Nayon) when we ran into a man, Johannes, who told us he was a recently baptized member of The Church of Jesus Christ and had been trying to find the church for weeks! (What a miracle!) He's from Venezuela and recently moved to Ecuador. We gave him the address of the church and he told us we should come visit him because he was living with other Venezuelans who aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ. So, this week we did exactly that! When we entered this man's home we first observed he had nothing... cardboard boxes to sleep in, two cement rooms, and clothes lines hanging from the ceiling. We then met Mai. Mai had recently WALKED to Ecuador from Venezuela with her brother and her brother's 3 yr old son. Sleeping on the streets every night, and begging for food everyday.  Johannes found them sleeping in the bus station and offered them a place to live. As we talked with this amazing woman and read from the Book of Mormon together, she testified to us, through tears, that "God never abandons us. He is always watching over us." She also said she went to a church in Venezuela with her family where she could really feel God's love; all she wanted was to feel that love so strongly again. I can't express how amazing it was to sit there and listen to someone who had been through so much but still had hope for the future.

I feel so humbled everyday to meet people such as Mai. Everyday I am reminded of God's love for His children, and how much God loves me as well. Especially this day, I was feeling very down about things.  But every time I feel down, God just sends another miracle my way to remind me that He's aware. To remind me that I'm here to share His joy and love. Truly, we would never have been able to bring joy to this woman without randomly meeting Johannes on the street. We would never have met Mai if Johannes hadn't been kind enough to invite them to live with him. I testify that God has a plan for each one of His children and He LOVES us. He does watch over us, He never abandons us. 

My other favorite parts of this week all deal with buses haha. We spend A LOT of time on buses. BUT!  We have come to love presenting ourselves at the front of these buses! We simply stand up at the front, say who we are, and then hand out cards with more information about our message! At first, I was a little leery about doing this because I didn't think it was too effective. But seriously, ever since we've changed our attitude and been excited to do this, we have seen miracles on every bus. EVERY time this week, someone came up afterward wanting to talk to us and know more. And almost EVERY time, another person was listening to our conversation with the original person who wanted to know more and then THEY wanted a card with more information. And almost EVERY time we talked to someone, we wrote down their information to have a lesson with them in the future. I truly testify that when we do God's will and share His love with everyone, God will put people in our paths. Everyone has an imaginary scale (1-10) above their heads with how much they know about The Church of Jesus Christ. We figure that even if we move the arm on that scale because people remember two smiling white girls at the front of the bus... then great! We love it! We also love running for these buses! Haha, almost every time this week we literally sprinted in order to catch our buses. It's like mission impossible to beat the bus to the next waiting station, and we won every time haha. Then we get on the bus and find everyone laughing from watching two white girls sprint for the bus. Good times! The mission is full of miracles and many laughs:) 

Well, this New Year's day we will also spend staying in our houses, but once again we have good stuff planned! It's funny because the people here seem to celebrate New Years more than Christmas. One of the traditions they do to celebrate New Years includes burning large dolls with paper mache faces on them.  We've enjoyed seeing these dolls for sale on the streets and we may or may not have bought one :)

Paper mache masks

the dolls!

OK! Happy happy New Year to all! I LOVE YOU ALL and truly am thankful for the impact each one of you have had on my life! Here's to 2020! A year for new joy, new experiences, and for me, a whole year of being a missionary for my Savior! Wahoooo! A New Year brings us opportunities to improve! How amazing is that!? 

Con Amor, Hermana Leonard 

Favorite quotes this week (from a 97 year old lady we are teaching with her daughter): 

My companion: "Como esta su familia!? (how is your family?)" 

The grandma: "Ah hermana, no esta lloviendo mucho (Ah sister, it's not raining that much)" Haha, still spry but perhaps not too spry in the listening aspect. Then I asked her how to say "holiday" in Spanish and she responded with "Well, when I have a question I just get out my Bible and search until I find the answer." Haha, advice from the wise...even Spanish vocabulary can be found in the Bible:) 

Study this week: In the Book of Mormon this week I read Alma 32, a well-known chapter on Faith. It talks about how to plant and grow good seeds through our Faith in Jesus Christ. The part that struck me the most is found in Alma 32:39-42, verses which talk about the importance of nourishing good seeds. I particularly liked the reminder to not doubt the seeds that we already planted and yielded good fruit. How, perhaps, when our trees are not growing anymore, when our testimonies are not getting stronger, it is not the fault of the original seed, but our own fault for not nourishing the seed. I love this idea about not doubting the things we once knew to be good and true, but instead looking to ourselves to see what we have been doing lately to keep the good seeds growing. Because the seed doesn't change, only we do. It's our responsibility to nourish it. I invite each of you to think about this upcoming year, and the ways in which you plan to nourish your testimony better everyday. What things can we do individually to keep our Faith in Jesus Christ growing and not doubt the seeds that once were good to us?

Found a huge cow just chillin on the side of the road...