Hermana Libby White has been called to serve as a representative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Ecuador, Quito mission. She will be serving the people of Ecuador for 18 months.
I hope everyone´s Christmas was really awesome! My companion and I spent almost the entire week making cookies to give to pretty much all of the people we visited which was really nice to do something normalish for Christmas! We also went caroling on Thursday night!! I think that was my favorite part of Christmas week! Then Christmas morning was awesome! Between the two of us, m companion and I got a ton of socks and a ton of peppermints! It was awesome! Then I love Christmas Sunday! The best part of course was the phone call home on Sunday!! It was so nice to be able to talk with my family! It was nice to hear from them and everything, but I think almost harder to say good bye again!
Anyway, hope everyone had a good Christmas and will have a happy New Year!!
I seriously can not believe that Christmas is this week!! It`s only a week away!!
This week was just full of Christmas stuff and I almost got a concussion…maybe!
So Tuesday we were preparing to leave to go to Quito for our Christmas Dinner with the President. We were just walking home from lunch and my companion was calling someone and I kinda was looking down at the ground so I wound’t trip and fall and break something when I ran into a sign!! It was this triangular sign and I hit my head on the corner of it. SO my companion started freaking out cause I started bleeding and then the Enfermeras wouldn’t answer or the Elders and She faints at the sight of blood and I wasn’t feeling good so she called the Bishop cause he’s a doctor and we took a taxi over there so he could tell me if I needed to get stiches or do something else. But he said that the cut was fine and to just go home and rest. So we didn’t do anything on Tuesday cause I slept all day. And then after two or three days I was fine. SO it’s all good! Just something really exciting that always happenes to us!
The Christmas dinner was the best!! We had a little conference before and I had to give a talk about the Atonement. It was half ENglish and half Spanish so I hope that people understood it! But President talked about the word evangelio which in Spanish means gospel. And the root of the word means good news. ANd apperently in a lot of other languages the word for gospel is almost the same. So I thought that was interseting! But the food was the best part of the conferenece. There was mashed potatoes!!! I haven`t had those in like months!! It was literally the most delishes thing I ahd ever eaten! And the rolls that Hna Christensen made were the same that my mom makes for Thanksgiving!! I was really happy with the food! The games were pretty awesome to! Just some Christmas trivia games. Then after they gave us presents which was a keychaing and a bar of chocalte we went home!
Christmas Dinner
The other awesome thing that happened this week is that Hna Barraclough and I both got Christmas packages!! They were literally blessings from heaven! Cuase Hna Barraclough had been waiting for 5 months and we were both feeling a little homesick about not being home for Christmas. But we have stuff to celebrate the Holidays!! And we are both so Thankful for them!!
I hope your Christmas Holidays are really awesome!! Love you all!!
Merry Christmas!!
Hna White
And I forgot to say that We had another baptsims this week!! It was this little 13 year old girl who can’t walk. But she is litterally the most awesome person I have ever met in my life!! She goes to church ever Sunday even though it is really hard and she loves everything! Her mom is a less active and can’t read but Marissa reads the Book of Mormon to her every day!! She is so awesome I love her!!
OK this week went by so fast and I can almost not remeber anything that happened!!! I guess something new is that we havea new district leader because of cambios. It´s different but fun at the same time so that´s good.
My favorite thing that happened this week though was that a couple in the ward asked us to teach them how to make apple pie! So wednessday morning we went and made pie! I think that it was the best pie I have ever made to! I don´t know what was different, but it was delicious! We told the Elders and they were super jealous and had me make them another pie today for p-day! So I was pretty excited!!!
Then we had another baptism this week!! It was the parents of the kids who were baptized last week! and it was so beautiful! We sang familias pueden ser eternas (families can be together forever) with them and it was just awesome!! I love this part of being on a mission!! And this family already has a goal to go to the Temple next year for navidad!!! I am so excited for them!!
I think that´s everything that happened this week! I will try to send more pictures!
It was the last week of the change and the light up the world initiative made us do a lot of stuff together as a district and a zone. So it was really fun. One day this week we washed the bishops car. The other day we went to Ambato as a Zone to help a member clean up a school and stuff. That involved painting, moving rocks, sweeping, and weeding. But the cool thing was we weeded with knifes so ya... it was actually pretty usefull. Then we also weeded a member in our wards patio. So once again with knifes and screw drivers weeded in beetween the cracks in the sidewalk. It was pretty fun. And always after the service project they feed us...so that`s pretty awesome!
But the best day this week was saturday. We had 4baptisms!! The Children of the familia Ponton were baptized. This familia used to live in Quito and had wanted to be baptized for forever but then the parents had things that happened and they couldn`t but the kids did. So it was an awesome night. My first baptism!!!
Then Sunday was Cambios. And we all knew that one of us was going so it was pretty sad. We went to a family in the ward and had a Noche de Hogar (Family Night) with them and found out the cambios. Elder Arevelo, our district leader is going to Quito, but the rest of us are staying here and we are getting a new district leader. So I am really excited that I am staying with my campanion for another 6 weeks!
But another awesome thing that happened is that the American couple in our ward. Grace and Benjamen, Grace`s dad came to the Baptism and we talked to him and stuff here that`s different and that we miss from the United States, like peanut butter. You can not find peanut butter here anywhere and if you do it is so expensive! But he went and bought Hermana Barraclough and I a huge jar!! Like a costco sized jar that should last us the whole cambio but probably won`t! We were really happy and are eating it with almost everything!!
So this week was a little weird. It started off really awesome cause we went to Quilotoa on Monday and that was just awesome!!! But then Tuesday, my companion got really sick. Like we didn`t leave the house all day. I was pretty bored...so I organized our Ensigns and made our carpeta de area (area book) perfect! I am just so happy that we have the best Elders in our district!! They kept in contact with me all day and brought me food so that I woudn`t starve! And most importantly they gave Hna. Barraclough a blessing. So they are pretty awesome!! Hna. Barraclough still wasn`t better until Friday, so we lost a whole week of work but she is all better now!!
So this week was also Zone conference. And even though Hna. Barraclough was dying pretty much we went and President talked a lot about not being visiting teachers and actually being missionaries. Which means leaving the menos activos that aren`t progressing and also the investigators. Which is hard but will help the work progress faster.
My favorite part of the week was saturday evening. The Elders had a double baptism that night and we were able to go cause we had some investigatores going and we had to do a musical number. But the Elders didn`t buy or have someone buy any food!! So in the middle of the baptism we ran to the store and spent the las of our money to buy a cake!! It was pretty awesome actually!!
I can not believe that I have almost spent a month in Ecuador!! It has been so awesome!!
This week I had verifications, which pretty much means that President just makes sure I am alive and am doing good. But it was awesome cause we had this delicious breakfast which was kindof like a french toast casorole thing, but it was awesome and American!! Also we had Pizza for lunch so that was great!!
Saturday this week we did invasions in the Elders sector here in Latacunga. That pretty much just means that everybody in the Zone comes and contacts in the Elders area. It was really fun but Hermana Barraclough and I caused like 4 traffic jams cause nobody there has seen a white American girl before. People just stopped in the middle of the street to talk to us!! It was pretty awesome actualy!
Then today for P-day we went to Quilatoa (I think I spelled that right) which is a lake inside of an old volcanoe! It takes like 15 minutes to go down but over an hour to go up!! It is litterally the worst hike up!! But it was so fun!!
This week has one by really fast which is surprising cause I was a little sick this week. I thought this week would last forever but I was wrong.
One really aweomse thing happened this week. In our zone meeting we talked about working with faith to acheive our goals that we make for each month. Hermmana Barraclough and I decided to make a goal for 25 baptisms before Christmas and have faith in the Lord that He would halep us. This week has been so awesome because of it!! We found a family that is like so ready to hear the gospel and said that if this church was true they would change religions. Also our other investigadors are progressing a lot more it is so awesome to see all the little miracles!!
Today for p-day we had a zone activicty and we just played games outside together! It was so fun! I think today was my favorite p-day ever!! We played soccer (the Hermanas played then the Elders played) then we went an found this really awesome burger place. It was littlerly the best hamburger place that I have ever found!! They even had frysauce!! It was awesome!!
So this past week has been so fast!! I feel like it was just barely Monday!! But there were two exciting things that happened this week.
The first was that I ate guniea pig!! And I actually liked it, well a little bit anyways. It was a really fatty animal and I had no idea how to eat it but it tasted really good!!
The second thing is that this week in Latacunga it was some holiday called Mama Negra. So we couldn`t be here so I went to Ambato and did divisions on Saturday. But the best thing about the holiday is the Wawas de Pan.(Bread babys).They are the most adorable delicious thing here and only are made during this month in Ecuador!
I think that is about all of the exciting things that happened this week!!
Hello everyone!! It feels like it has been so long since I have been able to write!! But it has been a crazy couple weeks! I finnaly got to Ecuador and I love it here!! It really is the most beautiful places ever!! My mission president and his wife are really awesome and the people here are the best!!
So last wednessday I got my new companion and my trainer! Her name is Hermana Barraclougha and is from Utah but technically from Evanston Wyoming! She is litterally the best person ever! I am so gald she is my trainer. One of her favorite things to do is contact and so I am learning a lot from her!
So our area is called Latacunga and small city somewhere in Ecuador. It is really cute and I love it here.
Something that I really like is all of the stray dogs that are here. We even had a pet for two days last week! This little dog followed us all day on Thursday and somehow found us again on Friday and followed us all day again on Friday. We named him Gingy which is short for Gingerale.
Also the food here is so great! They have a ton of rice, and meat and soup and bannas and avacado and all of it is so good!! I love it!
So the past like two days have been the longest of my life!! So the first thing that happened is that my companion left me!! She is going to her mission in Chile and is going to be so great!! But it was super sad for her to leave me!!
Then I left the CCM but I left the CCM at 9:00 at night and my flight was at 1 in the morning. The hardest part was that none of the 13 missionaries going had any time for naps and were exhausted! So the flight got into Columbia at 6:00 in the morning and I think I slept for maybe 3 hours. Then at the airport in Columbia we had no time to get food before we had to be at our gate to leave for Ecuador. It was a really long morning and I think I slept the whole flight to Ecuador which was like one and a half hours. The best part of the morning was flying over Ecuador and seeing how beautiful it was and just think about how much I am going to love serving here! We met our Mission President and his wife at the airport and I already love them so much!! I will get my companion tomorrow after some training or meetings I think. And then tomorrow afternoon I will go to my first area!! I am so Excited and can´t wait to write and tell you about my first week in Ecuador!!
I can already tell I am going to love Quito. Everything looks really nice and the traffic looks normal enough that I could (if I had to) drive here without panicking to much. Everything is so beautiful and green!! Love you!!
Hey Everyone!! It is so hard to believe that I have already been gone for six weeks!! I leave the CCM this Tuesday early in the morning!! Its really weird to think that I am going to be going out and teaching the gospel in just a couple more days!.
This is the sketchy elevator in one of the buildings that I am in love with!!
So not much has happened here since last Friday but the really cool thing was Bonnie L. Oscarson the General Young Women´s president came to the CCM to talk with all of us. She especially wanted to meet the sisters so last night in the comedor all the hermanas were able to give her a hug and talk with her for a minute or so. It was really cool actually. Her talk was really great but the best part was the metaphor about the current bush that D. Todd Christofferson gave in conference a couple years ago. My favorite line was I love you so much that I cut you down. I really encourage everyone to go and watch that address actually. There were so many other really good things in that talk. So next P-day is on Monday from now on!! So talk to you on Monday!! Love you all!! Hermana White
Hi Everyone!! So here at the CCM in Mexico, not very many things change from the day to day schedule. However this week our district decided to do an English fast for four days!!! So Monday through Thursday we all id our best to speak Spanish as much as possible. It was so hard!! But it was actually very helpful with my Spanish. I feel like I can speak a little faster and recall some Spanish words to my mind easier.
My Hermana Friends!
Also some good news is that my companion and I made friends with our Latina roommates!! It´s really fun cause we tell them a joke when we all get home and then we struggle and try and understand their joke, but it is a lot of fun!! Also this Monday some of our Hermana friends left for their missions and it was really sad but also so exciting for them!! That´s pretty much all that happened and I only have one more week at the CCM! It has all gone by so fast!! Love you all!!
Hi Everyone!! So this has been a pretty interesting week. First thing was General Conference. If you ever want to have the best General Conference of your life, go on a mission. I really loved every talk and received so many answers. My favorite ones were President Uchtdorf in the general Women's session. I loved when he said that we should listen differently to hear things. I also loved President Nelson´s talk about Joy. Mostly because I think it applied directly to me and about why I wanted to serve a mission. it also related to my mission scripture D&C 128:19 if you want to read it.
The other interesting thing that happened is that My companion and I are the Sister Training leaders for our zone at the MTC! This pretty much means that we are called to be best friends with all the Hermanas in our district! I love it!!
One other thing is that in spanish when you sneeze they say Salud which means health. But then if you sneeze twice then the second sneeze is dinero and the third is amor. My whole district loves is and we treat it like a game to see if we can get to amor!!
Love you all!! And thank you for all of your support!!!
Hi Everyone!! OK so to be honest nothing has changed at the MTC here in Mexico. Everyday is almost the exact same!! Studying Spanish and lessons and the gospel! I´m really loving it actually!
Probably the best thing that has happened is that my district has really grown closer together! We literally spend every day together and its a tone of fun!! The best thing however from the last week is that everyday at around 5:00 P.M. is it starts raining. I did not expect that from Mexico!! It´s been really nice enjoying the rain and the nice cool weather!! I think my favorite thing is when Hermana Siddoway and I went for a run in the rain. It was great and made running actually a little bit enjoyable!! I´m super excited for general conference and can´t wait to write again next week!!
Hi Everyone!! This is my first of many days here on my mission. I have loved every minute of it so far!! Learning how to be a missionary has been so great!! And just in a week and a half here at the CCM, my Spanish has improved so much!!
I have the best companion ever, her name is Hermana Siddoway and we work really well together!! We have already taught our first five lesson to an investigator all in Spanish!! We got through it alive and OK and just a little bit more excited to go teach people in our missions!! She is going to a mission in Chile and could not be more excited!! The thing that we both agreed that we missed the most are nap time. No where in our schedule have the let us take 30 mins to recover for GYM time of at least 5 hours of Spanish!! However, we are getting better and used to the busy class schedules!! Our biggest achievement this week would have to be running a mile twice this week at 7000 ft elevation, well its at least my biggest achievement anyways. Probably the best achievement was memorizing four scriptures and 280 words in Spanish!! That is something that I am really proud of actually, it was a lot of long hard work!!
Well that is pretty much it for my first week and a half here in Mexico!! Love you all!!
I arrived here in the CCM safely and my flight was great. I was the only one on my flight but tons arrived from Slat Lake City. I won't be able to e-mail again till my P-day which is next Friday, so in about a week and a half. It's been so great and I love it here!! And Dad, they did not search my bag in customs so I still have my skittles.
Hello everyone! My name is Libby White, and I have been called on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve the people in Ecuador. Specifically, I'll be in the Quito area.
Over the next 18 months I'll be living in a variety of different environments as I experience the different culture of the people of Ecuador. More importantly, I will spend the next year and a half increasing my love for the people of Ecuador as I serve and teach them the gospel.
Each week for the next 18 months I will be writing home each week and would love to share my experiences with all of you. I can't wait to tell you all about my adventures in Ecuador!
Love,
Hermana Libby White
