Happy!

 Zone activity on the volcano last week

After hiking the volcano

French toast with the best zone

Zone farewell party before transfers

More French toast

Mi Cordovita. I LOVE her!!!

Hola family!

I just keep picturing Liza meeting Hermana Cordova in Ecuador and it makes me so happy and hopeful! haha the mission is so wonderful. And the temple is the best. So fun that you guys got to go together. What a blessing to have a temple close to our house. I am so excited to be able to go as a family again.

I am learning so much about selfless service. I went on divisiones and the hermana was super stressed and tired and asked me to give her a back massage and to rub her feet with lotion. That was great. But seriously, I love serving and I love helping relieve other people´s pain. I feel blessed to get to finish my mission in Esperanza with Hna Cordova. And it will be so fun to have one more meeting with Hermana Call before I go. We are not sure where she is going but she will be an hermana leader now. So fun.

This has been a wonderful week. We have been working hard and found a lot of success. One of the Polios had her baby and it was a little girl. So adorable. She was in the operating room for a C-section and when they showed her the knife and turned around to prepare the tools, she got so nervous that she just pushed the baby out all on her own. Ha! no surgery necessary. That was great. I love that family. Pray for them. We had a great lesson with Esmeralda (the one who got baptized in August) and she told us about how a bunch of people in her university make fun of her for being Mormon. But she just blows off the comments and testifies of the truth and stands up for what she believes in front of her whole class. I love her. She refused to drink coffee in front of everyone. She is still dating that member and hopefully someday they will be married in the temple. She is reading Daughters in My Kingdom and absolutely loves it. The hermanas of Cerrito also told me that Alex (the one that married Denisse in January and then got baptized) is preparing to go to the temple as well. Miracles. SO grateful.

One night we walked out of a cita at 8:40pm. That is always a little hard because not many people are awake and willing to answer the door at that hour, and the streets are a little dangerous once it gets dark. We tried to visit a few people and nobody answered. We knew that someone was waiting for us and that we just needed to find them. We said a little prayer and then started walking on the street towards our house. Right then I saw a man unloading a truck of boxes with a beautiful little lady helping him. I ran over and asked if they needed help. The lady was so relived that we offered help and said yes. So we started unloading everything and got to know them a little bit. They were so nice and told us that we should return on Saturday night. We agreed and she said that she would invite all of her kids to come. So that was the first miracle- the spirit always leads us to people. I was then looking forward to this cita all week long. We went with our ward mission leader on saturday night and sure enough, she had invited her family and they were all there waiting for us! The mom, her 3 kids, and 2 of their spouses. They say that they are evangelics but don`t ever go to church. The mom, Gloria, told us that had been watching the BYU channel all day and realized that we were from the same church and was so happy! We had a wonderful lesson and Gloria came to church with us on Sunday. A member even mentioned her in his testimony as one of the people that changed his life and it made her cry. Her children will be a little more difficult to get to church because they work on sundays but we will keep visiting this week. The Lord always helps us. Pray that la familia Ramirez can progress.

I was pondering this week about the Savior´s life and ministry. I pictured Him walking along the Sea of Galilea, calling His disciples, healing the sick and raising the dead. And then I remembered back to when I was planning on going to Jerusalem and how excited I was to where Jesus walked. I all the sudden got kind of bummed that I never went and that I probably won`t have sufficient dinero or time to go when I get home. Then all the sudden I remembered back to President Monson´s talk and the experience he shared of the girl that went to Jerusalem. He said,

¨Perhaps she stood on a rock on which He had once stood or looked at a mountain range He had once gazed upon. The experiences, in and of themselves, were thrilling to her; but physically walking where Jesus walked is less important than walking as He walked. Emulating His actions and following His example are far more important than trying to retrace the remnants of the trails He traversed in mortality.¨

And then I pictured Him coming here to las Americas and doing the same thing for these people. I thought of the sacred opportunity that I have had to come to know some of the descendants of Lehi and learn of their history. And more than that, I thought of how my mission has helped me learn to walk AS he walked and not only WHERE. I am so grateful for all that I am learning. For each trial, each step of faith, and each miracle. What a glorious world that we live in! I am so happy. I love feeling the spirit working through us to find new people and testify of gospel truths. I just find myself smiling all the time and thanking my Father in Heaven for all that I have been blessed with. And oh, have I been blessed.

I love you all so much! You are the best :) Thanks for everything. Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Jane