God knows us

Well where to I begin today? 

This week was really tough for me. As I'm sure a lot of you who are reading this have already heard or seen on my Dad's facebook, but this past week was a week that my family, especially my Dad has been waiting for, for a long time.

its a long personal story that I'm obvi not gonna share... but when I was a junior in high school I found out that I have another sister. Her name is Alexa and she is my Dad's daughter. My dad hadn't been able to see Alexa since she was 3 years old. And after 23 years my dad was able to reconnect with her and they met face to face 2 weeks ago. There are no words for the happiness and excitement I feel for Alexa and our Dad. I've been praying for this day to come more than I've been praying for ANYTHING on my mission. The fact that it is now here brings me to tears of joy and relief. 

This is Alexa and our Dad together for the first time in 23 years

Now the tough part, Alexa and the rest of my family want to meet and get to know each other also! Sooo amazing!!! I've been waiting for the day I get to meet her! But oh wait.... I'm in Ecuador. It has been soooooooooooooooooooo hard for me. To the point where I was praying so hard and asking God if I should pack my crap and come home so I could be a part of this amazing opportunity. I know I need to be here. I can't come home yet. Sometimes I would imagine all of my family sitting around together mingling, talking, getting to know each other, laughing, telling stories and I would just ball my eyes out... but with more time and a calmer Morgann when I would think about it I cry tears of joy... How special and amazing is it that my family gets the opportunity to meet Alexa. To get to know her, to spend time and build relationships with her. I couldn't be more excited for them! And I know that when I return home after a full 18 months I will have the same opportunity. I wrote her an email last week and I'm excited to be able to start building now. although its still really hard I know that God has a plan and I just need to put my trust and faith in him and it'll all work out.

This is something I put together... thought we looked alot alike when I was platinum blonde

So in result of my down in dumps self and my first time being homesick companion, this week was just awful. Finally on Saturday we sat down together and talked about everything... feelings wise. And my oh my was God listening... We have been so discouraged cause it is so hard to find people to teach here. The members don't wanna work with us, the president of our branch is so over his calling. He's been in for 9 years! And I think he has said a total of 4 words to us the whole time we've been here. There's only 6 men in the ward who are active priesthood holders. And three of those men are the branch presidency. Its just been really hard. So we talked and cried... and went on our way. 

Well we went to our lunch appt. And she forgot about us. So she gave us 5 dollars and sent us on our way haha. We hopped in a taxi and went to Carl's Jr. We needed it. On our way the taxi driver picks up another man... not really sure if that's allowed mission wise but we didn't really have a choice. I was in the front seat and my comp was in the back the man obvi got in the back. Well as I am talking to the taxi driver my comp is talking to the man in the back. Turns out the taxi driver investigated the church 30 years ago.... for TWO YEARS! But he didn't understand all the stuff about Joseph Smith. So I told him that he should meet with the missionaries because they can help him understand better. He lives in Guayaquil so we can't teach him. But I took his info down and gave him a pamphlet on the restoration and told him to read it and pray about it. He promised he would. As I was talking to him I tuned out for a second and listened to my comp contact the man in the back seat. It was such a tender moment. We just expressed how we didn't feel like we were ever able to teach and God sent us two people right then and there. Two people who don't live in the playas so we can't continue teaching them. But it was just proof to me that God knows us and what we need. And it automatically made me feel 100 times better. Oh and btw the taxi driver spoke English!!!!!!! I was excited at first! Then I realized I couldn't form sentences in English!!!!!!!!!!! He literally had to tell me its okay you can speak in Spanish if you want.  Because I literally couldn't speak English I never thought I'd say this but it was such an amazing feeling!!!! 

Don't worry it gets better!! So we get the mall where Carl's Jr is and we order our food. The girl taking our order asks if we are serving missions... obvi we reply yes. Turns out her two siblings are members... inactive like the other 500 members in playas... but members! She and her mom and her other 3 siblings are not members. So we got her info and have a plan to visit their family this week! Wow! So awesome!! IT GETS EVEN BETTER!

So we sit down to eat and I see a man walk by us as I bow my head to pray for the food. When we finish our prayer about 30 seconds later the man returns. He asks if were Mormons and eventually we invite him to sit down and talk with us. At first he tried to teach us about his religion, which at the time I didn't understand which religion that was. He had a really weird accent, so I couldn't really understand him. When he was done preaching to us. He asked about Joseph Smith. So we brought out a pamphlet of the restoration and taught him a little bit about that and told him if he read it he could learn more. (he was just visiting so we couldn't continue to teach him after this moment) He asked about the Book of Mormon and at first when we brought one out he was kinda freaked out... like we were gonna put some freaky spell on him or something I'm not sure. But then when we started talking about it and testifying to him that we knew it was true and he too could find out for himself if it was. His eyes lit up. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. After we finished talking he tried speaking in English to me. Lol I complimented him on his oh so lovely broken English and I thought he was gonna cry he was so excited that I said he could speak well! As me and my comp reflected on that man together she told me he was a Jehovah Witness!! And idk if its the same in USA but here the JW´s only wanna argue and are very rude to us. So the fact that we committed a JW to read and pray about the BOM was super awesome! 

The rest of the day and Sunday were great! My mood is much better! And when the hard times come all I gotta do is hit my knees! 

Love ya´ll so much!! Thanks for everything!!!! 

PS. shout out to Chase Smith who walked to a starbucks so he could use the wifi to talk to me today! So sweet! 

If you're going to give me an excuse as to why you don't write me please don't use "I've been really busy" because chances are I'm a lot busier than you are! And it only takes 2 minutes to write "hey thinking about you! love you! bye" I'm not trying to sound prideful or anything like that but I would rather no excuses than telling me you're too busy. Love you all. This is really such a hard journey I'm on right now and the emails and letters keep me going. Thank you all for writing me! I love you! oxoxxo

So I really wanted to make a camo skirt... but its illegal here to sell camo print fabric cause people used it to pretend they're in the military. So I seem-ripped my pajama pants that i had here and Abuelita made them into a skirt for me!!!! I'm sewing buttons on it tonight! So stoked.

Finally found an ice cream place!! yay! And I would like to point out that this sock bun is with out my extensions... that's how much my hair has grown! WOOOO!

This is me being normal and cute on P-day!

This is me at lunch today with my new favorite drink! It just MIGHT top coke!

My newest purchase, thought my dad and Evan and Chase would be proud!

Me waxing my lip hahaha yeah, never again.