America del Sur

Thank you for your patience everyone! It's been hard getting back into a routine and digging myself out of a mountain of laundry, plus my grandma is not well so I've been trying to spend as much time with her as possible.

Ok, so we flew into Ecuador the night of the 7th and checked into our hotel (the elevator to our room was through this closed mall it was really strange but fine) and we crashed. Sunday we got up and took a taxi to church. It left us in the neighborhood but I couldn’t remember how to get there so I said a little prayer and these two boys in little white shirts pass us and I ask them if they’re Mormon and they said yes and so we followed them to church! So glad my prayers are still answered fast down there or we never would have found it. It was so great to see people. We only stayed for two hours because it was hot and Dallin didn’t understand anything. We went back to our hotel with my friend Nancy and changed and fed her Reece’s Pieces, she loved them! We went to the Iguana Park across the street which now has a bunch of turtles too and did a few touristy things. We had dinner at a member’s house (I baptized her son who is now on a mission in Colombia and she got baptized later) and it was delicious. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting people and then she came with her family and we went to the river walk and hiked up this hill that overlooks the city. It was nice to have someone with us at all times since it is a bit dangerous there now but we didn’t have any problems.

Monday we hired a convert of mine to drive us to my last area of my mission about 3 ½ hours away. It was fun because Dallin got to see a lot of the countryside and I got to catch up with my friends who came along for the ride. Dallin said if he would have gotten his call to Ecuador he would have got right back on the plane because it’s so ghetto – ha! We visited some people there but I really went to see my convert Fernando. He got caught up at school so we had to track him down there but it made my whole trip worth it! He just got back from a mission in Colombia and after I left he converted his whole family, except his dad, and his best friend. His sister just got back from a mission in Bolivia and his best friend did eventually end up getting baptized and is on a mission right now in Bolivia. It is absolutely incredible. You never know how the fruits of your labor turn out and I feel so blessed to have been able to go back and see a glimpse. Fernando is still totally on fire and I really hope he can come to the USA soon.

The highlight of our trip to Buena Fe was our lunch. We went to a restaurant and the Guayaquilenos were complaining that it was too "feo" (ugly). Hello! Welcome to my life for 6 months. Anyway, I was used to it and we went to this restaurant and they didn't have any room for us so they put us at a table out back. This is who we ate lunch with:

Yes. The chickens were running around our feet patiently waiting to be slaughtered as we ate their brothers. LOL. Dallin was going to die. Didn't bother me one bit. The best part was that we got this humongous plate of food for $2. And that is why we love Ecuador. :)

We returned to Guayaquil and visited a few more people. We also went to El Dorado - the castle restaurant that has the best carne asada around.

Tuesday we slept in a little and then went shopping and had to catch our plane. It was 2 hours to Panama, then a little layover, then 7 hours to Buenos Aires. I slept alright but Dallin hardly slept at all. We got into Buenos Aires at 4 a.m. then had to take an hour taxi ride to another airport and catch a 2 hour flight up to Iguazu.