Ecuador Day 15

Today marks two weeks since our arrival. I swear, it seems like two months already. Not that we aren't enjoying our time here, but it really does feel like we have been here a long time. There are certain things I miss quite a bit about the US (cough cough, diet coke), but we are managing to make the best of what we have here and now and are settling into a good routine. The foods just aren't quite the same here and you can't find a lot of the same ingredients, so we have adjusted our cooking some. Ecuador does one thing really, really well food wise- and that is yogurt. The yogurt here is amazing and much better than in the US. I rarely eat yogurt at home- here I could eat it for every meal. It's much more liquid and so we drink it instead of spoon eat it. They also have a bit more variety in fruit, so it's been fun to try (again) new fruits and introduce them to the kids. Anyway, no idea why I started out talking about food, but there you go.

Today is Sunday and I have come to really look forward to Sundays. It's a day of rest, yet a day of connection and spirituality as well. We got up and walked to church in time for the primary program. Hallie and Jace participated and did a great job. The primary presidency in this ward is really cute and had matching bow-ties for the boys and matching flower head bands for the girls for the program. Hallie recited Moroni 10:5 for her part (in English) and Jace did his scripture, John 14:15 (also in English). Jace was pretty cute up there. He got up and flashed a big smile and did his thing and after there was a big "awwww" in the audience. :) Afterwards, they took pictures as a group outside and I snapped a few. One little girl kept telling me over and over how white Jace is. She just could not get over it. haha! Girl, I know! He gets it from me!

Hallie's head band was off by this point, but you can see it above.

We made Mishell go to Primary today, despite loud protests from her. I think she is just scared to try new things without one of us by her side. Afterwards, we asked her how it was and she tried to tell us it was really boring (with a big smile on her face). The primary president came up and told us that Mishell had a great time and seemed to love primary. Ha. On the walk home, the kids told us that they got to eat cake and play games for doing such a good job in the program. Yeah, you can't tell me that's boring! She's a funny girl. She told me that she learned a song called "Soy un Hijo de Dios" (I am a Child of God) and that she liked it. 

We came home and had lunch and naps and then got ready for the missionaries to come over and later Maria Dolores for dinner. The missionaries had transfers, so we still have Elder Bahr (from Colorado) and Elder Gallardo (from Argentina- and look I remembered his last name!). We got a new missionary, Elder Olsen, from none other than Manti, Utah! He was very charismatic and connected with Mishell right away. The others had told him that she liked the songs at church especially, so he brought a hymn book and sang the song "Faith" in Spanish to her. He has a beautiful voice. This led to the lesson on faith. They did such a great job talking to Mishell and helping her learn things on her level. They are a great group of missionaries. She warmed right up to them today and at the end was asking them questions about who was oldest, who was tallest, who played the best soccer, etc. She got them laughing as she told Elder Olsen he looked much older than the other two. Turns out he is the youngest. At the end we found out that Elder Bahr had been in the hospital earlier today for blood work as they think he may have appendicitis and Elder Olsen has amoebas and was in the hospital this week too. Poor guys! Yet they still came to teach Mishell today.  will keep them in our prayers. As next week is general conference, we will probably see them during the week sometime this week. 

Oh and one cute thing during this visit...they asked Jace to say the opening prayer and he prayed, "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for Mishell and that we can adopt her. We love her. Thank you for the missionaries who came to teach her about our church. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." He's a little heart breaker sometimes. :) Also, Mishell said the closing prayer- the first time she has prayed with us. Elder Gallardo helped her, but she did the majority of it on her own. So that was really neat. 

Maria Dolores arrived just as the missionaries were leaving. She took a bus over but had to hike up the hill, so that took a few minutes for her to recover. :) We had steak, potatoes, and asparagus for dinner. We cooked the steak in the skillet as we have no grill here and I am surprised at how good it was (maybe all the butter we cooked it in...). Anyway, it was a good meal. We are getting into the routine of cooking here.  I had made homemade oreo cookies from a cake mix we brought from the states and we had those and the ice cream Maria Dolores brought for dessert.

Now the kids are all sugared out and in bed. I took a few pictures of the three kids (Flor was already in bed...she was super tired as she spent a good portion of the night last night laughing hysterically in her room- don't ask me why) before bed just because they are cute.

Hmmm, I think that's it for today! Happy Sunday, all. General Conference next week. YAY. Cannot wait!!