Hmmm what is cold? Our house!!

Hola Mama,

How are you this fine Monday? I am doing good and it sounds like you are having a wonderful summer.  I am super grateful for my ancestors too. I actually talk about them a lot and in the future am excited to get to know them. It will be a grand day of happiness and joy, to meet them who are supporting me in the mission and in my life. What a grand opportunity to have my ancestors be pioneers. A lot of the members are really interested in this. It is fantastic to have this.

Wow what a turn out of family!! I love my family!!!

Don't feel like you just babble about the week. It means so much to me to read your letters every single week. They have so much meaning and love that I can feel that don't change anything. They truly bring me your testimony of the gospel and that strengthens me each week. Thank you for that.

Well this week was quite and adventure. First off we are living in Carabuela now. We got a call Thursday to move that very same day, to the same house the Hermanas were in before and so we did. We are in Carabuela now and the house is sooooo much colder. Like my toes hurt in the mornings during studies but it is nice to be here now because we are able to work more in our sector and it truly is a blessing to be here.

So funny story I had to go to Ibarra again but this time for a medical appointment. I am still sick and am working on getting better. The doctor said I have a sinus infection and this is why I am not getting better. Well we went and got the medications he gave me to get better and they seem to be working but I am not sure a sinus infection includes a cough but I feel better. But since the appointment was in Ibarra I had to pay the bill with my apoyo(monthly money) to then get reimbursed. Well it was a lot more than expected. It was suppose to be 20 but ended up 40 and so that was the rest of my apoyo right there.  To live for the next week and a half and then to buy my medications I had to use my reserve fund and some of my personal money and so I had nothing left because the medications were 35. Well with this happening and then moving houses I was officially a hobo for a day. I didn't have a house or money. I never want to live like that. It would be such a hard life. Well don't worry I didn't starve I used some more money of mine to buy food for the next little while and hope my reimbursement will come in the next little while. But all is well. I have a bed and food and I am a missionary so nothing in this world could be better for the moment!!!

We had the opportunity to watch the Restoration video with some members for a FHE the other day. This was a wonderful thing to be able to see. I really do have a testimony of Joseph Smith. He was called of God and did all he did with Gods power. I know through the power of the priesthood he was able to translate the Book of Mormon for us and it is a wonderful book full of truth and light. I know that all he did and all he suffered was to bring through a restoration the true gospel to this earth. This is the true gospel I know it!! And I love it with my whole heart and am so grateful for the chance every single day right now to just leave the house for one purpose and that is to share this most wonderful good news with others so they can have peace and happiness in this life but more that they can live with there families forever too. I love the covenants of this gospel that allow us to have this knowledge of the gospel. Every day in the mission has its challenges but to have the opportunity to share the gospel makes overcoming those challenges through the Atonement of Jesus Christ even sweeter!! I love it and am so thankful that I am worthy and able to be here in this time to share the gospel with these wonderful people of Carabuela!! Que maravillosa!!!

I love you soo much and hope that you have a wonderful week!! I know that God is blessing you every day and that you are able to feel his spirit. I thank him every day for this and pray for each one of you everyday!!
Thanks for the wonderful support and love I receive everyday through your prayers and letters every week.
Con todo el amor tengo en mi corazon
Hermana Jenika Hull

PS I hit 5 months I the mission last Saturday. Can you believe it. Yeah me either!!!

PS This is Carabuela

Well you are never going to believe what I ate

Mom,
Well here we are again another week has come and gone and how good it has been. A lot better. I still have congestion but I am on the mend with this cold and did use the cold medicine. Thank you for that. Sounds like you had a wonderful week full of fun activities. I can't believe all the good times that you are having but also the good times here in Ecuador. Me and my comp will always be different but our relationship is growing. Thanks for the address of Laura, she emailed me.

To answer your questions I have no idea when we will move into our area. I love our area and it would help everyone. But I bet it will be in the next cambio. I am living out of my bags right now. It is hard but I won't ever forget it!!!

My knee is doing okay. Some days it hurts others no. I am working on exercising more to keep it good but the hills are hard on it but, all is well.

Well to get to the good stuff. You were all wondering when it would happen and it did. I ate Cui(guinea pig). It was a crazy experience. Not only did I eat it but I saw the whole process of killing it and taking the hair off and cutting it open and and seasoning it and then eating it. It was a very difficult experience at first but not going to lie, it wasn't half bad. Definitely not my favorite dish in the world and wouldn't choose to eat it every day as a delicacy but i did eat it and saw the whole thing and the process was very interesting and also it was a major gift to receive.

One tradition i find very interesting about the Otavalian culture is the way they ask to marriage or to be padrinos. I got to see one happen this week and it was super cool. The family brings all this stuff and presents to the other people and then they talk about dates and such. But they have to bring 12 cui and 12 gallos(roosters) but they hang them alive upside down by there feet, on a large board. I have a pic but Hermana Quiros is using my card for a sec so I will have to send it another day. Also if you open a pop then you take it around to share with everyone, with the same cup. Yeah I share the same cup with 20 people now. Germs don't really get to me anymore.

I really am learning the power of the atonement. We had a capacitation(training) this week and also just teaching has really taught me a lot. I still have so much to learn but every time I do I want to share this gospel even more. I love the power it has to change. It changed my comp a lot. She has told me things that would be so hard to overcome. Like addictions to substances and such, but she is here and it is the power of the Atonement. It can be seen in Marisol. She changed to come to baptism. It can change anyone if they will obey the commandments and do the little things that help you have Faith in our Savior. Most importantly it is changing me every single day in this life and especially in the mission. I wouldn't be able to speak or write or testify without the cleansing power of the Atonement. I love it!

I love you all soooooooooooooo much. Have a wonderful week and keep enduring to the end. But remember enduring is more than suffering through. It is enjoying life with all its difficulties. It is hard but it is possible.

With all my love
Hermana Jenika Hull

PS. 2 Conference Talks to look up "Grateful in Any Circumstance" By President Utchdorf
and "Beautiful Mornings" by Bruce R. Parks of the Seventy.  Helped me a lot this week!!
LOVE YOU

Baby Pig

Sisters in her District

CUI(Guinea Pig)

Eating Cui

Mommy!!!

I got your package this week!! It had everything in it all the goodies and snacks and all the socks. Thanks so much they were much needed.

Sounds like a full summer week full of summer activities from all ends. NO not the dirt pile!!!!!!!!! POR QUE??? Haha that will be a change of pace, that thing has been there my whole life it is truly apart of me.....but I believe I can overcome this change. ;)

I am so happy you got to go to the temple this week. I love the temple soooo and miss it a lot. We talk about the blessings of the temple in Soceidad de Socorro(Relief Society) yesterday and I wanted to just get up and go buy a ticket to Guayaquil and go but nope. I can wait but the temple is so blessed and sacred in my heart. I love it.

Well this week was better that is for sure, but definitely not perfect. I have been quite sick with a cold. I believe it started last Monday but got worse on Tuesday because it rained all day long. That was a fun day but a bad day for the sickness side of things. It was bad enough that we got permission to go to Otavalo to get some cough medicine. But I think I am on the upside now. Still have a cough and headache but each day it gets better.

This week was better on the comp side of things. I have learned a lot about myself and how I need to be in certain situations. I learned that praying for my comp is really important. This change has been really tough. The sector and ward are totally different. But the people are just as wonderful. We don't have any really good investigators right now but in time and with faith. Also we are working a lot with the menos activos(less actives). There are tons of them in this ward. We have a family that I really pray that we can help get back to church. Also an 18 year old with her baby named Pacarina. She was actually a convert of Hermana Szerdi when she was there. She went through some tough times and is now inactive but I really love her and know that we can help her. The family of Laura Ramos also. They come every once in a while to church but we go and visit often because they need strength. I love them too. I really feel the power in teaching when we teach about the Atonement and Jesus Christ as our Savior and we talked to them about it and they really opened up with us.
It is cool because I am talking a lot more in Spanish and a lot of people ask me for help in English and it is cool because I can now help them. I also am a lot more outgoing with the Spanish now. I felt I kind of pulled into a shell a little bit at the beginning of my mission. But I am now back to my normal outgoing self. Hermana Quiros says that I am the reason that we are able to teach some of these people. She says they would never talk to her before and wanted nothing to do with the Gospel. But now that I am here and having fun with them and talking and teaching them they are a lot more open. Maybe this is why I need to be in Carabuela. That really made me feel good. Also there is a member family named the Familia Moreta Tituana. They are soooo wonderful I love them. They have 3 little boys and we are good friends. To see there smiling faces helps a lot and to always here them yell 'Hermanita' makes a heart feel good.

So all in all to answer your question. I am doing better. Not perfect and I know that this a challenge for me to grow so all will be well. Not going to lie this week was better but still hard. I feel alone sometimes in a house of me and 3 Latinas. They are great but I cant quite express everything in Spanish and they don't understand English. I really wanted to give you a hug, mom this week. Being sick made it harder. I think I stress myself out when I am sick normally because I hate being sick and it kind of scares me. But I think this week I put more stress on myself to get better to work and that didn't help. The other night I really prayed about it and then thought about what Hermana Richardson taught me about praising the lord. It is how we can really put our trust in him. I did that again. I am doing it more often and it is helping change me. I am not as stressed about getting better and so I am getting better. I am feeling the desire to work harder and harder. When I was stressed and worried that desire to share was not as strong and almost vacant but it is coming back and I am getting better and better every single day.

One thing that I have learned is that The Lord is who I can fully put my trust in.  He is the only one that can carry me always. Like the poem footprints in the sand says that is is carrying me through the hard times. He is the one that does that for me every single day and especially in these past couple weeks. I want to be closer to him everyday because of this. My testimony is growing stronger everyday of his power and love and I am eternally grateful for this!!

Funny story....so the little Moreta boys ride there bikes a lot. They are puny. But the other day I was like "I can ride that" and they didn't believe me. You bet I rode that bike and the whole ward saw it and laughed and laughed but hey I rode that bike. Haha
Also I took a really great fall in the chapel the other day and the floor was really slippery. Oh it was a good biff you all would have been proud!! :D

Still playing the piano for the choir can you believe it? ya me neither!!

I made no bake cookies and pancakes this week!! Please send more recipes!! I love to cook. It find it destresses me!!!

I love you sooooooooo much!! I hope you have a wonderful week!! I pray for you often and love you even more every single day.
I love you mom!!
Love
Hermana Jenika Hull

PS I got to play ultimate with my zone today and almost lost my disc but I found it. It was going to be a birthday request if I didn't find it. It felt good to throw and I really loved it!!

LOVE YOU!!

Carabuela

Just serving the Lord

Rainy Tuesday

Chicken Feet

Mom,

Wow what a week it sounds like you had, a fun weekend. I remembered it was the 4th of July and sang all the most patriotic songs I could think of and wore red and blue. (didn't quite get the white in there but tis bien) Frog racing sounds like a party and I don't know if I would touch them but you know with what I have touched here I wouldn't be as scared as I would have before.

What?!?! You know Mallory's mom. Haha I know we are related but that is just weird to think that we are. Has there been any Studio C lately?

The tribute to Grandpa sounds really nice. And I want to see the DVD after my mission that jasmine put together.

I just have to say I am very grateful to be American. I know that our country definitely is not perfect but because of those that founded it, with there faith in a greater being, they were able to create a wonderful country. A country where our Father in Heaven could restore the true and everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ that would and will never be taken from the earth again. We do need to be strong in our beliefs always and always need to be willing to stand up for them but The United States of America is a wonderful place to live and to grow but more especially Utah and even more Hyde Park and Tremonton. hydeparkpride

Well my new area is soooooo campo. There is nothing but houses, a tienda(store) here and there are dirt roads and a few people. It is beautiful and I really love it. The people are even more humble and wiling to give. They are really great. Carabuela is about 15 minutes north west of Otavalo so we get to come to Otavalo on pdays!! Also we don't live in our sector. We live with the Hermanas of Cotama which is right next to Otavalo because someone broke into the other house in Carabuela in the last cambio so we are in the search process of finding a new house.

There are soo many differences. People take there cows on walks like dogs. They just live even more simply and have even less. The only thing on the wall of the obispo(bishops) is his marriage picture and certificate of sealing in the temple. That is it. A lot of the time we are sitting on cinder blocks or whatever is around. The capilla(chapel) and ward is a whole lot smaller and everything is in Quichua. The younger folks understand Spanish but they still talk Quichua more unless we are there. The older folks only know very little Spanish and so it is difficult with that. All the church meetings are in Quichua including ward council and so that is really fun haha. No, it is kind of frustrating because I am just starting to really understand Spanish and speak a bit better but it is all up to the Lord.
Hermana Quiros and me are very different and like different things and lived very different lives but she is great. I am really going to learn a lot more patience with myself because what bothers me is a part of her culture and so I can't change that and it is probably the same with me but we will work hard and both have desires to strengthen this ward in any way we can. So we will do some good work!!! My Spanish has improved a lot because I can only speak Spanish to communicate. I also have had to become a lot more confident in speaking. I am the English tutor in our district now so that will be fun.

CRAZY THING OF THE WEEK!!! I ate chicken feet!! What?! I know it sounds gross and it looks even more gross but the taste isn't half bad it is just soo weird!! haha yeah Jasmine you would have died here ;)

I know this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that I am a just an instrument in the hands of the Lord and am so grateful for this opportunity. I know change is for growth and that love is the most powerful thing in missionary work. If there isn't love and the spirit than no one will change. I am learning to love more everyday and just as it said in my setting apart blessing my heart will grow big enough to love all the people and that is already coming true!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! It is the hardest thing I have ever done but also sooo rewarding!!

I love you so much!! have a fantastic week!!
Love with all my whole heart
Hermana Hull

I am super excited to get your package still and don't care if they opened it. Please send if you feel it will make it sweet and salty almond granola bars. Just whatever you think will make it and you know me so well so I will be glad with the surprise. I really doubt they open every package especially the envelopes. I don't know whatever you think. Love you.

Chicken Feet Soup