6 months would have thought....

Hey Mom!!

So this week sounds crazy. I am going to miss Nutty too!! I mean it won't really sink in until I get home but hearing this news has made me cry. She was a crazy one but I love her!! But I know I will be seeing her again!!

That is so good you could see the Stahl's. I was actually thinking about them this past week and trying to figure out how old Emi is. How old is she?? That has got to be rough to be deployed. How long will he be there? I am just happy you guys are there, that you can help babysit them cute kids that are just super special and that I love a ton!!!

Well this week for me was filled with lots of good and craziness. We had changes yesterday......nothing changed. This is the first time I will be with a companion for 12 weeks instead of 6! Kind of crazy to think about. But what is even crazier is that I am still here in Carcelen. Which means by the end of this change I will have been here for 6 months. One third of my mission....as long as I was in Otavalo. I mean that is crazy but it is what the Lord needs and so I am down with it!! It will be fun because I know the people very well. I didn't know what to expect with changes so I got pictures with most the members and stuff so I was prepared, so when I do end up getting changes I will be set! :D

BUT BEST PART OF THE WEEK......DRUM ROLL....... JENIFER IS GETTING BAPTISED THIS SATURDAY!! She passed her entrevista(interview). We weren't sure what was going to happen but she got her answer and was like Hermanas I WANT TO BE BAPTISED!! It was after we taught the Plan of Salvation and you have to have all the lessons before your interview and so we had to do some sweet planning and we got it all done on time. Man I am so excited because she is so ready.

Sorry this is a bit short. Had to do some papers for the mission and send them in.
Love you tons and hope you have a great week!!!
LOVE YOU
Hermana HUll

PS I will explain the pics next week or you can just guess!!

Well you are never going to guess who is coming to visit us.....

Mama,

Sounds like kind of a stressful week but I am happy you could end it with an awesome day celebrating an awesome person named JADEN!! I can't believe he is 17...and so big....how tall is he like 7 feet now. Can't say little brother anymore but only younger....just kidding he will always be my little brother!!!

You know I understand your week perfectly, feeling a bit off. I had one too. I mean it is a little different in the mission but mom I understand. Don't worry all things will work out. I mean we have the gospel and the love of God. Romans 8:31 and Moroni 7:33.... Just a few pick me ups!!

So this week was full of meetings and stuff. We had our monthly capacitacion with Presidente Tuesday and then Wednesday district and zone meeting and then Thursday we had Elder Carlos A. Godoy of the 1st quorum of the Seventy come talk to us. It was absolutely amazing and just the best ever because we were able to learn so many things that we can put into practice now and help us, help our sectors even better. I love it!!

Huge announcement from Presidente this week........like HUGE!! In the month of February our mission gets a special visit that we are supppppppppppeeeeeeeerrrrrr and I mean super excited about........Elder Jeffery R. Holland is coming to our mission to talk to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are being super blessed and I am sooooooo excited!! Let you know more about it when it happens.

So other than that we just worked liked normal this week and had an amazing Sunday. Because after months and months of working with the familia Zambranos they were rescued. We took them to their interview Thursday night which in and of itself was a huge miracle and then they came to church yesterday on time (first time ever) which made them active members of the church again!!!! HUGE MIRACLE after tons of work and love and seeing some very hard things they are happy have goals to baptize Stefi in March and get sealed the end of the year!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!
Jenifer is doing really well to. She is amazing and her family has put her through a lot and she is just so prepared!! We are working to find even more people so please keep us in your prayers to be able to find the ones that need this precious gospel!!

Funny story.... So we always prayer before we leave the house and we always pray in Spanish. I mean it is hard to pray in English now. So we knelt down and Hermana Ukle went ¨¨Heavenly Father.......WHAT!?!?!¨¨ We both just kind of laughed and felt awkward because we don't pray in English and it caught us both way off guard!!

Love you all a ton!! Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is a great scripture about really there is time for everything and God truly knows what we need!!

LOVE YOU A TON!!!

Hermana Hull

PS My feet aren't perfect yet but are getting there. They don't itch anymore usually so that is good!! :D

Honey for Scones

Feeling cute

Ibambura Zone back together

Funny Faces

Hermana Hull, Jenifer, Gabriel and Jared

Lunch at the Mission Home

Elder Godoy from the Seventy teaching the missionaries

Familia Zambranos

Hermano Zambranos with Hermana Hull

Banana Split Party Pday

Aren´t we just so blessed!!

Mama,

Thanks so much for the lists of Jasmine and Jordan. They made my day. I was super excited to read them so thank you.

My feet are fine. I think it is something like the eczema on my shins and I have creams that seem to be helping but not at the rate I thought they would but all is well there. At least they don't itch as much any more. I was thinking about trying some oils too. I just don't know which ones so yeah.

That is cool about the missionaries in our Stake. I just thought there would  be more. But I guess we are from Utah huh?  not Ecuador and so it is a lot different there than it is here. I mean we have 20 missionaries in 1 stake here so ya know just a little different. :D

Sounds like you are having some good times to start of this new year. I thought about Florida also and can't believe it has been a year. I mean that is crazy. It seriously felt like yesterday. Well not really because of what happened yesterday but sorry. I am just being really literal right now. Sometimes too literal but you know it is what happens when you come on the mission. Or not maybe that is just me now I don't know my thoughts are just everywhere right now sorry.

Well this week in my life has been really good. Just about the same as any other missionary week. We contacted, taught, found, looked, studied and ate some good food :) I love the mission. There is so much that is the same each day but everyday is just so different. It is kind of crazy how much I love the mission. I just love talking and making friends and I get to do it everyday in a different language than my normal but then I not only get to be there friend and talk but I get to teach about the wonderful simple truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help them find the joy and happiness that they can get from living it too!!

We met a lot of new people this week but I want to tell you about one in particular. Her name is Gabriela Toapanta. We were contacting. We have been contacting a lot. We need to find new investigators and that is one of the biggest ways we have been finding them. Our Zone leaders taught us an amazing way to contact with the Book of Mormon and so we have been able to get into lots of more houses. So we were using it and she let us in. We started with the normal who we are and why we are here. And then started in to leccion 1. She told us how she never lets anyone into her house. But just felt like she had to. She was practically bearing her testimony to us by the end of the lesson. She told us about her life and her two girls and how she doesn't have work because here in Ecuador it is super hard to find a job right now. She told us how she knows that God puts people into our lives for a reason at the specific time we need them and I can tell you I have not been in a more powerful lesson than that one. She was so ready to hear the gospel and never have I seen someone accept baptism like that. She was just like yes I will on that day. WOW: when you have times like that on the mission you really just know you are the instrument to bring the Holy Ghost to the people and he really is the true teacher!!

Also Jenifer is doing well. She came to church and loved it!! She is going to be strong, but she needs a lot of support of the members because she got to tell me about her life as we rode the bus to church yesterday and she has gone through so much and has no one but her 2 little boys. Please keep them in your prayers.

So we had our Stake Conference yesterday and boy was it powerful. We had Elder Taylor Godoy of the 70 here and wooooohooo wow. It was just so good not only for the people but for us missionaries too. He talked how we are part of the Sacred Nation of the Gospel and how we need to have our identification right. How he said that we identify ourselves is through how we live the Gospel. That there are so many things we can do that we can act like it or we really can live it. The whole basis of the Conference was our personal conversion. It was so powerful because that is truly one of the things as a missionary I am learning. There are different points of conversion. We can have a testimony and know the church is true but that isn't true conversion. It is when we have a testimony and then to put it into practice and living what you know to be true to then fortify and to add strength to the testimony you do have. Man i just love the Gospel.

Like I am truly convinced that I could be a missionary forever.....well not quite I think I would die quickly from being so tired all the time. I think that may be one of the reasons that us hermanas only get to serve for a year and a half because our bodies couldn't just take it for 2. But you know I have figured out I will be a missionary forever because I want to be and it may not be here in Ecuador but wherever I may go in this big world of awesomeness. Because I mean they do say...... Everything is awesome when your on the Lords team!!!!!!

I love you all a ton. Promise my thoughts will be more put together next week. I am just tired right now and really just keep typing but I think it put together a pretty good email but you know here is the best part just learned it from Hna Ukle

<(^.^)>  it is called a hug monster.....do you feel the love??

Love you soooooooooo much,
Hermana Hull

PS Pics of my life from today and this week....ice cream one is today! And well still not use to the milk on a shelf and in a bag......just kidding I LOVE IT!!!

Oh and my other pair of glasses broke so i am super grateful you got me two!! Love you!

Milk in a Bag on a Shelf

TP Choices

The New Year....2016...Can you believe it!?!?!?!

Mama

Sounds like you had such a wonderful, wonderful Christmas time and New Years Eve. Sounds like you had lots of people over and tons of fun and I love the pictures. They make me happy. Not going to lie when I first started the mission, pictures made me the most homesick because you know how much I love pictures and picture taking. But now it is just good to see you guys and how you are doing not only through words but through you smiles on your faces!!!!

I know that the whole thing about getting assigned your mission call is partly based on the mission president that you will be able to grow the most under and it is so true. President Richardson is amazing. I mean for the first little while it was hard to get use to the strictness of the mission because really our mission isn't like bad, so we aren't strict we just follow the missionary handbook. There are other missions that can listen to different music and such and just more chill but, really I would not want it any other way. President just expect obedience and when we are obedient I don't know how many times he has promised different blessings that are there waiting. I love President. He has helped me become so much more than I ever could have been.

I think that is super legit that Kaitlin is putting her papers in!! I mean the mission is the best thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell her that it is the best and I call Ecuador Quito North as my guess.....the best mission in the world but wherever she gets called with be the perfect mission for her!!!!

Christmas was great!! We got to talk to you guys and had a couple lessons with members. We didn't have a big dinner with a member because the have their Christmas meal that is with like turkey and stuff at 12 am Christmas morning and so yeah, we were in bed and in the house a long time before that. I loved my gifts. We had a little tree and hung the stockings up. It was good. Didn't really feel like Christmas without snow but it was fun. We had to be in at 6 pm and just hung out open gifts, I cleaned the kitchen really well, and wrote in my journal about what happens here for Christmas. It is mostly just a family holiday and they eat a lot. They don't do anything on the 25th and lots of drinking and dancing.

For New Years we had to be in at 5 pm and we were glad for that one. They have what they call "Viudas" which are men dressed up as women and the go and dance in front of cars for money and it is quite disturbing because it is in the day. And then at night they shoot off fireworks which we heard and burn what they call the "ano viejo"(old year). They take some pants and shirts and stuff them with paper and other things to burn the old year and to get rid of all the bad that happened this year to prepare for the next year. That is cool but i didn't get to see it because we had to be inside and there is tons of music and dancing and of course drinking. We saw all the cops in the street the next day. And then at first no one is out and no one does anything because the party until like 4 in the morning.
What we did was our planemiento semenal and then talked and we bought Chinese to eat too!! Then because rootbeer doesn't exist here we got strawberry ice cream and Sprite and had those kinds of floats then just hung out and talked and were in bed by 10:30. But I woke up right at 11:59 and laid in bed for the New Year to come watched some fireworks out the window and then fell back asleep. Probably the most chill New Years I will ever have in my life!!!

Hermana Ukle is doing well. We have a person with fecha(baptism date). Her name is Jenifer. Please keep her in your prayers and especially pray for her to receive and answer about the Book of Mormon. She is great and we just found her and she really could be very strong, just lots of prayers would be super helpful. We are also finding new people everyday which are the miracles after the trial of my faith, that is for sure. With the last change and almost half of this change we haven't seen any progress and I got to be really stressed and doubting, wondering what I was doing wrong. But then we had a capacitacion(training) about how we look at the situation and our attitude. And I had just started feeling this way so through prayer and study I was able to really look at how much I have grown and now the blessing are flowing and we are just going to keep going to really help our sector progress.

I love putting goals now and have 10 for this year and would like to share them.
1 Find the family that is waiting for me
2 Really work on my personal conversion even more
3 Understand more fully the power of the Atonement
4 Speak the best Spanish possible
5 Truly become the consecrated missionary
6 Love until it hurts....even more....every thing
7 Focus on the now more....especially God´s hand in my daily life
8 Be a bit smarter about food choices
9 Return home with honor and truly changed
10 Find a job and get working hard to meet my goal to come back to Ecuador in 2017 and for school

I know the last 2 I am not going to really think about but I felt I needed to put them. I just love the fact that I can look and how much I progressed up until now in my mission and just want to keep going.

I love the mission so much and am so grateful for the blessings I receive everyday.

Funny story really quick.
So I was walking and saw some people throwing a football. Well in my brain i was like "what kind of ball is that?" "It looks kind of fun.....wait.....I think I know that......hmmmm. wait I do. That is a  football." I said the last part out loud. I couldn't even recognize a football. #mylifeinecuador

I love you all a ton and am so thankful for your support!!
Have a wonderful week a good time doing whatever you do
LoVe
Hermana Hull

PS I told my comp about our goats.....like everything about them......she laughed
PPS I don't need anything but I always like twixes ;)
PPPS I had a question about our ward and stake. So since there is a Logan, Utah mission are there more missionaries working in our stake or is there no difference that you know??

Mission Feet

Mission Toes

New Years Chinese Dinner

New Years Eve Float