Carnaval

I think Carnaval corresponds to Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras in the States or something like that. The idea of the holiday is that the city turns into a great big water fight, where anyone's game. The city actually regulated the water this year so that people wouldn't go crazy, so things weren't too crazy, but as missionaries we weren't allowed to leave the house unless we had set appointments, and since most people wouldn't set appointments for that day anyways, we mostly sat in the house and studied. It was good, though, I learned a lot. Never thought I'd enjoy just spending a whole day reading the scriptures. And the time went by fast, too.

My companion and I have also had an adventure trying to eat a bit healthier - we've both gained weight in the sector, so we've started to ask the mamitas (the members who give us food) to serve us less. Eating a heaping plate of rice is the norm here, which is...pretty unhealthy, it seems. And sometimes the rice comes with potatoes and chicken. But usually not anything else. Food here is weird. And American restaurants are expensive. For example, a personal-size Papa John's pizza (probably like the size of your dinner plate or smaller) is like $7 here. I'm pretty sure that's not what it would have cost in the States. KFC and McDonald's are almost posh. In Pizza Hut you sit down and they wait on you and everything.

Other than that we've had some interesting trainings this week. One I really liked involved D&C 30:1-3 and talked about how we need to reflect on our callings as missionaries more. It's really something incredible. Of the many, many people on this planet, not only do I have the gospel in my life, but I also have the chance to share it with others. Being a missionary is the best!

We also had a good experience teaching an investigator. We've been teaching Miguel Pillajo and his wife for a couple weeks now, and they're great, but they hadn't been to church yet together (just the wife). We'd taught the Sabbath Day to them, but felt we needed to go over it again. As we did so, we discovered that Miguel plays in a band on Sundays and he does so to be able to have enough for the rent, etc. He's out of work other than that right now, and so it's hard for their family and as he explained to us, if the doesn't play, they sometimes don't have enough. But my companion and a member we had with us bore powerful testimonies of the blessings of keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and he committed to keep it holy...and he came to church!! It was interesting to me, because I think it was the first time in my mission that an investigator had run into that problem but been able to really overcome it. I'm glad my companion and that member were there as well. I know following the commandments brings blessings!

And, this week in the mission we'll have the awesome opportunity of seeing Elder Holland. He'll meet with the entire mission in Quito on Wednesday and I'm super excited (and maybe a little afraid). Sorry I didn't have much to talk about this week, but I promise I'll have more next week! Love you all!

Eating burgers. Almost American.

Ibarra