No place like Ecuador (Week 27)

July 15, 2014

Katie back in Ecuador!

First things first: I made it back to Ecuador!!!!  I literally got in to Guayaquil at like 10:30 at night or something, I don´t really remember.  I did end up having to move to a different plane in Dallas, so I had three flights (as usual) to get there.  While I was in Miami, I met a new elder who was going to my mission!  He´s from Utah but was only going to be in the mtc for 2 weeks but had issues with visas so he had to stay longer, thus he was coming with me.  We ended up flying together to Guayaquil, and now he´s in my zone up in Azogues.  He´s a funny kid.

Katie's new companion, Hermana Adams

The next day, I met my new companion in the bus terminal.  Her name is Hermana Adams and she´s from Colorado as well (nope, still not Nathan´s mission).  When I met her was when I found out that I was going...back to Cuenca!!!  I´m now in the Tomebamba ward, which is literally the neighboring ward to the Totoracocha branch, which was my last area.  Like we literally share the same chapel.

I found it actually wasn´t too hard to jump back into missionary work--it was kinda like riding a bike.  I had no problems with the language, but getting used to teaching again was a little awkward at first.  I like to think I´m getting better.

Ingapirca

Now, for the reason I didn´t write yesterday...we found out this weekend that Presidente Torres was going to be comingon Monday to give us a training meeting (I don´t know if that´s what you call it in English, I´m translating from capacitación).  We were pretty bummed at first, like come on, on P-day?  But we went and it was super great as always, but then we finished like super early, like before lunch.  Then Presidente told us that we were going to go see Ingapirca, some Incan ruins that were a little farther north than Azogues!  Our zone leaders had told us to bring tennis shoes, and now we finally knew why.  It was super neat!  It was also freezing.  Like the wind would blow so hard I thought we were going to die, but I really really enjoyed myself.  When we got back to our sector, we just had time to print our emails.  

This morning, we had interviews with Presidente, and he challenged me to talk to 100 people a day for a week, so I guess I´ll tell you next week how that goes.  I´m still not sure if we even see 100 people a day, but hey, I can try!

I know that this time will go by fast, so I have to make the most of it now.  I´m literally so happy to be back.  I was grinning from ear to ear and even almost teared up when the plane touched down in Guayaquil.  It felt like coming home.

Talk to you later!  Les amo muchísimo!

Love,

Hermana Iverson

Coming Home :(

May 22, 2014 to July 8, 2014

Katie on her way home after a very long flight from Ecuador

As many of you now know, Katie came home on May 22nd.  She has had a recurring problem that needed medical attention (minor--don't worry).  It is church policy that missionaries serving in foreign countries be sent home to attend to their medical needs.  We are so grateful for that!  We were called on Wednesday afternoon, and picked up Katie at the airport on Thursday.  She didn't have much more notice than that either.

At first, she was really reluctant to share that she was home.  As you can imagine, this was a disappointment and a bit of a difficult transition to make.  She was a trooper though and we were really fortunate to get quick appointments with a superb doctor.  Her recovery was swift and nearly painless.  We feel so incredibly blessed.

While she was home she had some incredible opportunities.  She attended Lauren's graduation, her Aunt Laurie's wedding, and her cousin Becky's college graduation.  She helped Lauren register for college, celebrated Lauren's & Mom's birthdays, and visited with lots of family and friends.  For such a short window of time, a lot of people were seen.

Lauren's graduation

Dinner with the whole family, celebrating Mom & Dad's 25th anniversary

Katie cheering for Ecuador during the World Cup

Becky's graduation

She happily went back to her mission in Ecuador on Tuesday, July 8th.  Again, we feel blessed.  Often missionaries are reassigned stateside to complete their missions.  Not only is she returned to her original mission, but she will finish her remaining time.  This was a pause, not a loss, in her service.

Before she left, she remarked on how fortunate she has been in her life to have such wonderful friends.  She is mindful of your support and unconditional love and acceptance.  She treasures her friends and the strength you all give her to achieve difficult tasks.

Thank you for being there for my girl.

Leaving for Ecuador (again!)

Anita Iverson (Katie's Mom)

Short and Sweet? (Week 26)

May 19, 2014

Well, this has definitely been an interesting week.  On Tuesday night, Hermana Carollo got the phone call--cambios.  She left Wednesday morning.  My new companion came in the afternoon.  Her name is Hermana Castro and she´s from Honduras.  I had actually met her at the beginning of my mission in Santa Rosa (in her 15 months in the mission she´s spent collectively 12 of those months in Rama 3 in Santa Rosa--like she´ll get cambios somewhere for a couple weeks or a month or something and then she´ll get sent right back to Santa Rosa).  But yeah, she actually has about 15 months in the mission (I think she started the week before my cousin did) and she´s a really good missionary.  We´re already having more success in the area since she got here.

Also, I got my family´s package on Saturday!!  I got it exactly a month after they sent it--I think that´s a record.  I was so excited to open it that I was trying to use the house keys to cut it open on the taxi ride home from the zone meeting haha.  I was very very happy.  I´m wearing a pair of my new socks right now. 

Welp, this weekend I got sick...today is the third day I´ve been sick.  I really hate being sick in the mission.  It is not fun.  I finally started feeling well enough to leave at around 3pm today so we could go write and I feel mostly okay.  My stomach just still kind of hurts.

I think this is all my news for the week.  Keep it real folks,

Love,

Hermana Iverson

Happy Post-Mother´s Day! (Week 25)

May 12, 2014

Wow, I´ve had quite the busy day.  Today we went to the Feria Libre (which was in my old sector, Álamos; got some serious deja vu going back) for an hour and bought some stuff we needed/wanted (I got a grandma sweater, I am very happy--will send photos soon), raced back to buy groceries and whatever we needed, then went to a member´s house so she could dye my bangs.  I´ve been wanting to dye my bangs a lighter color for a couple weeks, and so she bleached it for me and put on the color.  It was starting to look a little too light so she added just the teeniest tiniest bit of dark color to balance it out, and it darkened it almost back to what it was before.  But you can tell it is lighter now, so that´s cool.  We´ll see if I´ll dye it lighter or not.  Right after we did that, we had to race to a cyber to write.  My companion wrote for an hour, and just as I started to get onto mine, the power went out.  That was at 4:45pm.  We had to race to find another cyber so I could write.  We cut it close, but here I am!  Super stressful.  Oh and we´re starving because we haven´t eaten all day, but oh well.  We´ll get around to it.

I was so happy to be able to skype my family yesterday!!  My mom looked so pretty.  I´m pretty sure her hair has gotten a lot longer.  Lauren´s hair is about a million feet long, I love it.  I have the most attractive family.  We´re all such beautiful people.

OH MY GOSH THERE IS THE BIGGEST SPIDER ON THE GROUND RIGHT NOW IT IS SO HUGE OH MY GOSH IT CHARGED US WE´RE GOING TO DIE IN THIS CYBER OH MY GOSH IT´S ABOUT TO CRAWL ON THIS GUY´S FOOT DO I WARN HIM HOLY COW AHHHHHHHHH IT´S ON HIS FOOT MY COMPANION AND I ARE DYING AHHHHHHHHH I DON´T KNOW WHERE IT WENT THIS IS SO NERVE-WRACKING PRETTY SURE I MIGHT START HYPERVENTILATING

Um anyways so now I´m writing with my feet raised above the ground, I´m not risking anything.  But uh yeah so uh this week what happened this week I´m too scared to think.  Yeah, so on Wednesday we did intercambios with the hermana leaders.  Don´t know how to translate that, but basically my companion went to their sector and one of them came with me to our sector.  We were in intercambios for 24 hours--the first time I´ve done exchanges for so long (oh yeah, that´s the word).  It was interesting...but I kind of missed my companion by the end of it.  We´re back now, so everything´s fine.

Friday we didn´t have lunch so we cooked in the house!  That was pretty cool.  I kind of just made it up and bought the ingredients and it turned out pretty good!  I made a pasta with tomatoes, carrots, and onions (as well as mayonnaise--everything is better with mayonnaise), and my companion made chifles and deviled eggs.  It was super delicious.

What a feast!  Deviled eggs, pasta salad & chifles (fried plantains)

Also, this whole week I´ve been making smores.  I´ve been super duper happy.  I bought more stuff to make smores today...don´t judge

My converso Yinson gave me and my companion bracelets!  He made them with our names.  He had some trouble making the V on mine haha.  Last night he called us because it was raining really hard and he was worried about us haha.  He´s a good guy.

Yup, so it´s just been raining a lot around here.  It´s kind of cold, but I´m doing alright.  I´m really happy here and I´m so glad to be on a mission.  I love you all, and I´ll write y´all next week!

Hermana Iverson

Happy (Almost) Mother´s Day! (Week 24)

May 5, 2014

So this week was both exciting and not that exciting at the same time.  It was exciting because we finally moved into our new house!  This is now the second time I´ve had to change houses.  I hope this isn´t a pattern in my mission.  But yeah, it´s just me and my companion living by ourselves there, and it´s really nice!  The owners have a wood manufacturing company like right next door, so there´s really really nice wood everywhere.  It´s a really pretty apartment.  I´ll send pictures.

The not exciting part is that not much of anything else happened.  We´re still trying to look for new investigators, so there´s a lot of walking--which sucks because our sector is like all hills.  Getting quite the workout here.  Also the weather has been awful--lots of rain.  On Friday, it was starting to sprinkle as we went to visit the branch president´s house.  Within minutes of getting there, it started to rain harder and harder until it was a torrential downpour with winds and everything, a little unusual for here.  The kids in the house tried to go grab some towels or something that had been hung out to dry and accidentally lost their umbrella.  It had gotten caught by the wind and had flown away!  Since my companion and I had our rain coats we offered to retrieve it.  It had gotten caught on a stop sign at the end of the street, a good 50 yards away!  We got soaked trying to get it, but it was quite the adventure.

Not really much else happened this week I think, but then again, I left my notebook with my list of things to write about in the house, soooo....oh well.  I´m really excited for Mother´s Day to talk to my family!  It feels like I just Skyped them last month or something.  I can´t believe it´s almost been five months since then already.  Wow.  Imagíne, next Mother´s Day I´ll be home.  Nope gonna stop right there, too weird ha ha.  Anyways, love you all, and talk to you soon!

Love, 

Hermana Iverson

PS Oh and I made s'mores today :D  They were quite delicious.