Sorry Super Boring this Week

April 27, 2015

Not a whole lot happened this week...we did intercambios (exchanges) again, and I went to Loja in the other rama (Argelia).  I spent the day with another hermana from California, so that was cool, the two Californians.  But idk, every time I meet other people from California here in the mission, they´re always so different...it´s cuz they´re all from Southern California...I´m the only one here representing the Bay Area. *sigh*  

...That was basically the only exciting thing.  This week we´re having baptisms!  Woooo!  Pray a lot please!!!  Sorry I don´t have much else to write today.  It´s been a pretty normal week.  Just my companion and I laughing a lot.  She´s so great.

Love you all,

Hermana Iverson

Only a month left

April 20, 2015

After straightening her hair.  Getting long again!

As for news this week on my part, it was pretty slow.  Just a lot of sun.  Oh, I wanted to send you pictures last week, but the salon was closed so we went straight to the cyber to write as we waited for it to open.  But last week we went to a salon (gabinete is what they´re called here) and I had my hair straightened!  It looked really nice, and suuuuper long!  It was the first time in my entire mission that my hair has touched my nametag (a common problem for other sister missionaries).  

Yesterday we had the District Conference here in Loja.  We traveled there with the branch in a bus that they rented.  It was really nice, there were some very good talks.  I´ve noticed that Church leaders have been talking a lot recently about the families and marriage, and also self-reliance.  Those were the two main topics that I noticed yesterday.  Makes one wonder what´s to come in the future...

Other than that, not much.  Just that I FINALLY finished reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage (that thing has nearly 800 pages; I think I started it in August when I was stuck in the house every day with my cast) this week, and I was really happy--I had wanted to finish it before I finished my mission.  Also, I think Saturday is April 25th is the perfect date: not too hot, nor too cold, all you need is a light sweater (if you´ve seen Miss Congeniality, you understand me).  But yeah, not much else.  Same old same old, looking for investigators, teaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Still haven´t had cambios, but I only have a month left, so I hope I stay here in Catamayo with my companion, so I can finish her training.

I´m so glad I came on my mission.  It´s the best thing I could have done for my life.  I wish that everyone could have this opportunity to serve a mission.

Love you all so so much,

Hermana Iverson

I still don´t have cambios and MY SISTER HAS HER MISSION CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April 13, 2015

LAUREN GOT HER CALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I´m so excited for her!!!!!!  This is such an exciting time for her.  I can´t believe she´s going to Ohio!  I was convinced she was going to Germany, or Europe in general.  But then again, I was also convinced that Nathan was going to go to Canada, and then he went to Colorado.  Guessing people´s missions is not a skill I have.  Good thing I´m not in charge of assigning missions to future missionaries, I´d make a mess of things.

Well, so far we haven´t had cambios!  I´m still here in Catamayo with my hija, Hermana Quispe.  I really really really hope I get to stay more time and that we don´t get cambios today, because I really really really want to be here when our investigators, Adela and Gabriel, get baptized, and that should (hopefully) be this week.  Last week, we couldn´t find them nor get in contact with them on Sunday, but the next day we found them in their house, and it turned out that Adela´s health/vision had gotten so bad that she had to go to Loja for an emergency doctor´s visit.  Her vision won´t get better until she gets glasses, but they´re really expensive for her circumstances, and she´d have to pay a lot for a pair just to use them for a trial period of 3 months.  It´s rough.  That wasn´t the only trial they´ve had this week.  They needed one more church attendance to get baptized on their original baptismal date, April 18 (aka this Saturday), but another emergency came up, but this time with her other son (she has three children in total, but only the youngest, Gabriel, lives with her for the time being).  He was born with a certain medical condition, and in his 10 years of age, has already had four surgeries, and was about to have another one, but it was going to be a 50/50 chance that he would survive the surgery.  Since he´s having the surgery up in Quito, she traveled there as soon as she could so she and Gabriel could be with him before his surgery.  BUT, with the help of the members here and a returned missionary there, she and Gabriel found a chapel there and got to go to church!!  I´m really hoping our leaders count that as an attendance even though it wasn´t here, because honestly it shows their desire.  They´re traveling back today, so they should arrive in the early morning.  We´ll see them tomorrow.

Other than that, I got another card from Miho Poelman!  I think I´ve received about 8 or 9 cards from her throughout my whole mission.  I´m going to be there in the Judgment Day vouching for her when she goes up.  But really though, I just feel immensely grateful and full of love for her every time I receive mail from her.  I´m excited to see her to give her a big hug.

I think this week is Olivia´s 2nd birthday, no?  It´s Friday if I´m not mistaken.  Give her a big hug and a kiss from me!

Not really much else going on here, just praying I don´t have cambios--I HAVE to be here for this baptism, both of us. *fingers crossed super duper tight*  Love you all a lot!

Love,

Hermana Iverson

Happy (post) Easter!

April 6, 2015

From the top of La Cruz

Well the biggest news this week: this past weekend was General Conference!!  It was also the first time in my entire mission that I was able to attend all four sessions.  My first, I was only able to go to the Saturday morning session, the second time I only missed the Saturday morning session, and this time I saw all four; and they were AMAZING.  I don´t know if the messages are getting better over the years or if I´ve just learned to appreciate them more as I´ve gotten older.  I think it´s a bit of both.  

They talked a lot about the family and marriage on Saturday (my companion and I were just like "que bestia, how trunky").  The connection was still a little iffy, and it was pausing so much that we finished watching the morning session 35 minutes late.  That was awkward.  It improved greatly after that, when the members figured out that when they moved the tv closer to the door and the open hallway that the connection improved a lot.  We had our investigators, a single mom and her 9-year-old son (Adela and Gabriel) in the morning and the afternoon.  Well, Adela came alone in the afternoon because Gabriel was still eating his lunch.  They kind of disappeared Sunday morning and we haven´t been able to find them since, so we´ll see what happens.

Other than the super awesome talks that we got to hear, we also did an intercambio (divisions/splits, I still don´t know what you call them in English) with the other hermanas in Loja this past Wednesday.  So I got to spend the whole day there in Loja and I found a convert of my trainer (Hermana Herrera)!  She was going to tell Hna. Herrera to write me since she hasn´t written me ONCE since she went home almost four months ago (and she has my email address, no excuse), but still no email.  *sigh*

Welp, this week would have been my last if I hadn´t gone home last summer.  This Thursday is April 9, and would have been my 18-month mark.  I can´t believe that I already would have had a year and a half in the mission!  I´m just glad that I still have more time.  Well, not that much.  I officially started my last cambio (transfer) today.  I don´t know what date I´m going home, but it should roughly be in six weeks from now.  Roughly.  If they don´t send me home early or extend me, two very probable options in this mission.  Today there are cambios, so three things could happen: 1) My companion and I both stay here and I finish her training before going home, 2) she has cambios and I go to train one last time before I die (something quite common that happens here), or 3) I have cambios, since I already have 2 cambios here in Catamayo (roughly three months).  I really hope I finish my mission here.  I don´t want to start over in a new area, and I really love it here in Catamayo.  

Only time will tell all these things. Love you lots, and hope everyone´s doing well.  Until next week,

Love, 

Hermana Iverson

Happy Easter/General Conference!

March 30, 2015

Reunited with her trio companionship

Reunited with her old district

Sorry for the short letter last week, but it´s going to have to be short again this week.  We had to go to Guayaquil again for consejo de lideres, and our bus leaves at 5pm for Loja.  

As for news, the weather was really weird again this week.  It would be really really hot and sunny in the afternoon, and then around 5-6 it would start to get cold and even rained some days.  It was very frustrating.  

It´s almost General Conference!  Woohoo!!!  We got to go to the women´s conference Saturday night (the connection was awful and it kept pausing for a minute or two and we´d have to wait until it started again) and it was really nice!  Talked a lot about families so that was nice.  It stopped working at the end, so we never heard Pres. Eyring´s talk.  That was a little sad.  But anyway, super excited for General Conference.  I hope we can bring people so we can see it.  

Other than that, I´ve been using a rosemary shampoo that one of my former companions gave me and that´s what´s been helping my hair grow so fast.  Super awesome.

Welp, gotta go, the other hermana has to write too.   Love you all and talk to you next week!

Hermana Iverson

A Very Short Letter

March 23, 2015

Michell's baptism

Well this week it rained.  A lot.  It was really weird and kind of annoying.  But the biggest news is that Michell got baptized this week!!!  She was really careful not to drink coffee this time, and we were able to help her resolve her other doubts.  It was really exciting.  

Welp...that was really about it.  Nothing much happened this week, just a lot of rain and the baptism.  Yup.

Oh and tomorrow´s Kinsey´s birthday (I CAN´T BELIEVE SHE´S 18), so tell her I say happy birthday!

Love you lots,

Hermana Iverson

A Pretty Interesting Week

March 16, 2015

Katie and her companion Hermana Quispe

Katie giving her former companion Hermana Risco her pin

Katie and Hermana Risco getting recognition from the mission president

Welp, the week started out pretty interesting.  Tuesday we had a capacitación with Presidente in Loja.  We had to be there by 7:45am, so we had to take the bus that left at 6am.  We woke up very early that day.  We were the first ones to get there, so we waited outside in the rain underneath a tree waiting for someone to come open the chapel.  One neat thing about the capacitacion was that since the two zones in Loja were there, I got to see Hermana Risco again, my last companion (she´s in Zamora)!  She´s a little cutie, she always calls me mamita since I finished her training.  And now she´s senior companion, even though both she and her companion barely just finished their 12 weeks of training.  Something they do here in our mission is that in every capacitacion, every missionary that´s finished their training receives a special pin of the mission logo, and their leaders get to put it on them, or their trainer if they´re still there.  And since I was there, and technically was her trainer, I got to give her her pin!  I was so excited to finally do it.  Later, they did something a little different, where they handed out certificates of recognition, and Hermana Risco and I received one for the most rescates (rescues: less actives that we´ve helped reactivate)!  So now I have a neat certificate and a little pin of the temple in Guayaquil.  Super cool.

This week the Relief Society president presented us to a family.  The wife had been receiving lessons from the missionaries several months ago, when she and her husband were separated.  In the end she didn´t get baptized, and at the beginning of this month she and her husband reconciled and are together again.  We´ve started teaching them, and the husband has agreed to be baptized if he feels ready--but we know he will, he´s a really good guy and really wants to follow Jesus Christ and help his family.  Just the wife feels a little nervous because of things that happened in the past and doesn´t want to do anything that will disrupt her family again.  We would really really really appreciate your prayers for them, so that they continue progressing.  They went to church yesterday and really liked it, so we hope things keep going up with them.

Well, some sad news is that Michell didn´t get baptized this last week...she drank coffee on Monday, so she couldn´t get baptized on Saturday.  She also had a lot of doubts (her abuela tells her a lot of things to get her not to do it and it confuses her).  We´re going to try talking to her again to try and help her to maybe get baptized this week.  She just really needs to have the desire to do it for her, and not for anyone else.  Feel free to pray for her as well.

Other than that, everything´s pretty normal.  We´re working here, and I hope things get better and that we can find more families and more people that are willing to repent and that are ready to accept the Restored Gospel in their lives.  We literally have the best thing in the world.  We don´t even realize how blessed we are just to have this knowledge.  The gospel is true.

I love you all very much,

Hermana Iverson