Well it is Monday again!!! Can you all believe it? I honestly cannot even keep up with all this letter writing and emailing... Not enough things happen in one week! Well let me rephrase that. Things are so crazy here and there are a million things I can write about... I guess I just feel like I don`t have the time! One rule in this mission is you can only write letters on Monday... So my P-days are devoted to letter writing. I don`t think my companion really minds as long as I don`t interfere with her P-day nap she is fine.
Well things back at home sound too good to be true... I am still in a Fourth of July celebration from everything in my package that you all sent. If you would have just sent me the Mitt Romney pin I would have been content. My companion had to tell me to take off my pin before we left the house. I was hoping she wouldn`t notice;) The Starbursts were also a big hit. Elder Timbalombo my district leader knew that I got candy in my package because the contents were listed on the outside of the box when he gave it to me. He told me that I HAD to bring the candy to the district meeting to share with everyone. So I selfishly took out ALL the red and pink Starbursts and brought all the orange and yellow ones. Hahaha no one but my companion had ever had Starbursts before so they didn`t know what they were missing. I know I am an awful person and I should have been more Christlike and just brought the whole bag... But I didn`t... Maybe next time hahaha
This week we had some close encounters with drunken men again. It is actually really hard for me to tell that these people are drunk.... If they are not swaying when they stand or walk I just assume that I cannot understand what they are saying... But if I can`t understand them it is usually because they are drunk. My companion and I were walking to an appointment and this man ran across the street calling us over to him with a South American, "Ssss Ssss." I usually don`t look when people call me with a snake hiss. But this time he ran and stopped in front of our path, put out his arms like he was ready to receive a big hug and cried at the top of his voice saying, "Hermanas!!!!!!" like we were old pals. I thought, "Wow! This guy is really excited to see us!" My companion greeted him and then he looked at me and said, "I see you two all the time!!! Why don`t you ever talk to me!" My companion told him that we would visit him and asked where he lived. While she was talking to him in Spanish she would say to me in English... "get back! get back!" whenever he would take a step closer.
He kept trying to shake our hands and when he grabbed my hand for the third time my companion told him very forcefully, "ONE HANDSHAKE IS ENOUGH!" He then told my companion to chill out... But he wouldn`t let go of my hand. I tried pulling my hand out of his but he grasped my hand more forcefully with both hands and lowered his head to give my hand a kiss. My companion said, "YA BASTA!" (THATS ENOUGH!!!) and pulled his hands off of mine. He then gave my companion the death glare and started only talking to me. I told him I had to go, but it was nice to meet him and he started walking with us. We had to flag down a taxi and we finally escaped this man... I have to admit it is actually really funny whenever we encounter these drunken people but I don`t think that my companion enjoys it too much.... She is more worried than I am!
This week we had another baptism! Her name is Gabriella and she is 14ish years old. She was supposed to get baptised last Saturday, but she didn`t show up to the baptism. Tracking her down was a little difficult because she doesn`t have a cell phone but we eventually got things worked out. This week`s baptism was actually a HUGE FIASCO!!!!! We were running around like chickens with our heads cut off...
The baptism was supposed to start at 3:00... so my companion and I left the house at 11:00 to go to the church. When we got to the church the hallway by the bathroom was all wet with puddles of water. The water was coming from the girls bathroom. We walked into the bathroom and it looked like the toilet was leaking water. Well we turned the key to the toilet to stop the water flow and cleaned up the bathrooms and filled the font. We had an appointment at 11 but he never showed. When we were going to sweep we noticed that the floors were wet again. We went back and cleaned up all the water checking to see if we turned the key the wrong way but the toilet was fine.
After we swept and mopped we noticed that the water was leaking from the walls of the building.... This obviously isn`t normal so we called the Bishop and told him about the problem and had to leave because we had another appointment at 12. We came to the church about 2:45 to check on the watery hallway before the baptism started. The members shortly arrived after us and we waited until 3:15 and called Gabriella`s father to see if they were on their way. Her father picked up the phone and told us that he was an hour and a half away from Libertad (my area) and that he wanted to see the baptism as well..... We asked him where Gabriella was and he told us she was in Libertad with his brother. We then called her uncle and scheduled the baptism at 6:00.....
We then had to inform our ward that the baptism was at 6... They all left grumbling but the worst part of it was our Zone Leaders had come to see our baptism.... After we got chewed out from them they told us they would be back at 6:00. When we came back at six we noticed that a couple of priesthood brethren were cleaning the building. Then the Zone Leaders walked out of the building as we were closing the gate behind us and informed us that the brethren had emptied the baptismal font........... That thing takes like two and a half hours to fill and our baptism starts in 15 minutes.... Luckily our Zone Leaders quickly closed the drain so the font was only half way empty..... We got chewed out again from our Zone Leaders for this mistake and Gabriella showed up at 6:30. The baptism went well and everything was great considering how bad things could have been...
The only problem is Gabriella didn`t show up at church the next day... We called her dad at 8 in the morning reminding him about Gabriella`s confirmation and he said that they would be there... Well... 30 minutes into Sacrament meeting we called her dad again and Gabriella picked up the phone and told us that she had slept in and she was on her way. We told her she needed to come in the next 30 minutes... Well she came right as the closing prayer was being said so we couldn`t really have her confirmed during sacrament meeting.... Which means we didn`t reach our stinking goal this month... Which means that the Zone didn`t meet it`s goal because of us... I feel really bad... But things will be fine, in a week or two... Carumba!
Well my time is almost up... I love you all more than I miss you!
Love Hermana Welch #1 (Jess)
P.S. There was an earthquake last night. My companion and I usually sleep with earplugs at night. Last night I closed the window because it was a little cold out side and I took out my earplugs. My companion still had her earplugs in so I woke up at around 2:00 in the morning to my companion screaming, EARTHQUAKE!! EARTHQUAKE!!!! HERMANA DID YOU FEEL THAT!!! DO YOU FEEL THAT!!!!!! HERMANA!!!! She was still wearing her earplugs so she was screaming a lot louder than I think she realized... But it was so funny waking up to her screaming earthquake! I also think that she thought that I still had my ear plugs in because she thought that I didn`t hear her... It was pretty darn funny! But everything was shaking like Godzilla was outside stomping around. So that was pretty cool and then I went back to sleep.
P.S.S. Emilee, I am so sorry that I have scared you out of a mission... The food isn`t that bad, just sometimes.... and the dogs are only creepy down here in South America, you could go on a mission anywhere in the world. So don`t rule out a mission just because Ecuador is crazy! Mom buy another clock;) Haha Love Jess
A note from the editor (Mom): A few days ago Emilee (Jessica's little sister) was helping me hang the missionary clocks on the wall. I took them down when we painted a year ago and have not put them back up till now. Anyway as Emilee was measuring and pounding nails I was standing back looking at the clocks and I noticed to my great satisfaction that there was room for one more clock! About the same time I had that thought Emilee voiced her thought, "I don't think you'll have to buy another clock." I don't know how she read my mind but it was pretty funny! Then she told me, "I don't want to eat scary food and I don't want to be chased by Zombie Dogs!" So...I guess it remains to be seen if we have another missionary from the family or not!
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