Ecuadorian Nightmares!

Dear Family,
Well.... Holy cow I am sitting in a cyber in Guayaquil sweating my guts out with my new companion Sister Climaco!!!! Yes I had transfers.... So last night I was writing my weekly letter and the Elders finally called at 11:00 P.M. Elder Estrada said that I was the missionary who had changes and that I needed to pack my bags and be at the terminal in Guayaquil at 11:30 A.M. the next morning.  I finally managed to cram all my things in my three ginormous bags and went to bed at about 2:00 in the morning.  My new companion doesn`t know any English and she has only been in the field for 12 weeks she was just barely trained.   So we both kind of don`t know what we are doing... But I am excited to work with her.  She is 24 years old and has only been a member of the church for two years she is from El Salvador in central America..  She is really kind but kind of reserved so I am nervous about our lessons together.  My last companion did most of the talking.  But we will see how things go!!!! I still can`t believe it!!! But the best part of it all is I understand almost every single thing my companion says and I can communicate pretty well with her.  She has only had to have me repeat myself a couple of times today.  

This zone is in the city so there are lots of people, lots of cars and not a bamboo house to be seen.  I am actually pretty sad about  leaving my first area.... I was there for 4 and a half months. I loved the people.  But since I have been here I have not seen one zombie dog so that is a good thing!  My companion says that this is a harder area, but I will have to see for myself.  Probably the biggest change will be  getting used to the new area...  My companion said that our zone is a really good zone and they complete their monthly goals.  She said only two zones completed their monthly goals in July-her zone and another zone she didn`t know... (It was my old zone)  So I feel pretty blessed to be in another zone with good leaders that push us to do our best as missionaries.  

Some news... Our whole mission completed it`s mission goal last month in July.  It has been a long time since our mission has completed it`s goal as a mission so we heard that because the mission completed the goal we are going to have a mission conference because of it.  We get a member of the seventy come and speak to us and Elder Christopherson is also coming to talk to us!!! I am so excited and what is cooler is the Assistants asked me to lead the music for the conference!! So I will be so close to Elder Christopherson.... What am I going to wear????? Haha  But our Zone  Leaders told us that the zones that have been completing their goals will get the privilege of sitting up front.  I am really excited.  

Well now I can tell you all about my week last week.... It was CRAZY!!!!! Well we had six baptisms for that coming Saturday... Jimmy, Gilda, Ignacion, Melida, Natalie and Kerly... Well Jimmy told us on Wednesday that he didn`t want to get baptised..... Then when we went to see Gilda Friday she didn`t want to get baptised either..... Hermana Romera and I were pretty sad about everything... But we still had Iganacion`s family scheduled for  Saturday... so not all was lost... 
But on Thursday our Zone Leaders informed us that they wanted to have all the baptisms in the Stake Center. Having the baptisms in the Stake Center isn`t that big of a problem but we had coordinated with a couple of members in our ward so that we would be able to heat the water in our building because Ignacion is sick.... With the time change of the baptism the ward members that were going to help us would not be able to help us anymore.  So this just put a few 'obstackles' in our path way.
1) How are we going to heat up this water... We can't stay at the Stake Center all day. 
2) The Stake Center is going to have a Priesthood meeting at 6:00 the Baptism is supposed to start at 4:00 (Remember this is South America and nothing ever ever starts on time) 

Well we pushed on.  Saturday came and we borrowed a bunch of big pots from some of the members so that we could heat up the water.  We get to the Stake Center at 11:30 to help the Elders clean up the building and fill the font and start heating the water.  Welllllllll after Hermana Romero and I cleaned up the font we went to turn on the water for the baptismal font and THE WATER WASN`T WORKING.... We went and told the elders and discovered that all the water in the building was off.  It was a city problem... So there was nothing we could do about it.  How are we going to have this baptism without water??????

So after we cried a little we called the brother who was bringing a little stove with four burners so that we could heat more water at the same time to see if he was on his way.  He finally came and he has a stake calling and seems like a smart guy so we asked him what we should do.  We did a whole bunch of things and nothing was working he called someone else in the stake and he came and pressurized the water somehow and finally we were able to have water in the baptismal font.  

I can`t explain how they got the water working but really it was a pure miracle that the baptismal font and the sink in the kitchen chose to magically work.  They were the only two sources of water that were working in the building.  But it was just what we needed.... We needed water in the kitchen to heat and we needed water in the font.  The Lord answered our prayers and made the baptism possible... Ignacion`s family got baptised and they were very touched by the spirit during their confirmation the next morning in Sacrament Meeting.  This church is true I am so grateful to have had these opportunities to get to know these people and help them change their lives a little. This is probably my favorite part of this work, seeing the gospel working in these people's lives and seeing them change for the better. 

Se que este Iglesia es verdadero, no tengo ninguna duda en mi corazon sobre mi Senor y su poder... El realmente existe y yo soy uno de sus siervos para 18 meses.... El tiempo es muy rapido y no puede creer que yo cumplio seis meses en el mision... Que bendicion! 

I love you more than I miss you!  
Love Hermana Welch #1