I'm going back to Ecuador! I'll be heading back December 31st. You betta' believe I'm excited!

This time I've recruited my bff Katie and our friend Ashlie. We're gonna have a blast, ladies!

If only these people would come down with me, life would be just great...

Let it be.

For my last blog, I thought I'd post pictures of the people that made my time in Ecuador so memorable.

This is the "Peruvia" man. To make a long story short, Mindy and I were told that he's from Peru, but he's not. Anyhow, he makes jewelry and I greatly looked forward to weekends when he had his stand set up in front of Tutto Freddo's. I learned humor from this man. I think we had the most confusing conversations anyone has ever had but we just laughed through them all.

I learned open-mindedness and patience from Tara. She's from England, and half of the time I couldn't understand her accent, but she never got sick of me asking her to repeat herself.

Fabio, is a worker at one of the orphanages and she happens to be deaf. Despite not knowing any sign lanuage I somehow managed to communicate with her. She is so optimistic, it's really quite incredible. And the positive energy that she has is contagious. I was always inspired to be happy for all that I have after I talked to her.

This lovely lady is Catalina, the cook for the OSSO house. I love her so much, seriously. She is the kindest lady I've ever met. Every day after lunch I would run to her kitchen to thank her for the meal and she would always be so gracious about it and just smile. I loved associating with someone so humble and hope that I've learned to be a little more humble from her example.

The OSSO volunteers, obviously. I learned something from all of them. And my patience was seriously tested living with 12 other girls. But I'm happy to say that I still love all of them and that they're my best friends.

The Roseros are the most Christ-like people I've ever met, they carry a light with them. Every day that I got to spend with them was a day I counted as blessed. I am so grateful that I got to live with them and consider them my Ecuadorian parents.


I obviously can't show pictures of the children-who without a doubt made this experience what it was- but I can tell you about this child. I've never been one to show affection but I learned how to love unconditionally from this girl. When I first met her she couldn't show emotion, neither happiness nor sadness. But in the past three months I saw her open up and I stand in awe of how strong human emotions are. I've never felt the type of love that she eventually showed me. And before this time I didn't know I was capable of loving another person as much as I love her. The impact that a child can have on a heart is nothing short of amazing.

"I can think of no more Christ like service than to hold a motherless child in ones' arms or to take a fatherless boy by the hand." -Russel M. Nelson

The past three months have been the most amazing, rewarding, and marvelous of my life. And I don't think I'll ever be able to express my feelings in words. If any of you are interested in going to Ecuador I would tell you to go and not think twice about. I'll even link OSSO's website to help you out a little.

This week...

We went to the Guayaquil, Ecuador!

It's such an amazing temple.

Went to the the iguana park.

This was the bus drive from Hell, I was so incredibly car-sick. But I smiled for a picture anyway.

Climbed stairs to get the coolest view of the city.

I see them bloom for me and you.

A few days ago I had the opportunity to go to a small day-care like center for the poor farming kids. It was the most amazing experience. The kids have absolutely nothing, and yet they taught me so much in the few short hours I got to spend with them.

When we got there we immediately went to the bathroom and started brushing the kids' teeth. And the kids were SO excited because the one time a week that the O.S.S.O. volunteers go is the only time they get their teeth brushed. I've never seen kids more excited and all over toothbrushes. And every child savored that time that he or she got to brush their teeth. How many times a week do I brush my teeth without realizing how lucky I am to be doing that?

When the volunteers go to this center we take a bag of fruit and a bag of bread and hand them out to the kids just before we go. At first I would hand a child a piece of bread and he would put it behind his back and ask for another. During the beginning I thought they were just trying to trick me into giving them another piece, which they really were but it was for a completely different purpose than I thought. At first I said 'no mas' and gave the next child their food, but the previous kid would yell out 'para mi madre!' They were trying to get more bread for their moms. Which to see a four-year-old concerned about his mom getting food to eat is absolutely heart-breaking. As we were leaving to load the bus I saw the little kids giving their moms all the bread and fruit that we handed out. It was humbling to see the love that these kids have for their families, what four-year-old appreciates his mom and doesn't take her for granted?

And I must admit, I was having some home-sicknesses issues the day I went. I was sad to be missing everyone leaving on their missions, sad that I couldn't see a pregnant Hollie and not be home for all that's going on with Isabella, etc. But when I'm around such humble, beautiful, Christ-like kids nothing else in the world really matters.

Singing in the rain...

While waiting in line at Super-Maxi, a grocery store that I go to twice a week to buy food for everyone, it started to rain really bad. But Erin, Tanya, Nick, and I decided to brave it and go outside, with our bag-boy reluctantly in tow.

Our bag-boy stayed with us for about 15 minutes, but no taxi ever came. He then took all our bags out of the cart, dropped them in our arms and left us out in the rain.

About 25 minutes into this down-pour we still couldn't get a taxi to stop for four gringos. Life was looking pretty low, but I was still laughing really hard at the whole situation.

At one point I made Nick go stand on the corner and flag down taxis. Maybe he's too blonde, or something because no taxis would pull over.

We finally got a taxi to pull over after standing out there for 30 minutes. And only because the taxi was dropping off an employee and he took some pity on us. (But he did charge me an extra fifty cents, but I was so grateful to be out of the rain that I didn't care.)

Here are some pictures to celebrate Ecuadorian rain, taxis, and life.

The rain.

The bags.

The warm taxi!

Great news!

I got to name a new baby! I'm an official mom now, right?

I'd do anything for you.

One of 'my girls' from Cunas moved up to Casas recently and I got to spend the entire morning with her, it was so wonderful to be with my baby again!

I had her sitting on my knees, and she was facing me. Together we would say 'eyes' and then point to our eyes, and then say 'mouth' and point to our mouths, etc. We had been doing this for about ten minutes when all the sudden she grabs my face and gets about an inch away and is staring intently at my eyes. Then she takes both of her hands and pulls the lids away from one of my eyes and her face is set in this awe-struck look. She had me in this grasp for 5 minutes and I was laughing the entire time. I guess she realized that I don't have brown eyes.

This is the song I've been listening to on repeat lately.


I'm getting really sad about the fact that I'm leaving Ecuador soon. I love you family, I love you friends, I love you Idaho, but I never want to leave!