Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Friendship, Hearts and Valentine Wishes!

Darling Family!!!!
How are you each doing on this day of AMOR? Here in Ecuador, it is also called a day of friendship! Clearly, I am in the right place as a missionary. I get to celebrate my friendships today. And for this I am grateful. I am making many friends here...When I read Elder Betteridge's email, I enjoyed that he said he was still have withdrawals from his last investigators he left. 
Gio, my first convert, asks me all the time when Hermana Rosas and I are leaving. He is nearly brought to tears every time he talks to me about this. There is a special spot in my heart for GIO because he has been with me the whole time in Ecuador! I feel the same way about my companion, Hermana Rosas. We both have our quirks and own ways of thinking, but have a lot of similarities.
Funny note about her-- she is deathly afraid of frogs and crickets! The crickets here are huge so I can understand this a little. Thankfully, she is not too afraid of spiders and cockroaches. So this week when I had a cockroach hanging on my blouse and she took care of it in a jiffy.

I would say every missionary needs to know the basics about health!! It is a huge problem when the missionaries are sick and cannot work. Basic diet- LOTS OF WATER, etc and basic medicines-- the uses of ibuprofen, Pepto Bismol, etc-- to take when sick, stretches--the ones grandpa showed me are helping me a ton to feel ready for each day!, etc.
To give you an idea of how much things cost-- bananas- 5 cents, tomatoes 15 cents, avocados 30 cents, mangos 30 cents, watermelon-large 1.50. Delicious bread- 10-30 cents. A loaf of bread- $2 for the more expensive kind. I am not sure if I will ever be able to buy food in the US again! It will seem sooo expensive in relation to everything here. Another funny thing is that everyone has a paranoia about the money being fake. I am guessing this is a big problem. Hermana Rosas checks her bills over and over because she has a collection of fake ones. It is really funny. I have no background on how to check if money is fake, so I am probably a perfect target to give fake money.

I thought I would give you an idea of what we eat here...I can't remember how much I have told you! The typical meal is a large bowl of soup, rice with some kind of meat and pureed potatoes or some other random pureed vegetable on the side. I learned Sunday how to make a cream soup with all sorts of vegetables! I am going to try to make it. We drink a lot of juice and pop. The juice is made fresh and sometimes I love it and sometimes it's just odd! They make a drink here with oatmeal. It's kinda a syrupy consistency. The milk is a lot different
so the flavor of soup is different as well. We eat ricotta, mozzarella, or some other kind of soft white cheese. Ketchup is put on a lot of different things here. For example, I eat ketchup with my rice at times. How different right? Try it...I like it. There is a side of town here that smells like chocolate. Hermana Rosas tells me there is some kind of plant for the chocolate powders. All I know is that there is no normal/ delicious chocolate to be found, but the air smells divine.

We have a baptism this Saturday that I am suuuper excited for! Patricia!! She is wonderful--a bubbly happy 40 year old lady. She is introducing us to all of her friends and we have hopes that at least two will be baptized in not too long as well! We had six investigators at church this Sunday which was wonderful. I am loving my ward, district, and apartment.

Thank you for your love and prayers for me. I truly can feel them. I think of each of you often and look at your smiling faces daily! You are each an inspiration to me and remind me of who I am. I love picturing the rainy cold Washington. I can relate to the rain. The cold....well, lets just say I don't think I have been cold one single moment here!
Love,
Hermana Garlock

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