my thesis

Well hello again. I have so many cool things to share first off. Okay these last couple of days are really popular here for the people of Ecuador and it was feriado which is like nobody has work accept for all the people who have a shop or something because everyone comes into the city to eat and all that jazz. But anyways first off on the 2nd of November everyone goes to the cemetery to see their ancestors and everyone paints everything before hand and puts everything up and all that jazz and it looks really nice.  Well also this time of year is traditional to have the colada morada and wawas de pan. Which is purple juice and bread babies...haha it is funny. Everyone goes out and buys bread that are in the shapes of babies and makes this purple juice that is so good. I have like 50 pictures of it because we had it like everyday this last week. It is a tradition that I really like. haha but practically nobody here celebrates halloween but we had a noche de amigos this last Friday so we played a bunch of games and it was close enough to a good halloween for me. We played waterballoon volleyball and everybody loved it so thank you Young Mens and Young Womens leaders that we always played that for mutual because it was great!!

Okay no onto the spiritual part. 

Well sometimes this is just hard work to think of what to say yet again. haha I need to listen to more talks or something...but yeah here we go

Here in Baños it is hard to get people to church because so many people work on Sundays. It is the busiest day for tourism and hotels and restuarants and so yeah a lot of people work because that is like the easiest work to get SUNDAYS. It is really hard as a missionary because all you want to say is yeah quit your job have faith and go to church. The only thing is that obviously we can´t say that and it is understandable the situations of a lot of these people. It makes me sad because I want everyone to have the opportunity to come to church and renew their covenants and just learn something new and feel the Spirit.  So this last week we visited a less active member and she comes to church and then misses. So we were talking about her thesis that she has been doing and I said something like you have worked so hard to complete your thesis and you wouldnt just stop and say yeah I finished and i wont do anything else now right? You would actually say yeah I finished and all I want is for it to be approved now so I will continue to do the things my professor tells me so that I can move on and have what my goal is.  Well this is like our lives. We have been baptized and obtained the Holy Ghost, but that doesn't mean we just stop their and don´t do anything else right?. We still have to endure to the end. And in reality if we just stop right after being baptized we miss out on so many blessings that we could have the rest of our lives. We miss the blessings and when we come to the end of our lives and say okay God I finished my Thesis I am here, He is going to say where were you when I was in need? When I was afflicted and you never fed me? When I thought about this and this example with this less active all I wanted was for her to see that we cant just let go of the church for a minute because we are busy. We must go because God has commanded us and wants to give us so many more blessings!

I know that God is just waiting to hand you all the blessings that you desire, the life that you desire also, but God cannot hand you these if you do not endure. It is hard to understand the reality, but it is even harder to have trials and not see the good side of all of this. I know that God loves us and wants everything for us.  If you just look inside and find what you can do to change. You will be all the more happier.

I love you all and am so grateful for everyday of life that I have here to serve. I hope you all can find that happiness too.

Con mucho amor de Baños,

Hermana Dunkley