Mechaela Has Joined the Crew!

 So Kel and I made our journey to Guayaquil! And then headed back home.... Not according to plan. But I'll explain more about that later.
 We headed out on Thursday to make our 4 hour trip to Guayaquil. We were terrified!!!!! Not that we would show it ;) Cause we are tough stuff! But we had quite a few problems before we made it out of Machalilla. We couldn't get our phone to work. So we went into town in Puerto Lopez to go to the Claro kiosk to try and get the lady there to fix our phone. It turns out that the problem was with the company and not the phone. We didn't know that. So we actually wasted about two hours before we left. Not that that was really a problem because we had plenty of time to get to Guayaquil. But I was just freaking out over everything... I didn't handle things very well, lol!
 So we finally head out to go to Jipijapa, our first and only stop before the big city. And on our way out we made very good friends with a man on the side of the road. The bus was parked and Kel looked out the window and spotted him. What peeked our interest was his shirt. It said: "Federal law #??? States that Wal-mart employees have a right to form a union". LOL! So Kel leaned out the window and tried to take a picture of his shirt. Which of course made him think that we were interested in him and not just the shirt! Thankfully he did not decide to board the bus, but remained on the sidewalk pointing us out to all of his buddies nearby.
 So we got to Jipijapa in about an hour with no problems. Then we headed to Guayaquil. The drive there is absolutely gorgeous!!!!! Mountains and beautiful different kinds of foliage. There is a short video on Youtube of the drive as well.
 We got to Guayaquil relatively early. Our wonderful sister Gabi came and picked us up from the bus terminal and got us set up in our room at her B&B. We just rested until it was time to go and pick up Mechaela.
 We didn't take any pictures of Mechaela coming through the gate. We failed! lol.
 So the reason that we didn't end up going to Pelileo and Cuenca right then was because our friends in Pelileo ended up having their convention that weekend. We had planned on only staying for three days, and of those three days we would only see them one. So we decided to just go home and wait 'til they had time for us to come.

I've never been so excited to see those golden arches! I don't typically like McDonald's. But after no regular food for a little over a month, you'd be surprised what appeals to you. And their McFlurries are way better here btw. They not only give you the oreo crumbly bits, but on top of that they drizzle the hot fudge sundae syrup! It makes it so much better. I'm going to start requesting that in the States ;)

I snapped this photo while the girls were sleeping. The bus was so hot!!! We typically would have got a nice swanky bus with air con, but opted out of that for the direct bus to Puerto Lopez. It was a'lot cheaper! But it was so hot.

Mechaela is my hero! She brought us junk food! I'm holding a huge piece of Jerky. It is so wonderful! I never knew how much I would miss Jerky. And peanut butter! The two together are pure magic. lol! We totally are living the bachlorette lifestyle ;)

Mi primero estudio de la biblia

 Had my first bible study yesterday. It was with a woman named Glenda who runs one of the little shops in town. Went there a few weeks ago with my sister stefania and the girl simply asked for a bible study... which blew me away. Jokingly stefania offered it to me, and I accepted it nonjokingly and somewhat to her amusement. So later I went back and she was not home but i called again and Court helped me set up a good time for her... which was the following day. Panic... I don't speak Spanish... what is wrong with me! Why did I promise to do this! But Jehovah provided me with Court who handled the study beautifully, allowing me to ask my questions and interject with scriptures or comments when I could find the words. The whole time I was praying for help and thinking how much I have taken for granted the ability to just have a conversation with someone about the bible and of all the times I had perfect opportunities and did not take them out of fear. Here you might want to but you just can't. Being here and experiencing the feeling of not being able to ask simple questions. And if you can ask, you are unable to understand what the answer is. It's incredibly humbling. You think your smart then you come here and fight the 3-year-olds for comments at the meetings and realize you have a'lot of learning to do. Makes the desire to learn the language so you can teach and preach effectively very strong. Even more so becuse people will listen. Kelly

Off You Go!

Ok. So I had to post a new video on Youtube! We were having dinner at Courtz this evening (Amazing!!!) and on our way out we met Godzilla's cousin, Fred. He was a bit of a creepo! But Kel and him had a bit of a moment ;)

The Headache in Class

Hola,
 School today. Bleh!!! It was good. But I seriously felt like the majority of the time I was staring at our teacher with my eyes crossed! A super headache developed. It's such a shame! Because today was our last lesson for a couple of weeks. And here's why.
 So Kel and I have been arranging all of our plans for the rest of the time that we are here. We are heading to Guayaquil on Thursday to go and pick up our friend Mechaela from the airport. And then we are heading up to the mountains to visit our new found friends from England and Germany. Then on the 26th we are heading down to Cuenca. After all that we don't have anymore plans for travel 'til we are on our way back to the states. I will post more about those plans later.
 This first picture was taken today in Machalilla. That's our wonderful sister Marguerita on the right. I went on my first study here with her. It was her study. But she helped me learn "quiero". Very important! It means "I want" hehe. The sisters around here call her the crazy one ;) So of course I love her!

 This second picture is in Puerto Lopez. I actually took it a couple nights ago while we were visiting Courtz. I just can't get enough of this view!

A quick note

Just a quick update. Kel and I will be traveling next week. We have a friend from Indiana heading in on the 21st. She will be staying with us the rest of the time we are here. So we're going to Guayaquil to pick her up. We might be heading North from there to see some new friends we made a couple weeks ago. And then we are off to see the girls in Cuenca. So I will not be blogging for a couple of weeks most likely. But then there will be tons of stuff for all you guys to see when I'm back in Puerto Lopez :) I did post a new video on Youtube of our apartment here. It's not entirely good. Slightly interrupted, lol. But you get the general idea of what it's like. I'll post again in a couple days.

Another Day

Hola!
 So this morning was my first morning back out in service since I have been sick. JOY! And it wasn't a half bad day. Not too hot. Although it was sunny enough for me to burn in a very interesting pattern across my chest. Argh! Oh well. But Kel and I worked together. Eden always likes to put us together whenever he is conducting the service arrangement. It challenges us more to use our Spanish. So we went door to door for about an hour. Kel took most of the doors. But we each got one good call. Exciting! I just wish that it was more of a two-sided conversation. We just can't understand what they are saying back still!!
 So after that we headed off to do a couple return visits! YAY! And I got to talk to a lady named Beatrice. But I made the mistake of asking for "Beatrice". I should have actually been asking for "Bay-ah-trees". My bad! So she didn't understand what I was saying when I was just trying to say her name, lol. But then I went into my presentation and she helped me with my reading. She's very patient and very nice. And she took the magazines again.
 Then after service we walked home with Merci. A wonderful sister in our congregation. She just snuck up behind us while we were walking though. I thought there was some creepy guy following us. I finally turned to tell him off and felt super ashamed of myself once I realized who it was. And that wasn't the only time that kind of thing happened to me today either! Cause later on Kel and I were walking home from class with some groceries we had picked up along the way home. And a red truck pulled up next to us and was following very slowly. I was getting angry. Again, thinking that it was some creeper (it's pretty common for it to be a total stranger oggling btw). Finally Kel turned around and saw that it was our next door neighbor, a brother. I felt ashamed of myself again! Cause I was hot! I wanted to turn around and tell him off so badly! But it was a friend offering us a ride home. Shame on me, lol! It's so nice that we have so many brothers and sisters around all the time that we have that kind of problem :) They're always following, haha!

This was the area we were working out in service. It doesn't show up well enough. But there are millions of purple flowers all over the hills. It's absolutely gorgeous!!

So Kel and I thought that this sign was really funny... til I realized that meant payment and not that they were 50% pagans as in worshiping false gods and such. lol.

This is right outside of our Spanish classes. It was so beautiful and calm!! There were absolutely no waves and the tide was out. Normally that dark mass off on the horizon is completely under water! It's been beautiful here.

Happy Anniversary!!

 So it is official!!! Me and Kel have been in Ecuador for a full month as of today! I can't believe how fast it has just flown by.... We have had a great time here so far. Despite sickness and a lack of transportation at times. So for this blog I figured I would just throw in some extra pictures that didn't make the cut the first time around.
 Thank you everyone who has been supporting us! We appreciate all of your kind words of encouragement and prayers! We cherish all the messages you send us. They are a healing when we are feeling low.

This was at the airport in Miami. We just got done eating the most delicious chicken I've ever tasted in my life! Maybe a bit of an exaggeration. But it was very very good anyway!

Kourt, this is for you! I know how upset you were that Pingo Po didn't make it on this trip. So while we were wandering through the airport, we spotted him. He's been with me on this journey the whole time! So put a smile on. He's been a comfort to me while I'm in a totally strange and sometimes scary country.

I never got to take pictures from any of my flights before! I've always wanted to, but never had opportunity on all of the short little flights I ever took.

This moment of misery brought to you by "Reality"! For when it dawns on you that there's no way that you are going to keep from burning while in Ecuador!

This, unfortunately, was a little girls t-shirt. Otherwise Kel and I would totally be sporting this look around town!

I think that this is Kel's favorite photo of the entire trip. The people in the background get her laughing every time she looks at it. She didn't know they were back there when she took the photo.

This is one of my favorites! Maxine and Courtz devouring the cake that me and Kel had made. It made me happy that they liked it so much.

Thanks again everyone!! We love you and can't wait to see you all again. It's only two months away now! Ciao Ciao