Week 7

hola to my peeps,

ECUADOR IS PERFECT. End of email.

okay not really but it serious is so wonderful here and the people are absolutely amazing!! My trainer is from Indiana and she is the best!! Her name is Hermana Roach and she has a twin serving in Peru. We get along soooo good.

In out district we only have one Latino and a bunch of gringos and they joke and say we have the redneck district because most of us are from small towns of they are obsessed with hunting or fishing. We have a little too much fun. 

There is a lady that has a little store and every time we pass by her she gives us something. This week she gave us food and some roses and it was her birthday we she bought a cake to share with us so we sang happy birthday to her in English. She is absolutely adorable and seriously all of the people here have the biggest hearts. 

We have a pensionista so we eat lunch and dinner with her. She makes us food like every day. We only have to prepare breakfast on our own. Im pretty sure thats cheating haha but its whatever! Im going to come home soooo chubby. We eat like crazy. Ive already had chicken feet soup but it really wasnt that bad haha. Im sure thats not the worst thing I will try.

One of the hombres aqui call me Hermana Esmeralda because its a place in Ecuador where the people are really dark (Hermana Montaño was from there). But its a joke because they cant say Brimhall right. Its seriously the best thing ever haha. 

We had a baptism on saturday for a super sweet 10 year old girl. I shouldnt say "we" because I didnt teach a single lesson to her haha she was already getting baptize when I got here. But we are hoping to have two more in the near future. Its seriously so wonderful here.

Im in Conocoto which is outside of Quito. Its kind of in a valley so its a little hotter here but its still absolutely beautiful. I already have some pretty bad tan lines! Im going to be black in 18 months!!

But seriously I love it here and its going soooo well. I LOVE YOU ALL!!

LOVE,

Hermana Brimhall

Misión Ecuador Quito

Dear Brother and Sister Brimhall,

We are so pleased that Sister Brimhall is serving in the Ecuador Quito Mission.  We welcome her with all our hearts and know that the gifts she has been given from our Father in Heaven  and the talents she has developed will bless the lives of those with and for whom she serves in a unique way only she can offer.   She has impressed us as an outstanding young woman.  Her dedicated service will further increase her abilities and character in remarkable ways. 

There are currently 237 missionaries in our mission, serving in 14 zones.    Sister Brimhall has been assigned to serve in Quito in the Los Chillos Norte zone with Sister Roach as her companion and trainer.  Sister Roach is known by the other missionaries for her obedience, love for others,  and sweet, happy disposition.

Attached are photos that show Sister Brimhall with her companion; the group of missionaries with whom she arrived; and with us.

We know and understand that there is sacrifice on your part both emotionally and financially to support her during this period of full time missionary service and we express our gratitude for your offering which furthers the work of inviting others to come unto Christ and to receive the blessings of the Gospel in their lives.

With our love and gratitude,

Hermana Christine Christensen

Misión Ecuador Quito

IM IN ECUADOR

June 16, 2015

I only have about two seconds to tell you that I am here and alive. I love you!! Its beautiful and I will find out my area and companion and everything tomorrow. My Pdays will always be on Mondays now so be expecting an update on all of that on Monday. I LOVE YOU!! I hope you are doing wonderful.

Week 5

HOLA!!

So this past Sunday was fast Sunday and I was kind of nervous to fast because they do a full 24 hour fast and I always get sick when I do a 12 hour one. I seriously have never felt stronger in my life than during that fast. It was kind of weird! I prayed pretty much through the whole fast that I wouldn't get sick and it was seriously such a blessing! I wasn't even shaky.

But I'm in a Latino district now and I have my companion. Hermana Cordon is in my district so I have a little English still but my companion doesn't speak any Spanish at all and its been a little rough hahaha but very funny! She is a sweet girl and very patient but Im realizing how OCD I really am (that's all I will say about that). It was weird trying to figure out how to communicate with her but I am getting really good at charades! I am understanding Spanish pretty good but im still awful at conjugating the words. 

One of the Hermanas from Argentina speaks pretty good English and she told me that my R sounds good for not being Latina! haha I finally mastered how to say regocijate which means rejoice and guardará. All of the Latinos here always come up to me and say those two words because I couldn't say them right . But jokes on them because now I got it! hahaha During a meeting I read a scripture about 10 times for the teacher and every time I said regocijate wrong so that's why its ALL of the missionaries that tease me haha they are so funny!

I have an Elder in my District that sings songs in English all of the time haha its quite funny actually because its like Bruno Mars and Justin Beiber. 

One day in class we were doing little tongue twister things in Spanish just because I don't really know why actually hahah but some of the Latinos were trying to do some in English and I was seriously dying laughing. It was great! OH! and head shoulders knees and toes is different here. Like way different hahah we had to do it in our class for something and I couldn't get it right hahaha

I love it here! Its my last P-day in the CCM so I wont be on until next Monday! Like a week from this Monday. So if you don't hear from me don't worry! I'm alive and I love you all!!! 

Love,

Hermana Brimhall

Week 4

HELLO MY BEAUTIFUL PEOEPLE!!

On Saturday we had our proselyting activity where we are bused into a different part of the city and spend 3 hours just sharing short messages and getting references for the other missionaries to teach! Its always so much fun and full of funny experiences because my companion and I still don't speak Spanish very well hahaha its great! One of the people told us that we should probably go back to our own country and preach in our own language hahahah I just laugh about it because one day im going to rock this language and it will be even more funny. Some Jehovah witnesses tried to convert us too and another man just yelled at us. OH! and another guy explained all about reincarnation and how we don't have spirits and all sorts of interesting things. I got pretty good at saying thank you for your time and have a good day. There are always the few people who are willing to listen and one of them was a sweet young girl. She was probably our age and was wanting more information about everything we talked about with her. I hope she gets a good set of missionaries to teach her!!

Sundays here in the CCM are kinda different. All of the missionaries prepare talks on assigned topics and then in sacrament meeting they call people up to give their talks so we never know who is speaking until after church has started. Anyways, this Sunday I was called up to give my testimony is Spanish and I was just praying I could remember the words I wanted to say! It went well and I only conjugated one word wrong haha but then I fixed it. Those darn conjugations will getcha! But then all of the Hermanas sang How Great Thou Art in Spanish (I think its really called Grande Eres Tú) but it was really pretty!! The spirit was amazing!!

Our role play lessons these past two weeks have been with Gabriel and Alberto (aka Hermano Gomez and Hermano Barragan) and in the last lessons with both of them they stopped and explained that those people are real people that they had baptized in their missions and gave us the updates on how they are living today. Its so great so see the whole picture! We don't just want baptisms. We want faithful converts who can enjoy the blessings of eternal families! This is such a wonderful work!

Today we went to the temple again and of course it was wonderful! but after my district got to go on a tour in a different part of the city! It was so awesome!! We went up to the top of Mount Monserrate and you just have to google it because I cant describe it! We rode in these little cart things on a cable up the mountain and its just so green and beautiful and AHH! 

I loved it! At the top you can see the whole city because its so high! My companion has pics and Ill forward them to you but it was so great! and at the top of the mountain there is this church and it was a big statue of the fallen Christ. Its actually a really neat looking church! They have those holy water things in all of the little areas for the people who want to use it and stuff but it was just a great experience.

After that we were to the Gold Museum and walked through and there was a ton of historical stuff and how they made all of the little jewelery things and stuff like that. We walked through some little market things too and there is alpaca stuff EVERYWHERE! its so great haha when I get to Ecuador I am so gettting one!!!

Everything here is great and wonderful!! i love you all tons!!!

LOVE,

Hermana Brimhall

PS I get my Latina companion tomorrow! Wish me luck haha Hopefully she speaks a little English or at least Spanglish