Nov. 13-MACHALAA

 Holaaa, 

I made it to Ecuador!!! Its crazy here but I wouldnt want to be anywhere else. I honestly love it so much. I feel like ive waited for this for so long and its finally real. okay, so me and my comp were wupposed to leave the MTC thursday at 3 am. we woke up at 2 49 because our alarm didnt go off and i woke up and checked my watch- and i never wake up in the middle of the night so that was a miracle. we got there right in time though thank goodness. We slept in Guayaquil with the sisters that night and then friday morning we met our trainers and headed out to our areas. im now living in Machala. So theyre trying to kick out the gringas from this area because of how dangerous it is so i might be one of the last white girls to live here haha but its awesome. the people here are amazing. i love the culture here so much. there is music playing everywhereee on every block and i absolutely love it. the food is also muy ricoo, so delicious. Spanish is tough because I can follow a conversation for the most part but as soon as someone asks me a direct question my brain freaks out and I get super nervous. They are so patient here tho its such a blessing. they tease me all the time and are so blunt haha. One man looked at me and in spanish said, you dont understand anything hahah. but they also joke sometimes and say like youre basically latina, no es una gringa haha.  they also are super expressive and dramatic haha so they use their hands a ton and so it makes it easier to follow the conversation. The hardest part about this week was wanting to help more or contribute more to the conversation but not being able to because I dont know enough spanish. im better at understanding when other people are talking but when i talk i overthink all of the grammar and end up talking so slow haha. but its okay, ive only been here for 3 days. my trainer keeps reminding me to take it slow, i dont have to be perfect at everything or know everything right now. my trainer is Hermana Warren. I love her so much. She is so bubbly and patient. Shes from texas so if i really need to express what i need or how im feeling i can say it in English if i need to which is also such a blessing. 

they feed us so much food here its crazy. they gave me two whole fried fish yesterday for dinner at a members house haha with a full mountain of rice and verde. you just use both hands to eat the fish and pick out all the bones haha. also their jugo de pina is amazing, pineapple juice. 

one cool part about this week was when we were contacting and we went up to the gate of this house (everyone has a gate in front of their house so we just stand there and yell buenas!) and a man answered and told us that he had been to church 7 times before but hadnt been in a while. he told us that he had been praying to God for a sign or help because his health was declining and his wife had recently left him. Its the typical missionary story to experience being the answer to someones prayers but its still so cool to experience, especially when you dont fully understand what hes saying but you can feel how much it meant to him that we were there. 

thats all for now, im sorry i cant send a lot of photos, i really wish i could.

we dont take our phone out on the street every and i dont even bring my camera because theyll steal it, so i dont have a lot of photos. i never have more than like 10 dollars in my bag because of how dangerous it is here but i really wish i could share more photos of what its like here, its amazing. there are a lot of random fireworks haha. another thing that surprised me was going to all the houses here where they are obviously run down and poor, and then the people pulling out like iphone 13s. i guess it just surprises me how people spend their money. sorry this turned out super long but i hope yall are doing well! i love you all and hope you have an amazing week. 

look for Gods hand in your life everyday because He is there and miracles are happening all around us. 

Hermana Jensen