Time is flying!

I am honestly always amazed at how fast time is flying. Although life has its ups and downs, the days still always will have twenty four hours in them, months will always come and go, and in the end you look back and you wonder where in the world did five months go? This week on the 31st I will celebrate five months here in Ecuador. For those of you who are calculating this along with me, I am here for a little over ten months, which means that being at the end of month five I am half way through! Today, January 25th, I am on day #147. On February 5th I believe I will be exactly half way, and July 15th will be here before we all know it. I won´t lie, there are so many days that I have been so ready to just throw in the towel, call it quits, pack my bags and come home. And I am sad to admit that sometimes it seemed like such a good idea although I never did come home, those days I did “give up” there are days, it´s true when it seems just so much easier to block everything out, quit trying, and just give into the misery. It´s day´s like that the Cynthia is the best remedy. For those of you that don´t have little sister´s I highly suggest adopting one, just so that you can read sweat emails like this. Here is an email I got from Cynthia one day…
i luv you sis i will love you till earth explodes!!!!!!!! i love you
soooo mcuh i would climb the hight of climing the
highest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love you i love you i looooooooooooove
you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! love is forever and i will love you till
earth explodes. i just wanted to let you now how much i love you
!!!!!!!!!!!!! hey you e-mailed bud and not me
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sooooooooo ill luv ya till
ya get home ..... love love love !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he he he he
heee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am a dork ! anyways today is a snowday with no
snow so we are calling it a ice day. i woke up this morning and bud
and mom were like it is a snow day and i looked out side and the snow
was all melted so i was like huh.and bud said it was an
"ice"day!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am soooooooo exited all of us needed a day
off! he he you had to go to school today and i didn't!!!

love,lou

and then of course there´s always the emails that remind me how lucky I am to be here…

i was thinking how cool you are having a
once in a lifetime chance!!!!!!!!!!! how many people get to go to
ecuador for a whole year/not many !!!!!!!!!!!!! and while you are
there you can learn sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how cool i am soooooooooooooo jealous if i
could be with you i wouldn't miss it for the world. how lucky are
you??? remember once in a lifetime
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
anyway i was just thinkin
love, lou bell

In the five months I have been gone my little brother and sister at home, have changed just about as much as I have. Cynthia is not a little girl anymore, she is a beautiful little lady. And Quinton grows up more and more each day. I can´t wait till the day when I can just hold them for a very long time.
This past little while, has kind of been a struggle for me. Last Friday, when I was robbed for the fifth time, I have to admit I kinda shut down. Coming home seemed very tempting, and living here just seemed too hard, I was being bombarded with awful tests I had to study for, and I was in the middle of deciding if I should switch universities when I get back to the states. And then the news that always stings, another friend gets engaged! All of this silly stupid stuff was really holding me back. That’s when I got louie´s email. And in her simple words she put things into perspective for me. Yes, I could be home right now, I could be going to school, and quite possibly be engaged, I could not be learning Spanish, and I could just be living life quite like I always knew it. But then I realized that being here really is the experience of a life time. And I only have it once, for ten short months. And it would kill me, if when I got back in July I felt like I had not accomplished all that I had been sent here to accomplish. Each day still is a struggle, but each day also brings its beautiful things, whether it’s a hug, or a good conversation with my host brother, or a yummy dinner at the O´s, I know that this is where I am supposed to be.
Kendell´s brother in law Sterling for quite a while has been trying to get in contact with an old missionary buddy. His trainer in Bolivia was from here in Quito. The search started about three months ago and finally on Thursday I had the opportunity to meet Diego. We met at the institute building and from there walked around the old city. Up to the huge catholic cathedral, The Basilica, and all around the old historical sights of Quito. It was awesome to have a new friend, who is a strong awesome member of the church, and also have a slow, informational tour of the city of Quito. When ever you´re touring with a native you always notice things that you don´t realize if you were touring with a group of gringo´s. You notice the way they tell their countries history, the parts that they are proud of and the parts they aren´t so proud of. You realize that the country, this country is who they are, and they are proud. Diego is an amazing guy, and we plan to meet up again. He was as I like to say, one of the angels that was sent to me at this time that I needed help.

As I mentioned before exams are these two weeks. So that´s been a little stressful. At first I was told that I wouldn´t have to take the exams, so I kind of blocked out whenever we were talking about material for the exams. Well that wasn´t true, and about three days before exams I realized I would be taking them. Now I know that grades really don´t count, but my pride does, and doing a poor job on the exams was not an option. So I’ve been studying and trying to do my best! This week I also made a huge decision. I applied for CSI. Now for those of you who really know me, it´s always been USU all the way, becoming a teacher etc. well whenever I said I wanted to become a teacher, I always felt like something was missing, like that really wasn´t what I would become. Well coming here, and getting away from everything normal I was able to analyze exactly what I would like to become. When the dream of going to USU turned out to be way way way out of my price range I started to contemplate other options. And CSI seemed to jump out at me, not to mention they have a nursing program. So now one more thing has changed, but I feel so at peace with it that I can´t help but know it is divine inspiration.
This Saturday I went to Otavalo again. I stole these three pictures from friends on facebook, because as we all know…I don´t have one. We went to the market, where I purchased some awesome things, and then we had the chance to go out to the lake, (remember how I said otavalo ran around a lake…) well we went out in a cute little boat…(hence the life jackets) we also ate fritada…and you will never believe it…I tried Guinea Pig! (aka Cuy)! I won´t go in to huge detail, but it honestly didn´t taste too bad, as long as you got past how they serve it to you…they just flop a whole, fried little Guinea Pig on your plate, teeth and all. I had to have Brian get the meat off for me, but it didn´t taste too bad. Don´t worry pictures have been taken, and soon I will share them.
Today was a beautiful Sunday. Although cold and very rainy it was nice and relaxing, I am coming down with a horrible cold, (credit given to my brother Heis who gave it to all of us) but other than that it was good. I love the spirit at church here, and I am continually reminded of how grateful I am for the world wide support and family that the church offers. I mean, here I am clear in Ecuador, and I feel just as much a part of my ward family, as I did in Idaho. Our new missionary couple is great…honestly remind me exactly of Grandma and Grandpa Barringer, they will be powerful influences here in the Quito Mission. The ottosen´s leave in a month…which I am sad about. But I am excited for my family to meet a part of my life here. It is very weird to think that I have a whole entire different life here, that no one will ever really be a part of with me. So it´s cool to know that my family can meet a part of me when they go to the Ottosen´s home coming.
Oh I was going to talk a little bit about deprivation. And how it can be the biggest lesson teacher. I literally did a happy dance in the mission office the other day as I started to read the conference issue of the ensign. I have patiently been awaiting for one from the states, but due to awful mailing issues I haven’t received mine yet, well I picked up one in the lobby of the mission office, and started dancing around with it. And I realized that if you truly want to appreciate something, go without it for a while.
Although life has it´s challenges, I know when this is all said and done, I will never regret my experience of coming here. Thank you to all of you who made it possible for me to be here, and also for continuing your support, and not giving up on me.
I love you all,
Love Emily