Dear Mom and Dad,
I CAN’T WAIT until I see you in 9 DAYS!!! I’m SOOO excited to have you here.
We won’t be going to the same ministry I’ve been at for my 3 months here which I’m kinda ok with cause it wasn’t my favorite. I don’t know what ministry will look like for us, but I’m just excited to get to spend 5 days with you no matter what we do! I know we’ll make it lots of fun no matter what. I can’t wait to laugh with you guys! I miss how much fun we had together last year.
I’m hoping while you’re here we’ll catch up lots and I’m excited to show you around the city. I’ll take you on the 25¢ public buses to the park in the middle of town where we went on Emma’s birthday, to Old Quito where there are really cool old buildings and we had a really awkward photo shoot with lots of people watching us, and to the market nearby to get some Ecuadorian trinkets! There’s also the mall which we go to pretty often for WiFi or groceries, but I hate having to spend hours there, so I’ll try to spare you from that. We also have one entire day to spend freely and I want to take you to Cotopaxi National Park. We went last weekend and it was such a fun adventure (my favorite part was getting dropped off a bus onto the side of a highway haha)! Hopefully if we go it will be a clear day too, cause last Saturday we just saw clouds though we were standing right under a huge active volcano.
You’ll get to try Fabi’s meals which can get pretty interesting… lunch today is cream cheese and caramel sandwiches. We’ll also get some jamón y queso empanadas at Mariano’s shop on the corner by our house. That place has been a favorite since day 1. Maybe we’ll get ice cream sandwiches, a classic snack, from the convenience store or stop at the panaderia (bakery) near my ministry which draws us in daily by its wonderful, irresistible aroma!
I hope you don’t have high expectations for how much Spanish I’ve learned here. I can get around, but my 0% knowledge has only risen to about 3%. I wish I’d gotten better, but there wasn’t as much opportunity as I expected especially since we spend every weekday in English classrooms where the students weren’t allowed to speak Spanish and so neither were we.
I’m so excited for you guys to get to know my team. I love them all even when I’m sick of them (don’t worry feedback helps us to stay healthy and honest about getting on each others nerves). You’ll get to know Sam, Morgan, Arielle, Blaize, and Emma who have taught me so much about speaking my mind, loving sincerely and being confrontational.
We also get to worship everyday while you’re here and share what Gods been doing in our lives for the past 6 months! It will be so nice to talk in person instead of over a faulty WiFi connection with a bad delay.
I hope that you’ll be able to see a lot of growth in me! I look forward to hearing what you perceive cause it’s hard for me to see things within myself often. I hope you’ll be proud of the changes in me and I really hope that my growing love for Jesus is the most apparent change. I’m excited to see how you two have grown and changed without me around too. I think taking a step back and then pursuing our relationship with each other will have been a really helpful transition as I keep growing more independent from you. I haven’t always been the best at communicating with you two and I think the past 6 months of talking infrequently has given me a much greater appreciation for the way you guys love me so well through your interest in my life. I can’t thank you guys enough for all you’ve done for me over the past 18, cause I don’t even know the half of it. But I’m so blessed to have you two as my parents.
I can’t wait to give you the biggest hug in a week! YAYY!!
-Brae
