Ecuador

I really had such an amazing time. It was also so much fun to just spend time with grandma and grandpa. They are doing well. I secretly hope that this is their last mission and we will be able to spend more time with them.
It was a very busy week!:
Saturday: we went to the teleferiquo (one of the tallest gondolas in the world) to see as much of quito as we could. Then we went to 'mitad del mundo' (the half of the world) and stood on the exact ecuator line! we also walked through an outside museum and took a tour of the culture of the native ecuadorian people.
Sunday: it really strengthened my testimony, knowing that the church is the same everywhere. even though i had no idea what they were saying, i really felt the spirit, and felt extremely welcomed. After church we went to the mission presidents house and ate an easter dinner with all the couples. (we spent a lot of time with old people, lemme tell ya:)
Monday: Went to the market. its a ton different than your average costco or walmart. then we bought about 50 lbs. of rice and lots of sugar and oatmeal to bring to the orphanage. grandma and i got a little blanket and balls and cubes for the little ninos, too. then we went to the orphanage and played with 4 little girls. they were precious. it was so hard to leave.
Tuesday: we took a 2 hour bus ride to Otavalo and got to go to the outside 'flea market' kind of a thing and go shopping. i loved it. we also got to see the gorgeous landscape of quito, and also a lot of the poverty:(
Wednesday: walked around the huge park, then went to the mall. bought a TON of movies. grandpa needed help choosing good movies to watch and i am definitely the person to go to if you want to know more about movies:) so we visited a ton of stores and movies are only 1.25!! so we bought like 20! we saw a bunch of men playing a kind of volleyball, but is quite different. we watched them for awhild, it was fun.
Thursday: walked around old town quito. saw an amazing gold cathedral (spirit is NOT there:P) and hiked up the the most amazing structures i've ever seen, the basilica. it was huge!! and my dad and i got to climb all the way up inside to the bell tower (not good for the scared of heights, aka: me) and i was shaking the whole way up, while a little 2 year old laughed at me.
Friday: visited a beautiful botanical garden, in the big park i mentioned earlier. grandma and i had fun taking lots of pictures, while grandpa and dad sat on every bench along the way haha. later that night we took grandma out to dinner for her birthday then watched some traditional dancing. it was amazing.
Saturday: went to parque elejido and did some more shopping, then back to the mall to eat at grandpas favorite food place. our plane left at 11:30 and we flew all night and morning and didnt get back until 11:45 Sunday.