Annies 14th Birthday

 Annie's 14th SURPRISE birthday party that REALLY was a SURPRISE!!!

Friday we pulled off a genuine surprise party for Annie. She was sooooo upset when she came home from school because all of the girls were going to see a movie and they didn’t invite her. What she didn’t know is that I told them to tell her they were doing something so that she couldn’t create her own party…Anyway, she was sad, discouraged, lonely, angry, etc. and I was at the computer, acting oblivious, but actually smiling that she didn’t know what was going to be happening. 

Finally later that night, she said, she wanted to leave the apartment, which happened to be just at the time when all of her 11 friends were gathered downstairs in the party room. I texted them to stand outside the elevator door to surprise her when it opened. Truly, it couldn’t have been more perfect. The elevator door opened and they screamed, "SURPRISE!!!!" She looked like she would faint. Then they pulled her into a massive group hug. I don’t think I have seen her that happy and surprised in a long time! It was fabulous. They brought their swim suits and went in the Jacuzzi and sauna, ate and listened to music, etc. It ended up being great!

Annie's birthday surprises!

That night I waited outside of our apartment while one Dad drove around for two hours trying to find our building. Thus, when he finally came, I really did collapse at 1:00 a.m. knowing that we had to prepare for a two hour leadership training later that afternoon. Brian and his 1st counselor, Bilo Montoya, were responsible for priesthood leadership training and Bilo's wife, Alexandra and I were responsible for training the women (prim., YW and RS). We were running on adrenalin for sure, and had miracles of guidance and inspiration because everything came together beautifully.

We drove to Ibarra, four hours from Quito, to the District which has a record, I think, for being a district. It just isn’t growing. The previous District President got offended and went inactive before we came. A true miracle is that Brian organized a meeting between him and those who offended him and they all gathered together to work out their issues. As a result, he was at the District Conference which was fabulous!

Annie wasn't too happy to spend her 14th birthday at a hotel babysitting the Montoya's daughter, but we attempted to help her feel better with a banana split later that evening!

We celebrate both Annie and Hermana Alexandra Montoya's birthdays on November 23rd

Some of the beautiful scenery we see on our travels back and forth to the District Conference