No letter this week. Picts only

 

January 26

We have to take a 2:30 hour bus ride into Guayaquil today to get the vcaccine and then back so I won't be able to write much today. It was a pretty normal week. Lots of lessons fell through. There's no such thing as time here so no one puts stuff in their calendar and they don't start making food untill like 30 minutes after you get to their house. We've gone back to this one lady every monday and she just says come back next week every time. Not much happened this week but I guess one good thing is Antonio is progressing really well. He always wants to talk to us. Good story is I almost crapped my pants 2 times in the span of an hour. Let's just say I'm always going to be carrying tp in my bag from now on.

Thats it. I'll upload some pictures tonight. Have a good week. 

Jan 26

 We have to take a 2:30 hour bus ride into Guayaquil today to get the vcaccine and then 2:30 back so I won't be able to write much today. It was a pretty normal week. Lots of lessons fell through. There's no such thing as time here so no one puts stuff in their calendar and they don't start making food untill like 30 minutes after you get to their house. We've gone back to this one lady every monday and she just says come back next week every time. Not much happened this week but I guess one good thing is Antonio is progressing really well. He always wants to talk to us. Good story is I almost crapped my pants 2 times in the span of an hour. Let's just say I'm always going to be carrying tp in my bag from now on.

Thats it. I'll upload some pictures tonight. Have a good week. 

January 19

 Wednesday 

Can't believe I've been in Ecuador for 5 weeks already. Last Pday was super cool. Of course I had the scrub my clothes for a couple hours but after that we got to go play Frisbee on this super nice field in the middle of town that they hold some big soccer games on. It was raining and it just felt good to actually be able to sprint. After that we found these 2 random kids and we took them to go get salchipapa which is like sausage and French fries with some lime and onion sauce. It's my favorite food here and we have it at least once a day. It also felt weird to wear normal person clothes and go do normal person things. I'm also slightly addicted to this thing called a trompo. It spins and the ground super fast and everyone knows how to do it here. The only lesson we had today was with Marcelo who wants to prepare to go to the temple.

Thursday

We got to watch one if the sisters in the ward make encebollado. It was super super good. We went out to Pueblo Viejo and talked to brother Carpio and have them blessings. His mom has Alzheimers and it was sad but she kept trying over and over again to give us crackers which was funny. I also found out that Inca cola is super good. We toughh Shirley a little bit who just got baptized a few weeks ago.

Friday

We had a busy day planned but none of it fell through so we just contacted a lot and we ate salchipapa and we went over too Guillermos. He's this 12 year old that wants to get baptized which is great obviously but he CANNOT sit still and pay attention. His mom also won't let Jim get baptized because he changes his mind a lot about it apparently. Made a list of like 50 verbs to study.

Saturday

Elder Faraoni had his first dream in Spanish and he woke me up because he was talking super loud in Spanish and he was super hyped and it's cool and all but he also woke me up so that's not cool. I had boiled quail eggs and they are actually pretty good. We had lunch with the Ochoas and they made super good ceviche. I always prepare a scripture to share so I can practiced my Spanish with them. And just at members houses in general. We went out to San Juan to teach these two ladies we found and they seemed pretty Interested. I felt like I described our purpose here on earth in Spanish pretty well for the first time. Another guy we thought also seems Interested. The mission definitely puts me out of my comfort zone everyday, I had to pray out loud in a busy street in another language and I was just like dang I never thought I would be doing this. After that some members took us back to Catarama to eat crab and it was good and all but it was mainly just annoying to eat. We had a lesson with Antonio and he believes the book of Mormon to be true after reading it and praying about it but he wants to learn a little more. We thought the plan of salvation and it definitely got him thinking about it a little. We takes to this guy on the way home who is just in shock that we don't have social media or a "PlAy StAtiON" or a girlfriend for 2 years. He's super funny.

Sunday

Sundays are a little rough here. It's super hot and I have to wear a suit and I can't understand almost anything for 2 hours. Also I had a huge rip down my but apparently that a member pointed out after church was over last Sunday. Another thing I realized is when I don't have time to read the book of Mormon my day absolutely sucks. We thought this guy fight after church who I kid you not talked for 25 minutes straight with out letting us say a single word. We forgot to buy food on sSaturday so we didn't have food and we had to make cheese and rice with some hot sauce that was way too hot. Taught Guillermo again and he didn't pay attention at all. It's funny when my comp and I are expressing out frustrations in English like dang this guy won't stop talking or dang this food is terrible but they have no idea what we are saying. Also the think It sounds absolutely hilarious when I say "PUMPKIN!" My comp said that I was going to share a scripture with Antonio while we were walking over and for some reason I thought to share a scripture about obedience so I chose 1 Nephi 2:3 and it happened to be exactly what he needed to hear. We also found out one of the ladies we are teaching doesn't believe God or Christ have a body of flesh and bones so we are about to drop some bomb scriptures on her and her family next visit. 

Monday 

The mango's here are super good so I had one for breakfast. We went to go buy chocolate and buy one of each kind that we wanted to try so I'm standing in line with this huge bundle of candy bars and it turns out I didn't have money on me so it was a little embarrassing i had to go put each Individual one back. Another bus ride to San Juan to teach those 2 ladies. They told us their names but i and understand them. We thought the restoration and I love when we share the first vision. Every one in the room is quiet and listening so intently and you can feel the spirit very strongly. We also taught this family who moved from Venezuela. And while we were teaching them and was kinda dark outside and a bunch of light bugs came out which I've never seen before but it's crazy cool. 

Tuesday 

Went out to Potosi to teach Lola who wants to get baptized and also believes the book of mormon to be true after reading it and praying about it but they aren't married yet even tho they have like 6 Kids and have been together for 36 years. Which like no one gets married here for some reason. But they were sick so we couldn't teach them. Talked with the Ruiz family instead and they made us dinner. We taught Antonio and got a baptismal day for him. 

Something that I loved this week that kept coming up was that there are a lot of beliefs and ideas of what we need to do in this life but one thing that you can't really argue is Christs example. If Christ did something then we need to do it as well. One of those things is baptism. Christ wast baptized by john the Baptist who had proper authority from God and Christ also received the gift of the holy ghost which is something that we need to do also. 

 Another thing that I learned this week that is super important is that you can take things seriously and work hard while being light-hearted. I learned that I'm going to be more affective and learn quicker if i just relax a little bit. That really helped me this week.

Anyway hope you all have another great week. Don't forget to pray. Sorry for the typos. 

JAN 12th

 Wednesday

We had a super busy Pday. I bought a basketball. I got my super dope bag (in Picts)

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Thursday

I drank boiling hot soup and it's already like crazy hot outside so I could not stop sweating for like an hour after we left that house. I love the bus rides here. They are about like 25 minutes because our area is huge and we get to see like the prettiest farm land and stuff. Super super Tranquilo.

Friday

Hermana Esperanza makes super good food and it was after fasting so it was amazing. Jose is this guy we know and he's heard us talk to his uncle about the gospel and he says he feels the spirit and knows its true and wants to get baptized but he's leaving for nursing school in the Amazon. So we are trying to figure out what to do there.

Saturday

I ate cow foot/ shin. It's literally just chewy jello. Zero meat. Luckily it didn't have flavor.

Sunday

Can't remember

Monday

We went out to San Juan which is another huge city we cover. I had this feeling to go down this street and we ended up talking to this really cool guy. We found some more people we are going back to share a lesson with.

Tuesday

We went out to Potosi and had a super good lesson with Lola and her family but it went long and we missed the last bus so we were stuck there for a few hours but luckily a member came and picked us up from Catarama.

I would like to talk about the power of prayer and fasting. My dad told me while I was in the mtc that a mission is just 2 years of asking God for help, haha and he's very right. I've done a lot of fasting and prayer since I started my mission. Fasting has not seemed to fail yet. Every time I fast with a purpose and with faith in Christ he always seems to help me. It's literally like cheating in life. I would encourage you to fast for more than just the one Sunday a month. And if you have never fasted before... try it. Fast for other people or something you are struggling with. I would also encourage you to pray more than just in the morning and at night. Find a quiet room and pray out loud and talk to God like he is your friend because He is. And he wants to help us but we need to reach out and grab his hand first.

Sorry not the most detailed or exciting email but hope you guys are all doing great. 

Jan 5

Pday was super chill. The baptism we had this week was weird because it was Just us and the girl we were baptising basically because she was nervous. But it's OK salvation is salvation. 

New years eve was crazy!  Music, fire works and just fire. Lasted the whole night. We played a little volleyball and they were blown away that my comp and I could reach over the net. Next day everyone was still sleeping or drunk so there was no one to talk too. We had exchanges this week and they were hard but I had to use a lot of spanish so that was good. I saved a sloth out of a irrigation ditch. It was shaking really slowly because it was so cold. It was deep so when I got in there I had to chuck it out and it was kinda hilarious. But yea that's it bye. Have a good week.