I´m running out of clever subject titles... (week 11)

¿cómo le va, otro continente americano? I´m moving up on week cinco now! Cinco weeks in Ecuador! Actully the way we we´re supposed to say it is "I´ve been here for less than a year." Which makes me feel more experienced. However that title goes against me until my spanish is tested. I´ve actully improved quite a bit since I first got here. And I feel pretty comfortable with how things work too. But today for example, I just got my first haircut in Ecuador and the guy cutting my hair was so hard to understand. Not only he spoke really soft, but he didn´t pronounce his S´s. And he realized that I couldn´t speak perfect spanish so we cominicated like cavemen with these grunt-like sounds. I looked in the mirror and behind me my compainions are just laughing. Haha so that´s something I´ll have to work on, cause I asked another Elder that´s in Lago Agrio right now and he said it´s common for people to not pronounce their S´s. But has far as normal spanish, I can understand my companions pretty well now. I figured out that Elder Richimondg´s great grandfather was french. So that´s where the non-spanish name comes from.

Since it´s just Elder Magalhaes, Elder Richimondg and I here in Coca, we have to take care of the two sectors in Coca now. So I´m working with Elder Magalhaes´s investigators too. One of them is Mattew. He´s actully from Italy and he´s living with the branch president and his family. We´ve taught him the first three lessons and most of the commandments in lesson 4. His baptism is on the 9th and he´s ready. Patricio´s baptism is also on the 9th. Another investigator of his is Juan Carlos. I actully found him while contacting like two weeks ago. It was when we went on splits because Elder Yarbro was pretty sick. Anyway, Juan Carlos knows just about everything about the Bible. And he is filled to the brim with questions. He is looking for the truth though. And he really enjoys our lessons as well as church. He´s 17 years old. Unfortunatly, he was just living in Coca for a short period of time and he´s in Quito right now. But we gave his number to the missionaries in Quito and I´m sure he´ll continue to progress there. If he were to become a missionary, he´d be rock solid.

We haven´t been able to get a hold of Jason for a while. So that´s unfortunate. But Diana is still progressing. It´s been annoying trying to get a hold of her sometimes though. Like a couple of days ago we had a scheduled appointment with her and we went to her house and she was gone. So we called her and she said she was working. So we planned for the next day. She was gone again and said she was in Quito. Haha come on...Here in Coca you really have to try to keep the investigators and recent converts on track. She´s awesome though and her family has been members for a year so they can help her. The reason she isn´t a member but her family is, is because her family was taught in Quito a year ago while she was living in Coca. Jaero finally went to church for the first time with his older brother who has been a member for 3 months. We always see him in the public busses and are like, "Are you reading your scriptures? Saying your prayers?" And he just smiles like, " Eh... Mas o menos"

This Saturday we had a Zone conference with the Mission president there and two of his assistants, Elder Rodriguez and Elder Dearden. We had it in Lago. They were supposed to fly in to Lago aroung 11:00 but their flight was cancelled so they didn´t arrive until about 1:30. Elder Dearden told us flights all over the place were getting cancelled for some reason. One flight that was supposed to leave to Coca at 9:00was delayed until 3:00. People were flippin´ out. And there´s always that one group leader that´s like, "Hey! What´s the big idea!?" and the group behind him is like: "Yeah!" with their fists in the air. Cracks me up. The scene I have in my head is priceless... After they arrived at the church the president and his assistants each taught us a lot of good mini lessons and then we had our interviews one-on-one with the mission president. He´s an awesome guy. And he offered me good advice on how to keep improving.

On the way back from the conference we watched Die Hard in spanish. I´ve actully seen a lot of movies playing in members homes and on bus rides that are Hollywood movies just in spanish. Like The Patriot, The Smurfs, The Blindside. As well as music too. I hear on average like 2 songs in English that I recognize. On travel days to Lago I hear at least like 4 or 5. I even catch my companions singing English songs sometimes and it catches me off guard. Here in Ecuador they only have two types of music: the romantic type, and the repetitive fiesta type. (The members of the church get a bonus: Hymnos.) And I could tell in Mexico as well, The United States has a big influence on other countries.

From what I´ve picked up, as far as food, the people here don´t believe it´s a meal unless there is rice. So I continute to have that every meal. I´m not complaining though. The rice is actully pretty good. Chicken is very common too. I guess they are common "Pets" too because when we walk through the dirt road areas where all the homes are, there´re chickens and dogs everywhere. The other common foods in Coca are beans, soup, and bananas. However, there´s always rice.

This zone is different from all the others so our two zone leaders live apart. Elder Richimondg and Elder Murphy. While my other companion, Elder Magalhaes, is the district leader. So I got leadership with me the least. As far as the Chirstmas package Mamas, haha no se. I just like food. Send me a steak from applebees or something haha. I already have a water bottle that purifies water. I got it in the Mexico MTC. Every missionary gets one. Or you can send me a car. Cause we don´t have a mission car haha. We always travel by walking or the public busses. Sometimes we have to take a taxi when we´re far away and it´s almost 9:00 cause the busses don´t run that late. Usually we try to plan appointments around that though.

I´m glad things are going awesome at home! Except hearing that Rocky´s probably diabetic now, so dang it. Keep being the best family ever! Love you guys!

P.S. Ecuador doesn´t really celebrate Halloween. I only saw a couple of small traces of Halloween. But apperantly Chile celebrates Halloween. Paz hacia fuera!