(WEEK 32) Dos semanas grandes

I'll start with this week cause it's crazier, then last week. So I didn't almost get lost in Quito this tuime, but I travelled alone again. I called my new district leader from a cabina and I was told to go meet his companion who's waiting for me at the church offices. So I'm walking away with my extreamly heavy suitcases and by now I've walked for like 5-10 minutes alone in downtown Quito, and I realize I left my bag in the cabina with my money, scriptures, credit cards, and camera. Hahaha (Don't get mad at me mom) So I franticly speed walked back to the cabina and it wasn't there. So I asked the owner and he was holding it for me in the back... The biggest scare and relief in my life.

I'm a step-father now. I'm training Elder Risco. He's from Peru and has 7 weeks in the mission now. He's buff so I'll be just fine in my new sector that's dangerous at nights haha. Elder Acevedo is my new district leader. He's also from Peru and has 20 months in the mission. My sector and ward are called Comité del Pueblo. It has a sector of just appartments and another sector with a gigantic hill called Carmen Bajo. It's a monster to climb. In Quito the accent is very different. Honesty I prefer the accent of the coast and the Orient. Here they pronounce their rr's and ll's like a J sound. Rather than rr's like rolling your tounge and ll's like a Y sound. I'm finally out of the heat! Haha. The temp in Quito right now is probably about the same as Utah. My house as an awesome view. When it's not cloudly or hazy I can see almost all of my hugh sector, Panecillo hill, and the 3 snow-capped volcanos. It's the sweetest.

I have a crazy zone. I'm in the same zone as my MTC companion, Elder Guild. So when I met him again for the district/zone meeting we shared a lot of stories. After every district/zone meeting we play "Ninja Destruction" and my crazy zone gets way into it haha. Just like the weather is colder, so are the people when we contact haha. But the members here are solid. They know a lot about the gospel. I think in general the people here in Quito are just smarter than the people in my last two sectors hahaha But the food in the coast is LA MAMA! On Thursday we had an activity with the two wards that attend in our chappel, the ward of the DL and our ward. It was Jeopardy! And the wards got really into it! So were planning to do another one at the end of the change. We're also planning to have a movie nightnext Friday. We're going to watch 17 Miracles.

SURPIZE: My district leader, Elder Acevedo got emergency changes this morning and he's now a Zone leader in La Luz, in Quito. So I'm the new district leader hahaha. Crap, right? I'm already thinking of what I want to teach in the district meeting on Thursday. Wish me luck haha. I am enjoying my cell phone I have to admit. I was born in the Jungle under ZL´s and then I was in the coast with a DL. So I only had to suffer 1 week without a cell phone thus far in my mission. Pilas. Today we went to Quicentro, a giant mall in downtown Quito. We bowled two games and I broke my record. I got a 163. Happy day. We ate in the same mall and now I'll be writing until 5:00pm because Elder Santos has to pick up his new companion, Elder Gebs, who's coming from Esmeraldas. I'm also going to take the oppertunity to buy a bunch of gospel goodness in the distribution center there: The benefits of the 4 zones in Quito.

Alright, now let's rewind 2 weeks back... Orianas's baptism will be on the 12th cause she's been in Guayaquil for 2 weeks. So I won't get to see her baptism :( The good news is, I know she will be. We had 3 wedding dates so that families could get baptized. They'll be baptized in late April. I did a lot of divisions cause Elder Bustillo and Elder Gomez have been bouncing around two sector for weeks. Plus Elder Macalopu has had to go to Esmeradas several times for interviews. When I was in Esmeraldas a man tried to have a conversation with me in Engish but his English sucked beyond belief. He claimed he was fluent. I understood his spanish much better than his English. After that I walked for like 5 more minutes and another guy tried to do the same thing. I denied the fact that I spoke English and was gringo. He was like, "But what about your blue eyes?" and I told him they were fakes and I'm from Argentina haha. Dodged a bullet.

The other changes in my zone in Esmeraldas were: Elder Macalopu gets my old friend from Coca, Elder Wright. Elder Bustillo will train a new missionary. Hna. Cayama will go to Quito as a sister leader. And Hna. Smith wil get Hna. Gomez.

That's my two weeks. I apologize for the giant letter. Wish me luck as DL. Les quiero! Hasta pronto! Pilas!

(WEEK 32) pictures

Qué? (WEEK 31)

I seriously only have like 15 minutes to write. So I didn't read any of your letters haha. But I was just transfered to Quito, in Calderon specifically. Usually you have at least 2 changes (3 weeks) in a sector but here I am in Quito haha. I'm really grateful to be here though! The coast is awesome but It'll be nice to get out of the heat. I'm going to finnish the training of an Elder from Peru that only has 6 weeks. So that means I'm a senor companion now, sweet right? I should remember his name, but I can't right now haha. I'm with the zone leaders in Calderon right now wrighting but I'll meet him in like 30 minutes. Anyways, I update all of you on my last week in Quinindé(Unexpected) and let you know everything about this week, next week.

 

By the way, for all of you guys getting mission calls right now, or are about to leave, good luck! You'll love it!

Les quiero. Hasta Pronto. Pilas. Elder se fue.

¡Sorpresa! (WEEK 30) part 2

Yeah, so because of the zone conference yesterday(Which was a solid one) I only got about 20 minutes to write and no time to do laundry or buy stuff, so we were granted the 6 hours that we lost yesterday to have a little P-day today. There's not a ton to talk about since I wrote a little yesterday, but here I am!

The zone conference was powerful yesterday. We learned a lot of new things and reviewed old things. He focused a lot on obedience. Like I said, 9 missionaries were sent home for iniquity and obedience problems. So it was kinda sad. The way president Richardson talked about it was amazing cause he made you feel mad that they did what they did, but sad that they're gone. He also used a lot of scriptures and various talks from general authorities, including the one from Elder Holland that he gave to the Provo MTC in 2011 about feeding the Lord's sheep. Super powerful. 

Every Sunday night from now on in the church, we have a movie night! (Noche de cine). So last night we watched "Legacy" and "The Great Apostasy" from the D&C DVD's. And A TON of members and random people showed up. So startingtomorrow throughout the rest of the week, we are full of appointments! We also have the baptism of Oriana planed for this Saturday but she might go to Guayaquil soon like I said yesterday, so we might have to pospone the baptism for a week. We'll see... ¡Pero la Noche de Cine funcionó! la próxima semana vamos a ver: "La Obra y la Gloria"

Today I introduced the Chocolate Chip Cookie to Ecuador. What did you do today? I'm a chef. I gave some to my companion and he loved it but said he's never had it before. Something that just entered my mind is that we have changes in 5 days, and I have a feeling my companion is leaving and I'm going to have to probably train a new missionary now haha, bring it on. I'm expecting the whole zone to change a lot. There are several missionaries that have 3 changes already in the zone so they'll probably go. I can't wait to find out! I also gave a talk on Patience and overcoming trials in church on Sunday. I'm basically at the point now where talking about the gospel is just as easy in spanish as it is in english, now I just have to continue to work on my grammar and learn random words.

De nuevo, ¡les quiero! ¡Hasta pronto!

(week 30)