Week 27 Ecuador

Skinny ties:)

Enjoying the rain!

Found some nice rubber boots so I can go stomping through the rain. I like it. Maybe I was deprived of this in my earlier years?

I took Elder Melzer out on a date after soccer this morning for tostados (toast) & batidos (shakes), then he took me out to get a haircut. Successful day.

Sunburn:(

3/30/15 Family recording

Hi family, I just got home. It’s Wednesday night, so that finishes out my 24 hour vacation, if you want to call it that. We left last night to go to Guayaquil, and woke up this morning at 4, and went to the temple. I felt like a real bum because after texting my district and telling them to get their recommends, and telling my companion earlier in the day to get his recommend, I forgot to bring my own temple recommend. So, I had to wait in the front lobby for the president to come. He was coming anyway, don’t worry, but ya I just felt like a loser sitting there waiting. Lesson learned...don’t forget your temple recommend! He just gave me a big smile and a hug, and escorted me through. Good way to draw negative attention to myself. Naw, not really to worried about it. The temple was wonderful as always. I love it. I almost made it through by myself in Spanish, we’re getting there. Little by little, one day we’ll do it, hopefully before the mission ends. Ever since then we have been at the mission home having meetings all day...lot of new rules, as far as p-day and clothing, just a lot of rules. They’re setting up a new thing with our ward meetings, so idk it wasn’t to exciting, but this morning the president gave a really powerful talk. 

After, Elder Parkinson and I swung my the mission office and we picked up our pouch. Big surprise to me, I got a package from mom & dad! I had no idea that was coming, but thank you all the same for the frisbee, and belt, and letters as well...and jellybeans. Jellybeans are incredible. Some of the latinos have never tried them, so it was a delicious experience. That belt looks pretty sweet too. I have seen other elders with them, but thank you. It will be a good back up belt, belts wear out really fast here from what I’ve seen. Mine’s holding in there pretty good, but we’ll see, the whole is getting a little stretched out. The frisbee, that will be fun, we just have to find a place to play it. We’ll figure that out, maybe at the church we can play something, except the fields a little small. Thanks though, that will be fun. 

 It’s now 7:00, and there’s some thunder outside. It’s not raining, so we’re going to go and see if we can find some investigators. We didn’t plan lessons for tonight because we didn’t know what time we’d get back but, we’ll make the best use of it. Baptisms at this point for this week are looking a little gloomy. Our female investigators are being a little dramatic, but we’ll try to get them over their little problems, and see what we can do. I’ll try to give you some more details later on throughout the week as far as that goes. Anyways, there’s little bits and details I could add in, but I better get on my way for now, so I’ll save that for later. That’s all folks. 

Week 26 Ecuador

Elder Mezler & I were the champions...not that anyone was keeping score;)

A cool thing happened while I was cleaning out the freezer. I threw a handful of it at Elder Mezler. He held up a balloon to protect himself, and it exploded! 

I spent Thursday with Elder Carlisle (my original MTC companion), and we had a great time. He's a good guy, and as you can see, has a special talent at entertaining handfuls of kids! (with scriptures even...well, made up ones)

We went exploring this morning, looking for some shoes for my companion, and a new watch (he was robbed, & his was stolen). His feet are too big for Ecuador (only size 11)!

The famous Pina

3/23/15 (voice recording)

Hi family, we’re off to a pretty good start this week. After writing you Monday we went to Guayaquil, which is an hour from here, and we played bowling. Played bowling (that’s kind of weird)...with us, the zone leaders, and another two elders in my district. They had a great idea of making a bet out of it (although we’re not supposed to compete as missionaries), that the winner would receive a tie from the losers. So, ya sure, we did it, and thanks to Elder Mezler and his arm of gold (he bowled like 5 strikes I think), we won! I held my own, but he definitely pulled it out for us. I have a sweet new navy striped tie; I like it a lot, and he got a grey polka dotted one. Anyways, I would be making grandma and grandpa Wilson proud. 

Elder Mezler just had a question...why there’s 2 old rolls of toilet paper sitting outside our windowsill? They’re about a month old now...moldy, bricks! Elder Gallardo (who is in Mexico now) bought new rolls of T.P., and set them on the bathroom floor. We showered and they got soaked, so he put them outside to dry...no, they completely got destroyed. Until this grand moment, they’ve been waiting outside. That’s really gross though, so they will be put on the side of the streets of Ecuador, like the rest of the trash here. It smells super bad...always. 

It was a fun Monday though. Other than Elder Mezler decided to eat at Carl’s Jr...a big old greasy burger with fries (American style). I went for more of the Cajun breakfast burrito choice, a lot safer on my part I believe, because he came home with the hershey squirts. It was rough. So, we got a call from our first counselor with an awesome reference for us. We met up with him, and it’s awesome. We’re teaching him right now, and he has a baptism date for the 3rd of April. His names Carlos Villon. Anyways, Elder Mezler was dying. So we came back to the house, and he was laying on his bed. The hermana told me to make him tea, and make him feel better. So, I was planning for the next day, and I made him tea. I took it to him with some sugar and stuff on his bed. He was laying down and I gave it to him. I came back out to keep planning, and he came out 10 minutes later soaked with tea. He had fallen asleep and got hot tea all over himself. I told him it was meant to go inside of him, not on the outside. He made two more glasses, and I think it helped him out. Apple, cinnamon tea...something like that...no, mint tea, helps you out? 

Also, in our district meeting yesterday, we were meeting together with another zone. The zone leaders said to wear the ugliest tie you have. I don’t have ugly ties, so I was going through Elder Mezler’s ties. I don’t know why he has like 4 ugly ties but...Anyways, I pick this neon 80’s striped bright colored one and wore it, and all the latinas, hermanas, they decided (how many of us were there, like 25 elders) and I won! I won the ugliest tie, and I wore that thing all day long. I’m so proud. It really is a pretty awesome tie, but it’s ugly too. 

Last night, dad I don’t know if you’ve been watching the weather here, but it rained really hard. We woke up and our sector was literally a lake. Really, I thought about getting some rubber boots, but we just went for it. We got stuck at this one lake, and there were members on the other side. We were doing hand signals, like how are we supposed to get to you guys? Then, these little amigos came to our rescue. They rode their bikes over to us, and they were like hey, can you guys ride bikes? Ya, I know how to ride a bike! So they gave us their bikes, and we rode the bikes across, and they just walked through the lake. It was awesome, we got through! The spiritual application here is sometimes we have giant lakes, of obstacles in front of us, but the Lord will always help us. He’ll provide some way that we can overcome those obstacles. 

Oh, hey this is sweet, Elder Mezler has an American flag that he has not hung up until this moment. For whatever reason I don’t know why, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to say the pledge of allegiance probably every morning as part of our routine. I think that would really be patriotic, and a good thing. 

Oh, and one more thing to end. I felt super bad about this. We were in a family home evening, and we were singing I am a Child of God in Spanish. Elder Mezler and I were sitting next to each other; there were probably 4...5 other people in the room in this family, so I’m singing, and my voice cracks. I laughed a little bit and then Elder Mezler just broke down. It was one of those moments where you should not be laughing, and it makes it all that more funny. I’m like biting my finger, and couldn’t sing the next verses, ‘cause every time I’d try I would just break down laughing. They’re all looking at us like what’s wrong with the two gringos? I finally pulled it together for the last verse. I had to apologize to them after. I felt so bad, but that was a rough moment. Lesson learned, my voice still cracks. Then we taught about 20 minutes and the lights went out, and shoot. So, I still feel like it was an effective family home evening. There were good things shared, but I’m closing with that. We’ve got a day of adventures ahead, and I’ll try to keep you guys filled in. Love you. Take care.

3/23/15 voice recording 2

[Flute playing] Hi everyone. Elder Melzer lost his yoyo this week and found some old recorder here in the house (like a flute recorder). I wish he would hurry up and find his yoyo, ‘cause it’s a lot less annoying than that stupid recorder:) As you can hear, we're obviously getting pretty good at our Indian, native, tribal callings. Honestly I think he’s still just trying to hide the shame and pain that he feels every time he looks at his suntan lined wrist;) I was on a split this past week with Yawatchy? my district like 20 minutes from here, and the other elder came here with Elder Mezler. About 3:00 in the afternoon, as they were searching for a less active member, an old, not old, just a skinny Ecuadorian drug addict with a big long machete ran up and in Spanish was freaking out and asked them for their watches. At first Elder Mezler was like what? “Give me your watches”! So Elder Mezler just took it off and threw it on the ground. The other companion did too. Took ‘em off and ran. So that sucks, he got robbed. I’ve still yet to be robbed, but I feel like I kind of want to, just for the experience. At the same time I feel like I have a pride issue with that...giving up my stuff to some thief. Anyway, so that’s probably the most exciting thing that happened this week, and I wasn’t even a part of it. 

I had a good time though, spending the day with Elder Carlisle, my original MTC companion. We had a good time talking about stuff and teaching, as well as Elder Parkinson, our zone leader. We’re bros, and I can’t exactly say we have man challenges like me and Bryan used to (nothing could ever take place of that), but we try...we have some man challenges, which I’ve won like all of them:) Holding your breath, I got 3 minutes again. The biggest mouth, I won. Most push ups, I won, but I can’t remember any more right now. We’ve done a ton though. 

Also, for too long now, I’ve deprived myself of a Milagranio pineapple, so Elder Mezler and I bought one last night for a dollar. Big pineapple, and he sliced it up for us, and it was absolutely delicious. We washed that down with a little bit of mint tea. I eat some weird stuff here...good though. 

Oh, and on another note, I can kind of justify my failing physical condition here in the mission by the words of Paul. In 1 Timothy 4:8 as he more or less explains that exercise for a short while is of little benefit for us, but developing our godliness will do us good forever, so that was a good find;) I’m definitely not giving up on the health though. 

P.S. Thank you mom for the ear plugs that Elder Mezler and I are enjoying as the Ecuadorian culture continues, and a party went all night long, right next door to us. I may have said it before, but I’m super grateful for the disturbance of the peace law in the United States...doesn’t exist here. Oh, and Elder Carlisle and I were riding in a taxi, and neither of us three, the taxi driver included had our seat belts on, and the police pulled us over. I didn’t even know the police did anything in this country. They pulled us over and gave him like a $112 ticket! That is a bummer. He’s probably not going to have extra spending money for a while.

I’m trying to avoid talking about the work here. That’s all I talk about and do. We had some great finds yesterday, and it’s really going good. We’re hoping and praying for certain individuals to gain testimonies, and for Diana to be able to overcome her difficulties that are impeding her baptism this Saturday. The will of the Lord will come about I suppose. We just do what we can. Also, a lot of our preoccupation and thoughts have been placed on two young men in the ward, as some of our most important work we will ever do in this mission won’t ever add up to any number, or complete a goal, but maybe it’s something more. As a missionary were respected by seniors and also trusted by the youth. I think that’s a great thing, and I believe we’ve been able to bridge a big gap so to speak between two young men and those in whom they confide in their process of repentance. Before the mission I imagined this moment might come at some point, and I’m grateful to share vaguely with them my own similar falls from grace, fears, preparations and triumphs. I have a great respect for them, and their desires. They have leaders, but they have a lot less people backing them up than I did. It would be hard to be a youth here. To be a member, with all your friends here that don’t want to live according to the gospel, or support you if you chose to do so. I hope that we can be some example and strength in some way to them though, and help them out with this. 

Ok, so I’ll finish with some lighter notes. Dad, I fear that the whole shower drain thing will be a problem probably in every house that I encounter in the mission. Our shower’s backing up again, and I’m either going to have to find some Drano product, or go with the old vinegar/baking soda trick like you suggested, ‘cause the shower’s getting pretty filled up. I don’t like that. I’m also pretty sure that I have started a case of athlete’s foot this week. That’s not fun. I’ve never had that in my life I don’t think, but it makes sense that I would get it here in Ecuador. It’s hot, humid, sweaty walking around in shoes all day, but don’t worry, I already have some anti-fungal cream, that I am applying two times daily. So we should have that problem under control in no time. 

We are also very excited looking forward to the opportunity that we have to go to the temple this Wednesday. We’re going to travel to Guayaquil Tuesday night, and wake up at 5:30, enter the temple at 6:30. After that we’ll spend all day with the president in meetings, and then we’ll come home Wednesday night. That’s always a good re-energizer, re-booster, refocusing period. I like that. I love the temple, so I’m excited to go back. It’s been 3 months, it’s been since Christmas. I’m also planning on checking with the president and taking those names that I have, and hopefully doing them. So mom, thank you for sending those. I hope that works out, that would be a way neat experience if we can all do those names there. 

I definitely feel like I’m continuing to increase my testimony, my knowledge out here. My motto this week has been to make every missionary a leader. My thoughts on that are, leaders should be humble, and serving, looking out for others, examples. If every missionary has that idea, that they are a leader, then the missions going to be that much stronger. I’m rollin’ with that one until I receive some greater revelation, but it’s been fun looking at people in that way. My district, I’m going to make you dependable for yourself. That you’re going to be a leader and do theses things, ‘cause one day, I figure Elder Carlisle and and a lot of people are going to be leaders in the mission. I just have a great opportunity of starting a little sooner I suppose. Anyways, I’m going to close with that. Take care, and I’m excited to talk with you all tomorrow. I love you. Bye.

Week 25 Ecuador

Buenas Dias Family!

It has been a fun week and I feel a lot more like the old me (for better or worse) living with a fellow American. We`ve set some ground-rules as to prevent getting distracted talking about riding motorcycles or losing our ability to speak spanish. I do miss Latino companions a little bit, they make for a good dictionary when I run across an unkown word but we can overcome our trials in one way or another.

A birthday as well as 7 months in the mission have passed and were put on the back-burner as we kept on working busier than ever I believe teaching, interviewing, finding... It really will be a special year though as it is possibly the only year I will serve as a missionary in its entirety. How do I feel? A new year has come and it`s alright with me, I`m looking forward to all the more I can be. I`m going to go see if I still have any bowling skills left today though in Guayaquil, or if I even have the strength to throw a bowling ball, but I`m excited for that! We have some great missionaries here in the Zone, Milagro! Thank you all for the great wishes.

Wierd moments?

We drank super concentrated diabetic-killing juice to compensate for the excessively greasy food? ..Ecaudor logic?

We have free-range horses here that go around Milagro eating trash and the ownner has a trailer he hauls bamboo on with them. ..old school 3rd world stuff right there.

The work is definately paying off and I was rewarded with a big present this week as we baptized the Comboza Family Sunday morning and later confirmed them. There is always a special spirit that accompanies such events that touches all present. I consider this family very courageous being the first of a family we hope will follow their example. I taught them the story of Joseph and the Savior he was for his family as he was faithful to the Lord`s will and that they, too, can feel the Joy of being united one day with their family like the account of Joseph in (Genesis 46). My counsel to them was to be ¨an example of the believers¨ as is stated in one of my favorites (1Timothy 4:12).

..they were a little tired (in the pictures) from traveling to the beach all week, early morning ;),

Happy Birthday to me:)

One heck of a busy day...

He's a Fruit Loops kind of guy...eating his "air".

Family Morales Comboza

Mercy, Marian and Daniel

Week 24 Ecuador

Querido family and friends,

Busy days are adding up to what I look forward to being a successful week! Wednesday I will get to celebrate 19 years (sounds pretty good to me, 20.. little more scary), then Friday is 7 months in the 2nd best country in the world doing the work of the Lord, and Saturday I hope to bring to reality dreams and efforts of a family of 3 as well as a single mother as we fill up the Baptismal font once again! I have a huge respect for converts in the church; It is not an easy thing changing your life (habits, friends, thoughts, goals, etc) in order to align yourself with God`s plan. They are so awesome though and I`m blessed to learn from them!

I said goodbye to Elder Gallardo today who will be on the first flight back to Mexico in the morning. Talking with him I really gained a greater understanding (respect) of how awesome it is to complete a full time mission. With that, I welcomed my new companion to Apolo where we will be working miracles with our Gringo power! What, what? Yep, two Americans! I`ve already noticed an increase in racial tourist profiling from taxi drivers and such, but they drop it quickly when we start talkin in spanish. Elder Mezler is a stud though strait out of Arizona and I`m stoked to work with him.

Time is running short (as I already wrote this letter once and accidently deleted it.. Idiot. So I`ll close here with my favorite scripture of the week).

2 Corinthians 13:5

¨Examine yoruselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you..?¨

Elder Wilson

Me playing with a helicopter balloon thing? Pretty sweet. 

Very, very impressed with the twinkie "minionaries". They were enjoyed by everyone:)

Thanks for the love family:)

Brush em, brush em, brush em. Sometimes lunch isn't so great. Getting that out out of my mouth asap! Plus...I have a fear of cavities here.

Goodbye Gallardo...

Apparently we have really big mouths...so here we are showing them off for all of you! With Elder Parkinson (my zone leader) from Blackfoot Idaho (18 months in the mission). 

Family Castillo...these studs, our investigators, drove us out to Guayaquil in his taxi to drop off Elder Gallardo. Awesome!

Goodbye to former companion Elder Rivas as well! Also found my other brother, Elder Wilson who stepped in for a photo...good guys.

It's not easy sending a missionary home. Sheesh I'm all emotiony...I need to go back to work.

Elder Mezler...this stud is from Arizona, has 4 months in the mission, and is my new companion! Who would have guessed a Gringo!? First transfer for him...he spent the first part of his mission in Quevedo as well.

3/9/15 voice recording

Hey family, it’s Friday and I’ve been runnin’ around a lot with Elder Gallardo doing his final interview with the president, and getting things ready for him to go. We got cut short a little bit on our lessons today, but I guess all this running around with him brought the weekly thoughts of home a little quicker. I’m sitting here thinking about you guys, an gosh I miss ya a lot. 

I got your package. Thank you very much, and you already know I didn’t wait to open it. I got home and opened it that night as soon as everything was taken care of. Mom, thank you a lot for your very thoughtful card. I liked it, and it’s sitting on my desk, at least for now. I called my district over the other night. They’ve never been very close; they’re kind of distant. They’re not working to great, so I called them over and we had a little pizza. We played Uno, and I taught them how to play golf too. It was good. We were all laughing and having a good time. I really feel like it helped a lot with our relationship, so thank you for the cards, much appreciated. I still need to play Dominoes with Gallardo or something, but I can’t let it interfere with the bigger responsibilities that I have. As far as the minions, that was super funny, because me and Elder Gallardo were talking about that movie and I couldn’t remember the name of it for so long...Despicable Me. Everything’s mixed up in Spanish, the translation in Spanish is The Good Villain or something like that, but mom did you make those? That’s super creative for you. I’m impressed. Me and Gallardo each enjoyed a twinkie. He had actually never had one. I was kind of surprised, but I’m going to have to save a couple for my birthday, with the new companion that I’ll be bringing back here to Milagro. Sunday night we’re going to go to the mission office, an hour from here or so and spend the night. He’ll go off to meetings all day and fly out Tuesday in the morning, and I’m going to come back Monday afternoon with a new companion. Cross our fingers, see how it goes, but at least I know I’m not training. I feel pretty good about that. I have enough going on with my new sector right now, and being a district leader. The baseball, I like that too. It actually took over my morning workout the other day. I was not feeling motivated to get up and workout, and so I got up, grabbed my baseball, went back and laid on my bed, tossed it in the air, and just thought about things for a half hour. Kind of not very good, but you know...once in a while thing. The rocket balloons, sweet idea, but I have no idea what to do with that. Gallardo thinks he wants them, but what is he going to do, take them to his house? There’s a guy that works as a clown in the ward, I might give them to him. He’s a really cool guy. 

Anyways, I have a church talk this Sunday. I’m thinking on what I want to talk about, and I think I’m going to talk on temptation. Kind of weird right? The topic, but I was thinking what really interferes with us returning and living with God. Our disobedience, and our disobedience is a caused by temptation. So, I think I’m going to run with that one and see how it turns out. 

One of our investigators, a single mother was living with a friend, and they fought. She got kicked out, and her friend wouldn’t tell us where she’s living now, so we have to go find her. She’s getting baptized next Saturday, so hopefully this isn’t a problem. Her names Diana. Another family Mercy Familia Combosa, her and her two children are going to get baptized the same day, the 14th. Those will be the first baptisms, if we can pull them through, in over three months here in Apolo, but I’m really excited about that. Oh, the Combosa family, she’s married, but her husband works a ton. We taught him once, but we’re still trying to get a hold of him. He travels to Guayaquil and works 9 days straight and comes back for 4. We gave him a bunch of stuff, and he promised he’d study, so that’s good. His daughter we taught last night and gave her a Book of Mormon, but she goes off to college, so you know, share the gospel, and hopefully it’s something that they will pursue. Mercy and her younger kids can be an example for the family. There are also a lot of less active members here in Apolo. The problem is Elder Gallardo nor I really know them, so we’re really trying to motivate the members to help us out; go show us their houses and visit with us, that we can help them out. I’ve contacted two of them on my own. The members tell us the less actives are all “hard”; that they don’t want anything. I’ve found they are at first, but you talk to them for 10-15 minutes and they warm right up to ya. One even asked me to come back. That’s how people are here, but you just gotta help them out a little bit. 

Shoot, all I talk about is the work here huh? I hope it doesn’t bore you. That’s really all I do. I love hearing about you guys though. If there’s ever a question you have I hope I can answer it. I hope my communication is alright. I’m going to try to write a main letter this week. Hopefully these voice messages are helping out a little bit. Dad your awesome. Keep working on the bed and all of that. Mom be diligent with your schooling. I’m still so, so excited for Garrett playing baseball at Weber. I’ve told all the missionaries. Some care, some don’t, but that’s family stuff I guess. Love you all. Hope your all happy and healthy and successful. Take care. Talk to you soon. 

3/9/15 voice recording 

Hi everybody, it’s Sunday afternoon. It’s been a really great day. We just got back from church. We’re getting ready to travel to Guayaquil to dump Elder Gallardo off, so he can fly out to Mexico. I’ll be returning back here to Milagro with my new companion. That’s good news, we don’t know who my companion is, but we know that I won’t be training. That’s ok for right now. Gallardo’s been a little uptight today. He’s been full of emotions as I’m sure we can understand. He’s a little sad, super happy, a little nervous, a little tired, and a lot anxious. Anyways, we came home from church, and I decided there was only one thing I could do to help him out. So…I got out the one thing that I could think of that nobody can not laugh at. [Fart sound] hahaha…yep the whoopee cushion! Mom there was a reason why you sent it, because it’s been put to good use. He can’t even keep a straight face. We’ve done it like three times now, and he’s trying to be as serious as he can. He has to laugh…you have to laugh:) I hope you’re all laughing right now. So there you have it. Don’t overlook the classic things that have made people laugh for generations. Keep smiling. Chow

Week 23 Ecuador

Did I mention I'm back with my original companion from the MTC here in Milagro? He's in another district, so I only see him a few times a week, but it's sweet! Happy Birthday to Elder Carlisle.

Water filter action...fills that thing up in like 5 minutes! Slick...happier, healthier, wealthier Me!

3/2/15 
A life changing moment (voice recording)

Hello family, um...today was the closest I’ve certainly ever come to crapping my pants. Yup. So this morning, I made some really good burritos actually, with some meat that we bought in the store, and cheese, tortillas, eggs. It was very good, but that will be the last burrito I ever make. It just happens to be that we were working today, in the only area of our zone that doesn’t have members. So, I was contacting a house, and then we taught a lesson with this guy, and then his son was like hey, come over and teach my brother that lives over here, and at that moment I was like...I need to poop, but you can’t deny a reference (this is the work of salvation right here). So off we went, and 10 minutes later, after him not even being there, I was at a danger stage, red lights were flashing in my head, abdominal contractions, ya...you get the idea. So, I did the only thing we could, and I clinched um tight, and we started our speed walking journey, like 6 minutes or more back to the house. My companion was laughing at my red face, as I was honestly SO distressed. I was like, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me! I was in so much pain. I truly believe that it was a tender mercy of our Lord that I came out of this experience with unmarked garment;) I don’t wish this experience on anyone, but I hope you can all understand to some degree, a crap your pants moment. At this point I’m really scared to leave the house again, ‘cause I have this diarrhea issue, but I guess here comes part 2 of this learning experience. We’re gonna put our faith in the Lord, and go back out there. Lunch was 2 hours ago, so it shouldn’t be passing through for hopefully another couple hours. So, anyho’ thanks for listening to my marvelous experience. I’m still not laughing, but maybe this is one of those life experiences that God had planned out for me, that I needed to experience. Truly, we came to earth to experience things...the good and the bad. Well, I’ve truly experienced my crap your pants moment now, and with that I’ll close. Take care everybody, and keep a toilet close;)

3/2/15 
Ola' from Ecuador (voice recording)

Okay, today I had a really funny experience. We went to an investigators house whose husband works nine days straight, and then comes home for four. He was there, and they have a big family. They also have a son who is a doctor, who wasn't there. We were invited to eat dinner with them and we were like, "Sweet! Yeah, we'll come!"
We taught them a lesson, and it was my bad, but I was seriously stressed out that day over a bunch of things, and zoned off for a minute, and the mom asked me what was wrong? I told her "sorry, sorry", that I was just stressed about some stuff, my body was worn down, and things like that. She replied, "I have just the thing you need."So she goes to the kitchen and I'm telling her, no, that I'm fine, thinking that she is going to bring me some voodo vegetable, hifoo drink, and thought, oh please no! She came back with an egg. Alright! She told me to sit down and explained that this was an ancient healing trick that sucks all the bad things out of you. I was, like, okay, whatever, go for it! I was honestly kinda interested.
So she starts rubbing and massaging my head with the egg, putting over my eyes, my face, and rubbing my whole head with it. Then she began rubbing my shoulders with the egg, my chest, my heart and stomach. I thought, "This is weird. Should I be doing this?!" But I figured she was chill. She is an older lady and her whole family was there, so I figured, yeah, whatever, we're fine. Anyway, she finished that. And actually, I did feel really relaxed after I stopped worrying about whether it was weird or not!
Anyway, so after, she told me that she was going to crack the egg into a cup, and then all of the bad energy and stress that it sucked out of my body was going to go away! And I was like, alright! Lets do it! So, she cracked it, and I just smiled, a-a-and I would have to say, it worked!
I don't know whether it was ancient magic, or whether she just made me smile and laugh, and forget about everything for awhile, but, neat people here in Milagro, and some weird Ecuador culture for you! So, just thought I'd share. Don't worry, and be happy. If you're too stressed or sick, or sore, just do the the egg trick! Take care everybody! 

3/2/15 
Weekly rambling (voice recording)

Hi everyone. It’s Sunday afternoon. I just got home from church. We had 7 investigators attend church today! That is excellent. It was fast Sunday, so that’s always kind of tough, but it’s good too. I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting. I don’t usually like to really do that, because I’m a missionary, and it’s time for the members and everything, but since I’m new in the ward I figured I’d show my face a little bit. I talked about service; that’s also what I fasted about. I’ve been thinking a lot about service lately, as that’s what I’m called to do here as a leader. There’s a lot of ways to be a leader. You can lead by example, you can lead by service council, and so on. These past 2 weeks, I’ve really been focusing in my sector, ‘cause I’m new, I need to get to know it. As a leader, my sector has to be an example for everyone else. If I’m not completing my goals, not doing what I’m supposed to, then they don’t have anything to look up to. I was talking on an intercambio with the zone leaders, and Elder Parkinson said, that because they do 3 intercambios every week, they’re almost never in their sector together, and that’s hard. I asked how are you supposed to better your sector? How are you guys supposed to be an example and serve others? He said, he’s learned something in the mission; to always put others first, and then in some way or another the Lord backs ‘em up. That they can be successful in their sector as well, while helping me and the other missionaries. Me and Elder Parkinson have gotten to know each other really good this week. By little acts of service he just showed that he cared, and naturally my trust grew a ton. He cleaned my shoes one morning, he brought me juice while we were studying...little things, but you appreciate it right? And then, for one reason or another, he shared with me a really personal story about his older sister that passed away when he was 9 in a car accident. She was 16, and they were in it together. He had a really hard time recovering from it...a lot or counseling, a lot of therapy; he had to learn to walk again. It was very spiritual, it was powerful. Anyways, I guess more than anything, I’ve just been shown this past week a way that I can improve, by gaining the trust of those I’m serving, and really focusing on them more. Putting them first before me. So, yep...back to work, but I figured I’d take a minute and share with you guys. Um...love you all back at home. Bye.