Week 48 Ecuador

Out with the old...in with the New!

There was a Stake Art Show! We got the college fraternity to bring their art too, (that we had met 3 hours before)...will they come to church? Dunno, I won't be there...

Leaving Elder Cook and Duran to serve as zone leader in Babahoyo

more art...

Goodbye to Elder Cook

New companion Elder Alguera

8/25/15 (voice recording)

Hey family, first off sorry I couldn’t write you yesterday. It’s been a pretty busy week. Last Tuesday we had a district meeting and I went out with Elder Parkinson. I made a dice game, and we all practiced with the district. I only say this because of the four hermanas that were in my district. They’re awesome. The truth is hermanas make great missionaries, and I love having them in my district. 

This week has all really added up well. We put some baptismal dates with people, we got a lot of new investigators, we found 12 new investigators. We almost have our 15 families, which is kind of like a standard of excellence here in the mission. After my intercombio with the zone leaders, I went out with Elder Vance too, he’s assistant to the president. In all his dying glory I guess you could say, he went home today. I’m making this Tuesday morning. It was fun though. We did our intercombio, made macaroni & cheese. He ended up staying with us, so we pushed our two beds together and slept all three of us on it. Thank goodness we’re all from Utah. haha 

All this added up to the call that came at 7 o’clock Monday morning. They pulled Elder Cook and I out of Duran, and closed the sector until I imagine October when a bunch more missionaries come. They’ll open it back up, but there are two elders still working in that ward, so we won’t leave behind everything. 

After that I went to an unexpected leadership training with three other elders from my group. We now have a year to learn the ropes from president and the assistants. That all landed me in my first zone last night, in Lindo? is the name of the barrio, the zone that we’re serving in Babahoyo. We got here with just enough time to go out last night and visit the mission leader. My bags are still unpacked. We’re ready to go out this morning. I’m going to write you guys, and buy some food, do the necessities, and go out and work. 

If you happen to notice any scratches on my face, don’t worry. I didn’t get in a fight. I was just trying to be Parker again, I guess you could say, or see where I’m at in comparison to past physical limits. Well, I was doing backflips, and playing around on the court, playing basketball, and everything, and after a few backflips I slipped and bit the dust a little bit...scratched up my face, but it’s all good. I guess God’s trying to say focus on the work more than other past talents. I don’t know, maybe he’s taken some away, I’m losing a little bit of weight, and definitely some strength, but you know, he’s given me a lot of new talents too. I’m hoping he will because being a new zone leader, I’m gonna need a lot of help. 

Elder Alguera has 23 months in the mission. He’s here to show me the ropes in Babahoyo, how to be a zone leader. He’s not trunky though. He’s working hard, he’s a stud. He’s going to be going home to Costa Rica, so I’m definitely going to go visit him on vacation after the mission. 

I guess I’ll leave you guys with a quote that I liked from M. Russell Ballard. It says...If during the course of our time here on earth we learn to use that wonderous gift of agency in positive ways to bless our own lives, and the lives of others, then our journey will have been successful. No matter how long it lasts, and how much is accomplished. So, I’m super honored to have this opportunity to serve other people, the missionaries here in Babahoyo. I know the Lord will bless me, he’ll bless all of you guys too. I’ll be relying a lot on the atonement honestly, to share the love that God has for each of them, and help them obtain their potential. So, anyways, I love you all. Have a wonderful week. Talkin’ to you soon. Bye

Week 47 Ecuador

Food...

Food...

& more food.

:)

Bye Vargas

1 year

For those who aren't up to date on the whole "shirt" story. The lady that washes our laundry lives amongst pigs I guess, and informed me that one of my shirts had been destroyed by the pig. Hmm, interesting conversation. To my surprise the family had not disposed of my shirt and the other elders brought it home on my 1 year mark to dispose of properly.

Happy Mission adventures to all:)

August 17, 2015

Hey, what’s up family?  I hope Red Castle was sweet and that you guys caught a ton of fish, didn’t see a single drop of rain, and that it was super awesome.  I’m excited to see photos and hear stories from you guys.

I’ll start from last Monday when I wrote you guys.  We went out to a restaurant; its called Grand Chef.  It’s an all you can eat buffet, and it’s delicious.  They specialize in seafood.  There’s sushi, shrimp, fish, and they have a pasta bar, meat bar and they make postres…I mean, pastries.  I’m getting my words mixed up.  So that was fun.  It was really expensive, it’s like $18 a plate.  Thank you, grandma.  I finally put your Christmas money to good use.  We ate so much that I walked out of there nauseated and feeling like I really wanted to puke.  I didn’t eat for like a day and a half after that, honestly.  It was a good experience.  It was fun to eat some good food and hang out.

The next morning, half of the mission gathered together for a Family History Conference.  You all know that I am gung ho for that.  Honestly, it was pretty boring.  We learned some new stuff, but the typical broken family lines here in Latin America will create some projects that will confound us through the millennium I fell like.  People get separated and their lines are destroyed, but we’re figuring it out.  We’ve got some families that we want to take to the temple once we get their work going.  We’re helping them out.  At that conference I ran into my old companion, Elder Morga.  He’s still in our sector in Milagro but he’s about ready to leave I think.  The exciting news was to hear that Guillermo, Roberto Cheriguay, Marcos Herrera and his son, Rocio and Alex Campos were all baptized.  These guys all had baptismal dates when I was up there.  It was awesome to hear that they continued and got baptized with our plans and everything.  Rocio and Alex actually had to get married first.  They got married and got baptized this last weekend.  The other ones were baptized 2 weeks ago.  Ricardo was actually a contact that I made and so he is the first contact that has ever been baptized.  The rest were references from members or members of a family, cousins… something like that.  I was super excited to hear about all of them.

I guess summing up what I have talked to you about to this point, we all know without a doubt that the greatest miracle in the gospel is the atonement.  But baptism is the door that opens the blessings of the atonement for both the living and, thanks to the restoration of the gospel, the dead as well.  I really have a strong testimony of that.

Anyway, this week had a couple of other surprises.  We had an emergency transfer and ended up on an exchange with Elder Parkinson.  We had to drop Elder Vargas off in Quevedo which is almost 4 hours away from here.  Then we had to pick up Elder Pimentel in Babahoyo and then finally hooked up with Elder Cook, my new companion, in Milagro to come home to Duran. So that’s how I passed my 13^th of August, my one year birthday in the mission, I guess.  It was chill, honestly.  The assistants called me up and said they needed some help getting guys around so off I went.

The Elders that night bought me a cupcake with a candle.  You guys remember by pig eaten shirt?  Well I thought the family had disposed of it but the Elders went and asked for it and brought it home, the filthy thing.  We disposed of it properly by burning it.  So I did burn my year mark shirt.  Afterwards, I gave a speech, not a testimony, and followed that by an Indian dance/chant around the fire with all the neighbors watching us, yelling and all this stuff at like 10 o’clock at night.  It was fun.  It was a good moment.

Elder Cook really is a good guy.  He’s from Woodscross.  He was a wrestler too.  I feel like we get along really good.  We understand each other.  He’s 21 so he’s Darby’s age pretty much.  I feel like he’s my same age.  He’s helping me find the balance in the work again.  I feel good.  We went out at 7 o clock in the morning before church and we didn’t get home until a little after 9, like a 14 hour day.  It was super long but we really are getting a ton of work done.  We’re getting some help from the members that we haven’t had before.  Getting to know some new areas and new families.  I’m excited for what we’re getting set up here.

Anyway, I’ll end with something kind of funny.  We haven’t had water in our house for 3 days because they dug a pit to put in a water tank.  They shut off our water and so we have to go and get it turned back on.  Anyway, I hadn’t showered in like 2 days and so went over to the missionaries that have the house out front.  They have a water tank and everything.  Their house is so set up .  They have air conditioning, whatever you want.  So we went over there, me and my companion.  We wanted to take showers.  They were kind of bugged about it, they’re kinda weird.  But they let us in.  So we go up there and they thought it would be fun to shut off the water pump while we were in there.  So there was no water right as soon as we were soaped up and wet.  My companion started yelling , “Turn the water on!  Turn the water on!  The soaps getting in my eyes!”  I feel like I’ve come along ways after a year in the mission with my patience.  I just waited quietly, lying on their beds with my soapy wet body until they finally turned the water on and I could get rinsed off.  I was about air dried anyway with soap plastered to my body but we all laughed about it in the end. It sucks to suck.  Anyways, I love you, you love me.  We’re all a happy family.  Hope you have a wonderful week.  Chau, chau.

Week 46 Ecuador

The Island...

Hiking, Crocodiles...

Baptism pictures...

Congrats to Elsa!

Hump Week:) 8/10/15 (voice recording)

Hi family, It’s been a great week. I guess since I’ve been studying about the work, we can start off talking about that. We had Elsa Chavez baptism this week. It was Saturday around 7 o’clock. It was planned for 6, but it began shortly after 7, that’s how things work here. ha To fill up the font we had to call in a water truck, to fill it up because there’s no water in Duran. There’s water trucks that pass through every 2-3 days and fill up everybody’s big 5 gallon or more barrels. 5 gallon, that’s a lie, more like 100 gallon barrels. 5 gallons wouldn’t last very long, that’s how much I need to take a bucket shower every morning. Elsa did wonderful, and her husband who is accepting of us, but not really about the whole church thing, he even came to the baptism. So, they were all happy about that. She also was confirmed as a member of the church by the bishop on Sunday morning in sacrament meeting. Shoot I wanted to talk to her after the meeting, but surrendered to the smiling, hugging sisters, crowded bigger than at my farewell, but that’s great, that’s great. Everyone’s really accepting her well. Really, Elsa is awesome. I have not seen such faith as she displayed in her progress in my mission. Three Sunday’s ago I arrived and made a goal with her for that very day that she was baptized. She came every Sunday, she read her scriptures, she studied, she did everything that we asked her because she knew it was true. She was ready. Really, I believe the Lord does prepare people, and we just have to come here and find them, help them out. We have plans to get her family history work going, and go to the temple with her to do baptisms. She has this great, great desire to go to the temple, so that makes me feel good too that she’s not going to fall off flakey. She’s excited, she’s ready to go. 

Other points concerning the work, we officially rescued 3 members Sunday that we’ve been working with since I got here. Juleca and Francisco they’ve progressed so well. They’re awesome, and they also have goals for the temple. They’re in a temple prep class right now, to go in 6 months or around there. They’ll get sealed, they have great plans. I hope I’m invited, I want to go!

I had a meeting with the assistants of the president, and then went out and worked with one of them all day. I guess they’re taking this zone leader training pretty serious. I feel like it went alright. I saw some good things as we were persistent in searching for references, and getting to know an area. I began working in a new untouched part of the ward, hoping to bring the 60 estimated members back to life and baptize their close ones. It’s not easy starting new, but were not going in blind either. There’s some members that are helping us out, and we’ve got some good plans. I’m excited because this past four weeks, my numbers here have stayed the same. Not that they’re bad, but they aren’t progressing either. So, this new area I’m hoping we’ll find new work, new opportunities. One of those members helping us served a mission in Quito. He also worked in Santo Domingo, and some other places that I remember hearing Tiffie talk about, but he was here like 21 years ago, before Tiffie came out. What was cool is he had a 31 year old triplet in English from his trainer in California who 3 years after the mission died in the Gulf War serving in the Navy. It was a powerful story. Otherwise, his stories sounded familiar from his mission to what I’m doing now, and it makes me anxious to share with you guys, and to swap stories with Tiff to see how our missions have related. 

About an hour later that same day, I met a 23 year old blonde, finishing up a years service for the Catholic church. Next week she’s going to return home to Rhode Island. She had served as an English teacher and other community programs. We chatted in English she preferred. My poor companion couldn’t understand anything. We probably talked for 10 minutes or something. I asked her about her belief, about several things in the Catholic church I’ve always wondered about their belief in Saints, in like Mary, their manner of prayer, and I had others, but friendly concluded after asking if she believed in eternal families. Her reply was I don’t know if that’s possible, but I hope so. To her amusement, I have obstained from sex, alcohol, gambling, etc. in living a life in hamony with the Lord’s commandments, though not so much worldly norms. She had asked me if being a Mormon, getting out in the world was kind of a slap in the face? I said not really, but it’s different. We live very differently than the rest of the world. I thought despite all of her notable service, it all lacked a lot of purpose. I have built my testimony and consequent motivation upon. Anyways, they are enlightening conversations I enjoy running into when opportunities present themselves. 

Well, if you all haven’t realized it yet, the mission is an unchanging routine, but a good one. I try throwing in some basketball, or morning sports, try to change up my food, other things to keep it live. Last Monday we went to an island that is on the Guayas river between Duran and Guayaquil. In all we did about a 5 mile loop on a boardwalk through an otherwise untouched natural habitat. There was a museum at the end, some slushies, we saw some crocodiles, that was pretty sweet. I woops didn’t have my camera. My companion did. I’m going to see if he can pass me some pictures. On the way out though we took another bridge that takes you to a small though active naval base. I enjoyed peeking down on a few ships though up there on the big river. 

The time was short, kind of reminded me a little bit of my time in Annapolis Maryland, seeing all those ships, walking on them, getting the tour and everything. That’s actually another thing that came up in my conversation with the blonde, about my time in Annapolis Maryland, and that I had left that opportunity to come to the mission. She was very surprised, impressed, however you want to say it. I said, yeah well ok.

Well, to wrap things up, Ecuador amazed me once again this morning. As I went to retrieve my clothes from the laundress. She informed me in a “whoops” kind of innocent attitude that the pig had taken a bath, and partially eaten my long sleeved dress shirt. I refrained from asking any details, and thanked her for telling me. I guess this will have to count for my one year shirt burning in the mission. Walking home with the rest of my clothes that were fine, I recalled the parable of the prodigals son who after recklessly wasting away his noble inheritance found himself in a drought doing the lowest imaginable work of ancient Jerusalem, herding swine and eating amongst them. Ecuadorians live in a deprived manner, with the pigs. They fail to comprehend, dream, act, preferring I supposed to simply take what is given them of their socialist society. Well, I thank God for raising me with education, empowering me with opportunities, guiding my paths with inspired leaders. He has filled me with a vision I must help others see and obtain. We must teach all to be leaders who govern their families, callings, and lives with self sufficiency according to the laws of God. That’s power, that’s Zion. 

I thank you all for your support in this, and I hope you’re all seeing the blessings of what we are doing out here. I love you. Wishing you all a great week. Darby, Brian congrats on the triathlon. I hope it went super well. I’m excited to hear, and tear it up Wednesday up in the Uintas, Red Castle. Take lots of pictures, send them to me. I know you will. Love you all. Bye 

Week 45 Ecuador

Love going to the temple, especially when I get to take converts and rescued members:)

...yes the pool is tempting.

I broke the wall.

...Don't let the bed-bugs bite. Or the mosquitos carrying the kiss of death aka Dengae. Fever hit 103 by Wednesday morning, and we were off for the hospital. Bit of a rough week but we trucked it out like Pioneers, 

--Save your prayers for Elsa Chaves who's going to be baptized this week! :D
...as for me, don't worry. As you can see, I'm recovering fine! Ibuprofen and liquids;)