We`re battling bats in our ceiling, Crickets eating through our screen (and sleeping with elder Albrecht).. no worries though, we`re winning. And, if it ever gets out of hand I`ll just climb into my fresh Hammock for the night!
We should be all clear with meetings for a month or so after this past week of like.. 4! Ugh. Can`t say I`m a huge fan honestly. I`d make a bad Assistant of the President.
I woke up to a solid 16 minutes of P90X Ab-ripper with Tony Horton. It didn`t wipe me out because we`re going out for some Zone soccer. Paint-ball will be suspended for a less rainy day. (if we ever see one of those again)
I hope all were able to attend the First Presidency`s Christmas Devotional. Maybe I`ve taken it for granted but there truly is a great sense of peace and gratitude that comes during the Christmas season and, anytime we search for the light of Christ. I am taking focus in the simplicity of that this year.
I have verified why I need a Savior; in more eloquent words we often sing ¨me cuesta entender que quisiera Jesus bajar, del trono divino para mi alma rescatar..¨ but I know that Heavenly Father truly did send his willing Son, His only Begotten; He was born to virtuous parents, he lived, he died accomplishing his infinite Atonement. The scriptures don`t say much at all about the first 30 years of His life, but one says enough at the end of Luke ¨Y Jesus crecia en sabiduria, y estatura, y en favor con Dios, y los hombres.¨ .. (pardon that I memorize these in spanish, ha). I know that I too can find forgiveness, receive strength or direction at the beginning of each day as I desire to do what`s right through his mercy.
Love you all,
-Mr. Brightside
12/7/15 voice message
Hi family, this week flew by so fast that we’re sitting down Elder Albrecht and I, tonight…Saturday night, trying to write the whole week of events in our journals all at once. It added up to about a page for me, because I don’t have that great of a memory.
Anyways, going back to Monday (almost 5 days ago) we dropped our clothes off at this crazy laundry mat because the lady who washes our clothes was out of town. It was raining, and we were leaving to go to Guayaquil. It ended up working out. It was $9, kind of expensive. We were just looking for a laundry mat to wash them ourselves, but I guess that’s not how they do it here.
So, we got our stuff together and headed off to Guayaquil for the leadership conference with the zone leaders. We ended up bowling that night, just Elder Albrecht and I. That was fun. We only ended up getting in one game, but I bowled a 157! Not bad for just stepping up there and lettin’ r rip. I got like 3 or 4 strikes…solid.
We stayed in the mission home that night, and the next morning up and at 5 o’clock. We went to the temple, did a session there of endowments. I always like to try and learn something new, or ask president Riggins if he can answer me a question. So I took advantage of that. A favorite scripture from the conference that you guys can all look up is Moses 6:34. Interpret that how you want, I’ll just leave that one wide open.
Wednesday we were back in the sector, and then returned again to Guayaquil, this time with the entire zone. We slept in the hotels next to the temple. Thursday we were there again, it’s always nice to have a hot shower every 3 months. We did another session, and then had a zone conference where president talked to all of us. This is probably putting you all to sleep. It was a week of meetings, and it was good and bad. I guess we could say it flew by, but in the moment not exactly. Rising to the climax though, the office boys brought all of our packages to bring back home! I received my Christmas package pretty early this year. Super stoked, and as you can imagine I did not leave it sitting under the bed for 20 more days. So, thank you very much. I am a Very spoiled missionary, and probably one of the most loved of the 88,000 active missionaries serving around the world. I will never feel unloved. Again, thank you very much. Enjoying the Tevas, very comfortable. Lovin’ the hammock, though there’s not exactly space here in the house to hang it up properly. Um, I got it up in the little back closet. You guys will get a picture. Super comfortable, love having it. It’s sweet, super sweet. I’m way excited to get it out in the mountains with it, do a little hammock backpacking. Anyways, the candy, the cards mom your card I have sitting on my desk...thank you, the P90x videos are gonna whip me right back into shape…as soon as I start doing them, ha. That starts Monday…you know, starting a new week. The tie is super sweet, and I won’t have any problems with E’ Albrecht stealing that one from me because we don’t have the same taste in some things. That’s ok, it’s a good looking tie.
So, some of the upcoming stuff…in the conference we got pre warnings that we needed to go buy canned food, and packets of rice, and all this food storage and extra water, because El Nino is coming! Big rain storm, I’m sure you guys have heard about it. It’s supposed to hit pretty hard, and water is known to get up to waist level and stuff. I don't know, we’ll see how it all goes. We did get our two first rain storms this week. One we were here in Babahoyo, and the other…we found it. All the fields flooded, and all the crickets and grasshoppers came out of the fields to come live in the city. Tell you what, we blocked up our house pretty good. Only one or two got in, but the church, and the buildings, just everywhere walking around outside is tremendous with those things flying around, smacking you in the face, dying in the church. I’m super excited for our next baptism on the 19th because I will have the honor of cleaning dead crickets out of the baptismal font. It’s all worth the price though. It’s all good.
I just recently finished giving myself another haircut. We’re getting pretty good at that. E’ Albrecht comes in and verifies, and touches things up. Just got showered up, looking pretty fresh I guess you could say. I need to get better at these voice messages. This isn’t spiritual at all…just talking. You guys are probably a little bored, but tomorrow will be good. We’ve got church, and then we’ve got meetings, an invasion. We’re going to go invite everyone to come to stake conference in two weeks, but I think we have the Christmas devotional too that I’m hoping to be able to go see. Maybe try to and take some investigators to it, so they can meet the prophet.
Anyways, we’re going to hit the sack I think so we can get to it, and try and stop smelling this rotten milk that spilled all over the floor from our fridge overnight. It then sat and ants died in it, and our house smells like warm, fermented milk. Anyways, goodnight to you all. I love you. Happy week, happy evening. Thanks a million, really…love you all. Take care
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