Week 88 Ecuador

A different view of Bucay

5/30/16 - voice recording

Hello to all you gorgeous people out there. This is…I don’t know what week this has been. Solid workouts this week with Elder Coleman. We’re in week 5 of P90X, and we will be having our beach bodies in no time. We did some chest, shoulders, and triceps this week for the first time. That was a burner, we just went until pure exhaustion…we couldn’t go anymore. Our triceps especially are suffering. It’s been fun though, a lot of good bonding time with E. Coleman. 

Last Monday night we stayed up watching Charlie with popcorn in the evening. I don’t know if you guys have ever seen Charlie, I doubt it. It will pull your heartstrings for sure, so if you want to try it, go for it; or, we can watch it together when I get home. 

Anyways, this week the work has been crazy, crazy, crazy. It’s nuts being out here, not in Guayaquil because we have to catch a bus at least 4 times a week. We’re averaging about 6 hours on a bus each week, and I don’t think I’ve ever been sea sick, but these buses definitely make me a little nauseous. The next day after you’ve been traveling around…one day me and E. Coleman felt like we were walking around with 50# backpacks, with no final destination. We just really needed a kick in the butt. Nevertheless, we did find 3 new less active families, they’re really good. Makes me think of a scripture from John 21:25. I modified this, but let’s see how you like it…and there were also many other (less actives) the which if they should be written everyone, I suppose the world could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. Really though, even if I stayed in this ward for 2 more years I would never find all the less actives. That is for sure, so that’s a never-ending project. The question is, where are the investigators? We have some progressing, some with baptismal dates coming up maybe this week…maybe? If not, we’re shooting for the 18th; get a bunch of baptisms in before E. Coleman goes back to the USA. 

We definitely have our work cut out for us though with a goal of 14 baptisms with the zone in June. President Riggins informed us, really inspired us, this ward used to have 180 members attending sacrament meeting, and yesterday there was 116. Definitely going to be asking him for some tips on how to get that up. We saw him this week, we had zone conference. That was really fun. We went down Wednesday night, went to a temple session, stayed in the temple, then in the morning we had the conference. I don’t know, zone conferences are fun, but I like leadership conferences a lot better; you get straight down to the doctrine and the dirty stuff, so it’s a lot more interesting. We’re going to be having our leadership conference tomorrow. We have to head out there…back on a bus! It’s ok, leadership almost always requires great personal sacrifices. That was kind of inspired huh? 

You guys all know that I love the temple, and I have felt Great blessings by being able to attend the temple monthly. I feel comfortable in the temple, I feel a familiar spirit, and I leave with a heart full of love for righteousness. I hope that Garrett, mom, Tiffie, and the girls had a great experience doing baptisms for the dead. I hope that was an enjoyable time, and that you maybe got some food or ice cream after. 

Me and E. Coleman are definitely going to take advantage this week of making a stop by McDonalds or something for a sundae, because we are craving some soft serve ice cream. Today for our weekly shopping, our main goal is to find chips and salsa. You guys remember when I didn’t even like eating salsa? It’s delicious now, and it’s not around here, so we have to go searching. We have to take a bus, but we’re going to find it. 

We’ve been at no lack of food though. We catered a wedding actually this week, for a family that got sealed. Well, a couple that got sealed, they’re younger, but lots of pretty dressed up girls that are Not from the church, and shot glasses with soda. It was a typical mormon wedding, not what they were expecting. It was fun to serve them, and look at them, and we didn’t get any pictures with them, but it’s a bummer.

We’ve been getting lunches almost every day. The members are very kind to us, except they give us the lunch that I think I hate the most. They give you noodles, with chicken & rice; noodles & rice together, that fills up the whole entire plate. It just kills me, leaves you with a big ball of carbs in your stomach, and you walk around in pain. It’s so hard to finish it, I hate eating that, but we do the best we can. Last night we had a big delicious dinner with the district president. He’s a great guy. I think I talked about him before, but we had beef, potatoes, salad, and she knows that we love pancakes, and so she served us pancakes with syrup for dessert. Ohhh my gosh, we were so stuffed. I will definitely miss families like them, that remind you of home. 

Well, not everything is sunshine and rainbows, I gave a talk in church about the Holy Ghost. I didn’t really plan it, I just went up there with Preach My Gospel, and some scriptures and talked, so I hope it made sense to all the people. They said it was good, but I don’t know, they might just be being nice.  

It was a long day of visits though, on Sunday trying to get…the rule of thumb “don’t baptize families in little towns that are a half hour away from the church”, because they don’t go. We went searching for a disaster of converts…#tear? 

We are also studying a lot, getting ready for the leadership conference this week, and after that Elder Rasband of the twelve apostles is coming on the 11th, so that’s only two weeks away! A lot of our studies have been based on first, who is the Holy Ghost? What’s the role of the Holy Ghost? We’re finding out that the Holy Ghost has a big responsibility. When you start getting into the gifts of the Holy Ghost, it’s in every part of our life. It’s really kind of blowing my mind. We have a thing, we’ll be walking down the street, and every time we remember something that has to do with the Holy Ghost, we go #ghost. That’s like helping us realize…but if you guys have any Holy Ghost experiences, that aren’t super personal…we don’t want to be going around sharing super personal experiences…but something, we would love to hear it. Really open our minds.

Well, just a quick thought before I wrap this up. Do you guys think I’m going to grow anymore? Because my whole mission I don’t think I’ve really grown. I’ve stayed about the same size. I haven’t weighed myself in a while, but I’m about the same weight, so I don’t know, just curiosity. They say that men stop growing around age 23, so you think like my shoulders will fill out, or chest or anything? I don’t think I’m going to get into super heavy weight lifting when I get home. I’ll just be staying fit. I think I’m going to get into triathlons. So, I don’t know how buff I’ll be, but I don’t know, just a curiosity thought. 

Tell Darby to send me a picture of her belly. I want to see her pregnant baby, and a photo of Garrett shooting trap, and his bow. Does he practice with his bow? I haven’t seen that in a while. We’re coming into June, so I’m excited to see those first motorcycle ride pictures, get me excited. I don’t know exactly when Garrett is out of high school, it might of already passed, but happy summer to Garrett! Enjoy that vacation man. I know your going to miss me a lot, but I’ll be back before the end of it. We’ll have some great final adventures before we both, you jump into your junior year, and I go into my freshman year of college. Ok well, wrapping this thing up. Things are great here. The ward is taking some big changes right now, it’s going to take a little time. Me and E. Coleman are working way harder than we should be. It’s a big challenge, but we’re liking it. Enjoying each others company. We talk of all of you with much love when occasions permit, so we love you. Take care. Talk to you later. Bye.