Week 22 Ecuador

Me "testing the waters"

Then I got brave enough to pick it up. Not recommended; I got some good scratches, but photos last forever right?

My companion pretending to touch the iguana...he wasn't a fan.

This is a park of iguanas and fish.

Iguanas in the trees.

etc.

My companion is going home soon, so it was his pick of what to do today. Off to Guayaquil we went, and came back with a few photos. 

Iguanas are cool:)

Catholic church in the center of Guayaquil.

2-22-15 (voice message)

Hey everybody, it’s Sunday afternoon. I’m calling some investigators, and about to go to lunch. Church doesn’t start until 2 here (in the afternoon), so that’s crazy. I’m going to have to get used to that, but...first week in Milagro. Um...it’s been good, it’s been really good. I’m trying to get to know my area, all the members, but really I feel like this area is awesome. People are just waiting to be baptized. They haven’t had a baptism in 3 months, and I feel it’s because they haven’t been prepared really well. I’ve come here, and this past week I’ve put seven baptismal dates, with 2 families and a couple individuals, so I’m really excited to keep working with them. I’ve rescued 2 people, and I’m going to get another one today I’m hoping, and then we’re working with a few other guys.

A cool experience this week was...I met 3 guys my age, they were all out in the street on the front porch studying english. They were like hey, hey gringo. So I was sitting there talking to them for a while, and I was like ok, I’ll help you guys with your english homework if you guys promise to come to church Sunday. So, we’re going to pick them up in an hour. I’m super stoked, ‘cause they have one buddy that’s a less active, and he’s like ya, I’ll come to church. They were all like ya we’ll come, and so we’re going to see how they progress. They’re pretty cool though. My companion kind of gave me the look...they’re not your normal investigators, they’re kind of like wild maybe? I don’t know, they’re cool with me, so we’ll see how it goes. 

As a district leader, I gave a lesson to my district Tuesday, my first day here. I didn’t really know anyone, but it went really good. They haven’t really had a baptism...they’ve had one in the past four months. So, there numbers are really bad, so I went and did a intercambio (companion exchange/split) on Friday with one of them... I went and worked with him for a day. He’s another gringo, with five months in the mission. They’re not working very well, and his trainer isn’t very good. He doesn’t understand the work that well I don’t feel like. He’s not very patient with the people. If he feels like their not “golden”, that their not going to progress perfect, he turns on a bad attitude towards them. Of course with that their not going to accept or warm up to us well. Anyway, I was kind of stressed about that. Come to find out they’re actually going to close that sector, because there’s a lot of missionaries going home, and we still haven’t gotten new people. In Quevedo they had shut down two sectors, and now their going to shut down part of this other one. So, I’ll see who my new district is. 

What’s cool in Milagro? I live really close to the “centro”. It’s like the center of shopping, stores out in the street. It’s not in my sector, so I haven’t really gone over there. We have a shopping here to go buy groceries; all the missions don’t really have that. My house is better than my last house. It’s pretty cool. It’s big, and it’s just me and my companion that live here. He installed this hot water heater. It runs off electricity on our shower head, so I am currently showering with hot water. That is really nice actually, but sometimes I’ll be honest, I miss the cold water. You come home from a long day of working, and your just sweating, and your like no, no I don’t want a hot shower, just give me the cold water. You know what, you just can’t ever be happy, right? 
My companion Elder Gallaro, he’s really a cool guy. He teaches well, but he’s not focused in the mission right now. He’s going home the 10th of March, so I think I’ll be spending my birthday with a brand new companion. Whether I’m training, or whatever I end up doing. But ya, we’ll just be walking around, and his mind is in Mexico. That’s where he’s from. Anyways, this is really random, but it’s a little somethin’, somethin’ for ya to keep you filled in. I felt bad I didn’t have time to write a whole lot last week with the transfers, but I’m really excited to talk to you all tomorrow, and I love you. Take care

2/23/15 (voice message)
Hello, just tuning in for a fitness report on this lovely Monday morning. It’s not good. I tried doing a plyometrics workout this morning and failed about 3/4 the way through, just cramping and crying on the floor. Probably didn’t help that we had a huge meal with the stake presidents wife last night. It was rice...always rice, fried chicken, maduro. We don’t have that in the states I don’t think, but maybe we can look for it when I get back, and you guys can try it. It’s like a sweet banana that they fry. But anyways, I’m pretty pathetic. Dad, you keep up the good work. If I was working out with you right now you’d probably be swinging kettle bells over my head as I was gasping for air on the floor. Mom, I’m excited to hear about the future triathlon training. Hopefully Garrett can run for ya. I’ll be anxious to do it when I get back, and I’ve always had a goal to run a marathon, so who knows at what stage in life that will come. Probably better sooner that later on that one. Um...I still have protein, it’s pretty good, but it’s about out. The other good news though is, it exists in Duran and Guayaquil, and that’s only like an hour from here, so I can probably just go buy some. Thanks for sending it though. Shoot, I just realized something...Darby is probably in better shape than me. After all this time, I don’t know. I’m going to come home and it will be like it used to be at the beginning years of karate when she used to beat me up a little bit. That’s a sad thought. Anyways, keep it real. Stay fit, lookin’ good, keep your beach bodies;) I should probably start studying, because it’s 8:15, and...so I’m going to get to that. I’m going to read in Ether today. It’s a pretty good book. And...my companions still sleeping, but he’ll come around. He’s going home anyway, so what the heck. You can only do so much. Anyways, deuces