Climbing Cerro Plateado

Elders climbing up Cerro Plateado

This is where the aliens landed!

Today we hiked up this hill.  It is special because it has a big cross on it.

Top of Cerro Plateado





Christmas is Coming!

Hello Family,

How are you all doing?  I just got a bunch of letters from as far back as November 7.  Some were regular mail, but some were dearelders, too.  Would you mind writing the date at the end?  Sometimes dearelder does it automatically and sometimes it does not.

Opening a granadilla,
a type of passion fruit

Well, someone asked me to talk about all the different foods I have eaten.  So far I have tried fish eyes, chicken feet, cow stomach lining, cow tongue, cow cow, cuy, chifles (fried banana chips), patacones (fried bananas that have been smashed and fried again), and a bunch of fruits starting with guaya- (guayas, guayana, guayabana, etc.)  Here in the sierra, they eat a lot of canguil (popcorn).  They use it in their soups a lot.  I also had a tangerine so huge it would put most grapefruits to shame.  The member that gave it to us said most people are scared of the giant tangerines because they are so ugly, but they are actually really good.

View from above the Agüello's house

This past Sunday, we had to help the family that was feeding us make dinner.  They have five sisters and one brother.  It reminded me a little bit of making Sunday dinner back home.  Not to be "tronqui", I just wanted to let you all know you did not have to worry any more because I have found Andean replacements for each and every one of you.  (I am guessing I will be hearing from you about this comment on Saturday!)

Speaking of which, I am told that I am supposed to call you a few days before Christmas to give you the number and time to call here so you can me.  Calls from the states are a lot cheaper than calls to the states.  I am not really sure why, this is just what the other elders have told me to tell you, so you can expect a five minute surprise call in the next few days.

I look forward to talking to you all on Saturday,

Love, Elder Grant

Caroling in the Park

Hello Ludlams,

We had Zone Conference this week.  It took up a lot of time, but we still got some good work done.  

Hernan's Baptism with Pres. Reiban, his wife, and son Sebastian

This week many of our investigators gained their testimonies. Hernan works in a bank, so he showed Elder Salvioli and I how he checks dollar bills to see if the are genuine.  He gave us a bunch of pamphlets on the security features of US currency so we could go home to verify all our money.  Hernan decided that he wants to join the church.  We asked him if he knew that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet and that the church he organized was the same church that existed in the time of Christ.  At first, he had to think about it and was not really sure.  He started saying what he thought about what he had read from the Book of Mormon and how it had changed the way he looked at the world.  He said that he felt something different when he studied it and then he just said, "Yes, I know that Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet of God."  Then his wife, who was a member before, but never really had a testimony, said that now she, too, knew that these things were true.  

Parque Calderon is where we went caroling

We went caroling in a park as a zone activity.  We had about two or three missionaries taking turns, passing out pamphlets and explaining who we are as missionaries and what we teach while everyone else sang.  It was pretty cool to see benches full of people reading about the restoration of the Gospel as we sang "The Spirit of God" snuck in between "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."  We got some good references from the activity.

This week was Stake Conference.  We had an Area Authority come to speak. President Montalti also spoke.  During the Zone Conference, he told us that we had better give all our investigators a baptismal date before Stake Conference or he would give them one for us.

Well, I hope to hear from you all soon,

Love, Ñaño Nan (your Ecuadorian brother) 

Che Set Everything Straight!

Hola Familia,

I am sorry about the letter last week.  We did not have much time to write after we got back from our little bout with idolatry.  Today I just got back from the office.  I had to travel to Guayaquil to do some paperwork to stay here legally.  I got to see all the office elders again and meet the new assistant to the president, Elder Maguire.  How did you all like the First Presidency devotional?  We arrived in Guayaquil to just here the end of President Eyring’s talk and President Monson’s closing remarks.

These past two weeks we found a few new families to teach.  Hernan Cumbe is probably the fastest progressing investigator.  He came to church this weekend and had a good experience.  His wife is a less active member who came to church with him this Sunday.  They both had a really good time and she started to remember the blessings that come from being an active member. They both are struggling to gain their own testimony.  They both have said they appreciate what they feel when we teach and what they feel in church, but still need the spiritual confirmation of the truth of the Church.  Since this was fast and testimony meeting, I think it really helped them to hear the members bearing their testimony. 

We also found a new couple who own an electronics store, Cristian and Cristina Guaman.  They are one of those mythical Ecuadorian couples who are actually married and not just living together.  Anyway, they are really interested in the message and have turned away quite a few customers so they could pay attention and listen to us when we are teaching them.  Diana got married this week, but is beginning to have doubts about joining the church.  She is not sure she wants to give up all the things in her life that she would have to forgo to join the church. This week we are going to focus on helping our investigators realize all the blessings that come from living faithfully as a member and encouraging them to gain a testimony of their own.

Monay chapel under construction

We have had some problems explaining the first vision, the Book of Mormon, and its significance to us today.  A lot of people have said to us, “If you say that “San José” really had a vision where he was told not to join any church, I believe you.”  Some religious traditions die hard. President Montalti has counseled us to try and give each investigator a baptismal date in our first visit.  Sometimes the people don’t like it, but it has really helped us to know where we need to help them grow in faith.

It is really surprising how many people recognize us as messengers of the Lord here.  When we can get them to understand our real purpose and the significance of what we teach, they gain a desire to find out what direction the Lord wants them to take.  It is always touching at the end of a lesson when we ask them to pray and they sincerely ask for guidance from Heaven.

As preparation for the new Preach My Gospel, our zone leaders have asked us to work on using more questions and really having dynamic discussions with our investigators.  I like using questions to help investigators to realize important principles, but sometimes it really backfires.  It really is a skill to follow the guidance of the Spirit to control the flow of a discussion so that an investigator can contribute the eternal truths that they have learned in preparation to hear the gospel without basing the entire lesson in their beliefs.  So far we have been told a few interesting points of view:

"Hasta la victoria siempre"
Che wears the logo of Quiteño
soccer team La Liga

* There are secret Mormon symbols in the dollar bill and that the founding fathers were all Mormons.  No, sorry, those are the Masons.

* 400 years ago, it took months to travel across the Atlantic.  Now we can do it in a few hours.  So, logically, in the next 2000 years, we will be able to fly in a spaceship to get to heaven.  How is that for a 21^st century Tower of Babel?

* Christ first came to Earth to atone for all our sins, but something happened and it didn’t work so there is still sin in the world.  Christ then came back to Earth as Che Guevarra (Argentine Marxist revolutionary) to set everything straight.

Well, good bye for now family.  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving up in Canby with all the sweet potatoes.  We get to eat a lot of camote (sweet potatoes) down here, too.

Love you all.

Just a quickie!

Dear Familia,

I'm sorry, but I don't have much time to write.  Just send pictures.  I got the package last week.  The latino companions all liked the carne seco (jerky).  It got us through being locked up in the house all day Sunday for the census.  I was glad to get everyone's letters.  Thanks!

This was a good week.  We did not do as much contacting this week because we have a good base of investigators to work with now.  We just learned that there is going to be a new Preach My Gospel coming out and they are going to use Ecuador Guayaquil Sur as "cuy" (guinea pigs) to test it out.  I am pretty excited.  They are truly going to take President Hinkley's commitment to double the number of baptisms seriously.

Next week is zone conference and then we are going to have a missionary leadership conference.  This means the conference is for everyone except junior companions, so they are sending us to work out in Loja for the week.

Well, my three weeks in the Cuenca area are about up, so I guess I'll be moving on.  Just kidding!

Sorry I didn't have much time this week.  I'll write more next week...

Love,

Elder Grant

Great Tidings of Great Joy

Dear Family,

Great Tidings of Great Joy: The Peru package made it through after all.  Thank you for all your letters.  Even if they were all a little old, I was still glad to hear from you all.  I liked the Ecuadorean Hollow Kitty.

Well, Cuenca is quite different than the coast.  The people here all live faster lives and work all day, every day, which makes it hard to ever find people for a follow-up appointment or to work with the members.  This has been our biggest problem this week.  Elder Salvioli has been great to work with.  He keeps pushing us to try and fit as many appointments in as possible and is really good about setting goals and thinking of new ideas to improve how we work as a companionship and then following through with them.  We did a lot of contacting this week.  Up until now, I had not done too much contacting.  The only times would be when an appointment would fall through.  Right before I got here, Elder Salvioli and his companion cleaned out their list of investigators who were not progressing, so this week we rebuilt our program.  We have a lot of prospective future investigators that we have appointments with this week, so hopefully we will be able to focus on teaching people more than finding them.

To me, it seems like the people that we actually teach here are a lot more prepared to hear the gospel.  Either they don’t want anything to do with us or they are genuinely interested in what we have to say.  When we teach them the message of the Restoration and they hold in their hands the Book of Mormon, you can see in their eyes that this is what they have been looking for in their life.  In the coast, just about everyone would let you into their house to teach, but would never really listen to what you were saying.  The problem in Cuenca is that everyone here is die-hard Catholics.  They will accept Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, but insist they will still die Catholic.  So far we are teaching:

• Cristian, a young man who has been questioning if there is a God and if there really is a way to find happiness in this life.  Unfortunately, he will be out of town this week, so it will be a while before we can teach him again.
• Pedro, a chauffeur who has studied with many different religions, but has not found anyone who he felt really had the power to teach the true word of God.  He is willing to believe in the Restoration of the Gospel, but has told us that he is not going to just believe us simply on our word, but is going to pray for an answer from God (something that Elder Salvioli and I were more than agreeable to).  He asked us if there was a prayer service of ours he could attend to try and learn more about us.  “Well, as a matter of fact...”  Whoever said that extending commitments was tough? 
• Diana, one of Elder Salvioli`s old investigators who is dating an inactive member.



Cuy or Guinea Pig

• The family Hidalgo, who are ready to be baptized, but are still working on getting a visa so they can get their marriage license.  They are really excited about the church and keep asking for more doctrinal books to read.

These are the people we have had the best lessons with.  There was one other man, Sergio, who mistook us for his pastors.  We taught him the first lesson and he was receptive to the message, but I think his real pastors found out and now he doesn’t want to listen.  Hopefully he will still read the Book of Mormon to find out for himself.

The birthday girl, Hna Cedillo, cooking cuy

This week will be difficult because this is the week Ecuador is having their national census, which means that all the churches are going to be closed down.  We can’t leave our house all day Sunday.  We won’t be able to progress with any of our investigators until next week.  This week we are going to work on finding ways to confirm our appointments and to make sure our time working with members is well spent.  We had a few days where all our appointments we had planned with a member fell through and we had to just do contacting with the members. 

Right now, Monay is just a branch, so I don’t have the luxury of having a little fleet of ward missionaries at my disposal like in Machala.  Mostly we have worked with the Branch Presidency, who sacrifices a lot to be able to help us, but they still can only do so much.  They are building a chapel for Monay which should be ready in a few months.  They are hoping they can become a ward soon.

View from her parents' cabin

After I write to you, I will get to try my first Cuy.  A family in the branch wants to watch us cook our own cuy.  Cuy is only popular up here in the Sierra.  Now I can check this off of my Must-Do Ecuadorian checklist.  I still need to get mugged and to have banana related digestion problems.

Well, until next week, lots of love from your Andean brother.

Transfer to Cuenca

Hello Family,

Elder Salvioli

I’m on the move again!  I just got reassigned to Cuenca.  I am working in the Molay sector, which is where Elder Gonzalez started his mission.  My new companion is another Argentinean, Elder Salvioli. Cuenca is quite different than either Guayaquil or Machala.  It is cooler, has lots of hills, and has no stray animals in the streets.  I am excited to start working here.  They are splitting Machala into two sectors and Elder Gonzalez is going to be the new Zone Leader. 

Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador

(Cuenca, the 3rd largest Ecuadorean city, is up in the Andean highlands, 8300 feet above sea level.  The four rivers that make up the original Spanish name of this city are part of the Amazon river watershed.  Check out the new weather gadget...quite a change in temps!)

This week was a little slower.  I got to spend some time with Elder Snow, the new elder.  He speaks Spanish really well and we hit it off.  We have a lot of the same interests in music and school.  He is going to the Y, so we will have to meet up there again. 

Sign says "Don't leave trash here"

I had an experience with the converting power of the Book of Mormon.  Elder Gonzalez and I were going to a second appointment with an investigator, but we learned that he had been evicted so we decided to just teach the new family living there.  We did not teach much, just said what we do as missionaries and left them a Book of Mormon and told them to read it and pray to know if it was true.  When we came back, we asked the father if he had read and prayed.  He said he had.  We asked how he had felt during his prayer.  He said he felt the same way as when he first met us and then again after we came back.  He said he thought that this feeling is what was missing in his life and he wanted to become a member of our church.  Then I got transferred. 

If only we could get all our investigators to read and pray.  On my first day with President Montalti, he told me that people here don’t like to read and that challenging people to read would be one of the biggest struggles with investigators.  

Zone Activity at a Mexican Restaurant Back:Elders Velasco, Salvioli, Caal, Diaz, Ferrero, Jenkins, Ruiz, Ludlam; Front: Elder Kjar, Hnas Haggard, Glanzer, Elders Robinson, Johnson, Hnas Deninson, Castillo, Elder Badger

Well, I am excited to be working in this new sector.  It will be a different kind of experience.  I still will get to drink mate every night, though, so not too much will have changed.  Look forward to talking to you all soon.  Love, Elder Ludlam

Pancho & the Stampeding Chanchos

Hello Family!

Elder Snow

How are things back home?  Things here are great.  The new elder’s name is Elder Snow.   The ward is really excited to have four missionaries in Aurora.  This last Sunday, the Bishop said that he thought the ward was doing all the work they could in the missionary effort, but since the Lord decided to send two more missionaries, they are going to try and work even harder.  They are going to call four more male ward missionaries, two more sister missionaries, and a bunch more mamitas (sisters who feed the missionaries).  Talk about doubling the missionary effort!  Most of the ward missionaries here are young men who are preparing to leave on full-time missions soon. 

One time I was on a split with a young man named Andres.  He is the only member of the church in his family, but has been trying to get his family to join for years.  As we passed by his house, he said, “Hey, you should go tell my dad that he needs to go to church today.” His family accepted the invitation and are now all taking the discussions.  The last time we taught them everyone was there except for Andres.  Because Hernan, the father, is only home a short time on the weekends, we decided we did not want to miss the opportunity.  When Andres returned home that night and learned we had taught without him, he decided he would teach the whole lesson to his family again.  We called him during the middle of his lesson to ask about doing splits again.  At the end of our conversation he said, “Oh, wait, before you go, what’s that scripture where Phillip is talking to the eunuch and the eunuch asks what is stopping him from being baptized?”  We told him we thought it was in Acts 8 and he said, “Thanks,” hung up and ran back to go preach to his family.  I think he is excited to be a missionary.

I had my first strange Ecuadorian animal experience.  When we were helping Hermana Natividad work on her house, her daughter brought out their pet cusumbu, Pancho, to show us.  It is some kind of primate from the Sierra.  We though the cusumbu was pretty cool until the family decided to bring it to church to show all the ward members.  We had to lock up poor Pancho in a classroom during Sacrament Meeting.  We forgot about him until a class of Sunbeams found an exotic primate hanging from a bookcase in their classroom.  They all ran out screaming, followed by a very angry Pancho.  It was quite hilarious watching him waddle around the church. 

I also had another interesting experience with the Natividad’s other not-so-exotic animals.  She also has a couple of pigs.  During our first lesson, the pigs kept stampeding back and forth into the kitchen.  The room we were teaching in was really long and narrow, leading to the kitchen, so the family had to sit in two rows on either side of the kitchen door.  Every time the pigs would run through, they had to run the gauntlet because the family would enjoy taking turns kicking the squealing pigs in the side as they ran past.  Elder Gonzalez told me afterwards, “I’ve had kids argue, cats whine, dogs fight, and women breastfeed during a lesson, but never chanchos!" (pigs)

We were able to teach a man who sells newspapers in Quechua (a native Ecuadorian language).  He is very intrigued by the idea of Christ coming to visit his ancestors here in America and that they too had their own sacred record of prophecies and revelation like the Bible.  He is a very avid Bible scholar.  We are going to try and get him a Book of Mormon in Quechua.  He is very excited for our next appointment on Friday.

Goodbye at Machala bus station

I am glad Ava is really enjoying piano.  It clearly is the superior instrument.  How goes the battle against the American Girl Doll menace?  How are your voice lessons Lia?  I look forward to hearing from you all soon.  I learned that it will take a week to get the “dearelder.com” letters out in the field, so I won’t get to hear from you until next Tuesday.

Remember, Big Brother is watching…

Dancing Dinoflagellates & "Giving the Machete"

Hello Family,

Elder Maughn

Well, my bonus three weeks are up.  The rest of my travel group will be arriving on Wednesday.  A new elder, Elder Maughn, just moved in today.  He will be training one of the other newbies.  They are going to split our sector in two.  There are only four neighborhoods that we are working with right now, so the new companionship will help us cover more ground.  Our house is in Aurora, but we also have investigators from Rosita Nelly, Rayito de Luz, and Vergeles.  Rosita Nelly is probably the poorest, but it is also were we have the most people interested in our message.

I was glad to get the letters from Lia and Ava.  I am sorry all the stuff you made got lost in the mail.  Perry the Pumpkin was pretty cool.  So, did the Mortensons make this our first kitty-free Halloween? (No, but they did challenge us all to dress up as Harry Potter characters) 

Lia tells me that my English is starting to go.  After about the third day in Provo, all language became one big blur.  Communication on any level, in either language became challenging.  It has all been mixed up into one big language.  Elder Gonzalez tells me that during lessons, I like to throw in English words in the middle of my sentences to tie my ideas together.  My favorite words are: although, anyway, or, if, and sometimes. 

It seems to me that Lia does not have enough to do.  (Lia is taking 6 AP classes, clogging, playing in BYSO and teaching violin) She should take up Horticulture.  Sorry, but I don’t have any good Grandpa Ivan sibling advice (Grandpa liked to preach self-improvement to his siblings in his missionary letters), but I do have some bad advice.  Lia, I want to share my secret biology study strategy.  If you sleep on your book you really do retain the information better.  Just read a passage, take a little nap, and then reread the passage again.  Once you start having dreams about dancing dinoflagellates, you can be pretty sure you will do well on the test.  And Ava, people do get into BYU with Bs, trust me.  Sorry, Lia, if that invalidates anything I just told you.

This week we got to help a family build an addition onto their house.  We helped to put up some brick walls.  They all enjoyed watching the gringo try and use a machete. Here in Ecuador, when you lay into someone, they call it “giving them the machete.”   The family came to church this Sunday and had a good experience.   I liked what you said, Mom, about your lesson.  There were a few members who did not quite see the problem with running to the store across the street in between Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School.

This week, I did a lot of splits with members from the ward.  Working without an experienced companion made me appreciate Elder Gonzalez even more.  I have so much I can learn from him.

Well, I look forward to getting your letter tomorrow.  Talk to you next week.

Banana Capital of the World!

I am in Machala!    (Click here to find out more about Machala!)     

We got sent out here on Saturday.  We are now in the Aurora sector--which is about 70 times bigger than the sector in Guayaquil.  We are living with Elder Hickens.  It is a little strange to meet an elder and say “Hi, I’m Elder Ludlam.  My mom reads your blog.”

View from Grant's
Machala apartment

Our house is in the middle of the sector, on the fourth floor, way up in the clouds.  Just about every thing that we can see from our view is in our sector.  There is a lot bigger spectrum of economic status here.  In Guayaquil, everyone was about at the same level, living in little brick houses that are all built on top of each other.  Here in Machala, however, there are a number of members of the ward that have houses like you would see in the states while at the same time there are some members living in bamboo huts down in the mud.  It’s a pretty big range.

The ward here is fantastic.  Elder Gonzalez said he has never seen anything like it.  There are one or two young men preparing to leave in a few months on their missions who have been going on exchanges with us.  They have keys to our apartment, so they like to invite themselves over.  The ward is really supportive of the missionary effort and has given us a lot of contacts.  When they learned I could play the piano, they got real excited and said, ¨Finally, someone can play our piano.¨ I believe them when say that they have not had anyone touch it in several years because I don’t think they realized it has gone way out of tune.  After I played, I think they were all a little disappointed.  When I sat down, a ward member whispered to me, “I think the piano may be broken.”

Well, I am really excited to work with this area.  The people are a lot more open here than in Guayaquil.  We inherited a ton of investigators from the previous missionaries.  They have all said they were looking for something in their life, and they felt they found it when they met the missionaries.  It is rather remarkable how prepared some people are to receive the Gospel.  I think I will get to see more of the changes it can bring to peoples lives in this sector.

Maria Magdelena, Andres, Katty, Fabian Estacio

I enjoyed living in the office house for a little while, but it is kind of difficult to have a normal mission life, living with ten or twelve other elders, trying to coordinate who is going to meet which investigator when.  I learned that Assistant to the President only means that you are exempt from all the mission rules.  I had all the big mission home experiences: the iguana park, taxiing to all the different sectors, rat bashing, and sleeping with the air conditioning, etc., but it is nice to be able to just work with Elder Gonzalez and focus on our sector.

Well, I hope to hear from you all soon!



Surprise!

Surprise Family!

I get to write to you again today.  Saturday is only the P-day for the office.  Everywhere else in the mission it is on Monday.  Well, we have not heard back from the mission president yet, so it looks like we may be staying in our same sector for the next two weeks until the whole mission does transfers.  I think I like it this way because I will be able to stay with some of the families that we started teaching when I got here. 

Back: Elder Heaps, Ucler Zambrano, Xavier, Elder Caro;
 Front: Elder Barboza, Luna

There is one family, the Zambranos, with whom we have worked with the most.  Some of the little girls are members, but the parents are not.  We have been teaching the father, Ucler, and one of the daughter’s boyfriends, Xavier.  Ucler has already stopped drinking after two lessons.  I was surprised by how willing he was to start making the changes necessary to prepare for baptism.  We got them both to come to the activity on Saturday, church on Sunday, and a baptism later that night.  I have not been able to talk to them since, but they seemed to like it.  (We have six missionaries working in our sector right now, so we share a lot of our investigators)  It was ward conference, so they had a member do a special musical number on the violin.  He came back for the baptism and to accompany us as we all sang along.  The singing was almost on key, too. 

Anyway, I think they liked the music a lot.  The activity was a lot of fun.  For the Relief Society’s (women’s organization) number, they all stuffed pillows down the back of their shirts, like they had osteoporosis, and hobbled out onto the stage with canes and crutches.  They turned the music on, and they flung their canes off and started their merengue number.  It was pretty hilarious.

P-day hike overlooking airport with Office
(Elders Johnson and Mendez, Zone Leaders)

Well, I way lucked out on my companion.  We have a lot of missionaries pass through the office, and they have all told me I really am blessed to be able to have such a good trainer.  I look forward to learning a lot from him.  He really has a special way of winning the confidence of the people we teach.  He is a very caring person.  When he first made me some mate, he dumped a quart of sugar into it to try and mask the general taste of grass.  He’s going to slowly wean me off the sugar.  He makes us some mate for every companionship study.  It’s not too bad.  He is really good with both investigators and ward members.  Most families here do Family Home Evening on different days besides Monday, so we have been able to do a few family nights with them.  One family has three sons that we take out tracting almost every day.  They have been quite helpful.  I have enjoyed stepping back and looking at the range of families in this area.  There are one or two families that have had the gospel for a few years now, and it is great to think that the families we are teaching now might be as happy and blessed as these families in a few short years.

Well, how are things back home?  Is school still going well for everyone?  There was one girl I tried to help with her math homework here.  It was pretty fun trying to figure out what all the different math words were.  We’ll talk to you all next Monday.  Next week I’ll take my camera and see if I can send you some pictures.  Love you all,

Elder Ludlam

Ecuador at last!

Hello Fam Fam,

Goodbye to Elders Mecham and Farrell in Lima airport

Ecuador at last!  We flew in on Tuesday afternoon, to what I am told was one of the hottest days in a while.  This is good news-- to know this is as hot as it gets.  We were picked up by Elder Griswold and Elder Guerrero (so I guess if you want, you can corroborate my story with his site).  Ten minutes out of the airport, I got to see Elder Griswold proselytize our taxi driver.  I guess the taxi driver belonged to some 666 church, and he and Elder Griswold went back in forth quoting scripture.  The taxi driver started pulling out chapters and verse numbers as he explained his beliefs.  Elder Heaps and I just sat in the back seat looking like deer in the headlights. 

The first day we got to study and hang around the office because Pres. Montalti was not there.  Elder Heaps and I are the only new missionaries, and since the MTC kicked us out in the middle of a transfer, the office was not ready to deal with us.  That night we got to go out tracting with the Assistants, which was really cool.  I think they gave me a skewed perception of how easy missionary work is.  I was really surprised at how similar our practice lessons in the MTC were to how real investigators would react in a lesson.  I remember thinking during our practice lessons, “A real investigator would never say that,” but sure enough, that is exactly how they reacted-- even in my first lesson. 

My trainer, Elder Gonzalez

We have been sleeping with all the office missionaries in their air conditioned mansion. The second day, we met the President and he gave us our new companions.  I will be working with Elder Gonzalez, from Buenos Aires, Argentina.  When he learned we would be companions, he said, “Do you know what yerba mate is?  Good.  Tonight we are going to start our companionship with some mate.”  He is really good to work with and has given me many opportunities to share in the lesson.  When he isn’t talking, I know that it is my turn to go.  When we are in a lesson, I can usually tell what is going on, but when we are just having a regular conversation, I can only pick out bits and pieces. 

I have now had the chance to teach some of the investigators a few lessons.  Even in just a few days you can really see a change in them once the start making commitments to follow the commandments.  I have been really surprised how quickly they make the necessary changes in their lives.  I am already drawing close to these people, but it looks like Elder Gonzalez and I will be heading out on Monday to a new sector to finish out the transfer.  We may move downtown where Elder Guerrero is working now or we may even be sent to Loja.

When we go out tracting, there are little kids everywhere playing in the streets.  They have these little goals they set up that just turn into road blocks.  There is one little girl that likes to test my Spanish knowledge every time we go by her house.  “How do you say giraffe in English?”  What does manzana mean?”  She likes to correct our pronunciation of English words.  One time Elder Heaps asked her, “How do you say ´nariz´ in English?”  She kept on saying “No sé ,” as in I don’t know, so Elder Heaps would say, “It’s nose,” and she said “No sé, that’s how you say it,” and ran back into her room to get her English flash cards to show us she was right. 

The Solana chapel

Well, hope to hear from you all soon.  Thanks for sending that conference question game, Mom. That was fun.  I am afraid your package did not make it to the MTC in time.  Make sure that if you send anything by US postage, you ask for a green sticker.  I don’t think you need to do anything for FedEx, though.   Tonight we have a ward activity.  They call it an open house, and we are having a talent show.  The Relief Society is doing a merengue number, which I think you’d like, Mom.  It should be fun.  Well, I’ll talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Viktor

Unrest in Ecuador, Missionaries in Lockdown for 1 day

In case you may not have heard, Ecuadorean police in Quito shut down the airport and President Correa was tear gassed.  During this period, the larger cities had a lot of rioting and looting, including Guayaquil.  Calm seems to have returned for now.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11455665

Hello Family, 

Hermana Boza in green sweater

I had no idea about the unrest in Ecuador.  Tomorrow I will definitely have to ask my teachers what they know.  I don’t know if we will be flying in or busing up.  Some people are planning on leaving on Tuesday.  I don’t know when they are planning on sending the rest of our district off.  We are still basically the same district as Provo, only without the Bolivians and a few Hermanas added in.  I certainly am learning a lot here every day so I wouldn’t mind staying here a little longer. 

Elder Loli, Emeritus Seventy

There is an emeritus general authority that is somehow connected to the MTC here that we get the opportunity to teach every once in a while.  He has good suggestions on how to improve our teaching and is himself a very good teacher.  He also is very good at making any missionary who is trying to teach him sweat bullets.  He stretches us quite a bit.  We get a lot more teaching opportunities here.  I am getting to the point where I can understand almost everything the latino elders are saying when we teach.  What I probably am learning the most is how to direct the discussion.  Elder Hernandez and I try to always turn the investigators questions back into a gospel discussion.  Lately we have been working on how to share a message with someone if you only have a very short amount of time.  It gets better every day.

Elders Brown and Fuentes wave goodbye

I really do love the latino companions, even if they are always a little naughty.  It is strange though because the way things are set up here, we are in different districts than our companions.  The only times that we get to be with them are during meals and when we are teaching.  And futbol, of course!  The teachers told us that we could not have any more gringo vs. latino games.  It’s a good thing, too.  They all have such great senses of humor. 

Hermano Huerta, farthest right, 4th row

Well, General Conference was definitely the biggest event of the week.  I really got a lot out of it.  I think that with the greater responsibility of being a missionary, I was able to listen to the speakers on new levels.  I really liked President Monson's talk on gratitude.  That is what I want to focus on.  I like how he said that we cannot both be prideful and grateful at the same time.  I think that is what I like about teaching so much.  Once you let the spirit guide the lesson, you can step out of the way and focus on the investigator's needs.  It is always such a wonderful experience.  Elder Hernandez and I had certain topics we were working on improving that we were listening for instruction.  Many of the talks directly responded to our questions.  It truly was an answer to our prayers. 

Elder Hernandez is really happy because they announced a temple in Tijuana, which is where he is from.  I am glad because he can appreciate this blessing even more now that he has been through the temple.  It takes a while for the “dearelders” to get here.  I did not get my first one until the end of last p-day.  You should probably just start sending them up to the Guayaquil South Mission home now.  I hope I'll be up there to get them.  Well, I’ll probably write to you one more time from down here before I’m in the field.  Hope to here from you soon.  Yes, to your question, Mom.

Elder Rojas from Bolivia

Love Elder Lumlum



More Big News...only here 3 weeks!

Hello Family,

How are you all doing?  A few more days and it will be a month that I’ve been out in the field.  More big news!  I will only be here for three weeks.  This MTC is over capacity so they are kicking my district out
with the advanced districts who are scheduled to leave in two weeks.  We are the only North Americans here who can really talk to the natives.  Everyone else has gotten really good at sign language. 

Elder Giraldo, famous for his
President impersonations

The latino companions are all great.  They all like to make the gringos play on the same futbol team so they can dance around us.  When they play, they only call each other by the name of their country.  ¡Paselo aqui, Columbia!  They like doing impersonations of their companions.  One elder does a pretty good imitation of President Whetten.  Every night they quiz us on American pop culture. “Do you know what is Red Hot Chili Peppers?”  One meal, we all sang the Lion King songs and some songs from a few other Disney movies to each other in our respective languages.  It was really fun. 

Elder Ludlam Espinoza, Diaz, Westerberg, Heaps

All the meals here are fantastic.  The chefs really out-do themselves.  There is always a soup and a main dish that is usually a slab of meat with a bunch of rice and vegetables, but the entrées are always prepared by a gourmet chef is seems.  We still get ice cream every Wednesday and Sunday. 

Going through the temple with Elder Hernandez

Today was a really special day for Elder Hernandez.  He did not have the opportunity to receive his endowments before he left, so today was the first time he got to go to the Lima Temple and I got to be his escort.  He has been a great companion.  In Mexico, were he lived, the mission president had a system set up where the young men in the area could live with the missionaries for two months before they left for the field, so it is almost like he has been out on his mission for a while.  He got to wear a plaque and everything.  He has a good knowledge of the scriptures and can usually find one to apply to whatever we are teaching about. 

I am really enjoying my time here, but I still can’t wait to get out in the field.  The Peruvian members here truly make lots of sacrifices to help us prepare to be the best missionaries that we can be.  The teachers, the cooks, the maintenance workers are all really friendly and are more than willing to try to talk to you in English. 

I had my first adventure in the outside world today.  The .5 soles that it cost to ride the bus to the temple were certainly worth the rollercoaster ride. Every three weeks they have the money changer come to exchange dollars for soles (Peruvian currency), and they suggested everybody exchange $20. Since I will only be here for three weeks, I have $20 dollars of soles I need to spend.  If you think of any thing you would like, let me know. 

Look forward to hearing from you soon.  Love, Girndle

I have made it to Peru!

Hello Family,

I have made it to Peru.  I was glad I got to talk to you all yesterday.  It was a pretty exciting feeling when we flew over the city of Guayaquil on the way down!  We could see the lights from the city up in the plane.  Most of the elders on my flight are going to Ecuador.  I did not know there were so many missionaries in the MTC.  We arrived in Lima at 10:30. 

We all made it through customs fine, but waited for an hour looking for a missing elder in our travel group.  It turns out he had actually gone home from Provo two weeks earlier but the Peru MTC was not notified (We only learned this after our bus driver had made the decision to abandon him at the airport).

Thursdays will probably be our P-day.  My new companion’s name is Elder Hernandez.  He is from Mexico, which is rare for the Peru MTC.  Most of the native elders are from no further north than Guatemala.  He already speaks pretty good English, so we have had no communication problems so far.  We have not been able to talk much because they have us split up for today.  They got to start classes while all the North American elders had to do paper work and get a hair cut.  This is the second haircut this week.  They made us get a haircut when we left the Provo MTC so now I have almost no hair.

The campus here is beautiful.  There are three main buildings.  There is the administration building, the building with our classrooms and dorms, and the cafeteria.  We have a big soccer field, a basketball court, and some foosball and pingpong tables.  There is a big courtyard in the middle of the compound connecting everything.  As we wandered around the campus today, there was some sort of celebration outside with live music.  The flutes and singing certainly added a lot to our first Peruvian experience as we explored the campus.

Our dorm room, shared with 4 other elders

The meals here are good.  So far we’ve had chicken and rice.  For every meal we have different kinds of fruit juices.  Since the names are all in Spanish, I usually can't tell what kind of juice it is.  I think that a lot of them are fruits that we don't eat a lot in the USA.  They said not to send any packages to the MTC, but you still should be able to when I get to Ecuador.

Love, Elder G

Building up Banana Endurance--Farewell to Provo

Greetings from Provo,

Today is our last day here at the MTC.  We got back from the temple and we just finished getting checked out at the medical center before we leave for Ecuador.  Elder Heaps had to get a special flu shot because of his asthma history.  While we were waiting, the doctor came up to me and said "How about you, would you like a flu shot?"  The way he said it made it sound like he was offering me a sucker or something like they usually do at the doctor's office.  I asked him if  I would still have to pay for it and the conversation ended right there.  Anyway, we are getting all packed up and ready to leave and getting our last pictures with all our teachers and other zone members. 

District 48 C--Provo MTC: Back: Elder Brown, Elder Farrell,
Elder Heaps, Elder Olson, Elder Reeb, Elder Johnson, Yours Truly
Front: Elder Pederson, Elder Sainsbury, Elder Westerberg, Elder Mecham

I am glad to hear that you are doing well.  Don't worry about your calculus grade, Lia.  Know you can learn what it means to be ahead of the curve.  It is one of the miracles of our modern scholastic system.  You don't need to know all the material, you just need to know more of it than anyone else. 

The travel times I gave you last week are all in their respective time zones.  I don't know how long it will take to get through international security, so I may not be able to call from Georgia.  I will try and call from both places, though.  Hope I can call when everyone is there.

To answer some of your questions:

1. All the food here is excellent and in great quantities.  However, I am looking forward to all the fresh fruit at the Peru MTC.  Elder Heaps and I have been working on building up our banana endurance.  We try to eat as many as we can every meal.

2. I have only met one sister who is going to Ecuador.  I did finally meet Elder Tait yesterday, though.  He will be part of our travel group going down to Peru.

3. We do like to sing "Called to Serve" in Spanish.  I also love all of the other hymns that are not in the English hymn book.

Elder Sainsbury, my district leader

4. We do keep real busy here.  We just have one classroom, but have different teachers that come and teach us every day for two or three hours.  Usually they start with a grammar lesson and then we talk about gospel doctrines or practice teaching a lesson.  For about four or five hours a day, we have Missionary Directed Time where we can do personal study, study with our companion, and practice teaching other elders gospel principles.  The only "free" time we get is at the end of the day to write in our journal and really take in everything that we learned.  I don't know how similar it will be in Peru, but I know we'll still have teachers that teach us every day.

5. I can't wait to get to Peru.  It will be great to be immersed in a completely Spanish environment.  It will also be great to start teaching real investigators instead of just role playing with volunteers.

Mom, I gave back the Franz Liszt CD to the library.  If you want, you can put Helaman 5:12 or some other scripture on the plaque.  Thanks for writing the questions, Ava.

Love,

Elder Ludlam