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.