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…