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.