Let's Get It Started!

Elder/ Hermana LaMarca, Elder Brock, Me, Marquez, Liberato, Pereyra, Castro
Jimenez, Moss, Linares, Silva, Ñacato
Retuerto, Alvarado, Leonardson, Cruz, Neilson

Dear Family,

It was so wonderful to hear you all last night.  My companions told me I must have broken a phone record (three hours) but at least I got in all of my ñañas.

Elder Jimenez and Elder Ludlam

Well, I guess you know most of what’s going on.  I forgot to tell you about our Ward Christmas party.  It was pretty wild.  Las Américas had the best performance.  They did a choir and sang some songs in Quechua as they did a choreographed Nativity scene with angel, shepherds, and a few cholas cuencanas.  I thought things were getting a little out of control when Monay did a Mannheim Steamroller’s Joy to the World number until another ward did a dance number to the Black Eyed Peas' Lets Get it Started.  I am not sure how it tied in with Christmas, but… oh well.  They only thing they didn’t realize is that they were not dancing to the original song but rather a parody, Lets Get Retarded in Here.  They thought they were so cool.  A little lesson in one of the many reasons pirated music is a bad idea.  It gave the gringos present a good laugh, though.

Elder Marquez likes Barcelona, too

Thanks again for the call.  Transfers will be coming up soon.  I don’t know if they will do them this week or after New Years.  I feel better and more excited now that we had our little chat. 

Elder Marquez is getting a kick out of what I am writing.

Well, I’ll send you some pictures and hopefully some videos.  Thanks for the Christmas Pictures.

Elder Ludlam

Talk to you Sunday! Feliz Navidad

 

Dear Family,

How are you all this week?  I hope you are enjoying winter break.  Everyone here is asking me if it is snowing in Seattle.

Juan Reyes

This week we found a man named Juan Reyes.  He is kind of timid but has accepted a baptismal date.  He has been especially receptive to the idea of receiving a remission of his sins and pleasing the Lord.  We are really lucky to have found him.  We are having some problems with Nancy.  I think we are fighting some hidden Testigo (Jehovah Witness) influences that she doesn’t want to admit it.  She keeps inviting us to their meetings.  She wants a one for one deal.  I think we need to talk about the nature of receiving commitments and covenants from the Lord.

4 pm sounds like a good time to call.  I think you are two or three hours before Ecuador time.  I am not sure what I’ll do about shoes.  Mine are getting pretty "holy".  Missionary humor.

Sorry, but I don’t have much time to write.  Talk to you Sunday!

Feliz Navidad~

Elder Nano

Nan's question for family:  Why do I always have companion problems?  (I am hoping for some kind of motherly machete).

A Good Week in Cuenca

Dear Family,

Are the Evans the family that is from Cuenca?  If you could send a brand shiny new pair of army-strong missionary shoes, that would be a wonderful Christmas for Nan.  The camera hasn’t shown up either.  I was also thinking of something else I would like for Christmas.  In one of your last letters you wrote about how dad was recording violins.  I would like a Ludlam violin/Ava piano concerto to listen to on all my new music equipo (equipment).

We had a good week in Cuenca.  We found quite a few new people.  We met a new couple, Ciro and Nelida.  We went over to lunch in the house of  the Familia Cando on Tuesday .  They had invited over Ciro and Nelida, their friends, because they were having marriage problems.  They want a divorce, but we read to them in the Book of Mormon about the Doctrine of Christ and what we need to be save our souls (and their marriage).  Ciro had some problems about becoming like a child and not guarding rencor (holding grudges) and got kind of upset and left, saying that there was no alternative to divorce. 

Making Tacos with Elder Castro (2nd from left)

We kept talking with the wife afterwards and she told us that she had this feeling that there would be no happiness in getting a divorce.  She said earlier that week they had an appointment with the lawyer to finalize their divorce.  She said she knelt down to pray and plead that she would not have to go through with it.  When she got to the appointment, someone had forgotten the necessary paperwork which bought them some more time.  We haven’t been able to go to deep into the message of the restoration, but I think they felt the spirit testify really strong when we read the Book of Mormon.  The hermana agreed to meet with us tomorrow again and asked us to call the husband to try and get him to listen to us again.  When we called, he said that he had a conversation with his wife and they would both be looking forward to the visit tomorrow.  They are both ministers of their local congregation, but so far have been really open to listen to us.

We also had another reference named Nancy.  So far we’ve only been able to teach her once, but she came to church this week.  She is sympathetic with the JW’s but this week we did the Final Judgement in Gospel Principles (class at church on Sunday), so it was a really good opportunity to compare ancient and modern revelation side by side.  We’ll have to see how well she took it this week.  W also found a few young men in a part-member family called Sucuzhañai.  Javier, the son of 20 years, also came to church.  (Church attendance is twice as exciting in Cuenca).

Cristo Rey

I am afraid I won’t be able to do a pre-llamada (usually he calls us first to give us a phone number) this year.  You have to call here.  We are going to be encarcelados (imprisoned) again this year although this time it will be for even longer.  We have to be in the house after lunch on Friday and have to stay there until Monday.  We only get to leave for Sacrament meeting.  The number of the house is 011-593-87591154.  "011-593-" is the international code and 087591154 is the house number.  You have to get rid of the "0" at the beginning, though.  Looking forward to talking to you.  I don’t know if you want to send some questions ahead of time for speed and efficiency with our 45 min limit.

Well, love you a ton,

Mister Elder Ludlam

Training in Machala

Dear Family,

Who is that penultimate handsome devil ?  
Elders Linares, Marquez, Leonardson, Moss, Jimenez, Nacato, Silva, Lamslud, Liberato

How are you all this week?  I spent the last few days in Machala.  We had a training session with President Montalti.  He talked a lot about expressions of love for our investigator.  He said "not only do the investigators need to feel the spirit in the lessons, they need to feel the missionaries love for them."  I think it is something I can work on.

We are having trouble getting people to church, particularly with Rosa, the single sister I told you about last week.  She wants to go but something always comes up and suddenly taking the sacrament becomes not so important.  Elder Christofferson has an article about always remembering Christ and the Sacrament that I want to use.  He talks about how part of the sacramental covenant is making sure that Christ always takes a priority in our lives along with scripture study, prayer and Sunday worship.  Elder Marquez, my district leader, also helped come up with a plan to bring members along to every visit to help her have a stronger commitment to not leave town at the last minute.

The ward here is still really new so all the members don’t all know each other.  We had a big activity last week where we all went out and looked for the people on the ward lists that we weren’t really sure who they were.  We participated as well because it was a good way to get to know the area.

Last night we had a pretty interesting lesson.  We learned there is a Haitian community living in our ward.  Some of them are already members, but there are still many of them who have not talked with the missionaries.  Since the earthquake took out all the universities in Haiti, they all are here in Ecuador to study.  They told us the reason they chose Ecuador is because it is the only country where they could show up in the airport and ask for a visa.  Spanish is not their first language, so there is a little communication problem, but we are able to make ourselves understood.  We are still getting to know everyone, but last night we talked with Franky.  He is currently going to a lot of different churches and is looking for the truth.  I am excited to be able to talk to them again.

Hope to hear from you soon.  My stack of 7 Dear Elders from November/December should be getting here any day now. 

I am looking forward to putting in practice what I learned in Machala.  Lots of efficiency things.

Well, love you all!  Call number 3 is coming up!

Love Elder Ludlam 

Pasando con los Paisanitos (Hanging with the Country Folk)

Dear family,

Elder Marquez, Ludlam, Castro, Retuerto

I hope you all had a wonderful Día de Accion de Gracias (Thanksgiving Day).  I spent mine in Cuenca!  This transfer came as a shock.  I am in a ward they just recently created a few months ago called Las Americas.  Great News: Monay is now a ward!  My new companion's name is Elder Castro from Trujillo, Perú.  He has only been here about a week longer than I have, so we are still trying to figure out where all the members are. 

We have a few people we are working with.  We are working with the son of a member named Javier.  He used to be close to accepting the church, but his catholic wife doesn’t like that he is listening to us.  We are going to try and see what we can do for him.  We are also working with Rosa, the mother of two young daughters.  She was going to come to church this week but then left town, so we still need to figure out what happened to her.

So far, I have felt I am a much better missionary than I was the last time I was here in Cuenca.  Things are much more peaceful up here in Cuenca.

Well, I am looking forward to another Navidad Andina (Andean Christmas).  It has been great to see all these old faces again.  Make sure you give the Calamardita (little Squid, our cat) a good squeeze for me.

Love,

Elder “Douglas”

Well, this change came as a shock.  When I first learned about it, I was kind of sad I was going to be leaving Elder Johnson.  I guess this has happened a few times.  When you learn about a change, all those silly, petty differences no longer feel important at all and you kind of feel you lost an opportunity to be a better friend.  Then I slapped myself awake and said, "What am I talking about?  I'm free!"  I guess the last few weeks I did a lot to try and have a really good relationship with Elder Johnson.  I guess he reminded me of Elder Sanchez a lot.

When I first realized that that was where the relationship was going, I made a promise to myself that I would do whatever it took to make sure we could leave each other as friends.  I decided I'd find 20 things I liked about Elder Johnson, things that he did really well and that I could learn from him.  He was really good about jumping over the little barriers that people make when you first try to get to know them.  He also was aware of the investigators and remember the different people we talked to.  I geared myself up to try and watch and learn everything I could from him right when they changed us.  I guess I will have to try and follow his example here in Cuenca.  Those skills will be very useful considering people here in the Sierra are known for being very closed.

So far I have felt that I have been a much better missionary than I was the last time I was here in Cuenca.  I also found the great value of humor in a relationship.  One time when Elder Johnson was angry, he called up the district leader.  The DL asked us if it was possible to make each other laugh.  I thought it was really good advice.  I put in practice what you wrote me earlier, Mom, about forcing yourself to talk and it really helped a lot. If you are at least talking, then you have to work to be angry.  But sometimes, you need to make good feelings, too.

I made it another goal to try and make him have a really good laugh every day.  Having him beat me in chess provided many opportunities to put him in a good mood.  I am not really sure what went wrong.  I keep thinking it has something to do with passive aggressiveness.  I am still not exactly sure what that is, Dad, but I think that is what you used to talk to me about.  I think sometimes he would try to get a reaction out of me on different things and I would just say, "uh-huh" or a distracted, "Oh, wow."  I think that is what drove him up a wall.  I guess that was a much more painful way of learning what you had been trying to teach years ago. 

Turkey Week

Hello Family,

Is this Turkey Week?  I think starting this week, we are only going to sing the Christmas hymns for companionship study.  The transfer ends the day after Christmas.

We had a good week.  This past Saturday, there was a Stake activity.  The youth did a "pioneer dance" to Cotton Eyed Joe.  It was fun.  Jefferson, one of the kids we are teaching, participated with his friend.  Since the rest of the young men in the ward were not man enough, Jefferson and Joel represented two of the four young men who participated.  They really like Mutual (youth program).  They just asked them if they wanted to dance in the performance and they said "yes".

We have found some really good people this week.  During one of our lessons, we were teaching a mother and her daughter, Karol.  It was the second lesson for Karol, but the first for her mother.  I am not sure what the mother was expecting in the lesson but I think she was pretty impressed by what she felt about what we taught.  They seem to be a pretty heavy Catholic family.  She said that if her daughter received an answer to her prayer that this was the true religion, she could continue listening to us.  We asked Karol is she had read and prayed about the Book of Mormon.  She didn’t say anything at first but then started to cry and said that her father did not want her to continue with us.  We still need to figure out exactly what happened between them, but we are hoping to try and teach him to soften his heart like the mom.  I think sometimes people accept to listen to us because they think they will be able to poke their finger at our beliefs because of all the things they hear that other people say about our church.  Sometimes they are a little dismayed when they find that the Book of Mormon contains the purest form of Christianity they have ever seen.  I have taught a few pastors like that.

Things are going well.  We have got some good people for our program in December.  Things are pretty cool.  I am excited for the package.  Elder Johnson keeps beating me in chess.  He’s got me twice now.  If he was just beating me, I wouldn’t get so frustrated.  I think it doesn’t matter how many comebacks you can make if you keep making stupid mistakes.  It is kind of the house of cards thing.  Anyways, it has been fun, but I think we need to watch the board games.  Things got a little out of control last year on Christmas and New Years when we were locked up in our house and played about 10 games of Monopoly.  It got a little crazy.  We have just been playing the chess games over the span of several days during our free time.  For example, one guy moves while the other brushes his teeth.  I think we are going to have to limit it to a p-day activity because it has been getting a little too emotionally involved for me.  Sometimes I have trouble studying because I find myself staring at the board. Je Je

Well, hope to hear from you soon. 

Love Mr. Viktor

Feely:  Here are a few of the questions bounding around in Nan's soul:
In a relationship, why does it only need one smart comment to completely knock down the other 50 times you decided to just bite your tongue because you didn't have anything nice to say?  It is kind of like building a house of cards.

What does it say about you if you always feel someone is implying something about you but never comes out and says it?  Is that just your conscience freaking out or do some people have an innate ability for the implicit?

Internet trouble...

Dear Family,

How are you all doing?  I am sorry, but I don’t have much time.  I could not get into the internet for about half an hour.

We had a good week.  It has been weird.  For the last week, we have had all these unexpected people show up to church, but then they never come back.  It is a surprise batch every time.

Zona Puerto Lisa/Centenario

I liked your last few letters.  I don’t know why, but your last one reminded me of all those winter smells as I read about your holiday activities.  Burning fir wood, wassel, juniper.  I forgot about all that stuff.  Now I get a cold if the temperature drops below 80 degrees.  Actually, I don’t really ever know what the temperature is.  34-36 in Celsius.

Sorry I can’t write much.  I will send you a happy Victor picture to make it up.  Your last email about the smile got corrupted.  If you wouldn’t mind sending it again.

Love you all,

Mr. V

Caption for picture:  

Back: Elder Romney, Narvaez, Verduzco, Klingonsmith; 2do-Zuleta, Ludlam, Quishpee, Johnson, Díaz, Roviro, Demke, Juan Pedro, Whitney; 1ra-Brazo de Gomez, Lewis, Linares 

A picture, por fin!

Elders Johnson, Ludlam, Whitney and Demke

Famili!

How are you all this week?  I hope you are all well.

This week the feriado (holiday) took its toll on our program.  Everyone left town so we did a lot of looking for new people.  We might be getting a new house soon.  We don’t live in our sector right now so we want to move.  The new house has a nice, big view.  Hopefully we’ll get in pretty soon.

Feely:  I like what you said about singing in one of your letters.  I think I have gotten a lot better.  Before I just sang kind of softly so that way it kind of sounded like I was in tune with all the harmonics bouncing around and such, but I am getting to be a stronger singer. I sound pretty good in the middle of a South American sacrament meeting.  Elder Castro helped me with that.  He did not like it that I sang softly, being a military man and all.  He had no sense of pitch, but sure liked to belt it.  "Compañero, no quiero decirle otra vez, ¡tiene que cantar DURO!"

I had a really cool experience the other week.  I was on an interchange in another area.  The zone leaders called and said they wanted to come and see a few of the investigators of this area.  When they showed up, they came with Assistants (to the Missionary President), too.  I thought to myself, six missionaries, this is going to be a missionary sting. 

Anyway, that night they went around to a few different people.  For the last visit, we all gathered back together at the last house.  We couldn’t all fit in the house so we just set up a few chairs and sat in a circle and the rest of the Elders standing behind.  It was pretty cool to just see so many excellent missionaries teaching together, feeding off of each others teaching abilities while still having their own personal teaching manner.  Looking around, seeing all those white shirts together in the dark, I realized all those missionaries were my heroes.  After the interchange, I ran home and tried to get down on paper everything that everyone talked about.  It was a lot of good stuff.

Well, I hope to talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder Grant

Día de los Defuntos

Dear Family,

How are you all this week?  I have been excited all week waiting to find out what my sisters will be today.  Is there not a single kitty among you?  You’ll have to send me exactly what everyone is.  Here in Ecuador, for día de los defuntos they make a special drink called Colada Morada and make people-shaped cookies called guaguas de pan.  I never realized it but when I got here last year I tried them a lot but then forgot about them after the holiday was over.  Now that it is that time of year again, it is bringing back memories from back when I was new.

We had a good week.  We were able to get a good number of people to church this week.  Elder Johnson did a really good job during our meeting with the ward missionaries getting everybody excited about helping us to bring people to church.  Yesterday, we had 6 other people to help us comb every part of our sector, reminding everyone to come to church.  I have some things I can learn about leadership.

This week, there was a baptism for a little girl in the ward.  She brought her neighbors, a Grandma and her grandson, Roy.  I guess Roy really liked the service, because he was excited to come to church the next day with his mom.  Liliana, the mom, told us that usually Roy is a misbehaved boy that likes to play video games all day.  When the grandma tried to get him to go to the baptismal service, he threw a big fit but eventually went.  The next day, however, he got up all by himself and asked his mom to take him to church.  The mom realized something really weird was going on and decided to come to church and had a great time.  She participated in the Gospel Principles lesson like she was a member.  She has been praying to find God in her life.  We are very excited about their family.

These last two weeks I got to go to the temple.  We got to go with all the missionaries from Elder Johnson’s group.  I overheard President Montalti telling the Assistants that he liked how it went and wants to try it with other groups.  I think it would be great to be able to have a session in the temple together with Elder Fares, Heaps, Snow, Badger and the gang.  I hope we get to do it.

Well, I am looking forward to my shoe box package.  Hope to hear from you soon.

El Naño

Holes

Dear Family,

How are you all this week?  I got a big huge letter last week.  I think the first person to write in the week has their name written as the sender of all the letters.  At first, I thought Holty had written me an 8-page letter.  You will have to tell Mr. Grease Lightning to ask his Chilean exchange student ¿Qué tal, po?

Well, the camera does not work.  I have a few pictures with Elder Fares but I still need to get them from him.  If we take any pictures, I can get them from my companion.  If you want me to start taking my own pictures, you could risk sending a camera.  I don’t know when I could get permission to go buy one. 

Madre, Ana, Karla, Simone, Carlos Vallejo

What I do need is for you to wire me money for new shoes.  These soles are starting to fall apart again and they are starting to mess up my feet again.  The leather has so many holes, it does not make much sense changing the soles again. 

I am glad Ava is really enjoying running.  Sometimes I wish I could just take off and run.  Every once in a while I have to run after the bus.  I liked being able to run like that.  It is kind of a release.  Sometimes I think of throwing out my arms like John Dunbar and saying, "Matenme...porque me duelen los pies."  (Kill me…because my feet hurt.) What XC events are you doing, Ava?  The Beaverton cross country team had a sweatshirt that said, "Our sport is your sport's punishment."  I thought Ava might like that.

Things are going well here in Amazonas.  My companion and I are plucking along.  Lia, when you read Heart of Darkness, after learning about Kurtz, you will be able to answer your questions about my situation. 

Anyway, I will talk to you later,

Victor das Kinder Taufer

Well, I don't know what I'll do about the new one-at-a-time on the computer rule.  Maybe I can send you more snail mail.  This is starting to feel like another Sánchez.  I have always felt that I lost to him, but this time I hope we can end our time together on a better note.  President said something interesting to me.  He told me that he thought I was a good person, but I need to talk.  If I don't talk, people will think I am a bad person.  I think I have found that to be true.

El Actual has certainly done handstands looking for anything he can use to convince himself that I am a bad man.  I think I need to learn to open up.  First, I'll get to know myself and then maybe I'll give people a l'tour di Victor.  I used to like that Billy Joel song, "In every heart, there is a place, a sanctuary safe and sure."

Ava can help you find it.  I used to think it was such a wonderful idea, having my own personal hermit, emotional safe house where I never let anyone in.  I guess it probably doesn't work that way.  "I am a Rock," by Simon and Garfunkel will have to go to.  What do you think?  How do I bring down the Fortress walls around my yo interior?   I read a poem about that once.

A Family of Eight

Most beloved family,

How are you all today?  I passed by the office the other day to renew my visa so I got some early mail.  I got the most recent letter from the 9th.  I am still missing letters from three weeks before that though, so I will probably be hearing about your pre-sibling reunion activities soon. 

It was an interesting experience getting my visa.  Elder Heaps and I both came to the office to get them renewed on Wednesday, Oct 12.  I think that was the same day I arrived in Guayaquil exactly one year ago.  At about 11:30 am, as Elder Heaps and I began climbing the stairs to go up to the mission office, Elder Heaps told me, “At this time exactly one year ago, we came up these stairs for the first time.”  A lot has happened since then.

Well, we had a good week here.  We have about finished up with all the investigators from the last transfer and are starting to look for new people to work with in November.  The less active family strategy is still giving fruit.  We have some good people; we are just having some problems getting them to church.  We are going to try and involve the ward council more in our teaching appointments this week.

Elder Johnson had to go downtown today to get his censo (census) and identification.  They also gave us portable DVD players to watch the Preach My Gospel videos as part of our study sessions.  Aniñado, I know.  Somos pelucones aqui en Guayaquil Sur (We are big shots here in Guayaquil South).

I was able to talk to Elder Liberato today.  His companion was also getting his censo.  He told me something really cool.  On our last night together, we found a new family.  We did not have anything to do that night, so we decided to just contact and look for new people.  We saw an elderly man outside his house so we started talking to him and he invited us in.  He liked the message and accepted a baptismal date.  After they pulled us out of Los Esteros and brought in the sister missionaries, his whole family, eight people, were all baptized and they were able to remember Elder Liberato's name and track him down in another part of Guayaquil to ask him to baptize a few members of their family.  In all our 2.5 weeks together we worked with quite a few people, but none of them continued with the lessons.  It was literally our last hour together that we found them.  I guess that right when we finished up everything we had to do -- we got pulled out.  I thought it was interesting.

Well, I hope to hear from you all soon.  Hope everyone is reading their scriptures.  Je Je

Su Guayaco favorito,

Nannel

The ward is good

Clan Dudlan

How are you all?  How has the first few weeks of school been for you?  Hopefully I’ll get some mail tomorrow to know how you are all doing.  Sorry, I have no idea were the ceremonial get up garb is.  That is not Elder Johnson’s first name.  Trevor is my zone leader from back in Cuenca, but he’s long gone.  He was cool.

Antonia (Douglas Madre), Ivet, Duvan, Douglas, Moroni, ---, Maria del Rocío (Moroni Madre), Jaquelina (Duvan Madre), Misioneros

We have had a great first week here in Amazonas 2.  President Montalti has been asking the mission to try to implement a new finding strategy.  He wants us to look for really inactive families with little kids, reactivate the parents, and baptize the whipper snappers.  That way, the ward is happy with us and we get baptisms.  I am still warming up to the idea.  The last two elders were really into it.  Amazonas 2 is the land of the inactives, so this strategy works really well here.  It is a small area, so it has been combed over and over.  There is already a Libro de Mormón in almost every house and everyone knows a member somewhere in their family.  We have several families that we are working with.  We are actually having lots of success, both with plan pingüino and with finding more mature investigators.  I still am a little sad I got transferred though.  Eating all my hazelnut cookies by myself without Elder Fares, Kartchner, and Anchundia kind of made them feel stolen.

The ward is good.  There are several ward missionaries here.  They are really good.  A lot of them are RM’s (return missionary) and the other is the seminary teacher.  We had a big member training meeting.  We talked about some of the past general conference addresses.  There was one by Elder Uchtdorf where he talks about how his family tried to talk about spiritual experiences they had over the weekend with their non-member friends in open and casual ways.  We also talked about Elder Perry´s talk from last week, too.  Then we practiced (like missionaries) starting friendly, spiritually-oriented conversations with friends that can lead to deeper conversations about doctrine.

Love,

brother nano

Well, this is a new breed of companion, unlike I've had before.  Se cree Jesucristo.  There is a new rule.  We have to watch each other's monitor while we write.  More information later.

A quick email later that day:
I've never really liked that thing some people do where they say to little kids, "You are the best generation there has ever been.  You are going to do what they never could.  Now missionaries think that people a few years ago did not know what teaching with the spirit is because they did not have Preach My Gospel.  I think that is happening again with Preach My Gospel 2, which just came out.  

The new missionaries are all here to teach us how to teach people, not lessons.  I have been told that I need to change how I teach because I am not looking for the investigator's needs.  I guess it was a blow for my ego, but it is kind of aggravating because he goes around telling the members that they need to straighten up because he's on the scene and they have never seen a missionary like him.  

We were able to get special permission from a mom who did not want to let her son get baptized because of her personal  grudge against the church (which is evidence, I guess, that we are special).  It made me think a lot about being back with Elder Salvioli.  He was a really good missionary and a hard worker, but I always felt we could be teaching better.  I think he could tell I was frustrated with how it worked, too.  I didn't try to pretend that I knew what the solution was to our problems, though.  I don't know.  We will try to figure it out together.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

I would like to invite you to join me in a mass groan of frustration because I have yet another transfer.  This makes 8 areas and 8 companions.

I got the hump day package.  Actually, Elder Fares and I got our packages the same day.  It was funny, because his family sent him a photo album and a bunch of camel pictures, too.  They sent him a ton of junk food.  We have a picture of him lying on his bed with all his stuff all over him.  Thank you so much for the picture though.  (FYI, buscear is like deep sea diving and not swimming pool diving.  A lot of people have asked about that.)

Elder Fares and I had a very lovely General Conference.  I actually only got to see sábado por la mañana (Saturday morning) and the Sunday sessions.  Our zone leaders told us only selfish missionaries go to General Conference and that we should be working.  For some reason, all my zone leaders have said that and then I see them watching Conference.  I guess listening to the prophet is a privilege for only the best missionaries.  As Miss Trunchbull would say, "much too good for children."  I have a plan, though.  I am planning on getting the sessions I missed downloaded onto the MP3.  Je Je

We were able to get a few people to come and listen to Conference, and I think the investigators heard some things that will really help them.  We had a really good week with Nancy, a recent convert.  She was pretty unsure about joining the church but has told us that she has been so pleased with her decision.  She has already made a lot of changes in her life.  She said that after her confirmation, for some reason all her family has started eating their meals together.  She told us that before everyone would eat in separate rooms at the same time, but that now they are together.  Her brother came to visit a few days ago and was really surprised to find everyone together, so now he wants to investigate the church.  We have also gotten the mother to come to church a few times. 

I guess Elder Fares and his new companion will have a lot of success there.  We also had a good experience with Vicente.  He lost his wife about a year ago and it left him pretty devastated.  He got hit by a car and hasn’t been able to work recently so he has kind of secluded himself to the 2nd story of his mother-in-law’s house and doesn’t really converse with anyone.  The other day, we taught him a little lesson and then afterwards he invited us to see his pictures of his family that I think he kind of broods over all day.  It was really good for him to let us share that with him.  Hopefully, the members will be able to get the same kind of confidence with him that we have been able to get.  The Elder’s Quorum has already come to his house and washed his car.  I will try and get you the picture.  We took it on the Zone Leader’s camera and they were going to give it to us today.  Oh well.

Elder Johnson

My new area is Amazonas 2 in Centenario, right across the river from Amazonas 1, which is where I was in early summer.  My companion’s name is Elder Johnson from LA, California.  From everything I can see, he is super pilas.  They seem to have a pretty good program here.  I sure will miss working with Nancy and her family.  I guess I should never get too comfortable in an area because that means I will probably be transferred.

Well, I hope to hear from you soon,

Love-- Elder Lovelumps

A Twix Moment

Dear Family,

How are you?  Good news. Elder Anchundia got a weird bump on his finger and went to go see the nurses.  While they were in the office they were able to get a bunch of letters as well as Lesson 1 pamphlets, tiny hymnals, scripture covers and other such useful things we have been waiting months to receive that the office has been hoarding.  They just got back a few minutes ago.

We had another interesting week.  We were going to have this guy and his sister be baptized soon, but the guy had some problems he didn’t tell us about so we had to postpone him.  Later events (edited for privacy) reminded me of a string of Twix commercials I saw before I left.  Someone would make a really dumb comment, the whole world would slow down, he’d pull a Twix out of his pocket, take a bite, and then think of something really clever to say to blow smoke and get himself out of trouble.  Anyway, Elder Fares was pretty quick on his feet, so it all turned out happy.

This week we found this guy who has had a terrible sad story to tell.  When he was 13 years old, he was drafted into the army to fight against the Peruvians and the Japanese in WW2.  He was a support gunner, but received very serious back damage from having to carrying around over 50 pounds of ammunition.  He could not afford medical treatment, but somehow, someone helped him get to Cuba, where they were able to save his life by injecting him with spinal fluid or something.  He went back to Manabi where he was able to get a finca (rural property) and lived there for a while.  Now he is all alone.  We hope to be able to help him, but his church is giving him a little bit of support money and has forbidden him to talk to us.

Things are going well with Elder Fares and me.  Transfers are next week, so I hope we will get some more time together.

Well, talk to you soon--

Nan-man

I haven’t received any picture emails for the past several weeks until the 22nd with the picture of the girls on the teeter totter and Livi and Luci off to school.

Noche en Blanca incident

Dear Family,

How are you all this week?  I had a great first week in Salado 2.  

This week was Stake Conference.  They tried to plan a lot of fellowshipping stuff for the investigators after the conference, but I don’t think it was planned too well.  They wanted to have a large baptismal service (Noche en Blanca) shortly after conference so that many of the investigators could attend and have a positive experience with baptism.  Most of the investigators already acquainted with the church and our activities were wise enough to run for the hills when they heard there was going to be a non-member focused activity after the meetings.  So, the only people they roped in were the people whose first exposure to the church was this conference.  Since most of these people showed up unexpected, nobody knew who most of them were.  

We herded them into a back room to try and sort them out and assign them a missionary until we realized the baptismal font was flooding the entire chapel.  A bishop from another ward tried entertaining the investigators by handing out free Young Women stationary and seminary study materials while about 12 missionaries from our zone ran around the chapel trying to stop the flooding.  I guess some member had turned on the font pump during stake conference to get it ready for the Noche en Blanca but they locked the compartment that had access to the pump knob.  They forgot to turn off the pump, so we had to fill up buckets from the font and then flush them in the bathroom to stop the water from continuing to spill into the halls.  It was lots of excitement.  I felt bad for the investigators.  During the commotion, most of them had looks on there faces saying "Why can’t I go home?  Is the flooding serious?  Will someone please tell me what is happening?”  After we cleaned up, we had a nice baptismal service.

Anyway, we have a few people who are progressing.  The first is Vicente. He’s had a rough past few weeks so he’s been hard to get a hold of, but he’s certainly confident in his decision to join the church.  We are also working with familia Buenaño.  They have a long time in the program but have finally accepted a baptismal date and are also ready to be members.  They all were able to come to conference and enjoyed the experience. (although none of them witnessed the Noche en Blanca incident)  We have one or two other families that we have only visited once or twice, but we hope they’ll continue to progress.  Well, I’m sorry.  I guess this kind of sounds like my carta to presidente (weekly letter to the mission president).  

I talked with Elder Carnese.  He is the mission secretary which I guess means he is the only office missionary.  President Montalti thinned the office staff out a little bit.  Elder C was glad to hear I knew Forest Grove and asked me if I knew an ice cream place there. That is my report.

Elder Fares’s camera is damaged, too, but we usually go out with Elder Kartchner and Ayundia and they have cameras.  I haven’t been able to get my camera fixed.  You should know there is a new mission policy that we can only have permission to leave our zone once every transfer so most p-days we have to just hang around Salado 2. Guayaquil is not as great for P-day excursions as Cuenca.

How is everyone doing in the new school year?  I’m kind of disappointed I won’t be receiving any pictures today from the famfam.

Well, talk to you all soon.  

love brother nanito

First gringo companion...sort of

Greetings from Salado 2!

Elder Fares

I am on the move again. I think I just need to visit El Cisne and I’ll have been in every zone in Guayaquil. I have a wonderful new companion, Elder Fares. He is actually from my MTC group. He is originally from Miami, but has moved around a lot from California to Utah. First gringo companion. Actually he’s gringo-latino. His family is from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. With some of my other companions I kind of lied through my teeth to talk them up, but I can honestly say my new companion is awesome. I am excited. So far, I only have two days here. I got here on Saturday. They pulled both me and Elder Liberato out of Esteros. We are living in a foursome with Elder Karchner (AZ) and Elder Anchundia (Manabí, Ecuador).

More exciting news: Elder Uceda of the Seventy in new regional presidency came to visit Guayaquil yesterday. He talked to us about having more effective study time. He made a cool illustrative example. He drew a four by four grid on a white board and asked the missionaries how many boxes they could see. Some said 16 and some said a few more. He showed how you could find more boxes by making groups of 4, 9, and 16 boxes. He said that sometimes when we study, we say there are only 16 boxes and skip over a passage because we think we know it, but if we take it slower and ponder important words, we can find 17, 21, or 30 boxes.

Anyway, I am still getting to know the investigators, but it sounds like we have some good people. We have a really good ward mission leader, Hno. Saenz. He was bishop in the past so he knows how things work. No more of this lazy unmarried RM business. Hno. Saenz likes gospel trivia.

Well, hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Nane
(Is LaFawnda the new phone?)

Hope you have a good dinner with the new biker-buddy DeGooyers.  Pres. Montalti says hi, Bup.

I like members...

Hola Familia,

Bueno, I hope you get everything out of your last hours of summer. I guess you still haven’t gone in yet. What did Lia give her talk on?

This week we had a couple of meetings with President Montalti. I got to see the new guide for training a new missionary. The church has a new study plan for the first 12 weeks a missionary is in the field. It goes through the new Preach My Gospel lessons that I’ve never really been able to see. Presidente Montalti has taught them to all the missionaries in leadership, but they have never taught them directly to the other missionaries. I liked how they focus on really teaching the basic and most important parts of the gospel and how we can help them get past the general problems they have with reading, praying, and going to church. President gave a conference on how our attitude is a reflection of our faith. I need to make sure Elder Gruñón does not come and visit Ecuador.

This week we worked with a young woman named Faviola. She is the sister of a recent convert. She had a great time at church and is already friends with all the girls her age. So far the only potential problem is her cranky serrana mother. When we went by her house to pick her up for church, she was all ready to go but her mom did not want to let her leave. We tried persuading her, but eventually gave up. We passed by the house of another member family, Familia de la Torre, and told them what happened. The sister said, "Her mom won’t let her go. Just leave this to me." Fifteen minutes later we were pleased to see Faviola arriving to the chapel with Fma. de la Torre. I like members.

Anyway, I hope to hear from you tomorrow at district meeting. I am about 4 weeks behind. Elder Liberato told me that there are only two missionaries working in the office right now. He does have a camera but is looking for a charger. I have heard that there are some good people here who fix cameras. I may try and find someone to look at mine and see if it is salvageable. I also have damaged a few other expensive possessions. My shoes are going to have a blow on the heel any day now. Should I just buy some Ecuadorian shoes? I may be able to get a good pair at the mall. My shoe size is always the largest they carry in any shoe store.

My good pair of glasses broke. That is old news, but I had them kind of fixed and now they are really broken. If I get someone to try and solder the frame, will that damage the lenses? The nose piece is what is broken, right next to the lens. The only problem with the Zach pants is that they need to be dry cleaned. I’ve already had a few pairs of pants damaged by mamitas so I am afraid to use Zach’s a lot. They fit well though. I actually have inherited another 3 pairs of pants from missionaries who have left their clothes behind, so I don’t need any more. I’m good in the clothes department til the end of the mission, I think. Just socks, but I can get those easy here.

Well, Talk to you later
Elder Ludlam

Full of Pingüinos!

Hello Family,

How are you all? I had a good first week in Los Esteros. The members here really like the missionaries. Mucho Cariño (they care about the missionaries).

We found a new investigator named Javier. He is the son of a part member family. When we came to visit with his father, Javier invited us to come back and visit with him. He told us that he had intended to be baptized with his family but had lost contact with the missionaries when he left town for a new job while they were still teaching his family. He came back to live with his family, but never really became interested again in the gospel. Hopefully, we will be able to start teaching him and help him gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.

We are also working with a young girl named Karola. She can't decide if she really wants to join the church or not. Much of her problem is her parents. I think they are disappointed that their son, Yahir, did not solve all his problems when he got baptized so they don’t want the same to happen with Karola. We taught a few of Yahir’s friends. Those chicos have quite a few problems. In my one week here in Los Esteros, I think I have run into more pura babilonia (pure Babylon) than anywhere else in my mission. This place is crazy.

Here is some more missionary jargon. A few years ago, there was some problems with missionaries paying little kids in ice cream to sit down to be taught and then be baptized so now missionaries like to refer to such kiddie-baptisms as Pingüinos (a big brand of ice cream here in Ecuador) At least that’s how the story goes. Anyway, if Las Amazonas was full of Dollies, then Los Esteros is full of Pingüinos. Je Je. Actually, a lot of the kids here are really good. They know their stuff. When we come to give the new member lessons, we just have to say, "Plan of Salvation. Go!", and they teach us.

Well, I might get another trip to the Bahia and Malecón. Elder Liberato needs some new clothes so he has been asking permission to go there to get them cheap. They told us no for this week. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get you some pictures with the new companion next week. The pictures with Elder Garcia didn’t really turn out. I was angry because Brian, our investigator-guide-shopping consultant was afraid to let us take his picture. I think he was still suspicious deep down that we were somehow affiliated with the CIA even though we went to his house almost every day of the week for nearly a month. Oh well.

When I asked him if he would accompany us to Malecón, I asked using a word that sounds ever so slightly different but means something very different indeed. He gave me a "What did you say to me, boy?" look and then remembered I was a gringo who still did not know what most of the words coming out of his mouth meant. Oops.

Anyway, I guess your summer has finally come to an end. I don’t know if it went faster for you guys or for me. Lia’s a senior. Now you need to be the Bull Goose Looney on campus (you’ll read that book this year). Ava’s going to start high school and seminary. Who is the Freshmen-Sophomore teacher? Sorry if I am forgetting anyone else’s steps up the scholastic hierarchy. You’ll have to remind me what grade the other gua guas are in.

Well Ta-Ta for now,
Guh-ur-aa-double "n"-ter

Transfer to Los Esteros!

¡Cambios!

I just got transferred to a new sector in Guayaquil called Los Esteros, Zona Puerto Nuevo.  So far it reminds me a lot of Los Almendros.  They are pretty close to each other.  Nice wide streets, well-kept side walks.  This is the nicer part of Guayaquil.  I am told they have quite a few people ready to be baptized in September.  I was a little disappointed that I will miss Patricia’s baptism, but I guess that is almost always how it goes with transfers.  She was pretty excited to join the church.  We still had some trouble getting a hold of her this week, however, since her life is kind of up in the air. 

Elder Liberato

My companion’s name is Elder Liberato.  He is from Guatemala.  (He is in a picture I sent way back when I first started with Elder Castro and we had a barbeque on top of our house, if you’d like to look it up)  He tells me this is another good ward and the members are all willing to help.  There is a sister here who is preparing to leave on her mission.

Elder Garcia gave me his MP3 device so now I will be able to listen to my Men of the MoTab whenever it strikes my fancy.  Elder Garcia is going to train his last transfer.

Your package with the pants got here.  My district was quite impressed.  Thank you so much for the book.  Even though it was a marriage book, it was really more about the atonement.  I got some good material out of it.  Even though it has basic gospel truths, I really liked how the author organized them all and turned it into something practical.  I have already used its message a lot.  Are we really living in a way in which we can see the power of the atonement taking a daily effect in our hearts?  Especially here in South America, people say all the time that Jesus is in their hearts and that they already  feel his love, but they don’t realize that if that were completely true, they would not be subject to all the heartache and suffering in this world and they could be free from committing sin.  Like Elder Gonzalez said in his conference talk, the covenants that we help people to make are an additional help and blessing to all who are already trying to come unto Jesus.

Just so you know, I am not quite sure that reading books that are not in the missionary library (even if it is gospel related) is completely in "accuerdance" with the rules.   I think I made up that world.  You may consider removing my record above of our illicit actions.

Well, I hope to talk to you soon.  Happy Birthday, Lia.  Hope you had a fabulous Moses Lake extravaganza

Love, Your brother Nan.

Also, the ward is going to have a foreign foods night.  I was hoping for suggestions of something within a missionary’s budget and my culinary abilities (I will remind you of my Freshmen College diet of Raisin Bran and PBJ sandwiches)  They want a meal and a dessert.  Elder Griffin, the previous elder, had already committed to bring some yummy comida estadounidense (USA food).

Spacetime in Guayaquil

Hello Family,

How are you all?  They gave us permission to go to Malecon.  It will be fun to visit.  We are bringing Elder Garcia’s camera.  I don’t know how things will turn out.  I will try to write again afterwards to see if I can send pictures of Elder Turista (Tourist).  Brian and Joao will be going with us.  The real purpose of this whole expedition is for Elder Garcia to buy his dirt cheap iPod, I will remind you.  We are hoping Brian and Joao can help us buy it at a Latino price and not a gringo missionary price.

The young lady I told you about last week is progressing well.  She told her family that she has decided to join the church.  We haven’t had too many appointments with her because she has been busy moving all her stuff to her parent’s house and getting her children enrolled in new schools.  We also learned that she may have a few problems with not working on Sunday, but that should not be too much of a problem.

We had a little issue with people letting themselves into our chapel by jumping the fence to celebrate 10 de Agosto (yet another Ecuadorian independence holiday).  ¡Viva la fiesta!

Well, I hope to hear from you soon.  Last week, I somehow got the letter from you from the same week.  They gave us mail a little later in the week.  You all seemed not so far away, only being about three days distant on the time-space continuum.

Love,

Your brother (who is already forgetting his AP Physics)

Feely:  We found a young man who the missionaries had taught over a year ago named Guillermo.  He is in a navy school.  He had gained a testimony back with his first missionaries, but his mother had not let him join the church.  His 18th birthday is in just a few days so we will see if he has the valentía (valiance?) to do what he knows is right.  His situation kind of reminds me of Miguel Antonio.  I think I wrote to you about him.  Both these young men were quite involved in church activities for a long period of time, but because their parents did not give them permission to join the church, they could never really become integrated and eventually separated from the church.  The bishop even told us that Miguel was always the first youth to arrive for sacrament meeting and was very active in seminary.

Actually, one time our zone leaders came to visit him and Miguel was able to remember a scripture before the zone leader.  I think the main reason he fell away is because of the incredibly ugly situation at home.  We quickly learned we could not teach him at his house because his mother and grandmother would not stop telling Miguel to stop lying to us and that he was a lost cause and so forth.  He spends most of his time in the streets looking for stuff so he can try and escape from his family members.  Since he fell away from the church, he has picked up a lot of bad habits from the people he is spending time with.  These are bad habits that will keep him from joining later when he turns 18.

I have been thinking about him and about what he has gone through.  How responsible will he be for what is happening in his life at the Judgement Bar at the Last Day?  I am hoping that since Guillermo is a little better founded in a military school and has his life in order, he will be able to succeed where Miguel could not.  We invited him to be baptized in September, but he said he will have to think about it.  His mom used to like the church and the missionaries a lot until she suddenly did not want anything to do with the church.  We learned this was due to Guillermo's soon-to-be father-in-law, a Testigo de Jehovah (Jehovah's Witness).  Now Guillermo's mom wants him to be a JW.  Luckily, he told us he does not care too much for them.  He told us there is some weird stuff going on in their Bible.  Je je.  I am looking forward to talking to him on Thursday.

Pretty Good Week

Dear Family,

How are you all this week?  This week has been pretty good for us.  We have started teaching the oldest daughter of a part member family.  She has recently moved back in with her parents.  When the home teachers came over to talk with her family, she asked for them to send us to talk with her.  She had never read the Book of Mormon, but has heard a lot of rumors about the church and decided the best way to find out about the church was reading the Book of Mormon.  She found by herself in Moroni 8 and said she really liked it, which is a response we don’t hear very often in a country in which 98% of the population is Catholic.  Most people have found that Mormon uses some strong language. 

Anyways, she has picked up the information really quickly.  The only problem is that she has already told us that she received a spiritual confirmation to her prayer, but is still a little unsure if she wants to join the church yet.  She has studied with several different religions, which is good because she has been able to see the crystal clarity in which the Book of Mormon lays out many of the most highly debated topics in the Christian theological world, but it is bad because she is having a little trouble renouncing old ideas.  We have our next lesson on Tuesday.

We are also working with another gentleman who has had several head injuries but has been interested in what we teach him.  If we talk about a subject that is familiar to him, he is usually able to hold a completely coherent conversation, but sometimes we have to put our lessons on hold for a moment or two because we realize he is staring blankly into our foreheads.  He is easy to get a hold of, so we have been able to work with him a lot.  He works on shipping boats, so we don’t know if he may leave soon.

Those are our two main investigators for the moment. 

We didn’t get permission to go to Malecon.  Maybe next week.  I guess you saw in the last pictures I sent that Elder Garcia’s camera has the same purple problem as mine.  We have similar Canon models.  I am afraid my camera has finally expired.  It has come back from the dead a few times, but I don’t have much hope for it this time.  I might give it to someone to see if they can do anything.

Well, I’ll talk to you soon.  I was very pleased to hear about your ninja adventures at camp mom.  I hope you were able to let all your giggles out.  I am sure glad to hear you’ve started biking to work, Dad.  Every now and then I get the ganas to get on a bike and ride around.

Sincerely yours,

Mr. Squiliam G. Sledgeham, esq.

Feely:  I am having Peru problems.  I guess you know that Peruvians and Ecuadorians don't like each other at all.  I am afraid that my relationship with my companion is deteriorating lately.  I have been ignoring most of what he says because everything is either comment about how terrible our ward and Bishop are or he is making fun of the mentally handicapped young man that likes to follow us around or how things would be different if we were in Lima.   I am still looking for a good way to broach the subject and ask him if he could please be a little less discriminatory and biased.

This has actually been one of my favorite wards.  I tried asking Elder Sanchez to be a little less prideful, and it did not go over too well.  "How dare you?  What have I ever done that could possibly have been taken as prideful?"  I have realized making petitions like these are like explaining to a blind man what the color red is.  Any how, things are actually going pretty well between us.  I have found that buying food, shining shoes and cleaning up the house every once in a while is enough to make just about any companionship with a latino work as long as they don't have a pre-existing vendetta against you.

Mi Recinto

Dear Family,

Hope you had a good time in Oregon.  Sometimes I still say that is where I am from.  I tell them that is where Nike is.  Washington is where Microsoft is.  Sometimes I just say I was born in the Bronx.  People like that one the most because they know where it is.  "You're from a barrio dañado, también (damaged neighborhood, too)?"  Well sort of.  Actually, I lived with Jewish medical students.  I did have my diapers stolen, though.

For Faro, they had a cultural night that I think you would have enjoyed.  They made food and did traditional dances from each of the different providences of Ecuador.  Everyone’s favorite part was when the Relief Society President’s family represented Los Ríos and did impersonations of the main character from a TV show here called Mi Recinto .  He runs around swinging a machete, makes lots of double entendres, and talks funny like they do in Los Ríos and Manabí.

Next week, Elder Garcia and I are hoping to visit Maricón and Las Peñas, Guayaquil’s traditional neighborhood.  There are a couple of good sites there.  Elder Garcia also wants to look for a cheap iPod in Ecuador’s largest flea market, La Bahia.

This week, Joao brought a couple of his friends to church.  They were not all that impressed and tried to run off after sacrament meeting, but Joao chased them down and brought them back to the corral.  One of them tried hiding in the girl’s bathroom.  He has won a couple more karate tournaments.  His mom, Hermana Dioselina, got mad at him the other day because he was in the newspaper and did not tell anyone.  He does not like too much attention.  I also just learned today that Pablo Elizalde passed away.  I am sure glad I got opportunity to get to know him.

Elder Ludlam and President Montalti

Recently, President Montalti has been asking this question a lot.  "How do you feel about the Savior?  The plan of Salvation?  The Book of Mormon?  Elder Nash also talked about those questions when he came a few months ago.  It can actually be quite an introspective question if you don’t just quote or paraphrase a scripture.  It is what I have been thinking about and I wanted to know your thoughts on it.  President Montalti’s other favorite question recently has been "Do your key indicators reflect the doctrine of Christ?"  You don’t need to answer that one.

Bup sure looks great in that picture you sent.

Well, I’ll talk to you soon.

Nannels