Welcoming Elder Garcia...

Hello Lamsluds,

Well, the colombiano se fue (left).  Murió tronquíssimo (He went out trunky).  I am waiting now for my new companion to arrive from Machala.  His name is Elder Garcia.  Another one from Perú.  I am ashamed to admit we did not do much all week except good byes.  Lots of cake.  President Montalti told Elder Castro he is only allowed to be trunky after 23 months and 29 days.  What he did not realize is that Elder Castro passed his 2-year mark the 2nd of July (happy birthday, again, jeje). 

Sorry, I might write again when I get my companion.  He probably hasn’t written yet.

Ciao

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Well, here is part two.

So far Elder Garcia has been great.  He only has two transfers left but assures me he is as excited for the work as the day he stepped off the plane.  He already knows our area a little bit.  I’ve been taking him around to get to know the members and stopped to write.  Elder Castro is reported to still be wandering around the area with another Elder who also served here from his travel group.  Maybe we’ll bump into each other later today.  Elder Castro is thinking about coming back here to study some time in the near future.

Elder Garcia from Lima

Like I said, this week was full of despedidas (goodbyes).  This week, Elder Castro had his best-friend/convert come up from Pasaje to say good-bye.  He’s the branch president down there.  I’d like to be able to serve there some day.  It is a nice mix of coast and sierra.  Quite beautiful. 

Several of the ladies from the ward started a very large stuffed animal fight during one of Elder Castro’s farewells.  They couldn’t control themselves seein´ how Elder Castro’s such a stud.  This morning we got up bright and early to drop off the colombiano at the new office missionaries house.  Their new place is rather decked out.  Aniñado, as they like to say here.  They live in the city center and I was pleased to learn there are actually some rather beautiful parts to Guayaquil.  Anyway, after I dropping him off, I went to the bus terminal which is where I wrote you.

Well, I am excited for the new change.  Every one has told me I got a good companion.  Elder Castro and I had a lot of success but it became a push at the end.  The funny thing is, though, he just wanted to leave so he could come back and live here as a RM (returned missionary).  I’ll tell you if he shows up again in the next few weeks. 

Well, I love you all so much.  It looks like you had a lot of fun doing trek.  I look forward to hearing about all your adventures in a month or so.

Love Elder Ludlam

Elder Garcia is a little worried about how he’s going to pronounce my name.

PS You have to hear about Fletcher´s brilliant idea.  He has decide he will no longer sign his letters but rather stamp them with an image of his face.  He sent me an example so I asked him how he did it and he sent me this.  It is a very Fletcher-esque operation.

The way I made my face stamp is: with our handy dandy cell phones here we have a camera on it and the camera has the option to turn your picture into a pearly black and white image.  So it makes lighter areas of the photograph white and darker ones black, no in between, so in essence it makes a stamp image.  So then I took a photo of my face and changed it in to a stamp image and then I printed it out on just plain paper and then using a homemade x-acto knife from an old razor blade and a pencil and super glue I cut out only the dark areas of the picture.  Then I traced the areas that I cut out onto the back side of a spider man stamp that I bought.  And then the dark area of the stamp is on the back side so then I cut away everything that wasn't dark using my knife and there you have your face stamp.