­­¡Muchas Gracias a los Evans!

Dear Family,

I got the package you sent with the Evans!  This has been a lot of packages all at once.  I loved the recordings.  Lia is sounding pretty good.  I would have liked to have heard from Ava as well.

Anyways, this past week we have been working in a different part of our area.  It is way out on the edge of town, but it seems like there are a lot of good people out there.  We have been using a new contacting strategy.  We call it using the "Gringation".  It works best at night.  One of the problems we have here is that people don’t like to answer the door.  The just stick their head out the 2nd story window and shout, "What do you want?" When they do that, I mumble really loud so they don’t really know what I am saying.  I figure if people can’t see that well nor hear what is going on, they are a lot more easy to manage.  So far it has worked well in getting people to come downstairs and then we can at least shake their hand and have a nice conversation about the Book of Mormon or something.

We found a new guy named Sergio.  He is really good; the only problem is that he needs to get married -- but his family lives in Guayaquil so he may have to be put on hold for a while.  We had a good lesson about how the Gospel helps us be freed from sin and that we need our whole life time to be completely purified but that we need to always have the desire to do anything the Lord asks and how that all ties in with the sacrament.

Feely
I really enjoyed what you wrote in the package.  It helped a lot.  I need to focus on being a better example for my companion.  This Sunday, we didn’t have a gospel doctrine teacher so my companion did the class. He ran out of stuff to say so he started just sharing all the wisdom Elder Ludlam has shared with me.  I thought it was pretty interesting all the stuff he was listening to.  I guess it sounds corny, but recently I have been trying my hardest to do everything in the handbook and follow the schedule.  I still have stuff I need to work on, but it does bring a lot of satisfaction knowing you are trying to do everything the Lord asks.  

I used to get angry when we’d have to drop an investigator and my companion would say, "Well, we did everything we could."  I used to think, "No. We never really explained our purpose clearly, they didn’t understand what they needed to do.  We should have taught this principle, we should have brought more members over, etc."  But now I guess I can kind of see how it would be-- to being able to feel confident that I had done my job.  I’ll have to try even harder this week.

Well, thank you so much for all the thought that you put into your letters to me.  They really are what I need to hear right when I get them.  You are almost as good as the Book of Mormon.  I learned that I can’t ask to extend.  If president wants me to extend, he’ll let me know.  I hope I won’t miss fall term by a week just so I can stay around the house for a few months.  I kind of like how you all miss me and I think if I stayed around too long all those nice feelings will somehow disappear.

Well, taytas y nanas (that was Quichua). I love you so.  Hope to hear from you soon.  

Love, Brother Gruñón