Grant requests an extension

Dear Family,

How are you all this fine day?  Centenario has been great.  Contacts are a little hard, but we have great members to work with.  The houses are all practically fortresses.  In the richest neighborhood I was surprised to see that there were actually less security measures taken than in a regular Guayaquil house until I found the huge sniper tower in the park in the middle of the neighborhood.  Go figure.  But it is all really clean and safe, so don’t worry.  I am already missing the dark, scary streets of the Guayaquil I know and love.

Elder Ovalle's birthday with Elder Gomez and Chaque

This probably sounds funny, but I had the most exciting ward council I’ve ever had in my whole mission last week.  I have always wanted to learn to work with members better and could never figure out how to use well my time in ward council.  Usually all the different organizations say what they want, but then nobody really makes a plan to try and fix it.  I like how this ward had kept a record of all the assignments and problems from the last week and they all reported on if they had been completed or solved.  Everyone gave good reports on their assignments and everybody contributed great ideas on how to help people in their progress in the church.  It was exciting.  Everyone knew the investigators and was willing to help.  The only problem is that everyone has pretty tight schedules.  Our ward mission leader is also an ex-stake president and he’s great, too.  It made me not want to leave.

Which brings me to my next point.  I hope you all won’t want to kill me for what I am about to tell you.  Brother G decided he wasn’t quite ready to stop being a missionary and asked President Montalti if he could stay until the rest of his group left at the end of the month.  Elder Johnson is looking for a plane ticket right now.  We still aren’t sure if it is going to all work out, but I will try to get back to you later.  Please don’t be angry.

Recently, I have been trying to put into practice PMG's (Preach My Gospel Manual) advice to write all the commitments that you make in your agenda to verify if they are being completed the next day.  I have discovered a fascination for checking off tiny boxes.  It gives me such a sense of accomplishment when I get to take out my little red pen a make a definitive check or X.  Missionaries are weird.

Oh yeah, Elder Piño came to give us multi-zone conferences, so we got to have him up close.  I think pictures are soon to come.  ¿Was he president of Rosario, Argentina, before of after tu, mama (you, mom)?  He told me to say thanks to you for taking me to piano lessons.

An ATM machine robbed me $240 two weeks ago, so I’ve been trying to live on just $35.  It came down tight, but this month’s money came in and it feels so great.  Ice cream for everyone on me!

Well, I love you so!
Mr. Viktorly