Greet everyone you don't know!

Dear Family,

I am so happy for my bonus weeks at the beginning and end of my mission.  I enjoyed your pictures.  That’s cool that you got to go to New York City.  You never sent any reunion pictures, though.

This week they had the “big clasico,” the game between Guayaquil’s two most popular rival teams: Barcelona and Emelec.  Our house is just a few blocks from the Emelec stadium where they had the game so for the past few days there has been a non-stop line of traffic next to our house honking, "Beep...Beep...Beep Beep." (Bar-ce-lo-na, Bar-ce-lo-na)

We had a really good week.  Elder Valenzuela really likes this ward.  (He got a kick out of ward council, too.  It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.)  We have been working with mostly the same people that I told you about last week, but they all seem to be progressing so far.  The bishop stayed after church to interview all the investigators and I think it helped a lot.  I can see that they are resolving many of their doubts. 

Watching your investigators in church is always exciting.  Our ward mission leader got out of the sacrament meeting room first to block the hallway in order to very furtively send all the members back to go say hello to our new friends.  After everyone had gotten to their classes he came over to me, sighed, and then said, "Please promise me that when you go back to your home you will just always greet everyone you don’t know when they come to church."

After getting really excited about my extra few weeks, I started to have some anxiety come back.  I think I saw it as another chance to still reach my baptism goal.  When I thought I was only going to be here for two weeks, I didn’t have to worry.  I still was working hard, but I just felt happy finding new investigators and making new baptismal dates for some other missionary who was going to take over my area when I left.  I just did it because I enjoyed it and it was rewarding.  Work is more rewarding when I am not feeling compelled by someone else or by myself to go, but rather because I enjoy what I am doing. I guess what is really important is how I am working now.  That is what really makes me a successful missionary, not what my numbers are when I finish.  I am still fighting through this internal argument, but I think the principle I am learning is true.

Well, I’d like to stay here forever but I am glad I will be seeing you all soon.  Livi, Ecuador is hot and humid, too, but right now we are in the cold part of the year.

Love, Elder Luddles

I’ll try to get some pictures from on top of our house so you can see how my area looks next week.