Unrest in Ecuador, Missionaries in Lockdown for 1 day

In case you may not have heard, Ecuadorean police in Quito shut down the airport and President Correa was tear gassed.  During this period, the larger cities had a lot of rioting and looting, including Guayaquil.  Calm seems to have returned for now.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11455665

Hello Family, 

Hermana Boza in green sweater

I had no idea about the unrest in Ecuador.  Tomorrow I will definitely have to ask my teachers what they know.  I don’t know if we will be flying in or busing up.  Some people are planning on leaving on Tuesday.  I don’t know when they are planning on sending the rest of our district off.  We are still basically the same district as Provo, only without the Bolivians and a few Hermanas added in.  I certainly am learning a lot here every day so I wouldn’t mind staying here a little longer. 

Elder Loli, Emeritus Seventy

There is an emeritus general authority that is somehow connected to the MTC here that we get the opportunity to teach every once in a while.  He has good suggestions on how to improve our teaching and is himself a very good teacher.  He also is very good at making any missionary who is trying to teach him sweat bullets.  He stretches us quite a bit.  We get a lot more teaching opportunities here.  I am getting to the point where I can understand almost everything the latino elders are saying when we teach.  What I probably am learning the most is how to direct the discussion.  Elder Hernandez and I try to always turn the investigators questions back into a gospel discussion.  Lately we have been working on how to share a message with someone if you only have a very short amount of time.  It gets better every day.

Elders Brown and Fuentes wave goodbye

I really do love the latino companions, even if they are always a little naughty.  It is strange though because the way things are set up here, we are in different districts than our companions.  The only times that we get to be with them are during meals and when we are teaching.  And futbol, of course!  The teachers told us that we could not have any more gringo vs. latino games.  It’s a good thing, too.  They all have such great senses of humor. 

Hermano Huerta, farthest right, 4th row

Well, General Conference was definitely the biggest event of the week.  I really got a lot out of it.  I think that with the greater responsibility of being a missionary, I was able to listen to the speakers on new levels.  I really liked President Monson's talk on gratitude.  That is what I want to focus on.  I like how he said that we cannot both be prideful and grateful at the same time.  I think that is what I like about teaching so much.  Once you let the spirit guide the lesson, you can step out of the way and focus on the investigator's needs.  It is always such a wonderful experience.  Elder Hernandez and I had certain topics we were working on improving that we were listening for instruction.  Many of the talks directly responded to our questions.  It truly was an answer to our prayers. 

Elder Hernandez is really happy because they announced a temple in Tijuana, which is where he is from.  I am glad because he can appreciate this blessing even more now that he has been through the temple.  It takes a while for the “dearelders” to get here.  I did not get my first one until the end of last p-day.  You should probably just start sending them up to the Guayaquil South Mission home now.  I hope I'll be up there to get them.  Well, I’ll probably write to you one more time from down here before I’m in the field.  Hope to here from you soon.  Yes, to your question, Mom.

Elder Rojas from Bolivia

Love Elder Lumlum