Week # 81

May 30, 2015

Well this week I have been pretty much the whole time in otavalo!!! and another place called ibarra! and it was super super cool!!!!! I really started to see the benefits of being the assistant!!! For example when we are traveling the president will sometimes pay for the food and he some time takes us to really nice places!!!! For example on Tuesday he took us to the hotel restaurant and I got sea bass with passion fruit salsa..... and it was soooooo good!!! It sounds really gay, but it is really good!!!!!  

Then in the morning the president went to pick me up from the missionaries house where I was staying and took us back to the hotel and i didn’t know what we were going to do but he told us to change into like p-day clothes and he took us to a tennis court!! The president is a huge tennis fan!!!!! hahaha and he let us play for like 2 hours with him even thought it was not p-day!! He said he likes to play hard and also work hard!!!!!! And its true!! It was nice to be able to play with him!!!

Then just everyday this week I have been training!!! There are two trainings everyday and each training is about 4 to 4 1/2 hours so like 8 to 9 hours a day just training!!! It is super fun but it is also really tiring!!!!! I am getting better at it!!!! We finished all of the interviews now we are going to have the mission councils with all the leaders and then also the zone conferences!!! There is a lot to do!!!!!

When it was night I got to stay in the hotel with the president because his wife didn’t come and he doesn’t like to be alone and it was sooooooooooo nice!! It is right on the lake like those pictures I sent you guys!!!! It was sooo cool and plus it was cool to get to know better the president! He is a super cool guy and I get along well with him!!!!! He is one of the most loving people I have ever met!!! And yeah then we had trainings until yesterday when we got back to Quito at about 930 PM and then just went to sleep!!!!!

That is pretty much it though!

 President Richardson and Elder Miranda and I

 Elder Thomas, me, Elder miranda (my companions)  We are in esmereldas

 This is Otavalo and the two volcanoes that it is between.

 this is the hotel we stayed at

 this is the lake san pablo and the volcano imbabura

Week #80

May 24, 2014 - Elder Waddell

I have had such a good week Emily! I am not going to write down everyday, but I will give you an overview… Or maybe I will just write the whole thing down!!!! Hahaha I don’t have a good reason not to, so here it is! I’m just lazy about writing!

Sunday: We went to church and then worked for like 30 minutes in my own sector because we were in the offices.  That was literally my whole day!

Monday: We went early to the office to do the verifications and I did mine pretty fast! I am getting a lot better at them now!  We finished at about 6:00 PM and then we had a meeting with the President where we did planning!  The coolest part of the week is that we had a special visit from Elder Waddell, who is a general authority (member of the 70).  Since he was visiting, that meant our job was to plan everything and make it all perfect.  We finished planning at about 9 at night and then we went home!!!

Tuesday: We woke up early and made the 3 hour trip in a bus to a place called Otavalo (which is a place that we HAVE to come back and visit someday).  It’s a city right in the middle of two volcanoes and there is a huge lake that is super pretty!!! One of the apostles said that the most pure Lamanite blood in the whole world was from the people there in Otavalo.

They are super cool.  All of the men have really long hair and the women are small and fat and they’re specialists in fine craftsmanship in fabrics and clothing and wood and everything that you can do with your hands! They are soo good that EVERY native that is born there is born with a free visa to any part of the world because the whole world wants them to go to there countries!!! It’s super cool to see them!!!! That night I worked with Elder Parra and Elder Aliaga, who are good missionaries but sometimes they seem to have a hard time teaching. That is why it is good that we only have to teach and the spirit does the real work. Then at night we got the church ready for Elder Waddell. 

Wend (I think he meant Wednesday ;)): We woke up early and went to the church building and to our surprise there was no power in the whole city and so no water either!! hahaha and we were pretty bummed because it was going to suck having to receive a 70 without light in the church and so I said a little prayer and I am sure everyone did and well until the very second that he set his foot in the building there was no power, but as soon as he came in I kid you not that everything started working again!!!! It was a cool little miracle!!! And yeah his training was sweet!!!!! He is a cool guy!!! He is like 7 feel tall! And just a super good teacher! And his wife is super cool!!!!! I think it would be cool to be a seventy because you just travel all the time with your wife and just teach about being a good missionary and do service! It’s super cool!!!!! Then at night we got on another bus and went back to Quito! We almost didn’t get the bus but we were just in time!!!

One thing he taught was: we need to have a cape like any superhero would have. In Spanish, cape is capa.

C-Creer

A-Aprender

P-Pedir ayuda

A-Actuar

Believe, learn, ask for help, and act. It was a good training. He also said “Missionaries can convince, but only the spirit can convert.”

Thursday: In Quito again, with the same elder Waddell, we went early to the church building of Iñaquito, where we heard the same training and all that until late.  Then at night we had another meeting all the ward council of all Quito and Elder Waddell and it was pretty cool because I got to see some people from Carapungo and from La Luz (his old areas). And yeah that lasted until late.

Friday: The same thing with elder Waddell and this time I got to direct the meeting! It was cool to direct in a meeting with a seventy! And yeah that went until about 7:00 pm and then Elder Miranda got sick and we went home and just stayed there. For some reason that always seems to happen when I have Latino companions haha. 

Saturday: Today!!!!! I got up and got to study for the first time all week!!! I can’t wait to be able to study with you when I am home and get on a schedule with it!  I was excited to get to email you! Then I went and got money out and I bought a suit because mine is dirty and I can’t wash it!!! hahaah and that will be ready next Saturday so I can sent you a picture when I get it!!! Speaking of pictures I have sooo many cool pictures that I want to send you but I keep forgetting my freaking adapter!!!!

To answer your questions… I have not worked at all in my own sector this week! They said this is pretty normal for being assistant.

I don’t remember your other questions!!!

(It was a nice thought that he tried to answer my questions, but the only answer he gave does not fit as an answer with a single one of the questions that I did ask; so I am not entirely sure which question he thought he was answering haha.  I even bolded my questions, and made the font about 5 times larger than the font from the general email I sent, and he still thought it was hard to scroll up and reread them to answer them haha.  Moral of the story: if you email Christian and he doesn’t answer your questions don’t feel bad, it isn’t you! Haha)

Also I realized this week that I will only get to/have to Email Christian 27 more times until he is home.  That is crazy! He has come so far! 

Week # 79

May 17th, 2014 

It was soooo good to see everyone! Seeing everyone move and respond to me and stuff always reminds me how real it is! I miss you guys.  I wished I had more time but it was still so nice. 

That is super scary that the fire is getting so close to your guys city!!!!! It’s so crazy to think that houses have probable burned down and that stuff like that actually happens. Natural Disasters here really scare me in Peru pretty much nothing ever happens there, but here in Ecuador I am surrounded by 6 volcanoes.... 4 of which are active!!! hahaha it freaks me out because if one goes off then they all go off. hahaah but I know it won’t happen while I’m here because my patriarchal (or “me partiarcle” if you are Christian) blessing says I will have a life after the mission!!!

hmmmmmm and my week.....

Monday:  I just did the same thing we will always have to do on Mondays; and that is verifying all the zones and make sure they are working well!!! The best zone right now it the whole mission is still that one that I just left.  Then pretty much all the other zones are sucking right now!!!!! hahaha and then at night we got to work in our sector for one hour which was nice but nothing happened...

Tuesday: This was a really cool day!!! We went to the president’s house at 7:30 in the morning and then made a 5-hour road trip to Esmeraldas on the coast.  It was because we had to go to interview the missionaries over there. It was soooooooo cool Emily to be where it was hot again. I was soooo feaking happy to get out of the cold city and get into the warm coast. The drive was soooooo pretty because it was a lot like the jungle in Peru. That night we interviewed one of the zones and then we stayed the night in the house of the zone leaders. The bed they gave me to sleep on was freaking grossssssss!!! I learned a lesson: always bring extra sheets! hahahaah no joke Em you know that I NEVER get grossed out by anything but this mattress looked like they got it right off of the road. It was like wet and I got sssoooooooooooooooooo many flee bites!!!!!! hahahahaahah it was not a good night of sleep!!!

Wednesday: I got up early and went to play a little bit of soccer with zone leaders and my knee was a little better. Talking about my knee, the nurse of the mission said she was going to get me a brace... so I think that will help. Anyways after that we went back to house and showered and went to the church and interviewed the other zone. Then when we were done we just packed up and went to eat lunch and then I saw the real benefit of being the assistant because the president after lunch took us to a really cool place. It was like this super cool ocean lookout. It was soooo freaaking pretty Em you don’t even know.. The ocean reminds me soooooooooo much of you and me!!!! I love going to the beach with you!!!!! It made me miss you like crazy!!!!!  Then after that we drove home and got there at about 9:30 at night. It was a good day!!

Thursday: We had more interviews in the Calderon zone. It took ALL day because it’s a huge zone.....  And then it was the night..... haha that was really my whole day...

Friday: ahahaha well.... we interviewed the ofelia zone... ALL day hahaah the same thing all over again.  The funny thing that happened though was at night the guys I was with decided they wanted to give me my welcome into the offices. Well lets just say that there are 4 of them and one of me in the house and they put me in the shower and soaked me with cold water but I took one of them down with me and the other ones I got back little by little as the night went on. One I waited for like 20 minutes until he got out of the bathroom and I soaked him right there and another one I just got him in the hall and one I got while he was sleeping!!! I got him with a huge bucket of water hahahaahha it was sooooo funny!!!!!! It was a good night!!!! 

Saturday: Well I got up in the morning also very happy because I get to write you…hhah and Then we studied which was nice and then we went shopping for food and spent all together 105 $ on food. That’s the nice thing about having 5 in the same house is that we can get more food and split it. Then we went to a mall because I was gong to buy a new suit buuuuut I actually don’t have money hahaha I am so terrible with money I know! I guess I just get my dirty one for another week. The problem is that I have to wear a suit everyday now since I am in the offices and there is never time to wash it.... hahaha and yeah, I bought a few things. I started out the day with 100$ and now I don’t know what happened because I only have 40.... let me think.

• ·        30 for food in the morning.
• ·      Then 15 buying stuff for my office
• ·      then burgerking for $8...
• ·      and then 2 for a ice cream.....

Wow I guess that is $60 wow I suck!!! hahahah really that was really fast. But they were all things that needed. I am going to be screwed this month Em!! hahaha oh well I will figure it out! I always do!!!! I need you to make me like a budget!! hahaah I suck at doing that stuff!!!!!!

All in all I am good darling!!!!!! My comps are pretty good!!! Elder Thomas is a good missionary!! He is really obedient! And a good speaker. My other companion Elder Miranda is a good missionary as well.  I am pretty tired of giving the same training but it doesn’t matter because I still have to do it like 10 more times!! hahahaha but I guess it is fun in a way to get to train the whole mission!!! I like teaching missionaries just as much as I like teaching investigators!!!!!

Love, Christian

5-11-14 Mothers Day Call Home (:

I have to say one of the highlights was when Christian made a joke about Hyrum's boyfriend giving him the hat he was wearing, before realizing that it was actually his own hat he was making fun of hahahahaha.

Week #78

May 10, 2014

 Monday: We went to the President’s house to have the going away dinner of 6 missionaries.  We cooked for them and had a slideshow and it was pretty sweet! My P-day got switched to Saturday so that is why I couldn't write.  

Tuesday:  I woke up at 5:40 and went running with Elder Thomas and we ran 3.5 miles and I did it without stopping and I thought I was going to die but I didn’t so that was good!!!!! Then I had to go to the airport to pick up the new missionaries and we brought the to the mission home of the president.  We also went knocking doors!

Wednesday: I got up and ran again and still didn’t die but my knee started hurting a little. Then we went to the chapel of the colon and trained all day to the new missionaries and that was all until the night!!!!! 

Thursday: we tried to run but my knee hurt so bad I couldn’t so I just walked and then we went to the church again and trained again and this hahaha and that was until late at night. 

Friday: We had interviews with my old zone!!! While the President interviewed we taught about the book of Mormon. We do it in two groups and each group takes about 3 hours and we teach the same thing to both groups so we have to give the same training so it was kind of boring the second time around and to think we still have the other zones to do!!! I will get used to it!

Saturday!!!! We got up early and the president took me the other two assistants and the secretaries to a place called pulahua. It’s a old volcano that isn’t active anymore. It was super cool!! We hiked to the bottom!!! I had a good time other than my knee hurt really bad going down the hill, but not up!! anyways then we came back and i took a shower and now I’m here in the office!!! 

 This was our baptism last week! His name was Javier!

 This was eating with the President!

 This is that place we hiked to today! All 3 of these pictures are! It was super cool!