Shrimp, Fish and Octopus, but no Iguana

This is last week's letter that I didn't get posted until today. We did not hear from Curtis today. I know they were having Zone Conferences this week with Elder Eduardo Gavarret, the first counselor in the Presidency of the South American Northwest Area Presidency. I don't know which day the Portoviejo Zone will have their conference. I also know that this week is Carnival a big celebration in Ecuador where they throw lots of water balloons and get everyone wet. President Gamboa has asked that the missionaries stay in their apartments during the afternoon hours for a few days till Carnival is over.

Week 15 Portoviejo

So, how is it going today? I am on a little later than usual. We went to Manta and bought fish, well fish and shrimp and some octopus, too. We bought four pounds of shrimp which is about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and fifty somewhere in there shrimp that are about three to four inches in length. They cost almost fifteen dollars for the shrimp. We bought four pounds of octopus for four dollars and paid a guy a dollar to clean it all up good. In four pounds, comes five arms that are about a foot and a half long and start about two or three inches in diameter. And lastly, the fish, we bought about twenty five fish for five dollars. They are about eight or nine inches long and about six inches tall and they are really thin like a half an inch or three quarters maybe an inch thick at the widest point. We also paid another guy a dollar to clean the fish, so we spent somewhere between twenty and twenty five dollars and bought a lot of seafood for the rest of this change. I think that later we are going to clean the shrimp. We have to peel them and cut the veins out of them and then I think we are going to bread them and fry them. I am excited it should be good with some rice and beans.

Well, we didn´t have our baptism. We couldn´t find Luis´s dad when he was sober so we didn´t get permission for the baptism, but we have hope for this week.

President is in a really good mood lately. I like him like this a whole lot better. When I called him yesterday to ask for permission to go to Manta to buy the fish, he was in good humor and actually joked a little bit. I had asked to go last Monday, but we couldn´t go, so we decided to go this Monday. So I called and asked for permission again and he said that he had given me permission for last week because last week’s fish were good and that this week’s fish weren´t any good so he said no. And I was like no, President and he started laughing and told me to go and buy all of the fish I wanted. But he also said jokingly that I was forbidden to buy Iguana, so I playing along with the joke said, but President they sell really good iguana there
and he just laughed and told me to have fun, but no Iguanas. So ya it was kinda interesting. He seems to be happier and I think it is because we are going to have an area seventy come for our zone conference this change so that will be really cool.

Oh yeah, last night Hermana Gamboa called me and asked me about something that I had bought a few weeks ago. We have to send our receipts to the office so that Hermana Gamboa can see what we are buying. So she called and asked me why I had bought a seat. That is what the receipt had said. She asked me if I had bought a chair or something for the house, which I hadn´t and she asked me what the seat was, so I had to explain that the seat was a toilet seat and that I was fixing the broken one that was in the house. And then she was really happy with me and told me thank you for fixing the things that were broken in the house and that all missionaries should be like me and take care of their houses and not just live with their stuff broken. So that was kinda cool, too. I was kinda surprised when she called, but it turned out ok.

So everything is going good here. I am doing good and we are hoping to have a baptism this weekend. We have hope, but let’s hope that we can have permission, too. Well, I am going to send this letter off and then write president and then see if there is a reply.

I love you lots!
Elder Goode

The lady that we were teaching hasn´t been home much lately she still lives here, but she is having some construction done on her house and it is hard to find her there at all, so we are going to keep trying, but I don´t know if we are going to have much luck. The two friends of Luis have kinda gotten lost. We aren´t having much luck finding them either. One of them moved and we don´t know where his new house is. It is in our sector, but I don´t know where and the other one works all day and when he is home he is tired and doesn´t want to listen to us, but we are trying as hard as we can. I just hope we can find the one and that we can get through to the other one, too. I will have to talk to Elder Parkinson and ask him what happened if his mom said anything about a letter from you or maybe the email is wrong I will get it again and send
it to you in this email. Let me go ask him.......................ok I am back. He said that his mom didn´t say anything about getting a letter from you. Here is her email again. I am pretty sure that it is the same one that I gave you last time, but check anyways. ronikki7@aol.com

Well, I hope that this letter will answer your questions. If not, send me another letter quickly I don´t have a lot of time left.

Love,
Elder Goode

You never seem to have a lot of time. What happened to the 45 minutes you were supposed to have for emailing home? I think that is the address I sent it to. I will double check and maybe try another short one this week.

Are you finding any other investigators to teach. You don't seem to be having much success in this area, yet other missionaries who have served in Portoviejo say it is a great area with lots of baptisms. What can we do to help you more?


Well I should have an hour to write to you guys, but I always spend the first half an hour reading all of the emails and then I write the letter to you and then to President and then I write back to you guys. Well, I gotta go. I am hungry and there are shrimp to peel, so I love you lots.

Bye!
Elder Goode

Just pray for me a lot and it should be enough. Make sure that dad sees the letter I wrote to Skyler. It is pretty funny.

Bye!
Elder Goode

Maybe I should start writing much shorter letters so you will have time to write longer letters!