Baptisms, Birthdays and Life Skills

Week 23 Valencia

Hey, here is the photo of Dexy’s baptism. I´ll send more in a minute and I will send a report of what I have done these past two weeks.

Hi, Curtis. Neat photo! Have you grown taller? She is really cute. She looks nice. Can't wait to hear more from you.

Here is a picture of Shirley.

Shirley is very pretty, but not very tall. She looks like she is a sweet girl.

Here is a photo of the baptism of Isabel she is in the white and the other two are her daughters and her grandson.

Awesome!!! Congratulations!!! How are her two daughters coming as far as baptism? Who is the other lady in the photo?

Here is a picture of my birthday this is what we ate for lunch we had lazania with a salad of broccoli and corn and rice (It isn´t food here in Ecuador if there isn´t rice.) And we had the cakes, too. If you look good, the candles are in the cake, too. The cake was really good. It is a three milk cake with peaches on top. It was delicious.

It looks very festive with all of the bright colors. You and rice are going to be lifelong friends!!! There are seven plates. Who attended the party?

OK, to answer your questions. In the photo of the baptism of Isabel, the other lady is the sister Paula Pinarera. She is the one that lives in front of Isabel and loves to cook for us. I think because of her I have stopped losing weight. In my party, there was me, of course, my companion, the mamita, her husband, and their two kids, Cesar and Aura and a friend of Cesar and Hector Ramirez. He is a friend of Cesar. He is my convert, if you don't remember. There are only seven plates, because Elder Castaneda wasn't feeling very good that day, so he didn't eat, but the mamita gave us two plates more and we put them in the fridge to eat later, so it was really cool.

Thanks for the pictures. It is awesome to see you looking all happy and well and great to hear from you. I do not like it when you miss a week, so don't do it again, please!

This picture is for Braxton. I heard that you recently earned your painting merit badge. Congratulations and congratulations on earning your Eagle, too. But you know what Braxton, you never know when the things that you are learning right now are going to come in handy. Look at the picture. I too, earned my painting merit badge with dad. We painted a lot of things in a lot of different ways and look, I got to use what I had learned to help a friend here in Ecuador. Really you never know when you are going to be able to use the things that you have learned to help others, so keep on learning and keep your chin up. Ya, I love you Buddy and I am looking forward to next year when we can go hunting together just the two of us, ok? I love you lots! Bye, Buddy.

Hey! It is Braxton. Thanks for the picture. It was very cool to get something from you and I really enjoy getting things from you.

Hey, Braxton! What is up with that? I sent you a whole paragraph and you sent me one line. I went to all of the effort to write and send you a cool picture and I get a line....................................................................... Now, I know how you feel! I will definitely have to try harder, Buddy. I´m sorry that I haven´t been writing very much. I will try harder, ok? I love you, Buddy!

This picture is for Clain. Clain here I am using my machete in one of the ways they use it here in Ecuador. When they say that they are exorting someone to do something they say that they are macheteing. It is one of many uses. In this photo, we were having a little bit of fun in the house, but I have learned many things about machetes here in Ecuador. I learned that all that you need to build a house here in Ecuador is a machete, a hammer and nails and you can build a house of wood and cane. I am pretty sure that you are going to learn how to build a house using many different tools and different techniques. Learn them well, because they will serve in the future a lot. You have always liked to work with tools and with materials, so I know that you will do great in your Construction class. Keep working hard Buddy and tell everyone Hi for me, ok? Thanks, Buddy. I love you lots! Elder Goode

What scripture are you reading? What are you exorting him to do?

Hi Curtis
How are you doing? I am doing good? Thanks for the email. I love you. Clain

Curtis,
Hi! How are you doing? We just got done putting a loft in a shed for Shara and Rob. The guys at work all say Hi. We have been back to school for a couple of weeks. What are you doing in the picture of you with the machete? I love the classes I have this year.
Love, Clain

Hey! Sorry that I didn´t write last week. The internet was down in all of Valencia, so we couldn´t write at all, but today there is internet, so here I am writing you. So, since I last wrote you we baptised Isabel and now we are working on preparing about six people for the next week. We have a family of four women that we are preparing and we have two friends of Dexy that we are teaching that want to get baptized, too. And we have a family that investigated the Iglesia about two years ago and then moved to Quito, so they didn´t get baptized. Now they are back here in Valencia and they want to get baptized, so we just have to see who will be ready for next week and baptise them. That is all. I hope that we can baptise them before changes, so let’s see what happens. If not, I will leave more for the next missionary to reap when he gets here. But let’s see what happens. We are working hard and having lots of success now. I don´t know what changed when Elder Castañeda left and Elder Hernandez came, but now we are having lots of success.

I bought my new suit. I had to go to Buena Fe today to try it on, so he could see how it fit and he is going to finish it and Elder Frye will bring it to Quevedo on Wednesday. My suit ended up costing a little more than I thought it would. It cost 160 dollars, but I had him make me a vest, too and put on all of the bells and whistles, too. But for the suit and the vest it took five and a half yards of material to make. He said that usually it only takes three. So this is the biggest suit that he has ever made. I will try to be better about my spending and let’s see what happens. Well, I love you lots and I hope everything is going good.

Love,

Elder Goode

Hey, do you remember the Elder Feldman that sent you a letter for the family that he wanted me to look up? I found them and gave them his email address and they said that they have written him, but he hasn´t written back. Can you send him an email and see what is up? The thing that is kinda cool is that I found them without really trying. There is a member of my ward that is engaged to the daughter of Julia Romero, so I found them by chance. If you could write, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

Bye,

Elder Goode

Okay. I will try to contact him again.