Welcome Elder Walke!!!

Week 13 Portoviejo

Hey! So guess what? I am still in Portoviejo and still with Elder Garcia, so everything is going good. Elder Walke is now my new Zone Leader with Elder Fonseca. Elder Felt left and Elder Avila, his old companion is going to train, so he went today to Guayaquil and will be coming back on Wednesday with his kid. We spent the morning cleaning the house, just the two of us. I´ve kinda gotten used to living with four in the house, so it was kinda lonely with just the two of us. I also did some repairs on some toilets in the house and I am going to have to buy some parts a little later to finish all of the repairs. I need to install a new toilet seat and a new flap and flush handle on another one and a chain broke on my toilet, so I found a string and made the toilet work again. Nothing like some redneck engineering to fix things right!!!

So I want things to be good for the new elder when he gets here. I sure know how hard it was when I started and I know that someone that thinks ahead a little will be a big help. They should get here to Portoviejo at like seven or eight on Wednesday, so they should be really hungry. I am going to make sure that I buy some stuff that they can eat Wednesday night so that they don´t get there and have nothing to eat and I will leave a note telling them that they can take the food and eat it. It will be a whole lot better than when I got to our house with Elder Machuca and there was dirty plates all over the house and there wasn´t any food. That was kinda hard, but I am going to prevent that this time with this elder.

So Elder Piedra got a new companion, Elder Cruz. He is from Peru, the one that was in my zone when I first got to Valencia. Elder Piedra called me a little concerned and afraid. He was asking me what he should do this change and how he can deal with his companion. I told him to work hard and help his companion to know the sector and the members and investigators and he will help him with the other stuff, so he seemed a lot happier and things should be going good. Elder Piedra won´t be in my district this change because Elder Cruz is a district leader too. So I will probably get to be zone leader over Elder Mitchell and his new companion, but I don´t know who that will be yet.

So things are going good. This last week I have gained a testimony of the importance of working as hard as you can. Sunday, yesterday, we had three investigators in the church. We worked really, really hard for those three investigators. I know we should have more, but we worked really, really hard for the three. I know if we hadn´t have been visiting them and inviting them to come to church and then calling them to get them up and then going and picking them up for church, they wouldn´t have gone. But we did it! We helped them to get to church and they were really excited about the church after, so it was really cool. I can see a lot of changes in many of our investigators from when we first started teaching them until now. They are much happier and they say that they don´t have as many problems now as they did before. It is really cool!!! Well I am going to send this off and write President and I hope when I finish with President that you will have responded to my letter and then I can write some more. I love you lots!!!

Elder Goode

Hey! I just remembered. I got the last package and about fifty something post cards so I am somewhere around seventy something, maybe one hundred post cards, so I should be getting a bunch more. Well I love you lots!

Bye,

Elder Goode

2009_01_12 Week 12 Balzar Mom

I am in Balzar still. Elder Bejar got transferred. He is in Pasquales now. He is opening a sector that was closed and he is training a new missionary, too. My new companion is Elder Acoster of Peru. He was pouchero before I started my mission. This will be his last sector, because he finishes his mission in three cambios. We had to get up at 5 this morning and leave for Guayaquil at 6. We got to the bus terminal in Guayquil at 8:30 and met with tons of missionaries. And then the Assistants bought bus tickets and we left for Balzar and now we are in Balzar once again.

Yes, I have found many crickets in our house, the stinken' buggers. I don´t know where they are entering from, but they keep coming in. I also encountered a colony of ants behind our bulletin board in the house. That was fun to kill them all and clean up. I also encountered a grasshopper that is four inches long and stands about two or three inches tall. They are huge.

Things are going good. We don´t have any baptisms planned, but we are teaching lots of people trying to find people to baptize.

Okay. The bus to Guayaquil must have been a lot faster than your first trip out if you made it in only 2 1/2 hours. I was expecting a 4 hour ride again. Who are the new Assistants to the President? Tell us more about your new companion. What do you think of him so far?

Sorry about the bugs. I am glad you have not been complaining though.

Our first trip, the bus went slow, because it was prime hours for picking people up. My companion is good. He knows how to fix electronics very well. Maybe he can fix our two broken fans in the house? He seems like a good Elder. I have only heard good things about him. The new Assistants are Elder Rouson, he was put in the other transfer and now to replace Elder Bryan, Elder Fuentemavida. He trained Elder Walke.

That is awesome. Elder Walke has only had good stuff to say about Elder Fuentemavida. What is your companion's first name? Where in Peru is he from. Has he been a member his whole life or is he a convert? Tell us about his family and his schooling. Was he going to college to learn the electronics?

I don´t know much of that stuff yet, but I will ask and get back to you next week, but I do know that he knows how to fix things because he worked before the mission fixing things. Oh, he is twenty seven years old. Well I have to go. I love you lots. Bye.

Have a great week. I hope you can write more next week. We love you lots.
Mom