2010_04_11 Clain's Mission Call

Week 5 Babahoyo, Written on April 11, 2010

Mom,

I don´t know about the wd 40 in my shoes but don´t worry I will see if here in Babahoyo there is a place that can fix the other pair that has a huge hole in the sole and maybe I can keep using them. Don´t worry too much. As far as dads talk, I know it sounds kinda harsh, but it is how he has been blessed by me being in the mission, not how I have been blessed in the mission, so he needs to think and meditate in the blessings he has received. I can´t tell him his blessings. He has to count them. I know it is hard, but tell him to count his blessings. How is his health and how is the family doing and his pigeons and things like that? What type of example has my going on a mission held in our family and in the ward? What did his mission do for him in his life? How did he learn and grow as a missionary? I´m sorry but I can´t write this talk for him, but there are some questions that he can think and ponder about to start his talk.

Love,
Elder Goode

Curtis,

Guess where I am going? You're right Ecuador! Just kidding! I am going to the Eugene, Oregon English speaking mission I leave on June, 23. How are things going down there? I have one more term of school left then I will be graduated and ready to go to Oregon. I am excited to get out there and serve. We are going to be going camping before I leave. How is your new companion? I am paying for my own mission so it will be more meaningful to me.

Sincerely,
Clain

Hey Clain,

I am so excited for you to have the opportunity to go on a mission. I know that it will be an awesome experience for you. I am a little disappointed that you aren’t coming to the best mission in the world, but I guess the second best will have to do. I bet it will be easier for you to talk to the people when you get out there than it was for me. You don’t have to learn a language. I love you lots and hope you the very best. I guess I won’t be seeing you for a little more than two years from now huh. Take care buddy.

Love,
Elder Goode


Hey mom told me that you are way, way excited for your call. I hope you are. It will be the best two years of your life. I know it will be hard and that you will have lots and lots of problems, but remember something that a missionary taught me here. If you want to have muscles, you gotta lift weights and the problems and trials and tests in this life are our spiritual weights. If we lift them right and do what we are supposed to, before and after, we can turn into Hercules, but we just have to be obedient and it will happen, ok? Remember, just be obedient and do what is right. I love you lots buddy.

Elder Goode

Curtis,

Thanks for the email. I will need to start gathering some of the things I will need for the mission. We are going camping as a family the week after school gets out. Then Braxton and I have a camp we are going on the week before I leave. It is to where we rafted the river before you left. I am going to go to the temple next week. I am very excited!!! How are things in Ecuador? I hope you have a (GOODE) week!!

Love,
Clain

Cool I hope you have a really cool experience in the temple it is something really, really, different and will help you a lot in your mission and your life. How was general conference? I got to watch all five sessions and it was really amazing one of the best I have heard. Well buddy keep excited to go and get everything ready so that you can go, ok? I love you lots.

Elder Goode

Curtis,

We watched all the sessions of general conference. Shara, Rob, and Taylor came Saturday and Michelle and Jeff came Saturday night and stayed late Sunday night. We are out of school this week so we cleaned the attic out and organized it. The temple was great, but it wasn’t what I expected, but it was a neat experience. Have you had or heard of a drink called "GUADANA"? It is a Brazilian drink. The Greenwells gave us some when we had dinner at their house today.

Love,
Clain

What great new experiences have you had this week?

This week I have been working hard we are trying to find new investigators and we are having a lot of sucess. We now have two baptism dates, one for this Saturday and the other for the 25th of April. The one for this Saturday is the niece of Sandy and Wendy that I baptised. The one for the 25th is a friend of Sandy and Wendy and a couple of member girls that live near by. She prayed and recieved an answer to her prayer, so she wants to get baptised, but she was kinda nervous to accept a date really soon, so we had to put it out a few weeks, so that we have time to teach her everything.


Were you able to find any new investigators?

We are finding people. It is kinda slow, but we are finding them.


How are your new converts coming along?

They are doing good. Sandy and Wendy didn´t go to conference, but Jessenia and Linyker went and learned a lot, too.

How are you and Elder De Leon getting along? Please tell us more about him, his family, his interests, etc.

We are getting along really fine. He is a little strict. Some times he looks down on all of my jokes and pranks and things like that, but we are getting along fine. He likes the gaming world, so we have lots to talk about. He had a Gameboy SP and played Pokemon and Zelda and lots of other games that I have played, so we have lots to talk about. You know I have figured something out in my life. I am kinda well rounded. I like to hunt and fish. I like to play games and do lots of other things, so I can get along with just about anyone and talk to them.


Did you get to see all of the General Conference Sessions?

Did any of your investigators attend and watch with you?

We had seven investigators in the Genereal Conference this weekend. It was pretty cool. I didn´t get much out of the Sunday morning session, because the other gringo missionaries are still kinda new, so they don´t understand all of the Spanish yet, so they wanted to listen to the conference in English. So Saturday we got out the tv in the church and watched the conference in Engish, the four of us together. That was pretty cool to hear the conference in our own language. But Sunday morning is when everyone comes to the conference. I think that they don´t understand that the conference isn´t just one session. It is five, but anyways they all came to the Sunday morning session. So they took our tv and put it in another classroom and put it in Spanish so that the moms with their kids could go in there to listen if there were noisy children so what we did is we put the conference on the speakers overhead in spanish so that the moms could hear in Spanish and then we put the tv in English and turned the volume down so that we could hear it, but not really loudly. So we watched the conference with lots of children crying and screaming. And I could hear the conference in Spanish and in English at the same time, but it was really confusing me, the two languages at the same time. So I had to sit farther from the tv, so that I couldn´t hear the conference in English, just in Spanish, so that I could understand it better. But it was still really hard because there were still the kids screaming and crying in the room with us. But oh well, I guess I will get the Liahona to read and then I can pick up what I missed.


How are the missionaries doing in your Zone?

Our missionaries are doing really good we are having lots of sucess here not as much as we would like to have but we are getting there.

Do you have Zone Conference this week or next?

Tomorrow is Zone Conference and it is here in Babahoyo, so this is a first for me. I think that it will be cool. I think that Sister Gamboa will probably inspect our houses, too, so we made sure that today we cleaned the house really good.

Tell us something funny that has happened to you lately.

Yesterday we went to an appointment after the conference and it started to rain. We taught the lesson and then I pulled out my umbrella and a poncho and I put on the poncho and I gave Elder De Leon the umbrella because he had forgotten his and we left to go to the house. We got outside of the house and we were standing on the side walk and we looked at the street and it was a running river we had no choice but to start walking and like Elder Mitchell said in his letter, waterproof shoes are awesome, but when you are in a little water but when the water comes up to your knee waterproof shoes just don´t do any good. So yesterday we got really wet and it was lightning and thundering, too, so we were really hoping that we didn´t get hit with lightning standing in a foot of water.


Do you have any advice for Clain?

Well I could tell him lots of stuff, but that would just ruin his surprise to find out what the mission is like. I will tell him to just work hard everyday, do his best and the Lord will do the rest. I am a poet and I know it. ha ha ha. (in spanish ja ja ja).

Patient in my Suffering

Week 27 Valencia

We loved the suit. Tell us more about it please. Is it a one of a kind original or has the member who made it created similar suits for other missionaries or buyers in the past?

My suit is a one of a kind because it is so large but he made one of the same fabric and with the same bells and whistles for Elder Jimenes now. I guess Elder Jimenes liked my suit. He usually uses the same type of style, but adds and subtracts what the buyer wants.

What is the name of the member who made it for you?

We call him the Bishop Cevallos (se vay os). He was the bishop in Buena Fe a while back.

What is the name of his business?

I don´t remember. He just has his shop set up that says that he is a tailor.

I put a photo of you in the suit up on your blog and also on my Smug Mug Site. Then I wrote to the missionary mom group. I got lots of fun replies back. I also put it on my Facebook Page and got fun replies back there as well. Everyone loves the suit. I can’t wait to see it in real life. Is the shirt new as well as the suit?

No, the shirt isn´t new. It is one that I brought with me.

It looks too shiny to be one of your mission shirts. Did he make the tie or did you buy the tie?

He made the tie and I bought it from him a while back.

What have the other missionaries said about the suit? I bet they all love it?

The majority of the members and the missionaries that have seen my suit really love it. They say that now I have a really great souvenir to take back home with me.
What is the full name of your new companion?

(No answer.)

Tell us about his family and about what he likes to do.

He is the youngest of five. He has two sisters and two brothers. The brothers both served missions, one in Peru and the other in Bolivia. All of his brothers and sisters are married now.

Has he been a member all of his life or is he a convert?

He has been a member all of his life.

How are you getting along?

We are getting along fine, but it is hard! He doesn´t have the maturity level that I am used to in a missionary companion, so it is hard! But I have seen that it usually takes a few changes to develop it, so I am trying to do my best to be patient in my suffering.

Are you enjoying being a trainer?

It is a lot harder than I thought. I have to tell him what to do most of the time. It is hard. My other companions all knew what they needed to do, so it is just getting used to it that is all.

We got a laugh out of your last letter because patience has never been one of your best attributes. I know you will do well as you teach him and you will not get upset because you are on the Lord’s errand now. Just remember to ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” He is not your younger brother, so don’t lose your temper with him like you would with them. I am sure it is difficult as you are such a quick learner, but remember back to when Elder Bejar trained you. He not only had to teach you how to do things, he also had the language problem to work with as well. He had to teach a gringo who didn’t understand half of what was being said. Ha! Ha! I know you will do well!

How have your first two District Meetings gone?

My first district meeting I was in Duran with Elder Williams, so I didn´t have to teach and the second one went well.

Have your lessons been well received?

They have been received well. We learned a lot together.

What concepts have you taught?

Last week, I taught about inviting our investigators to the General Conference and how important it is that they come and hear the prophet’s voice. I taught them an activity that they needed to do with their investigators. Talk with them about their problems and concerns and then write a question that they had and take it with them to the conference to receive an answer.

Have you done any baptismal interviews yet?

Yep, my first week, I did one for Elder Frye. It was pretty cool.

Who does your baptism interviews when you have someone ready for baptism?

If I have a baptism interview the zone leader or the other district leader does the interview.

Have you done any interchanges yet?

No, I don´t feel like my companion is ready yet to be on his own here in the sector without a guide, so we are working on it right now so that later in the change he will be ready for that responsibility.

How have the meetings with your Zone Leaders gone?

We didn´t have it last week. I don´t know why, but we didn´t have it.

I bet you are doing great as a District Leader. I am sure the missionaries can look up to you for your fine example and hard working attitude. Plus your gorgeous smile and just because you are so amazingly tall and handsome in your new suit! Has your Mission President seen your suit yet? I am interested to know what he and Hermana Gamboa think of it.

(No answer.)

Tell us about the people you are teaching now. You had a bunch of people attend church for a couple of weeks in a row. Are those people progressing?

We have a bunch of people that we are teaching right now and we are hoping that they will progress for baptism. We are teaching a few families, the San Martin family. There is the mom and there are five girls. The mom’s name is Rosa and then there is Valeria (17) another one that we just met. She has a weird name that I can´t remember, but she is 14. Then there is Genesis (13), Leidy (she turned 12 yesterday) and Diana (10) then there is a pair of boys. Anthony, he is 6 and Jorge, he is 2. The five girls went with us yesterday to the conference, so that was really cool! The thing is, they are going to Catholicism. It is where they learn about the gospel and prepare for the sacraments or something like that. I don´t understand it all, but ya. So we have to teach them that the Catholic Church isn´t the correct church and that they need to quit going to Catholicism. Then there is the Tower family or in Spanish the familia Torres. They are a couple that we are trying to help, but the problem that they are having is that the husband drinks, not every day, but once in a while and she doesn´t like it. So we gotta teach them and help them change so that is what we are going to be trying to do this week, teach them the Word of Wisdom and help them to overcome this problem.

Are you planning any baptisms for this week or the next few weeks?

This next week no, but we are planning for a few this month, so don´t worry.

Fast Sunday will be next week. Are there any investigators we can pray for?

The San Martin family and the Tower family.

Are you happy and healthy?

Yep

Hi Curtis,

Thanks for the answers to my questions. It sounds like you are still working hard and doing your best. We will pray for your families.

Have you been able to teach any of Dexy's family? Are you still teaching her two friends?

Yes, we are still teaching her friends.

What has happened with Isabella's daughters and the daughter's boyfriend? Are you still teaching them?

We are trying, but they really don´t want to listen to us, but we are trying.

You will have a big influence on how your companion does for the rest of his mission. Help him learn what is expected of him. Remember back when you were young. You were always so much more mature than the other boys your age. Some kids just mature a lot slower. Clain has been one to mature more slowly, but I am really amazed at how much he has changed and grown up since you left. He will be ready to go and serve when it is his time, but many kids are not really ready. They go because they feel it is expected of them, but they have to become truly converted before they really get into the mission. Help him get the routines down and then work on his testimony. Pray for him daily that he will have the desire to serve and to testify of Christ. Hopefully you will see some success soon in this change and that will motivate him to want to work hard and be committed. So much will depend on you. Pray each day to love him as your son and work hard each day at serving him. Help him with the little things and always treat him with kindness like you would a young child. He will come along and before long he will be mature and ready to make a real difference in people's lives. Above all, be the very best example you can be, because he will want to be just like you, his dad.

I love you so much and I am so happy that you are having this great growth opportunity in your life.

Love,
Mom

2009_04_06 Transfer to Valencia Mom

Hey! How are things in Utah? I am doing good here in Ecuador. I am now in the zone Quevedo North and in the sector Valencia. It is a city about ten minutes outside of Quevedo. My companion is Elder Neyra. He is from Peru. Elder Alcocer is with an elder from Mexico now. Elder Alcocer will leave for his house this change on the 8th of May. I saw Elder Bejar in the terminal and we had a good chat and I met my brother in the mission, the second elder that Elder Bejar trained here in the mission. He is named Elder Lopez. Elder Bartolomei is in my zone now. He is in the sector, the Republica. Elder Alcocer was in the same sector about a year ago. He trained a missionary in this sector too. Elder Williams and Elder Felt are in the other zone still and Elder Smith is in Duran, in his first sector still. Elder Fewkes is back on the mission. He is serving in a mission in Idaho right now, speaking Spanish. He will be there for one change and then he will receive a call to see if he can come back to Ecuador or go to a different mission or stay in the one he is at. He went home for medical reasons, but he tried really hard to stay in the mission. I talked today with one of his companions that told me all of this.

The conference was good. Elder Alcocer was sick with a fever of 104, so he couldn´t leave the house, but we did go to Quevedo to the doctor for him and then to the first session of conference on Saturday. On Sunday, I left a member with Elder Alcocer and went with another member to pick up some investigators and we took them to Vinces and watched conference, the first session and then we went back to Balzar. So I didn´t get to see the afternoon sessions or the Priesthood session. I watched the first session in English and the second session in Spanish.

Here in Valencia, there is a lot of farms. They call them fincas in Spanish, that have bananas or platanas or pineapples or mangos or other fruit. Elder Nayra says that the members here all have their fincas, so they like to give the elders fruit. So I am going to be eating a lot of fruit for the next six months, it looks like. Tell me if you can find Valencia in Google Earth. If you can´t, I will see what I can do to help you find it. Oh, the fruit in the pictures I sent you in December was a mango and the pictures that you have posted as the moon is the sun on a cloudy day.

Mango in Balzar

Sun on a Cloudy Day in Balzar

I sent you a package Wednesday so you should receive it in about four weeks. It has a DVD with just about all of the pictures of my mission on it. I also sent some letters and a bunch of gifts for dad. I think he will like them. Well it is getting late and I gotta go, but I love you very much.

Elder Goode

Thanks Curtis. It is awesome to hear from you. I am sorry you missed so much of conference. It was really awesome. I will get the Ensign and the Liahona and send them to you in a package. I am glad you are going to get a change of scenery. Work really hard. Take time to set some wonderful goals with your new companion. Tell us more about him next week in your letter.

Google Map Image of Ecuador

I can't see Quevedo much. It is in that stupid white area that goes up through the middle of Ecuador. It is frustrating. I want to just wipe it all away so I can see what is hiding underneath there. I wish so much they would update their Google Maps and clear this area. It is like they are hiding some national secret under that area or something. Take lots of photos of the area because that is the only way we will know what it is supposed to look like.

I love you lots! Take care.
Love always and forever,

Mom

Note: I have placed a new map at the bottom of the blog page that shows where Curtis is now compared to where he was before the transfer. Up to the right, there is a Volcano that has filled up with water to make a lake. You can see it on the map. It is not in Curtis's mission. I pulled out the Mission Map to compare. The dividing line looks like it runs almost along the base of that mountain range.

Curtis should at least be able to see the mountains now. His last area was just completely flat with no mountains in view in any direction. It might seem a bit more like home with mountains to the east like we have in Utah along the Wasatch Front. They are high mountains, but probably a different sort of mountain than the Wasatch Mountains.

Our home in West Point is at an elevation of 4,231 feet above sea level. The highest point on the mountains to the east is 9,051 feet above sea level, a difference of 5,820 feet.

Valencia is at an elevation of 443 feet above sea level. The highest point on the mountains to the east is 12,700 feet above sea level, a difference of 12,300 feet.

Our home in West Point is fourteen miles from the highest point on the mountain range due east. Valencia is 39 miles from the highest point on the mountain range due east, a distance almost three times as far as at home. That would be like looking at the mountains on the north east side of Morgan. I don't know if he will be able to see them that far away.

The terrain is quite different. Where we live, the land is relatively flat till right at the base of the mountains, then it rises quickly up to the full elevation in only a distance of about three miles. In Ecuador, the elevation increases at a fairly steady rate from Valencia right to the top of the highest peak. I suspect Curtis will be doing a bit more climbing up and down in his new sector, up as he goes to the east and down when he goes to the west, but it will be a gradual change both directions. I wonder if he will notice. He is about 300 feet above sea level higher than he was in Balzar.

2009_04_06 Transfer to Valencia Clain

Hi Curtis,

Nitro is doing great we play with her lots. I am going to take her to Ogden Bay this week. I saved some ducks to train the dogs this summer.

We have new Elder missionaries in our area. They come to mission prep every week. They taught a lesson a couple of weeks ago.

I have been working a lot. I am going to work tomorrow for 8 to 10 hours because we don't have school this week.

Did you like general conference?
Did you see the Priesthood session?
Have you killed any more mice?
What was your favorite talk?
Have you had any good experiences?
Do you want any more deer jerky?
How was the deer jerky I sent you?

Love,

Clain

Hey buddy,

Elder Robert D. Hales

How are you doing? The conference was great we had two investigators come to the conference with us. I didn´t get to see the afternoon sessions or the Priesthood session. My favorite talk was by Elder Hales, Provident Living. This talk would really help the people of Ecuador if they would practice this in their lives, because sometimes we see things that we think we need when we really don´t need them and when we buy on impulse we aren´t living prudently.

Today I changed zone and sector. Now I am in Quevedo North in the sector called Valencia. My companion is Elder Neyra. He is from Peru, like my other companions have been.

If you could, send me more jerky, I would like that very much. The jerky was very good. I guess I taught you well how to make jerky.

Well buddy, I have to go, but I love you lots. Keep going to Mission Prep. It will help you a lot. Tell them you want to learn more from Preach My Gospel, because the manual is for us to learn how to be missionaries.

I love you.

Elder Goode

2009_03_30 Balzar Week 23 Dad

Dad wrote on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:12:13 -0600

Dear Curtis,

How is everything going? The weather here is bad, snowing and cold. I finally got the other curtain done for the other side of my young bird pen and it works good. Anything new and interesting happen to you this week? How did you lose your Censo? We had a good Sacrament Meeting yesterday. Mom told you about it.

Next week is our spring break we get a whole week this year. I hope the weather is better then. Grandma and Grandpa are still in Arizona. Kavin is going to bring them back this year on April 18th. Will you get to watch Conference on Saturday and Sunday? I have a Dr. appointment at 2:00 on my back the MRI showed that I have two buldged disks. He will tell me what he wants to do today. I have got to go get oil and a filter for the Dodge during my prep period so I can change it during 3rd period. I will check back later I Love You.

Love,
Dad

Hey how are things going? Things are going good I lost my Censo because it fell out of my back pocket with my mission manual (white bible) and twenty dollars. I didn´t get robbed again. Don´t worry. I hope everything goes good with your back and you can get it feeling better. Saturday we will take our investigators to Quevedo to watch the General Conference. Sunday we will go to Vinces to watch the conference. We are planning on a baptism this Friday if everything goes well. His name is Javier. His wife is a convert of one year.