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.

2009_07_27 Week 17 Valencia Mom

Hey how are things going? I am doing good. Sorry for last week. they are trying to make the internet here in Valencia faster, upgrading I guess. But last week we were in the cyber just starting to read our emails when they did something wrong with the upgrade and all of the internet was lost. I don´t know how, but that is what they told me this week when I asked about it.

Are you healthy and happy?

Ya! I am just fine.

Did you have a good birthday on Saturday?

Ya! It was great! I ate lunch with the family that we normally eat lunch with and then went to our house and ate lunch again with the family that lives next door. We ate lasagna and we had a cake. They call it a three milk cake. It is really good. Then we went to the church and I taught English and then we went to the Esperansa and we ate with a sister there, the one that I told you about a few weeks ago that loves to cook for us. Then we came back here to Valencia and went to the house because it was late.

Have you had any baptisms the past two weeks?

No, but we are working on it. We have a few people that are getting ready. We are working on it.

Do you have any investigators with baptismal dates set?

We have the baptism date with Esther, but she didn´t come to church, so we will have to wait longer to baptise her.

How are all of the people you have told us about recently doing? Give us some updates on their progress, please.

Everybody is doing good. We are working on visiting everybody, but our Bishop has just set up a new family home evening plan where every night there is a family home evening in the house of a family here in Valencia and everybody wants the missionaries to come to their family home evenings. So we are visiting with a lot of members and we are getting a lot of good references, but it is taking away from the people that we were already teaching. So it makes it a little bit harder to visit everybody, but we are trying.

How are things with your companion going?

Things are going good. We are getting along good and he seems to be progressing a lot. So for me that is a good sign.

Are you both working hard?

Yeah. We are working very hard right now.

Are you getting along well?

Yeah.

How was your Zone Conference? Tell us about it in detail.

It was really good. We learned a lot about how to help people that are inactive to come back to church and we have been putting it into practice and it is really working well.

Have you passed off your Maestro?

No. I am still working on it.

Are there many mosquitos out during the day? Are you wearing Deet?

No and No

How is the weather? Are you still getting burnt all the time? Are you wearing sunscreen?

It is a little cooler right now. Yes, but not badly and no.

How are your allergies? Are you taking any medication?

Doing good. I haven’t had problems for a while now. No and I don´t need any more either.

Which packages have you received? Describe what was in each one you have received, if you can. We still have not received yours. I guess we will consider it lost.

I have received the three birthday packages and the three hump day packages.
I got the package that I sent to you guys back last week. I guess they can´t send this package, so I will try and send it another way next week.

Have you sent me a package with photos?

No, next week.

Can you add some photos to your email today?

No, because I don´t have any here with me.

Is there anything you want or need me to send you with the glasses?

Send me a few new oil vials. Mine broke, so I don´t have one right now. See if you can find me a shadow grass camoflauge tie, too, please.

Tell us more about the ward you work with. What meetings do you attend. Do you work well with the Bishop? Are you still trying to find people in La Mana to form a branch with?

No. We have changed our focus. We are trying to strengthen the ward here in Valencia, so we are looking for priesthood here to baptize.

Has there been any effect on the missionary work, good or bad, because of the violence that happened back in May?

No. There haven´t been any affects good or bad. The people have pretty much forgotten about it now.

What is the best meal you have eaten lately?

Lasagna

Have you eaten anything you really didn’t like or that was different?

Guinea pig. It was really good and we ate I think it was mountain goat, too. They were both really good.

Hi Curtis,

It is good to hear from you. I am glad all is well. I am at the store right now getting a couple of things then headed home to finish dinner for the missionaries. Answer more of my questions if you have time. I got your glasses so I will send them this week. Do you need the oil vial that attaches to your keys or a plastic bottle of oil to refill with?

If you could send me a bottle to put oil in too that would be great I gave mine away in Balzar, but what I really need is one that attaches to my key ring, so if you could find a couple simple ones and send them to me that would be great.

Okay. Can you get olive oil down there to put in the bottle?

Yeah, don´t worry. There is olive oil here.

Was everything in the package that was returned okay? I guess just keep those glasses there and I will send you the new ones. We had blueberry cobbler and dutch oven potatoes and chicken for your birthday celebration here. I forgot to take pictures. Sorry! I am glad you had a good birthday. Did you take photos? I want to see them. Sorry your packages were all early, but early is better than late.

Tell us what you have been doing these past two weeks. What did you do
that was fun or exciting or spiritual?

2009_07_27 Week 17 Valencia Dad

Dear Curtis

How is everything going? Did you have a good Birthday Saturday? What did you do on your p-day last week? Mom just called and told me that you were on so email me back.

I Love You, Love Dad

Hey, things are going good here. Last week, they were trying to upgrade the internet here in Valencia and they did something wrong, so they lost the internet. So we couldn´t write because there wasn´t internet. Things are going good. We haven´t had any baptisms, but we are working on it.

What did you do on your p-day last week? Have you been doing anything with your district for fun on p-days?

We bought food, tried to use the internet, cleaned the house, slept and then went to a family home evening. No, we usually don´t do anything with our district because we are a ways away from everything. We are in our own city, so we usually just stay here by ourselves for our p-days.

I have got to go take a shower the missionary are coming for dinner they
should be here in 20 minutes.

2009_06_01 Happy 18th Birthday Clain!

06/01/09
Feliz Cumpliaños Clain

Hey Clain.

Happy Birthday! How are you doing, buddy? I sent a package last week so you should be getting it sometime next week. It has a gift for you in there for your Eagle Scout Award and for your Birthday. There are also a few other things including my wedding presents for Skyler and Stefanie, so yeah, I hope everything is going good for you buddy. I heard you caught some fish the other day. I bet that was a lot of fun. Keep on top of Skyler for me. Don’t let him get into too much trouble before his wedding or after his wedding either. Hey! I am really proud of you for all that you are doing. Keep working hard and keep putting money in the bank so you can pay for your mission. Ok? I love you lots!

Elder Goode