Week 4 Portoviejo
How close are you to getting the Maestro all passed off? You haven’t told us in a while.
I still have a little work to do, but I am getting there.
What area of Portoviejo is your Sector in? Can you give me your street address so I can find it on Google Earth?
I am in 12 de Marzo. If you look at the university that is in Portoviejo, my sector is on the side of the university that goes out toward the ocean. That is my sector. Elder Felt and Elder Merchan have the other side of the university. But if you are looking at the university, follow the main street that the university is on for my sector and after the university in my sector there is a road that goes up on a hill. That is where there is a school that is called 12 de Marzo. I live on that street, but not up on the hill. I live just across the main road, not on the corner, but the second house on the side of the road that is closer to the university. I hope that makes sense. I don´t know how much clearer I can try to make it, because I don´t know how much Google Earth shows.
Have you received any packages yet? Your Thanksgiving packages will probably arrive after Thanksgiving. Sorry, it was poor planning on my part.
No I haven´t received any packages yet.
How is your athlete’s foot and fungus problem? Where on your hand is the fungus? Do you have any idea what is causing it?
The fungus is on my finger. It is my middle finger on my right hand. If you look at your hand with the nails up, it is on the right side of my middle finger and it goes from the tip of my finger to the middle of my finger, the knuckle. The humidity is the cause of it, but just about all of the elders get fungus sometime in the mission.
Did Elder Carlos get better from his throat infection?
Yep, he is a whole lot better.
Are you healthy and happy?
Yep.
What happened with the Bishop on your last six baptisms in Valencia. Why weren’t you able to have those baptisms?
He told us we couldn´t baptise the San Martin family if the mom didn´t get baptised with her kids. The assistants told me that Elder Machuca and Elder Thomas had a goal of six the last week, but that they all drank coffee, so they couldn´t get baptised. That Elder Mitton had to interview all six and they all said that they drank coffee. That is like four hours of interviews. That is really long.
Do the Peruvians eat a lot of hot foods? What kinds of things do they cook that you like to eat?
The Peruvians are a lot like the Mexicans. They like things spicy, but they cook a lot like the Ecuadorians, just with peppers and chiles to make it hot.
Did you get a family heirloom from Elder Bejar?
No, I didn´t, but I decided to start one so that we can have one in the family. Elder Williams told me that he received a shirt that has been passed from missionary to missionary since 1996. So it has had a while here in the mission. So I think unless one of my grand kids is a thief and keeps the family heirloom for themselves, it should be around a long time.
Did you write your names on the back of your heirloom for future posterity?
Yes, that is the idea, that the elders can say that my great great great....... great grandad is Elder Goode from Utah.
What day did you mail my photos? I am expecting to get them as my Christmas and Birthday present. Don’t disappoint me!
I mailed the disks this Wednesday, that is coming, in the District Meeting.
He Better!!!
Are you walking a lot in Portoviejo? Or do you use the buses and taxis to get around?
I am walking a lot here in Portoviejo, but we have to take buses sometimes to get from one part of the sector to others and then we walk. My sector goes from the university here in Portoviejo to another city called Cruzcita, that is out there on the ocean. So my sector like all of my others is a big one.
How big is your sector?
From the university to Cruzcita, is about an hour in bus, but at low speeds, like thirty-five to forty miles an hour.
Does your sector cover just one ward or one branch?
Yep, my sector is just one branch. It is part of the stake, but it isn´t big enough yet to be a ward, but they said that they were close.
How big is your ward or branch?
It is about the same size as Valencia.
How many people attend each week?
About 100 to 120.
Do you teach any lessons or have you talked in church?
I gave a talk on missionary work my first Sunday here and then we give a class every week. We teach the Gospel Principles class.
Are the members helping you a lot with the work? Are you able to take them with you to your lessons?
We are working on getting the youth involved so we are taking a youth with us just about every day when we visit.
Have you ever met President Gamboa’s Counselors in the mission? You have never mentioned them. Who are they and where are they from? What do they do to help the work?
No, I don´t know anything about his Counselors.
Do President and Hermana Gamboa have two sons with them on the mission? Elder Abriel mentioned a 14 year old son. I have found a lady on Facebook that I think is Hermana Gamboa. She is friends with some of the returned missionaries. Her name is Doris Pulido Barrerra. Is that Sister Gamboa? The photo is of her with President Gamboa and two sons. One looks like he is about fourteen and the other about eighteen. He could be on a mission, I guess.
That would be Hermana Gamboa and they have two sons. One is in the mission, in Argentina and the other is here. He comes sometimes to the Conferences with his parents.
Tell us about your investigators. Do you have any with baptismal dates set?
We have four with baptism dates. One is the brother of a member. He is 26 and his sister is about thirty and she is a member that lives in another ward. But he accepted a baptismal date for the 12th of December without problem. He has accepted everything that we have taught him without problems. His name is Juan Pablo or John Pedro in English.
We have three others that we are teaching that are all 16 years old. They have a lot of friends in the church and they like to go to the church to play soccer. We just need them to come to church so they can get baptized. I think we are going to have the four baptisms on the 12th, but let’s see what happens.
Do you have any that are progressing?
We have a lot that we have found that are progressing, so that is cool. I am pretty sure that all of the finding that we have been doing has paid off.
You said your sector is called the 12th of March. Did you know that the city of Portoviejo was founded on March 12, 1535?
No.
Is your sector near the university? If so, you might have lots of success working with the students there. I suspect they are a lot more receptive to change than their parents who are set in their ways of religion.
Have you been having power blackouts in your area? Some of the other missionaries are talking about how they turn off the power for an hour each morning and an hour each afternoon to conserve power. They say that Ecuador is experiencing a drought and because most of their power is created by water, they are having shortages of power due to the drought. Elder Daniel Mitton said they have been teaching about the light of Christ when they have to teach in the dark. He said this has been very beneficial to them and the people are listening because it is a real lesson they can see, how Christ represents light in their lives. It might be something you could use in your sector.
Yes we have been having black outs here. Ours are a three hour block in the mornings, from 9 to 12, so it doesn´t affect our area too much.
Hi Curtis,
I just got back on my computer. I had to go to WPJH for a bit and just got back to WPEL. I hope you are still on the computer. Thanks for the answers to the questions. Tell us more about what you have been doing this week. What happened that was exciting? You must have had a Zone
Conference. I believe that photo was taken on November 20th. Is that right?
Love you lots,
Mom
Yep, you are right the picture was taken on the 20th and we did have Zone Conference. We learned a lot about the obedience in the conference. There seems to be a huge problem with the disobedience right now here in the mission, so we talked about why it is so important that we are obedient. It was cool. I learned a lot and I got lucky with a lot of my comments or I was inspired, but I am sure that there was a little luck. Elder Aguirre passed out a letter to all of the elders, a different letter of the alfabet. I got the letter J and then Elder Aguirre asked Presidente to pick a letter and he picked one and Elder Piedra got picked and he was the example and then Presedent picked the J and I got picked and the thing was that we had to remember a scripture with a certain word that began with me letter. My word was juventud or youth in english and I had studied a long, long time ago in my second or third change the scripture so I had to give the reference and say the scripture from memory and then tell what principle I would apply it to and then what commitment I would give the people. So that was cool I got lucky with a scripture that I knew. Many didn´t know the scriptures. I was one of just two that were able to do it without any help.
Well I gotta go, but I love you lots and I hope that all is going well for you.
Bye,
Elder Goode
Showing posts with label Zone Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zone Conference. Show all posts
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
2009_07_13 Week 15 Valencia Mom
Hey! How is it going? Hey, it sounds like you had a lot of fun on the trip. You know the Mesa Falls that you went to and the Warm River? When I went with Skyler and his family, we went past Mesa Falls and we stopped at Warm River and fished. I didn´t catch anything, but Skyler did, but he said that there was hardly no fish there when we were there. Do you know why the fish liked the dog food best? They are planter fish and the planter fish when they are in the fish hatchery eat a special fish food that looks a lot like dog food, so they are used to eating big brown balls of food, so dog food would be one of their favorites to eat.
Well things are going good here. We didn´t have our baptism because Isabel didn´t want to have her interview, so we will have to wait for another day to baptise her in I think two weeks. We had an interchange to do the interview, so I went to Buena Fe with a new elder that had two weeks here in Ecuador. He is from Argentina. His name is Elder Jimines and his companion Elder Vargas was here in Valencia with Elder Castañeda to do the interview. It was cool. I got to spend the night in Buena Fe with Elder Lopez from Peru and Elder Frye from California. I also bought a tie while I was there. It is a tie of Ecuador. It has the colors of the flag and the symbol. It is really cool. I was thinking there is a member in Buena Fe that is a taylor and I can have him make me a custom suit for 90 dollars, but what do you think?? Everything is going good here. I love you all lots. I hope I hear from you soon.
Hi Curtis,
It is good to hear from you. I am sorry about your baptism. I hope it will go through next time. What seemed to be the problem with having the interview?
Some of the fish in Warm River were really big. It looked like they had been there a long time. There was a guy fishing up higher on the river, but the place we stopped to look at the fish was posted, "No Fishing." The guy would throw a handful of dog food in and the fish would jump all over the place to get it. The bread they sort of sucked under, so you didn't get to see the fish as much. We didn't go to Big Springs. Grandpa Parkinson says there are not too many big fish left up there.
Did you stop to see the falls at Upper Mesa Falls? I thought it was a very beautiful place.
That is cool that you got to go on an interchange and work with a brand new greenie. I have seen photos of Elder Frye. He was in Babahoyo when a bunch of the Elders were there together. Elder Vargas has been out a while. He trained Elder Fuentamavida and an Elder Martinez. He is Elder Tyler Walke's Grandfather. But that seems kind of strange because I believe Elder Fuentamavida has gone home now, so I would have thought that Elder Vargas would have gone home before him. Maybe there were two of them and I have gotten things mixed up. Oh well.
I guess it would be okay for you to have a suit made for you by the member who is a taylor. I think several of the missionaries have done that while they have been there. I know Elder Ogden talked about his suit in some of his letters. The tie sounds really neat. I saw a photo of another elder somewhere who was wearing one like that. I was hoping you would find one along the way somewhere.
Love Always,
Mom
Hey! How are things going? I´ll see what I can do about getting a suit made. I´ll probably have to go next Monday if I want to get one made. This week, we are going to have interviews and Zone Conference. Do you have questions today for me?
I haven't written any up yet. Just tell us what you have been doing and how things are going. What is happening with each of those investigators you talked about last week?
We have been pretty busy here. I am teaching a Jew. He is from Jerusalem living here in Ecuador. He wants to get baptised. The thing that is really cool is I am teaching him in English. His name is Moshe. (That means Moses in Hebrew.) He says that he has been praying like we do to God in the name of Jesus Christ, but the problem that he is having is that his family says that if he joins the church he will be dead to them. But the real problem is that he has a daughter that is one year old. He isn´t married and he hasn´t lived with the mom, but she isn´t a Jew. But she lives the Law of Moses and she says that if he joins our church that he can´t visit his daughter and that is what is the hardest for him. The mom says that it could be dangerous for the daughter if he visits her and teaches her about Jesus Christ. Yeah, it is really hard, but he wants to progress. He wants to learn and that is what is really cool. Shirley still doesn´t have a baptism date and we still don´t have permission. Esther still isn´t baptized. We are having some problems with the Bishop there. He doesn´t want us to baptise her because of the problems that she is passing through. The Cuello family is still progressing and doing well. We are hoping for two weeks from now. Isabel didn´t want to do the interview, so they didn´t do it. That is who we have been visiting the most and helping them to be baptized.
It sounds like you are working hard. It would be a really hard thing to make a choice between the church and your family. In the end, though, you can't have your family in the next life if you don't choose the church first in this life. Is there any chance that Moshe can reconcile things with the mother of his daughter and get married? They they could all join the church and become an eternal family. It is neat that you get to teach him in English. Do you remember how to speak it anymore?
Shirley is a tough one. I hope you read the letter from Alma Clark and the "Lock Your Heart" Talk by President Spencer W. Kimball. He was a wonderful prophet. He was the prophet when I first gained my testimony. I remember him as being such a loving man. Do you think Shirley has a testimony of the church or just a love for you?
Esther will struggle for a long time with young children and no husband. It seems odd that the bishop would not want her to become part of the ward where she can get some help and assistance. Maybe their resources are already tight with the economy being like it is. Maybe he knows more of her background than what you have told me, so there may be other things that are influencing his decision. I guess we should always trust our leaders to know best and hope that they are living in a way to be inspired by the Lord to do what is best for each person.
I am glad your Cuello Family are progressing. I hope that all will work out for you in two weeks. Do you know why Isabel did not want to do the interview? Was she just scared? It might be easier for her if her daughters join at the same time as she does. How is the marriage coming along?
I know it must be frustrating to think you are going to have a baptism and then have it not work out. That has happened to you quite a few times now. Hang in there and keep trying. It will work out eventually.
Are you healthy and happy?
Why did the Zambrano family want to stop listening to your message?
Did Esther's boyfriend leave her because she started listening to the missionaries or did something else happen to drive him away?
Did you get the contact solution? How much? How much did it cost you?
I got a little. It cost a dollar and a half, but it is like 60 ml so it won´t last long, but I´ll keep looking. But if you want to send me a bottle of Aquify that would be fine. Esthers boyfriend is a member of the church. He was baptised when he was nine or ten and then became inactive. He is now 25 or 26. He left because he got another girl pregnant, so he went to live with her. And the Zambrano family stopped listening because the dad said that he was a member of another church and that he couldn´t listen to us anymore, so ya.
I will get some shipped off to you. I might send you several bottles. I will just have to see how it fits in the packages. If I have to use a box rather than the envelopes, I might as well send 4 pounds worth since it will cost the same no matter what the weight. If it will fit in an envelope I will just send one or two for now.
They used to make pills that you could dissolve in purified water that would clean the contacts. I wonder if they still make them. They would be easier to send. I will check.
That is too bad about Esther's boyfriend. It is sad that Satan gets hold of good people and makes them do stupid things. It sounds like one of the local preachers got hold of the father in the Zambrano family and fed him some anti-Mormon information.
I will keep praying for you to be successful. Keep working hard and being obedient so the Lord can inspire you and work through you. I love you so much and I am so very proud of you.
While saving your emails I noticed that your letter to President Gamboa was sent from you to you instead of to him. You might want to resend that letter again.
Ya, I knew that it was sent to me. I forgot my planner so I didn´t have our numbers for the week so I sent the email to me and we went and ate lunch and then came back and I brought my planner so that I could finish the email and send it to president. So I just sent it again.
Okay. That makes lots of sense. What else do you do on your P-days?
We usually go shopping but that is pretty easy when there is a market that sets up every Monday in front of our house, so we buy what we need in the market and then we do internet and we sleep and clean the house and that is about it.
Okay. How much extra sleep do you get on Pdays?
How are you coming on your Maestro? Have you gotten it passed off yet?
You mentioned that you have a Zone Conference. Is that this week? Where?
It depends on the week I usually get an hour extra of sleep. The Maestro is coming along and Zone Conference and interviews are this week. Thursday is interviews and Friday is Zone Conference.
Try to get a good photo of your Zone this time and send it to us. It is always nice to know what missionaries you are working with. Tell the APs to send the photo by email this time. LOL.
Maybe your Mission President can do something to help you with your Bishop to get these investigators baptized. Talk to him about that in your interview if it is appropriate.
Have a really great week and work extra hard to make up the time you will be missing for the Zone Conference. Take photos if you can at the Zone Conference. When are you going to send me some more photos? I want to see your happy, smiling face. Please?
Well things are going good here. We didn´t have our baptism because Isabel didn´t want to have her interview, so we will have to wait for another day to baptise her in I think two weeks. We had an interchange to do the interview, so I went to Buena Fe with a new elder that had two weeks here in Ecuador. He is from Argentina. His name is Elder Jimines and his companion Elder Vargas was here in Valencia with Elder Castañeda to do the interview. It was cool. I got to spend the night in Buena Fe with Elder Lopez from Peru and Elder Frye from California. I also bought a tie while I was there. It is a tie of Ecuador. It has the colors of the flag and the symbol. It is really cool. I was thinking there is a member in Buena Fe that is a taylor and I can have him make me a custom suit for 90 dollars, but what do you think?? Everything is going good here. I love you all lots. I hope I hear from you soon.
Hi Curtis,
It is good to hear from you. I am sorry about your baptism. I hope it will go through next time. What seemed to be the problem with having the interview?
Some of the fish in Warm River were really big. It looked like they had been there a long time. There was a guy fishing up higher on the river, but the place we stopped to look at the fish was posted, "No Fishing." The guy would throw a handful of dog food in and the fish would jump all over the place to get it. The bread they sort of sucked under, so you didn't get to see the fish as much. We didn't go to Big Springs. Grandpa Parkinson says there are not too many big fish left up there.
Did you stop to see the falls at Upper Mesa Falls? I thought it was a very beautiful place.
That is cool that you got to go on an interchange and work with a brand new greenie. I have seen photos of Elder Frye. He was in Babahoyo when a bunch of the Elders were there together. Elder Vargas has been out a while. He trained Elder Fuentamavida and an Elder Martinez. He is Elder Tyler Walke's Grandfather. But that seems kind of strange because I believe Elder Fuentamavida has gone home now, so I would have thought that Elder Vargas would have gone home before him. Maybe there were two of them and I have gotten things mixed up. Oh well.
I guess it would be okay for you to have a suit made for you by the member who is a taylor. I think several of the missionaries have done that while they have been there. I know Elder Ogden talked about his suit in some of his letters. The tie sounds really neat. I saw a photo of another elder somewhere who was wearing one like that. I was hoping you would find one along the way somewhere.
Love Always,
Mom
Hey! How are things going? I´ll see what I can do about getting a suit made. I´ll probably have to go next Monday if I want to get one made. This week, we are going to have interviews and Zone Conference. Do you have questions today for me?
I haven't written any up yet. Just tell us what you have been doing and how things are going. What is happening with each of those investigators you talked about last week?
We have been pretty busy here. I am teaching a Jew. He is from Jerusalem living here in Ecuador. He wants to get baptised. The thing that is really cool is I am teaching him in English. His name is Moshe. (That means Moses in Hebrew.) He says that he has been praying like we do to God in the name of Jesus Christ, but the problem that he is having is that his family says that if he joins the church he will be dead to them. But the real problem is that he has a daughter that is one year old. He isn´t married and he hasn´t lived with the mom, but she isn´t a Jew. But she lives the Law of Moses and she says that if he joins our church that he can´t visit his daughter and that is what is the hardest for him. The mom says that it could be dangerous for the daughter if he visits her and teaches her about Jesus Christ. Yeah, it is really hard, but he wants to progress. He wants to learn and that is what is really cool. Shirley still doesn´t have a baptism date and we still don´t have permission. Esther still isn´t baptized. We are having some problems with the Bishop there. He doesn´t want us to baptise her because of the problems that she is passing through. The Cuello family is still progressing and doing well. We are hoping for two weeks from now. Isabel didn´t want to do the interview, so they didn´t do it. That is who we have been visiting the most and helping them to be baptized.
It sounds like you are working hard. It would be a really hard thing to make a choice between the church and your family. In the end, though, you can't have your family in the next life if you don't choose the church first in this life. Is there any chance that Moshe can reconcile things with the mother of his daughter and get married? They they could all join the church and become an eternal family. It is neat that you get to teach him in English. Do you remember how to speak it anymore?
Shirley is a tough one. I hope you read the letter from Alma Clark and the "Lock Your Heart" Talk by President Spencer W. Kimball. He was a wonderful prophet. He was the prophet when I first gained my testimony. I remember him as being such a loving man. Do you think Shirley has a testimony of the church or just a love for you?
Esther will struggle for a long time with young children and no husband. It seems odd that the bishop would not want her to become part of the ward where she can get some help and assistance. Maybe their resources are already tight with the economy being like it is. Maybe he knows more of her background than what you have told me, so there may be other things that are influencing his decision. I guess we should always trust our leaders to know best and hope that they are living in a way to be inspired by the Lord to do what is best for each person.
I am glad your Cuello Family are progressing. I hope that all will work out for you in two weeks. Do you know why Isabel did not want to do the interview? Was she just scared? It might be easier for her if her daughters join at the same time as she does. How is the marriage coming along?
I know it must be frustrating to think you are going to have a baptism and then have it not work out. That has happened to you quite a few times now. Hang in there and keep trying. It will work out eventually.
Are you healthy and happy?
Why did the Zambrano family want to stop listening to your message?
Did Esther's boyfriend leave her because she started listening to the missionaries or did something else happen to drive him away?
Did you get the contact solution? How much? How much did it cost you?
I got a little. It cost a dollar and a half, but it is like 60 ml so it won´t last long, but I´ll keep looking. But if you want to send me a bottle of Aquify that would be fine. Esthers boyfriend is a member of the church. He was baptised when he was nine or ten and then became inactive. He is now 25 or 26. He left because he got another girl pregnant, so he went to live with her. And the Zambrano family stopped listening because the dad said that he was a member of another church and that he couldn´t listen to us anymore, so ya.
I will get some shipped off to you. I might send you several bottles. I will just have to see how it fits in the packages. If I have to use a box rather than the envelopes, I might as well send 4 pounds worth since it will cost the same no matter what the weight. If it will fit in an envelope I will just send one or two for now.
They used to make pills that you could dissolve in purified water that would clean the contacts. I wonder if they still make them. They would be easier to send. I will check.
That is too bad about Esther's boyfriend. It is sad that Satan gets hold of good people and makes them do stupid things. It sounds like one of the local preachers got hold of the father in the Zambrano family and fed him some anti-Mormon information.
I will keep praying for you to be successful. Keep working hard and being obedient so the Lord can inspire you and work through you. I love you so much and I am so very proud of you.
While saving your emails I noticed that your letter to President Gamboa was sent from you to you instead of to him. You might want to resend that letter again.
Ya, I knew that it was sent to me. I forgot my planner so I didn´t have our numbers for the week so I sent the email to me and we went and ate lunch and then came back and I brought my planner so that I could finish the email and send it to president. So I just sent it again.
Okay. That makes lots of sense. What else do you do on your P-days?
We usually go shopping but that is pretty easy when there is a market that sets up every Monday in front of our house, so we buy what we need in the market and then we do internet and we sleep and clean the house and that is about it.
Okay. How much extra sleep do you get on Pdays?
How are you coming on your Maestro? Have you gotten it passed off yet?
You mentioned that you have a Zone Conference. Is that this week? Where?
It depends on the week I usually get an hour extra of sleep. The Maestro is coming along and Zone Conference and interviews are this week. Thursday is interviews and Friday is Zone Conference.
Try to get a good photo of your Zone this time and send it to us. It is always nice to know what missionaries you are working with. Tell the APs to send the photo by email this time. LOL.
Maybe your Mission President can do something to help you with your Bishop to get these investigators baptized. Talk to him about that in your interview if it is appropriate.
Have a really great week and work extra hard to make up the time you will be missing for the Zone Conference. Take photos if you can at the Zone Conference. When are you going to send me some more photos? I want to see your happy, smiling face. Please?
Monday, June 22, 2009
2009_06_22 Week 12 Valencia Mom
Dear Curtis,
I hope you have had a really great week. Were you able to baptize Shirley and Esther? Please tell us about the baptisms.
We didn’t have the baptisms because we couldn’t get Shirley’s mom to sign the form so that she could be baptized. But we are going to try really hard to get the permission this week so that we can baptise her this week.
Did the family Cuella attend church this week? Are they progressing towards baptism?
The familia Cuello, they really aren’t progressing. It is kinda sad, but I think we are going to have to stop visiting them because they aren’t progressing, but we are going to see what happens this week.
Are you teaching anyone else that is progressing well?
We received the reference for the familia Zambrano. The mom is a member, but the father and the six girls aren’t members. There are three girls that are old enough to be baptized, so we have four baptism dates with this family now for July 11th. They really want to learn and to bebaptized, so I think that this family is going to get baptized. I really hope so.
How is Oscar doing? In the photo there is a woman next to Elder Castañeda. Is that Oscar’s mom?
Yes
I think you said she is a member.
Yes
Is she active now?
Yes, but sometimes she doesn’t come to church, because she sells vegetables for a living in the marcet and she sells Sundays, too. But she has hired another lady to sell for her on Sundays,but sometimes the lady doesn’t show up so she has to stay to sell instead.
How is Elder Castañeda doing? Are you helping him to want to work harder?
Yeah, we are working a lot harder now than when we first started. Part of it is that we had Zone Conference and that really motivated us to work harder.
Did you teach any really great lessons this week? Tell us about your teaching.
I taught the first lesson that Clain received to the Zambrano family and they could really understand that they need to pray to find out if the church is true or not.
Did Hermana Gamboa come and inspect your apartment? Some of the other missionaries mentioned it in their emails.
Yeah she came and she inspected. Our apartment is really pretty clean. I wasn’t a custodian for a year for nothing!
Were you able to pass the written test for the Maestro?
I didn’t take the test. I still need to do more activities in “Preach My Gospel” before I can take the test.
How did your interview with President Gamboa go?
It was good.
How long are the interviews?
They are ten minutes or shorter. They aren’t long at all.
Does he teach you anything while you are meeting together?
No. We just talk about what has been happening in the sector, if I have any questions, how our investigators are doing.
What did the Assistants to the President teach you at the Zone Conference?
That we need to invite everyone to be baptized. It was really cool.
Did they take photos of the Zone? Can you send me a photo of your zone?
No, because the Assistants haven’t sent me the one that they took, but when I have it I will send it.
We still have not received your package. I hope it comes this week. I thought for sure it would come last week while Clain was at EFY, and it would be addressed to him so we would have to wait a whole week till he got home, but it didn’t come at all. I mailed three more packages to you on June 8th. They are for your birthday. I imagine they will arrive early, but I would rather you had them early than late. Is there anything you need or want in the next package?
Can you send me three more pair of garments? They are the Drilux and they are large talls in the shirt and the boxer oh and send the ones that have the high neck, not the low neck like dads.
Transfers will be next week again, but I imagine you will probably stay where you are for a while. Did the mission president say anything to make you think otherwise?
I don’t think that I will go anywhere this change, but the Zone Leader, Elder Verastagui keeps saying that he thinks that I am going to be District Leader, so I don’t know what will happen.
Hi Curtis,
Are the garment bottoms Drilux, too? What size are the bottoms? Don't they usually come in a number waist size? I thought you could order them through the mission. It is no problem to send them, though.
I am glad you had a good week, but sad about your baptisms not working out. What happened with Esther?
The bottoms are Drilux, too. They are size 36-38 or large and they need to be tall too. I am pretty sure that the Drilux only comes in boxer bottoms, but double check, because I don’t like the briefs. We can order them through the mission or we could until the President of Ecuador closed the country to imports from Colombia, so the garments aren’t coming into Ecuador. So we can’t order what isn’t here.
Esther went to Guayaquil because her daughter was sick with dengue and was in really bad shape. So we couldn’t baptise her, but we will keep trying to arrange for her baptism.
It is exciting that you might become a District Leader. You will be a great one, I am sure. We are very proud of you. You have had a lot of leadership opportunities, so I know you will be ready for the challenge.
We will keep praying for your investigators by name and hope that it will make a difference. Have you tried fasting for help with your investigators? Sometimes that helps. Lots of prayer and a little fasting will go a long way to helping them progress. We will try to help you from this end. You are always in our prayers. Hard work also goes a long ways, so work till you are dead dog tired at the end of each day. And be completely obedient. When you are following every rule exactly, the Lord will bless you for your faithfulness.
I love you so much. I have to go now and drive to Cache Valley to tend Taylor. I should have left an hour ago. Oh well. I just finally got the chart sent to the printer. It will be awesome. I know Grandma and Grandpa are going to love it. It is not perfect, but it is a labor of love and they will appreciate that.
Have a really great week. I love you so very much and I am so very proud of you and the work you are doing. Take care.
Love always and forever,
Mom
I hope you have had a really great week. Were you able to baptize Shirley and Esther? Please tell us about the baptisms.
We didn’t have the baptisms because we couldn’t get Shirley’s mom to sign the form so that she could be baptized. But we are going to try really hard to get the permission this week so that we can baptise her this week.
Did the family Cuella attend church this week? Are they progressing towards baptism?
The familia Cuello, they really aren’t progressing. It is kinda sad, but I think we are going to have to stop visiting them because they aren’t progressing, but we are going to see what happens this week.
Are you teaching anyone else that is progressing well?
We received the reference for the familia Zambrano. The mom is a member, but the father and the six girls aren’t members. There are three girls that are old enough to be baptized, so we have four baptism dates with this family now for July 11th. They really want to learn and to bebaptized, so I think that this family is going to get baptized. I really hope so.
How is Oscar doing? In the photo there is a woman next to Elder Castañeda. Is that Oscar’s mom?
Yes
I think you said she is a member.
Yes
Is she active now?
Yes, but sometimes she doesn’t come to church, because she sells vegetables for a living in the marcet and she sells Sundays, too. But she has hired another lady to sell for her on Sundays,but sometimes the lady doesn’t show up so she has to stay to sell instead.
How is Elder Castañeda doing? Are you helping him to want to work harder?
Yeah, we are working a lot harder now than when we first started. Part of it is that we had Zone Conference and that really motivated us to work harder.
Did you teach any really great lessons this week? Tell us about your teaching.
I taught the first lesson that Clain received to the Zambrano family and they could really understand that they need to pray to find out if the church is true or not.
Did Hermana Gamboa come and inspect your apartment? Some of the other missionaries mentioned it in their emails.
Yeah she came and she inspected. Our apartment is really pretty clean. I wasn’t a custodian for a year for nothing!
Were you able to pass the written test for the Maestro?
I didn’t take the test. I still need to do more activities in “Preach My Gospel” before I can take the test.
How did your interview with President Gamboa go?
It was good.
How long are the interviews?
They are ten minutes or shorter. They aren’t long at all.
Does he teach you anything while you are meeting together?
No. We just talk about what has been happening in the sector, if I have any questions, how our investigators are doing.
What did the Assistants to the President teach you at the Zone Conference?
That we need to invite everyone to be baptized. It was really cool.
Did they take photos of the Zone? Can you send me a photo of your zone?
No, because the Assistants haven’t sent me the one that they took, but when I have it I will send it.
We still have not received your package. I hope it comes this week. I thought for sure it would come last week while Clain was at EFY, and it would be addressed to him so we would have to wait a whole week till he got home, but it didn’t come at all. I mailed three more packages to you on June 8th. They are for your birthday. I imagine they will arrive early, but I would rather you had them early than late. Is there anything you need or want in the next package?
Can you send me three more pair of garments? They are the Drilux and they are large talls in the shirt and the boxer oh and send the ones that have the high neck, not the low neck like dads.
Transfers will be next week again, but I imagine you will probably stay where you are for a while. Did the mission president say anything to make you think otherwise?
I don’t think that I will go anywhere this change, but the Zone Leader, Elder Verastagui keeps saying that he thinks that I am going to be District Leader, so I don’t know what will happen.
Hi Curtis,
Are the garment bottoms Drilux, too? What size are the bottoms? Don't they usually come in a number waist size? I thought you could order them through the mission. It is no problem to send them, though.
I am glad you had a good week, but sad about your baptisms not working out. What happened with Esther?
The bottoms are Drilux, too. They are size 36-38 or large and they need to be tall too. I am pretty sure that the Drilux only comes in boxer bottoms, but double check, because I don’t like the briefs. We can order them through the mission or we could until the President of Ecuador closed the country to imports from Colombia, so the garments aren’t coming into Ecuador. So we can’t order what isn’t here.
Esther went to Guayaquil because her daughter was sick with dengue and was in really bad shape. So we couldn’t baptise her, but we will keep trying to arrange for her baptism.
It is exciting that you might become a District Leader. You will be a great one, I am sure. We are very proud of you. You have had a lot of leadership opportunities, so I know you will be ready for the challenge.
We will keep praying for your investigators by name and hope that it will make a difference. Have you tried fasting for help with your investigators? Sometimes that helps. Lots of prayer and a little fasting will go a long way to helping them progress. We will try to help you from this end. You are always in our prayers. Hard work also goes a long ways, so work till you are dead dog tired at the end of each day. And be completely obedient. When you are following every rule exactly, the Lord will bless you for your faithfulness.
I love you so much. I have to go now and drive to Cache Valley to tend Taylor. I should have left an hour ago. Oh well. I just finally got the chart sent to the printer. It will be awesome. I know Grandma and Grandpa are going to love it. It is not perfect, but it is a labor of love and they will appreciate that.
Have a really great week. I love you so very much and I am so very proud of you and the work you are doing. Take care.
Love always and forever,
Mom
Monday, June 15, 2009
2009_06_15 Week 11 Valencia Mom
Baptism of Oscar Ante Rodrigo Guanotuña on May 23, 2009Elder Goode, Oscar, Elder Castañeda, and Oscar's Mom
Elder Frye in the back, Elder Castañeda in the front
Well, tell us all about your week. Are your investigators coming along good? Are they going to be ready to be baptized on Saturday? Please tell us more about each one of them. What are their names so we can pray for them?
I have a few that we are teaching. There is Shirley. She is 17 and she is ready to be baptised this Saturday. We are teaching a single mom. She has two kids. Her name is Esther. We are planning on baptising her this Saturday, but we lost contact with her a little bit so we are trying to contact her so that we can plan for her baptism. So we will see what happens. We are teaching another family, the family Cuello or neck in English. There is the mom, her daughter and husband, another daughter and the neighbor girl that we are teaching. They had a baptism date for this Saturday, but they didn’t come to church this Sunday so we can’t baptise them, so we are going to visit them tomorrow and put another baptism date for a later date like the first or second Saturday in July.
How are things coming along with your companion?
Things are coming good. We had Zone Conference this week and now we are being more obedient and trying to follow the rules, so it is going really good.
Did you have any investigators to church today? Do you teach them in a Gospel Essentials class?
We had investigators in the church, but we didn’t teach them because this Sunday was the Sunday to vote, so we only had the Sacrament Meeting.
How did Zone Conference go?
Zone conference was really good. We learned that we need to commit all people to be baptised as soon as possible when we meet them. So now we need to put it into practice so we can see how well it works. I think that it will work really good because the more people that we are inviting to be baptized, the more people that will accept and the more people that will be baptised.
You said you were going to send some videos.
I haven’t sent them yet, but I’ll work on it. Ok?
Are your packages all arriving okay?
Yeah my packages are getting here fine. They haven’t been opened at all lately, so that is a good thing and everything gets here just fine.
Monday, June 8, 2009
2009_06_08 Week 10 Mom
Dear Curtis,
I am asking lots of questions this week. I want lots of answers please. You have been in your new area for nine weeks now and I still don’t know much about it.
Where is your apartment in Valencia? You said it was about ten blocks from the police station. Is it in the middle of town, nice section, poor section, or what?
My house is four blocks from the main road that goes from Quevedo to the Mana. We live in the same street as the park that is in the middle of Valencia. The house is two floors. We live up stairs in half and another family, other members (the mom is one of our mamitas), lives next to us in the other half. Below in the first floor is the owners of the house. They aren´t members, but part of their family is members. The mom and sister of the wife are members. The mom is also one of our mamitas.
Describe your apartment. Main floor, upper floor?
We live in the upper floor.
How many rooms are there? What rooms?
We have three rooms or four. It depends how you count it. You will understand when I send the video of the apartment home. We have our bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, but the kitchen has a counter that separates it and the main room where we study, so three rooms, I guess.
Do you have a microwave? Toaster?
Yeah, we have a microwave, a toaster and a waffle iron, too.
Is it clean? Are you keeping it sanitary? Are you cleaning regularly?
Yeah, the house is very clean. We clean every pday. In the morning we get up the same time on pdays, but we have time in the morning, before ten, when we can leave to clean, so we clean everything every week.
What is Valencia like? How big? Compare to local cities near us.
Valencia is a little bit like West Yellowstone. If you remember, it has like one main road and then the rest is just houses. It is really quiet and peaceful here.
You said there are lots of fruit farms. Are they in town or all out of town?
All of the fruit farms are out of town. The people still have their banana tree in their house, but they all have their property in other places where they harvest all of their crops.
That news article said that there were 18 police officers hurt. Do all of those officers work in Valencia or were some from other areas?
I think that there are 8 police officers that work here in Valencia and then there were others from Quevedo and others from the Mana that came here to help out.
Has there been any more trouble in your sector because of the lynching?
No, there hasn´t been any more trouble. It has been really quiet and there haven’t been any more thieves or robberies either. I think the thieves are scared. I guess that is a good thing.
Do you still eat lots of chicken and rice or has your diet changed?
I am still eating a lot of chicken, but I am eating more beef now. The other day we ate lazania (lasagna) here. It was so cool. We are planning on Thursday to eat guine pig, so I will let you know next week how that goes. Elder Bartolomei was talking about eating iguana in his sector so I will ask him how that tastes, too.
Valencia seems to be much wetter than Balzar was. Are the streets always muddy? Do the storms come mostly at night?
Yeah, it rains mostly at night and we can only tell because the road is a little bit wet in the morning, but when the sun comes out it dries up quickly and you can’t tell that it rained.
Are your shoes and clothes holding up okay? Do you wear your boots now?
I haven’t had to wear my boots for quite a while now. Here in Valencia, the streets are just about all paved or they put little cement blocks together to make the roads a little bit like modern cobble stone roads, but they are just about level. My shoes and clothes are doing fine. I need to sew a few shirts and pants where the seams are coming undone, but nothing major.
Are there mosquitos and bugs?
Yeah, there are a few mosquitos and bugs, but they don’t bug me much, my companion they bug, but me, no.
Tell us more about your companion. You said he comes from a large family. Is he youngest, oldest, middle?
He is from Otavalo. He has a pony tail.
How many of his family still live in Otovalo? What do they do for a living?
They sell clothes that they make. That is why they travel, because they sell the clothes better in other parts than in Otavalo.
Why do they wear their hair in a pony tail? What is the significance?
It is their tradition. It is how they show respect to their parents. It is a disgrace to their parents if they cut their hair. It is like if I wanted to be rebellious and I grew my hair out and dyed it pink. I am showing that I am being rebellious. If they want to be rebellious, they cut their hair.
Why do they dress differently at Zone Conferences, all in white with slippers for shoes?
That is the customary fancy dress of the Otavalanios, so they are allowed to wear it here in the mission.
Who did he live with when he was in the United States?
I don´t know for sure.
How old is he?
He is 21.
What is his full name?
Francisco (I don´t know the other name and he won´t tell me either) Castañeda Arias
Are you getting along well? Are you working hard together?
For the most part, yes, we are getting along great, but he isn´t very excited to work, so I have been fighting the dilemma. Do I push him to work or do we work a little bit slower. I am worried that if I push him too much he will want to go back to his house again and not come back.
Tell us about the people you are teaching. How many? How are they progressing? Are any of them ready for baptism? Did you have any baptisms this week?
We are planning all of our baptisms this month for the twentieth of June. We have six people, but I think that the family of four that we are teaching won´t be ready. So we may have to postpone them for later, but we will see how it turns out this week and the next.
How are you coming on your goal to have five families who hold the priesthood and pay their tithing in La Mana?
Yeah, things aren´t going so good, but it takes time to find people that want to learn and want to go to church so we are working on it.
Have you contacted all of the people from your Day as a Missionary Activity?
Yeah, we are planning on doing it again July 11th to get more references.
Are you enjoying being a Senior Companion? Are you up to the challenge?
Yeah I think I am ready and the Lord knows that I am ready because if I wasn´t ready I would still be junior companion.
How are you coming on the Maestro?
I am working on it. I am going to take the written part this week during the interviews, so we will see how that goes.
Tell us about the members that help you the most with missionary work.
(No answer.)
What is the best thing that happened to you this week?
(No answer.)
What is the worst thing that happened to you this week?
(No answer.)
What is the funniest thing that happened to you this week?
(No answer.)
Have you had a Zone Conference lately? What did you learn?
Zone Conference is this Friday and interviews are on Thursday, so yeah I will tell you next week.
Did you get all three of the packages we sent? Was everything in good condition?
I received four packages last Wednesday and everything was in good shape. Thank you so much.
Is your testimony growing?
I am pretty sure that it is!
Are you happy and healthy?
Yeah. I now weigh 220 pounds. I am doing great!
Have you been to the bat cave yet? Tell us about it.
No. We haven’t been. Today we went to the seven waterfalls again.
Have you see anything else that is interesting?
(No answer.)
Well it is late again. Have a really great day. I hope to get a chance to talk to you, but that will probably only work later in the day. I love you forever.
Mom
Hey Curtis,
Thanks for the answers. It is nice to hear more from you. Did your companion leave once and go back to Otavalo? What other problems has he had? What are you doing to try to motivate him to work? Are you writing compliments about him to your mission president? That might help. If you tell the mission president that he is doing well, then hopefully the mission president will mention something to him in his emails that will make a difference. I am sure you were chosen for this challenge because the mission president thought you were up to it. He has given you a great compliment to believe that you have the power to turn this missionary around and help him to be successful. Keep trying and pray for inspiration to know what you should do to help him.
Are the mamitas that live near you the ones that feed you or the ones that do your laundry? It would be nice not to have to carry your laundry a mile across town.
Let us know how the guinea pig are. I would not be brave enough to eat them that way, but you have never been afraid of anything, so go for it and enjoy!!!
When Elder Castañeda started his mission, he started in Quevedo, but after three weeks he wanted to go home, so he told President Ridd that he wanted to go and President Ridd tried to talk him out of it, but he still wanted to go home. So he went. He was in his house for a month or more. I´m not for sure exactly how much time, but Elder Castañeda said it was more than a month. He wasn’t doing much in his house, sitting there watching TV and eating. After a while, I don´t know how much time, he wanted to come back to the mission. So he called President Ridd and asked him if he could come back and President Ridd told him to come. So President Ridd sent him back to the same sector with the same elder and he finished the second change in his mission and then he went to another sector for four changes with two different elders. And then to another sector for five changes with two different elders and then came here with me. So yeah, he isn´t very excited to serve. So I am trying to help him, but not push him.
The mamitas are for food. We changed our laundry mamita and now it is three blocks to the mamita, so not a lot to take our laundry.
Keep praying. When you pray together, pray for the incentive to work hard. If he hears you pray for him out loud, he will know you care about him and that he is not doing this alone. Be a good example for him. Push a little harder each day and a little harder each week. When you are back in the apartment, make sure you are still focusing on missionary minded things and not just idle chit chat or messing around. Let him know that you have a strong testimony of the gospel. We love you lots. We will pray for you both each time we pray. Maybe you could fast together for him to have a desire to work harder.
I am asking lots of questions this week. I want lots of answers please. You have been in your new area for nine weeks now and I still don’t know much about it.
Where is your apartment in Valencia? You said it was about ten blocks from the police station. Is it in the middle of town, nice section, poor section, or what?
My house is four blocks from the main road that goes from Quevedo to the Mana. We live in the same street as the park that is in the middle of Valencia. The house is two floors. We live up stairs in half and another family, other members (the mom is one of our mamitas), lives next to us in the other half. Below in the first floor is the owners of the house. They aren´t members, but part of their family is members. The mom and sister of the wife are members. The mom is also one of our mamitas.
Describe your apartment. Main floor, upper floor?
We live in the upper floor.
How many rooms are there? What rooms?
We have three rooms or four. It depends how you count it. You will understand when I send the video of the apartment home. We have our bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, but the kitchen has a counter that separates it and the main room where we study, so three rooms, I guess.
Do you have a microwave? Toaster?
Yeah, we have a microwave, a toaster and a waffle iron, too.
Is it clean? Are you keeping it sanitary? Are you cleaning regularly?
Yeah, the house is very clean. We clean every pday. In the morning we get up the same time on pdays, but we have time in the morning, before ten, when we can leave to clean, so we clean everything every week.
What is Valencia like? How big? Compare to local cities near us.
Valencia is a little bit like West Yellowstone. If you remember, it has like one main road and then the rest is just houses. It is really quiet and peaceful here.
You said there are lots of fruit farms. Are they in town or all out of town?
All of the fruit farms are out of town. The people still have their banana tree in their house, but they all have their property in other places where they harvest all of their crops.
That news article said that there were 18 police officers hurt. Do all of those officers work in Valencia or were some from other areas?
I think that there are 8 police officers that work here in Valencia and then there were others from Quevedo and others from the Mana that came here to help out.
Has there been any more trouble in your sector because of the lynching?
No, there hasn´t been any more trouble. It has been really quiet and there haven’t been any more thieves or robberies either. I think the thieves are scared. I guess that is a good thing.
Do you still eat lots of chicken and rice or has your diet changed?
I am still eating a lot of chicken, but I am eating more beef now. The other day we ate lazania (lasagna) here. It was so cool. We are planning on Thursday to eat guine pig, so I will let you know next week how that goes. Elder Bartolomei was talking about eating iguana in his sector so I will ask him how that tastes, too.
Valencia seems to be much wetter than Balzar was. Are the streets always muddy? Do the storms come mostly at night?
Yeah, it rains mostly at night and we can only tell because the road is a little bit wet in the morning, but when the sun comes out it dries up quickly and you can’t tell that it rained.
Are your shoes and clothes holding up okay? Do you wear your boots now?
I haven’t had to wear my boots for quite a while now. Here in Valencia, the streets are just about all paved or they put little cement blocks together to make the roads a little bit like modern cobble stone roads, but they are just about level. My shoes and clothes are doing fine. I need to sew a few shirts and pants where the seams are coming undone, but nothing major.
Are there mosquitos and bugs?
Yeah, there are a few mosquitos and bugs, but they don’t bug me much, my companion they bug, but me, no.
Tell us more about your companion. You said he comes from a large family. Is he youngest, oldest, middle?
He is from Otavalo. He has a pony tail.
How many of his family still live in Otovalo? What do they do for a living?
They sell clothes that they make. That is why they travel, because they sell the clothes better in other parts than in Otavalo.
Why do they wear their hair in a pony tail? What is the significance?
It is their tradition. It is how they show respect to their parents. It is a disgrace to their parents if they cut their hair. It is like if I wanted to be rebellious and I grew my hair out and dyed it pink. I am showing that I am being rebellious. If they want to be rebellious, they cut their hair.
Why do they dress differently at Zone Conferences, all in white with slippers for shoes?
That is the customary fancy dress of the Otavalanios, so they are allowed to wear it here in the mission.
Who did he live with when he was in the United States?
I don´t know for sure.
How old is he?
He is 21.
What is his full name?
Francisco (I don´t know the other name and he won´t tell me either) Castañeda Arias
Are you getting along well? Are you working hard together?
For the most part, yes, we are getting along great, but he isn´t very excited to work, so I have been fighting the dilemma. Do I push him to work or do we work a little bit slower. I am worried that if I push him too much he will want to go back to his house again and not come back.
Tell us about the people you are teaching. How many? How are they progressing? Are any of them ready for baptism? Did you have any baptisms this week?
We are planning all of our baptisms this month for the twentieth of June. We have six people, but I think that the family of four that we are teaching won´t be ready. So we may have to postpone them for later, but we will see how it turns out this week and the next.
How are you coming on your goal to have five families who hold the priesthood and pay their tithing in La Mana?
Yeah, things aren´t going so good, but it takes time to find people that want to learn and want to go to church so we are working on it.
Have you contacted all of the people from your Day as a Missionary Activity?
Yeah, we are planning on doing it again July 11th to get more references.
Are you enjoying being a Senior Companion? Are you up to the challenge?
Yeah I think I am ready and the Lord knows that I am ready because if I wasn´t ready I would still be junior companion.
How are you coming on the Maestro?
I am working on it. I am going to take the written part this week during the interviews, so we will see how that goes.
Tell us about the members that help you the most with missionary work.
(No answer.)
What is the best thing that happened to you this week?
(No answer.)
What is the worst thing that happened to you this week?
(No answer.)
What is the funniest thing that happened to you this week?
(No answer.)
Have you had a Zone Conference lately? What did you learn?
Zone Conference is this Friday and interviews are on Thursday, so yeah I will tell you next week.
Did you get all three of the packages we sent? Was everything in good condition?
I received four packages last Wednesday and everything was in good shape. Thank you so much.
Is your testimony growing?
I am pretty sure that it is!
Are you happy and healthy?
Yeah. I now weigh 220 pounds. I am doing great!
Have you been to the bat cave yet? Tell us about it.
No. We haven’t been. Today we went to the seven waterfalls again.
Have you see anything else that is interesting?
(No answer.)
Well it is late again. Have a really great day. I hope to get a chance to talk to you, but that will probably only work later in the day. I love you forever.
Mom
Hey Curtis,
Thanks for the answers. It is nice to hear more from you. Did your companion leave once and go back to Otavalo? What other problems has he had? What are you doing to try to motivate him to work? Are you writing compliments about him to your mission president? That might help. If you tell the mission president that he is doing well, then hopefully the mission president will mention something to him in his emails that will make a difference. I am sure you were chosen for this challenge because the mission president thought you were up to it. He has given you a great compliment to believe that you have the power to turn this missionary around and help him to be successful. Keep trying and pray for inspiration to know what you should do to help him.
Are the mamitas that live near you the ones that feed you or the ones that do your laundry? It would be nice not to have to carry your laundry a mile across town.
Let us know how the guinea pig are. I would not be brave enough to eat them that way, but you have never been afraid of anything, so go for it and enjoy!!!
When Elder Castañeda started his mission, he started in Quevedo, but after three weeks he wanted to go home, so he told President Ridd that he wanted to go and President Ridd tried to talk him out of it, but he still wanted to go home. So he went. He was in his house for a month or more. I´m not for sure exactly how much time, but Elder Castañeda said it was more than a month. He wasn’t doing much in his house, sitting there watching TV and eating. After a while, I don´t know how much time, he wanted to come back to the mission. So he called President Ridd and asked him if he could come back and President Ridd told him to come. So President Ridd sent him back to the same sector with the same elder and he finished the second change in his mission and then he went to another sector for four changes with two different elders. And then to another sector for five changes with two different elders and then came here with me. So yeah, he isn´t very excited to serve. So I am trying to help him, but not push him.
The mamitas are for food. We changed our laundry mamita and now it is three blocks to the mamita, so not a lot to take our laundry.
Keep praying. When you pray together, pray for the incentive to work hard. If he hears you pray for him out loud, he will know you care about him and that he is not doing this alone. Be a good example for him. Push a little harder each day and a little harder each week. When you are back in the apartment, make sure you are still focusing on missionary minded things and not just idle chit chat or messing around. Let him know that you have a strong testimony of the gospel. We love you lots. We will pray for you both each time we pray. Maybe you could fast together for him to have a desire to work harder.
Friday, March 13, 2009
2009_03_09 Week 20 Balzar Mom
Mom wrote to Curtis on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:23:21 -0600
Hi Curtis,
How was your Zone Conference? Where was it held? Did you get to shake hands and talk to Elder Pratt? What did he teach you? Tell us all about it please.
We learned a lot in the conferencia. The wife of Elder Pratt taught us about obediencia. She used the scriptures, 1 Nephi 19:23, D&C 130:20-21, D&C 132:5, D&C 82:10, and D&C 3:4. They are powerful scriptures to teach our investigators to be obedient, so we have been teaching obedience to all of our investigators this week. Elder Pratt talked about John 15:1-13. I think this is the scripture. It talks about Jesus is the vine and we are the branch and then Elder Pratt reprimanded us for not studying the scriptures more and committing them to memory. It was a good conference. I learned a lot to help our investigators.
Did you get to see any old friends at the Zone Conference?
Elder Felt is in our zone now. He is the companion of Elder Ronnow, our Zone Leader. Elder Contreras is the Zone Leader of the Zone Quevedo North now. He was the companion of Elder Bejar before I arrived in Balzar.
How is the weather?
Hot and humid with rain about every other day.
Did you get any of your packages? What condition were they in?
No, I haven´t gotten any of the packages yet.
Did any of the videos have sound on the computer when you tried them?
I didn´t get a chance to try last week, but I am working on it right now.
Did you send us a CD of photos?
No, I didn´t, but I am also working on that right now, too.
I bought most of the stuff you asked for, but Walmart didn’t have the replacement blades for your razor. I will try to look at some other stores and see if I can find them. Where did you buy your razor at? It might help if I go back to the same store to find the replacement blades.
I bought my razor at the Walmart in Syracuse.
Is there anything else you need in this next package?
An adaptor, USB to SD memory cards if you can send me one. Are you using the SD memory card I bought that is 20 gig? If you aren´t, could you send it to me I think I can transfer my pictures to it after I put them on the computer.
Are you healthy and happy?
Yeah, I am fine. My stomach has been a little bad lately, but don´t worry. A little diarrhea won´t hurt me.
How far along in the pregnancy was Ginger? Why does the doctor want her down in bed for so long? How are Rony and Ginger progressing?
I think that Ginger was a month or two along, not much. She wasn´t showing at all. I´m not for sure why she needs to be in bed for that long, but that is what the doctor said. Rony has a few problems he needs to work out before he can be baptized. If you look in my planners I senthome, in the front, there is a page of questions for baptism. He has some problems with question number four so he will have to wait a year before he can be baptized, if he has repented of everything. We are planning on helping Ginger to progress and be baptized and then letting other missionaries baptize Rony in a year or when he has repented.
Did you make any progress with the lady who didn’t want to get married?
No, we haven´t been able to talk to her yet. The kids keep lying for her, so we can´t talk to her.
Have you met very many handicapped people in Ecuador?
Yeah, I have met a few here in Balzar and one in Palestina.
We loved the ladder story. I am grateful that you and the ladder are both okay. I bet they don’t build things down there strong enough to hold men your size. Do you ever worry that you will fall through the floor of those houses on stilts?
There are a few houses that I have to be careful in, but for the most part it isn´t a problem.
What is the most interesting thing that happened to you this week? Tell us more fun stories, please.
I hit my head again in the bus and drew blood again. It hurt and I had agoose egg for four days, too.
Did you have any baptisms?
No, we haven´t had any. Our baptisms keep falling through.
Where is Relicario located? I can’t find it on the map anywhere. Is it on the road between Balzar and Palestina?
It is between Palestina and Balzar. There is a place where the road forks when you are going from Palestina to Balzar. Relicario is before this fork about three miles.
How long does it take you to go by bus to Relicario and to Palestina?
In bus, from Balzar, Relicario is thirty minutes and Palestina is forty minutes.
How big are the cities of Relicario and Palestina?
They are small, smaller than Balzar. Relicario is no more than the houses along the side of the road. Palestina is a little bigger, but nowhere near as big as Balzar.
What American food do you miss most?
Lasagna. I haven´t been able to find a place that makes lasagna here in Balzar. I have found places that make pizza and hamburgers (hamburger with a fried egg on top, but it is good).
I love you so very much. I am so proud of you! I am grateful that you are serving our Heavenly Father so willingly. I know it will bless and change your life forever. I know you are going to be a great instrument in the hands of the Lord. Be humble and faithful and let him use you tobring joy and happiness to the people of Ecuador.
Love always and forever,
Mom
P.S. Thanks for writing to Bishop Hipwell. It was a great letter. I hope he read it to the Priest Quorum. I forgot to ask Clain about it today after church. I know it would have fit right in with the theme of the day today.
We got tickets today to attend the Draper Temple Dedication on March 22nd. Our chapel will become an extension of the temple that day and the dedication will be broadcast in for us to participate in. We each need a white handkerchief for that day. I need to get some. There is a place online that sells them with the temple embossed on the corner.
Hi Curtis,
Thanks for the answers. I am glad the Zone Conference was good and you learned things you can use with your investigators. Did you get to shake their hands and talk personally to Elder and Sister Pratt?
I hope nothing bad has happened to the packages. I thought they should have arrived by now. Hopefully they will this week. I will keep praying for them.
I will check the Syracuse Walmart for the blades and some other stores if necessary. I will go find a USB adapter for the SD cards. I don't remember a 20 GB SD card. I had an 8 GB that wouldn't work in my camera, but it did work for Michelle, so I gave it to her. I will try to find you some SD cards that hold a lot of stuff and send them to you.
Are the handicapped people you have met treated well? Are any of them members?
I am sorry to hear about your diarrhea and your bump on the head. Those are surely a pain, but you will be blessed for the sacrifice. I hope they get better soon. Has the diarrhea kept you from working? Can you find a toilet when you need to if you are out teaching or tracting?
Sorry there is no lasagna. Maybe I can send you a package mix that will be similar. They make a Hamburger Helper Lasagna.
Elder Pratt shook all of our hands and asked us where we were from and what stake we are from. Don´t worry about sending me hamburger helper I think I will survive for another 18 months without it. There are a few kids of members that are handicapped and they are treated very well here; not quite the same as in the states, but very good for here in Ecuador.
It is time for me to go, but it was good to hear from you. Tell Skyler I am still waiting for a letter or email from him. Tell him I want pictures, too.
I love you all very much. Thank you.
Elder Goode
Hi Curtis,
How was your Zone Conference? Where was it held? Did you get to shake hands and talk to Elder Pratt? What did he teach you? Tell us all about it please.
We learned a lot in the conferencia. The wife of Elder Pratt taught us about obediencia. She used the scriptures, 1 Nephi 19:23, D&C 130:20-21, D&C 132:5, D&C 82:10, and D&C 3:4. They are powerful scriptures to teach our investigators to be obedient, so we have been teaching obedience to all of our investigators this week. Elder Pratt talked about John 15:1-13. I think this is the scripture. It talks about Jesus is the vine and we are the branch and then Elder Pratt reprimanded us for not studying the scriptures more and committing them to memory. It was a good conference. I learned a lot to help our investigators.
Did you get to see any old friends at the Zone Conference?
Elder Felt is in our zone now. He is the companion of Elder Ronnow, our Zone Leader. Elder Contreras is the Zone Leader of the Zone Quevedo North now. He was the companion of Elder Bejar before I arrived in Balzar.
How is the weather?
Hot and humid with rain about every other day.
Did you get any of your packages? What condition were they in?
No, I haven´t gotten any of the packages yet.
Did any of the videos have sound on the computer when you tried them?
I didn´t get a chance to try last week, but I am working on it right now.
Did you send us a CD of photos?
No, I didn´t, but I am also working on that right now, too.
I bought most of the stuff you asked for, but Walmart didn’t have the replacement blades for your razor. I will try to look at some other stores and see if I can find them. Where did you buy your razor at? It might help if I go back to the same store to find the replacement blades.
I bought my razor at the Walmart in Syracuse.
Is there anything else you need in this next package?
An adaptor, USB to SD memory cards if you can send me one. Are you using the SD memory card I bought that is 20 gig? If you aren´t, could you send it to me I think I can transfer my pictures to it after I put them on the computer.
Are you healthy and happy?
Yeah, I am fine. My stomach has been a little bad lately, but don´t worry. A little diarrhea won´t hurt me.
How far along in the pregnancy was Ginger? Why does the doctor want her down in bed for so long? How are Rony and Ginger progressing?
I think that Ginger was a month or two along, not much. She wasn´t showing at all. I´m not for sure why she needs to be in bed for that long, but that is what the doctor said. Rony has a few problems he needs to work out before he can be baptized. If you look in my planners I senthome, in the front, there is a page of questions for baptism. He has some problems with question number four so he will have to wait a year before he can be baptized, if he has repented of everything. We are planning on helping Ginger to progress and be baptized and then letting other missionaries baptize Rony in a year or when he has repented.
Did you make any progress with the lady who didn’t want to get married?
No, we haven´t been able to talk to her yet. The kids keep lying for her, so we can´t talk to her.
Have you met very many handicapped people in Ecuador?
Yeah, I have met a few here in Balzar and one in Palestina.
We loved the ladder story. I am grateful that you and the ladder are both okay. I bet they don’t build things down there strong enough to hold men your size. Do you ever worry that you will fall through the floor of those houses on stilts?
There are a few houses that I have to be careful in, but for the most part it isn´t a problem.
What is the most interesting thing that happened to you this week? Tell us more fun stories, please.
I hit my head again in the bus and drew blood again. It hurt and I had agoose egg for four days, too.
Did you have any baptisms?
No, we haven´t had any. Our baptisms keep falling through.
Where is Relicario located? I can’t find it on the map anywhere. Is it on the road between Balzar and Palestina?
It is between Palestina and Balzar. There is a place where the road forks when you are going from Palestina to Balzar. Relicario is before this fork about three miles.
How long does it take you to go by bus to Relicario and to Palestina?
In bus, from Balzar, Relicario is thirty minutes and Palestina is forty minutes.
How big are the cities of Relicario and Palestina?
They are small, smaller than Balzar. Relicario is no more than the houses along the side of the road. Palestina is a little bigger, but nowhere near as big as Balzar.
What American food do you miss most?
Lasagna. I haven´t been able to find a place that makes lasagna here in Balzar. I have found places that make pizza and hamburgers (hamburger with a fried egg on top, but it is good).
I love you so very much. I am so proud of you! I am grateful that you are serving our Heavenly Father so willingly. I know it will bless and change your life forever. I know you are going to be a great instrument in the hands of the Lord. Be humble and faithful and let him use you tobring joy and happiness to the people of Ecuador.
Love always and forever,
Mom
P.S. Thanks for writing to Bishop Hipwell. It was a great letter. I hope he read it to the Priest Quorum. I forgot to ask Clain about it today after church. I know it would have fit right in with the theme of the day today.
We got tickets today to attend the Draper Temple Dedication on March 22nd. Our chapel will become an extension of the temple that day and the dedication will be broadcast in for us to participate in. We each need a white handkerchief for that day. I need to get some. There is a place online that sells them with the temple embossed on the corner.
Hi Curtis,
Thanks for the answers. I am glad the Zone Conference was good and you learned things you can use with your investigators. Did you get to shake their hands and talk personally to Elder and Sister Pratt?
I hope nothing bad has happened to the packages. I thought they should have arrived by now. Hopefully they will this week. I will keep praying for them.
I will check the Syracuse Walmart for the blades and some other stores if necessary. I will go find a USB adapter for the SD cards. I don't remember a 20 GB SD card. I had an 8 GB that wouldn't work in my camera, but it did work for Michelle, so I gave it to her. I will try to find you some SD cards that hold a lot of stuff and send them to you.
Are the handicapped people you have met treated well? Are any of them members?
I am sorry to hear about your diarrhea and your bump on the head. Those are surely a pain, but you will be blessed for the sacrifice. I hope they get better soon. Has the diarrhea kept you from working? Can you find a toilet when you need to if you are out teaching or tracting?
Sorry there is no lasagna. Maybe I can send you a package mix that will be similar. They make a Hamburger Helper Lasagna.
Elder Pratt shook all of our hands and asked us where we were from and what stake we are from. Don´t worry about sending me hamburger helper I think I will survive for another 18 months without it. There are a few kids of members that are handicapped and they are treated very well here; not quite the same as in the states, but very good for here in Ecuador.
It is time for me to go, but it was good to hear from you. Tell Skyler I am still waiting for a letter or email from him. Tell him I want pictures, too.
I love you all very much. Thank you.
Elder Goode
Monday, March 2, 2009
2009_03_02 Week 19 Balzar Mom
Hey! How are things going? We didn’t have our baptisms this week. We had a few set backs. Last Monday, Ginger had a miscarriage and the doctor told her that she needs to stay in bed for three months. We visited her Tuesday and taught the Plan of Salvation again and explained that babies don’t need to be baptized. We read in Moroni 8: 11-12 that children are alive in Christ and that they don’t need baptized. We also taught about blessings and encouraged her to ask for a blessing from her soon to be father-in-law. We found out later that she did ask and receive the blessing and yesterday when we visited them in the evening, Ginger was up and walking, but only a little. They said that she is feeling a lot better now so we think that by the end of this change in April that Ginger and Rony will be baptized. We still need to get the Papel de Votacion for Ginger, but that won’t be hard to get now. We have a few weeks to plan and figure it all out.
We are planning on another baptism this Saturday, but we have a problem. The spouse of our investigator doesn’t want to get married. She also doesn’t want to talk to us. The other day, we visited the house and asked for our investigator, Kilo, but they said that he wasn’t home, so we asked for the wife, but the daughter (we were conversing through the window) looked behind her in the house and then responded that the wife wasn’t home either. So we left. We had gone about a block when we found our investigator walking towards his house, so we went with him back to his house and entered the house with him. The wife was there and when she saw us enter with her husband she had a look of terror on her face. She went into the kitchen. We started the lesson and then invited everybody in the house to come watch a video with us. We asked for the wife, but the kids said that the mom had left the house through the back door, so we are fairly certain that she doesn’t want to talk to us. We are fairly certain that if we talk to her we can convince her to be married, but she doesn’t want to talk to us. But President Ruiz said that he would talk to her and get the papers that we need to get them married. I guess we will see what happens.
We have Zone Conference this week on Wednesday. A General Authority is coming to talk to us, so it will be really good.
Hi Curtis,
Sorry about the baptisms falling through, but maybe it is better this way. Maybe after Ginger and Rony are married, they can start a family the right way with the Lord's blessings. I hope your other family and baptisms will work out. It is probably really hard there with the Catholic Church playing such an important part in the culture. I am sure it is a hard thing for many to give up their old ways and to worry about losing friends and family if they leave the Catholic Church. Do you have other investigators that you are working with?
Did you get any packages?
Tell me more about the Conference. Is this a whole Mission Conference? Are you going to Guayaquil for the Conference?
No I haven’t received any new packages yet, but maybe this week I will.
Okay. I hope so. I have worried about these with the knife and the camera. Have you tried watching any of the videos you have taken with the camera you bought down there on a computer? Does the manual tell you anything about the audio?
The manual doesn’t say anything about the audio, but I am downloading all of my pictures to the computer right now to make CDs to send to you. I will try to listen to see if there is audio with the videos when they are downloaded.
Okay. What kind of a player does Elder Alcocer have? If I put the music on a DVD, he probably couldn't play it on a CD player. Can you transfer music to an Ipod or whatever player he has at the Cyber Café you use? If I send you any new CDs, do you have a way to put the music on your ipod?
Elder Alcoer wants the music for when he leaves for his house. A DVD will be fine because he can transfer it to whatever format when he gets back to his house. I don’t need any more music. What I have is fine. Elder Alcocer also has a portable DVD player that he can play the music on.
Can you send me a replacement head for my razor? The one I have is getting dull. My razor is a Remington model 450 with the three heads and also two or three Tide Pens? They are life savers here in the mission.
Okay. I will see what I can do. Does Elder Alcocer want all the English music or just the Spanish ones?
All of it. He is learning English here in the mission, so he can understand parts of the music and he wants to learn to understand all of the music.
Well it is time for me to go, so I will talk to you next week. I love you.
Bye,
Elder Goode
I love you, too. Have a really great week!
Love,
Mom
We are planning on another baptism this Saturday, but we have a problem. The spouse of our investigator doesn’t want to get married. She also doesn’t want to talk to us. The other day, we visited the house and asked for our investigator, Kilo, but they said that he wasn’t home, so we asked for the wife, but the daughter (we were conversing through the window) looked behind her in the house and then responded that the wife wasn’t home either. So we left. We had gone about a block when we found our investigator walking towards his house, so we went with him back to his house and entered the house with him. The wife was there and when she saw us enter with her husband she had a look of terror on her face. She went into the kitchen. We started the lesson and then invited everybody in the house to come watch a video with us. We asked for the wife, but the kids said that the mom had left the house through the back door, so we are fairly certain that she doesn’t want to talk to us. We are fairly certain that if we talk to her we can convince her to be married, but she doesn’t want to talk to us. But President Ruiz said that he would talk to her and get the papers that we need to get them married. I guess we will see what happens.
We have Zone Conference this week on Wednesday. A General Authority is coming to talk to us, so it will be really good.
Hi Curtis,
Sorry about the baptisms falling through, but maybe it is better this way. Maybe after Ginger and Rony are married, they can start a family the right way with the Lord's blessings. I hope your other family and baptisms will work out. It is probably really hard there with the Catholic Church playing such an important part in the culture. I am sure it is a hard thing for many to give up their old ways and to worry about losing friends and family if they leave the Catholic Church. Do you have other investigators that you are working with?
Did you get any packages?
Tell me more about the Conference. Is this a whole Mission Conference? Are you going to Guayaquil for the Conference?
No I haven’t received any new packages yet, but maybe this week I will.
Okay. I hope so. I have worried about these with the knife and the camera. Have you tried watching any of the videos you have taken with the camera you bought down there on a computer? Does the manual tell you anything about the audio?
The manual doesn’t say anything about the audio, but I am downloading all of my pictures to the computer right now to make CDs to send to you. I will try to listen to see if there is audio with the videos when they are downloaded.
Okay. What kind of a player does Elder Alcocer have? If I put the music on a DVD, he probably couldn't play it on a CD player. Can you transfer music to an Ipod or whatever player he has at the Cyber Café you use? If I send you any new CDs, do you have a way to put the music on your ipod?
Elder Alcoer wants the music for when he leaves for his house. A DVD will be fine because he can transfer it to whatever format when he gets back to his house. I don’t need any more music. What I have is fine. Elder Alcocer also has a portable DVD player that he can play the music on.
Can you send me a replacement head for my razor? The one I have is getting dull. My razor is a Remington model 450 with the three heads and also two or three Tide Pens? They are life savers here in the mission.
Okay. I will see what I can do. Does Elder Alcocer want all the English music or just the Spanish ones?
All of it. He is learning English here in the mission, so he can understand parts of the music and he wants to learn to understand all of the music.
Well it is time for me to go, so I will talk to you next week. I love you.
Bye,
Elder Goode
I love you, too. Have a really great week!
Love,
Mom
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
2009_02_16 Very Special Experience
Mom wrote on Monday, February 16th.
Here are a few more questions. Just answer them in your letter to us. Do the missionaries down there have cell phones?
We have a cell phone in the house. It is big and bulky, basically a phone for the house, but it has an antenna like a cell phone. Some missionaries have land lines, others have a phone like us. Only the assistants and the enfermeras (nurses) have their own cell phone.
How was your Zone Conference?
Zone conference was good I learned a lot about how to be a successful missionary. It was good.
Did you have an interview with the Mission President?
Yeah, I had my interview after the zone conference.
Did you get a photo of your Zone?
No, but we will take one this week in the district meeting.
Can you send it to us?
No, because I don´t have it.
When are you going to send us some more photos?
When I make more CDs but that takes time that is sacred here in the mission.
Have you gotten any more packages?
Yes, I got the Valentine’s Day package a few days before Valentine’s Day and I still haven´t had my bump day yet, so you are fine.
I have a really interesting story to tell you.
We have a pair of investigators. One is the 16 year old son, Rony, of a family that is recent converts of 6 months. The other is his 18 year old pregnant girlfriend. They both live with his family behind our house toward the river. We had taught them a few leccions (lessons) and I had invited them to be baptized, but they didn´t accept. But that is ok. The date I tried to commit them to was the 28th of February.
Well this Saturday, (February 14, 2009), we received a call from the dad, who said that the girl, her name is Ginger, was not well. They said that she was possessed by a devil. We got ready quickly and then we called President Gamboa and asked for advice on what to do. He said that we should give her a blessing.
We went to their house and when we entered the house there was a bad spirit; It wasn´t good. When we entered, Ginger was on the floor and Rony was next to her restraining her. We sat down and started like we normally do, with a hymn and a prayer. During the hymn, Ginger kept saying, “Shut up. Shut up.” After, we said the prayer and then we started reading the scriptures. We read Enos first, and then we gave Ginger a blessing. Elder Alcocer annointed and the dad gave the blessing, his first ever.
After, Elder Alcocer tried to talk to Ginger. He said, “Ginger, can you hear me?” and she responded, “I am not Ginger.” Elder Alcocer asked who she was then, but didn´t receive an answer. At this point, I was convinced that she was possessed by a devil. She kept laughing, too, whenever we read or sang. It was a little creepy.
After we read 3 Nephi 11, then sang more hymns waiting for President Ruiz, the Branch President, to come. When he showed up, he gave her another blessing, but the whole time she was laughing and the devil didn´t leave with this blessing either.
After President Ruiz took Elder Alcocer aside with me and explained that one of the Area Authorities had given them instruction on this.
President Ruiz taught Curtis and Elder Alcocer how to cast out devils. Then he asked Curtis to do this. I have omitted this part. Curtis asked me to because it is sacred.
President Ruiz said that we had done all that we could and that it was up to Ginger now to do her part. We left, but promised to visit in the evening.
We already had a lunch appointment scheduled with some members, so after our lunch, we started a fast to help Ginger, because in the scriptures it says that with devils sometimes they will only leave through fasting and prayer. When we went back in the evening, they said that Ginger had gotten better during the day, eaten a little, and said a prayer, but she couldn´t close the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. She couldn´t say his name. After, she had gotten worse again. She was lying on the floor and she kept moving around, but she didn´t open her eyes or say anything.
We taught Rony the Plan of Salvation and then the law of chastity and committed him to live the law of chastity. We then read in Alma about when the angel appeared to Alma the younger and he was in a state of torment in his mind and that he called upon the name of Christ to save him. We read this to help Ginger, to give her the answer she needed to be free of the devil that held her bound. Then we left.
Yesterday, we had a conference in Vinces and then after the conference we went to visit Rony and Ginger. Ginger was up and walking about a little, but she was very tired. We ate lunch with them in their house. (We are now eating in the houses of the members.) We then taught about baptism and confirmation, because the dad had told us in the conference that Ginger and Rony wanted to be baptised as soon as possible, for the date that I had tried to commit them to, the 28th of February. So we taught baptism and then committed them to baptism. We then taught them the law of chastity again and committed them to be married, so now we have a marriage this Friday, February 20, 2009, and two baptisms for the 28th.
Cool huh? Ask dad if he had any experiences like this during his mission, please.
Here are a few more questions. Just answer them in your letter to us. Do the missionaries down there have cell phones?
We have a cell phone in the house. It is big and bulky, basically a phone for the house, but it has an antenna like a cell phone. Some missionaries have land lines, others have a phone like us. Only the assistants and the enfermeras (nurses) have their own cell phone.
How was your Zone Conference?
Zone conference was good I learned a lot about how to be a successful missionary. It was good.
Did you have an interview with the Mission President?
Yeah, I had my interview after the zone conference.
Did you get a photo of your Zone?
No, but we will take one this week in the district meeting.
Can you send it to us?
No, because I don´t have it.
When are you going to send us some more photos?
When I make more CDs but that takes time that is sacred here in the mission.
Have you gotten any more packages?
Yes, I got the Valentine’s Day package a few days before Valentine’s Day and I still haven´t had my bump day yet, so you are fine.
I have a really interesting story to tell you.
We have a pair of investigators. One is the 16 year old son, Rony, of a family that is recent converts of 6 months. The other is his 18 year old pregnant girlfriend. They both live with his family behind our house toward the river. We had taught them a few leccions (lessons) and I had invited them to be baptized, but they didn´t accept. But that is ok. The date I tried to commit them to was the 28th of February.
Well this Saturday, (February 14, 2009), we received a call from the dad, who said that the girl, her name is Ginger, was not well. They said that she was possessed by a devil. We got ready quickly and then we called President Gamboa and asked for advice on what to do. He said that we should give her a blessing.
We went to their house and when we entered the house there was a bad spirit; It wasn´t good. When we entered, Ginger was on the floor and Rony was next to her restraining her. We sat down and started like we normally do, with a hymn and a prayer. During the hymn, Ginger kept saying, “Shut up. Shut up.” After, we said the prayer and then we started reading the scriptures. We read Enos first, and then we gave Ginger a blessing. Elder Alcocer annointed and the dad gave the blessing, his first ever.
After, Elder Alcocer tried to talk to Ginger. He said, “Ginger, can you hear me?” and she responded, “I am not Ginger.” Elder Alcocer asked who she was then, but didn´t receive an answer. At this point, I was convinced that she was possessed by a devil. She kept laughing, too, whenever we read or sang. It was a little creepy.
After we read 3 Nephi 11, then sang more hymns waiting for President Ruiz, the Branch President, to come. When he showed up, he gave her another blessing, but the whole time she was laughing and the devil didn´t leave with this blessing either.
After President Ruiz took Elder Alcocer aside with me and explained that one of the Area Authorities had given them instruction on this.
President Ruiz taught Curtis and Elder Alcocer how to cast out devils. Then he asked Curtis to do this. I have omitted this part. Curtis asked me to because it is sacred.
President Ruiz said that we had done all that we could and that it was up to Ginger now to do her part. We left, but promised to visit in the evening.
We already had a lunch appointment scheduled with some members, so after our lunch, we started a fast to help Ginger, because in the scriptures it says that with devils sometimes they will only leave through fasting and prayer. When we went back in the evening, they said that Ginger had gotten better during the day, eaten a little, and said a prayer, but she couldn´t close the prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. She couldn´t say his name. After, she had gotten worse again. She was lying on the floor and she kept moving around, but she didn´t open her eyes or say anything.
We taught Rony the Plan of Salvation and then the law of chastity and committed him to live the law of chastity. We then read in Alma about when the angel appeared to Alma the younger and he was in a state of torment in his mind and that he called upon the name of Christ to save him. We read this to help Ginger, to give her the answer she needed to be free of the devil that held her bound. Then we left.
Yesterday, we had a conference in Vinces and then after the conference we went to visit Rony and Ginger. Ginger was up and walking about a little, but she was very tired. We ate lunch with them in their house. (We are now eating in the houses of the members.) We then taught about baptism and confirmation, because the dad had told us in the conference that Ginger and Rony wanted to be baptised as soon as possible, for the date that I had tried to commit them to, the 28th of February. So we taught baptism and then committed them to baptism. We then taught them the law of chastity again and committed them to be married, so now we have a marriage this Friday, February 20, 2009, and two baptisms for the 28th.
Cool huh? Ask dad if he had any experiences like this during his mission, please.
Monday, December 22, 2008
2008_12_22 Week 9 Balzar Mom
Mom Emailed Curtis Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:49:14 -0700
Subject: 2008_12_22 Merry Christmas Curtis!
Curtis Emailed back that morning.
Hi Curtis,
I have not sent you any other emails today because I wanted to make sure you had time to email us and discuss when you could call. We are all at home today, so we hope to be able to chat with you for a bit.
The day that will work best for all of us is Tuesday, December 23rd. We will go to Smithfield that day. If you call at 6:00 our time, 8:00 your time, that should work. Michelle gets off work at 6:00, so she could get there just a few minutes after you call. Rob would also be able to get there about that time. So anytime after 6:00 for us would work that night.
If that is not good, we could also do tonight. Will either of those nights work for you?
Love always,
Mom
Tomorrow, Tuesday should work ok. We have an appointment at 7 that usually goes until 9, but I will see if we can visit earlier and leave in time to get to the phone in time for 8 or maybe a little after 8 like 8:10 or 8:20. Will that be alright? Last week I didn´t get off fast or early the cyber lost the internet and didn´t get it back until the day after so there wasn´t much I could do. Sorry.
Okay. That will work. We will be up at grandma's earlier in the day if you should have to call sooner, but later would be better. The phone number there is 435-563-5709.
I understand about the cyber. Braxton just called. He is at the church for Basketball practice and the poweris out there. I am glad it is not out here or I wouldn't be able to email you.
Have you gotten any packages yet? Or more letters?
I will receive my packages this Wednesday. When I visited the temple, the pouchero or the elder that takes care of all of the letters and packages, was there and he had me sign two papers and he took my censo (my Id for Ecuador) and went to get the packages. He called today and said that it cost 33 dollars to get the packages and he told me to tell you to only use the green stickers from now on. He said it is much easier.
Okay. I will be good and follow the rules. I am glad you will get the packages. Can you open them when you get them or do you have to wait till next Pday? Did you get any more letters?
Have you gotten the third package? I sent it with a green sticker.
No, I haven’t received the third package, but it will come without problem, maybe this Wednesday, too. I will have to wait for Pday to open the packages, but that is ok, not a big deal.
Surely they will make an exception for Christmas. You won't be doing a lot of teaching that day anyway. I hope you get them okay. Sorry about the problems with them. I can see what a pain it is if they have to have your senso to pick them up. Do you have any Christmas plans this week?
Thursday, we have a Fiesta in Relicario at 2 in the afternoon and then another one in Balzar at 5. And Wednesday, in the evening, our mamita is cooking a Christmas Dinner for us. She bought a turkey that weighs about 18 pounds that she is going to cook.
They are probably going to change the rules about the mamitas de comida. Change it so that we eat each day in a different house of members and we won’t have to pay the mamitas either, so it will be good, if they do change it. Right now, I think that they are testing this idea in a few zones in Guayaquil, but I am not for sure.
I had read that in one of the blogs of another elder in your mission. He wasn't sure it was a good idea. He worried that the quality of food would go down. I guess it will save you some money, but I wonder if it will be a hardship on the mamitas.
I am glad you are going to get some fun Christmas experiences there. I think you will remember these special experiences all of your life. The times you spend with the members and your investigators will be special. Did you have your baptism yesterday?
How was your temple visit? Where did you sleep in Quevedo? Tell us about it please.
The temple was good. I understood a lot more this time than the time before when we arrived. We stayed in the house of the zone leaders. There were 8 elders there. It was crazy, especially because I was the only gringo. All the others were latinos, so I was the "but" of a lot of jokes. We spent the night in Quevedo, got up at 1:30 in the morning and left for Guayaquil. We got back to Quevedo after the temple and the zone conference at 8 and spent the night again in Quevedo. Then we left in the morning for Balzar and worked all day in Balzar and then the next day we got up and left for Quevedo again for the district meeting. So we were in Quevedo for 4 days straight so we didn’t get as much done in Balzar as we would have liked to, but that is ok.
That sounds great. I am glad you got to go to the temple again. Most missionaries don't get to go while they are on their missions, so it is cool that you got to. The day you arrived, did your trainers get to go to the temple or just come there to pick you up? Was the zone conference good? Was it 4 hours long like the last one? Did they feed you?
We got your package with the CDs of pictures. Thank you. They were really great, but someone stole the letters. The tag on the package said it had CD and letters. :)
The package with the CDs only had CDs in it, so nothing was missing. Our trainers just picked us up. They didn’t get to go through the temple. We ate in the temple. It was good, soup, rice, pasta salad, broccoli cauliflower and chicken in a stir fry of sorts, and cake for dessert.
Please write a quick note to each of your brothers. They are waiting "impatiently" to hear from you. I figured you didn't send the letters, not that they actually got stolen. :) A paper letter or card now and then would be nice.
I have some more Christmas cards to send to you; One from Brent Rose, one from Darlene King and one from Garvene Garrett. They won't make it for Christmas, but I told them you would be glad to get them anytime. Bishop King is still in the hospital in intensive care. He has Pneumonia and Congestive Heart Failure. He isn't doing very well. Darlene is doing much better. She was at church yesterday.
I have to go. I love you all very much. I’ll talk to you tomorrow at 8 my time, 6 yours. Ok. I love you lots. Bye.
We love you, too. Have a really great week! Talk to you soon.
Love always,
Mom
This is a second conversation that Mom and Curtis were having in between the one above.
Mom, Can you do me a favor? Can you send an email to (Kelsey, he missed her name) with the address to my blog in it and tell her that I asked you to send it to her? Thank you.
You want me to send it to Kelsey?
Yes, please if you would.
Yes. I will send Kelsey the blog address. Are you writing to each other?
I write her a letter every 2 or 3 weeks and occasionally I recieve an email, but that is about it.
I will send her an email with the blog address. Dad ran to the store. He is on his way back. He says hello and to tell you he loves you. I don't know if he will make it back before you are off. Please say goodbye before you go today.
Can you print anything from there? I have some cool Christmas stories I would like to send you, but only if you can print them and read them later. I don't want you to take our time reading them now.
I can print them if you send them so I can open them in Word.
Here are the Christmas stories. I hope they will help you feel the spirit of Missionary Work at Christmas time.
We love you so much and we are so proud of you. You are setting such a great example for your brothers. They love you so much and they love to hear from you each week and read of your experiences as a missionary. Tell us the kind of things in your letters that will help them want to go on missions and serve as you are doing. Make them want to be a missionary like you are.
Subject: 2008_12_22 Merry Christmas Curtis!
Curtis Emailed back that morning.
Hi Curtis,
I have not sent you any other emails today because I wanted to make sure you had time to email us and discuss when you could call. We are all at home today, so we hope to be able to chat with you for a bit.
The day that will work best for all of us is Tuesday, December 23rd. We will go to Smithfield that day. If you call at 6:00 our time, 8:00 your time, that should work. Michelle gets off work at 6:00, so she could get there just a few minutes after you call. Rob would also be able to get there about that time. So anytime after 6:00 for us would work that night.
If that is not good, we could also do tonight. Will either of those nights work for you?
Love always,
Mom
Tomorrow, Tuesday should work ok. We have an appointment at 7 that usually goes until 9, but I will see if we can visit earlier and leave in time to get to the phone in time for 8 or maybe a little after 8 like 8:10 or 8:20. Will that be alright? Last week I didn´t get off fast or early the cyber lost the internet and didn´t get it back until the day after so there wasn´t much I could do. Sorry.
Okay. That will work. We will be up at grandma's earlier in the day if you should have to call sooner, but later would be better. The phone number there is 435-563-5709.
I understand about the cyber. Braxton just called. He is at the church for Basketball practice and the poweris out there. I am glad it is not out here or I wouldn't be able to email you.
Have you gotten any packages yet? Or more letters?
I will receive my packages this Wednesday. When I visited the temple, the pouchero or the elder that takes care of all of the letters and packages, was there and he had me sign two papers and he took my censo (my Id for Ecuador) and went to get the packages. He called today and said that it cost 33 dollars to get the packages and he told me to tell you to only use the green stickers from now on. He said it is much easier.
Okay. I will be good and follow the rules. I am glad you will get the packages. Can you open them when you get them or do you have to wait till next Pday? Did you get any more letters?
Have you gotten the third package? I sent it with a green sticker.
No, I haven’t received the third package, but it will come without problem, maybe this Wednesday, too. I will have to wait for Pday to open the packages, but that is ok, not a big deal.
Surely they will make an exception for Christmas. You won't be doing a lot of teaching that day anyway. I hope you get them okay. Sorry about the problems with them. I can see what a pain it is if they have to have your senso to pick them up. Do you have any Christmas plans this week?
Thursday, we have a Fiesta in Relicario at 2 in the afternoon and then another one in Balzar at 5. And Wednesday, in the evening, our mamita is cooking a Christmas Dinner for us. She bought a turkey that weighs about 18 pounds that she is going to cook.
They are probably going to change the rules about the mamitas de comida. Change it so that we eat each day in a different house of members and we won’t have to pay the mamitas either, so it will be good, if they do change it. Right now, I think that they are testing this idea in a few zones in Guayaquil, but I am not for sure.
I had read that in one of the blogs of another elder in your mission. He wasn't sure it was a good idea. He worried that the quality of food would go down. I guess it will save you some money, but I wonder if it will be a hardship on the mamitas.
I am glad you are going to get some fun Christmas experiences there. I think you will remember these special experiences all of your life. The times you spend with the members and your investigators will be special. Did you have your baptism yesterday?
How was your temple visit? Where did you sleep in Quevedo? Tell us about it please.
The temple was good. I understood a lot more this time than the time before when we arrived. We stayed in the house of the zone leaders. There were 8 elders there. It was crazy, especially because I was the only gringo. All the others were latinos, so I was the "but" of a lot of jokes. We spent the night in Quevedo, got up at 1:30 in the morning and left for Guayaquil. We got back to Quevedo after the temple and the zone conference at 8 and spent the night again in Quevedo. Then we left in the morning for Balzar and worked all day in Balzar and then the next day we got up and left for Quevedo again for the district meeting. So we were in Quevedo for 4 days straight so we didn’t get as much done in Balzar as we would have liked to, but that is ok.
That sounds great. I am glad you got to go to the temple again. Most missionaries don't get to go while they are on their missions, so it is cool that you got to. The day you arrived, did your trainers get to go to the temple or just come there to pick you up? Was the zone conference good? Was it 4 hours long like the last one? Did they feed you?
We got your package with the CDs of pictures. Thank you. They were really great, but someone stole the letters. The tag on the package said it had CD and letters. :)
The package with the CDs only had CDs in it, so nothing was missing. Our trainers just picked us up. They didn’t get to go through the temple. We ate in the temple. It was good, soup, rice, pasta salad, broccoli cauliflower and chicken in a stir fry of sorts, and cake for dessert.
Please write a quick note to each of your brothers. They are waiting "impatiently" to hear from you. I figured you didn't send the letters, not that they actually got stolen. :) A paper letter or card now and then would be nice.
I have some more Christmas cards to send to you; One from Brent Rose, one from Darlene King and one from Garvene Garrett. They won't make it for Christmas, but I told them you would be glad to get them anytime. Bishop King is still in the hospital in intensive care. He has Pneumonia and Congestive Heart Failure. He isn't doing very well. Darlene is doing much better. She was at church yesterday.
I have to go. I love you all very much. I’ll talk to you tomorrow at 8 my time, 6 yours. Ok. I love you lots. Bye.
We love you, too. Have a really great week! Talk to you soon.
Love always,
Mom
This is a second conversation that Mom and Curtis were having in between the one above.
Mom, Can you do me a favor? Can you send an email to (Kelsey, he missed her name) with the address to my blog in it and tell her that I asked you to send it to her? Thank you.
You want me to send it to Kelsey?
Yes, please if you would.
Yes. I will send Kelsey the blog address. Are you writing to each other?
I write her a letter every 2 or 3 weeks and occasionally I recieve an email, but that is about it.
I will send her an email with the blog address. Dad ran to the store. He is on his way back. He says hello and to tell you he loves you. I don't know if he will make it back before you are off. Please say goodbye before you go today.
Can you print anything from there? I have some cool Christmas stories I would like to send you, but only if you can print them and read them later. I don't want you to take our time reading them now.
I can print them if you send them so I can open them in Word.
Here are the Christmas stories. I hope they will help you feel the spirit of Missionary Work at Christmas time.
We love you so much and we are so proud of you. You are setting such a great example for your brothers. They love you so much and they love to hear from you each week and read of your experiences as a missionary. Tell us the kind of things in your letters that will help them want to go on missions and serve as you are doing. Make them want to be a missionary like you are.
Monday, December 15, 2008
2008_12_15 Week 8 Balzar Dad
Dad emailed on Monday, December 15, 2008
Curtis emailed back that same day.
Dear Curtis
How was your week? Did you have some baptisms this week? Kavin did not go hunting with us on Wednesday. Todd asked his friend Phil to go with us. It was the best day of hunting we have had this year. It would have been good for Kavin to have gone. He would have liked it.
Christmas is coming fast. Friday the 19th, is our last day of school, so we get two full weeks and three weekends off this year. When are you going to the temple this week? When do you leave to go and when are you getting back?
Clain went with Skyler Saturday Hunting out at Howard's Slew where you and Skyler go. It was snowing and windy. They got a few ducks. I am going to try to go hunting a couple of times over Christmas break.
I Love You and am proud of what you are doing.
Love, Dad
No we didn´t have any baptisms this week. We have one next Sunday. This week is crazy. We have to go to Quevedo Tuesday night and spend the night there and then Wednesday at 3 in the morning all of our zone and two others get on a bus for Guayaquil. We will get to Guayaquil about 7 inthe morning and then we go to the temple first thing. Then we have our zone conference after the temple in the temple hotel. And then we eat in the temple cafeteria and then leave and head back to Quevedo. spend the night in Quevedo again, go to our district meeting Thursday and then after we return to Quevedo. (I think he meant Balzar).
Love you lots,
Elder Goode
That sounds like a busy week. It should be a good one. How long are you going to be on today? I have to go do lunch duty in a few minutes.
Curtis emailed back that same day.
Dear Curtis
How was your week? Did you have some baptisms this week? Kavin did not go hunting with us on Wednesday. Todd asked his friend Phil to go with us. It was the best day of hunting we have had this year. It would have been good for Kavin to have gone. He would have liked it.
Christmas is coming fast. Friday the 19th, is our last day of school, so we get two full weeks and three weekends off this year. When are you going to the temple this week? When do you leave to go and when are you getting back?
Clain went with Skyler Saturday Hunting out at Howard's Slew where you and Skyler go. It was snowing and windy. They got a few ducks. I am going to try to go hunting a couple of times over Christmas break.
I Love You and am proud of what you are doing.
Love, Dad
No we didn´t have any baptisms this week. We have one next Sunday. This week is crazy. We have to go to Quevedo Tuesday night and spend the night there and then Wednesday at 3 in the morning all of our zone and two others get on a bus for Guayaquil. We will get to Guayaquil about 7 inthe morning and then we go to the temple first thing. Then we have our zone conference after the temple in the temple hotel. And then we eat in the temple cafeteria and then leave and head back to Quevedo. spend the night in Quevedo again, go to our district meeting Thursday and then after we return to Quevedo. (I think he meant Balzar).
Love you lots,
Elder Goode
That sounds like a busy week. It should be a good one. How long are you going to be on today? I have to go do lunch duty in a few minutes.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
2008_11_18 Quevedo Sur Zone Photos
These photos were taken at the Zone Conference held on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 in Quevedo at a Stake Center. This is the Quevedo Sur Zone.On the front row are Elder Willams (He was a room mate with Curtis at the MTC), Hermana Gamboa, Presidente Gamboa and Elder Sanchez ( Elder William's Companion).
On the second row, the third elder from the left is Elder Bejar (Curtis's companion).
On the third row is Elder Goode (Our Wonderful Missionary Son) , to the left of Elder Bejar.
I believe all the Gringos are in Curtis's District. He mentioned in an earlier letter that there were five Gringos in his District. Notice how large those gringos are. We grow them big here in the USA, don't we. Notice how small President and Hermana Gamboa are next to Elder Williams and Elder Sanchez.
I think there must be two districts in the Quevedo Sur Zone. Each district must have eight elders in it.
Monday, November 24, 2008
2008_11_24 Week 5 Balzar Mom
Mom wrote to Curtis Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:12:51 -0700
Curtis replied on Monday, November 24, 2008 at 11:40 am MST
Hi again Curtis,
Tell us about your week. What exciting things happened this week? Do you have new investigators?
yes we have many new investigators in palestina we have gladys and odalis in relicario we have jesus and a young woman named allison in balzar we have the family santillon they are the ones we taught the lesson on chastity to the family of ricardo and mariah. Mariah is the neice of a member and they are really interested in the gospel and they have four kids
How are your old investigators doing?
Most of them we have given up on and moved on to other people now
Did any of them come to church?
We had six investigators at church yesterday julio Espana, Hna. Beatrice and her son Julio part of the Fam. Santillon, Carlos de Barco, the father of a member came too. and in Relicario allison came
How is your smaller branch doing?
They are doing good I gave another talk this week on the importance of the book of mormon. there was 11 people there not counting me or my companion
On your letters to the mission president each week, you put down a list of numbers. Can you tell us what those stand for? Some of them we think we have figured out, but not all of them.
in order the numbers are baptisms, confirmations, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators that attended church, lesons taught with a member present, other lessons, investigators progressing, references recieved, references contacted, new investagators, lessons taught to recent converts or less active members
What is the most exciting thing you did this week?
probably the zone conference
Tell us about your very best lesson?
I taught obedience to the family santillon and I told the story of nephi getting the brass plates and shared the scripture 1nephi 3 7
Do you have any more baptisms lined up?
one this saturday with jesus the mother of antonia and then the 6 of december we have allison two members kids and carlos de barco so quite a few actually
How are the bugs and mosquitos down there?
they really aren´t a problem in balzar but my companion assured me that there are other areas that the bugs are really bad
Did you treat your sheets?
no I haven´t treated my sheets yet
Does the spray work well to keep them off you? Are you happy and healthy? I will continue to ask every week, so don't roll your eyes at me. ;D
yes I am happy and healthy
Tell us about your Zone Conference. Where was it held? Who spoke to you? What else did you do?
it was held in quevedo in a stake center elder bryan, elder ramirez, hna gamboa and presidente gamboa
Did you see any more of the elders you know at the Zone Conference?
no all of the other elders are serving in different areas elder bartolomei is in manta and elder felt is in peninsulare and elder fewkes is either in peninsulare or duran i´m not for sure which I don´t know where elder Smith is serving
Do you talk to many people while you are riding on the crowded bus with your knees squished?
I haven´t because MY spanish isn´t very good but my companion will sometimes talk to people and teach while on the bus
Do they have any kind of celebration at this time of year, like a harvest festival or Thanksgiving?
No just Navidad that is all
What is the most interesting thing you have seen?
I have seen motorcycles the size of mine with 6 people on it. it is quite funny actually
If I send Christmas Cards for President Ruiz and his family, and Sister Valdez, will they be able to read them in English? Should I translate the words first and write it in Spanish or let you translate it for them when you deliver the cards?
Translate them first it will be easier
We got your letter that you wrote on November 3rd with the scriptures in it. Thank you. It arrived on November 19th. It is postmarked on November 18th in Salt Lake City. That is kind of slow mail. Is there a return pouch that you are sending your mail through? Who paid the postage?
I take my letters to the district meetings and give them to my district leader he gives them to the zone leader and the zone leader puts them in a box and sends them on a bus to guayaquil where the elders in the office pick them up and sort through them and send the ones that need to go to the states and the ones that are in the mission they put into other boxes along with the other letters and things and send them the next week to the leaders of zones and they distribute them in the district meetings
I look forward to getting the one with your testimony in. The scriptures were awesome. I am glad you sent so many. We read them for Scripture Study the other night. Is the local mail unreliable in getting mail back to us?
I don´t know I just send them where I am told to send them
Do your district leaders go to the Mission Home every week to get your mail?
No it is through the pouch that they send on the buses my zone leader just goes to the bus terminal and picks the box up
How are the beds down there? Is your bed long enough for your big body or are your feet hanging off the end of the bed two feet? Is it too hard, just right or too soft?
the bed is good it is long enough but just barely
Where do you go to take out your trash? How often do you do that?
we put the trash in the gutter in bags and the garbage truck comes and picks it up about every other day
Do you clean your apartment every Pday?
yep we do
I wish you could send us some photos so we could visualize where you are and what you are doing. You said you would try to send them today. Is that going to work?
I don´t know I will try and see if I can send the cd through the pouch this wednesday I am working on the cd right now
Tell us anything else you think we would like to know.
I love you so much and I am so very proud of you.
Love always and forever,
Mom
Hi Curtis. Thanks for the answers. Have you heard from Michelle. She had good news to tell you. I know Braxton wrote about hunting and dad probably did, too. It sounds like you have been very busy. I am glad you had a good turnout at church. Do you teach a class for the investigators during Sunday School?
yeah we taught about the restoration of the church and yes I have heard from michelle
Do you have a large group in the Sunday School class, investigators and new members who attend? Besides listening to talks, what else did you do at the Zone Conference?
no there was four people in our class this week so it is small in zone conference I also had an interview with president gamboa ate a cookie an apple a package of 3 grahmcrackers and drank a bottle of cifruit
How long do the zone conferences last? What did all the elders do while President Gamboad did interviews?
all the other elders had their interviews the day before but since we are a hour and a half away from where zone conference is held they didn´t make us go the day before for our interview zone conference started at 9 and got done at about 1
That makes good sense. It sounds like they try not to waste any time. So you had four hours of talks. What did they teach you about?
how to effectivly use members and ward mission leaders to help our work. hna gamboa talked about eating breakfast and eating healthy and talking with our mamita about what foods are healthy and not to just serve us rice. oh Presidente and sister (Hermana in spanish or Hna. for short) send their love and told me to thank you for allowing me to serve a mission
That is cool. I will send a Christmas Card to them as well thanking them for taking good care of you. Are you eating a balanced diet? Do you eat pretty much the same things every day or is there more variety in your meals?
I am eating a pretty balanced diet rice with beans and meat or instead of beans something else like vegetables well I gotta Go I love you lots
I love you, too. Have a terrific week!
Curtis replied on Monday, November 24, 2008 at 11:40 am MST
Hi again Curtis,
Tell us about your week. What exciting things happened this week? Do you have new investigators?
yes we have many new investigators in palestina we have gladys and odalis in relicario we have jesus and a young woman named allison in balzar we have the family santillon they are the ones we taught the lesson on chastity to the family of ricardo and mariah. Mariah is the neice of a member and they are really interested in the gospel and they have four kids
How are your old investigators doing?
Most of them we have given up on and moved on to other people now
Did any of them come to church?
We had six investigators at church yesterday julio Espana, Hna. Beatrice and her son Julio part of the Fam. Santillon, Carlos de Barco, the father of a member came too. and in Relicario allison came
How is your smaller branch doing?
They are doing good I gave another talk this week on the importance of the book of mormon. there was 11 people there not counting me or my companion
On your letters to the mission president each week, you put down a list of numbers. Can you tell us what those stand for? Some of them we think we have figured out, but not all of them.
in order the numbers are baptisms, confirmations, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators that attended church, lesons taught with a member present, other lessons, investigators progressing, references recieved, references contacted, new investagators, lessons taught to recent converts or less active members
What is the most exciting thing you did this week?
probably the zone conference
Tell us about your very best lesson?
I taught obedience to the family santillon and I told the story of nephi getting the brass plates and shared the scripture 1nephi 3 7
Do you have any more baptisms lined up?
one this saturday with jesus the mother of antonia and then the 6 of december we have allison two members kids and carlos de barco so quite a few actually
How are the bugs and mosquitos down there?
they really aren´t a problem in balzar but my companion assured me that there are other areas that the bugs are really bad
Did you treat your sheets?
no I haven´t treated my sheets yet
Does the spray work well to keep them off you? Are you happy and healthy? I will continue to ask every week, so don't roll your eyes at me. ;D
yes I am happy and healthy
Tell us about your Zone Conference. Where was it held? Who spoke to you? What else did you do?
it was held in quevedo in a stake center elder bryan, elder ramirez, hna gamboa and presidente gamboa
Did you see any more of the elders you know at the Zone Conference?
no all of the other elders are serving in different areas elder bartolomei is in manta and elder felt is in peninsulare and elder fewkes is either in peninsulare or duran i´m not for sure which I don´t know where elder Smith is serving
Do you talk to many people while you are riding on the crowded bus with your knees squished?
I haven´t because MY spanish isn´t very good but my companion will sometimes talk to people and teach while on the bus
Do they have any kind of celebration at this time of year, like a harvest festival or Thanksgiving?
No just Navidad that is all
What is the most interesting thing you have seen?
I have seen motorcycles the size of mine with 6 people on it. it is quite funny actually
If I send Christmas Cards for President Ruiz and his family, and Sister Valdez, will they be able to read them in English? Should I translate the words first and write it in Spanish or let you translate it for them when you deliver the cards?
Translate them first it will be easier
We got your letter that you wrote on November 3rd with the scriptures in it. Thank you. It arrived on November 19th. It is postmarked on November 18th in Salt Lake City. That is kind of slow mail. Is there a return pouch that you are sending your mail through? Who paid the postage?
I take my letters to the district meetings and give them to my district leader he gives them to the zone leader and the zone leader puts them in a box and sends them on a bus to guayaquil where the elders in the office pick them up and sort through them and send the ones that need to go to the states and the ones that are in the mission they put into other boxes along with the other letters and things and send them the next week to the leaders of zones and they distribute them in the district meetings
I look forward to getting the one with your testimony in. The scriptures were awesome. I am glad you sent so many. We read them for Scripture Study the other night. Is the local mail unreliable in getting mail back to us?
I don´t know I just send them where I am told to send them
Do your district leaders go to the Mission Home every week to get your mail?
No it is through the pouch that they send on the buses my zone leader just goes to the bus terminal and picks the box up
How are the beds down there? Is your bed long enough for your big body or are your feet hanging off the end of the bed two feet? Is it too hard, just right or too soft?
the bed is good it is long enough but just barely
Where do you go to take out your trash? How often do you do that?
we put the trash in the gutter in bags and the garbage truck comes and picks it up about every other day
Do you clean your apartment every Pday?
yep we do
I wish you could send us some photos so we could visualize where you are and what you are doing. You said you would try to send them today. Is that going to work?
I don´t know I will try and see if I can send the cd through the pouch this wednesday I am working on the cd right now
Tell us anything else you think we would like to know.
I love you so much and I am so very proud of you.
Love always and forever,
Mom
Hi Curtis. Thanks for the answers. Have you heard from Michelle. She had good news to tell you. I know Braxton wrote about hunting and dad probably did, too. It sounds like you have been very busy. I am glad you had a good turnout at church. Do you teach a class for the investigators during Sunday School?
yeah we taught about the restoration of the church and yes I have heard from michelle
Do you have a large group in the Sunday School class, investigators and new members who attend? Besides listening to talks, what else did you do at the Zone Conference?
no there was four people in our class this week so it is small in zone conference I also had an interview with president gamboa ate a cookie an apple a package of 3 grahmcrackers and drank a bottle of cifruit
How long do the zone conferences last? What did all the elders do while President Gamboad did interviews?
all the other elders had their interviews the day before but since we are a hour and a half away from where zone conference is held they didn´t make us go the day before for our interview zone conference started at 9 and got done at about 1
That makes good sense. It sounds like they try not to waste any time. So you had four hours of talks. What did they teach you about?
how to effectivly use members and ward mission leaders to help our work. hna gamboa talked about eating breakfast and eating healthy and talking with our mamita about what foods are healthy and not to just serve us rice. oh Presidente and sister (Hermana in spanish or Hna. for short) send their love and told me to thank you for allowing me to serve a mission
That is cool. I will send a Christmas Card to them as well thanking them for taking good care of you. Are you eating a balanced diet? Do you eat pretty much the same things every day or is there more variety in your meals?
I am eating a pretty balanced diet rice with beans and meat or instead of beans something else like vegetables well I gotta Go I love you lots
I love you, too. Have a terrific week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
