18 months!!!

Zone Photo taken on Tuesday, July 16, 2010 in Manta, Ecuador.
Front Row: Elder Eduardo Gavarret, First Counselor in the South America Northwest Area Presidency, Sister Gavarret, Hermana Gamboa, President J. Wilson Gamboa

Missionaries from Left to Right: 1- Elder Cruz , 2- Elder Garcia (Companions with Elder Goode), 3-Elder Ramirez, 4-Elder Parkinson (Lives in the same apartment with Elder Goode), 5- Elder Baez, 6- Elder Merrill, 7- Elder Fonseca, 8- Elder Piedra, 9- Elder Goode, 10- Elder Lopez, 11- Elder Avila (Lives in the same apartment with Elder Goode), 12-Elder Romero , 13- Elder Mitchell, 14- Elder Guix, 15-Elder Perez, 16- Elder Walke

Week 17 Portoviejo

Did you have any baptisms this week?

Hey, we didn´t have a baptism this week, but we are really confident that this Saturday we might be able to baptize Luis and then we can work on his two friends for the next week.

Tell us about Luis and his two friends. Any progress towards baptism?

With Luis, we are working and trying really hard and we have lots of hope. Last week, we had problems finding his dad with Carnival and it being a holiday, so he spent the majority of the time drunk. But now that Carnival is over, things are back to normal. We have lots of hope and we are going to try even harder this week, so that we can have a baptism for the Branch Conference which is next Sunday.

Tell us about each of your other investigators.

We have Nely. She is the one that got mad at the neighbor. We finally found her again and we are planning on taking her to church for the conference so that she can see what the church is like. She has never been before so we are going to work extra hard to get her there.

Tell us more about the ward you cover in Portoviejo.

My ward is actually a branch, but it should be a ward here soon. We are having a Branch Conference to see how the ward is doing and if everything is going good then we will become a ward. So we are all really, really excited for this. It will be a big step forward for us. The ward is pretty big in size or the amount of land that we have, but it is really pretty small in people. There are lots of families that are inactive, but that is the majority of Ecuador right now. But we are trying to help more people become active because that is what President Monson wants us to do. Usually, there are about one hundred or a hundred and twenty that assist the church every week, but the goal for the conference is to have two hundred there. That would be really cool! I have to admit.

Tell us about the seafood you bought and ate. How was it?

The seafood was really, really good!!! We had shrimp a few times and I got to tell you, I love shrimp! I could eat hundreds of the little guys! The thing that sucks is that you have to clean the little guys and that is the hard part. You have to peel the shell off and then you have to cut the vein out and that takes time. The octopus was really good. We are actually going to eat some more today. When we bought the seafood, we cleaned it and then put it in plastic bags and put it in the freezer and then we could eat it when we wanted to. So today we are going to eat the last of the seafood. We took it to a sister today and she is going to prepare it for us for lunch. We are going to eat shrimp and octopus and fish. It is going to be so good! Don´t worry. I will take pictures, so that you can see it. I will have to prepare all of these delicious meals that I am learning when I get home. But I want to tell you about another drink that I found a long time ago, but I forgot to tell you about. You boil cinnamon sticks in water and then put sugar to taste and drink it. I was really surprised when I first tried it, but I have to say it is really good. Have you tried the cerviche again?

Tell us more about your companion.

My companion, Elder Garcia, will turn 21 in April. In June, he will have a year in the mission. I am his second companion. He has a girl waiting for him. She is from Italy. His mom is from Colombia. She is black (don´t worry that isn´t an offense in Spanish.) His real dad is from Spain and he hasn´t had much contact with him. His step-dad is also from Spain. His step-dad married his mom when she was a month pregnant with him, so his step-dad raised him as his own son. His step-dad served his mission in the Central America Mission a long time ago when the mission was five different countries. His real dad is not a member of the church. His step-dad taught and baptized his mom, while he was in the mission.

Tell us about your zone and district.

In my zone, we have a few new missionaries that weren´t here last change, like Elder Aracayo. He was the companion of Elder Carlos last change and Elder Frye is the companion of Elder Carlos this change. Elder Perez, he is from the same group as Elder Machuca and is senior comp (Elder Machuca is senior comp, too. He had a change and is now in the Orquidias Zone.) Elder Cruz, I knew him from Quevedo North and he is in Chone now and is district leader. Elder Walke, he is a zone leader. Elder Parkinson, but I have told you about him. In my district there are four companionships, mine, Elder Avila and Elder Parkinson, Elder Perez and Elder Mitchell, and Elder Baez and Elder Merrill. So looking at things time wise, I am the only elder in my district that has more than a year in the mission, so my district is really young in the mission.

Which elders are you supervising in your district?

In my district, there is Elder Garcia and I and Elder Avila and Elder Parkinson and Elder Baez and Elder Merrill and Elder Mitchell and Elder Perez.

What have you been teaching in your district meetings?

We have been working on chapter six of Preach My Gospel which is Christ like attributes, so that is what I have been teaching. This next week, I have to teach how the missionaries can help their investigators come to church.

Where do you get your hair cut?

I go to a member that has a barber shop and he cuts our hair at a discounted price, a dollar fifty.

How often?

I usually cut my hair every three or four weeks.

Have you sent me some more photos yet?

No.

Have you received your Valentine Package yet? I am trying to get another one in the mail this week.

No.

Do you need anything?

More deer jerky would be nice. Send me some post cards of Utah, different places in Utah. Elder Garcia wants to know Utah a little better. He also wants candy canes. I told him they don´t sell them this time of the year, but he told me to ask anyways.

How are your contacts and contact solution doing?

I am not using them, so they are doing just fine. But I figured something out talking to Elder Piedra. He said that the problem I am having with my contacts is because my eye isn´t breathing like it should, so I need a contact that has hydro clear or something like that. I don´t remember for sure, but he said he was having the same problem and that changing to a contact with hydra clear solved his problem.

How is your clothing doing?

My clothes are doing ok. They will make it another six months easily, don´t worry.

Are you getting lots of rain down there? Do you ever wear the boots you bought?

We were getting lots of rain, but it has calmed down now and it isn´t raining much anymore. I left my boots in Valencia because they were a little small, but I don´t think I will need to buy another pair because it isn´t raining much here.

Have you spent any time at the Ocean? Did you take any photos at the ocean?

We went to Crucita once and I did take some cool pics, so I will try to get them in the mail soon ok? Sorry.

Are you healthy and happy?

Yes. I think I am now losing a little weight. We decided to cut down on our expenses, to walk more and take less taxis and busses, so I am walking the long distances now instead of using taxis : )

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?

2009_07_06 Week 14 Valencia Mom

I got a new debit card for you in the mail. When does the one you have expire?

I will probably mail the card to you in the regular mail in an envelope. I will try to send it next week. Then I will email you the phone number to call to activate it. You can either activate it from our home phone or there is a different number to call from International locations. It is probably best not to activate it till after you receive it.

Love,
Mom

The debit card that I have expires in August of 2010, so don´t send me the other one, ok? Things are going good here. Sorry for last week. I could enter my email, but I couldn’t send anything to anyone. I didn´t send a letter to the President, either. There were a few that had this problem with their myldsmail accounts last week, so I´m sorry. How is the drive to Island Park? Tell grandma and grandpa hi for me. Email me back and let’s talk, ok?

Hi buddy. We have only made it as far as Lewiston. We got all ready then Grandma said Kavin was only ten minutes away so we waited for him and that took another 25 before he arrived and by the time they went to the restroom and we left Smithfield it was 10:20. Oh well.

Hey, how is it going? Things are good here in Ecuador. We are planning a baptism for this Saturday. It should go through ok. We aren´t planning on having any setbacks with this one. It sounds like you are going to have a fun week in Island Park this week. Make sure you visit all of the fun places and tell everybody hi for me and thank you for the birthday letters. They were great. Send me an email, so we can talk.

You are welcome. How many packages did you get? I just sent you four more for your Hump day with one set of garments in each package.

Hey, you are going to get there a little later than two if you were just leaving at ten thirty, but ya. So how is everything?

It will be good now. Dad was stressed this morning because we were a few minutes later than he wanted to be, but no biggie. When we got to Logan the CNG pumps were not working so we are already running on regular gas. We are going to check in Pocatello. We found a CNG station online. We are just not sure if it is a public station or not. Clain drove the Civic up for Michelle. We planned on leaving it in Smithfield, but had to leave it in Logan at Michelle's apartment in Logan or she would not have had enough CNG to get back to LW's.

Okay on the debit card. I was hoping that was the case. The only problem would be if you end up staying longer for some reason. I will call the bank and talk to them about what to do about this debit card.

Congratulations on the baptism. Tell me about the people getting baptized.

Her name is Isabel Coello. She is 40 years old. She really wants to get baptized. Yesterday we went on splits and Elder Castañeda took her coffee away and she is really excited to get baptised this Saturday. We are also teaching her kids, a daughter that is 14 and another daughter that is 19 with her boyfriend, so we are working on helping them to get married and the other daughter just needs to come to church one more time and she can be baptised.

That is cool. Is this one of the families you told us about earlier? How are those families and the two ladies you were teaching doing?

Who did you go on splits with?

I went with one member and Elder Castañeda with another, so that we could cover more ground.

Great. It is awesome when you can double your time and contacts by doing splits with members. Are the members helping you find a lot of people?

That’s good. I have been busy here in Valencia. I am not District Leader and I am still with Elder Castañeda so everything is good. We are working hard.

That is awesome. You will be district leader soon enough. Is Elder Castaneda wanting to work harder now?

Yeah, we are working very hard and it is paying off.

Some are doing good and others no. The Zambrano family, they don´t want to receive us anymore so they aren’t progressing and Esther is still progressing, but slowly. It is hard. Her boyfriend of 8 years left her with two little girls, one five years old and the other two years old. Last Tuesday, we went and visited her and helped her plant a garden of onions, tomatoes and peppers (they use these three in just about all of the food here), so I took along my new machete to test it out and see how it works. It works great! Just so you know, I´m gonna have to bring a few home to use.

And the other one is Shirley. She is 17 and she is in love with me. I talked to her yesterday and tried to convince her to be baptized, but she said that her mom won’t let her, but that she could be baptised when she turns 18 in November. But I told her I won’t be here in Valencia in November and she said that she won´t be here either, that she is going to Guayaquil to study in the University and that if I was in Guayaquil that she would visit me there and be baptised there. So I asked her what happens if I go to Manta and she said that she would go to Manta, so What do I do???? She is in love with Me!! What do you think?????

Sorry. I lost signal for a while. I got signal back on Clain's phone and now on mine. I don't know what you do about Shirley being in love with you. Do you love her or could you ever love her romantically? If not, don't lead her on. She needs to join the church because she has a testimony. Not because she loves you.

This family sounds wonderful. I will pray that the marriage will work out for you and the other baptisms. Do they all live together in one home?

Yes, they all live in the same house, so it is really easy to visit them and the thing that is really nice is that there is a sister from the church that lives in front of them, so before we visit them, we visit her and she sends us with her daughter to teach them. And then when we get done, we go back to her house and she always has something cooked for us to eat, usually rice and chicken or patacones or something, but there is always something. She loves to cook for us. She calls us to ask us when we are going to come, so she can cook for us. Here in Valencia, the members help us out a lot, some in different maneras, but everything helps.

That is awesome. Good members can make such a difference to the work. Clayton is having lots of success right now because the members are really doing their part to find investigators.

Keep working with Esther. Try to get the Relief Society involved with her. If she makes some friends among the members she will want to progress and feel the love and support of having that sisterhood to draw upon. Does she work?

I knew you would end up with some machetes. I just hope they let you bring them home in your suitcases. Your package has still not arrived. What day did you send it? What were the contents?

I sent a couple of ecuabags that I bought, one for Clain and two for Skyler and Stephanie and a few more sucres and my glasses. One day I was on a split with Elder Janampa and it was raining really hard and I couldn´t see anything in the rain, so I took off my glasses and put them in my shirt pocket. And we were walking and we had to pass for a place that I had to duck really low to pass and my glasses fell out of my pocket and I accidently stepped on them and scratched the lenses all up, so I sent them to you so that you could replace the lenses and send them back to me. I also sent you some candy. It is my favorite from here so far. The flavor is milk and honey. It is really good. I really hope that nothing has happened to the package. I bought the ecuabags in the Mana one day. There was a few from Otavalo that were selling their things and I bought them there. Now the family of Elder Castañeda sent me two more ecuabags from Otavalo, so now I have three, the one in the photo that you have seen and two more.

Okay. I do hope they arrive sometime. Are you wearing your contacts all the time now? How is that working? If the package hasn't arrived when we get home from this trip, I will go and order another pair of glasses for you and get them sent to you. What day did you send the package?

I think it was the 27th of May that I sent them. Right now I am wearing my contacts all of the time and it is going good. The air here in Valencia is a lot cleaner than the air in Balzar was. I just need to find some more solution, but don´t worry. I have some friends that own a pharmacy and they are going to find me some. I need to go ask them today if they have found some because I asked them last week to find some and they said it would take two or three days to find, but I keep forgetting to ask them. I am pretty sure that they have some now, so don´t worry.

That is good. I will still work on the glasses in case you end up in another place with dirty air. I am glad you are able to get solution. You might want to get several bottles if you can while you have friends with access to it.

Right now Esther is not working, but she can´t work because then she would have to pay someone to watch her girls and there goes all of the money that she would earn for the day or most of it anyways. She worked really hard when she was younger and she has a good amount of money saved in the bank and she has been living on that and her family is helping her out, too. We aren’t giving up on her yet. We are still trying. As for Shirley, I don´t know what to do. I don´t know if I could be in love with her or not, but I don´t have time to find out. I have other things that I have to do that are more important.

Good. I am glad you have your priorities in order. Make sure she has your contact info when you leave the area and she can keep in touch when you finish your mission. Have you tried to convince her mom to let her get baptized now?

Yeah, we have and we are going to try again Friday to see what happens.

Okay we will pray that the Lord will soften her heart. Maybe you could fast and pray for that to happen, too. Can you get Shirley and her mom to attend your baptism on Saturday so they can feel the spirit?

Ok. Thanks we are going to fast today, because we forgot to yesterday, but that is what we are going to fast for.

Awesome. The Lord will help you if you exercise enough faith.

Yeah I will see what I can get and let you know next week.

Okay. I can send some if you can't get it. Any luck on finding those people that returned missionary asked about?

What I did is sent them a letter through the pouch. I put that they are in the other stake and sent it. The missionaries in the other stake will know a little bit more and when they deliver the letter the letter has the email address of the return missionary, so I hope they get it. If not, I´ll start asking in the Zone Conference.

Sounds good. I will let the guy know. Thanks.

Still there? I love you. It has been good to chat with you today. I miss that a lot, just the chance to talk to you.

2009_03_16 Week 21 Balzar Mom

Mom wrote on March 15, 2009

Hi Curtis,

Another week has gone by. It has been a pretty fun one.

I hope all is well with you. I think of you often throughout each day. I am so very proud of the work you are doing there. I hope you are working hard and enjoying more success this week. It is sad that your baptisms keep falling through, but I guess that is part of missionary work. Even those who don’t join are better off for having heard your message. Maybe the next time they are contacted by missionaries they will accept the gospel. I have heard that it takes most converts seven contacts with the church before they are willing to join the church. What you say and do may make a great difference to them down the road someday. They will probably remember a giant American Missionary who taught them with great power and authority. It is hard when you don’t see the fruits of your labor, but many missionaries find that to be the case. They don’t all baptize a lot, but they still make a difference. Keep trying and the Lord will bless you with more success.

Dad has an MRI scheduled tomorrow at 5:45. I have to take him because they gave him two valium pills to take to relax him. He won’t be able to drive after having taken those pills. I hope the MRI will show the doctor what needs to be done to help him. The doctor thought that it would be either degenerative disks or arthritis. The treatment for both is the same, to strengthen the back muscles through physical therapy. The doctor gave dad a prescription to go to a Physical Therapy place in Kaysville that has a special program for lumbar strengthening. So far, he hasn’t called to make an appointment. I know it is going to be hard for him because he wants to be home working with and training his pigeons and going to physical therapy is not going to fit into his schedule very well. With all the stuff going on at school this year, it would not be a good idea to go to therapy during school hours. He is going to have to fit it in after school and that conflicts with pigeons and with water aerobics. They are building a couple of buildings in West Point up by the city office building. One of those is going to be a physical therapy place and it is the same company that the doctor wanted him to go to. I think it is called Mountain West Physical Therapy. The problem is that it will probably be another six monthsbefore they are ready to open for business. He can’t wait that long to get this taken care of. He needs to go now. I will try to do more convincing, but I know it won’t be easy.

It will be another busy week, but we won’t get bored. There is a ward party on Tuesday night where they are going to show a movie about President Hinckley’s life. The boys have already seen it. I don’t know if dad and I will get there if we go to water aerobics. We will see. Braxton has four soccer practices again, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. There is a Stake Youth Fireside on Thursday night for the youth and their parents. That also will conflict with water aerobics class. It is hard to know what to do. Both are good choices. I think dad and I will probably go to aerobics and send the boys to the fireside alone.

My new laptop is coming along. I have installed most of the programs on it, but now I have to get all of my files transferred to it. I have spent all afternoon and evening copying them from my old laptop to my external hard drive. Tomorrow, I will try to copy them to the new laptop while I am imaging laptops at WPJH. I am typing on it now and it just doesn’t feel the same. I make a lot more mistakes typing on it than I did on my old laptop. I am sure I will get used to it eventually, but I am not sure I will ever like the keyboard as well as I did the old one. My old keys had a shiny surface and these new ones have a dull surface. They are just different. This new laptop should be faster and it has a larger hard drive, so that will be great. I am sure I will be glad to have it, but I feel sad giving up my old friend.

Church today was good. It was all about being peacemakers. It is interesting how the lessons all correlate that way this year and the Bishopric has been having the speakers speak on the same subjects, too. Today, Anita Rose, Kolten Kay and Brother Soule, our high councilman spoke. They all gave very good talks. I was very impressed with Kolten’s talk. He spoke for almost fifteen minutes which I thought was very amazing for a boy who has always been very shy. He is going to make a good missionary. He has about a year before he can go. He is a little older than Clain.

I get to speak in church next week on the blessings of having a missionary. I am only supposed to speak for five minutes. It sounded like they were going to have all of the mothers of missionaries speak. There are five right now. Jane Marquardt, Lisa Schneiter, Chris Jenkins, myself and Rita Greenwell. I am not for sure who is speaking though, that is just a guess from what Matt Taggart said. I jotted down lots of ideas while I was at church. I will have to do a little bit of research this week and pull something together. What would you say is the greatest blessing we have received because you are serving a mission? Give me several answers in your reply. How has serving a mission helped you? Also, could you write a paragraph for me to share with the ward while I am speaking.

I am sorry I haven’t been writing to you as much. I thought I would have more time after the wedding, but going to water aerobics is taking up a huge chunk of time, six hours a week, and soccer is back again. I have also been playing too much on Facebook. I have got to do better. However, we have been having some fun. I let Braxton and Clain both sign up for accounts on Facebook. They started playing some of the games that are on there. Two are farming programs, My Farm and FarmTown. You can send your friends animals and trees and you plant crops and harvest them. The problem is that it takes so much time to keep up with the planting and harvesting. I have been playing with them and it has been fun, but it is time to give it up. I harvested all of my crops on FarmTown and sold all of my trees and animals. I will just let my farm sit dormant. I told the boys it is going to be winter on my farm for quite a while. I have enough money that if I ever want to go back and replant, I could. On My Farm, I have earned enough money to buy a house, a barn, a chicken coop and a woodyard. It was fun, but I have got other things I ought to be doing, so I will give up the virtual farming. As soon as my crops are ready to harvest, I am going to be done with this program, too. I need to get back to scrapbooking and family history and writing letters to my favorite missionary. I need toget Clain working on studying for the ACT test online and Braxton has too much soccer stuff going on. He is going to have to give up at least one farm. It has been fun to just play with the boys a bit though. Shara also has had farms, but she hasn’t spent as much time on there. It reminds me of that summer when we all played Gameboys and had so much fun just playing together.

I have connected with some old friends on Facebook and some cousins. That is nice. I wish I could find some more of my old friends. I will have to keep trying. Maybe more will join over time. Facebook is growing by leaps and bounds every month. It is fun to see photos of friends and their families and the things they are doing. It is interesting how many people we meet in our lifetimes. Some stay friends forever and some for only a while. I hope when we get to heaven we will remember them all and the connections we had with them here.

I had a friend request this weekend from a guy named Tim Hunter. He was a friend of mine all through elementary school, junior high and high school. He lived in Wellsville and we had classes together. For a while, when I was in junior high, he was a boyfriend of one of my good friends. I remember going with them on Halloween one year. We went to the school carnival and then just sort of wandered around Wellsville trick or treating a bit and I think we soaped a couple of car windows.When we were Seniors in High School, Tim and I were put in charge of planning a Stake Youth Conference to Ricks College. He had always been shy and quiet, but I was so impressed with his leadership abilities as we planned for the Youth Conference. He had to conduct all of the events at the Youth Conference as well. I sat by his side through most of them. The one I remember the most was the Testimony Meeting on the last morning we were there. He bore a beautiful testimony with great love for our Savior. He was so humble and I remember feeling the spirit so strong as he spoke. I was grateful to have had the opportunity to serve with him in this capacity. It was funny that I had not thought of those memories for years, until he asked me to be his friend on Facebook. I guess my memories are all still there, just hidden away till something calls them forth. We have been having a little conversation back and forth on Facebook. It is sort of fun to remember and to catch up with him. He is married and has four kids and one grandson. It looks like one boy is married and one is in the military, then he has two younger daughters.

I need to make some phone calls this week and talk to your grandparents. It has been too long since I called them and too long since we visited them. I thought maybe we would get up there today, but I couldn’t. I was asked to read a part in a Relief Society program we are doing next week and they were practicing this afternoon. I am a narrarator. It is not hard. I just have to read the part off a paper and I don’t have to dress up in anything special. The program is about the Ten Virgins. The sister missionaries were going to be the narrarators, but we don’t have sister missionaries anymore, so they had to find someone else to do their parts.

Clain said the two new Elder missionaries spoke to them in Missionary Prep this morning. Elder Shanner told his conversion story and the things that helped him the most with joining the church. Clain seemed very impressed with them. I was excited to get Elder Missionaries here again. That will give Clain more of a chance to go with them to teach. The Ward Missionaries are Brother and Sister Roskelley. They are supposed to be taking the Laurels and Priests with them to teaching appointments. So far, Clain hasn’t had a turn. They wanted to start with the older ones first. I imagine he will get some turns before he turns 19. I am going to try to have the missionaries come for dinner sometime. I told Lorilee Roskelley to let me know when they had their next dinner appointments to setup and we would try to feed them. Are you having much success with the members helping you with missionary work?

The members are helping some more than others but I guess it just goes to show how dedicated different people are to the gospel. Some help every day or every week when they have time and can, and others only help when we ask for their help and there are others that don´t help even when we ask. I guess it depends on the person.

Are you eating as well now that you are going to different members homes? I wondered if that was why you had been having stomach problems and diarrhea. Is it any better or worse? Do you think it is from bad water?

We are eating good here in Balzar, but President Ruiz says that he isn´t eating as good now as he used to. He says that his wife doesn´t worry about the cooking as much when it is just for the family. I think that part of the problem is that we are eating in different members houses every day and that not all of the members boil the water or use water in pomas that have been purified so I think that I am getting a few parasites or bacteria but nothing serious.

Please tell us some of your latest experiences with teaching. What is the best thing that has happened to you this week?

We had an interesting experience yesterday, Sunday. We had church in Balzar. We had lunch, then we went to Palestina in a bus. We changed where we meet in the other part of the branch so that it is easier for our investigators to come to church. So we invited our investigators tochurch and then we had church in the home of the Samaniego family and then we did a split. Elder Alcocer went with Tito Mora, a member and I went with Hno. Samaniego and we visited our investigators in Palestina. We met up about 7:20 in the city center where the busses pass forBalzar.

We met up and took a bus to Balzar. After about five minutes in the bus, two men left their seats and pulled kitchen knives and began to rob the people in the bus. The official in the bus that had all of the money that had been collected from the passengers jumped from the bus while it was moving so that they couldn´t rob him. They wanted cell phones, but we don´t have cells here in the mission. One robber asked me for my cell phone. I told him that I didn´t have one, so he hit me in the face knocking my glasses off into my lap. He went on to take the cell phones from us. I took the money from my pocket, less than three dollars and I took my watch off to give to them if they returned. One of them returned, but this time to Elder Alcocer and asked for his cell phone. He responded that he didn´t have one. The robber got mad and threatened to kill him. He took off his watch and took out three dollars and gave to the robber and then took his name tag off and offered it to the robber, too, but the robber didn´t take the name tag.

The robbers assaulted one man, because he wouldn´t give up his cell phone. He was ok, but he was cut up a little bit. The robbers left and all of us continued on our way. A bus behind us radioed that they had picked up the official of our bus and that he was ok. Then our bus stopped in Balzar and waited for the official to arrive to continue on its way. Elder Alcocer recovered one of the dollars that he had given to the thief because he was in a hurry and it fell out of his pocket. Don´t worry! We are fine. We lost two dollars and a ten dollar watch that wasn´t keeping time very well and the crystal was broken, too, so we didn´t lose much at all.

Did you get any packages?

No I didn´t receive the packages, but I will call today and talk to the pouch monkey to find out what is going on.

I haven’t had time to do anything about the music for Elder Alcocer yet. I am having a struggle with it because it isn’t legal for me to copy that music for him and I can’t to buy it all for him. I could probably buy a couple of the albums for him, but not all of them.Which albums are his most favorite ones? I am trying to be honest, but also charitable.

I forgot that it is illegal to copy music. Here in Ecuador copyright laws don´t exist. Well they do, but nobody follows them.

I bought some replacement blades for your razor on Ebay. I will send your package as soon as they arrive here. It should be in a day or two, so I should mail the package this week.

I love you lots. Be Goode and obedient.

Love always and forever,

Mom

Hi Curtis,

It is good to hear from you. Please write and tell me more about what you have been doing this week and give me any ideas you have for my talk. I am glad that no one was seriously hurt during the robbery. It is sad that people are like that all over the world. Some just don't understand the joy of working to earn what they deserve. They think that getting things the easy way will bring them happiness. They are so wrong.

You said you were wearing your glasses. Are you having problems with contacts or solution or are the glasses just easier?

I have been wearing my glasses because the air here is dirty by the end of the day when I wear my contacts my eyes are tired and I wake up the next day with my eyes red it is better with glasses.

Another Missionary Mom sent her son's blog address recently. He is in the Guayaquil South mission. I couldn't believe all the smog that was in the air in his photos. I imagine it is probably a lot that way all over. They burn their trash and probably don't have a lot of laws to protect the air and the environment yet. I am glad you have the glasses to use.

Is it a hardship for the families you eat with to feed you out of their budgets rather than you paying them for the food? I am sure they will get blessings for their sacrifices. Are you able to make ends meet easier now having the extra money you used to give to the mamitas?

Did you get a chance to mail me some photos?

I worry that the pocket knife package is not going to arrive. Tyler Walke sent a package home and he put two Ecuadorian pennies in the package for his little sister. His package had been opened and the pennies removed and the letter he wrote was also missing. They have to be x-raying the packages to have found the pennies, so if they would open his package to remove the pennies, I am quite certain if they x-ray your package and see the knife they will remove it or you will just not get the package. Tyler's package was taped back up crudely and sent on to his family.

I have been teaching the people here in Ecuador and helping them come unto Christ. The blessings that you have received that I am on a mission; Do you remember your experience when I had the rash? You felt the spirit in your life. You felt peace that all was well. You are becoming more sensitive to the spirit. I assume that you are doing ok with your finances and not having any problems. That is a blessing too.

Yes. All of those are great blessings. I feel the spirit much more often in my life. I know you are safe and protected and that brings me great peace each day.

Some of the other missionaries talked of the many scriptures you have been asked to memorize and the deadline that is approaching to have them memorized by. How are you doing on your memorization? Do you feel you will have them all learned in time? What are the consequences if you don't get them memorized? Who do you have to pass them all off to? I look at this as another great blessing in your life. When you get these all committed to memory you will have such a huge advantage and will be well on your way to becoming a scriptorian. I hope that your amazing memory is helping you with this task.

I am doing good there are nine different list that we have to memorize, so about one a week. I am pretty sure that I will have it all memorized in time. We have to pass off all of the lists to our Zone Leader. I think that if I pass all of the scriptures off, that when the deadline comes, I will be able to become Senior Companion. Right now, I am Junior Companion, but there are companionships that both are Senior Companion. There has to be a Senior Companion in the companionship at all times.

Well I have to go. I love you a lot. Bye.