Spoiled Fun!

Week 12 Portoviejo

Hey! So how are things going this week? I have a cool story to tell you this week. We went iguana hunting last Monday and we went to a place where we thought that there would be iguanas in my sector with a few youth from the ward. We went and tried to find iguanas, but here the trees are turning green, so it is getting harder to see iguanas in the trees. So we didn´t see any iguanas and then it started to rain and we kept walking further and further up into the mountains and it kept raining and the trail that we were walking on turned to mud and well we got really dirty. Well, we ended up walking for an hour and a half until we came to another city and there we found a cyber and started to read our emails and after about ten or fifteen minutes the power went out. And I happened to be in the middle of reading your letter, so we tried to get back to Portoviejo as fast as we could and use the cyber. But we got back at like five fifteen and showered and then at five thirty we had to go buy groceries and then it was off to work. So I am sorry that I didn´t write you and I will definitely try much harder to write every week longer letters.

Well to finish my story, we didn´t get any iguanas so we were kinda bumbed, but yesterday we went to the house of one of the youth that went with us and he said that his neighbors had some land and that there were a ton of iguanas. So we went and looked at the land and asked them for permission to hunt iguanas today. They asked us why we wanted iguanas and we told them to eat. They said that we could go today to hunt iguanas. But we were leaving their house with the kid to do some visits and the neighbors called us and told us that they had an iguana if we wanted it. So we went back and got the iguana. We tied it up and put it into a sack and then we went and took a taxi to our house and dropped the iguana off so that I could skin it out and get it ready to eat today. Well we were really excited, me and my companion, and the youth, but things went terribly wrong after that.

We got back to the house after finishing off the night. We did our numbers and I started sharpening a knife to skin the iguana. That is when Elder ______ got to the house. He took care of his numbers and I was also taking down the numbers of my district and I gave them to the zone leaders and then I was ready to start on the iguana but it was still alive. So I had to cut its neck right and I didn´t want to get blood all over so I started to wash the dishes in the sink so that I could do it in the sink and not make a mess all over everything. Well, Elder ______ started to tell me that he thought that it was kinda ify what I was going to do and that I should call and ask President for permission to kill and eat the iguana. I told him no that it wasn´t a big deal, that there isn´t a rule that says that we can´t kill or eat iguana in our misionary manual or in the rule book of our mission. But he said that he had to call president anyway for something that was going on in his sector so he called president and talked to him about his problem that he was having in his sector and then he told president that I wanted to talk to him. So I then had to take the phone and explain to President Gamboa that I had an iguana and that I wanted to kill it and clean it out so that we could eat it. Well President asked me if I had done it before. I told him that I had never killed and cleaned an iguana before, but that I had killed and cleaned lots of animals before. President said that it is an iguana, that it isn´t a chicken or a duck or a cow or a pig. It is an iguana and it is different. So he told me that I couldn´t kill it and I was forbidden to eat anything that has iguana in it and that I had to let the iguana go.

I was kinda upset I was so close to being able to eat iguana and I couldn´t do it so at this time it is like nine thirty and Elder ______ told me that I had to take it and let it go, but I was kinda upset so I told him that it was late and that we couldn´t leave the house. So he called President and asked him what we should do, if we should take it right then and let it go or if we should wait until morning and President told us to wait until morning. So we slept the night with the iguana in the house and this morning we took it and let it go in a part of my sector. So I almost got to eat iguana, but not quite. So I am pretty sure that I won´t ever have the opportunity again in my life, but oh well. I am pretty sure that there will be a new rule in the mission now that we are going to be forbidden to eat iguana and turtle and a few other animals, maybe armadillo. So that is my crazy story for the week. I almost got to eat iguana, but it got away.

So besides the iguana, things are going good. We are working hard and having lots of success. We should see some baptisms soon. I sure hope so! Nely, she is the one that I told you about, that her husband died and that was mad at her neighbors, she accepted a baptismal date. So we are working on preparing her and her son for the baptism, so I am pretty happy about that. We are still working with the dad of Luis for permission and we are getting a little farther along, but progress is slow with him. But we have high hopes! Well everything is good. Let me know what else you want to know and I will try to respond. Ok. I love you lots.

Bye,

Elder Goode

Sorry about your iguana. That is too bad. I guess you will have to wait till you go back for a visit to get that opportunity in your life or maybe you will decide that it really doesn't matter much and let it go.

We thought your excuse for not writing was probably something to do with the power outages because it looked like you had started to read emails and then quit.

Tell us more about the people you are teaching and the experiences you have been having with them. Have you had any special experiences these past few weeks?

I hope you will forgive and not let the iguana incident come between you and Elder ______ or you and President Gamboa. I imagine that President Gamboa has a special love for the creatures of South America, like iguanas, because they represent something that is special to his home country. Maybe they mean as much to him as the Eagle does to us in the United States. It is true, they are not majestic to look at, like the eagle, but they are something unique to a few select countries down there. Trust his judgment and forgive him for taking away your fun. I hope you took some photos of the iguana while you had it, so you can remember this incident later. Maybe, there is a lesson in this experience that you will use later on in your life. Ponder on it and see if you can allow forgiveness to enter your heart. I can see you standing some day and using this experience as an object lesson in a talk you will give.

You also need to remember that most of the missionaries there and your mission president have probably never been hunting. They don't know of the thrill you experience as you go hunting. To them and to most of the world, hunting is barbaric. I admit it is not the most pleasant thing for me to think about, even though I have been around it all of my life. Remember that the things you hunt are God's creatures. He put them here for His purposes. It is necessary for us to eat some things, but people will argue that there is plenty of food to eat without going out and killing it. Most won't understand that man helps to keep the populations of animals in balance and that because man has encroached on the natural ranges of the animals, that we have upset the balance of nature and need to help keep it in balance by hunting. I keep thinking that maybe your calling in life has something to do with being a Conservation Officer. Anyway, don't hold grudges because your fun was spoiled. There will be plenty of other opportunities in life for you to go hunting. Now is just not the time for it.

I love you lots. Keep smiling.
Love,
Mom

I hope you are being completely obedient and relying on the Lord for help with the work. Is there any chance you will have baptisms this coming week?

Have you gotten the last package with your bible?

No, I haven´t gotten the last package. I called the office to see if they happened to know anything about it and they don´t know anything, so I don´t know. I guess we will just have to wait and see if it comes. There is nothing else that I can do for the package.

Have you gotten more post cards?

I got like three post cards last Wednesday and I got a letter from Elder Fewkes. He is in the Charolette North Carolina mission right now, so I thought that it was cool that he remembered us all here in Ecuador. He sent a card to Elder Felt, too, so I am pretty sure that he sent all of our district here in Ecuador something.

In the photos in Quevedo that you sent, there was a day when you took Zone photos by a handcart. What was the handcart for?

I am not for sure why there is a handcart there, but we took some pictures with it because we thought it would be funny. The three that were in the handcart in one of the photos were the ones that were going to go home that change, so it was like we were taking the dead missionaries to the cemetery or something like that.

Explain the photo of the elders with their hands over their crotches? What is that all about?

I have no idea what they were doing, really I don´t. I don´t see any reason why they would have done it, but they did. I will see if I can talk with some of them and ask them why they did it, but I really don´t know.

Were you able to send more photos to Elder Elwood to have him send them home with Elder Mitton or Elder Ogden?

I was getting a disk ready and I will call and ask Elder Elwood if he could help me out with that. I can send it to the office Wednesday and he can get it to Elder Ogden or Elder Mitton.

What do you want me to do about the CTR Rings?

Elder Garcia wants a ring so send him one, but the family, I know they said they would pay for them, but I am pretty sure that they won´t be able to pay when the time comes. They are a great family, but they kind of expect the missionaries to do favors for them. Don´t worry about the rings for them, just the one for Elder Garcia. If they really want the rings, I could bring them rings when I come to visit after the mission.

Thanks. Interesting answers. I am glad you were obedient to the mission president even though it spoiled your plans. Remember there is always a reason why things happen. Later, you will understand and realize that it was for the best.

That is really cool that you heard from Elder Fewkes. I was hoping he had gone back out to the mission field. You will have to go visit him after you both get home or have him come down for a visit.

I will go get another bible for you and send it in the next package and a ring for Elder Garcia. I will try to get a package sent off this week and you should get it around Valentine's Day.

We love you so much. It is so good to hear from you. I would really love to hear more about the people you are teaching and about the special experiences you are having. It would be great if you would occasionally bear your testimony and share your feelings about the blessing it is to
serve a mission. Have a really great week.

Love always and forever,
Mom

Ok, thanks. I love you lots. I hope that next week I have more time to tell you all of the details of my investigators and bear my testimony. So I will try really hard next week, I promise.

Okay. I am counting on it. However, I also know it is changes next week, so it is not likely to happen. You could send a paper letter you know. I would treasure it forever! Be Goode! I love you!

Sweet Visit to the Temple & Forgiveness

What time will you call, our time, which is two hours later than your time?

I can call whenever you want me to, except from eleven to twelve because that is lunch here. What time can Skyler be there? I think it would be better to call in the morning so that everybody is still there in the house before Michelle and Jeff leave to go home, if they come down. Talk to Skyler quickly and tell me what time. I could call at ten. I don´t know if that would be good with you, but ten would work out for me.

Which packages have you received?

I got three packages in our zone conference when we went to the temple. They had the zone stockings and the two big stockings in them. Elder Garcia fixed the name tag so it now says Elder Garcia and the card. He just put his last name after Carlos since that is his first name, so now it says, Dear Elder Carlos Garcia. So that worked out ok.

Have you given the small Christmas stockings to the missionaries in your Zone yet?

No, I will do that Wednesday in the District Meeting.

Have you received any cards or postcards?

I received five post cards now, one from Clain, one from Braxton, one from Dad, one from Shara and one from Grandma Parkinson.

Is Elder Felt still living in the same house as you? That wasn’t clear from your last email.

Yes, he is still here.

Tell us more about your new companion, Elder Carlos Garcia.

He is from Panama. He has one brother and six sisters. His mom is from Colombia and his dad from Spain. He likes to fish. We have been talking a lot about hunting and fishing, so that is kinda cool. We get along good, so things are going great.

What does he like to do?

Fishing. He lives by the ocean, so he goes spear hunting and collects sea food by hand and stuff like that. I thought that it is pretty cool.

Tell us about his family and how long he has been a member.

He was born in the church. His dad served his mission in the Central America Mission, like almost thirty years ago and he baptised his wife on his mission.

Where did Elder Carlos get transferred to?

Elder Carlos is now in Perdro Carbo. It is between here and Guayaquil.

How was your trip to the temple?

It was so good! I have forgotten so much. I can´t believe how much I had forgotten in a year. I can see now why it is so important that you go to the temple regularly, so that you can remember everything and learn more.

Where and what did you eat?

We ate in the temple in the cafeteria. It was rice with shrimp in a corn sauce thing and with a beet salad it wasn´t the best food I have ever eaten, but oh well. That is ok.

What special things happened that day?

We got presents from some of the temple workers. There was a pair of North American temple workers and a few here from Ecuador that went in together and bought all of the missionaries presents. They gave the gringos a pair of socks and a tie and a cool cover for a little hymn book. They gave the latins a shirt and a pair of socks and a tie. I thought that it was really awesome, so this Wednesday I am going to do an activity with the zone. We are all going to write as a zone, thank you notes and we are going to send them to the office to give to the temple workers. I thought that it was the least that we could do for them after the gifts that they gave us.

Did you have any baptisms this week?

No, we didn´t have any baptisms this week, but for next week we have a few planned.

How are your investigators progressing?

They are coming along. I hope we can get the permission of Luis´s parents, so that he can get baptised.

Who came to church?

We only had three investigators in the church. There is a pair of women that come just about every week, but they don´t want to get baptised yet. And we had a husband that came with his wife to church, the first time that they have come to church while I have been here. We are teaching him. She is a member, but they aren´t married and she was married before so we have a sister from Elder Felt’s ward that is a lawyer that is helping us with the divorce, so they can get married and then he can get baptised. So that is pretty cool. He is a police officer so we have a buddy in high places if we ever have problems.

Did you have a special Christmas program in church?

We had our program of carols in the church, last Saturday. That was pretty cool. We came up with a three scene play that we incorporated the carols into. The basic plot was that there was a single father that is a thief that wants to give his three sons a good Christmas, so he robs a pair of North American missionaries to sell their stuff to get money to buy his kids a good Christmas. So that is the first scene, that he robs the missionaries. (I was one of his accomplices that helped him rob the missionaries.) It starts out that a group of missionaries are singing in a park and that they sing a song and then they all start to leave and two missionaries stay to clean up. They had a little display with pamphlets and there is a pause and an old guy starts talking. The people keep moving, but without talking. He says that the guy sitting on the bench over there is him sixty years ago and that he didn´t have anything to give to his kids for Christmas and that he only wanted to give his kids a good Christmas. And that is where the action starts again and he robs the missionaries. He tries, but he was a lot smaller than the two missionaries, so he calls for help and that is where we, (me and another missionary), run out and help him to rob the missionaries. And then we run off stage and the missionaries are all sad and depressed and that ends the first scene.

The second scene is that he goes to a friend to sell the stuff and that is when he finds out that there is just books and pamphlets and nothing of "real value" so he says that he is going to burn the books and that is when the spirit or the audience prompted by script cards says Nooooooo and he pauses and says that he better find out what the book says. And that is when he opens the book and reads that Jesus will be born of Mary in Bethlehem and then all of the missionaries come out on the stage singing “The First Noel.” And then when we finish, he reads that angels speak to men and then we sang “Angels We Have Heard on High.” And then the choir left and he said that he was going to go show his kids the books, that they could change their lives. that is the end of the second act.

The third scene is in the house. The three kids are sitting on a couch in the house and the dad enters and the kids all have a negative attitude, that he just remembers that he has kids, that they don´t want to listen to him. He says that he has something that will change their lives and one says that they are thieves, that there isn´t change and that Christmas is just a material thing. The father then leaves and the kids go back to sitting and playing and then there is a knock on the door and one of the kids goes and answers the door and the missionaries enter without being asked and shake hands with the two other kids and sit down and start to teach the kids. The kids in shocked silence listen and then after about a minute of teaching, the father enters again and sees the missionaries and they all get quiet. And the father says that he wants to buy the book, because it is so good. They tell him that he can keep the book. He says thanks, but then asks them to explain more and he sits down and tells his kids that he told them that it could change their lives. That is where the play ends and the old version of the father stands up and says that that is how it all started, that he changed his life through The Book of Mormon and that everybody there could change their lives, too.

When and where did you sing the song you have been practicing? What song? Who else sang with you?

We practiced in District Meetings before and after, for three weeks and then a little bit before the activity on Saturday.

What plans do you have for Christmas day?

There is an activity in the church on Christmas, so we will go to the activity and hopefully someone will invite us to eat a Christmas dinner. If not, we will keep visiting people on Christmas.

Do you have any District or Zone activities planned this week?

No, we don´t.

Who is your new Zone Leader or Zone Leaders?

Elder Rojas and Elder Fonseca. He is from Bolivia and has a little more time in the mission than I do.

Tell us a spiritual experience you have had recently.

We are teaching a lady that is a widow. Her husband died four or five months ago. She is doing really good right now. She said at first she was depressed, but the missionaries helped her out a lot. Well the other day, one of the neighbors did something that she didn´t like, to her kid. I won´t go into details about what, it isn´t that important, but she was really mad and angry for what had happened and she doesn´t want to forgive her neighbor. Well I told her about what happened between you and (your friend) and that she still doesn´t want to accept all of the apologies and treats and things that you have tried to do to reestablish the friendship that had existed for so long. I started to cry telling her all of this. I told her how you were my hero, that all of the things that you did to repair what had happened and how even though you may have felt like you were right, you put that aside and tried to make things better. I cried. I could feel the spirit really strongly. I challenged her to try to forgive her neighbor for what had happened, that it really didn´t matter. A little incident like that shouldn´t be more important than the friendship that they had had before. She said that she would try, but she seemed to really accept what I had explained to her. I hope you aren´t mad that I used you as an example.

Has the fungus and athlete’s foot cleared up?

Yeah, it is clearing up and I am doing a lot better.

Are you healthy and happy?

Yep, I am doing great.

Do you need anything?

More jerky!

Hey Curtis. Great to hear from you. We are all home now. I will have dad get on and talk to you, too, while I am typing a reply to your email. It was great. Thanks. I am crying right now. It is fine that you used me for an example.

Will ten be ok to call on Friday?

Skyler said he could be here at 10:00, so that will work for us. We will anxiously await your call.

I am glad the name thing worked out with the Christmas stocking. I thought it was neat that your new companion's name was Elder Carlos Garcia. Is your old companion expecting to get the Christmas stocking? Hopefully he will not be too disappointed. He will be getting the set of scriptures when they arrive. You didn't open all the gifts yet, did you?

I think you are going to be short two of the little stockings for the Zone, so you and Elder Garcia will just have to go without. Sorry. It is a pain to keep the packages under four pounds.

If I planned things right, you should get a whole bunch more postcards this week in the pouch. Then a bunch more will probably trickle in over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy them.

In the photo that Hermana Gamboa sent, where is Elder Felt's companion? Is he right below him or below him to the left?

I am glad you and your companion are getting along great.

It is really cool that your companion likes hunting and fishing like you do. I am sure that makes it more interesting. You have something fun to talk about occasionally. I know Elder Carlos liked Chemistry, like you do, but that is not as exciting of a subject to talk about like hunting and fishing. Spear hunting sounds like something you would absolutely love. Maybe someday you can go visit him and get a chance to try it.

That is neat that Elder Garcia's dad met and baptized his mom while on his mission. It is interesting that he found someone in the Central America area that was from Colombia. How strange is that? It has been almost 30 years since dad was on his mission. Wow!!!

It is really cool that you got to go to the temple on Thursday. I thought about you being there, all day long. It is important to go often. We have got to do better this year. I am setting a goal to go at least once a month. I am finally past the point of remembering what I have to say at the veil, but occasionally I still mess up. I am now learning new things almost every time I go, so it is very important to us. I hope you will always have a desire to go to the temple. I have only eaten in the temple cafeteria a few times. The food has always been great. Yours sounds interesting.

That is really cool that the temple workers did something so very special for the missionaries. What a really neat service. I think it is awesome that you are going to write thank you letters to them. I think you should all write thank you cards to President and Hermana Gamboa also and maybe some to the office elders who do so much for the missionaries. Gratitude is something that everyone can work on more in their lives.

I hope your baptisms work out for this week. It would be really cool to be baptized on December 26th, a really cool Christmas gift. I am glad you are finding some new investigators. I hope you can get the divorce worked out while you are there, but those seem to take months from what I have read in other missionaries’ letters.

Your Christmas program sounds wonderful. I am glad you were able to do that. It is a fun story. I bet you will remember it all of your life. Hopefully it had an effect on someone that was there to see it.

I hope you will get a dinner invitation for Christmas. If not, find some way to serve others that day to make it special.

Thanks for sharing this very special experience with me. That is a wonderful gift to me. I hope it will help this sister to forgive her neighbor.

I am glad you are doing great. There should be a bit of jerky in your Christmas packages. Hopefully that will keep you happy for a little while.

We love you so much! Take care and talk to you soon. I love you.

P.S. When did you mail my photos?

That will work out then. Well, I love you all very much and I hope all is going well. I will talk to you all this Friday. I love you lots bye. Elder Goode

Elder Felt’s companion is the one right below him in the picture that is titled Portoviejo, Rios, Orquidias, Bobahoyo.

The elder that is all the way right and above a sister missionary from the states, is my step- brother in the mission or Elder Alcocers kid, Elder Ruiz from Costa Rica. If you look, Elder Carlos is below me in the picture. Not the one right below me, but the one below him.

Awesome Curtis. Thanks so much. I love you! Have a terrific week. Merry Christmas!
Love,
Mom