Shrimp, Fish and Octopus, but no Iguana

This is last week's letter that I didn't get posted until today. We did not hear from Curtis today. I know they were having Zone Conferences this week with Elder Eduardo Gavarret, the first counselor in the Presidency of the South American Northwest Area Presidency. I don't know which day the Portoviejo Zone will have their conference. I also know that this week is Carnival a big celebration in Ecuador where they throw lots of water balloons and get everyone wet. President Gamboa has asked that the missionaries stay in their apartments during the afternoon hours for a few days till Carnival is over.

Week 15 Portoviejo

So, how is it going today? I am on a little later than usual. We went to Manta and bought fish, well fish and shrimp and some octopus, too. We bought four pounds of shrimp which is about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and fifty somewhere in there shrimp that are about three to four inches in length. They cost almost fifteen dollars for the shrimp. We bought four pounds of octopus for four dollars and paid a guy a dollar to clean it all up good. In four pounds, comes five arms that are about a foot and a half long and start about two or three inches in diameter. And lastly, the fish, we bought about twenty five fish for five dollars. They are about eight or nine inches long and about six inches tall and they are really thin like a half an inch or three quarters maybe an inch thick at the widest point. We also paid another guy a dollar to clean the fish, so we spent somewhere between twenty and twenty five dollars and bought a lot of seafood for the rest of this change. I think that later we are going to clean the shrimp. We have to peel them and cut the veins out of them and then I think we are going to bread them and fry them. I am excited it should be good with some rice and beans.

Well, we didn´t have our baptism. We couldn´t find Luis´s dad when he was sober so we didn´t get permission for the baptism, but we have hope for this week.

President is in a really good mood lately. I like him like this a whole lot better. When I called him yesterday to ask for permission to go to Manta to buy the fish, he was in good humor and actually joked a little bit. I had asked to go last Monday, but we couldn´t go, so we decided to go this Monday. So I called and asked for permission again and he said that he had given me permission for last week because last week’s fish were good and that this week’s fish weren´t any good so he said no. And I was like no, President and he started laughing and told me to go and buy all of the fish I wanted. But he also said jokingly that I was forbidden to buy Iguana, so I playing along with the joke said, but President they sell really good iguana there
and he just laughed and told me to have fun, but no Iguanas. So ya it was kinda interesting. He seems to be happier and I think it is because we are going to have an area seventy come for our zone conference this change so that will be really cool.

Oh yeah, last night Hermana Gamboa called me and asked me about something that I had bought a few weeks ago. We have to send our receipts to the office so that Hermana Gamboa can see what we are buying. So she called and asked me why I had bought a seat. That is what the receipt had said. She asked me if I had bought a chair or something for the house, which I hadn´t and she asked me what the seat was, so I had to explain that the seat was a toilet seat and that I was fixing the broken one that was in the house. And then she was really happy with me and told me thank you for fixing the things that were broken in the house and that all missionaries should be like me and take care of their houses and not just live with their stuff broken. So that was kinda cool, too. I was kinda surprised when she called, but it turned out ok.

So everything is going good here. I am doing good and we are hoping to have a baptism this weekend. We have hope, but let’s hope that we can have permission, too. Well, I am going to send this letter off and then write president and then see if there is a reply.

I love you lots!
Elder Goode

The lady that we were teaching hasn´t been home much lately she still lives here, but she is having some construction done on her house and it is hard to find her there at all, so we are going to keep trying, but I don´t know if we are going to have much luck. The two friends of Luis have kinda gotten lost. We aren´t having much luck finding them either. One of them moved and we don´t know where his new house is. It is in our sector, but I don´t know where and the other one works all day and when he is home he is tired and doesn´t want to listen to us, but we are trying as hard as we can. I just hope we can find the one and that we can get through to the other one, too. I will have to talk to Elder Parkinson and ask him what happened if his mom said anything about a letter from you or maybe the email is wrong I will get it again and send
it to you in this email. Let me go ask him.......................ok I am back. He said that his mom didn´t say anything about getting a letter from you. Here is her email again. I am pretty sure that it is the same one that I gave you last time, but check anyways. ronikki7@aol.com

Well, I hope that this letter will answer your questions. If not, send me another letter quickly I don´t have a lot of time left.

Love,
Elder Goode

You never seem to have a lot of time. What happened to the 45 minutes you were supposed to have for emailing home? I think that is the address I sent it to. I will double check and maybe try another short one this week.

Are you finding any other investigators to teach. You don't seem to be having much success in this area, yet other missionaries who have served in Portoviejo say it is a great area with lots of baptisms. What can we do to help you more?


Well I should have an hour to write to you guys, but I always spend the first half an hour reading all of the emails and then I write the letter to you and then to President and then I write back to you guys. Well, I gotta go. I am hungry and there are shrimp to peel, so I love you lots.

Bye!
Elder Goode

Just pray for me a lot and it should be enough. Make sure that dad sees the letter I wrote to Skyler. It is pretty funny.

Bye!
Elder Goode

Maybe I should start writing much shorter letters so you will have time to write longer letters!

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!

Knocking Doors in Portoviejo

Curtis is now serving in a city called Portoviejo. It has a population of 250,000 people. That is a little larger than Salt Lake City without all of it's suburbs. It is about 30 kilometers from the Ocean. Raising coffee and cattle and fishing are important industries. It was founded on March 12, 1535 and is one of the oldest cities in Ecuador and the sixth largest city in the country.

Week 3 Portoviejo

Hey! So how are things going? I am doing good. So tell Clain congratulations on his first date. I am proud of him. That is a big accomplishment. But make sure that he understands that she went to all of the trouble to ask him so now he owes her the favor to ask her to the next dance.

Things are going good here. I have done two baptism interviews already for Elder Rojas and Elder Turley, the Zone Leaders. Elder Rojas came with me from Quevedo out here to Portoviejo. I didn´t get to go to the Leadership Conference. It was just the Zone Leaders. A while back the district leaders got to go, too, but that didn´t happen this time, just the Zone Leaders. But you know what everybody is saying, that the next change I am going to be a Zone Leader. All of the elders are saying this. I don´t know, but I have seen a trend recently with a lot of elders that end up Zone Leaders. They get sent to a sector for one change to be District Leader and then the next change they get changed to another sector to be Zone Leader. This happened with Elder Bartolomei and with Elder Rojas, so maybe it will happen with me, too. I don´t know. Everybody says that it is going to happen, but I don´t know. They also say that if I end up staying here in this sector, that I will train the next change. So let’s see what happens in the next month.

With Elder Carlos, we have been knocking a lot of doors and finding lots of new people to teach. When I got here, there wasn´t a whole lot of people that they were teaching. They had baptised a lot of people here. In his three changes here, Elder Carlos has had 15 baptisms. So right now we are working really hard to find more people and help the ones that we are teaching to commit to be baptised and then to follow through with it.

I had an interchange with Elder Rojas here in my sector and we had an awesome day finding new people and teaching the ones that we already had. I am very proud of myself in less than two weeks I am able to go anywhere in the sector that I want without getting lost. I am still having problems remembering where all of the houses are, but I know the majority of them. Elder Rojas is really cool. He is from Mexico City, Mexico. He has 18 months in the mission and he only had one change as a district leader before he subed to Zone Leader. So this is his second change as a Lider in the mission.

Hey Elder Carlos just asked me if you could send him a triple combination in Spanish with his name on the front, one of the nice ones with the index on the sides and everything. He wants you to put Élder Moises Carlos on the front of it with the little accent mark on the E of Elder if they can. I told him you are sending the bible but he really wants the triple. I don´t know if you can do that or not. If he isn´t here when it gets here, I can send it to him through the pouch and he will get it.

So you wanted to know what new foods we have been eating here. I have eaten now a lot of breaded and fried fish. I love it so much! They give it to you filet and without the bones and it is so good. I have eaten a ton of cerviche. It is a little like a soup, but it isn´t. It has fish or shrimp or just about whatever type of seafood that you want in it and then they boil it in water. And after that, they put in lime juice and a little oil and onions and then you put in ketchup and mustard to your liking and you eat it with platano frito, not patacones. It is like potato chips from platano and with rice. It is so good! You can also put in a little hot sauce if you like. I usually put a little in, but my Mexican and Peruvian compatriots put in a ton of hot sauce.

I am still waiting for the day when I will get to eat octopus and we are planning, me and Elder Rojas to go and hunt an iguana and eat it, too. So I should have a story about an iguana hunt one of these weeks for you. Other than that, the food is about the same. Like yesterday, I had rice and beans with the breaded and fried fish with patacones, so it is a lot like Quevedo. There just isn´t as much platano out here.

Well, I really hope that things are going well for you guys out there in the states. Things are going good here in Portoviejo and I am having lots of fun living four in the house. That is really cool. We all cook separate in the night and in the mornings, so ya, it all works out. Well, I gotta go. I love you lots! Bye.

2009_02_16 Week 17 Balzar Clain

Clain wrote on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:30 a.m.

Elder Goode,

Hi curtis how are you doing?

I am doing good buddy! Don´t worry about me.

Have you killed any more mice yet?

No. Last Monday I killed two, but there haven´t been any more in our house, so i haven´t had any to kill.

Have you seen any lizards?

Just the geckos that sometimes enter the house and a few iguanas, one about three feet long.

What is the weirdest food you have ate so far?

Cow udder

What do I need to do to get ready for my mission?

Study preach my gospel, especially chapter three, the sections. They are extremely important and learn how to cook.

Have you eaten Iguana?

No, I haven´t yet, but my companion has and he says that it tastes like pollo (Chicken).