2009_06_08 Week 10 Mom

Dear Curtis,

I am asking lots of questions this week. I want lots of answers please. You have been in your new area for nine weeks now and I still don’t know much about it.

Where is your apartment in Valencia? You said it was about ten blocks from the police station. Is it in the middle of town, nice section, poor section, or what?

My house is four blocks from the main road that goes from Quevedo to the Mana. We live in the same street as the park that is in the middle of Valencia. The house is two floors. We live up stairs in half and another family, other members (the mom is one of our mamitas), lives next to us in the other half. Below in the first floor is the owners of the house. They aren´t members, but part of their family is members. The mom and sister of the wife are members. The mom is also one of our mamitas.

Describe your apartment. Main floor, upper floor?

We live in the upper floor.

How many rooms are there? What rooms?

We have three rooms or four. It depends how you count it. You will understand when I send the video of the apartment home. We have our bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, but the kitchen has a counter that separates it and the main room where we study, so three rooms, I guess.

Do you have a microwave? Toaster?

Yeah, we have a microwave, a toaster and a waffle iron, too.

Is it clean? Are you keeping it sanitary? Are you cleaning regularly?

Yeah, the house is very clean. We clean every pday. In the morning we get up the same time on pdays, but we have time in the morning, before ten, when we can leave to clean, so we clean everything every week.

What is Valencia like? How big? Compare to local cities near us.

Valencia is a little bit like West Yellowstone. If you remember, it has like one main road and then the rest is just houses. It is really quiet and peaceful here.

You said there are lots of fruit farms. Are they in town or all out of town?

All of the fruit farms are out of town. The people still have their banana tree in their house, but they all have their property in other places where they harvest all of their crops.

That news article said that there were 18 police officers hurt. Do all of those officers work in Valencia or were some from other areas?

I think that there are 8 police officers that work here in Valencia and then there were others from Quevedo and others from the Mana that came here to help out.

Has there been any more trouble in your sector because of the lynching?

No, there hasn´t been any more trouble. It has been really quiet and there haven’t been any more thieves or robberies either. I think the thieves are scared. I guess that is a good thing.

Do you still eat lots of chicken and rice or has your diet changed?

I am still eating a lot of chicken, but I am eating more beef now. The other day we ate lazania (lasagna) here. It was so cool. We are planning on Thursday to eat guine pig, so I will let you know next week how that goes. Elder Bartolomei was talking about eating iguana in his sector so I will ask him how that tastes, too.

Valencia seems to be much wetter than Balzar was. Are the streets always muddy? Do the storms come mostly at night?

Yeah, it rains mostly at night and we can only tell because the road is a little bit wet in the morning, but when the sun comes out it dries up quickly and you can’t tell that it rained.

Are your shoes and clothes holding up okay? Do you wear your boots now?

I haven’t had to wear my boots for quite a while now. Here in Valencia, the streets are just about all paved or they put little cement blocks together to make the roads a little bit like modern cobble stone roads, but they are just about level. My shoes and clothes are doing fine. I need to sew a few shirts and pants where the seams are coming undone, but nothing major.

Are there mosquitos and bugs?

Yeah, there are a few mosquitos and bugs, but they don’t bug me much, my companion they bug, but me, no.

Tell us more about your companion. You said he comes from a large family. Is he youngest, oldest, middle?

He is from Otavalo. He has a pony tail.

How many of his family still live in Otovalo? What do they do for a living?

They sell clothes that they make. That is why they travel, because they sell the clothes better in other parts than in Otavalo.

Why do they wear their hair in a pony tail? What is the significance?

It is their tradition. It is how they show respect to their parents. It is a disgrace to their parents if they cut their hair. It is like if I wanted to be rebellious and I grew my hair out and dyed it pink. I am showing that I am being rebellious. If they want to be rebellious, they cut their hair.

Why do they dress differently at Zone Conferences, all in white with slippers for shoes?

That is the customary fancy dress of the Otavalanios, so they are allowed to wear it here in the mission.

Who did he live with when he was in the United States?

I don´t know for sure.

How old is he?

He is 21.

What is his full name?

Francisco (I don´t know the other name and he won´t tell me either) Castañeda Arias

Are you getting along well? Are you working hard together?

For the most part, yes, we are getting along great, but he isn´t very excited to work, so I have been fighting the dilemma. Do I push him to work or do we work a little bit slower. I am worried that if I push him too much he will want to go back to his house again and not come back.

Tell us about the people you are teaching. How many? How are they progressing? Are any of them ready for baptism? Did you have any baptisms this week?

We are planning all of our baptisms this month for the twentieth of June. We have six people, but I think that the family of four that we are teaching won´t be ready. So we may have to postpone them for later, but we will see how it turns out this week and the next.

How are you coming on your goal to have five families who hold the priesthood and pay their tithing in La Mana?

Yeah, things aren´t going so good, but it takes time to find people that want to learn and want to go to church so we are working on it.

Have you contacted all of the people from your Day as a Missionary Activity?

Yeah, we are planning on doing it again July 11th to get more references.

Are you enjoying being a Senior Companion? Are you up to the challenge?

Yeah I think I am ready and the Lord knows that I am ready because if I wasn´t ready I would still be junior companion.

How are you coming on the Maestro?

I am working on it. I am going to take the written part this week during the interviews, so we will see how that goes.

Tell us about the members that help you the most with missionary work.

(No answer.)

What is the best thing that happened to you this week?

(No answer.)

What is the worst thing that happened to you this week?

(No answer.)

What is the funniest thing that happened to you this week?

(No answer.)

Have you had a Zone Conference lately? What did you learn?

Zone Conference is this Friday and interviews are on Thursday, so yeah I will tell you next week.

Did you get all three of the packages we sent? Was everything in good condition?

I received four packages last Wednesday and everything was in good shape. Thank you so much.

Is your testimony growing?

I am pretty sure that it is!

Are you happy and healthy?

Yeah. I now weigh 220 pounds. I am doing great!

Have you been to the bat cave yet? Tell us about it.

No. We haven’t been. Today we went to the seven waterfalls again.

Have you see anything else that is interesting?

(No answer.)

Well it is late again. Have a really great day. I hope to get a chance to talk to you, but that will probably only work later in the day. I love you forever.

Mom

Hey Curtis,

Thanks for the answers. It is nice to hear more from you. Did your companion leave once and go back to Otavalo? What other problems has he had? What are you doing to try to motivate him to work? Are you writing compliments about him to your mission president? That might help. If you tell the mission president that he is doing well, then hopefully the mission president will mention something to him in his emails that will make a difference. I am sure you were chosen for this challenge because the mission president thought you were up to it. He has given you a great compliment to believe that you have the power to turn this missionary around and help him to be successful. Keep trying and pray for inspiration to know what you should do to help him.

Are the mamitas that live near you the ones that feed you or the ones that do your laundry? It would be nice not to have to carry your laundry a mile across town.

Let us know how the guinea pig are. I would not be brave enough to eat them that way, but you have never been afraid of anything, so go for it and enjoy!!!

When Elder Castañeda started his mission, he started in Quevedo, but after three weeks he wanted to go home, so he told President Ridd that he wanted to go and President Ridd tried to talk him out of it, but he still wanted to go home. So he went. He was in his house for a month or more. I´m not for sure exactly how much time, but Elder Castañeda said it was more than a month. He wasn’t doing much in his house, sitting there watching TV and eating. After a while, I don´t know how much time, he wanted to come back to the mission. So he called President Ridd and asked him if he could come back and President Ridd told him to come. So President Ridd sent him back to the same sector with the same elder and he finished the second change in his mission and then he went to another sector for four changes with two different elders. And then to another sector for five changes with two different elders and then came here with me. So yeah, he isn´t very excited to serve. So I am trying to help him, but not push him.

The mamitas are for food. We changed our laundry mamita and now it is three blocks to the mamita, so not a lot to take our laundry.


Keep praying. When you pray together, pray for the incentive to work hard. If he hears you pray for him out loud, he will know you care about him and that he is not doing this alone. Be a good example for him. Push a little harder each day and a little harder each week. When you are back in the apartment, make sure you are still focusing on missionary minded things and not just idle chit chat or messing around. Let him know that you have a strong testimony of the gospel. We love you lots. We will pray for you both each time we pray. Maybe you could fast together for him to have a desire to work harder.

2009_05_04 Week 5 Valencia

May 3, 2009

Dear Curtis,

Hi! I hope you have had a really great week. Mine has been pretty good.

First off, we need to figure out how we are going to do your phone call home on Mother’s Day which is next Sunday, May 10th. Do you have a phone that you can call from?

Can you call me and then I can call you back on that phone?

I need to know the whole phone number with the country code. I have a calling card that I can use from this end. I could just call you if I knew the number and what time to call you.

We have church from 11:00 till 2:00. Clain is giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting, so we have to go. His topic is gospel principles taught to you by your mother. He is supposed to speak for five to seven minutes.

We would like to go to Cache Valley to visit Grandma Goode and Grandma Parkinson after church. I don’t think Michelle and Shara are coming down here. I have been trying to talk to Michelle all day to find out what she is planning, but she won’t answer my calls or texts. I am not sure what is up with her. I haven’t talked to her much this week. It was her last week of school, so she should be all done for a while.

Shara was called to be the Second Counselor in the Primary Presidency. She has to sing with the Primary Kids in her ward on Mother’s Day. Her church is at 9:00, but I still doubt she will come down after because she will have two mothers and four grandmothers to go visit that day and all but me are up there in Cache Valley.

Email back and let me know what will work best for you as far as time and how you are going to call. Do you have a calling card you can use?

Can you buy one if you don’t have one?

It might be good to get one with enough minutes in case I can’t call you back for some reason like last time. How long can you talk this time?

I put your tax refund in your bank account. I transferred $500 of it to your savings account because you get a little bit better interest rate on that account than on the checking account, but not by much. The rest is in your checking account. You have been using a lot of money again. Are you having to travel a lot in your new area? Did it cost you money to go to the Volcano and the Waterfalls?

Answer these questions first and hopefully we can email back and forth a couple of times today.

I love you so much and I am very proud of you.

Love always, Mom

Hey how are things? As far as the phone call we have a cellular in the house that we are going to use to call. What we are planning to do is buy a card that will put money in our account in the cell phone and then we can call. I am going to buy thirty minutes of time I think that will be enough, but I will check and find out more before I buy, so I buy enough. I think that this will be better and more sure than you trying to call me. I can only call on Sunday, but just about whenever you want me to during the day. What time will be best for you and what phone do you want me to call?

Okay. That will be great. I think it is probably best to call my cell phone then you will get me no matter where I am at. The number is 801-725-****. You could call at 3:00 or anytime after that. What time do you have church and what else do you have planned for that day?

We have church from 9 to 12, lunch at one and a meeting at two, so three thirty should work fine. Do you think it is possible that you could be with Skyler so I could talk to him, too? If not, that is ok. Tell him I am still waiting for a picture of him and his fiance. Do you want me to call three thirty my time or your time? There is an hour difference right now.

We can try to get Skyler to come down, but with Mother's day he may be busy. 2:30 or 3:00 our time would be better so we could go up to Cache Valley after, but will that give you enough time to finish your meeting? If not, what time works for you?

I will talk to Skyler about the picture. He was supposed to email it to me so I could email it to you. I guess he forgot. Being in love can make you do things like that.

How has your week been? Tell us about your area, your companion, your investigators and your site seeing trips please.

Three or three thirty my time which is two or two thirty your time will work for me.

Okay. Make it 2:30 my time so we will have time to get home from church. Clain might be really long-winded and make the meeting go over. Ha Ha!

Ok that will work. I will call two thirty your time. I will get back on later today to answer your questions.

Okay. I love you lots. Take care.

Later . . .

I got a really cool photo of you today from Elder Bartolomei's mom. It has Elder Felt, Elder Williams, Elder Bartolomei and you just outside a chapel door. It is an awesome photo. Where was it taken? When?

She sent me another one last week that had Elder Neyra, you, Elder Bartolomei and another guy all hanging on to trees and branches as you climbed down a muddy hill. I am guessing it was when you went to see the waterfalls. I don't think the other guy in the yellow shirt is Elder Bartolomei's companion because she sent another photo of Elder Bartolomei with his companion in front of the same waterfall you sent me. In that photo, his companion is wearing a different shirt. Who is the other guy in the yellow shirt? Who went with you to the waterfalls? Tell us more about it.
Do you have more photos? Tell us about it.

Tell us about the baptisms you have had in Valencia. Names? Dates?

Tell us about the investigators you are teaching now.

Tell us more about your companion. What is he like? Do you get along? What are his favorite things to do? What do you really like about him? Did he know any of your other companions? How long has he been a member? Tell us about his family.

Tell us about your apartment.

I mailed two packages to you on Tuesday, April 28th. They have paper copies of the Conference Talks in English. The Spanish versions weren't out yet. I will send you an Ensign and Liahona as soon as they release them in a couple more weeks, I think. The package has a USB jump drive. On the drive there are a bunch of photos that we have taken since you have been gone. I thought you might want to look at them. I will try to print a few of them and mail to you with the next package. You can delete the photos to make room to store backups of the photos you take. There are also mp3 and mp4 files of the conference. I hope you are able to load them onto your ipod so you can listen to them and watch the videos if that is allowed. If not, just delete the video ones. I also put the music on there. You may have to dump some of the music that is on there or the old conference talks to make room for the new ones. Some may be the same. I think there are talks from three conferences there.

I told you earlier that I would put in an 8 GB SD card. I didn't put it in. It was acting weird and I was afraid you would use it and then not be able to pull up the photos after you took them. I put in 4 new 1 GB SD cards for you.

Let me know if there is anything else you need. I will be sending another package in a couple of weeks with the Ensign and Liahona.

Braxton has been running track. He ran the 1600 meter (mile) race the first week in 6:19:8 He was 34th out of 54 runners. The second week he ran the 1600 in 6:12:60, so he got faster. He was 15th out of 38 runners. He has another track meet this week on Friday. He is going to get even faster. I think he is doing great for a 7th grader running against 8th and 9th graders.

I love you so much and I am so proud of you. You look really great in that photo. You look so happy and healthy. The fruit and rice must be agreeing with you.

Love,
Mom

Hey how are things going? I’m back on to answer your questions. First about my sight-seeing trips. We went first with Elder Bartolomei and his companion Elder Gabino to the waterfalls. We also brought along our ward mission leader Claudio. He is the one in some of the photos you have seen. Claudio had been to the waterfalls before so he knew the way, so it was much easier for us.

Elder Goode at the Waterfalls near La Mana

My sector is big. Here in Valencia it starts at a place called the Esperansa or the Hope in English and ends in the Mana. We also have a place called the Berhel and a place called 6 de Agosto or the 6th of August. We are working mainly in the Mana to help start the church there. We had one baptism. His name is Hector. He just turned 18 and he is doing great. We are planning another baptism for this Saturday. His name is Oscar. He is 16 years old. His mom and dad are members, but his dad died about two and a half months ago.

That is great! If you have more time, tell us more. Has it been raining a lot on you the last two weeks? I have a weather site on the internet I have found and it says you should have had 6 inches of rain two weeks ago and about 4 inches last week. Is that right or is this site giving me the wrong information?

No, the sight is correct. We are getting rain here mostly in the night, but it is raining a lot when it does here. We are getting lightning and thunder, too.

The picture that Elder Bartolomei’s mom sent you was taken last Tuesday in the Zone Conference. We are only missing Elder Smith to have all of our district together in the same place, but Elder Smith is in Duran still, in his first sector. I talked to him during the transfers in Guayaquil. He’s doing good and loving the mission.

Here in Valencia we are working with a lot of references. We are contacting about ten to fifteen a week and right now we have more than twenty that we have received that we need to contact. For the most part, the references are in the Mana that is where we are working the most, because the Bishop wants to form a branch there to make it easier for the members, so they don’t have to travel a half an hour to church every Sunday. So this is what we have been doing, contacting lots of people to find five families in the Mana that are members and are paying their tithing. That is the most important, that they have priesthood in the families and that they are paying tithing.

That is awesome. I am glad you are making a difference. Five families doesn't seem like a lot, but it will be enough to give them a good start. Keep working hard at it. I am sure you will find them or help them to get the priesthood and start paying their tithing.

How is your memorizing coming along? Your deadline is coming soon.

When you can, send more photos.

Have you heard any more about Elder Fewkes? Whenever you can, take photos with all the other missionaries you know. Try to do a photo with all of your companions so far if you are ever all together in one place.

Elder Fewkes had some health problems here in the mission, so he went home, got it all figured out and right now he is serving in Idaho Spanish speaking. But when our transfer comes, he might get the chance to come back to Ecuador to serve. That is what we are hoping, but let’s see what happens.

I think that it will be a little hard to get all of my companions together because Elder Alcocer is going to leave here for his house on the 8th of this month, so I think that is Friday, so he doesn’t have a whole lot of time left in the mission. I did get a photo with him the other day in the Zone Conference though. I talked to Elder Bejar in the terminal in Quayaquil for a little bit. He is now district leader in Pasquales doing good. He has six months left before he goes back to Peru, too. Elder Neyra is in the same group of missionaries as Elder Bejar. He came to Ecuador with Elder Bejar and he will leave with him in October.

I was afraid you wouldn't be able to get them all together before he left. I guess that is okay. You will always remember them anyway. Gather the ones you can whenever you get a chance.

I do hope Elder Fewkes gets to come back to Ecuador, but I guess it won't matter as long as he is serving the Lord. I am glad Elder Bejar is doing great. That is neat that he is a District Leader now.

Tell me more about Elder Neyra and about your scripture memorization. And make sure to say goodbye before you get off today.

Elder Neyra is from the center of Lima, Peru. His family consists of his mom and dad and eleven kids. He has 8 brothers and 2 sisters. He is the youngest of all of them. Elder Neyra likes to play guitar and sing. He loves my Ipod and he is trying really hard to take advantage of the fact that he has a gringo for a companion to learn English, so I am talking a lot of English with him in the house, so he can learn it. Elder Neyra likes to be in style and in fashion. Some of his brothers live in the states in New York, so he has a bit of an American style, but he still has his Latin style, too. Elder Neyra likes to joke around. All of his brothers are bigger than him, so he has a little bit of the attitude like I do that we are big and bad and that no one can hurt us. You know what I mean.

He sounds like fun. I am glad you are enjoying your time together. Just be really careful, even though you are big and bad. There are still things like guns and knives that can hurt you. Always be obedient so you will be protected. Maybe you will get to see Elder Neyra after your mission. He may decide to come to the states, too.


Send us more photos when you can. I love to see you. Send us a good photo of Elder Neyra. I have the one you did with the multiple exposures and the one on the muddy trail, but I want a good close up shot of him.

How is your memorizing coming?

What did you learn at your Zone Conference?

Ya! I know that there are still things that can hurt us. My memorization is coming along slow, but sure. The Zone Conference was about obedience to the rules of the mission. It was good.


Well I gotta go. I love you lots. I’ll talk to you Sunday at two thirty your time, three thirty my time. Bye.


I love you, too. I am so excited to hear your voice on Sunday. Be careful and remember who you are.


Love always and forever,
Mom

2009_04_20 Week 3 Valencia Mom

Hey! How is it going. Sorry we didn´t get to the cyber in the morning. We went to some waterfalls with Elder Bartolomei and his companion, Elder Gabino. The waterfalls are in my sector. There are seven waterfalls that are one after another. It is really cool. We took a lot of pictures and had a lot of fun.

That is neat. I saw some photos of some waterfalls on Google Earth. I wondered if you would get to go see them. I am glad you did. How has your week been? Did your baptism work out?

Yeah. My baptisms didn’t work out this week, but we are working on it. Here are some pictures.

What is the name of the place where the waterfalls are?

Mountain Mana. The waterfalls are called the Chorreras of the Mana. I gotta go. I love you very much.

Curtis only managed to send us one photo of the waterfalls.

This is a map of the Sector where Curtis is serving. La Mana is actually in the Quito mission, but La Mana is isolated by the mountains, so Curtis's sector crosses into the Quito Mission to pick up this area.

Google Maps had this map of the terrain in the area. There are photos placed on the map of some of the waterfalls that Curtis talked about. I would assume the water is flowing from South to North on this map or down out of the mountains towards La Mana.

These links have additional photos of the waterfalls taken by a visitor who posts as spektrumkry on Panoramio.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13306672

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13306696

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13306738

2009_04_20 Week 3 Valencia Dad

Dear Curtis How is everything going? Did you have any baptisms this week? How many investigaters do you have? What are your plans for the rest of your P-day?

Kavin brought Grandma and Grandpa back from Arizona late Saturday night, so I took them to Smithfield yesterday. I have got therapy on my back tonight at 6:00, so I will have to hurry when I get home taking care of the birds. Clain went paint balling Saturday with Skyler up Farmington Canyon where you and Skyler used to go. There were six that went. He had fun.

What time are you going to be back on later? Write me back and I will send another reply. I Love You,
Love Dad

Hey! How is it going. Sorry that I didn´t write earlier. We went today to a set of waterfalls that are in our sector. There are seven waterfalls that are in a row. We hiked up above the waterfalls and then we hiked down the waterfalls. It was really cool. We went with Elder Bartolomei and his companion, Elder Gabino. (He is also our District Leader.) It was awesome! After we got done, we missed the bus to go back to Valencia, so we had to walk and hitchhike back to the main road and then we took the bus. It was pretty amazing. I´ll try to send some pictures before I get off.

That sounds like fun. I have got to go to therapy so I will check back later.