So appearently, I can email all you wonderful people as long as you don't live in Ecuador. Whether the rules have recently changed or whatnot, I don't know, but I'm not complaining.
Pday here for all zones is on Monday, annnnnd...
Oh my gosh Ecuador's so cool! (as was expected) After about 7 hours of flying, I was pretty darn happy to be here. Almost right after we got to our gate at the Mexico City airport, about all 10 or so of us were asked why we were all dressed up and stuff, and basically split into 2 groups and started teaching people at like 1am in the morning. I'm sure they were thrilled to have enthusiastic, crazy, adrenaline driven missionaries start talking their ears off when they were sitting there, half-conscious and in PJs. But it was all good. After our first flight we had a layover in Bogota, Columbia, and met some missionaries on their way to Venezuela, before finally meeting the Mission President (President Christensen) at the Quito airport. Then we pretty much crashed all day (we only had like 2-3 hrs of sleep) until dinner at his house that night.
On Wednesday we had classes all morning preparing us for what to expect in the field. Apparently, we're not allowed to go into basically the 1/4 part of the mission to the right, where the deep jungle is (Google "head hunters" and you'll see why). After the classes we got our new trainers. My companion's name is Elder Memmott, and he's hilarious, but also kind and easy to get along with. He's pretty cool, and I'm grateful to be assigned with him for the next 5 weeks as I figure out the mission life. I'm in an area of Quito (kinda like a suburb) called Los Chillos, and the Barrio (kinda like a suburb of a suburb) where we are assigned is called San Rafael.
Thursday and Friday were my first legitimate days as a missionary, in the field and all. One of the mornings I woke up and showered, and the water was just below 95328146 degrees Kelvin (yes I know that's impossible, but it was pretty darn frigid). But the rest of the day was pretty great. I accidently (unknowingly) said a bad word to the lady who gave us lunch (oops) (new language probs), had to make an Indiana Jones style leap when the bus started moving before I had the chance to get on *cue the theme song* and we contacted 19 people! (contacting is finding random people in the streets and introducing them to the Gospel) Apparently, that's just above the average daily goal of 15, but I felt proud of it.
Also, since there's tons of stray dogs and we thought we´d be attacked, we'd pick up rocks to throw (just in case) on our way to appointments. I found a stick larger than me, so basically I looked like a Mormon Gandalf, and was prepared to go all master Yoda on any dog who dared come near us. Or drunk guys. We came across a drunk guy (my first encounter with one ever) singing and crying and stumbling around. It was a little freaky, and we were nervous he'd try to tackle us or something, but we just ended up helping him pour out the alcohol he was holding and sent him home.
On Saturday we also taught a basic English class to the Ward members and investigators, and yesterday we (mainly Elder Memmott) taught a lesson in Priesthood about Family Home Evening. Right after church we had a baptism, and it was really awesome with a great turnout...I counted just over 60 people.
It´s kinda weird cause we went from the Texas summer w/ about 14 hours of sunlight, but since we're here on the Equator, we always have 12 hours of sunlight, so the sun rises at 6:30 am and goes down about 6:30pm. There´s also a lotta little things I'm adjusting to, such as how most of the Latin American countries have glass shards on fences rather than barbed wie, and you put your toilet paper in the trash, hand washing all my clothes, etc.
I thought I had Spanish down by the end of the CCM...Holy Cow it's not even funny how absolutely wrong that was. But since I've been here I've gone from understanding occasional words people say to being able to understand almost all if I focus hard, and usually give a basic reply. Much thanks is due to my awesome companion/trainer, but I also believe in the Gift of Tongues and that Heavenly Father blesses us when we strive to be diligent.
Love you guys! Have an awesome last few weeks of Summer!
Love,
Elder Stolle
No comments:
Post a Comment