When the Turkey Crows Everybody Goes‏

Hello!  Okay well uh I´ve forgotten everything I wanted to write and say so let´s just go with it yeah?

So the new toy looks really cool!!  By the time I get back it´ll be nice and worn in and I can go roadtripping in it to visit the ocean.  Enjoy!!  

Channing´s mission sounds cool.  Computer mission and teaching people on line sounds way interesting.  Different but it´d be an adventure.  I hope she don´t run into a few JWs while contacting buhaha.

Kelvin and Ann are already back from their mission??  Wow!  That must have been great.  Sounds like they did awesome.  I have nightmares of Russia but they went over there and opened up new doors by just being themselves.  There´s a lesson for me.

Tell Kyle (or Elder Bagwell) I said hello chum or whatevah rubbish they say oveah there.  

Kyle (or Elder McDaniel) is grubbing on McDonalds and I{m here in the jungle eating rice, bananas, and pig intestine.  What gives?  Where´s the justice in that?  I think it just means my wife will be more beautiful.  muuuuhahahaha

Okay now being serious.  So yeah the changes came and now I'm with Elder Morás from Mexico.  Mexicano!!!  He´s cool and has 7 months on the mission and is dying of heat here in Coca like I was when I got here.  I´ve just gotten used to sweating all the time and zig zagging the street looking for shade to walk in.  But the zone is different now, from everybody being dead, to everybody being young.  Ah the energy of youth!  Elder Sanders is the new DL in Lago and he´s from my group and draws like a beast.  He was going to work for Pixar but went on the misison.  He´s a funny guy.  The other new Elder is Ecuadorian and only has 4 months on the mision.  So yeah it'll be cool.

Oh we don´t have P Day today because Jeffery R. Holland is coming this Saturday.  WOOO!!!  I´ve had 2 dreams of that apostle macheting me (first for having dirty garments and second for not working hard enough) and now I´ll be able to receive the machete in person.  I´m excited.  He´s my hero.  But they were going to only have the zones of Quito go to the conference and us (the zones in the podunk) wouldn´t get the chance.  But President Ghent prayed and now we don´t have P-day so we don´t lose time when we go to travel to Quito.  So it works!!  I don´t mind.  I just will have to find some new clothes and gnaw on some juice cartons.  But it´s gonna be great.

Um, how much does protein powder cost?  I ask because I´m getting really thin with all this Ecuadorian heat, walking long distances, and rice.  I try to do ejercicio in the morning but I´m dead and I don´t have any muscle to tone anyway.  So maybe I could see if it costs less here or in the states and start drinking me some stuff so I don´t  too thin.  But just right.  Heck fatter would be fine with me.  But thinner is just a shame.  

But hey everything is going well down here.  I´ve been stressed up to mi garganta thinking about what I´m going to do with the zone but I´ve found real peace and confidence in the simple act of praying.  Not so much to change my situation but more to change me to be able to deal with the situation.  I was having dreams of looking frantically looking for investigators and inviting them to baptism and waking up in the night frustrated but then I was even praying in my dreams and now I feel like....YEAH!  Let´s go to work gentlemen!  And everything will work out alright.  Love needs pressure, well pressure makes diamonds.

But yes I´m doing great, hope you´re all doing good, I love the support, the comments, the humor, and just having a good family and friends.  Live is sweet and God is loving.  So carry on my dear friends!  Adios!

Mountains to Climb, People To Save‏

Hello!!  I am alive and well and all is fine but today were changes.  So I do not have any time to really talk but they closed a sector here in Coca and so my companion and I are the only ones working here and it´s just madness cuz now I have to cover the two sectors and it´s gonna be a crazy change I just tell ya what.  The Lord is always finding new ways to stretch me and make me better.  So we´ll see how this week goes.

Hope you´re all doing well and loving life and keep eating some beans!  Love you!  BYE!!!

Hello!

Hey so sorry if my letter offended Mom or something.  That wasn´t my intention!!!  I´m just terrible at explaining myself.  I would like mom to keep writing me but I would like to hear from you guys as well every week.  But if not just have somebody write me something!! haha  But yeah.  Sorry Mom!!!

But thanks so much for writing.  Lot of sick people dad??  That´s a bummer.  But I never understood how you could go out looking for hours for an arrow head.  It´s sheer madness!!!  But I guess after just sitting in zone leader council all day I just want to get out of there and you´re in an office all day for most of the week.  So it makes a little more sense to me now.  Hey but I have a question, what helped you in your leadership positions in the church??  Like what is something you would say is important to know or do?  I feel so awkward as a leader sometimes but I´m slowly getting better.  But what helped you?  But thanks for writing me dad!!  I love ya!

Hey Cambria I can tell you one thing write now.  If such a thing as a mature freshman girl exisits I´ll give you a $100 and my two front teeth.  It´s not possible sista!!  BUT BE CAREFUL OF SENOR BOYS!!!!! THE FIIIEEEENDSSS!!! Stay away from em.  They´ll talk sweet to ya but don´t listen.  Nada!!  

Hey right on with the blessing!!  I didn´t understand mine at first but now I´m seeing it being fufilled here on the mission.  So awesome that you felt like it was a spiritual experience.  LIVE IT!!  They´re so awesome.

But tell the high school teachers that Brett wants another scarf and some Mtn. Dew.  Naw.  But hey tell me how it goes!  Are you gonna do sports? 

But I gotta go tatter tot so keep me posted on what's goin down!

Si marchaís adelante con firmeza en Cristo‏

Hey Mom how´s it goin?

 

Yeah I heard of the shootings in Denver here in Coca.  The branch president´s wife told me.  They must think Colorado is goin to pot with all the fires and shootings and what not.  Or at least I do.  But that´s sad.

 

That´s awesome that Kyle is with a Colombian!  They talk so fast in Spanish.  But he´s talking English of course.  Tell Kyle to ask him what part is he from.  I kind of have an idea how Colombia is set up from talking with people here.  There`s literally about a million Colombians living in Ecuador.

 

Hey question, is Chase in Provo or Brazil?  He said he wasn´t sure.  I sent you a letter for him anyway.

 

Well Blake is going to be a new Mexican.  Awesome.  Maybe he´ll learn Spanish! That´d be great.  What is he doing anyway?  Tell him to write me.  I love that you write me about everything mom and I really appreciate your letters but I recall having 5 other members in my family.  But I guess that´s what I deserve for not writing Blake and just walking around the house with my ear phones in.  You sow what you reap!

 

I liked what you said Mom about sometimes we just need to do stuff.  That´s what I´ve been trying to focus on.  I´ve always kinda lived my life passively.  Never liked making decisions.  I couldn´t even choose what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas.  I´ve always gotten by with the minimal effort.  Heck I didn´t (or don´t) cook because I don´t even want to put forth the effort when I can just mix cereal and milk and start eating.  And the mission has helped me realize this weakness in me.  Elder Bednard talks a lot about how we´re meant to act, not just be acted upon.  So what happens when you live a life that´s just be a reaction, a small ripple of somebody else´s splash?  You get caracateral strength of a stack of cards!  You get the spiritual foundation of linkin logs!  So I´m super grateful for the challenges I´m going through right now as zone leader.  It´s helped me realize that it´s time to act and it´s time to take up the yoke and get to work.  We sometimes act as if somebody else is going to do our work for us, be it cleaning, studies, or missionary work.  But not anymore!  I´m going to start acting like it all depends on me.  So I´m excited for the future.  I want to change and the mission is going to help me do it as I focus on helping other people and remembering why I´m here in the first place.

 

So that´s what been kinda bubbling in my mind this week.  But it was a good week.  Hope this next one will be good for you!  Thanks for all you do, your example, and for the love you´ve shown.  I love you all, hope you´re great, and just keep on rockin!

 

Adios!

HOOOPLA!!!

Hello!

Wow you almost died!  3 rattlesnakes and Dad with a blazing barrell.  That´s crazy.  Good thing nobody got hurt.  Arrowhead hunting.... at least rattlesnakes would make it a lot more interesting for me anyway.

It´s already the celebration??  Why didn´t I get any photos of grandma's sandwiches and those mini wieners with BBQ sauce??  Mmmmm I´m hungry.  I miss food. But how was it?  That´s cool that they finally got a carnival with those wristbands.  How was the parade?  They're having a party here in Coca too this week.  Some kids just went buy blowing horns and everyone just started clapping their hands and dancing.  HOOOPLA!!!  

Hey that´s awesome that Blake got a job.  I hope he doesn´t start glowing in Los Alamos.  (But actually kinda do because that'd remind me of my Aladdin pajamas when I was 3).  Hope it works out for him.

Well this week was alright.  Went over to Lago Agrio, the part of our zone that´s 3 hours away and by the Colombian border.  My zone is split in two parts, Coca and Lago Agrio.  We have a district and 4 Elders here and a district and 4 Elders over there.  They all live in the same house and Lago has less than a year as a branch.  But on the second floor of a building they have a pretty nice chapel.  I like it anyway.  I just feel weird as a leader having to tell Elders what to do.  "Hey..... you guys should work more..... and get along....."  haha I just feel so awkward.  It's like we know we're here to work so let's do it!  And it's even weirder because 4 of them have more time on the mission than me.  But oh well.  I'm still learning.

We also found a family of 9 this week!  That was cool.  A appointment fell so we prayed and went looking for people and we find some ladies cleaning this piece of land with machetes.  "Ya need help??"  SURE!  OKAY!!  So we start wacking grass and trees and everything else green with machetes.  They gave us coke and then we set up a cita.  They're really cool.  Oh we also dug a well.  With shovels!  In rain.  It was work that just made you feel like a man and then they gave us this fruit that looks like a massive green bean but the fruit is white and hairy on the inside.  I like it!  So that was the week mas o menos.  Service, trying to help dying missionaries, and contacting!  And it was pretty sweet.  

The card is working!!  I bought stuff in the store to see if it was alright and yeah it's still good.  But how much do I have?  I'll keep track I swear :)

Oh I also sent a package to you guys.  But filled with letters I haven't sent for months.  And I lost some of the letters.  So if you could help me out sending some of those pleasseee..  thank you.

Well that's about it!  Sorry!  I'm just living the life down here in the jungle.  But make sure to do your family prayers, keep reading scriptures, and family home evening.  DO IT!! :)

Love you all.  adios