Where were they going without ever knowing the way?‏

Hello my mother!

 

Yeah about the birthday message.... I told her your birthday last year in September but I forgot to correct it....MY  BAD!!  haha  But don´t worry I´ll remember from here on out.  I´m just lost sometimes!

 

Oh I´ve never thought of oatmeal.  That´d explain why I got so fat in Quito... I could try that!  I do have milk here so if you do send protein powder I could just mix it with milk.  That´s easy.  Um I haven´t looked for shirts yet but I doubt they´d have them here.  If you could send some three or four that´d be nice.  I´ll buy suitcases here hopefully today.  Well according to everybody else it´s perfectly legal to send shoes here.  My companion received tennis shoes from Mexico and Elder Bloxham as well.  I bet if you put enough Virgen Maria stickers on the box it´d be fine.  But I haven´t heard anything about that rule.  I could start asking around.

 

And about garments I didn´t even know that you sent me garments!  I never got anything.  There must be some Guatamalan walking around in them in the street thinking he´s strutting the latest fashion. 

 

Um what else?  Socks!!  I bought socks here a couple of weeks ago and they already have holes.  What the blazes.  I´ll have to look for some new ones.  Cheap kleenex would have been better than those pieces of grumble mumber.esghslh.....

 

Other than that we`re alright I guess.  I´m suriving.  And I´m happy!  So I´m doing alright!  I sleep with my matress on the floor, my bathroom has 2 glass doors (a man can´t even shower or sit in the bathroom in peace!), but my neighbors gave me roasted banana last night so I´m happy!  It was so strange.  I got done with the verfication of the week (oor uh. weekly verification?) and then sat down with my glass of boiled water and a roasted banana and the song that came to my head was "and I think to myself, what a wonderful wooorld".  Coca is amazing to me.  I´m now used to the heat (or just used to sweating) and I like it a whole lot more than cold, dry wind!  I love the jungle!  I love the personality of the people!  I love not living in the city but being able to walk down dirt roads and being able to see the stars at night.  The zone is doing pretty well, Lago will have 3 baptisms this week and we´ll have 1.  The next week we´re hoping to have 6 baptisms.  That´d be 17 baptisms in the month of September with just 2 companionships!  I don´t know how it happened but I what I do know is that it´s a blessing from the Lord.  It´s nothing that my companion or I did, but really the mercy of a loving Heavenly Father.  The Holy Ghost touched the heart of everyone of these people and now they´re ready to be baptized.  I hope they let me stay here one more change so that I can keep seeing the miracles.  But I think I must be enjoying myself too much so it´s time for the Lord to take me to another corner and start stretching me and shaping me again.  I dunno.  We´ll see what happens this Sunday.  

 

But hope the week goes well, thanks for the help, I´ll try looking for the things that I need and I´ll tell you if I don´t find anything.  I love you guys and we´ll see each other next week! 

Happy Birthday Sister Jackson!‏

Dear Sister Jackson,

 

Happy Birthday from the Quito Ecuador Mission!

We love Elder Jackson and we are grateful to serve with him in this great work.   Elder Jackson is a hard worker and respected by the other missionaries.  He is respectful and always wears that great smile of his.  Photos make a lovely birthday surprise.....even a few days late(whoops)!  Thank you to you and your family, we appreciate the support and sacrifice of the families of our missionaries.

Con carino,

Hermana Ghent

If you give Quito a hour...‏

Hola mi senorita mamita carinosita lupita coloradosanitario..... I forgot what I was gonna say.  I don`t it`s age mom.  It`s hereditary!

Okay!  Well the rule change to having an hour of internet again.  HOOPLA!  But now I`m used to saying practically nothing so I guess we`ll just keep it that way (buwhaha).  Well sounds like a good week.  Felicidades to Grandma Dola!

Is Cambria liking volleyball?  How`s high school?  Does she like it it?  How are those senor bums?  Tell Mrs. Muniz I`m still waiting for her to come party in Ecuador.

Well....the Broncos are dead to me.  I`ll be waiting in the REAL fan zone like the father to his prodigal son.  They`ll come back.  They always come back :)

Okay well this week was...bloohooodooo.  We left to Quito Monday.  We had our zone leaders conference Tuesday.  They made me stay.  Wednesday I had to renew my visa.  Saw my old companion Elder Bloxham!  Good guy.  Then I came back here to Coca Thursday early in the morning.  We worked from 10 to 4:30.  Then we found out we had to go to Puyo, also in the oriente but 6 hours to the south.  So we go running to the bus stop, and the bus was full.  So we talk to another bus man and he says there`re seats!  But the bus is going to leave at 5.  It was 4:55.  So we jump in a taxi, run up the flight of stairs, and throw everything into a bag, grab my suit jacket, and we`re out the door again.  We show up, the bus already left, so we run to the terminal.  The bus just barely left.  We run around the corner, THE BUS!  We take off running in the street after the bus ,people yelling GO GRINGO!  And we finally catch the bus.  Wheeeew.  I sweated like a fat man in a sauna.  Then I bought myself a chocolate.  So we arrive in Puyo at 11 at night and we sleep.  The next morning, leader`s meeting with the assistants and President Ghent and then we`re headed back home.  We get home at 8:30.  Saturday we had a baptism.  We hadn`t taught the poor lady the whole week!  It`s a miracle she was baptized.  But she`s awesome.  She`s called Patricia Chang.  So right now I have no food, no clean clothing, I can`t even remember where I`m at, yet I`m happy.  Oh then I got the call last night that they were going to close one of our sectors in Lago Agrio because there aren`t enough missionaries in the mission.  So my zone, once of 8 missionaries, is down to 4.  That`s what happens when Brett takes over!  We`re not a zone, we`re a district!  But hey it`s alright.  We`ll just keep on working like always :)

So that was my week.  A whole lot of bus rides.  They put on a video on the bus of just pure music videos in English.  America media is the chains of the devil.  It`s pure trash!  

Hey mom, I think I´m gonna be doing some shopping.  My shoes have almost as many holes as my socks.  My suitcases have lost their tires.  My shirts have a permanent black stain in the arm pits.  And I don`t have any money because of the trips so I think I might also be buying some food this week with the card.  So that`s the heads up!  Sorry that I have to spend so much.

But thanks mom for everything!  I love you!  Tell everybody hi!  Tell me if there`s something I need to do better.  Chao!

On The Road Again‏

Well hello!  First thing first, Hey Blake!!!  I remembered your birthday!! I celebrated it with a strawberry smoothie that you didn´t enjoy!  But rock on my brother!  I´ll look for something from the oriente you might like to send as a gift.  Pero feliz cumple años y suelta el FUUUAAA!! (look that up by the way)

Well sounds like things are picking up again in the San Luis Valley.  Cambria with school and sports.

Wow Laren is gonna be a daddy.  That´s insane!  He can´t go running around playing football or peg us with crab apples if he´s got a baby in is arms!!  Well I guess he´s dead now. Fatherhood is the tombstone of young adult adventures.  But send my congrats!  And just throwing this into the idea bowl, Brett is a preeeety good name for a child.  Or Thor. If you name your kid Brett Thor Helms he´s just destined for success and happiness.  But that´s just me.

Hey Dad looks pretty good!  Joven!  Tuco!  Libre!  Un león mirando su reino, que es todo lo que la luz toca.  Keep up the good work my Father!

Kyle is teaching a Portuguese Spaniard about the Gospel.  AMEN HALELUJAH MY BROTHER!!  If you want investigators that just rock your world, teach a latino.  I´m even excited for him and I´m over here in the sweaty underbelly of the world.  Woohooo!  Go Elder Bagwell!

But anywho this week was alright.  I have to go to Quito AGAIN!!!  I leave at one.  But such is the life.  No use cryin about it.  But this week was awesome.  We baptized 4 Saturday!  Familia Garcia!  They´re really special to me.  We found them doing divisions last change, when I was working with Elder Cornejo.  We prayed before contacting and then we came to their house and then the grandma came out and said "We don´t want anything!  We believe in the Virgen and you don´t and we don´t want to hear anything!"  Whoaaa... rough start.  So I thought well...this is worth a shot.....

"Of course we believe in the Virgen! She´s the mother of Jesus!  And we´ve come to share a message about Jesus Christ and how you can receive more blessings in your life!"

"Come on in"

So it was really awesome to watch them change and have the spirit help them.  We´re still working with 3 other members of the family.  Patricia will be baptized next week and Santiago the next and Jazmin... ya mismo.

BUT I gotta go so I love you all choa stay good I´ll talk later!  BYE!  

Hewhoa

Hey I am ALIVE!!!
Ya know, sometimes you put the Apostles in such high regard that you think their very breath would peel your skin.  That's what I thought with Jeffery R. Holland.  I thought he was gonna come rolling in like volcanic thunder and then send 12 legions of heavenly angels screaming repentance with such intensity that I´d instantly burst into sparkling ash with nothing but a tie and an echo of "ooooo" as evidence that I ever existed.  But it didn't turn out that way! He's actually a pretty funny guy :)

President Ghent started the conference saying, "Well, this can be the last conferance for some of you.  You had time to repent, but now it's too late."  Geez.  Then Jeffery R. Holland came and he looked kinda cranky.  Oh dear.  Then we all shook his hand.  Buenos dias. Then they started, Elder Juan Uceda shared his testimony and it was awesome.  The general authorities have a way of making Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Restauration more than just words and ideas but you can actually see them as if in person.  It's amazing.  Then Sister Maines talked then Elder Maines talked about the Holy Ghost and todo eso.  Then Jeffery R. Holland started.  My underpants felt the chill of liquid nitrogen then burst into shards.  He told us that he loved us that we was glad he was here with us and then started talking about the importance of mission work.  He told jokes, he laughed, he tried to scare a sister missionary, he pretended to punch the assistants in the face.  Huh.... whuttya know.  He then talked about how we need to use the Book of Mormon and showed us some scriptures and shared his testimony.  

He talked more about our conversion than converting investigators.  He said we need to be more persistent and determined than Avon ladies.  Every time he walks out the door there's one there.  And they're only selling mascara!! So it was actually really good.  I loved it.  It taught me a lot about being a leader and how I should handle things.  If they need to get better, show them how, don't just tell them how terrible they are!

But last monday was uuuuuu a rough one.  We wrote the family then went off to work.  It was the hottest day of my life.  We were contacting and looking for families and I felt my hair crisp and turn into curly fries.  I sweated my body weight.  But we kept on fasting!  Then some investigators gave us Gatorade.  We hold on to that knowing it'd come in handy afterwards.  By the time we got to the house at the end of the day my lips were dying fishing gasping for water before giving up on life and shriveling up like raisins. 

We planned and then we decided to go to bed.  I showered and tried to wash the heat off my body but looks like it stained into my skin and in my throat.  So we slept.  Then I woke up at 12 dying of thirst and dying of heat.  Cuuuurssseesss.  I tried to sleep and I tried and I put my head under the sink and then tried to sleep again but it was terrible.  I opened the fridge and then the light shown on a glass bottle....Gatorade.....noooo. I closed the door and tried to sleep.  I heard voices.  "Siga ayundando y los lamanitas abrirán su corazon." "You'll need the self control, bigger things are ahead." I couldn't take it!!! I had to go get the Gatorade.  "Ya rompiste el ayuno en tu corazon." 

So I sat there with my Gatorade then asked my comp if it mattered when we fasted.  He told me it depended on my priorities. But somehow I went to sleep without a drink.  Whew.  It was the strangest night I ever had.  But I broke my fast on time!  Just felt like I failed to temptation.  But it was an interesting experience. Blessings must come with sacrifice.

Okay that's all I have time for.  I love you all!  Enjoy school!  Enjoy cruising in the car!  Enjoy life!  Take care!  I'm going crazy.  Love ya!