First Week!

Hello everybody!

My first assignment is in an area called Chillogallo, which is just south of Quito.  Big city.  My companion is Elder Fuentes from Chile.  He's our district leader, and doesn't speak a single word of English.  Kind of makes it a bit tougher when you can only understand about a third of what your companion is saying.  I'm practicing though.  Haven't had a single conversation in English since last Wednesday!  That probably isn't going to change, so I'd better work hard on my Spanish!  The members are really nice though.  I met the bishop a couple nights ago, he's a great guy with some mad guitar skills!  His kids are pretty wild, but they help me learn Spanish words.  Repeating the words I don't know usually works pretty well.  It only backfired once when the ward mission leader's 3 year-old taught me a swear word!  Little punk.  Everyone down here thinks that English is really cool, and the kids always demand that I "¡habla en ingles!"  I'm slowly understanding more and more though. 

We spend a lot of time visiting recent converts and investigators.  We actually did a baptismal challenge the other day (probably the only part where I could tell what was going on), which was pretty cool.  I'm grateful for the Spirit when we teach because I'm sure that nobody could understand me otherwise!  Church was good yesterday.  Before we left the MTC, our branch president said we would be really good daydreamers during the meetings until we understood what was going on.  He was right!  Ha! 

Since I don't have my other memory card back yet (hint, hint), I will not be sending any pictures back.  I don't have many yet anyway.  However, I will describe some of the things that I have seen here.

A couple hundred angry dogs (luckily their owners keep them locked up!)
A hundred more half-dead dogs wandering the streets
3 all-the-way dead dogs
1 or 2 normal, tame, not-dead dogs
A bunch of cows eating out of the garbage
A little boy walking six goats down the street

I'm getting the hang of things around here though.  Even the buses!  They have 'bus stops' here, but you really just have to jump on and off when they slow down for you.  I think I would like the traffic rules around here.  You drive as fast as you can without rear-ending anybody, and that's the speed limit.  And everything is legal as long as you don't kill, injure, maim, or otherwise dismember somebody in any way.  We haven't had too strange of food yet, mostly soup, rice, and beans.  I can now say that I have accomplished the feat of eating a giant plate of rice piled about six inches high.  I felt kind of like a bean bag after that.  I'm kind of bummed about not being able to try cuy (guinea pig) yet, but that day will come! 

Sounds like a good time in Roosevelt!  I hope Aaron had a good time with prom!  Sorry to hear about the difficulties in the ward though.  When dad mentioned something about 'addictions' and 'WOW issues', I thought he was talking about 'World of Warcraft'.  Haha!  That definitely is an addiction issue though.  I've learned from MTC experience that World of Warcraft players make REALLY lousy missionaries.  So maybe keep people away from that.  ha.  Oh, also, somebody wish both Ryan and Jake a happy birthday for me?  Thanks!  Say hello to everybody in Roosevelt for me!

Well I think that's all for now!  Talk to you next week! 

Love,
Spencer