All Your Questions...Answered!

Hey hey everybody! 

 

202 days??  Don´t tell me that!  That makes me feel weird.  I´ve made it through an entire week in Esmeraldas without dying of heat stroke!  I think I´m getting more used to it every day!  Anyway, I will answer all the questions you sent, and add some comments of my own!  Here goes!

 

There ARE a lot of beaches here.  Really pretty.  I´m guessing ´red zone´ refers to the crime?  I´ve already stopped carrying my camera with me.  I don´t even wear my watch anymore.  So unless someone wants to steal the standard works and a mini-hymnbook, I shouldn´t have to worry about much.

 

The mosquito net is working quite nicely.  The mosquitos aren´t that bad of a problem.  What´s been bad is that our apartment is infested with little brown ANTS!  We have to keep EVERYTHING in fridge because they´re so persistent!  I can´t even leave my breakfast unattended for 2 minutes!  Luckily, Elder Larrea and I bought a lovely little bottle of insecticide today and quickly dealt death to every one of those little buggers!  So that should be okay now.

It´s just me and Elder Larrea here.  Our apartment is about the size of our shed in Roosevelt.  It´s tiny, but it works.  Especially since we just got rid of the ants.

Elder Hendrickson is in a different district, but we have short zone meetings every Thursday, so we see each other every week.

Elder Larrea is my first companion whose parents have been members all of their lives.  His dad was a missionary as well.

My other companions... I believe Elder Fuentes and Elder Corado were both baptized in their early teens.

Our apartment has a little bedroom, a little kitchen, and a little bathroom.  It´s tiny, but we don´t really spend any time there anyway.

Photos.....  Funny you sould ask...  I had the bright idea of recording myself during my language study so that I could hear myself speaking.  It was a good idea, but it killed my battery and I can´t find the other one.  I think it´s buried somewhere in my suitcases.

Aaron... well, I´m not sure what to say.  Most of the people I knew in high school have graduated now...  I only really know some of your friends and some of Brooke´s friends as well.  So all I can say is choose wisely and have a great time!

 

Great to hear that Nate and Tanner are doing well!  Tell Tanner I´ll expect some cobbler when I return! (not peach though), and tell Nate to have a great time at school!

 

Now for my own comments!  From what I heard from dad, the things I heard about Esmeraldas were pretty accurate.  I guess it all started when a Spanish slave ship crashed on the coast of Ecuador and all the slaves got away.  So there´s a whole bunch of morenos here and it´s a bit less developed than Quito. Acutally, maybe a lot less.  We´ve only had one power outage so far.  And the running water cuts out a lot, but we always have water in the shower because it´s supplied by a big tank on the roof.  My diet this week has basically been rice and ´encocado´ (it´s fish prepared in coconut milk, they make it into a sort of casserole of sorts).  I´ve gotten used to sweating constantly, and have had to add the step of covering myself in talcum powder to my daily morning routines. 

 

The ward is interesting, with a lot of good people.  A little on the inactive side though.  I have yet to get to know the bishop here (he was traveling yesterday).  It´s a bit tricky teaching here, since most people are receptive, but don´t want to progress.  Most missionaries have to accomplish the goal of baptizing the people.  We have to add the step of having them get married, because in Ecuador marriage has practically been replaced with cohabitation, and it´s even worse here on the coast.  We have to use much boldness!  Luckily my companion is great and I have a lot of support from everyone!  I´ve learned a lot here in Ecuador and I´m grateful for the privelege of being here!  The church is true and the gospel changes lives!  I´ve seen it so many times!

 

Thanks everyone for writing me, talk to you next week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Wallace