Feliz Navidad!

Buenas Tardes!

Hey I have a little more time this week! So I will fill you all in on what is going on way down in this part of the world!

First of all, we had a big zone conference the beginning of this week in Quito. It was COLD I tell you! We got to go eat at President Sloan´s house. We also got hot chocolate and cookies! Those senior missionaries know what they´re doing! Probably the best I´ve eaten in quite some time! Probably the best I will eat for quite a while! But all went well and we really felt a strong spirit all during the meetings that we had. I don´t care much for the 7 hour bus ride though! Especially when the millitary kept stopping the bus, searching our bags, and frisking us. But hey, what can you do?

Baptisms... many on the way, but we keep having to postpone because the people keep making excuses for not going to church! I think I´ve done everything short of grabbing them by the ear and physically dragging them there myself! I told that to Elder Hendrickson, who said ¨well now you know what you have to do!¨ It sure is tempting at times! There are tons of good people here, it´s just that they make so many excuses. I guess we´ll just have to press on!

I was pretty thrilled this week to get the package! I have been enjoying the starbursts immensely. Looks like somebody broke into it though, punched a little hole in the side. Looks like just about everything is there though. For future packages you might want to put on a couple of stickers of the Virgin Mary or something like that. The only problem is that when I got the package, I accidentaly left a bag of things on the sidewalk (we had just finished doing splits) and walked off with my package. When we went back to look for my bag, it was gone. So I lost all of my toiletries (including my retainer), and my Spanish ¨Preach My Gospel¨. A real bummer. I have my package though! So thank you. Pretty funny to watch everyone feeling the presents that their families sent them. I think everyone said, ¨well this one´s a tie¨ at least once. I´m glad to have another tie though, mine are getting kind of dirty!

So the phone call... let´s talk about that! We are allowed to use skype, so thank you for making an account for me. Did you say that in the morning would be a good time? I get to call once before for five minutes to arrange everything. So I will give that I try. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! I forgot to mention the what we did on the way back from Quito. There are always vendors that are selling all sorts of things to the passengers (one of them tried handing me a ¨Learn English¨ book. I told him I didn´t think that would be a very effective use of my money). So after the vendors were all done, we got up and sang Christmas hymns to everybody! Free of course! That was a really great experience. We also put on the DVD ¨the Testaments¨. Lots better than the garbage they usually put on! So there you have it. Keep pressing forward, love you all, and I will be giving a you a call sometime during the week to arrange the PHONE CALL!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Ok... a couple of answers to the questions!

Christmas... It´s big. Everybody puts up their lights and all of that. They all have their Christmas trees, and everybody has lights that play music.

We were in the grocery store today, and everyone was buying tons of drinks! I´m afraid of what´s going to happen! As for celebrations, the mormons have family get-togethers and parties. Everyone else gets roaring drunk, just like every other holiday. And weekend, for that matter.

We have to go back to the house at 4 pm on Christmas eve. So it looks like we will be spending a lot of Christmas in the apartment. Good thing we changed to the newer, nicer one!

So that´s about it. Everying else is included in my other email.

Love you!

Spencer