Cuy, Communism, and Easter Traditions

Buenas Tardes!

I don´t have much time right now, so my letter will be brief! I´m writing from the bus terminal in Quito!

So what am I doing in the bus terminal in Quito? I had to get some little card of mine renewed so that I stay legal for one more year! We went to Quito, then had to come all the way back to the terminal. The streets were really blocked up because of the COMMUNIST PROTESTS!!! Turns out that the president here wants to make the country communist. It did kind of freak me out seeing all of the read flags with the little sickle and hammer on them. I´d prefer all that to stay in the cold-war-era movies! But anyway, I just hope nothing happens that will get me booted out of the country! We´ll see.

Now we are heading back to peaceful little Guaranda. Easter went well, I tried Fanesca twice. It´s pretty good. I also got to eat some more guinea pig, and was kind enough to take a video of it. So I will send that as soon as possible. Everyone was a lot more calm during the week. Lots of traditions as well. Huge groups of people parading their statues down the street, lots of people wanting to repent, and NO MEAT! Lots of fish though. LOTS of fish! I didn´t mind that at all. It was quite tasty.

Our priority now is to prepare the Naranjo family for their baptism this weekend! They are a great young couple who really needed our help! I´ll give more news on that later!

Well I´m out! See you later, and I will write next week!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Chimborazo!

Hey everybody!

First of all, I want to say happy birthday dad!  Well, three days ago, but still.  I hope it went well!

We climbed Chimborazo today!  It was pretty cool, since I haven´t seen snow in such a long time!  You should have seen the missionaries who have almost never seen snow in their entire lives!  The place we went to was 16,000 feet up, which is super tiring because there´s no air!  It was also really hot because the sun is so strong up there!  Kind of a weird combination.

What else...?  President Sloan visited our branch this weekend!  I think for the first time.  He gave a super powerful lesson on faith, which helped a couple that we´re teaching to make the decision to be baptized.  I was really grateful for that because when we first started teaching them they were on the brink of divorce.  We will keep working with them.  I liked President Sloan´s thoughts on faith - when members go inactive, it´s not because they got offended or because something is keeping them from going.  It is because they lack sufficient faith in the Savior and His promises.  Always something to think about.

We also found a really great family of about 14 people!  The only catch is that they live half an hour away!  We still went there Sunday morning to take them to church, and about a third of them came.  That made me really tired, but it was still great that they came!  They invited us to come over for ¨Good Friday¨, but that´s when I have a meeting two hours away... I´m still pretty interested to see what some of the Easter traditions are here.  I hear that everybody wants to be reconciled with God during that week, so maybe we´ll have an easier time getting people to listen!  We´ll see!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Go Away Rain!

Buenas Tardes!

It´s rained so much this week! We also have been working hard with a lot of investigators who have endless challenges! I would send photos, but my camera has died. I´d better charge it, eh?

This week was quite the battle. We are facing a lot of challenges, and the weather hasn´t exactly been too favorable with us. I did an interview with an investigator of the other missionaries. Yikes. That´s actually the first time I´ve had to call President Sloan about an interview. He says that he´s not sure if he´ll even interview the investigator at all, and if he does he says he´ll probably have to write to the First Presidency to get a baptism authorized. It sure wore me out! But President Sloan says that it´s good for me and will help me learn more. I realize more and more just how messed up the world is today, which makes it so important to live the gospel. It´s the only thing that can really protect us from everything that´s out there.

My scripture study this morning helped me out a lot. I read in Doctrine and Covenants 84:80. I learned that if I keep working hard like I should, the Lord will take care of me and nothing bad will happen to me. Good to receive some comfort! I also thank you all for the letters! I appreciate each one. Take care!

Love,

Elder Wallace

GET MARRIED!

Well Hi!

So great to see general conference! I think I caught the main idea of it in the subject line, what do you think? When the leaders talk about missionary work and how the members need to help, we missionaries are all smiling and nodding our heads in agreement. Then when they start to talk about marriage, we get kind of freaked out! Although we did get to tease Elder Estrada after every single session (he´s going home in a month!). My district had to travel for two hours to get to the closest conference, which kind of wore me out, but it was worth it! I like how Elder Holland said that there´s something for each one of us at conference. I think the same goes for sacrament meeting. I just need to get more people down here to realize that.

Today was a bit crazy for us! I got called by the zone leaders at 7 a.m. and was told that Elder Garcia was getting transferred. So today we´ve had Elder Robinson with us while he waits for his new companion to arrive. I hope he´s not lost, I had to do some extensive explaining over the phone on which busses he needs to take! All should go well though. We are getting Martha ready for her interview, I just hope she keeps feeling confident about her decision. We will do all we can to help her out!

Is the snow going away yet? I hope everyone is well and that they all enjoyed conference. Hope you enjoyed the priesthood session! Also I hope that Nate´s fake tooth is alright! I don´t know how much contact you have with Raelene, but tell her I said congratulations (and to practice her Spanish because Chileans speak horribly fast and not very clearly!) Enjoy the soccer games, and also marrying people (it´s so great that dad is helping people to follow the counsel given in general conference! haha). Well that is about all for now. We have to get ready to head out again! Love you all, and talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Wallace