November 28th, 2016

​Dads Grill looks great, I can't wait to use it.  Most people here don't have grills.  We found a restaurant that grills pollo, and it is really good.  It is good dad fixed the washing machine,and how you guys got a new dish washer.  I bet it is nice not to have to wash dishes by hand; I will still have to wash my dishes by hand, for a long time.

The house looks nice.  The Ecuadorians starting decorating for Christmas at the beginning of October, it was weird.  It is weird to see Christmas decorations because the weather IS THE SAME AS WHEN I GOT HERE!!!!  The snow [back home] looks great.  Send me a lot of pictures of snow, I love it.  Thanksgiving looked good, there was a ton of food, that is what I want my home coming meal to look like.  One of the families here wanted to make a Thanksgiving-like meal for me but they all got really sick so it didn't happen.

The baptism was great, it was really cool.  He is 20 and lives with the Branch president.  I have been teaching him ever since I got here so it was cool to see him get baptized.  The branch activity was fun. I went with F. Salacar.  Their kids are crazy, but it was fun to teach people about the family with them.

My talk went good.  I mainly just read the whole time.  It was on the talk by elder Dale G. Renlund called "Latter-Day Saints Keep on Trying".  The members liked it, but my talks will get better when I know Spanish better.  It was 15 minutes long, they asked me to give a 5 min talk, but it was good.

Life is good but the rumor is that we will be Skypeing on the 25th, but I don't know, it is just a rumor.  The conference we had with president was good.  I have no idea what he was talking about, but it was nice just to be with him.  I'm just going crazy over the fact that the weather is not changing, but I love you all.

November 21st, 2016

It is awesome the washing machine broke, and the grill went out, but I hope dad can fix them.  Yeah, that is my house, I live on the top floor, on the right.  I love it.  Apparently it is the best house in the mission.  We go to the mall every lunes, it is great, and has a lot of american candy.  The transfer ends in two weeks, so I will most likely be leaving Riobamba.  I don't want to, I love it here.
President is coming here on viernes for a conference with the zone.  I have a baptism this sábado, I'm excited, it will be cool.

We are doing a branch/district activity.  We are going to go around a teach people about the family so that will be fun.  I'm giving a talk domingo so I hope I do good.  We haven't done any service, just no one needs help right now.  But, when I first got here, we helped a family move a dresser to the roof but, other than that, nothing.

This week was good.  We found a small gated off community in our sector, and it is awesome.  We found a few new investigators.  Everyone there is really nice, I can't wait to go back.

Today we played fútbol, as a zone, and it was fun.  It is just really hard running at this elevation.
But life is good.  My Spanish is slowly improving.  The air here has been really dirty, I think there are a lot of forest fires because it smells like smoke and the air is brown, it is really weird.  I hope it gets better this week.

I love you all and have a great week.

November 14th, 2016

Well, this week was good, we now have 2 bautizados(baptisms) coming up, but on December 3rd, so we still have a little bit of time.  We are teaching a family of 3, they are great.  The mom is a less-active and the daughter(14), and dad, are investigators.  But their home is awesome, it is full of Christmas decoration.  And they have a ton of puppies, I'll take a picture one day.

Everyone is asking me about Trump being president, it is funny.

Not much happened this week, just some cool storms, and elder Villacorta fell off his bed.  He acted like he got shot and fell on to his bed but was to close to the edge so he fell between the wall and the bed.  It was really funny.

Yes, I get to Skype for Christmas.  Me and Grant are emailing, he is doing really good.

Sorry this is short, I don't have much to talk about.  I did make a backpack out of a cereal box.  I think it is cool, elder Villacorta thinks otherwise.

I love you all and life's great.  I just thought of telling you guys this but my sector is the northeast of Riobamba.  There is an airstrip, in the northeast, and I'm everything north of the airstrip and east of the main road that goes through Riobamba.  My sector goes all the way to Chimborazo.

Have a great week and I love you all.

November 7th, 2016

Well this week was a little slow, everyone went on vacation, so we didn't have much.  Contacting was really slow, no one was home.  But me and Elder Villacorta were just really tired all week, and my brain is mush because of all the Spanish.  My Spanish is fine, I'm still very bad at general conversation, but when it comes to lessons, I'm getting it down.

Life's good. During the week we hiked around our sector, got a few pictures, and a picture of Elder Villacorta playing with a cow.

Today we went to a weird place for a zone activity.  It was a little place that talked a little about the history of Ecuador, I think, I couldn't understand anyone.  But it had nice views of Riobamba.
I think me and Elder Villacorta get along too well, and laugh way too much, because we were contacting and, in the middle of contacting someone, we both starting laughing our heads off.  I didn't think she thought we were real missionaries and everything we told her was a joke, but it only happened once.

I'm happy.  It looks like Halloween was fun at home.  They didn't do anything here for Halloween, but they have a drink that's only around for a little bit every fall, it is Colada Morada, and it is really good, I love it.

The volcano hasn't done anything, we aren't even feeling tremors anymore.

It is funny dad spilled acid on himself again.

I love you all and have a great week.

October 31st, 2016

Well, life is amazing.  I have never been so happy, and my Spanish has skyrocketed.  I've learned so much Spanish, it is amazing.  Elder Villacorta is an amazing person.  Whenever I struggle with Spanish he looks at me and says, "poco a poco"(little by little), and he tells me it is alright to struggle.  We are great friends and are full of laughter, it is great.  It is great speaking Spanish, in fact, I'm forgetting some English.  I'm starting to become a bad English teacher because I can't answer their preguntas(questions).  I'm starting to get bad at reading in English, I can't pronounce half the words, it is awesome.

Anyway, Tungurahua is starting to have a little bit of smoke and last night there was a lot of rumbling, and tremors, but nothing happened.  To dad, another big storm came in, it is cool, but I get really wet.

Last night we had a great lesson with a less-active family.  The dad is an investigator and the dad had a friend there who is also an investigator.  The whole branch council came, it was an amazing lesson.  We talked about prayer and the church, the spirit was very strong.  Elder Villacorta was crying near the end along with many other people, (Not Me).  But it was great when the oldest kid bore testimony of the church because the dad was really affected by it, it was an amazing lesson.  I love this family.  Whenever we walk into the house of this family, the youngest boy runs up to us and screams, "ELDERS", and gives us hugs, I love it.  This week has been full of awesome experiences.  I now know what it means to be a missionary, it is amazing.

It is great you guys are doing good, and the ward party looked fun.  Was Ellie dressed up as Sariah, Nephi's mom?

I love you all and have a great week. ​