Hola everyone. This week was a good week. A very quick week as well. The situation with my companion greatly improved this last week. I can clearly see the Lord's hand in my life right now because all of the sudden he wanted to work more, pray more sincerely, plan better, contact more and just work. We are on super good terms and I'm even starting to enjoy having him as my comp rather than hope the next one is better. The Lord is definitely watching over me right now. Moreover, we are starting to have success. I feel like we have found some really good people with a lot of potential. One commited to baptism so we're feeling really good about that. We have a few others that have potential. So this week a guy yelled out his window and wanted us to come over and explain some things too him about our religion. He had these pamphlets that were wierder than a 3 dollar bill. Some were anti-Mormon literature. Some people read anti-Mormon stuff here but not very many. I will say this though, the one guy that came and challenged us with anti-Mormon stuff, though his claims had some reason at first, we shut him down to the max. Those people are just looking for reasons to fight the church. Ya some of their claims look interesting or even right at first, but upon further inspection none of it is right. It's ridiculous when people challenge us with it. Everyone one of them misses the point of simply asking God for wisdom and direction rather than believing people or things that seem to look good. That's usually where we nail em! These last few weeks my testimony has grown a ton. There was a point this week where my comp was telling me about how he wanted to work more and it was almost kind of like when the prophets and apostles say they had an experience where they would not have known God existed more even than if he were standing right in front of them. Maybe not that extent, but I definitely can feel the hand of God in my life and the enabling power of the Atonement through hard times. I wouldn't be in Ecuador still without it. Now for the funny stories, don't think I didn't have any of those this week becasue if you do, you will be wrong. We have a mamita with a severly mentally handicapped daughter. Well this daughter is about 25 or so and can't speak and it's really sad. However, she loves gringos. Everytime we go to their house she always tries to sit by me and grab my arm for some reason. Anyway this week she came up in front of me and my comp and just kinda stood there. We started talking to her like we always do and suddenly she reached for my arm. This happens a lot so I was just fine; however, when her mother tried to pull her away she raked her fingernails down my hand and scratched up my hand. She drew blood on one of my fingers. Well I didn't want to alarm anyone so I just kept quiet but when I showed my comp after we had left' he was dying laughing. Today I was searching for shoes just to see if anywhere had my size. Well I found a place that had some cool stuff. It didn't have my size, but when I looked at the price I found that the decent shoes here are 150 dollars and the good shoes are 200 dollars. Which is why I'm glad they don't have any shoes in my size. I want to tell you guys about some discoveries I've made this last week. Pretty much the 7 wonders of Esmeraldas Ecuador.
1. Oreos
2. Nutella
3. encebollado
4. fans
5. poloca
6. syrup
7. Coca cola.
1. Oreos, oreos are everywhere here in Esmeraldas. Whenever we can we ALWAYS buy oreos and lots of them. Oreos are the greatest thing ever. Everyone here loves oreos and looks forward to the next time they can get oreos.
2. Nutella is fantastic discovery I made this week. Often times at night I'll get three pieces of bread, load them with nutella and put them all together. we call it the triple stacker and it's deliciosu. I toast the bread too.
3. Encebollado is a soup here that has fish, onions, potatoes, and all different kinds of spices. It is very, very good. We go get big bowls of it for 1.80 like every three days.
4. Lets just say, without fans, I'd be dead right now. . . Every person in Esmeraldas has tons of fans. AC is non-existent here.
5. Poloca is like a mix between yogurt and milk. It's one of the best drinks I've ever had in my life. It's so good.
6. Syrup For three weeks the mall let us down on syrup, but this last week it had syrup and my comp and I went nuts. We had French toast and pancakes everyday this last week haha. Greatest week ever.
7. Everyone here drinks lots of Coke; every restaurant and every house has Coke. I'm alright with that though.
So they have these little oranges here that are really good and whenever I have one, kids always run up to me and ask for them, so we usually end up giving them away. They are good though. There is a different kind of orange that's bigger and it's horrific, I only tried it once and I had to ask our next appointment for some water because I couldnt get the awful taste out of my mouth. I'm becoming a pretty good English teacher. My comp is the best speaker in our zone haha. People always want me to speak in English though. It's kind of funny. I have some more pictures this week. I finally bought an Ecuador futbol shirt. Im liking that. I'll send those pics and I love you all very,very much. The church still true. Life is still good. Hasta Luego
1. Oreos
2. Nutella
3. encebollado
4. fans
5. poloca
6. syrup
7. Coca cola.
1. Oreos, oreos are everywhere here in Esmeraldas. Whenever we can we ALWAYS buy oreos and lots of them. Oreos are the greatest thing ever. Everyone here loves oreos and looks forward to the next time they can get oreos.
2. Nutella is fantastic discovery I made this week. Often times at night I'll get three pieces of bread, load them with nutella and put them all together. we call it the triple stacker and it's deliciosu. I toast the bread too.
3. Encebollado is a soup here that has fish, onions, potatoes, and all different kinds of spices. It is very, very good. We go get big bowls of it for 1.80 like every three days.
4. Lets just say, without fans, I'd be dead right now. . . Every person in Esmeraldas has tons of fans. AC is non-existent here.
5. Poloca is like a mix between yogurt and milk. It's one of the best drinks I've ever had in my life. It's so good.
6. Syrup For three weeks the mall let us down on syrup, but this last week it had syrup and my comp and I went nuts. We had French toast and pancakes everyday this last week haha. Greatest week ever.
7. Everyone here drinks lots of Coke; every restaurant and every house has Coke. I'm alright with that though.
So they have these little oranges here that are really good and whenever I have one, kids always run up to me and ask for them, so we usually end up giving them away. They are good though. There is a different kind of orange that's bigger and it's horrific, I only tried it once and I had to ask our next appointment for some water because I couldnt get the awful taste out of my mouth. I'm becoming a pretty good English teacher. My comp is the best speaker in our zone haha. People always want me to speak in English though. It's kind of funny. I have some more pictures this week. I finally bought an Ecuador futbol shirt. Im liking that. I'll send those pics and I love you all very,very much. The church still true. Life is still good. Hasta Luego
This is Elder Agnew, (the gringo.)
He's the only member in his family. He's super funny and I really like hanging out with him. The other is Elder Montesino. He's literally a professional soccer player. His dad is as well. That's what he will do after his mission. In Honduras he's basically like how we view major league baseball players. He's played in the huge stadiums full of people and he's really, really good at soccer. He's the one teaching me how to play.
He's the only member in his family. He's super funny and I really like hanging out with him. The other is Elder Montesino. He's literally a professional soccer player. His dad is as well. That's what he will do after his mission. In Honduras he's basically like how we view major league baseball players. He's played in the huge stadiums full of people and he's really, really good at soccer. He's the one teaching me how to play.