Monday, January 26, 2009

Week 8

I attempted to Bowl. I think I ended with a score of 40, I know your jealous!

Elders Montgomery (my D.L.), Gonzalez, and unfortunately I don´t remember the Last ones name!

Elder Green was trying to hide because he lost to a gimp! I think he ended somewhere in the twenties.

So Stylish, can´t stand it.



Ecua-facts

1.Not many people have waffle irons, if they do they use them for sandwiches.
2. They collect figurines, if you give somebody one they will probably treasure it forever.
3. They play Ecua-ball. It´s their own version of volleyball. They play with a soccer ball and honestly it´s kinda wussy.
4. They strongly believe in public urination. EVEN THE WOMEN. Awkward.
5.They don´t know how to hold babies, you wouldn´t believe the amount of times I´ve seen them get dropped.
6. Chickens walk through people´s houses, even in the second largest city in Ecuador.
7. Almost nobody has kitchen cabinets, they have shelves. The majority of people also don´t have ovens. If they do, they´ve no idea how to use it. The Bishop put his wet jacket into the one at church to dry...
8. A lot of people don´t actually have addresses, I think that´s why they paint their houses such bright colors.
9. You can´t buy cocoa that doesn´t already have sugar in it. Flour also comes with baking powder already mixed in. Makes it really hard to convert recipies.
10. Everybody hangs pictures right below the celling, granted they don´t have tall cellings but they aren´t a tall people either. You sure have to crane your neck a lot!

The rain is definitely hitting! It makes it hard because I´m already a bit of a clutz! What can you do though? My ankle is okay, we are starting to be able to work again, which is really nice because I was going out of my mind!

I just hate Obama, being in Ecuador with a broken ankle is better than having to see what good old Obama is doing to my country. The President here is making some pretty radical changes. Everything imported will now be seriously and heavily taxed. He doesn´t want any outside anything. The problem with that is that Ecuador doesn´t make anything. Nada, zip, zilch. I have no idea how they are going to keep everybody happy here. They are already complaining about how much the cost of food has gone up here. It is actually pretty noticible, especially on imports! Ecuador has never been very stable in the Political arena though.


I´ll talk to you again soon! Chow! Love you all!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Hermana Hop Along Part II

Anyway there isn´t much to say, lately I´ve not been up to much! Unfortunately...I´m pretty much stuck!
Don´t my legs look great? I do a lot of falling here in Ecuador, those aren´t all from the same incident!

After the soft cast came off just today...Still pretty swollen.

After they put my cast on I had to have everybody sign it! President Sloan was one of the first- he even did the smiley face!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Just Call Me Hermana Hop Along

Just remember that the H is silent in Spanish, but it still has a really nice ring to it don´t you think?

In case you haven´t heard, I had a little disagreement with some stairs yesterday and the stairs won, my ankle is broken! Stupid stairs. My companion reminded me that this was my 5th fall in Ecuador, seems my balance issues are going to be a problem here. Blast.

This is me at CCI (mall) with my Zone Leader Elder CedeƱo. The Elders seemed to really enjoy my crutches. Unfortunately they are far more skilled with them than I.

My at the Clinica Pinchicha, one of the nicer hospitals in Quito. I think my being white made the process go quite a bit faster!

Pre-cast, it swelled up like that instantly, totally wicked.


Me and my big fat cast, I think I get the real thing next week...this is just a soft cast that is open on top.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Week 5

Ecua- Facts!

1. Everybody wears yellow underwear on New Years. No idea why.
2. They also eat grapes on New Years , 12, one a minute till the New Year
3. They are confused and think flavored marshmallows are candy
4. They aren´t legally allowed to name their children more than one American name, if they even do one it´s really, super expensive
5. They don´t know how to use Drinking Fountains, they look like they are going to be attacked when they try. Most of them just use the communal cup they leave. Talk about unsanitary. They also stare at us when we use the proper way trying to figure it out.
6. My ward in Santa Ana burned our Bishop (ChinChin) for New Years.
7. I have yet to meet a Lopez or Garcia. I have met Almachi´s, Chinchin´s, and ECT.
8. They all wear masks for New Years.
9. I only saw two Tyrannies’. :(
10. They have holidays that last forever….The kids are still out of school. And their parents let them run wild, seriously I go to bed earlier I swear.

Soooo…This last couple of weeks has been pretty uneventful; nobody wants religion at Christmas unfortunately. Things are just starting to pick up again which is really nice. Since we are not allowed to contact in our sector it´s been a lot of walking to see who else we could possibly visit. We have a lot of appointments set up for this week, and I´m excited to be doing something again. We have a few new references that we will be contacting. Monica´s baptism is still on hold for now, but probably some time in January.

New Years was pretty much Awesome, although it took some convincing to wake me up. Midnight is awfully late whilst you´re serving a mission. Although I did go to bed and then they woke me up 10 minutes to midnight. It was amazing- all of Ecuador was alight with fire and fireworks. Later smoke, but that was all clear by morning time. No firework laws in Ecuador, so cool the fireworks came out. We also had a lot of fun lighting our effigy. New Years in the States just doesn´t compare to the massive party it is here in Ecuador.

We couldn´t leave on New Years day so the Mission decided it was a perfect opportunity for us to clean our apartments, we actually had a ton of fun. Sorensen, Larsen, and I decided it was time we painted our apartment finally. It looks worlds better. I had a picture for proof but I decided it was just too unflattering to post. Yuck. Now only our bedroom looks sketchy still. We have to get more paint from the offices to finish the job up. I was sore for a couple of days, painting is a long, long process.

We lost Larsen this week; she had to go back to her own sector when the assistants found her a mini-missionary to work with. Sad day, Lars cooks and is really funny.

Me and My Ecua New Years

I can´t believe I´m posting this. I´ve some serious bed head and I´m sans make-up. I thought I would tell you some more...

New Years

This is Larsen lighting our Ecua-man, we had a little trouble. And yes that is a Liahona, but an old issue.


You´ll have to forgive my no makeup. I was super tired. Hehe.

My very first effigy!

These are me with Larsen, and Sorensen! I´m the skull and Sori is the Clown. Fitting no?