Week 19

Hey Everybody- I hope everybody had a happy Easter!

Ecuafact: To build a home in Ecuador you will need Rebar, cement, and cinder-blocks! Most people don´t finish there houses, over the years they gradually build up.

Well, the unexpected happened, I was transferred! Ibarra Central is now an Elders Sector! I had time to say goodbye to Carlos and his family but that was all, now I´m trying to get letters written to all of my investigators and members I had to leave behind. I´m a bit on the heart-broken side and being me I sobbed!

My new Area is Latacunga and my companion is Hermana Merida of Guatemala. She doesn´t speak a word of English so my spanish is rapidly improving. We are the only missionaries in the entire city so we always have work to do! We also travel to Ambato every week for p-day and for district meetings. We are pretty far away from everything. The active volocano Cotopaxi is just 25 kilometers away, in case it ever explodes the missionaries evacuate to Guayaquil. I kinda hope it goes off so I can go to the temple! It´s also been destroyed 4 times by earthquakes since being founded in 1534! Cool right?

I don´t know many of our investigators yet but we do have Ana and Patricio and they have a baptismal date for Saturday! They do have to get married on Friday first...and this has proved to be a bit tricky thus far! They have three children: Omar, Fernando, and Alejandro. Patricio is just 18 and Ana is 22. They are really poor and all live in a 2 room apartment.

We also have Victor he is 17 and is a student at the University here in Latacunga. He is currently having some doubts and we need to help him recognize the spirit so he will know that the Book of Mormon is true.

Easter is the Semana Santa here, or Holy Week. As far as I could tell though it wasn´t celebrated at all. Nobody really did anything! It´s a bit more celebrated in the States! We had a few talks about it in church but that was all!

The growth here is a bit slow, out chapel is about an eighth of the size of mine at home and most members here are inactive. I have my work cut out for me!

I forgot my camera cord so I´ll have to post my last pictures of Ibarra next week! Sorry!

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