Time is Everything

Hello,

So, I'm sitting here, in a cyber... and, I don't know what I'm going to write today. hmm...

Glad to hear from your emails that everyone is staying super busy.  One of the things I learned out here is that doing nothing usually stinks.  I hate doing nothing.  Today me and Elder Taylor were thinking of what we wanted to do for our P-day, we realized that we were both REALLY tired so we made a plan to do nothing today.  Which sounded good until we got about ten minutes into it... then we figured out that doing nothing is relaxing, but REALLY boring, so we went with the normal fallback of playing fútbol (soccer) in the park with the rest of the zone.  Now we're even more tired, but at least we didn't do nothing.

Staying busy is fantastic, but sometimes stress can be a factor with a full planner.  It is well known among the Church Missionary Department that stress can be a missionary killer, so we've been given guidelines of how to recognize stress and fatigue, and what we ought to do for it.

We are encouraged to take 20 minutes naps sometimes.  We're on the lords time, but if it means that we'll be more effective after the fact we can take naps up to 20 minutes to keep ourselves working more effectively. We are also encouraged to sit on a park bench from time to time for 5 minutes. This amazingly helps a TON with giving yourself a chance to organize your brain, also, if we take one of two bench breaks in a day, we find that we aren't as burned out when we get home at night.

Time is everything.  When it comes down to it, I think the most precious substance is time: we can't buy it, everyone needs it, and everyone wants it.  Sometimes it doesn't make sense to take a break when not everyone in Ecuador has received the amazing truth yet, but it turns out that if we're stressed or fatigued we wont be able to work with all of our might, mind, and strength- therefore making it very difficult to have the spirit with us.  And when we don't have the spirit with us we wont get very many things done.

I always remember the phrase I learned on the Ballroom Dance team:

"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast."

When we take things slowly we can do them more effectively, and when we're effective we get things done faster AND, even better; we get them done well.
These are principles that are very important as missionaries.  I also believe that they apply to everyone else too.  sometimes when we have too many things on our plate we feel like we got to get it all done NOW and that it's IMPOSSIBLE and that we're GOING TO DIE and I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHEN TO GET STARTED and that THAT WORLD IS OVER.

Sit down, take five minutes to meditate.  Then keep calm and carry on.

Things get done when we aren't stressed and we make ourselves a smooth-getting-things-done-kind-of-machine.

En Pocas Palabras: Take that five minute break that you don't have time for, Meditate, then kick some butt.

Also I would like to put it out there one more time that doing nothing is terrible and that without facebook or video games or books it is a bad bad idea to put on your things to do book.

And that is my rant for the day.  Amen.

Everything around here is going great.  we're doing our best to teach Jaime not to speak blasphemies and we are trying hard every day to find new people to share our message with.

My health is good, I've had a cold for 9 days but that's kinda just a result of rain season.
On Sunday we got pounded by rain in the afternoon and we had to trudge through the ankle deep river that we usually call the highway.
Me and Elder Taylor have been talking about getting us a boat for the next encounter with Ecuador's nutting rain showers.  Apparently in other cities the water goes up to the waist.

I'll write you all next week.  Imma go take a five minute nap and then get to work. (Pday ends at 6:00)

I'll talk to you all later!


~Cameron

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Hey guys!

We were meeting with a lady in her house one night.  It was our first meeting with her so we were sitting around getting to know her.  She explained to us that Ecuatoriano people are a chosen and blessed people because of their faithfulness and humility.  I nearly laughed, but I refrained.
guys, I think there's one important point to be made clear.  Humility is a touchy subject because in the very moment you boast about how humble you are, you've lost your humility.

If you want to be good and humble, do good works and never look for reward or recognition from anyone, the moment we do is the moment we are numbered among the hypocrites that Christ talks about in his sermon on the mount.

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven." (Matt 6:1)

As for the people who DO fast, pray, and do "good works" for the whole world to see, don't worry about them, "Verily I say unto you, They have their reward."

So, having a birthday out here wasn't all that bad.  The Zone got me and Elder Ralison a cake because his birthday was on the 22nd and we don't really have enough money to buy two cakes.  I got my face smashed into this cake because it's tradition for the one having the birthday to "bite the cake".  The other part of the tradition is for someone to smash your face into the cake while you're taking that bite.

Some members here also made me some cakes and another even got me some Papa Johns.  The people here are pretty awesome.  Tip to all future missionaries: ALWAYS let it slip to the Relief Society President by accident that your birthday is coming up.  She is usually the center of good ideas and productive gossip.  She'll let the ward know.

This week has all and all been pretty interesting:

Elder Taylor tried to cook Habaneros Empanadas and nearly killed the four of us in the process.

Jaime Testified in Fast and Testimony Meeting that he was baptized so that he could teach us all the truth about us being children of the holy ghost and be receive the holy ghost through sexual relations.

He also mentioned that in the past life he was a Christ.  If he had been born 2000 years ago the congregation would have stoned him for blasphemy...  in this case the Stake President got up after him and testified of the truth.

And... today for P-day we went bowling. That's about it.

I'm doing well over here and I hope all is going well back home.  Hope you're all having fun with the wedding plans and all that.

Talk to you all later!

~Cameron

Sometimes... Strange Things Happen.

Hey everyone!

This week has been interesting and crazy.  First of all, after I got done telling you that I haven't gotten sick and that I don't plan on doing anything of the kind, I woke up on Tuesday morning with a fever. On Wednesday we had interviews and a video presentation with President Riggins.  During the movie I was able to tell Hermana Riggins that my Fever had reached 102.74, she told me to drink pedialyte, water, Tylenol, go home and get some rest.  I agreed.

The movie however was really good.  Here in Ecuador, all the missionaries heard rumors that there was a movie in the United States called "Meet the Mormons" but it was very sadly out of our reach until this last week when President Riggins got the new Spanish Dubbed version for us to see.  He said that pretty soon all of Ecuador will have it. If you guys haven't seen it yet, shame on you. I was forced to wait.

Besides getting sick and recovering we had a pretty weird week: 

First - we saw a guy with a Potato Sack with a dog sicking its head out of the side confirming that The Dog-napper is real.

Second - we got to see what happens when too many fat pigeons sit on the powerline and the top line sags down to touch the bottom line. There were pretty colors and lots of toasty scared pigeons.

Third - I got to see how Ecuador can REALLY rain.  Luckily I got to see that from inside the house.  sitting on our balcony felt link sitting under a powerful waterfall and I'm pretty sure an umbrella would fold itself.

Apart from all that, Gabriela Maldonado got baptized on Saturday night:

I'll probably continue with the story of all of that next week if I can.  The truth is that the story is probably personal to her and I don't know if I ought to be sharing it until I get back...  I don't know.
I'm just going to say that this girl spent years listening to missionaries. even though her whole family was baptized she didn't want to get in the water until some personal things were taken care of and that she had an answer for herself the the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

Long story short, she got her answer. And she's amazing.

We finished the Saturday night with Tres Litros de Cola y Torta con una cena.

Victory.

-Cameron

Life in Guayaquil

Hello!

I'm here in Ecuador, doing the normal. Mom asked a few questions, so I thought I'd address them:

I'm in El Barrio Albonor in Guayaquil.  The people here are a little more on the richer side, which means they think with a little more logic and can be a little bit prideful. The Logical part is ok for me, as long as you belive in the Bible our faith makes complete sense.  The trick is you actually have to read the bible to understand that.  (FYI the bible is actually pretty awesome and talks a little about the plan of salvation in Corinthians and other parts) The problem we've been having is that people have started putting stickers on their doors that say "This house is Catholic.  Please respect our religion"
Which is cool, and I respect their religion...but I've also read the bible, and I've figured some things out for myself... ANYWAYS!

Yeah, This area is richer, a little bit cleaner, and a whole lot more compact.  Every block has a number but none of the numbers are in order, and people usually write their addresses on their door with a crayon which can make it VERY hard to find a little house in this maze of a city.  In BuenaFe we used landmarks.  Our directions we literally like "The street with Water Tower of San Jacinto, left at the guy who sells chickens and take a right after two blocks.  It's the house with Old blue paint and a brown door"

Here the directions are: "Sauces VIII Mz 454 F7 Villa 12, ring the doorbell for the third floor and ask for Familia Loor" It's very different.

We're teaching a few families, one is Familia Maldonado, who are some mas o menos activo members with a daughter who has been on the fence about baptism for a few years.  I cooked some Pancakes in their house on Saturday and my friend Gabriel who's 10 years old is starting to master my recipe.  I think if I ever come back here after my mission I'll find a very successful Pancake Restaurant in Sauces VIII.  Our goal is to help Gabriela find her answer about the Book of Mormon and help her be Baptized before the end of January.

Elder Taylor is awesome.  He likes working, and I do too!  It can sometimes be kind of hard being two good looking white guys walking down the street in white shirts and ties.  We get called "guapos" several times a day on the street.  The thing is with my companion and the two other guys that I'm living with is that I can usually expect to end up laughing about a new inside joke every single day.

Yep, the rain has begun. we've had a couple of beautifully refreshing rainstorms over the last week.  It's supposed to kick up more in a week or so.  I just got me a new umbrella today. Rain season also means cricket season.  They're all over the streets and they like to get into your houses.  It's another fun element that we get to experience here. The over shoes I got at Mr. Mac are cool and help a little.  But they probably weren't worth the $20.  Then again, in a muddier area they would probably be very helpful.

I've been kicking sick season like a champ so far.  Two people in our house and half of our zone got sick with a fever or a parasite last week, but I've been unscaved so far.

Yeah, that's all.  I've been doing pretty dang good in general.  That's all the time I've got for today. I'll write again next week, as always.
I hope all is well back home!

Love you!

-Cameron

P.S.  here's the picture of the suit you got me for Christmas and a box of Corn Flakes:

Food! ... Because food is important.

Hey!

I feel that yesterday I had a lot of things that I wanted to say in an email... but at the moment I'm at a blank. I feel like I talk about food a lot, but really, food is important to me and I feel that it is a matter to be discussed.

As a few young guys living alone together in a house in Ecuador, we seem to go through Phases when it comes to food.  All green missionaries go through an egg phase because eggs are universally simple and easy to cook.  After awhile however eggs get kinda odd and missionaries with imagination start getting creative when they buy their food on Mondays.

Me and Elder Taylor are relatively creative guys so we've hit some pretty yummy food phases: when I got here Elder Taylor and Elder Rallison were just coming out of a Smoothie phase, for a couple weeks over Christmas time we were in a pancake phase, at one point we hit an empanada phase, and right now we're heading into week number two of the Sandwich phase.

The Sandwich phase is pretty awesome.  Me and Elder Taylor have been rolling things out from PB&J to salami with cheese, basil, tomato, vinegar, and lots of other yummy stuff.  Not sure what we're going to figure out how to make in Ecuador next, but it's sure to be good.

For Christmas I had a suit made for myself and I picked it up on Saturday, it's pretty dang nice, I wore it for the first time as I gave a talk in sacrament meeting.  My talk was not all that fantastic.  People say your public speaking skills get better over the mission but I haven't seen that happen yet.  :P

We're just about heading into rain season here.  We got hit by a couple showers but nothing too notable.  So far rain season only means to me that I sweat a bit more because the extremely high humidity is just a little bit higher than before.  I'm currently looking to buy an umbrella because the one I took with me from home somehow found its way to Chile with Elder Povar from the CCM in Mexico.  He has since lost it in "Wind City" along with three other umbrellas.



So yeah, that's what I've got for ya'll this week.  Things here are pretty dang good.
As always, I'll write next week.
¡chao!

-Cameron

Feliz Nuevo Año!‏

Hey!

Happy new year!  You guys totally missed the party, Ecuador is nuts on New Year.  There's lots and LOTS of fireworks and people starting fires and exploding things in the street.  We were told that we couldn't go out in the streets after 9pm on new years eve, so we went on our roof instead and from there we saw it all go down.  We were told right, new years here is "apocalíptico"

New years was pretty cool, but it was also a big pain in the butt because everyone is either spending the week in the mountains, the beach, of some other place.  In other words, no one is at home and as missionaries there is no one to visit. Im going on the hope that this week will be a bit better as it seems that people are starting to come home again.

Another thing cool that happened this week (I kinda went out of my way to do this)  I totally added Cow Tongue to the list of weird things I've eaten in my life/mission!

It looks about as grody as I hoped it would!

Yes, I ate it willingly- Better yet I requested it.  It was prepared like roast beaf and tasted like it too.  Although the texture was completely different, I liked it!  As long as you told think about how its a tounge it isnt that bad. :D

Oh hey! Another thing, we discovered through a member (I promise I don't hand out on youtube) that there's a page that is interviewing RMs from all missions all over the world.  They interviewed our ex Assistant to the President and he basically spilled the beans on EVERYTHING that goes on down here.  You should check out all his videos, he pins it down a lot better than I have ever been able to and he speaks the truth on all his points.

Heres a link: Living as a Missionary in Ecuador

Seriously check it out!

Hmm, flipping through my photos I cant really think of anything else to write about... that's how I remember things; I take pictures of them.

I'll email you all next week!

Love ya!

-Cameron

Makin' Banana Pancakes

Hey everyone!

It was great talking with the family on Christmas day, sorry we had problems with the computers.  I intended to call on time.

One of the problems was that I totally forgot my Skype account name and passward so I had to get on to Elder Banegas' account to call.

It was also crazy and totally predictable that Lindsay got engaged over Christmas!  She sent me the story, pretty cool stuff!

Christmas was pretty fun here, we had a big dinner party with all 250 missionaries in the mission in the Kennedy Stake Center where I got to see all my old companions and friends.  We also had a big ward Christmas party where we sang a Spanish Christmas rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight that we wrote, it was pretty stinking brilliant! Elder Rallison will go as far as to say inspired.

To recap some things that I madtioned in the call: I made Banana Pancakes on Christmas Morning with Ariana De Platano (Banana flour) and little bits of chopped up bananas.  It was bacically the best thing ever!  I couldn't help but humming Jack Johnson.

Other things happened too...

Also, someone asked in our Skype call if we had Eggnog here.  We never really found any, BUT Elder Taylor looked up the recipe and made some!  It was some good stuff, not perfect, but it was good.

We're waiting to see what happens on New Years this week, we here that it's "apocalíptico" and we got a message from the Assistants saying that we were to "BE IN THE HOUSE BEFORE 9PM"
From what I heard, people take their little paper statues out onto the streets and light them on fire.  Some of these statues are ten feet high, and the fireworks are also supposed to be crazy!  We will wait and see. :D

I'll talk to you all next week!

~Cameron