Howdy! (es hola en Ingles)

Howdy! (es Hola en Ingles)

OK. MY NEW COMPANION:  Elder Lachuma, de Lima Peru, doesn't speak a word of English and has a little bit of a habit of not pronouncing that makes it hard for me to understand him... he's been in the mission for 17 months by he likes to tell people that he's only got 7 months left in his mission, or in other words he's counting down instead of counting the days, he's what we here in the mission call a Trunky, which is basically a missionary who can't wait to get home.  He definitely knows his stuff when it comes to teaching the gospel though!  In his time in the mission he's been a zone leader and a district leader a few different times, he's currently the leader of our district here.  We have our differences but he's pretty awesome.  He's a convert of a little less than two years, he has a couple of tattoos which is unfortunate because one: tattoos are tattoos, and two: the tattoo artists here are terrible!  I'm pretty dang sure they free hand it and they aren't usually all that creative.

We just baptized Andy last Saturday!  Andy is a 21 year old ginger who cuts hair for a living, gingers aren't all that common here and I'm working on a theory that he's actually a gringo and he thinks it's funny to watch me struggle...  I mean seriously! He's basically a classic ginger: White skin, red hair, some freckles, and sometimes throws some phrases out in English at me.  I'm gonna interrogate him today about it, after we send emails, he's going to cut our hair.  The throwing phrases out in English thing is normal, everyone here study's English in school but none of them speak it very well.  Most people know how to say "Hello, how are you?" and that's all. Some memorize other phrases.  A member who's name is Isaac always says: "Hello, my brother in law!" as I pass by.  Don't worry, it doesn't make sense to me either.

My Spanish is coming along poco a poco.  I can communicate sometimes and teach lessons pretty well, and as long as people speak slowly and clearly I can usually understand what they're saying.

I'm doing my best every week to expand my morning diet. The problem is, I know how the cook things, it's just that I can't quite figure out how to cook things HERE.  Measuring ingredients is the biggest barrier at the moment, I can't find measuring cups down here.  The assistants told me that I can buy some in Guayaquil, along with everything else the world has to offer, except for Dr. Pepper.  The assistant's said they've been looking for 20 months and it doesn't exist here...  Hermana Riggins isn't too happy about it.  We've had three different encounters with Presidente y Hermana Riggins in the time he's been here.  The first was in his zone conference with us when he first got here.  Last Friday we had interviews with him and his wife and the assistants, it was awesome!  My interview was completely in English.  the third was a surprise last night when he showed up by surprise to a stake priesthood meeting here.  It's funny, when he walks in the room all the missionaries get stiff and have an "oh no!" attitude.  I personally have no fears of the president, he's really cool and I don't feel uncomfortable being myself around him.

Shoot, I'm out of time.  I'm gonna try sending a couple pictures real quick.

Love you all!

~Cameron

The Baptism of Andy Rober Cruz. (THE FREAKING GRINGO PRETENDING TO BE A LATINO!) He's super awesome! Hard to tell in this picture, but he has natural red hair.

Elder Lachuma and I

First Transfer

Hello!

Right now I'm hanging out with Elder Vidal and Elder Suiter while I wait for my new companion to show up on the bus.  Elder Pagoada got transferred to a new aria this morning and I'm here waiting around to find out who my new companion is and what he's like. I'm super nervous! This is my first transfer, I'm not going anywhere, but somehow that makes me feel all the more pressured because I'm the one who "knows" the investigators and the aria.  I'm gonna miss em', but it's good Elder Pagoada got a transfer because he's been in Buena Fe for over six months and I could tell that he's been wanting a change of scenery.

Over the last few weeks I've been eating french toast and Toni Yogurt in the mornings. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm gonna make pancakes...they have pancake mix here but we all know that it's nothing like dad's pancakes.  I've successfully translated all the ingredients into Spanish but my problem right now is that I don't know what people here use to measure ingredients and if it's not cups and Tablespoons, what is it and what's the conversion factor? Other than my breakfasts, I've been eating the usual, rice and soup and sometimes beans (if we're lucky).  also hard over cooked strips of meat that people seem to expect me to eat with a spoon.  Forks exist here, but if I were to be served a stake I'd be given a spoon to eat it with and
absolutely no knife.  I somehow manage to get the job done, but I often wonder how people here haven't figured the forks and knifes thing yet...

We're expecting a few baptisms in the future, I'm excited!  There is one investigator however that I'm not usually excited to teach, her name is Ginger and she has a date for baptism set because she's Sixteen and were're good looking.  Among missionaries, we call investigators like that Dollys: investigators that can be baptized if you flirt with them.  I'm not sure how I feel about it, but Elder Pagoada said we should keep teaching her. We'll see what my new companion thinks...  There are some missionaries who encourage Dollys,  I'm not continuously one of them.

There's so much that happens here and so little time to share it in...  I hope everyone is doing alright back home, I found my email box basically empty today so I assume you're all hard at work with having an awesome Summer.

I'll talk to you all next week!

Cameron

Here's a picture I took for the sake of pictures.

We had an Actividad Missional at the Church this last weekend.  It was lots of fun, the missionaries put on a skit about family home evening and we had hotdogs and a three legged race (As seen above)

Update Update! Are you up to Date?

Hello!

This Past week has been pretty awesome, we have an investigator who takes in our lessons, applies them to his life, and does all his homework.  He gives me hope that possibly the people here can actually follow through with the conversion process.  The part that has me super excited is that he's committed to be married on the 25th!  A lot of people here are "Unidos no mas," I call it the sin of Ecuador.  The trouble is people here don't get married because it costs $56 and involves a bunch of paper work.  It's easier for them to just say that their united and call it good.  Which presents a problem because the rule is that we can't baptize people unless they are following the law of chastity, we lose a lot of investigators that way.  BUT CARLOS, Carlos is committed to marry with spouse (who's a less active member) and be baptized right after!  It makes me super happy.  If, however he isn't baptized... I'm coming home.  But this is the guy who actually reads the pamphlets we leave behind and gave up his earring when we told him it was a problem.  It gives my heart joy.

ANYWAYS.We got to meet our new president on Friday, he's super awesome and a true master teacher!  The only problem was that I couldn't understand exactly what it was that he was master teaching...  BUT I COULD TELL IT WAS REALLY GOOD!  After the meeting a gringo missionary came up behind me and said "happy forth of July!"  and I looked at my watch and whoa and behold, it was the 4th of July!  My first forth of July without fireworks, it was weird.  I'm pretty dang sure fireworks aren't aloud down here, but I did see a few when Ecuador beat Honduras in the World Cup.  That was a bad day for my companion.  Ecuador has since been eliminated from the world cup.  Which for us is a good thing. We can finally teach lessons and there aren't as many members wearing their jerseys to church.  The world cup is still a big deal down here though, it'll continue to be in the way of the work until it's over.  I will confess, however, fútbol is pretty awesome and I can't wait for a World Cup that I'll be able to watch.

I was walking down the street the other day and a slipped a little on something in the curb. I looked back to see what it was and I laughed out loud because I realized that I just slipped on a banana skin.  Classic.  Just thought I'd share that, because it's the little moments in life that matter. and to be honest, it made my day that day.

I know not what else to say, Spanish is super frustrating but the mission is awesome!  I'll attach a couple pictures and send you another email next week!

Love ya'll!

~Cameron

Missionaries at "Shopping"
In Ecuador, the malls are called shopping.  Not sure why... I can only assume it was a bad spanish/english misunderstanding that is now irreversible.

Small and Simple Things

Hi,

More about life in a day... we do a WHOLE lot of walking around here. A normal day is walking a mile in one direction to discover that the people we made an appointment with don't want us to visit with them and two miles in the other direction to discover that the very friendly less active family from the day before closed all the windows and locked the doors as we walked up to their house.  It's hard, but the people here are awesome and when we do teach lessons the people generally listen pretty well and are always welcoming. Sometimes even with food!  One member figured out that I have a thing for coca y pan and almost always has some ready when we come by to teach her family and friends.

I really can't think of any amazing conversion stories that REALLY stick out to me because lately, we've been struggling to have investigators that stick. One thing that's been going on in my mission, however, is I've discovered a reason I'm here: I'm here to find all the guitars (there actually aren't many) and tune them and teach their owners about the gospel.  Elder Pagoada found out that I play the guitar a few weeks ago while we were at recent converts house, I tuned his guitar and played a song for them. People here love it when you sing in English.  Since that time, we've had a habit of finding casas with guitars.  Last week we were tracting and passed a house with a guitar inside, Elder Pagoada noticed the guitar and said "vamos a ensenar aqui!" and so we did.

Mission life is pretty simple but VERY busy.  I'm doing my best to remember things in the week to report to you guys!

I hope everything is going well for everyone back home, I did have a pretty bad fever on Saturday, so I had to go to the apartment early but for the most part I'm doing really well! I woke up on Sunday feeling much better!  The Spanish is coming along, not as fast as I would like but it's coming.

Love you all!

~Cameron

Falling in Love with the Little Things

I've been doing pretty good out here, we just got a new mission president, I haven't met him yet but we're expecting new rules pretty soon.  We fear the worse: no more Coke and no more wearing normal clothes on P-day...  But, ya never know.  We should be meeting him within the next few weeks.

Lindsay is having way too much fun in Peru, she needs to do a little more walking and step in more dog poop!

Personally, I'm falling in love with the little things that other people would find odd that I'm falling in love with.  I realized that I'm not getting any tourist treatment whatsoever, Buena Fe has very little attraction for that kind of thing, so as I lay awake listening to the Latin band perform in the venue next door I realized, they're playing the music of their culture, for their culture.  They aren't playing for tourists or anyone like that, they're playing because trumpets, saxophones, crazy piano rifts and Latin percussion sounds great live.  But TERRIBLE on the radio.  The three guys on the bus the other day who played the bongos, accordion, and the washboard... couldn't sing for the life of them.  They were singing for a little cash to get by.  I can't explain it very well but I can't help but laugh to myself when they culture shocks me, little by little I'm realizing that HOLY CRAP I"M IN ECUADOR and that this is real, not some show put on for tourists.  I guess my realization came when I saw a "Travel Ecuador" add on one of the member's TVs.  I thought to myself: "HA! that isn't Ecuador at all!"

I fear I'm not making much sense, I suppose all I'm really trying to say is that I love it here more and more.  Even though investigators usually end up breaking your heart when they don't want to visit with you anymore or don't want to attend church.  It's a good feeling being here, I guess it's that I'm where I ought to be.

I did get the music, but it don't work in the format it's in.  I've converted most of it but not all of it.  There isn't any chance you could send it in MP3 format, is there? or even better.  Just send an envelope with a mini little flash drive with a bunch of music on it, that'd be better!  My only worry is that the drive would get stolen from the envelope...

WELP, I really don't know what more I should report. Hear's some pictures to wrap up.

Love you!
Cameron

Another Creature that found its way into our house, I've also been seeing butterflies with HUGE yellow eyes on their wings.  I've always seen them in movies but HOLY COW THEY'RE REAL!

Selfie of the Week

The roof tops of Beuna Fe

Elder Pagoadas Little Friend