March.21.2016 - Trunky. Actividades de La Última Semana, Mi Lectura en El Libro de Mormón, y Sentimientos

Hey there everyone!

So, I started getting my stuff organized to start packing the trunks.  Today I am officially and literally trunky.

BUT I HAVE TO BE because I won't have time to be packing very much during this week.  We are going to baptise two awesome people this Saturday, friday we`re putting together a stake easter activity and we`re going to be working our butts off all week getting ready for those events, today at 6pm we`re going to meet with the sister missionaries and the ward mission leader to hand out flyers to the people who live close to the church, Tuesday we`re going to be working with the ward counsel for the activity and promoting the Follow Him video.  Between all this time is district meetings and getting Luis and Fernando ready for their baptism this Saturday, on top of all that we`re contacting and teaching as normal.  Im swamped! and Im loving it.  I have to keep myself busy to end with a bang.  Last sunday we helped 8 different people meet the requirements to be officially reactivated in the church. Plan March madness is going perfectly so far. :D  jejeje (thats spanish for `hehehe`)

Another thing Ive been doing is reading the El Libro de Mormon in spanish from cover to cover before I go home.  IM SO CLOSE!  I just finished 3 Nephi, which is actually great seeing as I was in 1 Nephi three months ago.  If I read 10 pages a day Ill be in Moroni 10 while Im heading out the door!

¨Elder Rawson (Missionary who lives with us) took this picture.  This was the moment where I finished Alma.¨

With so much going on in this last week, I don't really know what to feel.  Im sad that Im ending the mission, but happy to be going home.  Im sad to leave the people here but very happy to see my family and friends again.  Im happy to be leaving the hot humid weather of Ecuador and a little nervous to jump into the icebath of northern utah.
With the bitter and the sweet going on at the same time, I'm feeling neutral.  Yep, everything feels pretty normal around here.  Im sure as I'm descending upon Utah Ill feel a bit differently, but for now, todo bien.

I realized that this is my last email to you guys from the mission... weird... -however, weird isn't too weird for me these days, Ive come to expect the weird and the unexpected.  I've seen and experienced lots of things in my time here.  Ive learned from and have taught to an entirely different culture.     ....I'm going to have a hard time giving up the rice...


-but ya wanna know one thing I wont miss?  Busses.  I hate busses.


-Love, Cameron

March.14.2016 - Montalvo, panqueques, y casas

This week´s email will be mostly pictures and captions if that will be ok.  I love you all!

  

Last p-day we took a bus through the river to get to a little town called Montalvo for some different scenery.

When we got to Montalvo, I took a picture with this guy. :D

Montalvo Is a place near the mountains (The Andes), its lush and very pretty and has coolER temperature.



It also has a deadly rushing river with a sketchy bridge the can be crossed :D






As I was going through the Montalvo pictures, I realized that Ive never really sent a picture of Babahoyo home to you guys, so, I went out and took a picture of the scechiest part of it.
10% of Babahoyo is on stilts above the swamp and you have to get to the houses using bamboo bridges, the rest of it is pretty normal.



Our investigator, Luis, has a brother who told us the he was going to Florida to go buy some clothes because name brand clothing is much cheaper in the US than in Ecuador.  He asked us in there are anything we wanted while he was there. I told him yes.
Hehe.

Sunday nights the family Chang always invites us over for dinner.  We love them and are aways grateful to them for having us in their home every week, they say that they love having missionaries in their home because they say they always feel closer to God when we´re there.  Sister Chang is from Columbia and Brother Chang´s grandfather came to Ecuador from China, their children are triple mixed between Ecuador, Colombia, and China.

Sister Chang said that I needed to cook something from the US before I went home.  So last week I said that breakfast for dinner was on me!  I made a big stack of the Howell Family Pancakes, they loved them!  I left the recipe and found a home for my measuring cups for when I leave in two weeks.



And... that is all.  Things around here are going great.  We are going to have two baptisms at the end of this month and both Luis and Fernando are really awesome!  We´re also counting 9 people as Reactivated in the church for the month of March.  The work here is going great and Im loving it.
I hope all is well back home! See you all soon!

Love,
Cameron

March.7.2016 - ¿Ir al río o dormir? eso es la pregunta...

So... haha... I don't have photos 😑 But it ain't my fault! Stinking cybers don't work sometimes.  I don't like public computers!  I want my own!  ... I guess that's on the to-do list for when I get home.

HEY THERE!

Today I'm on at the last hour of p-day because we went to Montalvo as a Zone today. Montalvo is a little town that's about an hour away from Babahoyo, there are pretty green mountains there but and a small town feel that I have always loved since BuenaFe and have never really felt since BuenaFe.   ...I miss that little town.  But it´s way to far away to go visit before I go home.  Montalvo was cool but... We basically traveled for an hour, got there, ate sandwiches and took pictures by a river in a small canyon, and then drove an hour back.  I actually felt like it was a three hour waste of my p-day.  My problem is that I've become boring.  I've discovered that the best way to spend p-day is sleeping and relaxing in the house because I'm just so dang tired all the time, its nice to take a nap.  Today I decided to give in and do something ¨fun¨ for pday, but I kinda wish I slept instead.  Oh well, two more pdays to go...

Saturday there was a 5.6 earthquake in Manabi, we felt it here in Babahoyo.  I worry about this place sometimes, if the earth shakes any harder than 6.0 houses will most likely fall down because they're just made of concrete blocks and plaster.

The same night at about 3am we had a huge thunderstorm.  One of those thunderstorms where the lightning is right above your head and you hear it in the same moment it flashes.  The rain gave a lot of people an excuse not to go to church, meh.

The rest of the things are about the same, I'm tired, but I'll probably survive three more weeks.  I reserve the rights to sleep on the plane though.

Yeah, I'll make sure I have pictures of the river excursion next week.

That's all.  See you all soon!


-Elder Cameron Howell

Feb.29.2016 - Comenzando operación: ¨Marzo de Locura¨

Hello!

Happy leap year!

So, I don't have any pictures this week.  I actually sent my SD cards and pen drive to a guy who knows how to recover data so that maybe I get some lost pictures back so that I have things to show for when I finish.  There are pictures that you all have not yet seen.

...I just hope the guy didn't cross the border with my pen drives.  I shouldn't trust people, but, I do anyways.  I don't know if it's a bad thing or a good thing.

Around here the work is going well.  The ward is progressing and we are, as usual, working our butts off to find people to teach to line up the plates for my last big bang in Ecuador.

We are commencing operation: ¨Marzo de Locura¨

Its looking like my big bang is going to end up with three baptisms, which is pretty exciting.  We are teaching a guy named Luis who is REALLY awesome.  We are just trying to help him feel excited for baptism.  Because really, he was ready before he even knew about the church.  He´s the same guy who we met when he walked into church to see what it's like on my birthday.  His name shows up in the dictionary when you look up what a golden investigator is.

Last Thursday we were having a pretty bad day.  A bad day in the sense that all of our plans and backup plans fell through and contacting wasn't going to well either.  In a moment at about five in the afternoon, we sat in the curb because we had been walking in the sun all day without much success. In that moment I thought to myself ¨what are we doing wrong? Haven´t we been doing everything in our power to do the Lord´s work with diligence today? What´s going on?¨
Not long after that thought, the phone rang. It was the Relief Society President.  She asked us if we were busy, she said that she had a friend who came to her house saying he wanted to meet with the missionaries.  WHAT?  ...that doesn't happen too often but... COOL!

We - not really busy with anything but sitting on the curb at the moment - went straight to her house and found out that a few years back he was meeting with the Elders and attending church and was just about ready to be baptised when his work made it so that he had to move out of Babahoyo. As a result he lost contact with the church.

But he recently came back to live in Babahoyo and he wants to come back to church and be baptised.
After getting to know him and setting an appointment with him while trying not to show our excitement too much, we started walking to Luis´ house because we were getting close to the appointment that we had with him that evening.

On the way to Luis, a lady stopped us in the street yelling ¨¡Elderes!¨

We stopped and went to her. She presented herself to us and explained that she recently moved to Babahoyo and that she was a member of the church.  She lived in a little town called Baba before moving here. Baba is about forty-five minutes from Babahoyo.  She said that five years before she was really active in the church, however, Baba doesn't have a ward or branch, so she had to travel forty-five minutes every week to go to church on Sundays.  After some time she gave birth to two other sons apart from the one she already had.  Her husband being in the military, it was really really tricky for her to attend church, so, she deactivated.  But now that she´s living in Babahoyo she told us that she´s committed to going to church every week. She also presented us to her oldest son, Fernando, he is 12 years old. When they were active in the church he was 7 years old.  She asked us when he could be baptised, we told her that he could be ready in three weeks.  He confirmed to us that he wanted to be baptised. And so, he shall be baptised in three weeks.

After that we went to teach Luis -which is always great because he´s always so willing to do God´s will and change his life for the good.

So after a bad day, we got to finish off with a triple whammy of an evening and a really good feeling going to bed that night. It was another testimony to me that God really loves us and is always there helping us in his work.  And I think he´s also a big fan of my March madness plan of baptising like crazy before packing my bags and going home.  :)

So, that´s how things are.  Me and Elder  Ames are still having a blast working together; teaching lessons and singing Disney songs loudly in the house at night.

....I might have to watch some Disney movies when I get back   -if I have time that is.  I have a big list of movies to watch and rewatch, but I'm not sure if I want that much couch time when Im home -there is so much to do with life and time is short!

Health wise I'm doing good, I plan to stay that way too.  There´s no use in getting sick in the last stretch.

That is all.

I love you all and I'll see you soon!
Have a good week!

-Elder Cameron Howell

Feb.22.2016 - Entrando la Puerta de Narnia y manteniendo un nivel de estres bajo a la vez

Hello!

We learned that the area south America north-west has a psychiatrist.  His name is Elder/Dr. Reaside and he came to our mission this week to give zone conferences to all the missionaries.  He gave some really good tips about stress and how to manage it.

One of my favorite parts was the part where he talked about perfectionism:  He explained that perfectionism is when you feel like you need to set high goals for yourself that you can't reach, and you get stressed when you don't reach them.  Some people feel like as members of the church we NEED to be perfect, which is more or less true, Jesus did invite us to be perfect and that is the end goal. (Matthew 5:48)

However, it's a process.  And we need to progress day by day to reach that goal, we aren't going to be perfect all at once.  It's not an excuse to not be obedient, we have to give it our all, but what he asks of us is that we are WILLING to keep all his commandments.  To be perfect you have to be willing and expect that you will fail, and get back up after you fall.

Things have been good this week, normal, really.  We have been teaching lessons, finding people, and jumping through doorways to Narnia that we found in our sector.  Best of all we are loading up March with baptismal dates so that I can go out with a bang.  :D

Really, everything here is all good, I hope you guys get my emails, It made me sad to learn that mom didn't get an email from me for the last two week even though I wrote them and sent them.  Meh.

Right, anyways, I'm gonna get working pretty soon here.  I'll see you all soon!

-Cameron

Me jumping through the gateway to Narnia (first picture) and Elder Ames (second picture)

Feb.15.2016 - Four Guys

Hey there!

Today will probably be a photo recap because I owe you all pictures. I heard that I won't be speaking in Church until the 24th of April. WHAT A RELIEF!  I like to have time to write talks, yesterday the bishop had a problem, the speaker didn't attend church.  And what do you think he did?  Five minutes before sacrament meeting started ¨Hey, Elder Howell, could you speak for ten minutes?¨  ¨...sure bishop, I love speaking for 10 minutes...¨

If Mr. Sam from my speech and debate class who taught me how to write a ten-minute talk in five minutes is reading this I'd just like to say. THANK YOU!  You saved my life.  Luckily giving a testimony can extend a talk by 2 minutes and keep the spirit too.  I spoke about the first principles Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Have I ever told you guys that I love the gospel of Jesus Christ?  It's so simple and so profound at the same time.  Go read 3 Nephi 27!

Right, so, I thought I'd start this photo email with food; For my soul delighteth in food.  First off-

We found this near the terminal in Babahoyo, we don't know how it got here but I'm sure that no one but North Americans get the joke.  The burgers aren't as good Five Guys though... they lack a guy.

I was caught eating my birthday present to me last week.  I have no regrets.

Carnaval, a holiday that I would enjoy VERY VERY much if I wasn't a missionary.  Basically, its three days of free for all water fights with paint, foam, and balloons. On the third day of Carnaval, we sat down to eat some bread and soda because the lady who was going to give us lunch went out of town for the holiday.  While we were sitting we watched a large family play Carnaval.  A girl came over to us from the party and asked if she could spray foam in our hair.  Before we could answer, she did.  After that, the family sent us over some roasted plátano and chancho from their party.  We contacted them out of gratitude.    ....Here I am talking about food again... Carnaval all and all was a full big party.

Feb.8.2016 - El Día de Amor y Amistad

Wow,

So, lots of things have happened this week.  Right now we´re in day two of the three-day holiday called Carnaval.  It's been a big party full of loud music and drinking and water balloon snipers on the roofs.  We´ve discovered that the same spirit that Samuel the Lamanite had is the spirit that we have.  Everyone who has tried to get us wet hasn't been able to hit us with their balloons, much like the arrows and the slings that the wicked used against Samuel.

The weapons of choice around here is foam spray, water, balloons, and calk-paint.  We have today and tomorrow to service, I think we´ll be able to do it!

Oh yeah!  When I say we I don't mean Elder Rojas and I.  Elder Rojas got transferred today and just a few hours ago I picked up my new companion, Elder Ames.  He´s my second North American companion and probably my last companion too seeing as I'm on my last transfer cycle. D:
He´s from South Dakota but has attended BYU Provo.  I don't know too much about him yet because in our time together we´ve only been able to go buy food and eat lunch.  However, I know now that he likes to eat at KFC (yes, there´s KFC in Ecuador), he buys cereal, eggs, milk, and green apples among other things.  I'll be sure to be entreating him all week long to be able to share details with your guys. :P

I have some good pictures but... I let another elder borrow my SD card adapter and I wasn't able to get it back from him, so... pictures will be next week too.  Sorry about that.

As for me, I'm doing alright. :)  Healthwise I'm fine, I haven't let any mosquitos give me Zika, nor will I.  Its raining right now but I haven't gotten sick from that either so... yeah, life is good.

I completely forgot valentines day was this weekend until mom emailed me... right now everyone is focused on drinking and getting each other wet, I'm sure Wednesday they´ll start remembering ¨El Día de Amor y Amistad¨

Although I forgot about valentines day I did not forget about dad´s birthday.  Happy Birthday dad!  You´re turning... a... -older than you were last year! yay! (age doesn't matter when you´re always a good looking bald guy)

I hope all is well back home. I guess Ill be seeing you all soon, but not before I get to work!

Love you all!

Cameron

Feb.1.2016 - Mis Cumpleaños, Carnaval, y Zika

Hola!

So, yesterday was my birthday.  I kinda forgot to tell members about it because... well... There isn't really time for parties in this work.  However, I got some pretty great gifts that I didn't even ask for:
In sacrament meeting a guy walked in and found us.  He said that he attended the stake conference a little while back and wanted to learn more about the church.  He attended the full three hours and afterwards we made an appointment with him.  It isn't often that a new investigator walks into church without anyone bringing them there, for me it was a huge blessing/birthday present from God. :)
After church a member came to us and told us that he has a non-member friend that would like a priesthood blessing.  That night we went with him and visited his friend.  We ended up visiting for an hour talking about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he also wants us to come back to teach him more.
God somehow knows that the best thing you can give a missionary on his birthday in new investigators.

Another thing that happened yesterday is that the APs (assistants of the mission president) called me on the phone and sang happy birthday and then told me that they found someone I knew in their sector in Guayaquil and that they wanted to talk to me.  They then passed the phone to the person and I heard Gisselas voice.

This photo is from the wedding of Gissela and Carlos September of 2014

Not sure if you guys remember Carlos and Gissela, (mom and dad kind of paid for their wedding two Septembers ago).

I got to talk to both of them on the phone yesterday and hear how they were doing. I was worrying about them for a long time, I lost contact with them when I left Buena Fe almost a year and a half ago. A few months ago, I asked the Sister Missionaries that are in Buena Fe if they knew them, and they told me no which made me a pretty discouraged.  Now I know that they moved and they now live in Guayaquil because Gissela is working there now.  She told me that she is two months pregnant with her first baby and that her and Carlos are good.  I talked to Carlos too, they are doing well.
It also helps me to know that the assistants are visiting them, I didn't ask, but I'm guessing that when they moved provinces they lost contact with the church.  Now I'm sure they are being committed to going to church and remembering the promise that they made to get sealed in the temple.  I'm going to be bugging the APs a little bit about this one.

Hearing from them ALMOST made me cry, it was one of the best birthday gifts ever.  Apart from that President Riggins called, he and Sister Riggins sang happy birthday to me.  El es un Buen dato.

Things here are going good, here is a picture of me eating cheesecake.  Cheesecake isn't at all common here, but every once and a while I can find it.  It is nothing like the cheesecake back home, but at least it brings back memories.

We are getting ready for Carnaval down here, which is one fo the biggest holidays in Ecuador.  To describe it in few words, it's a huge national water fight + beer.  Anything goes: eggs, dyed water balloons, burnt oil, foam, ect. We are going to try to be careful this week, missionaries would be great targets in a water fight.

There are people selling weapons in every corner in our sector.


...So it begins...

If I wasn't a missionary, I'd be all in.

Things here are all good.  We are making an extra effort to put on mosquito repelent these days, these is a new scare about a sickness call Zika right now.  But, not much to worry about, I kill every mosquito I see.

Thinks here are all good, I hope all is well back home.

Love you all!

Cameron

01-25-2016 - Crabs.

I was just thinking about how crazy this week is with the things that are happening in life that I'm not in control of.  The good thing is, they are all good things!

First of all, I'm turning 21 this coming Sunday, which is weird but I haven't even thought of it yet. :P

The other thing is that Jessi is headed off to the MTC in a couple days... which is weird too but probably one of the best things in the world.  The mission is the best place to be to learn and grow, I wouldn't hope anything better for anyone. Good luck out there!

Other things, well, I'm coming home in two months... which is probably the weirdest thing, but Im not to worried about that either.  What comes, comes.

One of the tricks to managing stress is not worrying about what can't be controlled.  I've been pretty dang stress free lately, the only things the stress me out are when people don't show up to church on Sundays and busses.  I hate busses. I guess being late and waiting time are also on that list, impunctuality has been one of my biggest pet peeves.

Things around here have been awesome, we are working our tales off the make next month an awesome and rewarding month, I'm also going to be working my tail off next month to make March a big finish.

That's the plan.  Plans are funny though, I think things would all work out almost always, but people's agency normally makes things go a little sideways. January has been a finding month, street contacting and working with the members has been the fab lately.  We have lots of people who are interested to learn about the gospel now though.

As always, I have to talk about food, food is important still, always will be.  Yesterday we got invited to dinner by a less active family who came to church with us.  We got there and discovered that it wasn't only dinner, it was crab. I realised that I have never really eaten a crab before.  Yeah, I've had crab meat, but I've never really eaten one leg by leg to the claws and then disarm its head and eat its organs.  It was a new experience... I liked it.  The insisted that we eat two, so, I ate two...

I once again forgot my camera... so I don't have crab pictures, nor do I have pictures this week, again...  I've been pretty bad about the picture thing lately.  I'll have to go take a bunch of shots this week and send them next week.  Sorry about that.

But yeah, things around here are all good, I suppose I'll be seeing you all soonish.  I hope all is well back home!

Love, Cameron

01.18.2016 - La Arte de no Ser Trunky y Perseverando Hasta el Fin

Hey there!

So, as many of you probably already know, I got my flight plan this week.  It's kind of weird but I made a promise to myself back when I was with Elder Lachuma FOREVER ago that I would never ever be trunky  (that is, let the desire of going home affect my effectiveness in the mission.)

I made the same resolve with my mission life that I made with my entire life:  When I end, I'm not going to die and live for awhile sitting in a chair or a bed.  I'm going to progress until I fall over running.

The time in the mission is too good to waste.  Yeah, I'm tired, but that's nothing new, I've been tired and sore for the last two years.  The only difference is that I'm tired of being tired, but that's nothing to cry about.

The gospel of Jesus Christ talks a lot about enduring to the end.

"...but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." -Mark 13:13

I believe that that applies in all aspects of life.  We have to endure to the end, if we don't, it's like standing in line in Disneyland for two hours and leaving when you only have 10 minutes to go.  ¡Necios!

We can't think that we only need to obey the laws of God of a certain time, we can't give up. Enduring to the end is until the END.  If life, work, family, trials, the mission, everything.  This principle applies. So, that is what I will do, endure to the end.  I will see you all the end of March, no sooner.

For now, I'm gonna go work my butt off some more under the Lords forging fire.

I love you all!

See you soon

Cameron

01.11.2016 ...Estoy Cansado en Verdad, Pero Animado Todavía!

Howdy! (people here tell me that's how they say hi in English)

Winding down from all the festivities, we're able to work with a regular tempo again, however, holidays are always just around the corner.  The next holiday is MY BIRTHDAY!  which I will spend working as usual.  Last year I spent my birthday with elder Taylor who took a video with his camera of me stopping in the street and listening to the children sing happy birthday to another child inside a house.  I tried to imagine that they were singing to me. ...a heartbreaking moment.

The truth is that birthdays in the mission aren't so bad, the zone usually buys a cake and we all sing together in the district meeting, plus members are good about loving missionaries.  Last year I ate good on my birthday.

The next holiday that people actually care about is Carnaval: three days of drinking cheep beer and sitting in kiddy pools while listening to reggaeton, blegh.  Carnaval is one of the more crazy holidays, it's up there with New Year's, however some say it's crazier.  It's a tricky time to work.
Here we're trying to prepare a few people to be baptised, we tracked a lot the last two weeks and we found lots of cool people.  We're hoping for some salvation to happen in February.

Also, as a mission we're all getting ready for a world wide missionary broadcast from the first presidency.  we don't know what it's going to be about but I get the feeling it will be something along the lines of missionary work.  Whatever it is, we're looking forward to it!

Everything here is good, we're pushing on with the work every day.  I hope all is well back home, I'll see you all on the other side!


Love, Cameron

01.04.16 - Happy New Year!

Hey there everyone!

Once again... I´m REALLY late and we have an appointment in twenty minutes so I'm going to be quick this week (Sorry!)

This new years eve in its own crazy way was crazy, the last one was crazy in its own way too... However, the story of this year and last year are both stories that I´m committed to not tell until I get home. :P

But really, this new year was good and don´t worry, nothing BAD happened to anyone, I just like to drive you all nuts with mysteries. (jamas voy a recordar escribir bien en ingles)

This year President Riggins gave us the regular order ¨You can NOT be on the streets later than 9:00¨ but he also added ¨I know that you all aren't going to sleep throughout the noise and music, you can stay up until midnight but NO GOING ON THE STREETS¨ Score!

We went up on the roof five minutes before midnight to see the fireworks and the city burn on the new year.

Always fun to see, the people around here always go nuts with their pyrotechnics. (JAMAS!)

We´re getting the new year started now, setting baptismal dates and finding new people to teach.

New missionaries when they come start a training program called ¨The First Twelve weeks¨  Durning this program they are in training until their twelve weeks ends.  I pulled out my old booklet from My First Twelve Weeks this week because I realized that I´m in my LAST TWELVE WEEKS as of today, I decided that I´m going to start the program again, only backwards, with the idea that I´m going to keep myself focused in these important few months. (Nadie les gustan trunkies)

But yeah, that´s it.

Dad, I´m sorry that I didn´t share christmas thoughts this week, I had today all planned out and I was going to have enough time in the cyber to write all the people that I wanted to but the dessisions (meh) of others made me loose a little time today.  Next week for sure!

I love you all and hope that you´re all having a good new year!

See you all later!

Cameron

Giant Cardboard Duck, ready to light on fire for the New Year.

12.28.15 - Release Date!

 Christmas came and went, the call home was the best part. Just to catch everyone up who weren't on the call, I got my release date the other week, I'm coming home on the 29th of March 2016.  The best two years was a big lie, turns out that it's the best year and 354 days because I started the mission on April 9th of 2014, but that's ok, it's close enough.

Christmas was fun and all, and the people around here LIKE Christmas but for the last few weeks they've been getting ready for the big party, that is, the new year.










Here for the new year they make cardbord figures the sell them, they come from in small, live sized, to twenty feet tall.





The kids run around with jars asking for money to buy fireworks to put inside their "Año viejo", the men run around in black dresses and wigs flirting for money to buy alcohol and fireworks too.

At midnight, all the fireworks go up and they burn the cardboard figures in the streets. Everyone is traveling to the beach or to be with family for the biggest party of the year.
Us? we'll be watching from the window just like we did last year.  We don't want anything to do with the danger of being in the street on new years night.

I'll send pictures of the locura next week.



Things here are all good, I hope things back home are good too.  Stay safe this new year try to stay warm!

I'll talk to you all later!


Love, Cameron

12.14.15 - Christmas and...Crickets

Hey there everyone!

Dad sent me a picture of all the snow you guys got.  I just got to wait one more year and then I'll be building snowmen.  Emma, have you learned how to use swords yet?  It's important to know that I haven't changed THAT much. ;)

Here we had a white Christmas early as well, but was a different kind of white Christmas; we got to baptise dos chicas cheveres this last Friday.  The first (on the left) was baptised by her father who was less active and the other is 15 years old and has been working with us to be baptised since I got here.











Other Christmas Preparations are also being made.  But don't worry, I'm staying focused in my progress as a missionary.

We have been getting rain in the nights and in the mornings as well.  That's the rain season here in Ecuador, we still await El Niño, however, some say its nothing more than a scare.  We will see.
Rain, however, does mean one thing: the prophecies in revalations are true.

...And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power...

...And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man...

(See Revelations 9)



Rain here means crickets, sometimes five months of crickets as there are about four or five months of rain.

Lots and lots of crickets.  No, they dont "sting" but they are annoying, they find their way into everything and they are said to eat clothes. that would be very much NOT welcome as I am in the last strech of my mission and I have no interest in losing my yellow shirts until I finish.  Crickets are to be killed and damned.  We await
 the seagulls.

Really though, all is going well around here.  I've basically over come my cold and dont plan on getting sick again.  (last rain season I had a fever of 102.5 and I will not be repeating it)

We're enjoying the Christmas season here in the mission and we're currently looking for a place where we can call home.  We have less friends among the members here in contrary to other sectors and we're trying to fix that so we can have good christmas dinners and Skype calls.

I hope all is well back home and that everyone is driving safe in the winter weather.  I remember that we always talked bad about Utah drivers and about how they had to relearn how to drive every winter.  ....I can only imagine what would happen if it snowed in Ecuador.  As crazy as they drive around here I think the streets would be a bloodbath.  ay, no voy a pensar en eso...

I love you all and wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Love, Cameron

12.7.15 - Navidad, lluvia, y mi pobre arbolito con el luz de Cristo. :)

Hola!

This week has been eventful, we went to Guayaquil to attend the temple and have a multi-zone conference with president Riggins on Thursday.  He always sends us to the temple for zone meetings, it's very important to him and I don't really complain, we get to stay the night in the temple hotel where there´s AC and hot showers, something that we don´t usually get to have.

Just before we left to go to Guayaquil, babahoyo got its first winter rain which drenched us.

Rain here means play time for the local kids.  Everyone takes off their clothes and run through the flooded allies.  Their parents don't seem to care that EcuaRain is SUPER dirty and most people get sick at this time of year because the dirt on the roofs and the pee in the streets gets kicked up into the air by the rain, I´m no exception to the sickness.
I´ve had cold symptoms for over a month now. :P

At the meeting, Sister Riggins gave us a briefing and ¨El Niño¨ and confirmed that it´s is very possible that it will hit the mission this winter and gave us the commandment to buy canned food and extra water bottles in case we get trapped in our apartments. FUN :D

Other news is that my packages came last week.  I´m enjoying the Christmas Spirit with Christmas music, a paper snow globe and my Charly Brown tree with its bright green lights.

We went to the Christmas devotional broadcast on Sunday as well.  We took a few investigators to hear mom sing.  Yes, I did see her on screen a few different times.
I liked what President Uchdorf said about the Christmas lights, I thought, my Charly Brown tree is pretty cool because it has green lights on it.

It was also really cool what he said about the Choir and how angels likely listened to the beautiful music and perhaps sang along too.  way to go MoTab!

Christmas season is great, even though its SUPER humid and SUPER hot the Christmas spirit still exists.  However, Christmas for me has always been better with bitter cold weather, hot chocolate by the fireside and family.  I just have to wait for next year. :P

I hope all is well back home, all is well here.  Remember to enjoy the season and the cold weather.  I love you all!

Cameron

11-30-2015 - Vídeo de Navidad

Hello everyone!

Last Friday President Riggins came to Babahoyo and the other zones in the mission to show us all a video that the Church put out for Christmas.
We got to see it early so that we could know what was comming and that we could start handing out pass-along cards promoting the video.

I went up yesterday (Sunday)  and I thought I'd start sharing by sharing it with all my friends and family back home. :)


BOOM, LINK!

Things this week have been going well enough.  We've hit a few walls but that's ok -Walls exist for a reason; getting around them is part of the intended path.
We're getting things ready for Christmas and the new year.  People are starting to make their año viejos to burn on new year's night.
New Year is a bigger party than Christmas, I'm not too sure why, I like Christmas best.
Christmas is cool for missionary work because people are already thinking about Christ or know that they ought to be, so teaching lessions is a little bit easier.  That and we can carol and stuff!

I did miss Thanksgiving.  If a remember right, I ate two rolls that I bought on the street on Thanksgiving.  They were over salty and a little stale.  They aren't anything like the fresh buttery rolls that thanksgiving ought to have.  *sigh* People generally don't eat turkey here, apparently it's expensive.  I've never had a turkey sandwich here... when I mention the legendary "turkey sandwich" people look at me funny and ask "¿existe jamón de pavo?"

¡SI! (yes, sometimes my emails require google translate)

Yeah... I'll be home for Christmas however. ...next year. :) Thanks for sending pictures of thanksgiving, it's cool to see everyone.  I'm starting to locate members with computers here that we can use to call on Christmas.

I hope all is well back home and I'll be writing soon. :)

Love, Cameron