Brandon's Ecuadorian Tales

We had 3 baptisms this week. Adriana, Isabel, and Francisco. Adriana is 15. We’ve been teaching her and her family ever since I got here. She wanted to get baptized a while ago but her family didn’t want her to. So we just kept teaching them and working with them and eventually they gave her the OK. We’re still teaching the rest of the family and the mom wants to get baptized now but is afraid of what her extended family will think because they are all devout Catholics. They also have another 18 year old daughter named Fernando that has been progressing very well. We haven’t taught the dad that much because he is always working and doesn’t like to take a break and listen to us but we’re going to try and focus on him now because if he can gain a testimony then its likely that the rest of the family will get baptized. Isabel is 11 and Francisco is 9. They are brother and sister. Their mom is a prostitute and left them with one of the ladies in the ward. They’ve been through some rough stuff in their childhood. Francisco was too young to remember anything but Isabel has memories of horrible things that her mom did. It will really help them a lot if they keep coming to church and keep learning more and more. The problem is that the lady that takes care of them has back problems and can’t walk to church. The only way she can get there is if she takes a taxi but she never has money for that. And we can’t go pick them up every week because we have other investigators that we have to pick up. But hopefully they’ll be able to come a lot and keep learning and progressing

(Baptsim - Isabel and Fransisco)
This week we have 2 more baptisms scheduled for Saturday. Eleanor and Alexander. Their parents are members but inactive so the plan is to baptize the kids and then keep working with the parents to try and re-activate them. The gospel works best in families so if the whole family can become active they’ll be set. We were supposed to have another girl get baptized this week but she wasn’t able to come to church this week so now she has to wait until next week.

(Baptism - Adriana)
Elder Lopez and I have been sick all week. We think we got a parasite from drinking some bad water. It’s been kinda miserable but don’t worry, we’re ok now. We took “the bomb” which is a series of pills that cleans out all the parasites. But now we have to be careful because you can only take the bomb so often so if we get parasites again soon we’ll just have to deal with them.

(Bus Station in Quito)
I had to go to Quito on Wednesday because all the new elders had to go back for their censos and they couldn’t go without a senor companion so the zone leaders made me go with them. But then when we got there we found out that we couldn’t get their censos for a couple more weeks so basically the trip was a waste. But we got to go to the nurse and get “the bomb” and we got to eat pizza hut for lunch so I guess it wasn’t a complete waste

(Merry Christmas from Esmeraldas!)
A few days before Christmas we had a zone activity where we went and sang Christmas hymns in a big park in the middle of downtown Esmeraldas. We got some weird looks and not that many people came to watch us sing but it was still fun. Christmas isn’t a big deal here. Its almost just like a normal day. A lot of people just celebrate by getting drunk the night before and then sleeping all day. Oh and all the kids here got airsoft guns-ALL OF THEM! They’ve been running around having wars for the last couple days. One of them even decided it would be funny to shoot the tall white guy in the head…. Haha but no worries, it didn’t hurt because they don’t have very powerful guns.

I met a guy this week that offered me a full time job as an English teacher. He just saw me and started speaking English to me and telling me that he is in charge of the English department and some school and that they are looking for teachers. I had to tell him that I can’t do that because I’m a missionary but that we have English classes twice a week at the church. Oh and speaking of English. I met a lady in the mall today that is from Chicago but lives here because she married an Ecuadorian guy. She’s lived here since 1997 and has 2 little girls that speak English and Spanish.

Anyway, I hope all is going well back home. I sent a few letters this week. Thanks to everyone that has written me so far! If I haven’t written you back yet, write me again and demand me to write you back and I will eventually! I hope everyone had a merry Christmas. Happy New Year!

I hope all is going well back in the states! This week has been good for me
On Tuesday I traveled to Quito to pick up my new companion. Luckily we didn’t get pulled over and searched this time. His name is elder Lopez. He’s from Colorado Springs but he was born in Puerto Rico and he speaks perfect Spanish. It’s been fun to have another American as a companion. And it’s really nice to be able to speak in English once and a while. We’ve been working hard and have 3 baptisms set up for this Saturday and we should have a few more next Saturday as well. We have a goal to get 12 baptisms this change. It will take a lot of hard work but I think we can do it.


This is the 3 trainers from Esmeraldas in Quito picking up our new companions. Elder lopez is the one on Brandon's right (the navy blue tie)

On Friday we went and painted a members house so they offered to feed us lunch. It was a bit of a culture shock when they came out with the soup and I noticed that it had 5 huge chicken feet in it. Even the Latin missionaries that were there were shocked when they saw that. It didn’t taste too bad the so that was good. It was basically just a bunch of fat.




I don’t have that much time left so I have to end now. Thanks for all your support! I’ll try and take more pictures to send this week!

Hey everyone,
How are you all doing. This week has been good for me. We´ve been teaching a lot and we now have 11 investigators with baptismal dates. Statistics say that they won’t all get baptized but we´ll see what we can do about that. Its been amazing to see how much help we´ve gotten so far and I’m sure we´ll continue to receive the help we need as long as we put in the work. I´m excited to see what happens within the next few weeks.



Well I guess the biggest news this week is that we had changes yesterday and my companion left for another zone. I´m staying here in Esmeraldas and I was called to be a trainer. So I have to go to Quito tomorrow to pick up my new companion and bring him back here. It was a pretty big shock to here that I was going to be training after just 6 weeks. Especially since I still don’t speak Spanish very well. Hopefully my companion will be native again or else it will be pretty rough. Theres one other elder from my mtc district that got called as a trainer as well so at least i´m not alone. We´re definitely gonna be pushed to our limits in the next 6 weeks and we´re definitely gonna learn a lot! I´m still not sure which was more overwhelming, when I first got here, or when they told me I was gonna be a trainer. I´m just gonna work as hard as I can and put my trust in the Lord and i´m sure he´ll continue to help me. If theres one thing that i´ve learn so far since i´ve been here its how to really trust in the Lord.



So remember the picture that I sent of the me holding the chicken last week? well… I don’t really know how to say this softly… Elder larrea killed it this week. Apparently it stopped laying eggs so the family decided to just kill it and eat it…. And unfortunately we were there when it happened. They brought it out right as we were leaving and my companion decided that it was an opportunity for service so he volunteered to kill it for them. I´m not gonna tell you how he did it. It was pretty sad. It was one of the culture shocks of this week



So latelty there have been a lot of fires here. Like right next to where i´m at. I´m not sure how they start or if they are intentinal or what. Everyone else doesn´t even think twice about it so I guess its normal. But it makes the air quality horrible! Theres huge ashes everywhere. When we got back to our apartment one day our floor was covered in ashes because they had all come through the whole that we have in our wall above our door. I remember once in California there were fires and they wouldn´t let us go outside for lunch because the air was so bad. But here its practically like breathing smoke and everyone is just outside. Its pretty gross.



On Wednesday night we got done with our last appointment earlier so we decided to knock some doors until it was time to go home. On our last door of the night we ran into a guy that is tau (that’s super rare here) and he let us in and when we tried to teach him he just started preaching to us about how the universe is run off energy and how there are 7 demensions and we´re in the3rd dimension and how we have 7 bodies and how Christ ascended out of hell to come to this world. It was rather bizarre. Then he started telling us about how the sun receives its energy from a more glorious star and how that star gets its energy from a more glourious star and he started naming the stars. I was hopeing that he would say that one of them was named kolab but he never did. Anyways, it was just a bizarre experience.

Thanks for you support and your emails and letters! I love you guys!

Sorry! Its finals week, but here's his e-mail this week!

Hey everyone, I hope all is well at home. Let me tell you about this week in Ecuador.

On Monday night at midnight all the new guys and a few others that had to renew their visas got on a bus headed for Quito (its about a 7 hour drive from Esmeraldas to Quito). We were all really tired and fell asleep pretty quick. But at about one in the morning we were awaken when the bus came to a stop and some cops came on and told us all that we had to get off. I wasn’t sure what was going on so I just went with it. When I stepped off the bus I noticed that we were in the middle of nowhere and there were a bunch of cops with big assault rifles with there fingers on the triggers. I asked another missionary what was happening and he said they were checking for drugs since we were coming from near Columbia. Anyways, then they made us all line up against the bus and started going down the line checking everyone one by one-patting them down searching there bags and checking there IDs. That’s when I realized that I didn’t have any ID on me whatsoever. I asked one of the missionaries what I should do and he just said to tell them that I was going to Quito to get my censo and that I was a missionary. When they got to me they asked me for my ID and I said I didn’t have it and they started to get really mad. So then one of the other missionaries tried to them but that just made them madder. Then one of the Cops with the big assault rifles starts walking towards us (that was pretty scary) and started talking to the other cops. Anyway, long story short the guy with the gun ended up convincing the other ones that we were their friends and they let us go. It was pretty scary for a while though.

Quito was really cool though. I remember when we first landed there and got out of the airport and I thought it was the most ghetto place I had ever seen. But after being in Esmeraldas for a while and going back it seemed like one of the nicest places I had ever seen. All of us Esmeraldas guys were way excited to be there. We had donuts for breakfast and McDonalds and pizza hut for lunch. And we went to the mission office and I got 6 packages and a bunch of letters. I wish I could write everyone that sent me something to tell them thanks you but I don’t have the time. So can you please extend my thanks to everyone that has sent me something- both sets of grandparents, the Rowes, the Gromans, and there might be more that I cant remember right now. But anyway, Quito was way awesome. I definitely won’t complain if I ever get sent there. They have pretty much everything that we have in the states.

So other than my trip to Quito the rest of the week was normal. We have 10 investigators with baptismal dates for the 26th so were working hard to make sure we can prepare them all. Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and right after it started no one was getting up so I decided I would just break the ice and went up and bore my testimony first. Then it was good after that. One of our investigators got up and bore their testimony about how they’d been searching for the truth their whole life and finally found it and how they wanted to share it with all there friends and family. His name is Emiro. He really wants to get baptized but is trying to save up enough money to go to Columbia and divorce someone so that he can marry someone else that he’s living with now.

We went to the Christmas devotional last night but the satellite didn’t work so we didn’t get to watch it. I was bummed because I had been looking forward to it all week.

We found a huge rat in our apartment and my companion told me that it was big enough to eat our feet so hopefully that doesn’t happen. Haha

Anyways, I love you all. Thanks for your emails, letters, and packages!


p.s. Lindsey, can you tell everyone that has written me that I’m trying to right them back as fast as I can and I promise I will get back to them eventually! Oh and if you haven´t already, you can post my pictures on facebook or on my blog. Thanks! :D

I finally got a whole e-mail from him today! I didn't have to piece anything together. I apologize for the lack of an update last week. It was a crazy week and I didn't get a whole e-mail from him so it wasn't really easy. But here's this week's e-mail. At the end I'll have some information about packages again, so read through to the end....

~Lindsey~

Hey everyone.
This week was pretty good. We were busy all week and taught a lot of lessons and did a huge service Project. On Tuesday I went on divisions with my district leader and that was really good. He’s American too. I was amazed at how much we got done. We were working hard all day and actually accomplished all our goals (that usually doesn’t happen). And we were in my sector so I had to lead and plan everything so it was really good practice and I felt like I learned a lot.

We went to a meeting with the bishopric this week and they were talking about who they could call as a Ward misión leader to help us out. They started talking about one guy in particular but eventually decided no because he talks to fast that some people cant understand him (that was fun for me to hear because if native Spanish speakers cant understand him how in the world am I gonna understand him…. I hope there’s not many people that talk like that haha)

Baptism - Maria

Were teaching a 12 year old boy that reminds me a lot of Jason and I was talking to him about Jason and how he likes soccer and stuff. He is a Barcelona fan and asked me what team Jason like and I told him Barcelona and real Madrid and he said that you cant like both of those teams so I said I would ask which one he liked more. So Jason, what is your favorite team in Spain?

I found out this week that there used to be 5 stakes in Esmeraldas but something happened a couple years back and it all fell down into just 1. So I guess now were trying to build it all back up.
I spoke in church on Sunday. I talked about missionary work and how all of our friends and neighbors our really our brothers and sisters that accepted gods plan before coming to this earth and how we all have the

responsibility to teach them the góspel and the plan of salvation. I hope everyone understood everything I said. I think they did.

We had a service Project this week. We poured concrete in front of someone’s house and had to scrape a bunch of cement of there walls and said them down so that they can paint them. They made us lunch in exchange for our service.

this is the little boy that was at the service project. he liked to be help by the tall white people

A few days ago they opened a mall here in Esmeraldes. Its basically like a mini versión of park meadows (very mini). But it basically made my life to go there today. They have a food court with a kfc! All us gringos were more tan excited about that. It means that we can eat kfc once a week on pday. And it has a huge grocery store with almost everything that we wanted. I bought a bunch of goodies and some pancakes and syrup. I’ve been eating pancakes this week but they were some Ecuadorian brand and I had to make my syrup myself and it was pretty sketchy. But this week I have aunt jemima syrup and pancakes so I’m excited about that. And tomorrow ill be in Quito to take care of some visa stuff and the other Americans said that well be able to go to McDonalds there so I’m way excited about that. Haha I never thought id be excited to go to McDonalds again….

On Saturday night we got home and were trying to go to bed but there was a party going on the 1st floor of my apartment (we live on the 2nd floor right above the party). They had music BLASTING… like my bed was literally shaking. And they were all drunk and screaming super loud and they didn’t stop until 4 in the morning. And there was nothing we could do about it. I don’t know how I did it but I managed to at least get some sleep while all this was going on but my companion didn’t get any. So we were pretty tired when we woke up at 630 on Sunday. Apparently they don’t have any laws here about loudness because stuff like that happens every weekend. Usually its not right below us though.

We taught a guy this week that thought I was a spy at first (that’s not that uncommon here, some people think that any American that comes here is a spy). He almost wasn’t gonna listen to us but then I started teaching him about families and he ended up telling us that he felt good when we were teaching and was gonna listen to us more. Then after the lesson we started talking about soccer and I told him about how dad and I went to England and saw all those games and he was really interested and started asking me all these questions and told me that he used top play professional in Quito. Anyway, it was just cool because he thought I was a spy at first and then ended up warming up to me and allowing us to teach him more.

Right now we have 5 investigators with baptismal dates for December. Caterina, we originally challenged her to get baptized the last week in December but she wanted to do it sooner so we moved it up to the 3rd week. She still has to come to church 2 more times and get married or move away from the guy she’s living with. Maite, she’s 16 and her grandma is a member. She’s not sure if its all true yet but she has a date for the last week in December so were gonna keep teaching her and helping her gain a testimony. Nicole, she is 12 and wants to get baptized but so far her dad isn’t willing told et her so were gonna see what we can do about that. Fransisco and Isabel, they’re Chinese but there mother left them here 2 years ago and a lady in the Ward took them in. We don’t really have any problems with them though. We just have to teach them more and strengthen their testimonies. And we have a bunch of other investigators that are progressing really well so basically the work is going good. Were just trying to work hard and do as much as we can to support the Ward and our investigators.

I haven’t gotten any packages yet. I got 7 letters on Friday which made my day! Getting letters always makes my day. I just have to find time to write everyone back. If you send anymore packages can you stick some pictures in it so I can see how you all are doing. I just realized the other day that when I get back Jason and Desi will probably have grown like a foot each. Anyway, I love you all! Thanks for your letters and support!!!

-Elder Messer

So I told Brandon about a friend of mine that also poured ants out of his cereal one day on his mission in OGDEN, UT...and this picture was Brandon's response to me..."Steven may have had bug problems, but let me assure you, mine are different."

Ok...in the last week we have sent Brandon quite a few packages in hopes that they will get there for Christmas. It is quite expensive to send them through DHL, Fed Ex, UPS, etc - However, that would be the guaranteed way to get it there. We've sent them through the US postal service which will then go through to the local mail service in Ecuador to the mission home. We're not sure yet whether or not the mail system can be trusted and we're hoping that everything we sent him will actually get there...In order to get the green sticker that needs to go on the package it needs to be under 4.0 pounds. Anything above 4 pounds and the post office requires you to use a white one. So just so you're aware if you send him a package it needs to be under 4 pounds and it MUST carry a GREEN sticker not a white one. Thanks for all your prayers and support! Our family is very grateful to you!

~Lindsey~

This week we got a couple different e-mails so I tried to piece them together as best I could - Sorry if some things seem out of order.

~Lindsey~


Hey dad, thanks for you emails. Thanks for all the advice. Things have been going better. Each day gets a little better but its still tough. my personal study in the mornings is saving me. I’ve been reading through first Nephi and it seems like everything in there applies to me right now. I’m sure with a lot of hard work and struggling I’ll be able to learn the language and stuff. its just frustrating right now because everyone keeps telling me that it takes months before you feel comfortable. but I’ll just keep working and praying and I’m sure everything will turn out alright. I think the physical stress of everything is the hardest part right now but I’m slowly getting used to it.

Thanks for all the advice about the apartment and living conditions. I’ll definitely have to try some of those. I was gonna buy a bunch of cleaning supplies and zip lock bags today but we didn’t have any money so I’ll have to wait for next week. we were supposed to get 90 bucks today but it didn’t come. I only have 10 bucks left because my companion used all his money so I’ve been loaning him money for like a week. (another north American told me that Latin’s do that a lot and if I’m lucky he’ll pay me back. but I’m gonna make sure he pays me back. I still have 60 dollars of my own but I didn’t have it with me when we took the bus to the store because we’re not supposed to have a lot of money in case we get robbed and because I was expecting to withdraw money when we got the downtown area. And yea I’ve mastered the shower technique so don’t worry about sending that solar thing I’ll just tough out the cold water for now. Maybe ill get transferred to Quito soon where they have hot water. who knows. Everyone keeps telling me that I’ll probably stay here for like 7ish months.
And don’t worry about sounding like a preaching dad because that’s what I need right now, good fatherly advice. I’ve been trying to just do my best to testify powerfully. its hard sometimes because elder larrea really focuses on being friendly because that’s the Latin culture. He’s almost more interested in being friends and having fun with people than preaching the gospel. But I’ve been trying to keep him focused a bit. Its kinda tough but I’ll keep working on it.
We were supposed to have zone conference tomorrow and Wednesday but president Sloan is in the hospital with pneumonia so he’s not coming. But tomorrow we’re going on splits with the APs so I’m sure they’ll help out.
Anyway, thanks for all the advice and love! You’re an awesome dad and you’re always there for me! I love you!

We had the baptism on Friday and it was good. The girl that got baptized is named Maira and she’s 22. she had been investigating the church for 6 months before I got here she already knew almost everything and I didn’t have to help much with teaching her. the guy that was supposed to be baptized last week still wants to. The thing here is that no one takes schedules seriously so he said he would be baptized but then he had to go to school that day so he couldn’t make it. we’re trying to work out another time for him to get baptized though

I’m in a super ghetto part of Esmeraldes. Its just west of the river. One of the elders I know is serving right next to the river and he has to take a 3 hours canoe ride once in a while to get to one part of his area haha. But yea, I haven’t seen any nice places yet. Some places are nicer than others but everything I’ve seen is pretty poor. The ward I’m in is called Propicia. I don’t know if you can look that up or something.

I’ll let you know when i get the packages! Thanks for sending them! Also, you can send packages through dearelder.com that might be cheaper. I’m not sure. But I definitely know that they get here faster. i think you can just send food and goodies in those though.

Everyone here will listen and a lot of people will just be baptized. The problem is that the retention rate is really low! a lot of times people are baptized but the culture is so lazy here that they just go inactive in like a week. Even some of the ´´active members´´ only come like every other week. We had like 50 people in church yesterday and that was considered a lot. I had to bless the sacrament and lead the music. I would have had to play the piano but they don’t have one right now.

If you send packages make sure and put a green sticker on it and follow the instructions that we got from president Sloan. if you transfer money to my account put it in checking’s. They don’t have much familiar food here. Oreos, Doritos, cereal. Not much. You can send food through dearelder.com and it might be cheaper but I’m not sure. Just keep emailing me and I’ll start printing them in the morning and then emailing you back later after I’ve read them. I have a calling card but I’m not sure how it will work yet. I’ll let you know when I find out.Anyways, right now any type of American food/candy/treats would be good. Thank you so much for you support! I love you!

Mom thanks for your email. It always makes my day to hear from you. it seams like all the new guys are having a hard time right now so that makes me feel a bit better to know that this is normal. I’ve been trying to just push through it and do what I know I need to even when it’s hard. And its definitely helped a lot! Every morning I wake up sick and run straight to the bathroom but that’s been getting better and better day by day. I just force myself to study and to go to work and that always helps. Its funny that you should mention that picture about Christ hugging a black child because most of the people here are black. In fact I’m scheduled to baptism a little 9 year old black boy next Friday. His mom is a semi inactive member/recent convert so we’ve been teaching him and he decided to be baptized this week. Every time we teach him it’s in his tiny backyard sitting on stumps with chickens, ducks, birds, and dogs running around everywhere. Its always fun to go teach him. we’re also teaching a little 12 year old boy and he wants to get baptized but his dad wont let him so we’re working on that. In the mean time we’ve just been taking him to church and I’ve been helping him with his English homework.And the advice about music is really good. I started listening to my efy music every morning and it really helps a lot. So if you send more music i would love it!And I loved how you compared my situation to Nephi’s family because that’s what I’ve been reading during my personal study and it’s really helped me a lot. Anyway, thank you for you support and love and advice! I love you!

Random things about this week:
some kid told me i was Wayne Rooney’s brother
my companion has started making a blow torch with his deodorant and matches to kill the bugs.
Happy birthday Jason! sorry I’m a little late! I’ll bring you a birthday present in 2 years!
at least once a day the lights go out and when it happens at night we have to hurry and get to a safe area so we don’t get robbed or hurt
The lights went out during a baptism on Saturday so we had to use candles. it was cool and I thought it made it prettier
Yesterday we taught a family of 11 that lives in a small shack that is about half the size of my room at home. they kept telling be to speak English and one of the girls gave me one of her rings (haha not sure what that means)
Everyone here listens to American music so i always hear familiar songs when I’m walking down the street. And everyone’s stereo is worth more than there house. their priorities are a littler messed up haha