Brandon's Ecuadorian Tales

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~