Brandon's Ecuadorian Tales

Hey everyone, sorry I haven`t written in a while. A lot of stuff has happened like internet going out and getting an emergency change. I`m now in the southern part of Quito. My zone is called “zona chillogallo” and let me tell you things are a lot different here. I`m going to make a list of all the positive things about being in quito:

1) I get to shower with hot water

2) Its not 95 degrees everyday. Instead its usually around 70 (perfecto)

3) My apartment is 1000000000000000 times better than my apartment in esmeraldas. It has wood floors and theres no bugs or lizards or mud or dirt. Oh and it has real windows instead of just holes in the wall.

4) I don’t sweat in my sleep. It does get kinda cold over night but I have blankets so its not a huge deal

5) I have mcdonalds, KFC, Pizza hut, and many other wonderful restaurants IN MY SECTOR (that means any time we don’t have a lunch appointment with a member we get to eat wonderful American fast food)

6) There is a ridiculous amount of support from the ward here. We have appointments to go out with members almost everyday this week.

7) Everyone here speaks super clear Spanish that is super easy to understand

Other good news:

1) I have a cell phone now (now when I feel something vibrating in my pocket I know that its not just my imagination or the famous “phantom vibrate”)

2) We just found out that president sloan is going to let us watch the world cup games on Monday

3) I have a gringo companion(Elder Brailsford from Mesa Arizona)that is brand new so we get to experience all the crazy culture shocks together and make jokes about them haha

4) My companion has a guitar and we`ve been learning some hymns. (if anyone has guitar tabs for hymns I would love if you could send them to me)

Basically I like being in Quito so far. Although I was pretty sad when I left Esmeraldas because there was a family that I had been teaching for a long time that was about to get baptized and I had to leave all my hard work behind. But that’s what happens on the mission sometimes. I really wanted to be there when they got baptized but its all good. I saw miracles with that family. They went from being a completely broken family to accepting the gospel and finding joy in their lives. The dad went from being a completely drunk to a loving father. Hopefully I can have similar experiences here in my new sector. This week has been kinda hard since my companion and I are both new here so we`ve been pretty lost. We had investigators with baptismal dates but we didn`t know where they lived so we`ve been working frantically this week to try and find all the investigators and all the members who feed us lunch and stuff like that. Anyway, that’s about all I have for right now. I love you all and hope everything is going good for everyone back in the states. Until next week.

Hey everyone,

Another transfer just ended and my old companion (Elder Lopez) is on his way home. I`m getting a new companion named Elder Chavez. So far I don’t know much about him. Hes from Guatemala and has been out for 3 ½ months less than me. Hopefully hes a hard worker! These last few weeks have been a little difficult because I had a companion that was going home. It made me a little homesick thinking about him going home. But hopefully all of that will wear off as we get back out to work this week. Oh and I got sick this week so that was kinda lame too. I`m not sure what it was from. I think I must have eaten something weird or maybe someone gave me water that wasn`t purified or something like that. I wasn`t able to work Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. But i`m pretty much better now so all is well.

We were going to have a baptism this week but the guy had problems with question 4 in his interview so now he has to wait and get interviewed by president sloan to see if he can get baptized. We`re keeping our fingers crossed.

I don’t really have much to tell about this week since I was sick in bed for half the week…. We did a service project on Wednesday where we helped a lady start to build a new house. We dug a couple of house and put some pieces of wood in them. It was a rather easy service compared to some of the others that we`ve done.

Yesterday there were 3 small earthquakes here. Elder Lopez and I were in our house and it started shaking. The fist thing I did was run outside because I didn`t want to be inside if it collapsed. Luckily the earthquakes were really small and really quick so there was no damage. Hopefully they don’t come back. Our house is only made of cinder blocks and cement… its not all the sturdy... hopefully if there is a big earthquake it will be during the day when we`re not at home.

Anyway, that’s about all that happened this week. I hope everything is going well for everyone back home! Until next week!

-Elder Messer

Jordy's Baptism

Hey everyone! So this week has gone really well… better than most weeks I would say. We have found a few new families that we are teaching that we`re excited about. It’s always a big deal when we find a family that will listen because there are hardly any families here and if we do manage to find a family they usually don`t want to listen. But we have found 3 in the last 2 weeks so we`re excited about that. Also, we had a baptism on Saturday. We baptized a young man named Jordy. We met jordy about 4 months again when I was with the other Elder Lopez (the one that I trained). We were just walking down a street and I had a book of mormon in my hand and jordy saw it and came up and started asking me about it. I showed him the pictures in the front of the book and explained about how Nephi and his family came to the Americas from Jerusalem and how the book of mormon tells the story of their family and of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent. He had tons of questions so we set up an appointment to come back. We started teaching his brother and sister and his mom as well but they weren`t as interested as he was. His mom is really hard to deal with. Her heart is super hard and she gets offended really easily. She has been the biggest opposition to the progression of Jordy. He was going to get baptized a few weeks ago but his mom wouldn`t give permission. Jordy begged and begged her and she finally said yes. On Saturday we passed by jordy`s house to remind make sure that he was going to show up to his baptism on time (here it is very normal to show up 30 minutes to 1 hour late) and we found him crying. Some of his aunts and uncles had come by his house and invited his family to go to the beach. When he told them that he couldn`t go because he was getting baptized they started giving him a hard time and telling him that he had been brainwashed and stuff like that. And he really wanted his mom and his brothers and sisters to come to his baptism but they had decided to go to the beach instead. We gave him some encouraging words and explained that whenever we get closer to God there is always a greater opposition. Its becoming predictable to me. For almost every baptism that we`ve had so far something has happened either right before or right after. Anyway, he got baptized despite the opposition from his family and was confirmed on Sunday. His mom ended up feeling bad for not coming to his baptism so she came on Sunday and watched him receive the Aaronic priesthood.

We have another baptism scheduled for this Saturday. Its for a man named Harlington. He has been to several different churches and has studied the Bible a lot. He has been coming to church for like 6 weeks now and went to all of the sessions of general conference. He is very motivated when it comes to religion. There are still a lot of things that he doesn`t understand perfectly because he has been to so many churches and has so many different ideas mixed up in his head but he has a testimony and believes the book of mormon is true and the joseph smith was a prophet so we`re gonna baptize him next week. His interview is scheduled for tonight.

Random thing that I ate this week: Cow utter……. Surprisingly it wasn`t that bad. They didn`t tell me what it was till after I ate it which is good because if I would have known it might have tasted a lot worse… haha

This is the last week of the change so that means my companion goes home in a week and i`ll get a new one. I`ll let you know what happens next week.

We just found out that the 1st councilor in our bishopric (one of the 4 priesthood holders that we have and one of the strongest members in the ward) is moving this week so that might take its toll on the ward. We`ll see what happens.

Anyway, that’s all for this week! Thanks to everyone who has sent me letters! I`m in the process of writing back right now. I love you all!

I'll put pictures on facebook soon! I promise! There's not very many...only like 4...but coming soon!

April 5, 2010

Hey everyone! I hope all is well back home. This week has been good for me. It was full of meetings and conferences. We almost didn`t get to work at all this week. Monday was pday, Tuesday we worked until 3 and then had interviews and meeting for the rest of the day, Wednesday was zone conference, Thursday is weekly planning and district meeting, Friday was a normal day of work, Saturday was 3 sessions of general conference, and Sunday was another 2 sessions. Needless to say we didn`t get much work done this week. We spent a lot of time getting taught and not as much time teaching others. But it was a nice change of pace. It’s the closest thing to a vacation that i`ve had since i`ve been on my mission. But its over now and this week will be full of hard work. Conference was good though. I liked elder oaks talk in priesthood meeting about giving priesthood blessings and I liked elder hollands talk too… like always. I just like how he speaks. I especial liked his joke about tea. It was pretty funny I thought.

In zone conference we studied alma 32. President sloan spent a lot of time talking about “the poor in heart”. He said that the poor in heart have no dreams or goals and have the philosophy “I was born this way so that’s how ui`m gonna stay forever” faith doesn`t exist for them because they don’t think change or better things are possible and they have no hope. Then on Thursday (the day after zone conference I met someone exactly like that. I was waiting at line in the ATM and some guy came up and started talking to me. He told me all about how poor he was and how jesus taught that we should give to the poor and that obviously if I was a representative of jesus that meant that I should give him money. Then he went on about how he doesn`t have a house and how he sleeps on the beach and gets wet by the waves everynight. I wanted to say, “That’s sucks, if I was you I wouldn`t sleep on the beach.” He didn`t understand that he could change his situation. He thought that since he was born sleeping on the beach and getting wet that that is how he had to stay forever. We told him that if he wanted our help that he should come to church Sunday and we would teach him there how HE could change his life.

Were taching a lesson this week in a little store of one of our investigaters when all of a sudden someguy walking by got tackled and taken away by the police. The police were really rough with him and had their guns out an everything and all the nieghbors left there houses and surrounded to watch. Then he got taken away in the back of a police truck. Apparently he had robbed someone earlier so they took him to jail. I wonder what the jail is like here. I`m pretty sure that jail in the US is nicer that how a lot of people live here so I wonder what the jail conditions are like her. Probably not very good.

We were knocking doors on Friday and ran into the uncle of Antonio valencia (a soccer player that plays for manchester united). It turns out that he is a member but inactive. He said that he used to be the elders quorum president and we was a ward mission leader. He said that when he went to church there was 150 people every week. I am curious to no what happened between then and now because now we are lucky to have 60 and there is no elders quorum president or ward mission leader. But anyway, I thought it was cool that I ran into the uncle of a soccer player that plays for my favorite team. Apparently antonio valencia is from esmeraldas. Hes a person that has done something with his life. To go from esmeraldas to professional soccer player for one of the best teams in the world is quite an accomplishment I think.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. I Love you all! Until next week!


March 29, 2010

Hey everyone,

Let me tell you about this week in Esmeraldas. I think I told you last week about Jordy.. He`s 12 years old, really smart, has been reading the book of mormon everyday from the beginning, and really wants to get baptized but his mom didn`t want him to. The good news is that this week we managed to get his mom to sign the baptismal form so now he can get baptized. The semi-bad news is that they went out of town this weekend so he couldn`t get baptized this week end and next weekend is general conference so now he has to wait to more weeks. But that’s not that big of a deal. But it’s kinda frustrating for him because he wants to get baptized right away. You should have seen him when his mom signed the form. He was super excited and started hugging and kissing his mom and telling her thank you like 100 times. It was also a really big victory for us because we`ve been trying to win the confidence of his mom for a really long time. She got super offended a while ago because she offered us tea and we told her that we couldn`t drink it. Its taken a lot of work and diligent kindness to win her confidence.

We did a service project this week where we had to hike to the top of a huge mountain and then clear out a huge spot to grow crops. The grass was like 4 feet tall so we used machetes. It was kinda fun but really hot and it was hard work swinging a machete for an hour straight.

Random: Have you seen the picture at the beginning of chapter 14 of the new gospel principles book? Everyone here thinks that the guy on the right is me. Like they seriously think its me and ask me how I got in that picture. And for all of you from BYU last year; the guy kneeling down in the middle kinda looks like spencer cleg…. At least I think so.

The only other exciting thing that happened this week was that I ate cuy (guinea pig) for the first time. I got to see the whole process from it being killed to eating it. It was quite the cultural experience and I took lots of pictures. There were 3 of them and it was kinda sad because 2 of them were pregnant(we found out when they were pulling the guts out and found babies) and one of them had twins that were about to be born in 2 weeks. It actually didn`t taste that bad. Its not like chicken or beef. Its unique. I don’t really now how to describe it. Maybe i`ll make some for everyone to try when I get back…kidding(unless you really want to try it)

I`m really looking forward to this week because its zone conference Tuesday and Wednesday and general conference on Saturday and Sunday. I`m praying that i`ll be able to watch conference in English. For the Christmas devotional they had an English room for the American missionaries so i`m hoping it will be the same. If not….. at least the music is in English. I should be able to understand the talks in Spanish, its just a lot easier and more comfortable in English.

My companion goes home in 3 weeks so hes starting to get a little trunky… haha. I`m not gonna lie; him being trunky is making me a little trunky. Sometimes I catch myself thinking about the day a land back in the states and I have to stop myself and get refocused.

Well that’s about it for this week. I hope all is going well for everyone back home! Write me letters and keep me updated on everything!

-Elder Brandon Messer




March 22, 2010

This week has gone well for Elder Lopez and I. It was filled with challanges but we also had some succeses. The biggest challange lately has been with the members. We havn`t had a ward mission leader in a while so this week we asked the bishop if he could call one. He told us that he didn`t know who to call and asked us for suggestions. We started naming people but every person that we named isn`t allowed to have a calling right now. Other than the bishop ric there is only one other melquesidek priesthood holder that can have a calling and we all agreed that it would be better if he wasn`t called as ward mission leader because he tends to cause a lot of controversy. So for now we`re just going to keep doing the best we can without a ward mission leaders. We`ve also had some problems with some recent converts that don`t want to go to church because they feel like they are being judged constantly by the members. For example, 2 of them have told us specifically that they don`t like being bothered for not wearing a skirt and they dont like how some of the members make comments about it. Elder Lopez and I are trying to work things out the best we can. We asked the bishop if we could have a few minutes in the next ward council to teach a little bit about “hermanamiento”(befriending people) and we asked the Zone leaders to come this Saturday to talk with all the ward leaders as well. We`ve also been concerned lately because our investigaters aren`t feeling the spirit very much at church. Sacrament meeting is good but the gospel doctrine class and priesthood aren`t exactly going so well. For example, this Sunday in priesthood there was an argument on weather or not cain and able were the first children of adam and eve that completely destroyed any spirit that was there. They asked us for the answer so we turned to moses and read with them where it says that adam and eve had many children before cain and able… but that only caused a bigger controversy. One of the counelors in the bishop ric said something like this, “well it says here (in moses) that they had other children first and I respect the scriptures …but the bible makes it very clear that cain and able were the first children of adam and eve.” Meanwhile in my head I was screaming “the bible was translated by men and has errors . Thats why we have the Book of mormon and the pearl of grand price. If the bible was perfect we wouldn`t need any more scripture.” It was frustrating because now we are going to have to try and explain to our investigaters that the guy from the bishop ric was wrong and that the pearl of grand price really is a true book. Also. This week the 1st councelor in the bishop ric (the same guy the started the adam and eve controversy) told us this week that he doesn`t understand why he isn`t bishop yet. He told us all about how the bishop is a bad leader and how he thinks that he should be called as bishop. FULL APOSTASY!!!!!! Haha.

This week has been difficult with a few investigaters as well. We`re teaching a family (the taipes) and this week there 16 year old daughter ran away with her 22 year old boyfriend. Later that week we read the proclamation with them and the dad broke down and started crying because he was failing at being a good husband and father. They told us that they have been living together unhappily for 16 years and that they didn`t think there was any hope to save they`re family. We taught them that through the gospel of Jesus Christ all families can be happy even when they have problems and that there was hope and that we are going to be there for them to help them become a happy family. I feel bad for the kids. They have an 8 year old daughter and a 13 year old son that have to watch all the problems. Their parents aren`t married and the dad was a drunk. Hes better now since we`ve been working with him but the mom doesn`t want to forgive him and she has lost all hope and just wants to separate. They made it to church this week which was good and we`ve seen a lot of progress since we`ve been teaching them but they still have a long ways to go.

I saw a 9 year old buying beer this week and drinking it on the way back to his house to give his to his dad. I`m not gonna lie, this is the most wicked city i`ve ever seen.

Other than all that the week was well. We have one baptism scheduled this Saturday. He was going to get baptised last week but his mom said she wanted to wait another week before she would sign the ficha. We`ve also been trying to work a lot with the people on our baptismal goals for next month and we`re excited to see them keep progressing. I`m looking forward to general conference as well. It will be a good oppurtunity for some of our investigaters to listen to the prophet and apostels and a good oppurtunity for me personally to refill spiritually.

I love you guys! Thanks for all your support! Until next week.

-Elder Messer

March 15, 2010

Hey everyone! I hope all is going well. This week has gone good for me. Its been pretty normal with no huge surprises or big events. First things first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DESI!!!!!!!!!!!! 11 years old?!?! Its gonna be crazy when I get back in 18 months and you will be 12 and like 2 feet taller than you were when I left. And don’t worry, i`ll bring you a birthday present from Ecuador when I get back in 18 months!

I ate cow feet this week. It was gross. I didn`t know it was possible to eat cow feet but apparently it is. The lady that made it for us was taking to us the whole time while we ate it telling us how good it was. I didn`t agree at all. It was hard to keep a happy face and I had to lie to her and tell her I liked it because she asked me like 3 times…. The things I do to not offend people haha. At least it wasn`t fish eggs this time and at least it didn`t make me sick. One of the people that I baptized in January said that they were gonna make cuy(guinea pig) for me next week…. Wish me luck.

Everyone here is paranoid that an earthquake and/or tsunami is going to hit Esmeraldas. Apparently and earthquake here like the one in Chile would cause devastating results because the buildings here aren`t that strong. The beach was even closed the other day because they were so convinced that a tsunami was coming. One lady was talking to me about the earthquake in chile and asked me if the U.S. shared a border with chile haha.

We might have a baptism this week. We`ve been teaching a 12 year old named Jordy and he wants to get baptized but we just need permission from his mom. Jordy is one of the smarted kids I`ve ever met. He understands and remembers pretty much every word that comes out of our mouths and he reads the book of mormon and the Bible everyday. If he gets baptized and stays active he has a lot of potential in the church. My biggest concern right now is that he will get baptized but then go inactive since hes only 12 and theres not very many deacons in the ward right now. The ward isn`t exactly the strongest ward you`ve ever seen. Only 60 people show up on a good Sunday, theres now elders quorum presidency, no ward mission leader, and no young mens program. On a normal Sunday we bless the sacrament, lead the music, sometimes give a talk, teach the gospel doctrine class, and teach elders quorum unless someone from the stake shows up. Needless to say there are lots of opportunities to serve. And that’s what we`re here for so its all good.

Thanks again to everyone that has sent me letters and/or packages! I love getting updates on everyone from back home! I love you guys!

Hey everyone!
sorry I didn`t send this yesterday. the internet went out and we had to go before it came back. but here is my letter this week...

I hope all is still going well back home! This week has been good for me. We had changes yesterday but I didn`t get chaged so i`m still in esmeraldas with Elder Lopez. Our zone got split so know there is zone esmeraldas and zone san rafael. I`m still in zone esmeraldas but now there are only 11 missionaries in the zone instead of 26 like before. Also, i was kinda dissapointed to find out that 2 of the elders from my mtc district got transfered so now i`m the only gringo in my zone… oh well.

This week I had an interesting experience with a man named washington. I dont really know how to explain washington…. He`s very unique haha. Hes from esmeraldas but has lived in and has wives in the united states and mexico. Hes crazy… seriously… there is something wrong with him mentally. He speaks english. His face is deformed and he only has sight out of one eye. Hes rich. He says that hes a member of the church but I dont believe him. And for some reason all the girls want to marry him (i witnessed a woman propse to him that he had just met). I`m not sure why i`m telling you about this guy …… but there it is. There are some wierd people here… haha

I had a cool experience when we were tracking this week. we found a lady named ana maria that let us in and started talking to us. After we had talked to her for a little bit she told us that she had cancer and had to go in for surgery today and that she wasn`t expecting to live for that much longer. Then she told us that she had been praying a lot and that when we came to her door she knew we were an answer to her prayer. She went in for surgery today but hopefully we can find her again when she gets out of the hospital so that we can teach her more of the plan of salvation.

On Sunday at our lunch appointment there were tons of ants in the juice that our mamita gave us. It wasn`t hard to see that there were ant so i`m not sure why she still gave it to us to drink. It was kinda wierd. I was dying of thirst though so i just fished them all out with my spoon and drank it.

Other than that nothing really exciting happened this week. we`ve just been working hard trying to get our investigaters ready for baptism and trying to find the elect.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me letters and packages! I love to hear from you all!

For Pictures go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125090&id=713547841&l=c79747f802

I hope that works! But its such a hassle to post them on the Blog sometimes....I try tho!

Feb 29, 2010
Another week as come and gone in Ecuador. This week was normal for the most part. Elder lopez and I have been working hard to try and get things set up and finalized for a couple of baptism that we have coming up. Elder Lopez was under the impression that he was going home at the end of this change but his flight plans still haven’t come yet so now he’s thinking that he’s gonna stay for one more change. So that means there is a chance that I could get changed in 2 weeks. But I’ll just have to wait and see.

So on Tuesday night at about 2:30 in the morning we were awaken by someone knocking on our bedroom window and yelling at us. I had no idea who is was or what they wanted so it was kinda sketchy at first. But it turned out to be our neighbor from downstairs. Apparently his ceiling was dripping water so he come upstairs to see what it was and stop it. It turned out that a house in our bathroom had broken and water was being sprayed everywhere. The whole house was flooded. We had to find the key that shut the water off to the bathroom house and it turns out that that is the key that shuts off the water to the whole house. So we haven’t had water for a week… well we’ve had water but it only comes out of the hose that connects to the toilet in the bathroom. So we’ve been showing with buckets and washing dishes with water bottles. Its been kinda annoying but that’s how things roll down here in ecuador. We’re trying to get it fixed though so hopefully we won’t have this problem for that much longer.

I’m not sure if I already wrote about this but every Thursday night we get to watch a movie in the chapel. Its a missionary activity so that we can bring investigators to make friends with the members so the bishop asked that we be there. So basically I get to watch a movie every Thursday. And the best part is that its always in English with Spanish subtitles. So far we’ve seen, jhonny lingo, mobsters and Mormons, the home teacher, and beauty and the beasy (a later day tale). They’re all movies produced in Utah by members of the church. There’s a lot of jokes about Utah and Mormons so.. sometimes I’m the only one that gets them… its kinda funny.

This Saturday we had a zone activity where we all went to the park, set up big signs about the church, and contacted people. The signs all had a picture with a thought provoking question. For example, mine had a picture of Christ in the Americas and the questions was “sabia usted que cristo visito las americas”(did you know that Christ visited the americas). Another one had a picture of christ and his apostles and the question was “jesucristo organizo su iglesia con 12 apostales, donde esta su iglesia ahora” (Jesus Christ organized his church with 12 apostles, where is his church now). It was surprisingly successful. They signs caught the attention of a lot of people and we were able to get some good contacts. We’re gonna start doing that activity every 2 weeks to try and find the “escogidos” (the chosen ones)

I was able to end a few letters this week so if you’re expecting a letter from me it might get to you soon. Thanks a ton to anyone that has sent me anything since I’ve been here! It always makes my day to here from people! Que vayan bien hasta la proxima semana. Les amo.

March 1, 2010
Hey everyone, let me tell you about my week. It was pretty good… a little more eventful than usual but still nothing huge.

On Monday night we went to an appointment with an investigator that got baptized on Saturday and his mom. After we finished teaching the lesson his mom invited us to eat dinner. We were hungry and you cant say now when people offer you stuff so we accepted. When sat down at the table and she brought out the food. I had no idea what it was. We asked her and she said that it was “huevos de pescado”(fish eggs)…. And it must have been from a HUGE fish because it was bigger than any egg i`ve ever seen before and I only got half of one. Long story short it was disgusting but I managed to get it all down… but… it made me ridiculously sick. I was up all night throwing it up and I was sick the whole next day. But all is well now so no worries. Hopefully no one else tries to feed me fish eggs!

On Tuesday we had interviews with President Sloan. It was good to see him again. I hadn’t seen him since the day I got here. He’s doing a lot better. He still has trouble breathing a little bit since he’s missing half a lung but other than that he seems to be doing pretty good.

On Wednesday we had zone conference which was really good. President Sloan taught a class about what it means to have real confidence and the zone leaders taught a class about verifying commitments. Something odd happened when we were eating lunch though… there were a few members there with us because they wanted to come to the zone conference. We were all sitting down eating when president Sloan walked in and just started looking around. All of a sudden he got a worried face and walked up and started talking in a whisper to the elders sitting behind me. He had seen one of the members (a 20 year old girl) and he didn’t like the way she looked so he was telling the elders that they weren’t allowed to have any contact with her whatsoever. It turned out that this girl was a ward missionary and would help the missionaries all the time and that her mom was one of their mamitas so normally that ate lunch at her house once a week. Later president Sloan told us that he did it because he would rather offend the girl and protect the missionaries than have something happen with the girl. I thought it was kinda odd how he just looked at her and didn’t want the missionaries to talk to her or anything, just from looking at her… I guess that’s just one example of mission presidents being inspired.

On Saturday night we got home and our neighbors that live above us were having a party and being really loud. They were really drunk and it sounded like they were having a huge fight. They were yelling a lot and one girl was screaming her lungs out. It was weird because normal there’s only one guy that lives there and he’s always super quiet. I asked one of the neighbors about it and he said that the people that are living there right now are thieves and that they live somewhere else but that they only come and stay with their dad every once and a while when they’ve done something big and they need to hide and lay low for a while. It could just be rumors but that’s what they told me.
We had a baptism on Saturday and it went well. We baptized a 19 year old guy named Ronny. He has a lot of enthusiasm for the gospel and always wants to learn more. He’s excited to come out with us to help us teach. He also was able to receive the priesthood on Sunday and we’re planning on having him up his with the sacrament next week. His mom has a baptismal date for this month so we’re going to try and arrange things so he can baptize his mom.

Today for pday we went on an adventure. We went in search of a waterfall that we had heard about. Long story short we ended up having to walk for 3 hours before we finally got there but it was pretty cool so it was worth it. We didn’t want to walk 3 hours back so we ended up hitching a ride with some guy that was driving a truck with some bulls in the back. We had to hang on to the side of the truck and dodge all the branches sticking out into the road. We were driving through the jungle so there were a lot of branches. It was sketchy but that’s how everything is here. It was my first hitchhiking experience though so that was cool haha.