It's hard. Like really hard, but I'm trying to do my best. Speaking is the hardest, because I don't know a lot of words for just talking with people. Teaching isn't so bad, but just chatting is like the hardest thing. Our area is really small, there's lots of work to be done, we never stop working, but people are hard to find. When we contact people we never know their direction (address) and when we go to follow up, people don't answer. We have had some success though this week and it feels good when we do. It keeps me excited to work more. We do lots of visits with the ward mission leaders and a few other brethren. Maybe half of our visits are with a members present so thats really helpful. There are lots of less actives to work with and lots of service. I spent a few hours in the morning the other day putting a concrete roof on a house. We mixed concrete, poured it in these huge buckets and then this levi pulled the buckets to the roof where they poured the cement! It was really hard work but it was cool because the members we were helping loved how hard I worked so that broke down some barriers and we got to joking and laughing. Its hard, its not easy at all, but I love it! It's awesome.
There are two sisters in my district from Argentina. What mission and parts of Buenos Aires did you serve in?
I miss you a ton, lol try to have fun at work ;P
-Elder Gonzalez
Hey mom,
I miss you guys a ton, I am in Ambato, its very different but very pretty! My companion is Elder Scanlon. He's pretty cool! He only has 5 weeks left in his mission, so I get to kill him. That's what they call going home. so he gives birth to me and I kill him! Pretty funny!! He is way into fantasy and loves larping (thats where they dress up in medieval stuff and fight in wars!) Interesting but cool. This week has been really hard internally for me. The language is hard. There are times when I understand and times when i don't, the hardest thing for me though is speaking. I never really know how to add to a conversation. I can teach but holding casual conversation is soooo hard. I keep trying to understand and not let myself focus on what I don't know and what i can't say. I've been pretty home sick in the back of my mind this week, I just try not to think about it.
It sounds like you guys had a really awesome trip, I'm super jealous! And that bear incident would have been pretty freaky, but I'm with Dad, I would have wanted to see it :P
Calling at the airport was hard to get an answering machine and not know your cell just because I was excited to call.
Dad would like Ambato I think, lots of neat little shops and it's a pretty big city. I think Dad would have a lot of fun wandering around the city.
Today we made empanadas with the sisters in our district who are from Argentina. They were soooo good!!!! The food here in ecuador always has like a mountain of rice with it, and a bowl of soup, so I guess I've been sent here to learn to like soup. All the food is pretty good and is all prepared by our Momita. She's a member of the ward and we pay her every two weeks and she makes us lunch and dinner every day! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.
We haven't had a lot of success in our area this past week. Our area is really small so contacting is hard because a lot of people are from outside our area. And the people that we do teach are hard to find. But we have taught quite a few lessons and it's cool to meet with real people and listen to what they have to say. My first day was really cool. We taught this family, a mom, dad and a kid, they are not married, and are having a hard time understanding why marriage is important. I got to ask them some questions and then I bore my testimony of the importance of my family to me and talked about some other stuff, but the spirit was so strong and the dad was practically in tears at the end of the lesson but was trying really hard to fight it. I think that family will progress. I'm excited for them.
I miss you guys a ton. I'm super grateful for all your prayers and emails, they keep my spirits up!!!
-Elder Gonzalez
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| New Missionaries with their "trainers" |
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| "Trainer" Elder Scanlon and Elder Gonzalez in Ambato, Ecuador |
***Sam and Mom exchanged a couple quick emails because we were on the internet at the same time, so Mom asked what was in the filling of the empanadas and Sam said that they had ground beef, cheese, onions and peppers. Yum!
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