Fish Head Soup

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I will be sure and check out the Temple Cultural Celebration on the church website next week. And that's awesome that Jessie got to dance at a Suns game! Way to go Jess!! And as always, I love the Ben stories.

This week was another normal week. Not a lot of exciting events. We did have a lunch this week of fish head soup. It was a soup with a GIANT fish head in it. With the teeth and eyeball and all that jazz. And it was actually really delicious. I sucked the eyeball up and ate the tongue and other cool stuff like that. I'm actually really amazed at all the different foods I enjoy now. If someone would have tried to make me eat fish head soup two years ago I would've said they were crazy. There are a lot of cool experiences on the mission.

 

But not a lot else happened this week. We have some investigators who are progressing al lright, but we still have to find that family. There are a lot of cool families here, but the problem is finding a family that is married and willing to progress. But I have faith that the Lord will help us to find one soon. 

I love you all a ton! Thanks for everything!!

 

Love,

 

Elder Joshua Lee

Picture

Rain and More Rain

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I love the Ben stories. And that sounds like an awesome experience for Jacob and Amanda to participate in the Celebration for the new temple. Take some pics and send them if you get a chance. And.....  CONGRATULATIONS AUNT ANNA!!!!!!!!!!! Whoo!!! I can't wait to see new baby William. Another cousin! How many do I have now? I lost track a long time ago. 

So first I'm sending  home a picture of a baptism we had this weekend!  It had been a while so it was nice to have another one. And they are an awesome family. It's a single mom, Sandra, and her 2 daughters. It took a while for them to do it, but they finally decided too. We visited them for a while and finally helped them get an answer that the gospel is true and they decided to get baptized. There are a ton of awesome families here. It's a bit hard now because everyone wants us to visit them and there just isn't enough time in the day to pass by everyone. And we still have to find more people to help them come unto Christ. But we'll find a way. I love my sector a lot. The only bad thing is that the humidity is making everything moldy. My hats got kinda moldy. But I washed them and hopefully it'll go away. 

 

Not a lot of news this week. It is raining a TON here though. Day after day it just rains and rains and rains. And then rains some more. I've just gotten used to being wet. But it's a cool rain. It's a nice break from the heat of when I first got here. Besides that, life is normal. No abnormal experiences this week. Have an awesome week!!!!

 

Love,

 

Elder Joshua Lee

Pictures

The first pictures is when my companion and I got lost looking for a referral.

A fruit called cacao. its what they use to make chocolate. 

 

 

 

Suspension bridge in San Jacinto

 

 

More cacao and San Jacinto pictures

 

 

Tapado. Fish with verde

 

 

Birthday lunch with the mamita and me with a chicken foot and a bag of tripas or insentines. the things people eat here haha.

 

 

Birthday dinner and cake with the Burgos Family

 

 

Happy Birthday Elder Lee!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Thanks soo much for the birthday wishes!! I really did have a great one here in Ecuador. The members and the families here made it special. And I'm glad life is moving along like normal there at home. Keep up the golf playing mom! You'll probably be able to beat me when I get home.

Well like I said, it was a good birthday week. We had a couple families that made it nice. First, was a family of converts that my companion and I had, The Burgos family. They are very poor, and yet they made us dinner and bought me a present and a cake for my birthday. I was very humbled by it and very grateful for them. Pictures of this event will be forth coming. And you will be able to see their house as well. Very humble circumstances, but a very amazing family.

 

Then, the next day we went to our mamitas house (the person who gives us lunch) and she and her son who is a returned missionary made us an awesome dinner! It was pretty Ecuadorian, but I loved it. It was chicken with rice and a little salad and patacones which are something made from verde. And then they brought out cake and icecream. I love the members here. They are too cool.

So that made it a good week already, but it got better. This week a member gave us a referal in a pueblito or a little village that is like an hour from our sector. Well the first pueblo is like an hour from our sector in a bus and then we had to walk to another pueblo which took about 30 minutes. So in total its like an hour and a half from our house. But it is way cool. It's this place called San Jacinto and it's beautiful there. Everything is like very green and there are rivers and other cool stuff. It almost has like a jungle feel. So I'm sending some pictures from our trip there. And the description of what is happening will come with the pictures.

 

Oh and I will be sending home a picture of when we ate something called Tapado. Its like a soupish thing of verde and with a big old fish with head and everything there. I liked it a lot!

 

So, this month in the mission we've started a special activity. It's called "La fe de febrero trae el milagro de marzo". Or in english, The faith of February brings the miracle of March. So we've decided to do some sacrifices in our lives to try and see miracles in our mission. For example, as a mission we are sacrificing all music (even the MoTab and that stuff) and zone activities. They are things which aren't bad, but we are making sacrifices to see something better. I have personally decided to make the sacrifice of playing the guitar along with some other things. I know we are going to be able to see miracles in our missions. And the goal of all this is that every missionary can baptized a family in the month of March and reactivate a family as well.

 

We have just started this process last week and I have already been able to see miracles. Story: This whole week my companion and I have been trying to find people to teach and it's been a bit tougher. We have been talking to a lot of people on the street and trying to work with the members, but we were unable to find many people. So Saturday night came around and we were only planning on having like 3 investigators in church. So I said a really heartfelt prayer that night asking that the Lord would provide a way for some people to show up to church and for us to teach them. And He pulled through. We got to church the next day and within the first minute of being in the building a member came up to me and said that he had brought some friends with him to church and wanted us to meet them. We were able to talk to them and teach them after church and they really enjoyed it. It was an answer to my prayers and a miracle for me in the mission. I know that God does answer our prayers and that if we have faith and works and obedience to God's commandments and even with some sacrifice, we can see many miracles in our lives.

 

So that was my week. A pretty good birthday week if I do say so myself. Life is going very well in Ecuador and I am enjoying it. The only bad thing is that because of the humidity my clothes get kind of moldy at times. But I wash them often so don't worry haha. Love you all soo much! Have an amazing week. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!!!!!!!!!

Con Amor,

 

Elder Joshua Lee

Pictures

Giant Pig Outside an Investigator's Home

 

.Making Empanadas

Empanadas de Verde

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Have a great time at the Gilbert Temple Open House with the whole family! I'm way excited to get a chance to finally go through the temple again. 

Things are going well here in Ecuador. The success we have been having has calmed down a little bit. We have been struggling to find new investigators recently. There are a lot of people here willing to listen, but sometimes it is difficult to help them progress. We have found people who aren't willing to go to church or who aren't married and things like that. But I have faith that the Lord is going to help us find some new people to teach soon.

 

I'm going to send some pictures home this week. The first one is of a giant pig outside the house of one of our investigators. It is enormous. You can kind of tell in the picture, but it's even bigger than it looks.

 

The other pictures are of when we went to a members house and made Empanadas de Verde. They are Empanadas made from a green banana called verde. Hey and I want you to do me a favor. If you could send dad or someone to find a little Mexican market or something and see if there is verde there. If there is, I have learned to cook a little bit with verde so I'll make some stuff so you can try it out when I get home. But it's not like the normal banana just so you know. It's a different kind of banana that's green. I've also learned to cook a bit more here in the mission. I've learned to cook noodles. And that's about it. Not a lot. I still have a lot to learn haha. I just feel mostly lost in the kitchen.

But I think that's about it for this week. It's rained a bit and my companion and I have gotten a bit wet, but nothing else. Life is normal here. Time is flying by though. I can't believe that Alli already gets home in like 2 weeks.... Wow... Crazy stuff. Talk to you next week!

Love,

 

Elder Joshua Lee