Ecuador Week 10

Hey Fam and Friends!

I'm not really doing a ton of working out, just excercising for 30 minutes in the mornings and I now weigh like 175 pounds! At least that's what our scale says. I'm not sure if it is entirely right.

I got your package mom! Whoo!! Thanks soo much! I have yet to open the jerky because I want to try and make it last, but I've started eating the nuts and the skittles are gone because I shared with everyone in my district. Oh and the tobasco was sweet too! I've only used it once so far, but I'm going to start carrying it around in my backpack to use during lunch haha. And so some things that I might kind of like in a Christmas package would be like some more sunscreen (maybe like a spray kind), icebreakers instead of gum (because we can't chew gum outside of the house), and maybe a flashdrive with like some more music on it. I'd like to get some more songs like maybe some more Josh Groban (at least You Raise Me Up because it's not working on my ipod), or some piano renditions of church songs (I've heard Paul Cardell has some good ones and whoever else), and just some other different types of spiritual songs maybe sung solo or with a few people. Oh and maybe some sort of magic kit to do magic tricks with the kids because I've started running out of tricks! But just if you can! I don't need any of this stuff and will get along just fine without it.

Well things are still going well here. I get along with my companion pretty well. He's an odd guy, but that's a good thing because normal people are boring. So I sent home a few pictures and I hope you enjoy them! You asked for some pictures of the house and so I finally got a chance to send some. Those pictures are pretty much our whole house, it's pretty small. And the desks where we study always have these tiny ants running around them and everything on it. It was a little annoying at first, but now I'm just used to it and they've only bitten me like 2 or 3 times in 9 weeks or so here. The other pictures are from our sector when we did a service for an invesigator family. They live in the last house at the end of our sector and after it is like jungleyish until the river and so that's a picture of us chilling in the jungle area and a picture of the river we live next to.

Also we had a baptism this last week! Whoo! We baptized the daughter-in-law of the bishop. She's a 16 year old girl who is married to the bishop's son and pregnant. I've seen a lot of really young pregnant girls here which is pretty sad, but I'm really happy that we had a chance to teach that bishop's daughter-in-law (Rosalia is her name) and now she can raise her baby in a good environment.

Okay so just a couple quick things that have happened since being here in Ecuador. One is breastfeeding. I have already had many lessons where the mom just starts breastfeeding a kid in the middle of a lesson. And it's not like in the U.S. where they'll cover up with a blanket or anything. It's been quite an interesting experience. Another thing is that my companion and I were walking down the street past a group of drunk, black guys the other day and they called us colored people. I couldn't help but start laughing when that happened because here in Esmeraldas everyone is black and therefore us gringos are ¨colored¨. I got a kick out of it haha.

Well that's about all I've got for this week. Things are still going really well. I'm really starting to develop a love for this work and these people here in Ecuador. That's something that I hope to continue doing as I go through my mission. I really have begun to see miracles in my life and the lives of others and I continue to hope to have great experiences here. Oh and before I forget, thanks so much to the letter from Sister Mann! It was great to hear how MacGyver is doing and it was awesome to get to read his email. He's going to be an awesome missionary out in Nicaragua. And thanks Heidi for the letter as well! It means a lot to me to hear from friends and family so thanks so much for all the letters and the prayers!

Love,
Elder Joshua Lee