Glad to hear that everything is pretty normal at home. Just the usual school stuff. I love hearing the little Ben stories. They make me laugh a lot. I can just imagine him doing a lot of those things. And I'm glad to don't worry about me too much mom. That makes me feel better about telling you about the weird kinda crazy stuff that happens to me out here. I've told you everything so don't worry about really dangerous stuff happening to me. I haven't even been robbed or anything yet.
So my companion and I have talked a lot about roller coasters this week for some reason. And that's exactly what this week was, a giant roller coaster. We had some highs and also some really low lows. I had the worst day in my entire mission this week. But I'll tell about that later.
The week started on a high. Like I said, my companion and I went to TGI Friday's!!!! And it was delicious!!!!!! Soo amazing. We ended up spending about $25 each, but it was worth it. We bought this plate that came with an appetizer of buffalo wings (sooooooo delicious! Probably my favorite part of the meal) and then the main dish which was a steak wrapped filet mignon with broccoli and french fries and at the end a desert of New York cheese cake. By far it is the best meal I've had in Ecuador. So good. We didn't take as many pictures as we should have so I've sent one of the main dish. Delish!!
And then we had one of the lows. As you will see in one of the later pictures, I chipped my tooth... I was just devastated... And of all things, it happened as I was eating watermelon. Kinda a really dumb story. We had to go to Quito on Monday last week for a meeting with President Ghent and the zone leaders on Tuesday. And I had to stay until Wednesday to renew my visa so we went with some other elders on Tuesday afternoon to work. I went back to my old zone in Los Chillos and got to see some cool families and one of them gave us watermelon. We had to leave quickly so I was trying to eat fast and they gave me a spoon to eat. So as I was eating quickly I accidentally bit the spoon and chipped my tooth. I am still soo mad about it hahah. But I guess it's okay. It's not too big and it didn't hurt at all so I'll get over it. But the first thing we are doing when I get home mom, is getting my teeth fixed. This chip filled in, some whitening and all that good stuff because Ecuador has messed up my teeth.
Then we hit another high. On Wednesday I had to go get my visa renewed so that I can stay another year here in Ecuador and while we went I got to see some of my favorite missionaries! It is cool because they are now in the mission Ecuador Quito North, so we can almost never see them again because it's a completely different mission. I sent some pictures with them. One is my first companion from the mission, Elder Thomas. Stud. The next is Elder Murphy, the only dude I knew before the mission in this mission. Kinda a stud too. And the last one is Elder Herrera from Costa Rica. But he's like a way tight missionary so that was awesome. We got to chat it up a little so it was a good day and a high of the week.
Then after, I had probably the worst day of my mission. It was Thursday, the next day. We had been out of Quito for a while so we decided to visit the family that had gotten baptized last weekend, the Cobos Taco Family. We showed up to their house and the wife answered the door with a surprised look on her face. And then she told us that she didn't want us to visit them anymore. She said that they just wanted to stay Catholic and didn't want to change and that they weren't going to church and that we shouldn't go back to their house again. At first I thought it was some kind of joke, but she didn't change the whole time and then just got annoyed and kind of angry. She told us again she didn't want us to visit her and slammed the door in our faces. It is probably the worst I've ever felt in my life. I literally cried I felt so sad. A family that I had come to love so much just told us that they didn't want us to visit them ever again. My companion and I just kind of crumpled to the ground and just stayed there outside their house for like 30 minutes absolutely devastated. It was the worst feeling ever. As we were there, the husband came up and we talked to him for a little bit. Thankfully he was nothing like his wife. He still wanted us to visit them and he wanted to go to church. What he said happened was that his wife went to talk to her parents (who are really Catholic) to tell them about the baptism and all that stuff and she came back not wanting anything to do with us. What we think happened is that her parents threatened to take away her inheritance or something like that. It made us feel so bad, but I'm just glad that the husband wasn't the same way because I don't know what I would've done. Now we are trying to get the members to go and visit them because the wife won't let us back into the house. I really hope she has a change of heart because it really hurts to see this happen to someone I've come to love so much.
I was really down that whole day. But the day after we had another good day again. Another high. Our zone consists of the missionaries in the city of Ambato and like 3 other cities around as well as the missionaries in Puyo and Tena, which is the jungle!! So on Friday, my companion and I got to travel to the jungle to have a meeting with the missionaries there!! Whoo!!! It was way cool! The jungle is tight, but really really hot. The humidity is way high so you sweat a ton and when the sun comes out it gets really hot so it's even worse. But I'm sure I'd get used to it because it's not as bad as Esmeraldas. I took some pictures, but my camera battery died so I couldn't get as many as I wanted. But I should be able to go again in like another month or 3 weeks so I'll make sure my battery is really charged that time. I'll send the pictures I got.
Then the week ended on another high note. A baptism!!!!! Whoo!!!!!!! We had another baptism!! It was great!! It is the cousin from that one Colombian family we found, the Osorio Family. The one where the 11 year old kid got up and bore his testimony. She's a 24 year old and finally decided to get baptized!! And the baptism went really well. The rest of the Colombian family went so they got to finally see a baptism. I really hope that helps the rest of them have desires to get baptized as well. They would make awesome members. They just aren't progressing that well right now. But we'll see how it goes. Hopefully the baptism helps. We'll just keep praying for them!
And then we had changes today, but I didn't get changed or my companion. So I'll still be here in Ambato for a while. And that was my week. One heck of a roller coaster. Just please pray for the Cobos Taco Family. We just really want the wife to have a change of heart again. We have faith that everything will get better though. So things are still good here. Hope you are all doing well! Love you so much and we'll talk next week!
Love,
Elder Joshua LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
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