Ecuador Week 11

February 3, 2014

This week was pretty good.  I´m having trouble remembering a lot of it to be honest hahaha.  I´ve started to have to make notes of who we´ve taught and invited to church throughout the day because at the end of the day when we count our results I can´t remember what we´ve done to save the life of me.

I don´t think I´ve told you about all of the politics that are going on here.  On the 23rd they´re having elections for mayor (it took me a long time to remember to look up what alcalde meant) and people here are freaking NUTS.  All of the different candidates and their campaigns have theme songs that are blasted from giant speakers in the backs of cars driven around everywhere, so I´ve heard everyone´s songs blasted at me a million times and have them almost memorized.  There are giant posters everywhere you look, even out in the boonies of Los Ceibos.  Actually it´s been crazier there than it has here en el centro.  I think we´ve met all of the candidates for the concejales (I think that´s counselors but I haven´t looked it up yet) from the Avanza 8 campaign because they´ll pass by people´s houses and greet them while we´re there visiting or teaching.  We´ve also met a bunch of Clemente´s people too--he´s been mayor for like 11 years or something. 

OH MY GOSH okay so I think it was Thursday night it was about 8:30pm so we were going to try walking back until we found a taxi, but as we were walking down the main road towards the bananeras and el centro, we saw this enormous group of people, like a parade or something, with trucks and torches and everything, walking in our direction.  So my companion and I were just like "Uh uh, no" and we turned right around and went back to the polideportivo (it´s sort of like a comunal sports center thing, but it´s really just a cancha...I can´t remember what cancha means in English) (court! sort of like a basketball or soccer court...oh my gosh).  From there we tried calling a taxi, but we didn´t realize that was the destination of that enormous parade.  Apparently Clemente was coming there, so everything was decorated with posters and flyers and there were people parked all along the street and there were vendors selling food outside.  People were arriving honking their horns and going crazy.  It was insane.  We ended up calling a member nearby and he managed to take us back in his truck.  We ended up being late.  Totally crazy.

We had a baptism again this Saturday!  Elvia lives on that main road of what I guess you could call "downtown" Los Ceibos for lack of a better word (the same road as the poli), and so almost every time we would try to teach her there were crazy fanatics driving down the street blasting their political theme songs or sometimes there were politicians actually stopping to visit.  There was always tons of noises and distractions going on, but she´s super chill.  She´s 62 and one of the calmest people I´ve ever met.  Literally nothing fazes her, ever.  I´m not even really sure about how she feels about being a member because she´s so chill about it, but she had zero issues with being baptized or even getting baptized a week earlier.  She´s so funny haha.

So I´ve received Christmas cards from Marguerite (yeah I realized I got mixed up, oops) Swanson, the Poelmans, and the Cutias.  I also got a letter from Lauren Bennett.  It got to me in less than a month, which was really impressive.  I´ve yet to receive your package or any of the mail you´ve sent me.  Yup.

Oh yeah and Hermana Herrera had to go to Guayaquil...again.  She went like two weeks ago, but whatever.  I´m not in a trio though!  The hermana leaders from Rama 3 are in a trio as of last week, and I´ve been with the third sister as of yesterday.  I hope my companion actually does come back today though, and not two days later like last time. *knocks on wood*

Well, I don´t have a lot of time, but next week I´m going to talk more about these investigators we have that are getting baptized this Saturday.  I´m so incredibly excited for them.  We´ve been talking to them for a while--they´re full part member, and for a while we were teaching their grandmother but she wasn´t interested.  But there´s Vanessa, Alex, and Jostin who are siblings and Luis, their cousin.  I freaking love everyone in their family.  They have an uncle whose family is less active (we just rescued their son though, Jestin´s a cool kid), and I hope we can help them come back to church.  I love this whole family so much, they´re the best.  I´ll explain more about them next week after they´ve been baptized!!!!

I love it here.  I love what I´m doing, I love my area, I love my investigators.  I´m so glad to be here as a missionary.  People always ask us if it´s hard to be here away from family, and although sometimes I do wish I could call you or be with family at events, it isn´t that much of a problem.  I´m too busy to worry haha.  But also I know that this is worth it.  I love you all so much and am so grateful for you and your example.

Love,

Hermana Iverson