Serving in Quito North

 We were thrilled to hear the announcement of the new Quito West Mission. This will help us in many ways, mostly due to our large geographic coverage. Here is the map from the mission office. We live in the east in Nueva Loja. On the west coast is Esmeraldas. Although this is the width of Colorado, it is incredibly difficult to drive this in one day. From sea level on the left, you would travel up to 13,300' over Papallacta, and descend into the Amazon rainforest on unmaintained roads.  The new mission will take a third from us and a third from the Quito mission. Right now we have 198 missionaries. That is a challenge for mission leaders. 

I was reading some national news this week and caught the following: Ernesto Varas, director of the ANT, said that in Ecuador, during the year 2022, there were around 850,000 legally registered motorcycles, but it caught their attention that, when reviewing the information provided by the road safety yearbook, they found that there are barely 350,000 type A licenses issued (for motorcycles), a figure that is equivalent to 41%. To give you some perspective, the size of Ecuador is the same as Colorado. The population of Colorado is 5.8m compared to Ecuador's 18.1m. If you look at fatal accidents in Colorado from 2020, the number is 622. But, in Ecuador, where the 3rd leading cause of death for males is road accidents, the number is 3,490. If you calculate the rate per capita, that number should be 1,940. It's dangerous to drive here. Helmets are rare. Flip-flops are common. Children, 50lb bags of rice, weed-whackers, big-screen TVs, and gutters are often carried. We've seen p

 Ecuador is struggling to keep the electricity on. Although we refer to electricity as "power" Ecuadorians use the term "luz" or lights, which makes sense. In any case, there isn't enough. Without paying attention to local news, we were surprised when the power kept going out. The government started with 4-hour blocks everyday, but on Saturday, it was out for 10 hours. This is no fun when it is 91 degrees with 90% humidity. We just sweat all day. I took two showers just to keep cool (no hot water).  When it started to rain a few days ago, the heat broke and it began to cool off to the 80s. The street in front of our apartment became a river. The news propaganda says there hasn't been enough rain to power hydro-electricity plants. But the answer is what you would expect: government corruption. Years ago there was a government plan to build more electricity plants and to privatize more of the utility. However, only 2 have been built. Consumers aren't payin

 Paul and I have a friend that walks with us occasionally. It is fun to see her, but since she's a water dog, she's often filthy. Many dogs here are too afraid to look at us. They've been mistreated and unloved. But this little guy wants to be friends. We keep treats in the car for good dogs.

 We had some tiles break due to the recent heat. There is no grout; tiles in our apartment are just butted up together. So as it got hotter and hotter, they began to move, raise, and break. A repairman came and did a terrible repair job. When we returned from Quito, 10 more tiles had lifted and broke. One intersection had even pushed up a big chair that was resting on it. A new worker came to fix the problem. He did a much better job. He trimmed the tiles so there is now room for movement.

 I enjoy having a nicely appointed kitchen. The only thing missing is hot water. Well, I would like a toe kick. The next time you sidle up to your kitchen sink, be grateful for your toe kick. I was roasting a whole chicken this week and noticed that in the bag of extras, I got the head and the feet. I'm such a city girl. I threw it all away. People here would use all of this to make a good broth.

 We always enjoy the opportunity to go to the Quito Temple. It's quite a long drive, but if we stay for a few days, we can recover before returning. We are able to attend the temple in the morning and the evening due to their siesta schedule. In the middle of the day we can go to the dentist or find a pizza. I wasn't kidding about the dentist. And we ran into Sister Román in the waiting room. We are getting our dental check for our next missionary paperwork. We found a delicious Mexican restaurant in the Scala Mall in Cumbayá. Unfortunately, the Coke was $2.50 for a bottle that should be $.50. I wondered why the price wasn't on the menu. It's hard to find spicy food in Ecuador, but this chimichanga was fabulous. We left Monday morning on our drive over the Andes so our first food was at 4pm. Everything tastes better when you're hungry. All week the temple was having a fire alarm evacuation practice. Each shift filed outside when the alarm sounded. Luckily, it wasn&#

 It is common for Ecuador homes to begin with one story and then expand years later to two and three stories. When I look out my kitchen window, I can see some of that construction happening. I don't know how long the home has been used, but it looks like the first floor and half of the second floor are finished for interior use. The second half of the second floor is used for hanging laundry. This is very common. You can see my view here. They installed a chute and threw everything onto the ground this way. By the end of the project, this was an enormous pile of concrete and trash. The half walls on the third floor went first. They began to build new walls and then cleaned out the second floor. I have to say that Hong Kong does bamboo scaffolding better than Ecuador. This was frightening to watch. It didn't take long to form walls and windows with concrete blocks. They would mix mortar on the site in a wheelbarrow or on the floor. It took a while to install a metal wall next t

 We were excited to participate remotely when Jim was baptized. I was grateful permission was granted to use Zoom. He is already looking older than when I saw him 9 months ago. Grandma and Grandpa were able to attend with Beth and Dave. My sister Jerri and her husband Don came around Utah Lake to represent the McKay side. What a beautiful family. Congratulations to Jim!

 It's so sad to have missionaries go home, but we're so excited for them to reunite with their families. Sister Garcia was able to serve in Lago Agrio for her last transfer. She was fantastic! Elder Horn didn't go home, but he left Shushufindi after a long 6 months. Here are Ana and Jenifer saying goodbye. He may have to find a coat for his new area. When we were attending Shushufindi Branch last month I saw Jenifer with these lovely roses and grabbed this pic. She's a cutie! We had a large group of students at EnglishConnect! We also went to a local clinic in Lago Agrio to start a missionary medical paperwork for our next mission. It was super easy. Even easier than doing it in Hong Kong. We stopped by to make an appointment and they found a doctor that spoke English and began the paperwork. A few hours later, we had a blood drawn, X-rays taken, eyes and ears peered into, and height measured. Paul was pleased that we were exactly the same height.

I love that Conference is broadcast in Quichua for the Otavalo saints. We were able to watch every session in the comfort of our apartment. My favorite message was given by Elder Robert M. Daines. His talk about being face-blind was so touching. The quote that I researched immediately was, "A few years ago, I got a calling I didn't feel up to. I awoke early, nervous--but with a phrase in mind I had not heard before: that to serve in this Church is to stand in the river of God's love for His children." A wonderful blog post from Faith Matters tells the story of Elder Daines becoming a stake president in Palo Alto. He was currently working as a law and finance professor at Stanford University. In his first address to his stake he said something similar: Think for a minute of your favorite story of Jesus. What is it? You show me your favorite store of Jesus and I'll show you a story of Jesus reaching out to and loving someone on the margins of society, someone who w

 When we attend sacrament meeting in Spanish, it is difficult to understand what is being taught. So I really look forward to General Conference. It is quite a feast. My friend Tabb posted many of my favorite quotes from this October's Conference. These are just a few: I hope you have enjoyed General Conference. I look forward to studying the remarks of all the speakers during the next 6 months.