Christmas and a Big Surprise

 We returned to Quito for a Zone-wide Christmas party and temple trip with the Románs. They are hosting each zone every day for 2 weeks! We are so grateful for their loving support. On Monday we drove back to Quito and checked into the hospidaje. And on Tuesday morning we were able to attend the morning endowment session with all our Oriente missionaries.


The weather was wonderful and we enjoyed chatting with everyone. The younger missionaries had traveled overnight on Sunday-Monday and spent the previous day in Quito. Here is Elder Willard with Elder Watkins (who is 6'6") and his companion, Elder Rodas (who is 5'0"), and hiding is Elder Vance.


I wandered around while they shopped in the distribution center and enjoyed the beautiful grounds.


Then they boarded a shuttle van and we got in our car to travel to the Iñaquito chapel for lunch and training. On the way there, we finally received a text notification that our next mission call was ready to be read! We were so excited after waiting for 6 weeks. We decided to wait until after lunch to read it in front of the zone. Paul loaded the call letter unto the projector so everyone could see it at the same time.


I gave my phone to Elder Nixon who took some pictures for us. We have been called to serve in Bucharest Romania as Welfare and Self-Reliance missionaries. There is only 1 districts in all of Romania so we will have a car and travel around the country. My hope is to travel to Hungary to see some ancestral locations. Although the Kiev Temple is the closest, we have no hope of going there. So it will be Germany or Rome if we want to visit a temple. 


After training, we traveled up the hill to the Mission Leaders' home for dinner and games and singing. Each of our names is on a star above the piano.


We ate a delicious dinner and got to sing some Christmas songs. I brought my Surface which has the Readers Digest Merry Christmas book loaded. The US missionaries loved singing The Twelve Days of Christmas.




We played games and shared spiritual messages. Some of our missionaries had fun sweaters. When President Román saw Elder Steck's sweater, he ran and put on a red flannel shirt and took a picture with him.



Hermana Rodriguez looks so cute with her Santa hat. The view from their apartment in Tenis is so nice. Here is the daytime view:

And at night:


What a busy day! I can't imagine doing this every night.

Location: Quito, Ecuador

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Big Move

Image
 President Román asked us to move to Coca, about 90 minutes south of Lago Agrio, for the last half of our mission. It is very similar in size, but everyone in Coca says it is much safer than Lago. I've seen some videos of crime in Lago, but never saw it up close, and feel that we have been protected in many ways. I was not prepared for how heavy everything is and I've not been lifting weights. I should have called the elders to help us. The weather was its regular oppressive heat, so we were just dripping sweat continually. We had a box truck to be loaded, but the driver was uninterested in helping us load. When I realized we couldn't carry the fridge and washing machine down the stairs, I walked down the road and asked some men to help us. They saved us. Our clothes were soaked through. The power went out at its regular 7-9am shift. The truck arrived at 10am and we arrived in Coca at 12:30pm. Opening the gate for the last time. The power went out from 1-3pm, so as soon as ...
Read more

Drive out of the Andes

Image
 We started early on Friday to drive the 7 hours east to Lago Agrio. It is a twisty, turning road out of 13,000' high elevation. There were many times I could not look over the edge of the road because it was so steep. The temperature went from 6 degrees C to 34 C when we arrived. We hugged the mountains and saw plenty of waterfalls. Trucks, bikes, cars, and cows. Plus, there were goats and chickens in the road. We had to move slowly due to water washing out bridge areas. Some were pretending to fix the road as you drove by and asked for money. We finally arrived in Lago Agrio and to this enormous bridge that crosses the Aguarico River. The apartment had been set up with the newly arrived furniture by our wonderful branch president, President Osorio, plus young elders who volunteered to help.
Read more

A Beautiful Walk

Image
Every time we go for a walk we discover more amazing sights. Since the trail is over 25 kilometers, we have a lot of opportunities to see new spots. The smells of eucalyptus and oleander remind me of my childhood. An old train used to pass overhead above the trail. It has a date marker of 1918 and has been tagged by recent pedestrians. There's Elder Willard up there. It's a cool 70 degrees and this will be a 10K hike. We were being watched from a safe distance.
Read more