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

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