Serving in Quito North

 We are finally to the big day. Elder Rasband spent the night here on Wednesday, making the big announcement about the senior missionary subsidy program. He had Elder Zaballos, President of the South America Northwest Area tell us the good news. Couples and single sisters who are over 40+ who wish to serve as senior missionaries will have their housing, fuel, and health insurance subsidized by the church.  This is similar to young missionaries. Senior missionaries would only need to pay for their food. What a wonderful plan! There are currently only three couples serving from this area. The Lascanos are one of these couples. If this plan is successful, the pilot program will spread to other areas. We arrived early for the Friday meeting and practiced our special musical number. President Román asked me last month to put together something and I suggested Hark All Ye Nations for the entire mission to sing. It is the same number we used for the Hong Kong Mission. All in English,...

We received a notice from the assistants that they needed help getting food to apartments who were housing those from distant zones. We met them at a local SuperMaxi and packed all of them in the car. After finishing those errands, we went to the mission office and met the Inglishes, who have arrived from Mesa to serve in the new Quito West Mission office. Because they moved into the Iñaquito apartment where we lived 16 months ago, I had a lot of déjà vu.  The apartment looked quite empty, and not just because we took the furniture all those months ago. It's enormous compared to our apartment. We then took the Inglishes to Coral in order to outfit the apartment. We spent 2 hours trying to find everything on the furnishing list. Unfortunately, no machetes were needed. By 3pm we were fading without food and stopped by Top Ten Burgers and filled up. We returned to our hotel and rested for the next day. Although we don't usually eat breakfast, we absolutely loved their fresh fruit,...

 Due to a dengue fever outbreak in Coca, the government has started spraying for mosquitos around town. It is a little disturbing to see the men in suits riding in the back of a pickup. We ended up walking through the clouds of chemicals. Here are a few animals we've found around town. Wow, this guy was bigger than $1. This little moth was just a fingertip wide. Her brood kept very close their momma. But why? This is nice hand of bananas. They ripen from the bottom, so you can see how the restaurant is cutting them off. I think of the little banana sling most Americans have in their kitchens and laugh. So close. I have a dress from Zara and showed Paul the difference. Many retailers here receive products from China crates so everything is suspect. They sell elastic by the yard with Nike or Calvin Klein logos pre-printed. Here is a costume made with some of that elastic. I can assure you that Nike didn't make that skirt.

 Today is the day for the High 5's International 5K Run. John Hansen has been organizing this run for years. We joined in when he and Diane came to work in OGC in Hong Kong and showed us how fun it is. While Paul and I walk 5K everyday, running is different. So we've been working up to it. Unfortunately, Paul's back is still injured from the flat tire incident. He still ran about 3K of the race and walked the rest. We hit it at 7am because it gets hot so early here. The humidity is about 90% and right now a thunderstorm is blowing threw with a vengeance. I finished with a time of 36:01 which is better than Hong Kong. I am excited to get a Garmin watch so I can track my HR and splits better.  Last night we went to our favorite place and ordered parilladas. The amount of food always surprises me. This is $12 for beef, chicken, and sausages, patacones, shrimp, yucca fries, salad, rice and beans.  Earlier in the week, we fixed the sisters toilet in Coca. I don't know how lo...

 I always look forward to a day of talking to my mothers and children. There are always a few that call and a few that ignore it completely. Unfortunately, I had a tooth removed on Thursday and there's a metal suture that is cutting into my mouth. When we got done with church, I mixed up some pizza dough to rise and I was happy to lie down and rest for a bit. Then the missionaries called. Their lunch appointment had canceled and could they come over for lunch?  I jumped up and looked through what was in the kitchen. When you make one meal a day, there isn't much on hand. But I had enough to make potato salad and no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. I sent Paul out to get a pineapple and the missionaries bought some chicken breasts and Coke. With the deep dish pizza, we had enough food for everyone. These wonderful elders are from Utah, Idaho, Venezuela, and Chile. They reminded me how fun it is to have young adults in the house. Luckily, they all spoke English very well. And aft...

 After being on the road for 3 weeks, it's time to go home. We were able to participate in temple work morning and night while getting our tires done and some dental work completed. I had to get a tooth pulled on Thursday and I'm still a little whoozy.  I feel like I know Quito a little better. On Friday night I met a young woman in the temple who had just arrived back from her mission to Santiago. She was from Esmeraldas and was going home in the opposite direction on Saturday morning. I was grateful I had been to Esmeraldas so I could share her excitement in returning home. The temple looked particularly beautiful Saturday morning as we finished sealing all the families we worked on during the week.  We usually see paragliders near the temple because there is a landing area nearby. Also next to the temple is a bakery with wonderful rolls. We ran into a companionship of missionaries from the Quito Mission coming out. It's fun to meet with elders we don't know.

 Our inspections are done and we are back at the temple for some rest and relaxation. It's seems like forever since we've been able to stay in familiar surroundings. Our regular schedule in Cumbayá is attending the temple in the morning, walking 5K, eating lunch at a familiar restaurant, and returning to the temple for another session in the evening.  I'll never get used to the beautiful green weather in Quito. It feels and smells like San Diego. We found a little trail down to the river during our walk. The river was running quite forcefully and carving out little places in the rock.  We had to fix the two tires that were damaged by the incident in Esmeraldas, so we had extra time to adventure around. We found a curious address. This is the best way to figure out locations in Ecuador since they live without addresses. Here is what the latitude and longitude coordinates point to: While the tire was being fixed, we found a cute little shop called Mrs. Dalloway Workshop. It...

We left Atacames after finishing our work on the coast and decided to drive a different way back--through Santo Domingo. This is actually the Quito Mission boundaries, but soon most of it will be in the Quito West Mission. The toll roads meant that we had smooth sailing through much of the route. Many times there were four lanes, which was shocking. The light blue line is the road we took out with Assistant Elders Wallis and Ocampo earlier in the week. The sides of the roads occasionally are falling off. It's frightening to look out the window and see only crime scene tape. I don't know that it will catch you if you fall. We enjoyed waterfalls all the way, but this particular monster shocked us as we rounded the corner and say it barreling down the hill. Tunnels were helpful. I believe that the Napo section of Ecuador could be made great if they toll the roads. Heck, they could make them private for all I care. Anything to get them drivable.

 We enjoyed Sunday and Monday morning in Atacames. Their ward was fantastic and was all in a flurry about a sister who was just called on a mission. Within walking distance from our hotel, the building was curious and clever. We met a friend of Megan Flake's in this ward. She and Elder Jenkins were friends in school back in Rexburg. I was surprised to find two gringos here (where it is dangerous), but both were from Washington: Duvall and Puyallup. We continued traveling around the city and doing apartment inspections. This neighbor was funny looking! Elder Jenkins moved in right next to the beach only to have a rat infestation. He found a sticky mat and within one night, had exterminated them all! It is true that the US State Department has a "Do not travel" warning on Esmeraldas, but Atacames is down the road 25 minutes. Not that it looks much different. Tonsupa is a beach a few miles from Atacames. About 10 years ago, hotels went up and infrastructure was built, but no...