Finally in Ecuador!

Family, 

I only have 5 minutes to write so it'll be short. I'm here in Ecuador safe and sound. All my luggage got through and the President and his wife met us at the airport and brought us to the mission home, which is really nice. Ecuador seems more organized and less ghetto than Peru =). Also, all the new missionaries will be serving in Quito for their first area. So I'll be here awhile. I'll write more later when I have time. See ya!

Elder Black

Last Week in MTC!

Hello again,

 

This is my last week here in the MTC, finally....lol. I'm ready to go and I'm excited to get going. I'm not really nervous. Kind of anxious but not nervous. No I don't have any buddies yet. I got all your letters on Thursday last week. Thanks for sending them =). I did have a chance to go out into the city last week. We were out for 3 hours and we talked to around 12 different people. Only one of them seemed genuinely interested in what we were saying. It was an older man who got excited when we talked about the Plan of Salvation. It was cool finally seeing someone getting excited about the gospel. Another set of elders had an awesome experience. They went into a house and taught a lesson. Their lesson was awesome and the Spirit was there. The investigator must have been really prepared to hear the gospel because....they accepted a baptismal invitation! How cool is that. First visit and they accepted baptism. Another testimony builder that this church is true. Also, one of our teachers, Hermano Gonzales served in Quito, Ecuador. He served at the same time as Matt Angel and said he was his best friend. He's told us about his mission and it's gotten me more excited to finally get going. Luckily we don't have to go back to the United States to get to Ecuador, we fly straight there next tuesday. In the MTC we learn lots of grammar principles and different tenses/conjugations...fun...And we also have doctrinal classes that help us teach thing more simply to investigators. We also teach one of our teachers/investigators a full lesson every day. It really helps with getting a feel for teaching. Nope, I haven't played the piano yet =) muahuahua! There are 11 of us going to Ecuador next week and we don't get our travel plans until monday =(. My spanish is coming along well. Although it's kind of hard to talk to the natives/roommates sometimes because our vocabulary is limited to things within the gospel, and I just learned how to say "wall and floor" yesterday lol. So it's kind of frustrating not being able to communicate well....It's nice to hear that the family is doing well and life goes on without me....Unfortunately I can't send pictures this week. But I will try and send some next time....in the field....oh yeah =). My p-days will probably be on monday so you won't get another e-mail for awhile. I'll send some pictures of Ecuador as well =).

 

Ciao,

 

Elder Awesome Black

Week 7 MTC in Peru

Hello,

 

Sounds like things are going good at home. Except Katarina not getting her license....cough cough....=). And before I forget. Thanks dad for putting the headstone in even though I'm not there. =) Pretty much every day we eat either chicken or beef with rice, soup, a side dish, rolls, and a desert. Although they mix up the way the cook the meat and the rice; so it's never exactly the same. And feel free to make the letters longer if you want. I can read them pretty fast. And nope. Haven't gotten the letters yet =(. Hopefully they get here soon. Things are still going well here. The Temple in Lima is only a 6 minute ghetto bus ride away, so we go every p-day. Pretty cool experience. I think I told you last time, but we got 4 new latino roommates this week. One speaks english fluently and the other 3 don't speak much. They're all awesome though. Oh yeah. We went out on a tour of central Lima this week. As with most foreign countries, they have a central plaza where they had a cathedral, and their equivilent of our White House. After we looked around we visited some artisan shops and of course, I got souvenir hats =). And yes I saved a bill (money) for dad. One cool experience, it wasn't me though, was when 2 elders in our district taught one of our practice investigators here. When they were done they said it was the best lesson they had every taught. They were all crying because the Spirit was so strong. And our investigator/teacher has been having some stuggles because his mom is sick and might die. The elders were trying to help and teach the investigator, but they also helped our teachers with his struggles when they taught him. He said, "You (us elders) are my miracle". Just a testament that this is god's work. Oh yeah =). . I can't really think of anything else, so ask me more questions lol. I'm going to try and send some pictures. Tell me if they get there. And the picture of me with the random elder, is me with an elder that looks exactly like Obama. =) The picture with our district has my companion in it. The big blonde elder in the bottom left. Elder Murphy. The one of food was my first meal here. A pretty normal meal. So there you go. Hopefully more pictures later =).

 

Can't think of anything else to write,

 

Elder Black

Week 6

Hola!

 

Things are still good here. Most every day it's a different variation of the same thing. But it's still fun =). This week Elder Christofferson came this week. It was a great experience to be able to listen to an Apostle of god. I was only sitting 20 ft away from him at the conference =). He talked a lot about the scriptures. He said if you want to be more sensative to the spirit, read the scriptures. Also, he said, and I quote,"You can't imagine the help we recieve [the 12 and the First Presidency] from your [members of the church] prayers. He also talked about how missionaries are probably the most or one of the most prayed for people on the Earth. Pretty cool to think about. And before I forget. Yes, I got all the pictures =). And my clothes fit just fine thank you >=(. We did get to go out into the city this week. But only for 1 hour. We went to a place called Chosica, which is about 1.5 hours from here. We got lost on the way and that's why we didn't have much time to teach. I had 1 latin companion. Elder Sanchez. He only speaks a little english but he's awesome. He's been a convert for 2.5 years, is a pretty happy guys and he has a mischevious smile. Me and him were both a little nervous going in to our first door approach. But we placed a Book of Mormon on our first door! Yeah! I was expecting that we would get every other door slammed in our face. Nope. People here are generally pretty nice. And a lot of them are members here. Random fact. There are 500,000 members in Peru, but only 70,000 are active. Lot's of work to do here =). Anyways. We didn't get into any houses, but we talked to 2 ladies at their doors and casually talked to 2 other people. We placed 3 Book of Mormons in an hour. Not too bad for a first attempt =). It was a really good experience and it's gotten me more excited to actually go out and teach people....and not just sit around at the MTC lol. Almost forgot. One of the ladies we talked to out in the city asked where I was from and I said the U.S. She was older (maybe around 75 or 750, it was kind of hard to tell) and when she found out I was from the U.S., she asked if I could help here get there and get a Visa.....uh....no? Lol. She chuckled and understood that I couldn't help her. All of the missionaries that were here before us left the MTC this week. So there are only 24 veteran missionaries. We got new latino roommates, 4 of them. I can't remember what their names are (they're in spanish so it's hard lol) but they seem cool enough. They're a little shy. Today is only their first day though. Luckily one of our roommates speaks english fairly well. Whew. Lucky break. One of the Elders in our district, avert your eyes mom, I'm warning you, thinks he has a worm. Dun dun dun.......he's been constipated for 3 days, dun dun dun......and is in a lot of discomfort. He's been taking laxitives but nothing. He said he could, umm, feel the worm moving around inside.....blegh.... I guess that's just a taste of what's to come. Woot =). Okay mom you can look now. I'm ready to leave the MTC, but I still have 3 more weeks. I just have to hang on a little longer.=) And no, I don't have my travel plans yet. Alrighty, I'm out of time now. Stay tuned for more next wednesday.

 

Love me