Sorry everybody that my letters have been dull the past few weeks. The truth is we didn't have much time to write and there really wasn't too much to write about. I didn't write last week because I talked with my family over Skype last week. Woot! So last week the only exciting thing that really happened was Alexander's(Jefferson's) baptism. It was awesome. When we got there he gave us what is called Camino de Fe (Path of Faith). The CdF is a form that lets investigators see their progress towards baptism. It has sections to mark boxes for Pray Daily, and Other Goals. So he gave it back to us at his baptism all filled out. That may not sound like much, but it really is pretty awesome. Elder Leal (my new companion) said that was the first time in 9 months of his mission that he's seen someone fill it out like that. Some of his other goals were; marry the woman that I love, and be an eternal couple and have a family.....wow. Pretty cool. So Vinny (his hermanadore/member friend that we would bring on visits) baptized him. He actually did it 3 times. All 3 times the prayer was perfect, but the first 2 times his knee popped out of the water so he had to do it again. Now, the reason his knee popped out =). After the first prayer and Vinny said "Amen", he shoved Alexander into the water and brought him out about as quick as he could. It was more like he was mad at Alex and dunked him as hard as he could lol. That's why his knee popped out, it didn't have time to go under. So after that we tried to tell Vinny that he had to do it slower and that he had to be completely submerged. So the second prayer....."Amen!", and the same thing. Vinny, chill....slow Vinny....3rd prayer, "Amen!" and he shoved him under the water just the same way. The only difference is that to make sure that he was completely submerged he held him under for about 5 seconds and then pulled him back out. So hilarious lol. Vinny never ceases to surprise me.....
So last week for the 24th and the 25th we had to be in the house early for our "safety". Whenever there's a holiday or something a lot of the people like to get drunk and supposedly it can get dangerous. Although here in Yaruquì it's pretty chill. Nonetheless we stayed inside most of the day. The only cool thing that we did on the 24th was talk to our families. One thing they told me was that when I speak english I have an accent.....weird....I thought I sounded normal. Imagine how I'll be at the end of my mission.....=O. And then the 25th was about the same. None of the members in our branch invited us over for dinner or anything =,( so we went to a members house in Tumbaco with the elders there. Nothing to wild.
Then wednesday, the day after Christmas. We had an appointment with Alex to teach him about the Priesthood, we brought Vinny along with us as well. We got to his house and he told us that he wanted to talk about....well actually for privacy reasons I can't really say much =). Let's just say that it wasn't good....He even had thoughts of killing himself. We're still helping him out to feel better and get him back on his feet. Just know that everything will be alright =)
Another thing that happened on thursday (this time it's a good thing), was that we got a reference! Yeah!! It's a family that asisted church in Ibarra, the father has family that are members and they liked the church. This is like gold. An investigator that went to church, liked it, has support from family and lives 10 minutes walking from out house. Perfect. So we taught them that night. They were very receptive and understood everything. We invited them to baptism and they accepted, they didn't accept a date though, which it totally fine with me.
Unfortunately I'm about out of time....again. So I'll wrap it up. A couple of things that happened to me this week that I thought were funny. I'm going to start doing a new thing in my letters "Funny thing of the Week". This week the most funny thing was this....So I was doing my laundry and pulling the laundry out of the laundry bag. Stuck to one of my shirts was a 2 inch long, fat millipede. I was so excited and happy to see it in my clothes I screamed for joy. In my excitement I accidently flung the millipede at the wall. The End =) Another thing that happened to us was in a contact. We were contacting and I had a feeling that we should contact this particular house. So we did. We knocked and an old lady yelled, "Who is it!" We're missionaries....."Who is it!" We're missionaries. "Who is it!" WE'RE MISSIONARIES!!!!. Then she came to the door finally. It took her about a minute to open the door and then she came out. She looked at my companion, who was in a black dress sweater, and asked, "Are you the Father(a catholic priest)?" No....We're missionaries and we teach the gospel. "Oh, you teach the gospel? She then started slowly walking back into her house. "We're Christians and you don't bring any bread or water for the old or poor! You just care about yourselves!" She was yelling all sorts of weirdness at us. Then she went back into her house and closed the door.....me and my companion....uhh....what the heck lol. I'm thinking that God has a sense of humor and he wanted us to contact that house to give us a weird experience. "Psst....Elder Black, go contact that house over there". I can just imagine him chuckling to himself.....
So that's about it. I'll answer the questions that mom sent me now. Yes I'm happy and I can understand my companion now =). No never got the package =(. Christmas Day....we didn't do really anything other than what I said. Good to hear that the colonoscopy went well =). Cool to hear about the water company and that you helped that guy out. And for New Years....today is P-day and then we have to be in the house early again. So we'll just chill in the house and play games. I'm not so sure they celebrate 3 Kings here....I haven't heard anything about it here. Oh, one thing they do do for New Years is they "burn the old year". They make maniquins and then burn them. Symbolic of burning the old and starting anew. And I was thinking how the heck I was going to pay for school when I got back. Then I thought of my good old rich uncle Jeff and I thought that maybe I could work for him. So yes, I did want to work for him when I got back. Funny you should mention that. The emails you send are good. Send more pictures though. Like the lean-to for instance. Pictures are good. And you can send a letter normal and supposedly it gets here in about a week. Try that. And why didn't anyone tell me that the Wii U came out?! I also know now that they've announced a new Zelda game for 2014. Yeah!! Okay that's all. See you later! And here are some pictures of the baptism and of Christmas.....
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