Zona Quito

New Companion, Elder Santana from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Panoramic view of Sector

First news of this letter. I got a new companion this week! He got to Ecuador this last tuesday. His name is Elder Santana. He's from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Brand new in the mission. Almost 1 month =). He's more serious but he's a good guy. The only problem we has is that he has a really strong accent and I can't understand him a lot of the time lol. But I'm getting better bit by bit. He's also my first son! I'm so proud of him ='). Son in the mission, for those of you who don't know, is when you are training someone brand new and you are their first companion in the field. Well, Elder Santana started the mission in a trio, so I'm his dad and my other companion Elder Vera is his mom =).

Anyways, this was a rough week...No baptisms and nobody with baptismal date. I feel bad since it's Elder Santana's first week in the field...We have investigators now but either we can't get ahold of them or because of their work schedule we can't visit them very often. 

I really don't know what happened this week to make our numbers so low. Wanting to find out I looked in my agenda to see what happened. Well, a bunch of things. We had to go to Iñaquito a few times for Elder Santana, do interviews, divisions, mini zone conference and a bunch of other stuff. We were busy doing something all week but the numbers just don't show our work. 

Also we've still been having a problem with fallen visits. That's pretty had to control but I have something planned. In place of planning for the next day every night we're going to start planning for the day after. For example tonight we'll plan fortomorrow and wednesday; and then tomorrow we'll plan for thursday. That way we're always planned 2 days ahead. This will also help us to give the investigators or whoever more time to expect us, and we'll also have time to be able to invite members to go with us. I think this plan will really help us. 

The silver lining in the clouds is that this week we found 6 new people. Finally we're making progress and building up our program. We'll be working super hard this week to plan ahead and visit all of the people we have frequently. 

Well that's about it for this week. Elder Vera leaves for Argentina tomorrow and I'll be here with Elder Santana. We get along good and he's a good missionary. 

Now to respond to the letters. Sounds like you guys had fun cleaning up the yard this week. I'm glad to hear that Uncle Monty has a new appreciation for all of those flipping rocks lol. A quick list of the people that you can pray for. Less actives: Familia  Ortiz, Cristian, Gustavo Muñoz, Jacobo Cruz, Hermano Duque, Familia Santos. Investigators: Familia Amores, Gabriel Castro, Carla Vasquez, Rodrigo Rosas. If you could pray for them that would be awesome. Dwight! Good to hear from you! The work here is progressing. Slowly but surely. But mostly slowly lol. Yeah I was able to talk with Elder and Sister Kaneen. They still remember you and said you were awesome =). Off the top of my head I can't think of any doctors that are members here....But I'll ask around and see if I can find something for you. Weird to hear that Kelly had a baby and now both the Emily's are pregnant. Also that Michael is getting married. Tell them I said congratulations =). That is....if they're not reading my letters >=(...

Quick few things that I thought of that I want you to send in the next package. If you could send me more salt and vinegar chips, more of those Doterra mints (my new companion wants some =)), jam and candy that would be great. There's also something I want to know. If you could look up some workouts that you can do without equipment that would be great. I bought some workout bands but that's all that I have.

Funny thing of the week: As a district leader I have a cell phone. When I'm bored or on a bus or something I play a dumb little game called Forbidden Treasures. The point is to dig and collect a certain amout of treasure, but sometimes you hit fire and it burns you and any treasure that it touches. You have to collect more and more money every level. Elder Vera was in a betting mood and made a bet with me. We would switch off every level and the persone that died would have to buy the other a big package of Oreo's (36 Oreos). So we were playing and he lost the first round. Being merciful I gave him another chance. Then I lost. 1 and 1. So we played one last time and he lost =). I now have a bunch of Oreo's =)

Pics: some flowers I found while contacting, a panoramic from the top of our sector, me and my companions, and Zona Quito

See ya later =)

Elder Black