candice's last two letters from ian

Haha glad you are counting down the months1 that is an´exclamation point by the way, some of the keys arent working...like apostrophes...Glad you liked the recordings. Im sending some more from my activities from today. Mom said the same thing, that i sound like dad and take a long time to tell stories....well these recording are no different :¿ smiley. THat doesnt sound like a bad idea, going to utah state. it would be better than byu for something like natural resources. I miss utah a lot surprisingly. oh, it was so funny, we had like a stake talent show for the young men and women. then at the end, brother moya who was in charge of the technology aspect of it all, he-s the one with the mac computers and stuff i told you about, played some music, but it was the most random collection of renditions of english songs. simon and garfunkel, hotel california, queen,... classics, but so funny. I bought 2 liters of that polaca cake batter drink today. so good. and humitas two days ago. bombin. oh, so in the photos i sent mom, there is a picture of me pointing at someone, that is president Correa, the president of ecuador, he came out and spoke to the folks today in teh plaza grande and had alll his guards and such doin all sorts of goofy looking marches, but i think are supposed to be really serious. I was laughing pretty hard, but no one else was...oops..Do you have any more simple questions like the ones last week? Those were easy to respond to. So scary about Giovanny when he got drugged, huh? I hope you have a good week with work and everything.
Love,
your brother.

Way to go on the yogs! We wake up at 5:45 or so and get some exercise in the morning sun. One of my leaders cam over spent the night and said I should get a yoga mat for sun salutations. hahahah send some pics o yur new hur doo. my new companion is great. he is from arizona, one of the 2 gringos in a group of 15 new missionaries, I lucked out! there are 3 other missionaries from my group that are training newbies too. SO fun though, but it is really different to be the one in charge of everything, trying to make the best decisions in everything. I gave a talk on sunday and everyone said it was really good and they loved it. and that they understood me, so that is good news. NO, I haven't gotten really sick, there are these one fruits called uvillas that are like cherry tomatoes and grapes mixed, but they're the quickest laxative I've ever had. diarrhea within the hour! Me and Elder Comsa are getting along great, it's nice to have someone to speak english with, but I feel bad because his spanish is limping along. but he works hard at it.

Love you tons
Ian

December 5th, 2011

We are in the city near the Mission offices and stopped by the internet to print out the email letters to respond to later. hopefully by then more of you have written! 

I am studying the new testament, in the time that I have free. 

The transfers, or 'changes,' came! I am staying here in San Juan and Elder Barrera is going to the zone next to us. Elder Lamprecht did not get moved to our zone, which was thought by some of the other elders. I will be training a new elder! I'm so nervous. I won't find out who he is until Wednesday so I'll tell you more about it later. 

Hopefully the recording I sent is the one for you mom, but if not, pass it on to whom it belongs. 

Sadly, we didn't get to see the Christmas Devotional, but we'll try to download it today. On December 20th, my zone and Elder Lamprecht's is going to eat a Christmas meal with President Ghent and his wife. I am meeting up with Sister Duringer today, thanks for sending Christmas goodies with her. I haven't gotten the things I wanted to give her to bring back for you guys, so I'll try to send them later in the month. I have some shoes being made for Thom by a guy in my ward - hopefully he likes them. I am having them made in a size 31 because Thom told me he is a 29, so he can wait if they don't fit. what size is he in american sizing?

Love Elder Blackwelder

November 28th, 20111

So, it's the last week of November, wow, so fast! This week, Elder Rodriguez was sent home for an operation on his knee. 

He came into the mission the same day as I did. Kind of a bummer, but we had a going away party for him and I bought a delicious cake for the four of us in our district to share. 

After he left, we ate all his food (: 

We had a baptism on Saturday of Maria Fernanda.

Her family got baptized a few weeks ago, and she was supposed to as well, but her boyfriend talked her out of it the day of. Well, now her boyfriend is in jail, so she realized a few things since then.The water was sooo cold, and we had to go to the chapel at 4 in the morning to fill the font for the baptism by 8:00. 

Today, we went bowling, which was so different, there was no one there! We had the whole place to ourselves. I played on my own lane for 2.5 hours straight. There were ping pong tables, billards, volley ball court and the bowling lanes. Only $3.50 for 3 hours of all of it! 

The companion of elder Rodriguez, Elder Diaz, is leaving for home the 6th of december, so we ransacked their house and now we have a blender, toaster and panini grill! We are going to eat so well now! 

There is a rock climbing gym that I found in my zone! I'm going to try and see if we can go there next monday.

Love you all,

Elder Blackwelder

Making fried plantain:

license plates

a clock that I made from this really goofy clock disguised as a whiskey bottle

We had a big hail storm:

Snow on the mountains above my house:

 twin bananos:

 

November 21st, 2011

To Candice:

Wow, thanks so much for the lyrics! Made me so happy, and sad at the same time. Remember the trip to Arches National Park? You totally were the mom that trip, and just mobbed it in Ivy's car! Hahaha :D How lucky that you get to be in California. I actually forgot about Thanksgiving because they don't celebrate it here (obviously). Nor do they have pumpkins. They just have Fiestas to celebrate the holidays, or everyone leaves Quito to go to the coast. There are some members in the ward who used to live in Utah for 5 years or so, so we'll stop by tonight to see if they made anything festive. There are a lot of fireworks at night, and that is something they do from November 2nd to January 1st. Also, everyone has their fake christmas tree up already. The 6th of November is the usual day, then they take it down the 6th of January. And they set up these huge scenes with toys and dolls around the bottom of the tree with Jesus in the manger and wisemen and such and tons of animals...

My companion, i'm sure, thinks i do a lt of wierd things, but other than the way I dress on P-days, I think i'm pretty normal here. Just tall. Well, thanks for the email, I love love love you. Thats cool that you write to Briana. I am learning to write with my left hand, but I just think about briana. Sometimes, though, when I write in my journal, I feel like I am writing to her.

Love Ian.

Whatever bob dylan or neil young song, if you could, for next week?

November 15th, 2011

To Candice and Tess:

I hope you 2 sisters are doing well. I am doing well. We went to a place Calle dvalle de los Chillos yesterday to play soccer against another zone. We beat them and got to keep the ball. The best part is that I learned that this is the place (Calle dvalle de los Chillos) where all the gringos live. Kinda country, kinda city, tons of sweet custom houses because there aren't the same laws and regulations as in the US for building houses. I was thinking it would be sweet to make a skatepark in my future backyard, because all they use here is cement, so it would be relatively inexpensive. 

I was talking with my companion about talking to you guys at Christmas, and he said we are allowed to use skype! Yahoo! I wish we could skype with Briana - that would be awesome. I always wonder what she is doing. I bet she's having such a good time. Well, love you lots, hope you are being good sisters to Thomas and good mother and aunt to Elliott.

Love

Ian