Week 4 in the jungle...all questions answered

The Mission has been divided!!!! Into Quito North and South. Changes won't start until July. The church will be sending lots of new missionaries here!

The weather here is so mild. The heat really hasn't been that bad for me, in the beginning it was, but now it is much more livable and relaxed. Mosquitos haven't been a problem at all, but it sure does rain a lot and there are cool geckos that cruise around the house at night and bark, or chirp... its awesome. OH! this week we were walking down the street and I was on the phone with the branch president, and out of the corner of my eye I saw an older gringo couple walking on the sidewalk in front of us. We had stepped down into the street to walk around them while I kept on the phone and as we passed, I heard the wife say to her husband in a surprised voice, THE Missionaries! We stopped to chat with them and they're from Missouri, but have a grandson that lives in Aliso Viejo! haha He had just left on a mission the 20 of January to Sao Paolo. His name is Brady Allen. They showed me a picture, and I could tell by his hair that he was definitely from so cal, but I didn't really recognize his face very well... good folks. Loved their accents!

Well, the million questions you had...

My companion is Elder Borroel from Southern Mexico, Vera Cruz. He is a good guy, really easy to live with, but I feel like he doesn't ever really stand up for what he wants but just goes with the flow. When his companion is obedient he is obedient, but when his companion is lazy, well he is too. There haven't been any problems yet at all. Just that he isn't much of a "go getter"  kind of a guy.

 

Yes, we always travel together except for when I came from Quito. Whenever there are transfers we travel alone.

 

Carnaval is just a holiday when everyone gets each other wet, or throws flour, or paint...those kinds of things. Kind of like a city wide water fight. President Ghent didn't want us to play, so I tried not to, but at the end of the day they painted my face.

 

I am doing better with my goals, but I find little time to read in the scriptures to fulfill my goal of 9 pages a day to finish before going home.

 

Service projects are normally just the same things I did at Nonnies's house, gardening projects. Next week I think we are going to help a guy harvest cacao (:

 

Yes, I am Zone Leader with Elder Borroel here in Tena, and the other Elders in our zone live in Puyo and are in a trio, Elder Condori, Elder Molina, and Elder Quiquivix. I was on exchanges with Elder Condori this weekend, I'll send pictures. He is from Peru, Cusco, and is the only member of his family who is a member of the church. I respect him a lot, spanish is his second language. He is a native of the high andes and speaks quechua. Puyo is 2.5 hours from Tena, but has a way different temperature average because it is higher up, but enjoys the same vegetation because of the high rainfall.

 

Elder Young was my zone leader from my last sector, he started his mission 6 weeks after me and was in the MTC with Lance Frame. Well, the story is, the Roche's sent me their christmas card, and one day when Elder Young was over, he was complaining about how his girlfriend got back from her mission and wasn't writing him anymore and his family was getting kind of lazy in writing too, so in order to not give him reason to whine, I gave him the address of the Roche's as a joke, but he ended up accepting it and told me he wrote them, but I honestly didn't believe him. He is a great guy and one of the few gringo friends I have made here on the mission. 

 

There it is. The answers to all your questions (: hahaha

 

Love, Elder Blackwelder

Week 3 in the jungle

We had a  baptism this week. The cool part is that since we don't have a chapel, we baptized in the river (: There are so many rivers here, it is incredible. The main big ones are really kind of dirty, but taking back roads and walking a little it is easy to find pristine rivers. The baptism was of 2 kids of a less active member, sister Lara, and her husband, Geovanny Rovalino, who is not a member. He lived part of his life in LA and loves to speak english with me. We had a little barbeque afterward to celebrate. I found a gecko and a tucan...pretty cool.

On Friday we had a training meeting in Ambato, the chocolate capitol of the world, We had to wake at 4:00am to get showered and make it there by 10:00. My companion and I slept in Puyo which is a bit closer. Elder Condori, from Peru, came back with me to Tena and my companion, Elder Borroel, stayed in Puyo. Elder Condori and I cleaned out the study room on Sunday. Funny thing, Sunday were the national elections and President Ghent saw it fit that all the missionaries stay inside. It is an obligation to vote, and it has to be done in one's home province, so there was only the first hour of church services so that everyone could travel to their destinations to "sufragar", like the word suffrage in english. So after the one hour of church, we came home and we weren't allowed to leave...so we organized things and put all the books into a busted bookcase that we found and cleaned.
We also baked the Cinnamon Cake mix you sent me
Love, Elder Blackwelder

Elder Condori and Blackwelder

admiring their work 

 

week 2 in the jungle - "A need for change"

Wow, I only have 10 minutes left of my 1 hour internet time....how does it go by so fast?! Well, I had to write a ton to President Ghent and that took a while. So it was a quick week, and a lot happened. I spent most of the week in divisions in Puyo (since Thursday, and I am leaving today, Monday) with only one pair of socks, one pant, one shirt, one tie, 2 garments, and 1 Guillermo to get a hold of and do the baptismal interview...what a strange week.
Monday we went to Quito for the zone leaders council. It was great and president has set some really high goals for the mission in February and in March. There were 6 more missionaries sent home for doing bad stuff (making 15 for the year 2013) and he talked a lot about change we need to make in our respective zones. He set a lot of new rules to help the mission get cleaned up (things like no talking to single women younger than 30 unless there is another priesthood holder older than 30 present) and to help missionaries get focused. President has asked us to make some big sacrifices to be able to receive the Lord's help in reaching our goals for these next 2 months. Then we had to take all that information and teach it to our Zone (one other companionship) on Thursday after a service project we did.

 

I then went to Puyo and tried to get the interview done, which was achieved, but the baptism didn't happen on Sunday and will be postponed until next weekend. We did another service project  here in Puyo (in my same shirt and tie).

 

Starting on Saturday was the holiday called carnaval. I spent it last year in Tulcán, you may remember. It continues until Tuesday.

 

Well, president didn't really want us to get involved and wanted us to stay away from any sort of craziness, but to answer your questions about my companion, we ended up getting involved. I did my best to be a good leader, and tried to set a good example, but some things are only noticed up to a certain point.Well, my whole zone is kind of lazy, being in the Oriente does that, and they aren't real pumped about being obedient...so I think that is why president sent me out here, to try and encourage the zone to be good.
Well, I have to get on the bus and take the 2.5 hour ride back to Tena, I really love it though because my bus book is Jesus the Christ and my goal is to finish it before I leave this sector.
Love, Elder Blackwelder

 

A week in the jungle

So, I have been here  in Tena a week now, and I am still stunned each day by this amazing place. On Tuesday, I went on divisions with Elder Molina and Elder Quiquivix in Puyo, and I was surprised by how temperate the climate was. There was a nice breeze and a few bits of rain in the day, but it just isn't the nasty heat that I always expected from the jungle. In Tena it is a little bit more toasty, but with a cool shower in the morning and at night, the heat becomes forgotten. Speaking of the night, we put the fan next to the open window to blow in the cooler air and just sleep on top of the mattress and sheet. I just put some shorts on and sleep in the open, whereas in Quito, I had a sheet and a blanket and wool socks on every night, and sometimes my thermal pants too... It is just so convenient here. 

We went running one morning to exercise and explore a bit of the sector. We found a sweet little river and beach to go to someday to write letters. Also, on Thursday we had lunch at a restaurant that a member paid for, and we got to talking with the hostess, a native to the Oriente, about chontacuro, those fat worms they eat here. She said she loves them, and that she ate like 16 for breakfast. They always interested me, and I figured I'd eat one. She gave me a little guy to try.

Normally they serve them asado, but she said they were good just raw. Ever since I was little, I have always imagined those mandarin orange slices that come in syrup in a cup like the grubs that Timon and Pumba eat, and when I saw them here, I got excited to try them. Well, they really aren't that bad. There really is nothing bad about them, just the idea of eating a grub... It leaves a flavor in your mouth like the smell of the sawdust festival. They honestly just taste like wood, another childhood fantasy of mine (: hehehe 

Eating the chontacuro

 

We had a family home evening on Saturday with a member, Hermano Cajilema, who lived in the states and was baptized there. He is a cool old dude who is pretty relaxed. The Guillín couple came too (other members from our branch) who live like 2 hours away deep in the jungle. They are more than 80 years old but work hard all week on their farm, then take the 2 hour bus every Saturday night and stay at the Cajilema house before church the following day. They are so peppy and have a lot of spunk, just like grandma. 

Well, as for the work, we are focusing on 5 less active families with the Branch President. We have 3 of the kids from those families with baptismal dates for these next 2 weeks. The cool part is we baptize in the river (: Today we have to go to Quito for the Zone Leader council which we have at the beginning of every month to talk about the results from the previous month. We will be back here on Wednesday, work a bit, then we have a big service project on Thursday with the elders from Puyo, we are going to harvest cacao, and a long zone training meeting. Then on Friday I'll be in Puyo for some interviews. 

Well, I love you guys. Have a good week.

 Love, Elder Blackwelder

A very big grasshopper with the coolest wings

Our Sacrament room in the rented apartment/chapel

 

A jungle soccer field at sunset