Finally, a real P-day in the jungle. We have always been
traveling from one place to the next and haven't been able to do any sort of
activity. But today we rented bikes for $5 and cruised around looking for fun
stuff to do. We found a bmx park that was just empty, no one was there and we
romped in on our mountain bikes (they were way to heavy to get any real air). I
felt like I was in the olympics (: We found another trail by a river and rolled
around there too.
Highlights from the week were 2 service projects. One was
collecting (in the states it would be considered stealing) materials for
building the foundation of a house. We jumped in a truck with a less
active guy and went to the river with shovels to get sand. Coming up to the
river there were a few folks on the side of the dirt road gathering something
(cacao maybe) and their dog comes bolting at the truck like it was going to
chase us, but I didn't hear any barking, I looked in the sideview mirror and it was just
laying there in the road...squished. We reversed and this 23 year old native
with a long ponytail (Mr. Sink style) comes over and chats with us for a bit.
He said "whelp, it's dead now, ain't nothin can be done. It was my mother
in law's (with a smile and a chuckle)" haha, pity. We got the sand we
needed from the river, which was sooo beautiful and wide and green and deep,
and we headed back to the house and went out for another trip to get river
rocks from a different river so as to not find the mother in law (:
The next
day we went to help a member who lives 2 hours from Tena in a little
pueblito. He reminds me of Uncle Dickie. We helped him harvest cacao and remove
the seeds from dried corn. He has a sweet little house with hammocks and bamboo
and all sorts of fun stuff. Right as we were getting ready to leave, his
grandson leaves the house with a little fishing rod and then a piece of wood
with some 50 pound test line wrapped around it with a thick 7/0 long shank hook
on the end. I longingly asked him where he was going, knowing well what the
answer would be. He said his little rod was for catching perch and the big one
for putting the perch on as bait for fat catfish...I was so bummed that we had
to leave... ): I don't know if you know much about cacao, but it looks like a
warty big papaya which you split open with a machete and pull out the dozen
seeds that are covered in a juicy white cotton ball (that is what it looks like
at least) that is super tasty. Inside is the seed about the size of an almond,
and after drying in the sun for a few days the white goop comes off, the seeds
are bagged and sold to buyers that drive around the far away communities
looking for cacao. A sack full goes for about $60 to $70 and really is a good
product to grow. I imagine it gets sent off to Europe to be processed and made
into fine chocolates to be distributed throughout the globe.
We have an investigator, Judith, who is ready for baptism.
She is from Cuenca and has a goofy accent, but has been great with listening to
us. Well, she loves having us over, but she wasn't applying what we have been
teaching her. Last week in our Zone leader meeting, President Ghent talked
about how we need to teach the process of repentance more clearly to
investigators, to help them feel the spirit in their lives more strongly before
baptism. While we were in a lesson with her, she kept talking and talking about
things that really weren't pertinent and my companion was just nodding and saying
basic agreements, but I felt like we needed to do something more and apply what
president told us. So I went for it and tried to help her see what this was all
about. That there are things more important than clothes, cars, houses, and
relationships; our personal eternal lifespan. I don't really know how to put it
all into an email, because I write really poorly, but it was an important
moment for her. Sorry that I am so bad at putting spiritual experiences in
emails. I always focus on the exciting and adventurous aspects of Ecuador,
maybe it's just because those are the parts that are different for me. Every
day there are special things that happen that strengthen my testimony in this
advancing work. I love reading Preach my Gospel and Jesus the Christ. They make
me so happy to be alive in this day when the work is finishing, when the final
push is being made to harvest while the field is still white, because swift
comes the day of the Lord, and I want my Ecuadorian friends to be ready for
it.
