I'M IN ECUADOR!! :)

¡Hola!
I´M IN ECUADOR!!!! lol so this week has definitely been crazy. It seems so crazy that I´m actually here, almost like it´s all just a dream. I can´t believe that just a week ago I was still in the States. On one hand it seems like so long ago but at the same time it feels like I just got here. But it has been great! The trip over here went really well. We didn´t have any problems catching any of our flights or anything (though I guess the flight from Texas to Florida was delayed 20 minutes but it didn´t effect anything seeing as we alread had a 3 hour layover in Dallas). Hermana Brown and I were just nervous and excited the whole time, lol- especially on our flight from Florida to Guayaquil! The crazy part was when we finally got to Guayaquil. We landed on time around 9:20 and just followed the crowd to customs. Now that was nerve racking! We waited in line until a desk was open and we went individually. When I walked up to the guy and handed him my passport and visa papers he took a little while to look at them then said something to me in some language that I didn´t understand whatsoever. I tried to ask "¿qué?" but even the second and third time I had no idea what he was trying to say, lol. Luckily there was someone behind me that knew the language and told me that I had the visa and could do it somewhere else. Yeah I didn´t know what they meant but he gave me back my papers and let me walk through. I figured I must be fine if they´ll let me walk into the country through customs (I found out later that I must´ve been supposed to go somewhere else to stamp it because he didn´t stamp my visa so I actually walked in illegally, lol! But it´s weird because the same customs and Hermana Brown got through and her visa was stamped so she was fine. lol who knows). Once we got through baggage claim was in the next room so first we stopped by the rest rooms and then waited for our bags. But oh man it took forever! After us there must´ve been other flights that came in because after 45 minutes the place was filled. It must´ve taken an hour for our bags to come through (the whole time we were wondering what we should do and how we didn´t understand anything and what President Gamboa must be thinking). Oh and by the way in the Florida airport I guess Hermana Brown talked to the daughter and her husband of the Quito mission president and they were flying down to visit. I wish I would´ve gotten the chance to talk to them but I didn´t. But when we were in the baggage claim we realized that somehow they were able to get their bags and were out of there super quick. Yeah we really just felt like nuevos. Well so yeah about like around 10:30 our bags finally came through but then by that time there was a huge line to get through another security x'rays that we had to put our bags through to walk out. yeah that took another 45 minutes. We decided to work on some vocab and memorizing scriptures while we were waiting in this line :) but yeah once it was well after 11 we finally got through all the security and were walking out and I first saw a couple of tall Americans in white shirts and ties then I saw President Gamboa and his wife. We walked around the little fence thing that was there and walked up to them. The elders and president gave me hugs and President Gamboa actually said "welcome!" Elder Sanchez then shook my hand and said he would be my companion- in plain english. Yeah, he´s from California and totally American, lol. That kind of surprised me, I was expecting to have a native companion first and to have a rough first week not understanding anything, which would be good because then I would learn Spanish way faster. but ah wel Elder Sanchez is a reall kool guy. He´s probably about 6´4´´ and 175 pounds and played football (defensive end!) and wrestling. so yeah it was him, the Assistent to the President, and Hermana Browns first Companion (who is actually from Argentina and knows little english, lol so yeah she´s probablyly had a fun first week) who were there to greet us. We all just walked out and the elders took one car to where we would stay and the sisters and President took another to where they would stay. That night we just went straight to bed we were so tired, lol. (by the way, i´ve just spent 30 minutes typing, which in the MTC would mean I´m out of time but here i have another 30 minutes!!! lol:). so yeah the next day we got up, exercised, got ready and had personal study then around 9 went to the office. By the way we stayed with all the office elders- there´s 6 (2 assistants then secretaries and stuff), they´re all pretty fun (4 of them are Americans, lol so yeah when we were in the office we were all speaking spanish so it really didn´t feel like I was in Ecuador yet). In the office they took our picture, gave us a little orientation talk on everything to expect, how to get money, some basic rules, etc, and we had interviews with President Gamboa. Then around 1 Sis. Brown, one of the assistants and I went with President and Sister Gamboa to their place and had lunch. It was really nice, we had fish, potatoes and rice. They were really nice, President Gamboa is pretty funny, lol. They told us that we can expect rice for every meal (which i´ve found to be true, and also every meal I´ve had fried bananas. The rice I like but I´m not gonna lie I´m not a big fan of the fried bananas, lol). after we ate we sat down in their living room and talked and we each shared our testimony in spanish and they last got a picture with us individually. It was really nice. Finally we came back to the office and me and Elder Sanchez took our things and went to catch a bus to our first area (which everyone was telling me was an awesome first area). We got some bus tickets and after a 2 hour ride we are now in Libertad- which is actually a peninsula that juts out into the ocean. I think everyone was right, this is an awesome place to start out. Each day we actually do get to have lunch at a members home (which i was pleasantly surprised to hear) but not dinner. We live with 2 other elders outside of our area (or, as they call it, "sector") so each day we have to walk down the street and catch a bus to our sector. All 4 of us are actually American, lol. Which is another surprise. I think there´s about 50 Americans out of the 175 or so missionaries so it´s funny how 4 of us happen to live together. it´s kool but i´m afraid i´m not going to learn spanish as fast because we all speak to each other in english, but ah well we´ll see. But yeah our area is really rich. Elder Martineau was telling me (this is actually his last "change" or set of 6 weeks, so he´s like going home in a month!) that this area is unlike any other in the mission- it´s really rich. I think it was really good that we went to Peru last summer because it is a lot like that. Only not quite as big city like. But there are paved roads in the main part and there is actually a big mall that we´re in right now (oh and get this, everone here calls it "shopping" lol). of course a lot of the families that we´re teaching live in the poor part of town where you´re lucky to have a floor to your home. They´re really more like shacks that families live in. I remember that first night on Wednesday when we had just arrived walking among the shacks at night- it really just felt like a crazy dream, lol. but the people are so nice here it´s awesome. We were teaching one older lady- Julia Magallanes, and she was actually baptised on Saturday! ( yeah it´s pretty sweet to walk in and have a baptism the first saturday). Now her family we´re working on because they all seem really interested. Elder Sanchez says that we really just get a lot of references and teach a lot- we rarely go door knocking or contacting. Which is really good, but of course not what I expected but it is great. so yeah like I said it´s really a lot like Peru. Though there are dogs everywhere. It reminded me Dad didn´t you say there were dogs everywhere in Argentina? They´re not dangerous or anything. Tell everyone I say hi. Well now I´d better write the president. Thanks for everything and don´t worry I´m doing great! lol the area is amazing!