Christmas, Rain and Bautismo!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow sounds like it was a great Christmas for everyone. I´m glad it must´ve been awesome to have everyone there and enjoy the family atmosphere full of love. That’s nice Luke let you sleep in a bit later (at least a bit later for Christmas morning, lol). He must not be quite at the age to get himself up at the early hours of the day. And that´s great you spent the day at Grandpas.

Here we had a great day. Two families gave us lunch so we could barely walk after but we still felt their love, lol. Then we went around teaching as usual but most of the time just watching a video themed on Christ. We ended the day with an awesome family, Robayo. I don´t know if I told you about them but their fantastic. It´s interesting I think I´m realizing that in each area you come to find one or two families that are just your favorites to teach and be with. That´s probably not a good thing, lol, but it´s hard to help it. We always have them as the last lesson of the day because he works for a banana farm and doesn´t get home until that hour and I always know that no matter how rough the day is and how many lessons fell through this family will be there and we´ll have a good lesson, and often they offer us dinner, lol. They have three kids, the oldest is 9. They´re just an awesome family and Euclides is such an awesome guy. He works so hard to support his family every time we go he just looks exhausted, but somehow has a ton of patience with his little kids, lol. He´s one here that makes me hope that I stay here long enough to see them baptized. So yeah we were able to visit them for our last lesson on Christmas which was nice. They gave us dinner (turkey!) and watched how to find faith in Christ.

We had a baptism yesterday which was sweet! We had it with the Elders from another ward because the girls who were baptized were both nieces of a member in our ward. So it was sweet. He said he would plan everything for talks and we just needed to announce it and bring the baptism clothes. That was way nice for once not having to worry too much about the agenda. And just to be able to go, sit down and enjoy the baptism from the outside, lol. Like a breath of fresh air. The member teaches the mission prep class for the stake so he asked all of the future missionaries to give the talks and be the witnesses to prepare for their missions. It was pretty neat. And it was fun to see and remember what it was like to be a youth preparing for the mission. And yes we do have another baptism planned for this week on Saturday. It´s the daughter of Euclides that is nine.

Alright well other than that it was great to talk to you all too! It was crazy I was a little nervous since it´s been so long but it was nice to hear your voices. The delay in the phone took a little getting used to but it was worth it, lol. I´m glad to hear everyone is doing great. I´d better get going. Today we have to go to Guayaquil so I can take the last exam with the assistants to finish my maestro!!!! Hopefully it all goes well.

Love, Elder David Frome

Feliz Navidad

Hey Mom and Dad,

Man I can´t believe it´s Christmas week! Seems like just yesterday I got here (and actually it literally kind of does, the weather hasn´t changed much at all:). I´m glad it sounds like all of you are doing good. That´ll be exciting to have Robbie and Kristen there, and I bet it´s already great to have Ryan. I´m excited to be able to talk to them since I didn´t get to on Mother´s day. And wow so you got a new horse for Christmas mom?? That´s awesome! Lol I´m glad haven´t you been keeping your eye out for a while.

But anyways, so this week I got the most packages that I´ve ever gotten in one week and I´m pretty sure I will ever get in one week, lol. I´ve felt so spoiled I almost felt bad for the other missionaries. It was crazy too because we had Conference (which was AWESOME I´ll tell you about later) and so we got all our mail there and Hermana Gamboa came up to me and was like “Elder, you have been getting package after package in the office, we have counted up about seven!” lol, just because I got the 3 packages from you this week and two packages from you the week before, then Grandma sent me a package and Melissa and Aunt Janet and some other friends. So yeah thank you so much. And thanks for all the candy and stockings for the other elders, I think I´ll have to try and get up early and play Santa Claus to give them each a stocking and candy and everything. I hope it´s ok I decided to open everything today instead of Christmas, I figured I´d rather see it all and feel a bit trunky today instead of when we´ve got to teach ;P And yeah the tie is awesome and everything you sent. We listened to the tabernacle choir Christmas CD this morning when we were cleaning, lol that was fun. It was great especially getting the pictures and that picture book. It was great seeing the old and modern pictures. Just made me miss home a bit :P So yeah tell Grandma and everyone thanks for the packages.

But anyways, so everything here is going great. The best day was definitely Thursday. I don´t know if i told you but the president told us that this month we were going to be able to go to the temple!!! So finally this week we found out that we were going on Thursday! Our sessión was at 8 in the morning so we had to get up a little extra early and as a zone went to Guayaquil. It was awesome because Elder Ethridge´s zone was there as well as Sister Brown´s so I saw them and several other missionaries that I knew. It´s fun I think I´m at the point where I have enough time to have known a good number of missionaries so now zone conferences are even better because I see missionaries that I know and have worked with. It was fun seeing Sister Brown because we talked about how crazy it is how we´ve already been out in the field for so long. She is already halfway done with her mission! Then of course entering the temple was awesome. Only thing was after our sessión we had zone conference in the lobby of the hotel, so we didn´t have much time to stay in the Celestial room but that was alright. It was crazy hearing and going through it all in Spanish. I think I´m kind of glad now that I went through after having some time here so I was actually able to understand it all. Had it been my first day I wouldn´t have gotten anything, lol.

But yeah then the conference after was amazing. First the Temple president spoke to us and that was awesome. He told us about the general visión of the area presidency has a lot of focus on the temple. How getting members baptized is only the first step because it´s the temple that everything focuses on. We can only gain exaltation through temples. It was neat to hear. He also taught us a way simple but effective way of teaching the plan of salvation. It was neat. Then after of course President spoke to us about Christmas and baptism and this time of year. It was more jovial than usual. Than lastly Hermana Gamboa spoke some words and then asked if we had any gifts yet, lol then she told us of course the missión was giving us gifts! Then she had the assistants bring out a wrapped present for every missionary there! I was surprised, I couldn´t believe that they had bought a present for every missionary in the missión. But it was definitely awesome. I got a hymn book cover, tie and socks. Others got shirts and pictures. It was way neat. After we all took pictures as a group and then by the temple. I couldn´t believe it but I forgot my camera so I´ll have to get the pictures from someone else in our zone.
Then when we finally got back, believe it or not, we had a baptism!! 9-year-old Juan got baptized. His parents were less active but are now coming back. So yeah it was an amazing thing to see. I´m pretty sure a day in the life of a missionary couldn´t get much better than that, lol. Temple in the morning, Conference afternoon, seeing missionary friends from other sectors, then ending the day with a baptism. Yeah, it doesn´t get much better than that :P

Other than that everything is going well. This week should be pretty crazy. We´re getting lots of investigators telling us that we have to pass by at specific times on Wednesday, i wonder why ;) lol then Christmas should be great as well. Yeah it definitely doesn´t feel too much like Christmas yet, but yeah like you said Dad that might be better because it feels like a normal work day. If it felt too much like Christmas at home that´d probably just make it harder :P it´s sweet because we have 2 baptisms planning for the weekend after Christmas so we´re excited.
Other than that-- oh I had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday. I didn´t have as much time to prepare it so I was a little more worried but I ended up going over on time (the second counselor had to slip a piece of paper in front of me saying “TIEMPO” (time) lol so I hope it was good. I guess I need to get better at putting all my thoughts and what I wanna say in an 8 minute span better, lol.

Alright well I´d better get going. Thanks again for all the packages and letters! I love you and can´t wait to hear from you Friday!!

Love,Elder David Frome

Rain, Crickets, and news!

Hey Mom and Dad,

I told you about how I memorized everything for the Maestro, right? Well that´s only one part, I also had to take a written exam of the principles of Preach my Gospel, fill out several practice Fichas bautismales (not sure how to say that in english, the forms you fill out when someone is baptised:), and will have to teach the zone leader and he´ll evaluate my teaching to see if I´m using all the principles. Yeah it´s a pretty good amount of work, lol. But yeah this Friday morning we ran over to the Zone leaders house and I took it. I started around 10:45ish I´d say. There were 3 fichas and 12 questions and oh man, it was actually pretty intense, lol. When I was nearly done Elder Salazar came in to see how I was doing and I asked him jokingly “man how long have I been in here?” he laughed and said “oh you know about 1:00ish.” I thought he was joking. Lol when I finished I came out and looked at my watch and it was 1:30! Yeah took me over 2 hours to take it. It was just like being back in school taking finals, lol. But ah well hopefully I did well. Kool thing is Elder Arellano is an Assistent now so I bet he´ll be the one who grades it. So hopefully I pass! :P

Well other than that this week has been crazy. We´ve been working hard and finding a ton of new people. It actually rained Thursday night! Just barely, but it was still nice. Hopefully the rains will start to come now. But one fun fact that we learned is that the start of rain also means the season of cricket or grasshoppers (grillos, lol). We were talking to the bishop and he said that when it starts to rain, grasshoppers come soon by swarms. You can barely walk down the street without hundred running into you flying around. We´ve already seen hundreds, flying around in the streets and found several in our apartment, lol. It´s kinda fun to see so many but I think we´ll have to protect our apartment so they don´t ruin our clothes :P

Sunday we had stake conference! Thus, another opportunity to dress up in suits. It was neat I didn´t realize before but President and Sister Gamboa came. We were waiting outside greeting investigators and I saw them and was surprised. But it was pretty kool. When we finally went in I had a fun, though slightly nerve racking assignment. When I sat down right before the meeting started and looked at Pres. Gamboa sitting up front he motioned to me to come up to him. He asked me to have the Elders write the names of all their investigators who were there as quickly as posible, lol. So I promptly went to each elder and had them write the names and a little into the meeting I walked back up to give it to him. In his talk he later gave a formal welcome to all the investigators by name. And it was funny he said that if he mispronounced any or missed any it´s the “culpa de los Elderes” (the fault of the elders:). So it was kool to hear them speak.

Alright well other then that all is going good. Looks like I´m out of time so I´d better go. I hope all is well for you and you have another great week! Love you!

Love,

Elder David K. Frome

PS- ok sorry it´s taken so long but i´ve finally been able to figure out this card reader. All the computers have had a hard time reading my memory card, I´m not sure why. But this time I spent a little more time so I think I figured it out! lol Hope you get these pictures well, one is of me and Elder Cevallos and other of our zone!

Crazy Week!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow sounds like it´s been another crazy week at home. Ah good times with freezing temperatures. I´m not gonna lie, it really doesn´t feel like Christmas time here when it´s only getting hotter. It´s fun to see how here nearly everyone has already put up their artificial Christmas trees and have even put up lights. Of course they don´t really have roofs like we do to put up the lights, but do you remember when I told you every house that´s not made of cane\bambuu has bars over the windows? Well here they string Christmas lights all around the bars that are over the windows so it still gives a nice effect. Definitely different than Christmas in Oregon but it´s still good. There are lots of nativity scenes that have been put up as well so those are kool to see. Changes are next week so it´ll be crazy to see where i´ll be for Christmas, hopefully I stay here. I only have 3 months so I think I will be, but crazy thing of the mission is you never know. This morning we got a call from the Elders in Barrio Olmedo and had us run over there this morning because Elder Arellano, our zone leader, was called to be the new assistant!!! We ran over to say goodbye. But it was crazy to see, but awesome because he is such an awesome elder. Remember I was his companion for a few days while we waited to receive our trainees. So yeah it´ll be fun seeing him in zone conferences now :)

I don´t suppose you´d hear at all about the South American soccer cup but guess who won the championship! Yeah, Liga from Quito of Ecuador apparently won the championship for South America, and I´m pretty sure they played against Brazil so that was fun to hear about. Elder Cevallos was way excited (especially since he´s from Quito) he said the last time Quito won the championship he cried he was so happy, lol.

But yeah it was fun after district meeting I got the packages, and then Elder Salazar, our district leader, told me that if there´s food I can open it now for the food, lol. So I hope it´s ok I opened my birthday package early and ate some of the candy, lol. I´m pretty sure everyone agreed that those cookies were AWESOME!! :) lol. And it was perfect too because after the meeting we didn´t have anyone that was going to give us lunch so we went back to the house to cook and I decided to make those potatos and gravy and I had some frozen hamburger that I thought would go nicely with it so I made that. Then Elder Cevallos made a soup called encebollado that is delicious so we split the meal. I thought it was a pretty sweet thanksgiving meal, two different people from different countries, sharing there culture and food, that´s what´s supposed to be in the spirit of thanksgiving, right?

Well other than that it´s been an awesome week now that I´ve finally been able to leave the house!!! Lol, and yeah my knee feels great now. After two weeks of not bending my knee it was quite stiff so I spent the mornings stretching and just moving it, lol, and we walked a little slower the first few days but now it´s all good. It´s been crazy this week we´ve received quite a few references from the members over the last two weeks that we´ve finally been able to contact. There´s one family who was less active but now they´re coming back and want their 9-year old son to be baptized, then another niece of a member who´s actually been coming for a while now is telling us that she wants to be baptized (yeah, it doesn´t get much better then that when the people tell us that want to be baptized, lol=). We also have another family that is progressing great. The other night we had a lesson with just the 17-year old son and committed him to be baptized for the 26th! That would be so awesome to have a Christmas baptism! Now hopefully if the rest of the family is ready we can commit them as well. It´s been fun since we didn´t have any scheduled appointments after 2 weeks of being in the house we´ve found ourselves with extra time since it´s hard to find investigators when we randomly pass by, thusly we´ve had the opportunity to knock doors, lol (remember I told you we hardly ever do that as my trainer first told me), but it was actually pretty neat. That neighborhood of cane houses on stilts that I told you about is very receptive. It´s amazing how the humility helps people listen. Like in most neighborhoods every 5-10 houses we´ll find one that´ll invite us to hear more. But there it´s like every other house. Definitely a confidence builder :P One guy said that he´s been looking at all the different churches and says he has a lot of respect for the Mormons and of all that we would join, it would either be Mormon or Catholic. He should be good.

Then of course the Christmas devotional was great! I love those because it´s always awesome after having taught the restoration and putting enphasis on prophets to be able to afterwards invite them to hear the words of a prophet. So it was neat. Of course I´m not gonna lie it brought memories of being back there at Christmas, lol. :P

Alright, well I´ve got to get going. Thanks so much for the packages! I love you and hope everyone has a good week!

Love,

Elder David Frome

Happy Thanksgiving from Ecuador!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow sounds like´s it´s been another great week at home. Ah good times thanksgiving weekend and some great football games. Here I had spaghetti and rice with chicken, lol (we had members still cook for us and one person brought us the meals so we still ate:). I actually forgot it was Thanksgiving until halfway through the day then was like whoa, it´s Thanksgiving! Then I told my comp about it. He was puzzled as to why it´s so centered on turkeys, I told him I have no idea, lol. But yeah when Elder Salazar came over again he realized it was Thanksgiving too and turned to me and was like “hey! Happy Thanksgiving!” then we hugged as the 2 gringos in a foreign country both missing out on traditional holidays, lol. But that’s good it sounds like it was nice having all the family over. Sounds like the turkey bowl was good, lol And that’s kool you saw Walker, is he playing for OSU still? Next time you should ask him for a list of sectors where he was, I remember him telling me about some before the mission but I didn´t know at all, now that I´m here it´d be neat to know. It was funny last week I finally got some batteries to listen to that tape you sent me Dad and as I was listening all of a sudden I heard a voice bearing their testimony in Spanish and I was like “who is this? They´ve got good Spanish.” Then he introduced himself as Walker and I recognized it, lol

But anyways, well things here haven´t really been too exciting, lol. I´m afraid I have no news or anything, other then the fact that we had zone conference this week, that was sweet. Last Monday when I went to Guayaquil after the doctor's appointment I asked hna Gamboa if I could still come to Conference and she said “Venga, no más.” Lol “come no more.” So yeah it was neat the President put a focus on developing Christlike attributes. It was kool to hear. And a good spiritually uplifting experience as always.

Other then that, I have finally finished Jesus the Christ and about every other item of study possible. After memorizing everything in the maestro and being in the memorizing mode I was tempted to just get out my Patriarchal Blessing and memorize that, lol, that could come in handy any time I´m feeling down. But nah I figured there are always other scriptures that would be useful to memorize that I can use with the investigators. The only bad thing about being in the house is that every day from about 4 till about 6 is that the power would go out. Apparently all of Ecuador has been having power outages because the rivers have been low and that´s their source of power. But it´s pretty neat how they´ve made a schedule of cutting the power in certain sectors at certain times of the day. But yeah, just rough because the fans are the only things we have to cool us off. Hopefully it rains soon so the rivers will rise.

And thanks Mom yeah I´m sure I´ll get the Thanksgiving package this week. The thing I´m starting to notice about pouch is that it can be very unpredictable. Like sometime´s packages and letters will come in 2-3 weeks, and other times 4-5 weeks. So who knows. I´m pretty sure I have yet to completely lose a package. And thanks haha i´m excited to get the Christmas packages! And haha your going to put 75$ in my account? Ah thanks I don´t know what I would want that costs that much, almost everything is way cheap here. I still have like $40 from what I had in my wallet entering the MTC. But thanks I suppose I could look for something. This week I actually decided to buy a 8GB pindrive to store all of my photos. I think that should be pretty secure and an easy way to keep them for 2 years. Plus I think I´ll save all the emails I get and any other things on there. That should be good :).

Alright well I don´t have any other news so I´ll get going. Thanks again for your letters! I don´t know why but this computer won´t read my card reader. Ugh, I really feel bad since it´s been so long since I sent photos. I promise I´ll try to find a computer that´ll send them next week!
Love you! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder David Frome

PS- I also sent a package today with just a couple keychains, I figured that´d be a good way to test to see how it works. They said it should arrive in 8-15 days, I was impressed. You´ll have to tell me when you get it :)

Note from Mom - David forgot to tell us how his leg is doing!! I am just going to assume it is better. Hopefully he can get out and work this week. :)

not-so-exciting-week stuck in the house :) 11/23/09

Hey Mom and Dad,

I´m really doing great, lol. I honestly felt the whole week like I could just walk out the door at any minute to teach, but the doctor said I should stay and rest and can´t bend my knee so I didn´t. I think it would´ve been better actually if my leg or foot actually hurt, because then I´d feel more like its true that I should rest, lol. But since in reality the only thing holding me back was a minor infection and some stitches. But ah well, as is life. But ok, before I forget, firstly, yes a couple weeks ago it was pretty well evident from the outside that it was an infection. I think they said it was an acido- i´m not sure what that is in English nor Spanish, lol. But basically an infection right under the skin. So yeah, it was all red and swollen. But now it looks perfectly fine, just a small healing cut and a little red. As for the cause, i´m really still not sure. The doctor that lives next to us said it could´ve been a dog bite or a mosquito bite. I´ve been doing pretty well at dodging the bad dogs here so I´m thinking it must´ve been a mosquito. I guess I should use more repellent, but I honestly hadn´t really noticed the mostquitos here yet, so I was surprised. I don´t think it´s related to my toe just because it´s on two different legs (yeah, just my luck, two legs that are out for the count, lol). And yes today I did go back to Guayaquil to get the stitches out and get it checked out again (that´s why my email is again late tonight, sorry!). and ugh, I´m afraid I have bad news again. The doctor said that it´s all looking like it´s healing good, but still lacks a little bit until all the inflammation is gone and is well healed, thus, I have to stay in the house FOR ANOTHER WEEK!! Sad day. I was so ready to work today. But ah well I guess it´s true that it´s really not quite all the way healed. He took the stitches out but said that if I try to walk and bend my knee it could open the cut again. So yeah, another week of pure studying and memorizing scriptures. Not that I don´t like studying, just that oh man it gets old quick, lol. But ah well, maybe i´ll be able to finish reading Jesus the Christ (that book is AMAZING btw:) and definitely finish “El Maestro.” And by the way yeah the maestro is the program with like 140ish scriptures to memorize (the majority are the scripture masterys from seminary) and another 80 scripture references where you just have to know where the scriptures are by topic, as well as knowing the Living Christ and the Family: A Proclamation to the World. Also you have to read all of Preach my Gospel, doing 2 personal activities and 2 in companionship for each chapter and make a lesson plan for each lesson. It´s really pretty neat. I guess they´ve added that you have to know each commitment by heart for each lesson that Preach My Gospel has, but that´s easy because with Elder Sanchez we already memorized them all. So yeah, it´s organized into miles, with about 25 scriptures in each mile. You first have to recite the scriptures to your comp and he´ll check you off. Then after each mile you have to have your zone leader quiz you and he´ll check off each mile. Then once you´ve finished you have a written test as well as an oral exam with the assistants to make sure you know every scripture and reference, and you also have to teach, and they´ll watch to see how we use the teaching skills like explaining a scripture, effective questions, listening etc. yeah, pretty intense, lol but definitely worth it. It´s amazing I find as I´m teaching any principle or they ask a question, often I can just think of a key scripture that answers it and instead of taking the time to open the scriptures, help the investigator find it, then read and apply it, I can just fluidly share it. (of course often it´s better to have the investigators see and read the scripture, but also at times taking the time can be a distraction). So yeah, I´ve finished all the memorization but I think I might need to just make a few more lessons plans but that should be easy, lol. oh and hey at church or the next time you see Sis. Dunmire-Beer you´ll have to tell her for me that I´ve finally been able to memorize the impossible Joseph Smith history scripture master- I´m a few years late, but hopefully the fact that I memorized it in another language makes up for it :P lol.

Uh oh, the clerk just told us that in 5 minutes they´re closing the internet café- and I was supposed to have another half hour! Ah well, good thing nothing exciting happened this week so I didn´t have much to say :P Thanks for your emails! I haven´t gotten the thanksgiving package but all is well, maybe I´ll try to make something special for thanksgiving, lol. I hope you have a great week and an especially great thanksgiving! Eat an extra plate and piece of pie for me! :P

Love,
Elder David Frome

PS- With all the extra time I was finally able to put your banana bread recipe to use :) I took some pictures but looks like I don´t have time now to upload them, sorry! I´ll send them next week!

Another Crazy Week!! (11/16/09)

Hey Mom and Dad,

The highlight this week was definitely the baptism we had on Saturday. It was awesome. It was a baptism of five kids- the grandkids of hermana Norma who is in our ward. It was really neat because she was inactive but recently has been coming back as well as her daughter and thus wanted the kids to be baptized in the church. It was especially neat because 3 of the kids (Maoly, Alexander, and Kerly) were in our ward, but the other 2 (Karla and Fernando) were from Chopitea ward, so we got to plan it with Elders Beck and Aucapucclla who live with us in the house. Also it worked out great because the kids picked who they wanted to baptize them and all four of us were picked so we all got to dress in white. We got some great pictures (sorry I forgot to bring my camera again, I´ll have to send the pictures next week) with everyone before. It was interesting planning the baptism this time because I realized that out of the four missionaries in our house, I have the most time in the mission thus the most experience. So as we were planning it and assigning speakers, finding clothes, etc. the other elders would look to me when they weren´t sure. Lol not that it was a big deal just kind of a shock to realize that I don´t have a senior companion to look to, but now the responsibility is mostly on me, so if things go bad I take the blame, lol. Of course we all planned a little bit and it turned out great. Just fun to see how fast your perspective changes in the mission. But that night was definitely crazy. We planned to start at 7, but ended up starting around 7:50 because the mom (daughter of Norma) was way late coming with her kids. Then when they all arrived it was crazy trying the direct all the kids who were laughing and playing to get dressed and take pictures. They were like a herd of animals. I definitely have more respect for elementary school teachers who do that for a living, lol.

But anyways other than that all is good. Sorry I´m sending this email late this week. We actually have had kind of a crazy p-day. Now don´t worry when I say it was because we spent most of the day in Guayaquil because I had an appointment with a doctor there and went with hna. Gamboa, lol. Like I said I think you´d really like hna Gamboa, she´s definitely like the mom of all the elders how she takes care of us. The littlest thing she gets worried and makes sure they get cared of. So yeah the thing was actually a couple of weeks ago I notice my knee started to get a little sensitive so it hurt to kneel down (which, when you’re a missionary, is something that can get tiring really fast, lol). And after a week it started to look inflamed and puffy and red. That and my ingrown toenail I told you about looked like it might´ve still been a little infected as well, lol (but no worries, the biggest problem was probably the fact that it didn´t really hurt very much, because if it did hurt I would´ve stopped:). So Hna Gamboa gave me some antibacterial pills to take for my toe and it looked like they were working for whatever was infecting my knee as well. Several days ago my knee really starting getting better and today it looked like all was well, just maybe a little lump. But Hna Gamboa had already set an appointment in the clinic to look at me knee so we went just to see. When I got there the doctor said that it looked like there was some kind of bacterial infection right under the skin and said it´d be best to clean it out, lol. Yeah, kind of scary the idea but it wasn´t too bad. He also said he´d just take of my ingrown nail while I was there to get it taken care of. So what he ended up doing was cut a tiny incision on my knee and “cleaned it out.” Lol, don´t worry it didn´t hurt he did a good job of using anesthetics. The only thing was once he was done he put 2 stitches, which means that now I can´t bend my knee for –get this- 8 days! Yeah they told me I need to rest on my bed without leaving for 8 days!!! After that we went back to the office, got all the medicine then President and Hermana Gamboa drove us to terminal and we took the bus back. I got to use crutches for the first time in my life so that´s kind of fun. But yeah now I´m just frustrated because I have to stay inside for 8 days when this morning I could´ve sworn all was well, lol. but ah well, like I said I think you´d really like Hermana Gamboa. She said it´s much more important that I get the rest and get better before I go out to work. So no use arguing :P. so yeah that was a new experience. It was kind of fun because the Doctor was apparently studying English so we were having fun talking in English. His English wasn´t the best but he would ask me things like “can. . . you feel. . . this? This. . . hurt? Now your toe, is, sleep. We´ll wait 5 minutes more.” Lol things like that. It´s fun being a gringo in a Spanish country because you find lots of people like that who try to talk to you in English, some are better than others, lol.
But ok, like I said, no worries, I´m doing great now just on bed rest for a week now. I´m pretty sure I´m going to finish my maestro quick now that I have so much time. Funny thing is I was actually working hard on it all week memorizing, in fact I just finished memorizing Joseph Smith History a few days ago and the Living Christ this morning (it´s amazing how things like that that seemed impossible to memorize in high school is now possible when you´re dedicated to do it), all I have left is to memorize the Family, a Proclamation for the World :) Alright well i´d better get going, times nearly up. Again thanks for everything, I love you! I hope you and everyone have a great week!

Love,
Elder David Frome

PS- ha signing my name reminds me of one thing- when me and Hna. Gamboa got to the doctors office she asked what my name was, i was at first puzzled why she would ask me and why she didn´t know and was about to say elder Frome but then she was like, no, your nombre, it took me a second to think then realized, oh my first name, then it took me another second to think of David. lol, i´m so used to saying Elder Frome, and even when our investigators want to know my first name i´m used to keeping it a secret and telling them Elder Frome (it´s kind of fun, it´s like a game the investigators always want to know our first name and we always try to keep it a secret as long as possible, promising that when we leave we´ll tell them:)

Crazy/Awsome week!!!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Curtis and Jenny are expecting twins?! Haha that’s awesome. Yeah I´ll bet that´ll be exciting for them. That’s great. Sounds like things are going great with Melissa and Sean. Sounds like the Primary program went great for them. I´ll bet that was stressful but probably well worth it to see it go over well. As missionaries seeing parents with young kids we can kind of understand, lol. It can be so amazing teaching kids because they accept the gospel so easily, it just brings to mind the teachings of Christ how we should become as little children. But of course at the same time they can be quite untame and stressful, such as the scripture in Corinthians, when I was a child I did childish kids, but when I grew up I put away childish things- or something like that, lol. And that’s funny how Ryan said he dressed up as Superman all week. That’s awesome I wish I could´ve seen him. That’s great how he´s taking advantage of times to have fun like that. I´m glad sounds like all is going well for him at BYU.

I´m excited to get the Thanksgiving package. I think there are some turkeys here, but doesn´t sound like it´s eaten much at all, lol. It´s fun to tell the people about our thanksgiving “Día de Gracias” that we have, just one day to eat as much as we can :P

But anyways, this has definitely been one crazy awesome week. Firstly, as I told you the first part of the week I was with Elder Arellano, an Ortabaleño (which is a city or town in the sierra about an hour away from Quito) and he is definitely a powerful missionary. And it´s amazing to see the Ortabaleño elders because they can open doors that other elders just can´t. Like I told you he recognized one family as from the sierra and because he was also from the sierra he was able to relate and open there heart enough to share our message. He´s the zone leader here in Babahoyo and only has two changes left. It´s funny he´s actually spent over half of his mission here in Babahoyo. He was here for 5 months when he started, was transferred, then got transferred back and has been here for another 6 months. It´s interesting to see how transfers work, but he´s definitely needed here in Babahoyo. But yeah like I said he´s an awesome missionary, I learned so much from him after just being his companion for a few days. Monday and Tuesday was way crazy because we had both his teaching appointments from his sector and my teaching appointments in my sector so we were running up and down the town all day, lol. It was great seeing him teach because he knows the scriptures so well. He can teach clearly and powerfully and has a strong testimony. He´s just one of those Elders that sets the example of what a missionary should be. Hopefully, I´ll be able to know and teach like him by the end of my mission. Then, funny thing was Tuesday night before we were to get our new companions he told me that he especially enjoyed these few days having this companionship! Lol he´s definitely humble as well. So yeah he told me that he´s excited for this change and hopes to have a lot of success as a zone leader and I believe him, we´ll definitely have a lot of success.

Well then on Wednesday we went to Guayaquil to pick up our “kids” at the temple! Yeah we didn´t enter but just picked them up in the hotel next door. It was neat. Elder Sanchez was there (he´s gonna train again :), it was the first time seeing him since we were companions. He´s definitely still Elder Sanchez, lol, funny and good spirited. They had a brief meeting with us trainers before getting our companions just to kind of give us some guidelines and advice on training so that was good. Then it was interesting the way they had us get our new companions. They had all the trainers in a semi-circle around the door and as the new elders came out one by one and they had them find their new trainers (apparently they were given our names before coming out). It was crazy one latino came out and looked all around the circle until he came to me then was like, “hey!” lol we hugged and we got a picture. So yeah, my new companion is Elder Cevallos from Quito. I´m training a latino! Lol it´s fun he´s a great guy. He´s actually 24 years old and was only baptized a year and a half ago. He´s the only member in his family and guess how he was introduced to the church- yep, his girlfriend ;) but it´s good she encouraged him to serve and she´s now waiting patiently :P lol. He´s not afraid to talk or teach so things are going well. I forgot to bring my camera to Guayaquil and I was going to send you the pictures that he took but the batteries in his camera went dead!

Alright, well I´d better get going, thanks for everything and your letters! Hope you have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder David Frome

!CAMBIOS! Beginning of Change 6!

Hey Mom and Dad,

So I´m not gonna lie. I almost can´t believe how fast this last change flew by. Seems like just yesterday I found out Elder Ethridge was going to be my companion and I made it to Babahoyo. We had a great change together and found a lot of new investigators so that´s what counts. And so yes, as you guessed, last night was the last night of the change, so that meant we all had to be in the house by 8 and wait for calls from the assistants to tell us who´s staying and who´s going. It´s always a little nerve racking the night of changes and it seemed like last night was especially crazy. We were waiting until finally the phone rang, and when Elder Rodriguez went to look at it he saw and said that it was from President! That´s more than usual, lol. But he first talked to Elder Rodriguez and found out that he was being transferred and going to become a zone leader. Then President wanted to talk to Elder Ethridge and told him that he was going to become a zone leader too! Yeah, it was crazy, lol. Elder Ethridge only has 2 changes as district leader and Elder Rodriguez has never even been a district leader so it was a surprise. But they´re both great missionaries so I know they´ll do great. But it was funny when they asked where they´re going President Gamboa just told them not to worry, just go to terminal the next day, lol. So after that they started packing but then the phone rang again, this time one of the assistants, Elder Aguirre (which was crazy but awesome to find out as well. Apparently he replaced Elder Gittins. He was a district leader in Libertad when I was there and I always remember being amazed at how great a missionary he was when we had interchanges), and he wanted to talk to me. He told me that this change they´d like me to train and asked me if I felt ready, lol. I finally told him that I do. It was nerve racking but way exciting. Thus for now I´m not sure who my companion is going to be. Elder Arellano, the zone leader here (who is an awesome missionary and actually an ortovalleño, which is from the sierra- like that family I told you about is also training so for these few days I´ll be companions with him. Which is going to be awesome because he is a powerful missionary who knows the scriptures very well, I´m excited because I know I´ll learn a lot. Then on Wednesday we´ll go to pick up our “kids” (as they call it in mission language, lol, when you train you´re the “dad” of your “kid”). And I heard that this time that the new missionaries may go through the temple and we may have the opportunity to go through with them!! So I´m hoping that we´ll be able to : ).

Other than that this last week was fairly good. It´s fun because apparently November 2 here is “day of the Dead.” Which sounds like something like our Halloween but it really isn´t much like it. It is kind of a celebration of the dead and just a day to visit gravesites and remember those who have passed on. It´s pretty neat. And it sounds like most people celebrate it starting on October 31 until November 2. It has been kool to learn more about the culture in those aspects. Only down side is the fact that it´s holidays we again had a Sunday with few numbers of people attending. But ah well as is life I suppose. Another fun part of this time of the year is a traditional drink called “Colada Morada,” which is like, purple colada, lol. It´s a drink made of black corn grinded to a powder so it looks purple, and they make it with water or milk and add just a ton of different fruits like pinapple, peach, apple, grape, plum, or anything. Apparently it originates from the sierra (which seems to be the place where most Ecuadorian customs come from in fact, lol). The family of serranos that I told you about made it for us in our last lesson. We had it with “humitos,” which is another thing made from corn and cooked in the corn husk. It reminded me of corn bread. So yeah definitely fun : )

As for investigators it seems like we have a lot of fairly new investigators that are progressing nicely. The family from the Sierra may be whom I´m most excited about. Each lesson that we´ve had with them I can tell that they´re opening up more and more. The first two lessons we had in there store downstairs after they closed it. But then this last lesson they invited us upstairs and gave us that colada morada. They just seem to be soaking in everything we tell them and even told us that they know we´re representatives of the Lord here to help them gain that eternal happiness. It´s funny when you find a family like that it just makes all your focus and energy and hopes go into helping them come and understand.

Alright well I´m out of time now so I´d better get going. Thanks for everything! I hope you have another great week! I´m glad you had a great time seeing Mellissa and Sean!

Love,
Elder Frome

PS- and yeah no worries my toe is doing fine, just a little swollen from walking so much but Ibuprofen seems to do the trick. If it starts to look worse the doctor lives next door : )
PPS- btw I got your package of cocoa and peanut butter! Lol we thought that was a clever way to send it in the packages like that! But thanks Elder Rodriguez and Ethridge were sad to be transferred because they wanted to have more of those cookies!

Busy Week :)

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow, sounds like it´s been a crazy exciting week for the family. I can still barely believe Daniel already gave his farewell talk and will be entering the MTC this week. But I have no doubt he is ready to enter and become a humble and powerful representative of the Lord. The people of Hawaii will be lucky to have him serving there. I´m sure he´ll touch the lives of hundreds there. Do you think you could send me his address in the MTC? I haven´t had the chance to write for a while (yeah it´s pretty sad how terrible I am at writing letters, lol, hopefully I´ll still have friends outside of the mission after two years;) so maybe I´ll be able to get a letter off, and his mission address too, thanks!

Well here in Babahoyo things are going good. One fun thing was that I realized I had an ingrown toenail that looked like it was starting to get infected, lol. I think it was Tuesday and we called Hermana Gamboa and she was like “oh nooo, Elder, no puede ser!” (oh noo, it can´t be!) lol She´s funny and always just says things like that. I´m sure if you could meet her you´d really like her. She tells us that if we are ever sick or have any other health problems we have to call her, and she means it, lol. So yeah good thing is that our apartment is next door to a family in our ward, the Moreras, and Bro. Morera is actually a doctor. So that night we just knocked on the door, asked him what he thought. He wrote me a few different antibiotics I could take then after a few days just to call a manicurista to take out the nail. Yeah, I was surprised that I should just go to a manicurist and not any kind of doctor, but I guess it´s just a toenail, lol. Elder Rodriguez was telling me that they might come and take off the whole nail because that’s what they do here in Ecuador. So on Saturday the manicurist came to their apartment, so I had to go over there to have it taken out. I felt kind of silly because they had a lot of family there. It was funny because there was one girl who looked about 5 or 6 who was very interested in watching. She would give her own comments like “ooh, salió sangre!” and things like that, lol. so yeah it was fun. And cheap too, she charged me 1 dollar so I was pleasantly surprised.

Other than that everything is going good here. Friday we had a “Noche al Cine” (night at the movies) that we´ve been planning for like a month. We found a copy of the movie Joseph Smith: prophet of the Restoration in Spanish. We´ve been psyched to use it for an activity. The Bishop gave us a budget for buying soda and we made popcorn for it. It didn´t turn out quite as great as we were hoping because there weren´t as many people as we were hoping (I think there were about 50), but those who did go definitely had a spiritual experience. I was especially excited for some of our investigadores who at the end came out with teary eyes.

On Thursday the Bishop told us that we´d have 10 minutes each to speak in sacrament on Sunday. Which at first was a little nerve racking, but then he gave us the topics: Baptism and Missionary work, yeah, probably the two easiest topics ever for missionaries to speak on, lol. Elder Ethridge asked me which I wanted and I said Missionary work, I thought that´d be a little more fun to talk to the ward about. Sunday morning when we got to church we found out that there was no power so that was kind of nerve racking. I´ve had a bit of a cold, so my voice hasn´t been too great. But funny thing when I finally got up after Elder Ethridge, I felt like my voice was loud enough for everyone to here. I felt kinda bad because I ended up talking nearly 14 minutes and didn´t leave much time for the last speaker. I had forgotten my watch in the house so I couldn´t really keep track. There was just so much I wanted to say and didn´t even get to say like half of it. But ah well I hope that they were able to feel the spirit and understand what I was trying to say.

Also oh it´s awesome how many new investigators we have that seem interested. We started teaching one family of 4, the parents names are Robert and Midiam. We´ve only taught them twice so far but they are awesome. They have one daughter who´s about 9 and another son that’s 11, I believe. I´m hoping I´ll be here to see them baptized.

So yeah other than that everything is going well. Thanks for your emails. I hope you have another great week! Love you!

Love,

Elder David Frome

P.S.- Hey you should feel pretty good Mom. It´s fun whenever I get to show people the family picture and tell them who everyone is and especially who my mom is they almost always make the comment “ooh su mama? Ella es jovencita.” They´re surprised because they say you look so young, lol, just thought I´d let you know. People also think we have a beautiful family.

BAUTISMO

Hey Mom and Dad,

Ouch, So I was just halfway done typing you a letter when out of nowhere the computer decided to shut off. Yeah, I suppose Dad would agree how frustrating those little gremlins can really be inside of these computers. Ugh, lol I´m afraid this letter is gonna be a little shorter again because I don´t have much time now.

Ok but anyways, Sounds like there´s lots of good news and everything is going great at home. Sounds like Ryan is doing good at BYU. Getting through all the tests of BYU- that´s one thing that is awesome about the mission, no tests! Lol But ah well I´m sure he´s loving it nonetheless. And sounds like the only thing we have in common with our weather and the weather Melissa and Sean are feeling is they´re both humid! Lol I bet it can really get cold up there in Ohio. I suppose the next time I´m out walking and sweating in the hot Ecuadorian sun I´ll have to think of them :P. But alas if they break out hot chocolate I´m sure they´ll be great. It´s funny the things we find to help us beat the weather. Like here one of my favorite things that a lot of families make and actually sell are chocolate covered frozen bananas. Ooh those are awesome! I love it when, after a lesson, a family offers us one too ). Bananas are so cheap. They´re great and cheap (like ten cents for one here so it´s a great way to cool off.

And wow that´s awesome Joseph got his mission call! And SPANISH! Haha that´s sweet and that´s kool Elder Ethridge said Tucson might be the mission where his house is but isn´t sure. You´ll have to tell Joseph to watch for any family Ethridge he might come across. And that´s crazy to think Daniel is going to be entering the MTC soon! I bet he´s excited. I´m sure he´s going to be an outstanding missionary.

Oh and so before I forget I got your Halloween package this week! Thanks! We had a fun time putting up the decorations! Lol it´ll be great to bring in the Halloween spirit. It sounds like they do have Halloween here, but don´t really do much to celebrate it. Which is probably better, I´d be scared to let my kids go out and walk the streets at night here, it´d be a little too dangerous. And by the way just thought I´d let you know that you´re sending packages perfectly. The green sticker under 4 pounds is the easiest way for the mission to receive the packages. A few weeks ago the elder in charge of pouch called me and told me someone sent me a package but with white customs sticker, and those come in to Ecuador through a different office. And in order to pick them up he told me I had to sign papers to authorize him and then he´d have to go, wait in line for 1-2 hours, then wait for them to open it and look through it before giving it to him. Yeah, long process. And now I just found out that since he didn´t go to pick it up fast enough they just sent it back to the US. Yeah, I feel bad for whoever tried to send it. Do you have any idea who might´ve tried sending me a package? You might wanna remind any family or friends that would send packages that they should send them with the green customs sticker and under 4 pounds, because they´re way easier and cheaper to receive.

Ok so I don´t have much time left but just wanted to let you know we had an awesome baptism on Saturday for Jeseña Bajaña. It´s amazing it sounds like the members here are great about going to baptisms to support the converts! We had a great showing and the spirit was so strong! Ah it was awesome to see. Elder Ethridge said that since they started teaching Jeseña she was just “golden.” She bore her testimony at the end and you could just tell she had a strong conviction of this gospel and is well on her way to be a faithful strong member of the church.
Other then that all is well here in Ecuador! Thanks for everything! Love you!

Love,

Elder David Frome

PS- Oh and you´ll have to tell Ryan and Robbie about one thing I´ve recently noticed here. So on most street corners right outside of little corner stores there are some of those old-fashioned looking arcade games and nearly everywhere we go we can here the music of the games they play and you´ll never guess what game I nearly always here them playing—Bubble bobble! Haha you may not remember that game we used to play all the time on the old NES Nintendo. I got a kick out of seeing them play it again. Funny how history tends to repeat itself. Some Classic games just never die :P

"The Bomb"

Hey Mom and Dad,

Sorry this email is gonna come a lot later than usual, today in the morning we had zone conference in Guayaquil! Which was awesome as usual, just unusual that they decided to have it on p-day. The conference itself was awesome. The assistants did a couple of activities with us. Firstly they had an activity where they had us draw scenes of our favorite scripture stories, they had a few draw on the chalkboard so we could all see. Then they had us analyze it and think how we could relate them to principles in the lessons we teach. The first was an example of the story in Acts where Philip (I believe it´s Philip:) gets into the car of an enuco (not sure what that is in english:) who is reading the scriptures then after a bit asks what would keep him from being baptized and Philip simply asks him if he believes in Christ. Upon saying yes they simply stopped the car, went down to a nearby pond and Philip baptizes him. It´s a good story we´ve used several times to illustrate being baptized by faith and how knowledge isn´t a requisite for baptism, just a testimony. But then the assistent asked us if we could relate it to the principle of fasting, lol. Yeah I couldn´t think of any real solid ways of connecting the story to fasting but another elder volunteered and kind of talked about it being like being with the Lord and closening ourselves to him. We did the same with a few other drawings. I liked one drawing of Lehi´s dream of the tree of life and when we were asked to compare it to eternal marriage. We are all working together trying to make it to the tree of life which is where we will meet together and if we´re firm we can meet there together with our spouse and live together in God´s love, but many are in the great and spacious building who mock and make fun of the standards of the Lord, as we can see every day. Satan really is working as hard as he can trying to tear down the values of marriage. Overall that was a fun activity. They encouraged us to use those types of drawings more in teaching. It´s really a great way to especially connect with the kids and it makes it easier for everyone to see and understand the principles we´re teaching. I haven´t really tried that yet, only drawing when we teach the plan of salvation, so I´ll have to try that now :) .

Another activity we did was a teach-when-you-find-and-find-when-you-teach activity where we practiced teaching a mini lesson in a contact of 2 minutes or less. They had the zone leaders and the assistants and other missionaries go outside and walk around like investigators and in companionships we would contact them and teach 2 principles and a return appointment in 2 minutes. It was fun. It really makes us boil down our message to the bare necessities, which are really the strongest points. They gave us 10 minutes to teach 5 lessons. It was another fun activity. There were missionaries running across the court trying to make faster contacts, lol.

Other then that Hermana Gamboa has now finally given us "the bomb" (as other missionaries fondly call it, lol). It´s a set of pills that apparently will wipe us clean of any worm bug or critter or any other un-human organism in our body all in one day :). It´s funny she gave us instructions how there are two pills that we are to take in the morning to start the process to agitate the critters. But then we cannot forgot to take the second set of pills the following day in the morning to apparently kill them (you don´t wanna know what happens if we don´t take the second set of pills, lol just that the critters apparently then try to find any exit out of the body possible. yeah, doesn´t sound like fun). I remember Elder Sanchez talking about it and we were wondering when we were going to take it again. So yeah, luckily it sounds like the medicine is so good these days so that if we take it according to instruction, there shouldn´t be any other real side affects.

Other than that things are going great here in Babahoyo. Well sorry to say we like literally don´t have more time to write at all, we gotta go do shopping then run back to the house. Thanks again for everything! We have a baptism for Jeseña Bajaña next Saturday we´re excited about! I love you!

Love,
Elder David Frome

General Conference :)

Dear Mom and Dad,

Ooh guess what? I am currently munching on a bag of COTTON CANDY that I got on the way over here. In the street they have lots of tents set up and there are some people selling cotton candy! (I don´t know why, but I didn´t think I´d see stuff like cotton candy in Ecuador. Here a bag is only $0.25! Gotta love ecu-prices. Sounds like regular Oregon with the rain coming and it´s starting to get cold. Funny thing, I´ve found out that there actually are two seasons here, summer and winter. Winter starts the same time ours does, in December. Funny thing is, winter here doesn´t mean cold, it just means rain, and in fact even hotter weather. Yeah, I´m still not sure if I believe it. I wonder if that was what it was like in India for Robbie. But ah well I guess I´ll see come December, lol.

But anyways, yeah conference weekend was awesome!!! Here the only place that received the satellite broadcast was the stake center so we went there for all the sessions. It was interesting to see how the broadcast came with titles and everything written in English, but then there were just translators talking over everything. And yes there was a separate room with a tv showing it in English, but our Zone Leader said he´d like us all to be in the chapel sitting in different places for the investigators, so we watched it all in Spanish. I did kind of miss the voices of some like President Eyring and Uchtdorf, but it was worth it to be with the investigators. The only part that I really wished I could´ve been in the English room was for Elder Hollands talk. Oh man I love hearing Elder Holland when he gets so passionate. I could tell how passionate he was and so it was frustrating to hear the translator talking normal like he was reading the talk. We really are blessed to have grown up knowing English to be able to hear the prophet’s voice and the apostles. I really wish more of our investigators would´ve been there to hear his testimony about the Book of Mormon. Also I don´t know why but I loved the testimony of Sister Ann Dibbs. Just at the end she spoke of how she told her father simply of how great the blessings are of being members of this church and how great the blessings are of the temple if we would only choose them. I think I loved it because it was just a short simple testimony, but so strong I could feel the spirit so I could tell how strong her conviction was. I think I liked it because as missionaries, I know I can´t talk as eloquently as Elder Holland in expressing my testimony (especially in Spanish!) but if I can at least testify with that conviction to the point where the investigators can´t not feel the spirit I´m sure I can do some good. But yeah definitely the entire conference was awesome.

But anyways, we´ve had a great week. We have several new investigators that we´re excited about. One is the family of Theresa, whose sister is actually Jovita, who is a ward missionary. Theresa has 2 sons and one daughter and they all seemed very interested in the gospel. Theresa and her daughter came to both sessions on Sunday so that was really exciting. Also we have another guy who we just started teaching a week ago and he came to the Saturday morning session! Lol its funny how much of a relief it is to see investigators come on Sundays. We teach them so much during the week but it always just feels like it amounts to little if they´re not willing to come to church. We´re also still excited for one investigator, Jeseña, who´s been investigating since before I came and has a baptismal date for the 17th.

The new LDS version of the Spanish Bible finally came out!!!! It´s awesome to see the church has made it available at a way cheap cost so all the members could buy them.

Alright, well I´m almost out of time so I´d better go. Thanks for everything and the packages! And thanks for the info about that William Braham. That is interesting to hear about him in the 40s and 50s. And yeah sad to see how easily one can deceive so many. But alright thanks again for everything, I love you!! Hope you have another great week!

Love,

Elder David Frome

New Sector, New Fruits, New Investigators, New Experiences

Hey Mom and Dad,

Today I opened the package with the peanut butter- thanks!!! I´m way excited now to make some pancakes with peanut butter! Lol, it´s been so long. Also I think I´ll have to try and make some Dinosaur cookies with it. I don’t think I told you I haven´t been able to find any raw cocoa powder here in any of the stores. All I ever see and all the workers ever show us is powdered chocolate to make chocolate milk. So I´ve actually tried making them with that two times, just trying to put a good ratio of chocolate powder and sugar. The first time I tried they turned out terrible, lol. But the second time not too bad. I´m excited now because I found in the freezer a bowl of ground cocoa. I tried it and it tastes like actual non-sweetened cocoa. A guy next to me in the cyber just asked me what I think about William Braham, he showed me a picture of him with a light over his head almost like a halo and told me about how many people believe him to be the “Esias,” or the prophet spoken to come in the Bible. Ha, fun times..and a good opportunity to invite him to General Conference this weekend. But that is interesting, have you heard of that guy? Ha now this guy sitting next to me is trying to convince us that Adam really wasn´t the father of Caín, but the serpent. Gotta love the conversations you get into as missionaries:). But anyways, so yeah.. I´m excited to make some real dinosaur cookies. And haha thanks for the quick make mashed potatoes, those´ll be fun to make some time. One thing that’s awesome about our area is that the chapel was just redone so it´s all new and really nice- oh and there´s an oven! Lol so yeah we´re thinking one Monday we´re gonna have to go and try baking some banana bread, hopefully it turns out good.

But anyways, things here are going great. As for our ward, it seems a little smaller than our ward in Libertad, but still strong. I´m excited because we have a great bishopric who all are willing to help us as much as they can. Like I said before, the building is new. It´s a little different because the actual chapel is a little smaller and it´s all a part of the main building. In Libertad the church had kind of two sections, one with the chapel, and then another building with the rooms (kinda like how the church was in Peru, if you remember how it was). There are 2 wards that meet in our building so our church starts at 8 and the other ward at 10 (yeah, 8! It was hard enough getting investigators to come to church by 9 in the morning, lol. Ah well a trial of the faith I suppose ). It´s called the 18 de Mayo ward I believe because that´s the name of the neighborhood it´s in, which has a street named 18 de Mayo (as to why they have neighborhoods and streets named after specific dates beats me, lol). The area that I´m in itself is actually way small. It’s in the middle of the city between the river Babahoyo and like what looks like huge fields where they grow rice (at least we think they grow rice, lol). It´s like 14 or 15 blocks long and maybe 9 or 10 blocks wide, so yeah, way small, especially compared to my sector in Libertad. Its kind of fun being changed to the middle of a city. Most of the parts where our investigators are feels like downtown Albany. There is one part that looks crazy and I definitely need to get a picture of is the southernmost border of our sector where I said there are what looks like fields of rice. There are tons of houses (many of bamboo) that are built on stilts of about 20 or 30 feet over water. There are a bunch of very rickety looking bridges to get to them. We have one less active family that lives in one of the houses and every time we go over there I hold my breath crossing the bridge, lol. When I get the chance I´ll take a picture to show you, it´s way cool.

Ooh one thing I have to tell you about is the fun experiences I´ve had eating some new fruits. You´ll have to tell Robbie about it, he sent me an email and asked me to tell him about it because it reminds him about being in India eating fruits that aren´t available in the states. The first one I actually had in Libertad several weeks ago named Maracuya (I think, lol, that’s what Elder Barcia said at least, oh and Elder Peters said they´re illegal in the states because you can make a drug out of it, lol, so I told myself I had to try it here while I can :). And it was a crazy oval looking fruit about twice the size of an egg. It was tan and was very hard like a pear. After a few days in the fridge they started getting all wrinkly so I thought they were going bad but Elder Barcia told me they were “maturing.” Lol. So finally he told me to cut one in half to try it and when I did I found there were like hundreds of black seeds in the center in kind of a goopy substance (it looked like a bunch of fish eggs, honestly =). He said you could have it two ways, with salt, or with sugar, I chose sugar. You pour some sugar on it then eat it with a spoon, spitting out the seeds. It had a very tart taste but was quite delicious. The other new fruit we had this week: Guava. I could of sworn there´s tons of guava juices that I´ve had but I´ve never seen the fruit. But it was funny we went to one family of recent converts and the first thing was they gave us two 3-foot long green wrinkly things that were also way stiff and told us to enjoy, lol. Seeing the confused look on our faces they explained it was guava and you open it by twisting it to break it open. Inside there were several huge seeds that had a white sweet covering. Again, you were supposed to eat the white sweet covering and spit out the seeds. It had a sweet taste that I enjoyed as well. All-in-all just fun new fruits that’s a good part of being in Ecuador :P.

Other then that all is going well. I´m way excited for Conference this weekend. It´s amazing the perspective as a missionary now. What I´ve been teaching for 6 months now about prophets and apostles is about to come to life. We have the opportunity to hear people who are inspired of God tell us what the Lord wants for us today. I´m especially excited for our investigators to come. Oh and also I´m glad I have a gringo companion because we can sit in the English room and actually hear the voices of the prophets :P Ok well I believe I´m out of time so I´d better go. Thanks for everything! I love you!

Love,

Elder David Frome

CAMBIOS!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Oh man so this week has been crazy! So yeah good calculating Dad, I realized I forget to tell you but yeah this week was the last week in the change and that means transfers! But oh it was crazy because it was Monday night, the first day of the week. Me and Elder Cordova just finished planning, we were excited for the last week of the change because we had lots of ideas to start teaching a scripture class to invite investigators and especially excited because we were gonna have the baptism of Manuel Baqueriso on the 19th. Then the phone rings, Elder Barcia answered it. That was normal, we often get calls at night for Elder Peters and Elder Cordova as Zone and District leaders. Then Elder Barcia said it was for me--that was different. I answered and it was Elder Gittins, one of the assistants, he said he had a change for me and asked how I felt about it. I was completely surprised and excited but confused because it was Monday, usually they don´t call till Sunday. But he said that I was being transferred to Babahoyo, Elder Ethridge was to be my new companion and that I needed to pack my bags and be in Guayaquil by 10 the following morning. Yeah, crazy, lol. We were all thrown for a loop because I was being transferred so early. Everyone was expecting me to be transferred Sunday. So it was crazy. I grabbed my suitcases and started throwing in clothes and telling Elder Barcia and Cordova that they had to write in my “libro de recuerdos” (it´s a diary that I have that I´m having all my companions and people write in like a year book so I can remember them. I was going to have some of my converts write in it too, but sad day I was transferred before I could). It was one of those bitter-sweet nights. Sad to say goodbye so soon to Elder Cordova and Elder Barcia but exciting to have my first transfer. We had some good times in that house. That change went by way fast. Crazy how I had 3 changes with Elder Sanchez, and not even 6 weeks with Elder Cordova. But oh well that is life in the mission I suppose. The sad thing is I didn´t get to say goodbye to any of my converts or anyone in the ward. We were all expecting to have another week. I spent the bus ride to Guayaquil writing on the back of pictures I printed out to leave with converts and other families in the ward.

In Guayaquil we found out that there were several other missionaries being transferred as well. I guess the mission is just trying out a new way of transferring missionaries. Instead of doing them all at once on the first day of the new change, they´re trying transferring groups at a time throughout the last week of the change. I guess it´s kinda good for the fact that it´s not always the best thing for missionaries to know when they´re leaving and spend time saying good bye. But I dunno, I liked having it all on the same day to see other missionaries and everything. But ah well like Nephi said, “I´ll go where you want me to go,” no matter the day or time.

My new companion is now Elder Ethridge from Tucson Arizona. Funny thing, I think I told you how Elder Cordova was in Zona Libertad before just another sector. Well when he was there Elder Ethridge was one of his companions. Then Elder Ethridge was there for a while because he was still there when I came so I remember him being in our zone (I attached a foto of the activity we had on one of my first p-days playing basketball, Elder Ethridge was there). In fact we had an interchange once when he was in our district (funny thing when we had the interchange I was so new that I didn´t know the sector very good and we ended up walking for an hour trying to find a member’s house for lunch, he says he remembers that too, lol but it´s cool). So its good because I already knew him and knew he was a cool guy. Another funny thing Elder Cordova isn´t the only companion that we´ve both had. He was the companion of Elder Sanchez in the MTC, so yeah we´ve had 2 of the same companions. He´s the District leader here (yeah my first 3 companions have all been district leaders, what´re the odds?) and already has 2 changes here, I think.

As for my new area, it´s in the province of Los Rios, zona Babahoyo (I think it´s the city here) and we´re in the ward 18 de Mayo. It’s very different from Libertad. Firstly it´s no where near the coast so that means no more seafood, but oh man there´s a family here that sells empanadas de queso o carne o pollo that are amazing! I remember you talking about empanadas of beef from Argentina dad and now I understand why you liked them so much. Elder Ethridge was introducing me to all of the families in the ward and when we went to them they offered us any kind we wanted so we got cheese and chicken. Definitely delicious. Also that means there´s not much wind or a breeze but it´s not that bad. It´s really only bad in the mid-day when it gets pretty hot. But really I actually think its perfect in the mornings and at night because it´s not really hot but still warm and it actually feels really good with the humidity.

Ok well, looks like I'm out of time way fast already, lol So I´d better go. Thanks for everything. I hope you have another great week!

Love,

Elder David Frome

Nuevos!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Ah sounds like another nice week at home(funny thing, I´m writing this on Microsoft Word because the internet on this computer is kinda slow so I thought this would be faster, and since I´m writing in English it´s highlighting every word I write in red like it´s spelled wrong, lol, silly ). Sounds like everyone is doing great, Robbie and Melissa must be settled in nicely by now. They both sent me emails this week so you´ll have to tell them thanks for me. I always love hearing from them and I always think in my mind that I´m gonna email them back once I´m finished emailing you but I always seem to run out of time, lol. I should probably learn to be more efficient in my letter-writing, I´ve just never learned how :P. but it´s good to hear they´re both doing good. And oh tell them thanks for the pictures, wow Luke has gotten bigger. And wow was that Isaac in the middle with Josh and Nathan? Lol So finally I understand how Robbie and Ryan must´ve felt on their missions and coming home to seeing their nephews so big.

It´s been another great week in Ecuador. I attached a couple of pictures of two different Noche de Hogares that we had on Fridays. Nearly every Friday we´re organizing them for the ward with the hopes that they´ll bring investigators and recent converts. It was neat these last two we had in the homes of members which was much better then having it in the church because many members who live on the other side of town can´t afford to take a taxi. So having it closer is better so more people can come. Also I added a picture I took of the peluquería (haircut shop, that only costs $1.50 by the way:) that I thought was good to show a typical street in centro. Also I added a picture that we took Saturday night when we fried up part of a huge fish that some investigators have. That’s Elder Peters and Barcia, lol. We made rice and fried some tomatoes to go with it. It was a fun night. I kind of have a silly face, I thought I took more pictures but only have this picture with me, I´ll need to get more pictures that Elder Barcia took.
We have some great families that we found this week. One guy we started teaching and he´s already accepted a fecha bautismal! Also another family that is way prepared because she actually more found us! They offered to give us a ride and then the next day we were knocking doors and knocked on their door! They´re way interested, so we ´re excited.

Ok sorry, I'm out of time. I´ll have to tell you more next week, thanks for everything!

Love you!!

Love, David

Conference, General Authorities and Political Protests

Hey Mom and Dad,

That’s way neat that Zach Baldwin is home. Man I can´t believe he´s already back home. Seems like just yesterday he was leaving on his own mission. I have so much respect for converts who serve missions. Seems that would be so much harder. My whole life it´s always just been the expectation that when I turn 19 I´ll serve a mission. I´ve had Robbie and Ryan 's example and Dad always talked about his mission. But, when those who are recently baptized, without that support decide to serve, that´s an amazing thing. That´s fun he bore his testimony in Spanish and then another member did. It´s definitely a great language :P (Speakin´ of which I found a fun statistic that spanish\english speakers can speak with 75% of all the members of the church, while english can only speak with about 55%. Just thought that was nifty :)

Ok, so I just realized I only have 20 minutes left so I´d better start writing about all the awesome\crazy things that happened this week. Firstly, we had Zone conference on Wednesday in Guayaquil. It was awesome, as zone conferences always are, lol. One thing that made this zone conference even more inspiring was because Elder Rafael Pino, who´s the 2nd counselor in the Area Presidency of South America Northeast was there. It was amazing when he walked in during Hma. Gamboa´s presentation she asked us all to stand up. Then, before he spoke he asked to be able to shake hands with us all first. So we lined up and shook his hand. He said he always loves meeting missionaries. It was neat because I remember a few months ago there was an area broadcast via satelite in the Stake center when Pres. Packer spoke. He was also there and spoke. His message to us was really just keeping the vision of our calling. We read D & C sections 15 and 16, which were two revelations given for men going to serve missions, and even though they were exactly alike, they were intimately personal callings. The only difference between them were the names and that´s something we should remember. He said that when there’s an emergency and something bad happens to a missionary, the First Presidency wants to know as soon as possible. For that we´re a unique group. It really just reminded me of a football pep talk. Something that I think we can all use every once in a while. I´m not sure if he´s actually a general authority like I wrote in the subject of this email, but I thought it fit for a good title :)

Then after that, we had an exciting day on Friday, lol. We were going to have the District meeting that morning but then Pres. Gamboa called around 7:30 that morning and asked to speak to Elder Peters, the Zone leader. It wasn´t until I handed the phone to Elder Peters that I realized it was kind of odd that the president was calling us that early, lol. Well to say the least Elder Peters then told us that we weren´t having the meeting, but had to stay in the house until 2:00 and he then called the rest of the missionaries to tell them. Yeah, that fun exciting feeling that gets your heart pumping. Apparently President Gamboa got news of a strike and thus wanted all the missionaries to wait until after mid-day, or possibly the whole day. We found out later that also in the morning hundreds in big cities like Quito and other countries came out with signs in protest. So yeah, if that wasn´t fun enough, we realized that the missionaries from Playas already left so me and Elder Cordovas had to go out to the church to give them the news. I joked that maybe we should go out in street clothes because we don´t want to attract too much attention in national emergencies like this. So we left and just went to the church and back. It was kind of a fun experience, lol. Nothing too interesting happened other than that.

But alright well I´m out of time so I´d better go. Thanks for everything! I got your package today! Thanks the american candy is great! as well as the cards for The Living Christ. They´ll help a lot! love you!

Love,

David

Another Week :)

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow thanks for your emails, sounds like all is well at home. That´s crazy that Robbie´s started dental school, Sean and Melissa are in Cincinnati, and Ryan´s already back in Utah. This morning we had interviews with President Gamboa and one of the first things he asked me was "how´s your family?" I told him how everyone´s great but spread out now, lol. And thanks thats fun to see people´s comments on the blog. Thanks again for doing that. And thats funny what happened with Jordan and filling the font. That´s actually happened a couple times in our building when we didn´t think to turn off the water. Though with our building the font isn´t below ground so when the water starts draining too much (through the drain to keep it from overflowing) what ends up happening is the water comes up through another drain in the bathroom and out in the hallway, lol. Several times we´ve walked in and there´d be water all over in the bathroom and hallway. But alas there´s no carpet in the churches here so it´s easy to clean up and it doesn´t effect anyone in the room to see the font so it´s no worries. That sounds like it´d be crazy for the water to be all over the carpet for Jordan, lol. But alas, as long as the Spirit is there it´s always a good experience :)

We´re teaching Manuel Baquerizo, who´s the nephew of another recent convert of about 9 months. He is awesome. After the first lesson he prayed and received an answer that yes this is the true church. He´s read every pamphlet we´ve given him and is reading the Book of Mormon very well. It´s awesome teaching him because he’s just way smart. Many people have trouble learning things like the Plan of Salvation, but he already knows nearly each step. He has a baptismal date for the 12th. We´re excited for him. Now we´re just hoping he´ll be able to make more friends in the church his own age but I´m not too worried. It was kind of funny. Saturday night me and Elder Cordova had a split with two high Priests. I went with Fernando, and the first lady we went to teach didn´t let us in. She told us that she was just Envangelista and knew she wouldn´t understand our message because we were from a different church. The other family we passed by wasn´t home. That was a little discouraging, but after that we went to Manuels home and had an awesome lesson teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was strong and Manuel understood everything. He only had a few questions about the atonement and Christ paying for us. It was great being with Fernando also because he was only baptized 3 years ago and had a great story of how when he arrived here he was knocking doors looking for a place to start his practice and ended up knocking on the door of the parents of the Bishop. From there started investigating and was baptized in about a month. It was neat to hear. So yeah, funny how one night can change from bad to good so quickly :).

Other than that we had a fun time Friday night. We are having a Family Home Evening for the Ward and investigators every other week and for the first time we had it in the home of a member (the family Pilligua). We decided it would be better to have it there because it´s closer to the members and other investigators that aren´t able to go to the church that late at night because there aren´t buses running that late at night and you´d have to take taxi. We had a great turnout. Jaime (the mission leader) gave a great message and after we played first a game no me diga sí, no me diga no (don´t tell me yes, don´t tell me no) where one person goes around asking questions and you have to answer without saying yes or no or nodding or shaking your head. I don´t know how it sounds but it was a lot of fun. Took some pictures but sadly forgot to bring the card reader today so I can´t send them until next week.

Well my time is almost up so i´d better get going. ooh if you could send peanut butter that would be awesome=) and also I was wondering if you could find a 3 hole-puncher that is nearly paper-thin. I remember seeing some classmates that had them and thought that´d be nice to have. In the house there´s not much for office supplies and a 3-hole-puncher would be nice and seems like one of those super thin ones would be easy to send. Oh and another thing I was wondering if you could send (or email:) me the recipe for Banana bread, lol. there are tons of bananas here and thought it´d be fun to make on preparation day. and Elder Barcia said that there actually is an oven in there church that we could use :P. so yeah just wondering that´d be fun to have :)But ok, other than that all is well. Thanks again for everything. Love you!

Love,

Elder David Frome

P.S One more thing I took another look at Dad´s email and realized I didn´t answer if I´d like those tapes, lol. so yeah I´d love to hear them. I dunno if they´d make me too homesick or not, but I thinkIi´d rather hear them then not :) oh and yes It´s definitely true that my spanish is doing way better with Elder Cordova. English is even becoming a little uncomfortable. At nights in the house Elder Peters will ask how my day was in english and I´ll forget how I used to answer that in english, lol. The first thing that comes to mind is spanish :) but of course the thing I really lack now is a better vocabulary. There are still times when I want to express myself with certain words but I don´t know them. Or others will say words that I don´t know yet. So alas, memorization, memorization, memorization I still need to work on :).

Ok, thanks for everything again,

Love,

David :)

!Bautismo!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Wow sounds like everything is going great over there in Utah. Thanks for the emails-- yeah I´d bet it´d be hard sending an email with the blackberry. It´d probably make my hand tired too. But that´s neat everyone is in Utah and you´re staying with Grandma Frome. You´ll have to tell her thanks for me I got her letter today and it was neat to hear all the news. Funny she told me about Ashley and Jared having new baby boys too (speakin´of which thats crazy/awesome!). and I´m glad it sounds like Melissa and Sean are doing great. Sounds like they love the insulin pump, I´m glad it sounds like it makes things a lot easier. and ah that´s awesome they have a trampoline, lol. ah I´ll never forget the years of fun we had with our trampoline before it finally gave out. I´m glad Josh, Nathan and Isaac will get to have great memories too. And that’s great Robbie and Kristen are well settled in. I´m sure Robbie will do great in school there. But anyways, everything here is going great!

The highlight, as you could probably guess, was the baptism we had for Angela. It turned out really good. There were many people there to support her. Its funny I´m not sure how many actually knew Angela, but they all have known Linda for years and know how much she´s wanted her mom to be baptized. The whole week we´d invite people by saying hma. Angela, you know, the Mom of Linda! I´m glad because it sounded like it was a real highlight for Angela. The whole day she said she just felt happy and at peace. It was great to have the honor to baptize her when we were walking to the font she just told me how good she felt ínside. At the end of the service she stood and bore her testimony of how grateful she is for the gospel and the Book of Mormon. She talked about how at first she was convinced she´d never be baptized because she was Catholic. But now after visiting with the missionaries she´s really just felt the spirit touch her heart. It was just great to see how she´s accepted the gospel and felt the blessings. It´s what being out here on a mission is all about :) It´s funny she has 4 kids but now she says she feels like me, Elder Sanchez, and now Elder Cordova are her sons too :)

I attached a couple fotos from the baptism, I hope they go through alright. Just so you know the last one bishop is the far right, Roberto Far left, and the other is Elder Cordova (as you probably guessed:).Alright well i´d better get going, thanks again for everything!

Love,

Elder David Frome

First Week of the Change!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Haha--sounds like everything is going great at home. That´s crazy to think Hunter is already in the MTC and Wylie will be in soon as well.

Elder Cordova is definitely a hard worker and an example of obedience. He only has 2 changes left but he´s definitely far from trunky. Its been awesome--the first thing I noticed about him is that these first few p-days he´s organized and cleaned out rooms in the house that we haven´t really done since before I got here. There´s a little bathroom that’s actually a little behind the house that he cleaned out and is good to use for a shower. So yeah he´s definitely a hard worker. And I think you´re right, Dad, with him I´ll learn to appreciate the culture more. It´s funny the difference how Americans we like to stick to our diet of cereal and bread and things that we´re used to. The first day shopping he got a good sized bag of rice and other flour things to cook and has gotten lots of bananas to eat in the mornings and nights. It´s pretty cool I think it´s a good idea. I love learning more and different things to try. I think it´s a good idea to take advantage of the bananas here. I´m pretty sure one of the country's largest produce is bananas. They´re way cheap, like 5 cents a banana (at least I think that's cheap, I realize I haven't really bought bananas or produce before the mission:). And also with him my Spanish is definitely going to improve.

That´s neat Josh and Nathan are doing good. Wow an insulin pump? I think I mentioned one of our zone leaders in the MTC had an insulin pump. He was quite popular because he got to have a fridge in his room because of it.



But anyways, things here are going good. This first week has been awesome and crazy at the same time. It´s been really neat how now I have the chance to really step up and lead everything we do. Since Elder Cordova is new and doesn´t know any of the investigators or anyone I lead where we go and start the lessons. It´s funny I´ve gotten quite a few compliments from people saying how good my Spanish is now. I don´t know how much I´ve really improved my spanish since a few weeks ago. It´s just now, without Elder Sanchez I´m the one doing most of the talking, whereas with him I seemed to kinda sit back more. So that´s definitely a growing experience for me. It´s funny when I´m leading it definitely makes the days go by faster. It seems like there’s so much to do but never enough time to do it.

Another thing that was fun this week was Wednesday, Elder Cordova and Peters had to go to Guayaquil for a conference for the Zone and District Leaders, so that meant I got to be Senior companion for the day with Elder Barcia, lol. It was a little unexpected (we only found out the day before) so we went to one important lesson in my area, then to his investigator's till 6. It was neat because we had Roberto and Jorge from the ward accompany us. Jorge is a returned missionary and has a car (yeah, a car!! oh we were so excited to proselyte in a car!:).

I´m afraid I´m almost out of time so I´d better go. haha yeah my letter last week must´ve been a little crazy. upside down exlamation marks that are supposed to go at the beginning of a sentence when you use them mustvé been weird at the end. And as for things I need I really can´t think of much. Oh, just maybe if you could find little cups of peanut butter :P, of course I´m never sure if it´d be better just to have you send me a little more money on the card and I could buy it here just more expensive. ooh triscuits would be actually quite amazing, that is one thing I haven´t even seen here. But at the same time another batch of homemade dinosaur cookies would make my day :). lol well thanks for everything. Love you!



Love,

Elder David Frome

CAMBIOS - AND SIX MONTHS!!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Sounds like you had a great family get together camping. Ok, so it looks like the exclamation mark and most of the symbols don’t work on this computer, sad day. You’ll just have to imagine my excitement for the random things. :] haha So how long has Uncle Jeff had two jet skiis?? That’s awesome. I bet that was fun. Thanks for the pictures¡ [ok so the upside down exclamation mark works, just not the rightside up, lol, so that´ll have to do. I hope it doesn´t drive you too crazy] :P Yeah Luke does look older now, and so is he talking away at everything and running around? And ah good ól Kobe, I sure miss that dog. Its kind of sad I´m afraid I´m losing my love for dogs here. There’s no animal control so there are tons of wild dogs everywhere. Some are nice, most not so nice. Elder Sanchez was actually bitten a couple weeks ago, lol [it was a small dog and didn´t even tear his pants, so no worries]. But yeah, and most of the wild dogs have this disease called sarne [im not sure what it is in english], which Roberto [the youth that accompanies us] says is like leprosy but for dogs- yeah, way sad and sickening to see. But alas, there are still few pure nice pets that some members have that rekindle our hopes of nice dogs again :] so yeah its nice to remember Kobe.

The highlight of the week was of course the baptism we had for Erica and María. It was awesome. We actually had it in the stake center at 5 because there was a stake relief society activity there at 4 so we thought it would be perfect because all the women could attend right after the activity. It really did turn out good. The spirit was strong and I could tell it was a real spiritual highlight for them as well. It’s always amazing to see two worthy children of God make covenants with Him. I´ll try to attach a picture so you can see.

We found out last night, that Elder Sanchez is being transferred. They did it differently this change, they didn’t tell us where he was going or who would be our companions, just that we had to be in Guayaquil terminal in the morning, lol. So yeah, a little intense. All four of us in the house had to get up early to leave by 6 to be there in time. It was really kind of exciting though when we got there all of the missionaries and their companions who are being transferred were there waiting and being directed by the assistants. I didn´t know many but Elder Sanchez did so it was nice for him to talk to them. I did see Hermana Brown though, It was great to be able to talk to her again. I guess she´s had the same experience as me, Three changes with her first companion but now being changed [her companion was actually transferred here to Libertad]. So yeah that was fun. But yeah finally an Elder Cordova came up to me and said hey, Elder Frome, you´re in Libertad? I´m your new companion¡ that was kool. So yeah Elder Cordova from Bolivia is my new companion and he seems awesome. He has 21 months so I´m sure I´ll learn a lot from him. I´m especially excited because now that I´m with a latin companion my Spanish should grow even faster. Also to replace Elder Ayala came Elder Peters from Chicago. He also seems really nice. He´ll be the leader of the zone and Elder Cordova will be a district leader. I´m excited this is going to be a great change¡

But alright well i´d better get going. Thanks again for the emails. Sounds like Robbie nad Kristen and Melissa and Sean are all doing great¡ sounds like that´ll be a fun calling for Melissa. I don´t think I´ll ever forget all the good times I had in Primary :]

Thanks again, love you¡

Elder David Frome