First Week

Hey Mom and Dad,

Ah sorry I didn´t mean to make you guys stress out too much out of losing my shoes. But ah thanks for everything in trying to make sure I could get some new shoes. Sounds like you thought of everything from calling the post office to even having Mom come down here. It was funny I think Tuesday night I got a phone call from Hermana Gamboa and it was funny because she first asked how I was doing and if my ingrown toe nails were doing good. I told her they´re doing better, then she was like ok and said, “I have a question.” Which was funny because she asked it in english, then asked about my shoes and said she got an email from you mom and said you were worried about my shoes. When I told her everything that happened she was like “ooh no, Elder Frome, porque no me llamó???” asking why I didn´t call her right away. So yeah next time anything happens I´ll have to remember to call her right away. Yeah, I think you´d like her Mom, she´s like our mom out here. She doesn´t like it when things happen or we get sick and don´t tell her. But yeah she said that the Mall del Sol has them and so I´ll just have to call for permission to go some P-day to go get some. That´d probably be easier than dealing with post offices (though that´s interesting they say it´s illegal to send shoes because I remember when I was with Elder Sanchez, his mom sent him some new shoes when he was out for a little over a year, but who knows) and a lot more cheaper. And I´d hate to have mom have to fly down here just for the shoes, lol. The shoes I have really are still good. It´s not like I´m having any problems with them. I feel bad spending more money when I could´ve just been a little more careful that morning keeping the bag. But I´ll see how they´re doing being the only pair then maybe next week I´ll call for permission to head over to the Mall del Sol (which by the way is kinda cool that I get to go because that mall is usually off limits to the Elders so it´ll be fun to get to go in :P) and yeah I´ve been to polycentro a couple times when we´ve gone to Zone Conference on P-day. Sometimes we´ll head over after for something to eat. I remember seeing the Mall del Sol but hearing that we weren´t allowed to go there. It´s within walking range of the stake center where we have zone conferences and the mission office so it won´t be too hard to find. And so how did you communicate with Hermana Gamboa, did Elder Elwood translate everything for her or did Dad? Lol well yeah that was definitely an experience we won´t forget for a while :).

But anyways, well Duran is a pretty neat place. The sector reminds me a lot of Libertad. There´s some nice expensive places like Libertad had, but if you just head down in one direction for 10 minutes you´ll find dirt roads and shack houses with dirt floors, a lot like Libertad. It´s pretty sweet because it´s even better than Libertad in that it has even more good places to eat! Like we got the phone number to pizza hut and dominos and even a burger king that delivers! Some night after a baptism I think we´ll have to order some fast food! It´s probably because we´re across the river from Guayaquil we have access to all that. But yeah as for the area it´s fairly good sized but not quite as big as Libertad was. My companion is way good. Yeah my companion now has about 2 months in the mission including the MTC. It´s neat he went to the MTC in Colombia so it must be all the Latinos go there for the MTC. So yeah he had one change with his trainer Elder Capcha and now this is his second. But by the way he teaches you´d think he already has a year. He was way good with leading all the lessons when he was introducing me to all the investigators. He´s a way cool guy too that likes to joke around but not too much as to distract from the work, so it´s a perfect balance. It´s fun I´ve noticed that, being from Mexico, he has a different vocabulario or phrases than Elder Vinueza and Elder Cevallos. And it´s funny I guess some words here he says would be vulgar in Mexico. So yeah it´ll be fun learning more words from him. He´s from Oaxaca, Mexico which is the southern part. I´m pretty sure we should have a pretty successful change together.

It´s been fun with the new study program the elders have all received emails with instructions on how to do it in English (which, yeah, you´d think they´d send them in Spanish, lol) so I´ve been helping Elder Cruz go through it all translating for him. The program here is already great. We have a baptism for a guy named Manuel this Saturday. Then we have 3 planned for the following Saturday.

All right well I´d better go, thanks for everything. And really no worries about the shoes, I´ll probably head over next week to find some. But really my feet are doing fine with the shoes that I have.

Love you!
Elder David Frome