Hey Mom and Dad,
Thanks for your email! Sounds like summer is going well and there are plenty of activities for the youth going on in the ward. Yeah it´s too bad we´re not there to take the boat out this year. That´s always a highlight every year to go out skiing and water tubing on the lake. And that’s fun that your taking the young women to girls camp. But ah you´re not gonna stay the whole week this year? Lol j-k that’s good there are other leaders going to take turns staying. That´s awesome Tanner Bushnell is getting married! That´s such an awesome family. And wow that´s crazy Bridgett got married, lol. But that´s sweet, they´re an awesome family as well. That´s neat you talked with her mom, she was always very nice.
And to answer your questions yes I did have to go to Guayaquil Friday morning. It´s true usually for changes all the elders that go will meet in terminal and leave together and those who stay in the sector will just stay in quevedo to wait until their new companions come. But this time the only Elder that was being transferred was one who lives in an area an hour and a half away so their was no one within quevedo to go with Elder Barrientos so I had to go. So yeah, I got the pleasure to get up at a brisk 3:00am and take a nice 4-hour bus ride to and back from Guayaquil in the same day, lol. Though I´m not gonna lie it really wasn´t too bad. I do kinda enjoy traveling (when I don´t lose baggage:) and it was worth it to see all the other Elders who also had transfers. And I´m pretty sure that the last time I saw Hermana Brown she told me she was going home in July. I think she went home already just because another 6 weeks would put her well over 18 months. Though who knows.
But anyways, and before I forget I talked to the elders in the office and they said they saw a package come in for me so I´m pretty sure it´s the shoes. That´s good it was under 4 pounds because it sounds like they got it easily and I don´t need to authorize anything. So yeah good news, lol. And sorry I forgot to tell you last week I actually bought a pair of tennis shoes last week (they were the super cheap shoes but I liked them:) that are just a little too small but good for the few cases that we have service or something I could wear them for an hour or two. But now I should be getting the package this week in District meeting so it´s all good there. Who knows why it took so long though. And yeah these contacts still work fine I haven´t had any problem with the vision with the prescription. Other than the contacts I have on, I only have 4 more pairs in the house so yeah that´d be great if you could send just a box for the left and a box for the right I think that´ll last me good.
But anyways, this week has been good. It´s awesome working with elder Aguirre. He´s a great teacher and I especially enjoy planning with him. He has great ideas for what we can do to help resolve the concerns of our investigators but good at putting together the ideas we both have. It´s a great attribute to be able to work as a team. Then of course putting them in action during the day is awesome! Lol. We´re working a lot at planning to pass by and get to know the members more. As missionaries in sectors often we get to know a select number of families (those we eat with each week and the leaders) but the rest we just don´t really know. So we´ve been passing and setting appointments just to get to know them and excite them about missionary work. It feels like a kind of investment, we put in the work now hoping to get the results weeks in the future with references.
The highlight of the week was easily Consejo de Líderes (Council of leaders?) that we had on Friday. All the zone leaders went to Guayaquil Friday morning like a Zone Conference to receive special instruction from the assistants and President and Sister Gamboa. They put a lot of emphasis on putting objectives, goals, and specific plans for the needs of the zone. It was awesome as usual. It was kind of funny because a few days before they told us to review the 5th mile of the Maestro (the Book of Mormon scripture masteries) for an activity of memorization. It was nice that they gave us a heads up on what to review, it´s a lot easier to just review and memorize 25 scriptures instead of 130. But then when we got there, the activity embarked every scripture in the maestro anyways! But ah well, I didn´t get called to go up front for the activity so it was fine, lol. It was neat because during the consejo they asked all of the zone leaders going home this change to bear there testimony. Usually a nice brief portion to hear the few going home, but this time there were 10 elders going home this change, including Elder Aguirre. Yeah it went a little longer but definitely powerful to hear. It was interesting to see how each person is different and express themselves differently. Of all the testimonies one caught my attention of one elder I met in Babahoyo who just as he walked up you could tell he was going to get emotional. When he stood up at the pulpit he paused for a few moments and the tears just started. I think it took a few minutes for him the regain himself to be able to bear his testimony, but in front of everyone a few minutes felt like hours. President Gamboa stood up to give him a tissue, remarking in the microphone that this, was for the courageous. Once the elder regained himself he bore a simple, short testimony saying he knew the church was true, the Book of Mormon was the word of God and just a few more statements and sat down. There were other Elders who told stories or shed a few tears to express how much the mission meant to them. But I don´t know, it just kind of hit me how this elder, who was a great missionary, was so overwhelmed with emotion from the mission and idea of going home. The mission sure does change people.
Alright well I´d better get going. Thanks for everything. I hope you have a great week! Love you!
Love,
Elder David Frome
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