Breve

Guess what that means in spanish? Yup! Brief, or short. I´m pretty sly, huh?

double rainbow over the amazon forest

Well, Monday will be the start of my last week in the mission. Can´t wrap my head around that but am stoked to make it the best week yet! Will be heading to La Concordia (coast) and then getting lots of stuff ready for the following week with new missionaries and departing missionaries. Gotta get that baton handed off to my comp! :)

Eating some chontacuro (worms)

This past week we had MLC, zonf conf in Chillogallo, and zone conf in Puyo (the jungle). Thursday night we got in to Puyo and got to stay with the zone leaders down there, two of my best friends in the mish!! One finishes with me, and the other has about 10 months left. It was awesome hanging out with them. All the conferences went super well this week. Time flies when your busy. Today we went to the mall to go bowling, but it was PACKED. So we just got some lunch and came to the office to hang out and play some Star Wars Risk. For some one who has never seen any of the movies...it was TOUGH. Haha!

Love you all. Will write more next week. Until then...

ES

Striding!

Hey all,

This week I will be brief. 

We are continuing to be blessed with both trials and miracles. This week I am especially grateful for trials and small miracles. Last night we had a rough night of work. As you know, our sector is VERY active on the weekends. No one who we planned to visit was home, and many people in the street were far to busy to talk to us. None the less, about 5 minutes before going home, after a long, slightly frustrating night, a member from Washington DC calls out to us and thanks us for all we are doing here, and asking us about the work and our mission experiences. He had served in Paraguay and is currently with a few friends getting to know a few other South American countries. It was awesome talking to him and just getting a little reminder that God will never leave us alone. I am so grateful for these past ¨few¨ months in the mission, although I can hardly find ways to express that. The good times have made me more grateful than I ever though I could be, and the trials have made me stronger than ever. 

Was able to visit and work in one of my old sectors. One of the hardest and most rewarding sectors in my whole mission. 

We will be having missionary leadership council on tuesday, zone conference in Quito on wednesday, and heading into the jungle thursday/friday. Time to stride out!

Love you all. 

ES

Risk. The Gospel will reach the 4 corners of the earth.

800km

I forgot to answer my moms question...so, how many miles did we travel this week? I dont know, but we traveled around 800 kilometers between monday-friday. I think that is something like 500 miles....Jeff?

Needless to say, it was an EPIC week. President´s son and his family (him, wife, 3 boys) have been here in Ecuador since last Friday, so due to that we got to travel this week the old fashion way, Ecuadorian Buses. It was awesome. Let me give a very breve run down...sorry if this sounds like a travel log, haha!

Monday we were busy in the office from 9-3, taking care of lots of stuff and holding down President´s post, while he was out with his fam doing a little sight seeing. At 3 we took a 45 minute tram ride down to the terminal, and then headed out to Santo Domingo. We got there at around 8, got some Carls Jr, visited my old bishop and a few converts, and then headed to the zone leaders house, where Elder Higbee is. It was awesome chatting with him, we are both getting a little excited about heading back to the Y. But he is staying focused! ::)

Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Santo Domingo. It went really well. I love SD, the weather and people and food are just great. As soon as the conference ended, we hopped in a bus and headed from Santo Domingo to Ambato. We got to the zone leaders house in Ambato at around 10. 

Wednesday we had Zonf Conf in Ambato. It also went really well. While President was going over the emergency plan with the zone (which we know have by memory, haha!), I got to catch up on my journal, so that was cool. B would be proud. Still keeping up my every day since the year mark streak! Bueno...casi. After the conference we got on a 3 hour bus ride and headed down to Guaranda, a tiny town a few hours outside of Riobamba. There I met up with Elder S and Elder K, while my comp went with another companionship. 

Thursday we worked down there in Guaranda. Elder S finishes with me, and Elder K is a homie from Laguna Beach, CA. He only has 4 months, but is powerful! The day went super well, we had a good day of work, got to attend their district meeting in the morning, and barely caught the last bus (8pm) to head in to Riobamba.

Friday we had Zone Conference in Riobamba. There was a few activities going on towards the end of the conference, so I got to see a few member from my old branch down there! It was a solid conf. 8 out of 22 missionaries in that zone go home with me, so there were some powerful final testimonies to finish off the conference. After that, we hopped on ANOTHER bus, and got home at around 9:30. Home sweet home. Never felt so good to sleep in my own bed. We slept 4 days in 4 different cities. Epic.

Today we played some volley ball, hit a little AbRipperX workout in the morning, bought a dope hammock from an Otovaleño Market, and are now about to go buy some food cuz our house it EMPTY.

Well, hope you all enjoyed the travel log. I should be a tour guide some day...if anyone wants to visit Ecuador just holla at your boi. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

ES

One Month...

...one more month until we get 13 new missionaries here in our mission! I am so excited for them! They are going to love it.

This week was ballin. I am currently a little sick right now, and my comp is still sick...he has been pretty messed up for like a month, but they finally got him some meds that actually help him.

This week was full of trainings and finding. We had Zone Conferences on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, in Los Chillos, Turubamba, and La Colón. They all went super well! We also ate pizza in all three. So far, 3/3, let´s see if we can beat last Zone Conference´s 6/8. Haha! We are training for 1.5 hours on the Area Book, we are getting a little creative and so far all the trainings/workshops have gone super well! I have also gotten to see some of my best friends, so that is always a plus.

Oh yeah, the aftershock earthquakes are still going hard. This week there was one at 3am, which was a pretty big/long one. We woke up and ran into the kitchen to wait until it stopped. Although it wasnt as big as the first one (first of like 450 haha) last month, being up on the 6th floor and sleeping with 3 big loud metal bunk beds in our room made it seem WAY stronger than the first. And then that same day during our training there was another one, right before noon. It was also a small one, but big enough to make the church building shake a squeak, so we went to the bball court for a minute until it stopped. It is always a little scary because they say a big quake is due here in Quito, so every time there is a little one you just think to yourself ´´alrighty...is this the ´´Quito Quake´´?!´´. I love this country! I´d rather worry about earthquakes than Volcanoes like we did last summer. EPIC.

On Satuday we had a great baptismal service. F is a awesome, humble 18 year old who has great desires to continue strong in the church and serve a mission! His girlfriend is a member, so she definitely helping in the fellowship/conversion process. ;)

This week is going to be crazy. Monday evening we leave Quito, and then will be in Santo Domingo on Tuesday for Zone Conf, Ambato on Wednesday for Zone Conf, Thursday some exchanges in Baños or Guaranda, and then Friday Zone Conf in Riobamba. President´s son, daughter in law, and 3 grandsons are here, so we will be bussing it like old times! Gonna be one heck of a week. Especially if we are both still sick. But at this point, there isn´t any time to hold back anything we got! I´m stoked.

Well, love you all! Have a great week!

ES

Subject

Good afternoon,

This week has been crazy. Like the first week of every change, we have been running around non-stop. Although, today we got to take a little break to play some bball and go bowling, but now we are about to get running around again to prepare Francisco´s baptismal service at 6pm! 

cloudy days in Quito

First off, skyping with the fam was epic. Can´t believe that was the last of MANY Sorensen skype calls.... Like my mom said, we can always skype next Christmas, we can all through our missionary name badges on, too! ;) It was sweet meeting my new baby niece and talking spanish with my new sister in law (even though we talked when you guys were engaged...it was fun talking behind the whole fam´s back, haha!)

Right after skyping with the fam, my new companion, Elder L got to the offices and we had a meeting with President to finalized transfers, then call all the zone leaders to send them out, then went to say good bye to a few families with Elder F, and then dinner at President´s house! It was a busy but great day. 

So my new comp. My new comp is Elder L. He is from Colorado, born in Miami, and his dad is Cuban and mom is Puerto Rican, so he speaks perfect Spanish but is still a gringo in my book. He has 3 changes left, so like me will probably be here for his last few months. He is a GREAT missionary, I had a feeling he would be the one I´d finish my mission with for a while, and I am super stoked. We get along great and have very similar personalities. Best of all, he loves to work and be obedient, so these last few weeks are going to fly by. He was a zone leader he in La Colon, so he just had to take a 30 minute bus ride from his old sector. My first kid, Elder B, took his place as the new zone leader in La Colon, so we are super happy to be close together here at the end of my mission. It is gonna be a good, bittersweet change.

This week we made a few trips to the airport, gave a handful for trainings, had a welcome dinner and a farewell dinner, and had a little bit of time to work in our sector. Tonight F will be baptized. We are stoked for him. On Sunday we had Stake Conference, and a member pointed us to a 45ish year old man sitting in the back, so we went and talked to him. Turns out he is from Cuba, lives here alone, has been looking for a way to get closer to God, and has 2 kids in Cuba who will hopefully be here in Ecuador at the end of Summer. He is excited about attending the baptismal service tonight, and about preparing for his own on the 28th of May! We are so stoked to be teaching him. We also found another great couple, who lives in our same apartment building. He is from the Solomon Islands, and she is from Rwanda. We found out she was baptized in Holland, but due to some doctrinal misunderstandings fell away from the church for the past 7 years. They are both really excited to come to church tomorrow. Oh yeah, he went to BYU for a semester on a study abroad scholarship...hahaha such a small world.

Well, we´re outta here. Gotta go get some grub!

ES