Ecuador?

Friends...

2 weeks in Ecuador--and 2 months out here on the mish! Times flies! And goes slow...still haven't made up my mind! 

Photos from President and Sister Christensen: 

Arriving Missionaries

With President and Sister Christensen

 Kevin and his trainer, Elder G

We had a great week! First and foremost--on Saturday we baptized 4 of the kids in the Familia D. They are an awesome family, and hopefully the parents will get baptized here soon once they can afford a legal marriage! (one of the biggest problems we face out here with parents of families). The service was awesome and they were all very happy! I got to baptize J, the youngest. I was kind of nervous cause I barely memorized the baptism prayer the day before--but of course everything went well. They are an awesome family and just in my 2 weeks here I have seen changes in their hearts and lives. 

It was Elder G's birthday on Thursday! So we had cookie dough (the oven didn't work) at our Zone meeting from the Hermanas...a DELICIOUS fruit/cream cake that Elder H brought to Zone meeting, mini cakes at one of our members houses, and hostess cupcakes at night from G's parents. Safe to say it was a sweet day. ;)

 Birthday Celebrations for Elder G

We have been teaching a lot of people, and have about 4 very solid investigators right now, but about 10 more who we have received from references from ward members who we need to meet with. Everyone's work schedules are so heavy here it is always tough to find a time when the whole family is home. But its all gonna work out. Because we are opening up this sector, we have done a lot of contacting and made a ton of appointments with people, but a good amount of the time when we go to meet with them they end up being off and work. Work work work. These people know how to do it well...I just wish they could get sundays off!! Because so many people cant make it to church cause of their schedules...Anywho, the work out here is great. We have usually 1 or 2 citas (appointments) with a member family each day--to get to know them better and see if they have any friends or family who would want to here our message! Our members are awesome and allllways feed us great.

I got like 3 questions about my Mamitas..so: We have a different Mamita every day (minus Monday, we eat on our own on Pday). Most of them are families in the ward, 1 of them is a single 23 year old. They all feed us super super good. And no, we don't pay them. In addition, we often get fed mini meals when we have citas with other members at night. Ill try to start taking some pics of food to show yall!

Today was another great P Day. We found a ward member who we have become really close with. She is a single parent, a 35 year old lawyer with 2 kids, who happens to be just the greatest...who loves to feed us and happens to have a washing machine. Which is WAY rare here. So we went over there today and hung out and did out laundry (not by hand for once..which is amazing). She is also the one who gave us mini cakes on G's birthday. Me and G never wanna leave this ward because everyone is so great haha.

Our Church building (up the hill from us in Villaflora)

 We make new friends every day (cows..dogs...drunks..lol)

Well, I am way short on time today cause I had been lacking on replying to everyone personally. Thanks to you all for the updates and love.

Elder H made G take the first bite...and then snuck up behind and shoved his face into it hahaha. 

One of the thousands of soccer fields(courts) out here. Beautiful day like always.

 Standard pig the size of a cow. We are starting to teach the family who lives here.

A few answers to ?s quickly!

Email: We email at cybers...which are internet cafes with comps and pay phones and copy machines. Costs 10 cents per 10 minutes. So 2 hours is 1.20. Cheeeap!

Packages/Letters: WE CAN GET THEM! I thought we couldn't...but my comp has gotten like 5 and never had a prob. Packages take between 4-8 weeks usually... and letters about 2 weeks. Here is the address to send to. The best way is just through US Mail. And some people duct tape the packages a ton or put Virgin Mary stickers on em to prevent tampering. 

Elder Kevin Sorensen

Calles Robles E4-151 y Av. Amazonas 

Casilla: 17-03-078
Quito, Pinchincha
Ecuador

Received my first package! From G's girlfriend...he has my approval!

Food probs: Nah. If you know me you know I eat everything and love it. Haven't gotten close to sick...all good 

 Pinchos at a small vendor near out house. Pinchos are a skewer with sausage, tater, banana, and other meats. BOMB!

Mean stories: No one is mean to us. Just the occasional drunk who tries talking English to us. We just reply in Spanish and act clueless. Classic.

 Charles Darwin was on to something...the greatest country in the World.

Most spiritual experience: Definitely the baptism. Its awesome seeing people with such rough backgrounds find God and make changes in their lives and immediately receive tons of blessings. Also, working with less actives and recent converts is great. Just getting to know people's stories is awesome.

Love MUCH,

Elder Kevin Charles

PS-RAW RAW RAWRAWRAW GOOOOOOOOO COUGS!!!

PSS--- elderkso.blogspot.com (KT Rose should be posting tons of pics!)

 The awesome view of the valley we have every night