My companion is Elder G, from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He turns 20 on Thursday
and has been out for 8.5 months. Hes a homie and has real good Spanish,
especially for 8.5 months! We get along great and are connecting with
the members and people in our area super bien!
We are opening a new sector in the Los Chillos Norte
Zone. Basically the Ecuador Quito Mission is split into 12 Zones,
spanning 250mi X 400mi. And with in those zones are districts, and within a
district is a handful of sectors. My district is only 3 sectors, so 6
Elders. But there are about 22 Elders and 2 Hermanas in our Zone.
Panoramic of Quito with the statue Panicio on the hill in the middle {click to make it larger!}
ANYWAYS, we are about a 45 minute bus ride outside of Quito, on the
side of a mountain that seperates Quito from Conocoto. Our sector/where
we live is a small area called Montzerrat. Our sector is super poor,
but the people are super generous and freindly and a ton of people we
meet are really open to hear the gospel. The members here are great too!
We have a mamita (a women/fam who cooks us lunch) every day except
Pday! Our ward is Vista Hermosa (about 120 members), and is at the top
of this mountain that seperates us from Quito. 2 of the Elders in our
Zone (A and T) are at the top, near the chapel. And then the
other 2 elders (Cr and Caj), are below us. We see these 4 guys a
ton (and live with Cr and Caj for now).
View from our kitchen window
We live in a cool apartment with 2 other Elders.
Elder Caj was just companions with Elder G before this, and he has
13 months and is from Lima, Peru. And Elder Cr has 8.5 months,
and is from Paraguay, he speaks Spanish and Guaranese (an Indiginous
language). He spent most of his mission in the Oriente (Jungle) before
now. He has some sweet stories. They are both sick guys and force me to
practice my Spanish all the time when we are with them. (Not that me and
G dont usually speak spanish...its just nice to speak a lil English
when we can haha). The 4 of us get along way well...our apartment and
set up is dope.
The climate: The weather here is perfect. During the
heat of the day it gets a bit hot because we are like 9500 feet closer
to the Sun than in Davis...but its not bad at all. On a clear day we can
see 4 Volcanoes from our Kitchen window.....its beautiful. Our
casa/sector overlooks the valley that Conocoto and San Rafael. Just
about half a mile from our house houses end and its just massive
Ecuadorian mountain and trees. Every direction there is a dope view. All
the Elders I have talked to said I am way lucky to be starting out
here, everyone says Los Chillos is awesome--and so far I agree!!!
Pano from out living room window
Food: Food here is bomb. We eat at our Mamitas house
for lunch every day, and walk down to the Paneria / Frutaria most
mornings to get some AMAZING pastries and fruit (for like 15 cents a
piece of fresh bread and 5 cents a banana). We can't drink tap water so
we buy big jugs of water (we have a little make shift stand with a
open/close spot for a 5G water jug) and then we drink lots of juice and
soda. We also eat cold oatmeal with milk and granola for
breakfast...really whatever we want that is relatively cheap. The milk
and yogurt comes in bags, and almost nothing here needs to be
fridgerated which feels strange--but we keep all ours cold after buying.
Dinner isn't a thing here...people eat breakfast and then lunch at 2 and
maybe a little tiny meal or snack at night. So we don't eat until walking
home or till we get home at 9, and usually are still full from the
massive plates we eat during lunch. I really like everything I've had
here.... Especially the breads..so bomb!
We walk a lot but also take a ton of busses. The bus
system here is crazy big, and FAST. The rides are crazy...literally
feel like were on the bus from Harry Potter most of the time. They
barely stop for people to get on and off (unless its a small child or
old person). No matter how far you bus its 25 cents. So we can take like a
40 minute bus ride into a town and it still be 25 cents...pretty nuts.
Because we live right in our sector, its really not that much walking
because its all relatively close. But there are some gnarly hills and
other than right next to our appartment there arent a ton of nice roads.
Most are dirt/rock. Some shortcuts we take feel like I'm straight up in
Lord of The Rings cutting through these hills with houses scattered
about. I love it...everything here is still so new everything seems
exciting/interesting.
Pano of the Valley of Conocoto/SanRafael from an investigator's house, about 5 minute walk from our house
There are TONS of wild homeless dogs. Like hundreds.
One night at like 8:30 we were contacting and while chatting with a
family at there door about 12 dogs were going crazy barking and all
around us, so I manned the dogs as Elder G taught. All you have to
do to keep a dog from coming after you is quickly reach down like you're
picking up a rock...even if there isn't one....and they all jump back or
stay away. Its so sad...they're honestly everywhere. The kids here aren't
phased by them tho...kids will be playing soccer at like 9 and dogs
going crazy but they don't even notice haha. Different lifestyle out here
for sure.
Well...thats all I have time for / mental capacity
for right now. Make sure to check out my blog (that KT is running
awesomely!) to see pics and stuff.
Love you all!
Elder Sorensen
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