¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Friends and Family,

First off, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I know we lack 4 days....but you´re gonna have to forgive me for an early Merry Christmas Wish! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas/Holiday season and can remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas....He lives!!! Check out this sweet video, I like it. https://www.mormon.org/christmas

I am a little short on time because today we had a crazy fun activity! One of the districts in the zone went to ´´Baños de Santa Agua´´, and because his district is full of Sister missionaries, we ´´had´´ to go to accompany him. It was DOPE!!! Baños is a little tiny pueblo right in between the Sierras (mountains) and the Oriente (jungle) and is a HUGE tourism attraction. It is full of waterfalls and zoos and awesome Ecuadorian stuff. Today we went to the big zoo they have and it was great and extremely beautiful. It was similar to American Zoos, except all the landscaping and epic animal habitats were almost 100% naturally made. And it was overlooking a waterfall/river....word.

Last night we went Caroling with the branch. About 20 of us in a school bus tearing up the streets of Riobamba. It was great! We got to visit a lot of new members, less activates, and some old members who live alone. It was wonderful and the Christmas Spirit was STRONG! 

Well, we got a crazy week coming up. Probably going back to Guaranda Wednesday, Tuesday divisions with Elder A, Wednesday night Branch Christmas Party, Thursday a few Christmas eve dinners and Friday SKYPE with the fam! Cant wait!

I love you all and hope you have a great holiday season.

´´Did you know that Ecuador is the country with the highest biological diversity in the world?´´  

Elder Sorensen

Christmas Part 1

Hey all. How´s it going?

This week was even crazier, but one heck of a week! 

On Tuesday we went down to Guaranda, a cool little city that is a few hours outside of Riobamba. We got some solid divisions done with four elders down there. The city is a lot like Riobamba...small, colonial, lots of indigenous. It was a WAY cool bus ride! We got to basically make a big 2 hour circle around Chimborazo (that massive Volcano we went to a few weeks ago). It was great. Aside from the AWFUL Chicha music that was played the whollllle ride home while we tried to sleep. Oh well, embrace the culture, right? :)

Christmas w/ the MTC comp

Zone

On Thursday we bused down to Quito as a zone. There was a big accident so we were stopped for about an hour..but we had the whole zone on the bus so it was a great chance to get to know the missionaries better and a have a nice little rest from the work. We then got McDonalds as a zone and slept in the mission hotel. Friday we had an annual Christmas Conference/Dinner from 9am-5pm. It was GREAT. Some great trainings. Three by President and one by us on ´´Ha Nacido un Salvador´´ (A Savior is Born). We ate sooooo much good food. Snacks/treats every hour during the conference and then a DANG GOOD Christmas Dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed Ps, bomb salad, REAL rolls, gravy, and other good stuff. And 2 BOMB desserts...I love American food. And Hermana Christensen, she is the best! We then had a fun ride home and got into Riobamba at around 11 Friday night. 

#ChristmasDinnerSelfieGame

Our Christmas talent. Forgot to tell ya'll, I am now quad-lingual.

We only have 2 full days in our sector, but got TO WORK while we could. My comp and I are having a great time together and really meshing as far as the teaching and missionary work goes. Its a happy Holiday Season down in Ecuador. 

Love you all!

ES

Holidays

MERRY CHRISTMAS MONTH! 

Hope you all enjoyed the Christmas Devotional last night! If you didnt see it...watch it! https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/christmas-devotional/2015/12?lang=spa&vid=4649166278001. We got to watch it with some gringos and one family from Utah who lives here in Riobamba...it was excellent! 

It was a crazy busy/great first week of the change. We had about 3 days to work in our sector due to having so much stuff to get done. This week will be similar. Tomorrow we will go down to Guaranda to do splits with 4 missionaries down there, and then on Thursday/Friday we will go into Quito as a zone for Christmas Dinner/Conference at President´s house! We are sooo excited!

The work is going well. My comp and I are getting along GREAT! We are so happy to be back with gringos and speaking a lil english. It has been sweet. It is gonna be an amazing holiday season down here in little Riobamba.

Hope you all have a great week! Love you all. Thanks for everything. 

ES