Changes

Dear everyone…

Well, another change has officially ended down here in Ecuador. Good news… I AM STAYING IN RIOBAMBA! Last night we received changes and to our relief both Elder B and I are staying together. We had a great changes, but it was DANG busy with all the traveling and holidays and combining zones and stuff…so we are stoked about getting another change together and being able to work a lot more in our own sector. Aside from that, nothing too big happened in the zone as far as changes go. We are looking forward to these next six weeks!

This Monday we traveled into Quito for MLC. Got some bomb burritos Monday night with all the homies who traveled in from outside of Quito. The conference on Tuesday was GREAT. President talked a ton about the culture of the mission and what we can/need to do to make it better. We set a lot of goals for the new month/year and as a misison we have definitely been improving a lot. The food was good as ever and it was fun hanging out with-chatting with some buddies from around the mission…including Elder Higbee from May Hall at BYU…nioce!!

One exciting thing we talking about in Tuesday´s conference was a new way to do exchanges. Now, instead of us going to the sector of the other missionaries, we will bring those two missionaries into our sector, split up with them inside our own sector, and get some serious work done in our sector. Then the other companionship will stay the night with us, well do some studies together, and then end the division that next day. It is a pretty big change that is going to be happening in many missions around the world and we are stoked! We won’t be losing as much time in our sector and it puts way more pressure on our sector to have plenty of people to teach and requires us to have a ´´model sector´´ (y nos falta mucho jaja). We tested the new method with Elder A and his kid on Friday and it went pretty well! Elder A and I were able to teach some way solid lessons, and my comp with his comp were able to go out and talk to people all evening. And like always, we ended the night with some BOMB pizza.

Oh yeah, on Wednesday we bussed down to Guaranda to do a few baptismal interviews and exchanges with the Elders down there. It was fun stuff. It´s a cool little town and a way pretty drive down. We went down early Wednesday morning and came back late that night so that we could be home Thursday night to get ready for the mini Zone Conference on Thursday. That went well, we touched most of the same points President talked about on Tuesday. It went really well.

Well, if any of you are still reading this… I´m gonna stop now.

Love you all!

ES

2016. Let`s goooo!

Watup fam!

Didnt have time to write a group email last week...but I hope you all had a GREAT Christmas and an even better New Year! Our Christmas down here was great. I got to talk to the fam on skype, which was awesome, and ate TONS of turkey (which is super rare down here) and had some fun Christmas activities/dinners. It was a super great 2nd Christmas down here in Ecuador. I am definitely excited to be with the fam next one, but these past two holiday seasons have been amazing.

As far as New Years Eve. On the 31st we were kind of ``locked in`` our house all day because this country kinda turns up like crazy for New Years. We were able to leave for a few hours to teach a few lessons and have a bomb NYE dinner (tamales...bomb!!), but aside from that we basically chilled in the house all day. Cleaned our house like crazy, and napped/worked out/did nothing. It felt so good, jaja! At midnight we went up to our roof and watched all the fireworks. It was sooooo awesome! Basically 15 minutes straight of fireworks in every direction. 

The biggest two traditions for New Years down here (that are different from US ones) are the vuidas and the viejos. The vuidas (widows), or locas (crazies), are grown men who dress up as girls and run around the city asking for money, and if you dont give it to them they do embarrassing/ridiculous things. On the way home from dinner at a members house they danced around our car until the dad of the family gave em each a quarter. Its soooo redic, but its pretty dang funny too. They all do it out of good fun and rarely does it get taken too far out of hand. The viejos (old..as in old/past year) are huge paper mache dolls/figures, which represent the past year, and then at midnight everyone burns them and if they are small enough they jump over them or kick them...as a symbolic way to kill all the bad from last year and prepare for an even better new year! A lot of people make super heros or disney characters or political figures...and there are some that are like 20 feet tall! Impressive stuff. At midnight it looks like straight anarchy because the streets are FILLED with burning things... Ill miss Ecuadorian New Years....

Well, aside from that, all is well. The work is progressing and I am extremely excited for this new year! I have lots of goals/plans/things I want to improve on. 

We are down in Quito tonight for MLC tomorrow. Cant wait to eat some BOMB Momma Christensen food! Wednesday we will go to Guaranda, and thursday zone conference. But Fri, Sat, and Sun, we will be going hard in the sector!!

Say an extra prayer for my brother Jeff and his wife, Melissa, who are expecting their first child ANY DAY! Love you guys!!!!!

Happy New Year. Love yall.

ES

(sorry bout the lack of pics....currently working on fixing my camera. sorry, momma! hehe)

¡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