Dearest friends and family,
What a joy to have a few minutes to write to you this week.
Truth be told, everything is a-ok. The days and weeks are sliding by smoothly
and the work is becoming more enjoyable. Sure there are days when something
comes my way that I’m not expecting but, for the most part, I’m acclimated.
Ecuador is my little pais away from my pais.
This morning was special. Missionaries exercise every
morning from 6:30 to 7:00am and we like to mix it up sometimes. And, as you
already know, Elder Morales was the Guatemalan Boxing Champion about 3 years
ago. Well, it just so happens that one of the church members here, Robinson
Rosero, is a boxing fanatic and has boxed throughout his life with his father and
who, in his youth, also enjoyed a lot of success with the sport. Putting all
the pieces together, we called Hermano Robinson last night to see if we could
jog down to his training gym this morning to get in a little boxing as our
exercise before the gym opened for normal business. (As a rule, missionaries
aren’t allowed to go in the gym because of the music, girls and tendency to
spend all day there if we could. Going early gave us private access without all
of those distractions.)
We woke up bright and
early and, like Rocky, ventured out into the cold, dark morning arriving at 6am
to start our work out. We had planned on putting on boxing gloves, hitting some
boxing bags and maybe even hitting one another a bit for a few laughs. But what
we did not have in mind, neither could we have been prepared for, was that
Hermano Robinson had the entire morning planned out for us. Starting off with
an active stretching we progressed through punching training and strength
building, punching these little hand targets, punching bags and other stuff,
finishing with an endurance punching drill that kicked my butt. Stay tuned to
see if I wake desperately sore tomorrow morning. (Breaking news: I will be!)
Overall it was really enjoyable and I learned a lot. I learned why boxeadores
always wear tape under their gloves for example. It’s because if you don’t your
hands get destroyed despite having a little padding in the gloves. I also
learned a little about throwing punches while keeping your guard up. I’m still
very much practicing that one and we made plans to come back next week. It was
a great start to my morning today and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
It’s little things like this that help me get through the
weeks. Something Elder Castagno and I have talked about is how much easier it
is to slow down and enjoy the life we’ve been given on a moment type of scale
when we stop and appreciate the little things around us. We’ve been reporting
back to each other every couple of days about the things we’ve noticed and it’s
helped me to be infinitely more grateful. This place I’m living in is full of
greenery and plants, for example, thanks to all of the rain that we get nearly
every day. This makes beautiful flowers a little more common than they are back
in Rancho. This is going to come off incredibly clichéd and that’s ok but I
never lent enough attention to those flowers that are potted directly in front
of our house. They’re amazing and now I have a little reason to think a little
more positively about the world every time I step outside my front door.
These little reminders come in many forms. I consider the
great companions and friends I have here in Tulcan. Or the changes coming our
way this week expanding the mission into Colombia. I went to Pasto (Colombia)
on Saturday to get my visa declared) and then attended my first ever district
conference where a new church unit, a district, was organized between these two
great cities of Tulcan in Ecuador and Ipiales just across the border in
Colombia. Or even the little quirks that I find around my city that I have come
to love – like yesterday when Elder Miranda and I saw a kid jumping over a
10-foot wall to escape whatever his next class was in his school schedule. Or
the suspicious looking guy in the truck trailing us before speeding up ahead,
getting out and ripping down a presidential candidate’s campaign sign, before
speeding off into the countryside. I truly, genuinely, love this place.
Basically it’s all good. I’ll keep you updated on my quest
to find more appreciation and gratitude around me. Please remember I always
love hearing from you so if you have something great, send it my way. Have a
great week everyone. I love and appreciate you all.
- EE
- Adam had “the busiest week of his mission so far” this week spending Tuesday and Wednesday down in Ibarra for his final zone conference there and then Friday and Sunday in Colombia collecting immigration paperwork and attending meetings related to the organization of the Colombia Ipiales district, of which the branch in Tulcan is a part. Adam loved the time spent with President Murphy during these conferences and meetings and apologized for the short and “lame” letter this week. (It’s all good, kid. I’ll take your happiness and satisfaction about a hard-worked week over a fancy letter any day of the week).
- Six new missionaries are transferring into Ipiales, Colombia and Adam expects his district leader, Elder Morales (the boxer from Guatemala) will be moving over. He seemed very sad about this in his letter to Lisa and me. Elder Morales has become a very close friend for Adam. With the expected transfers, Tulcan will return to 4 missionaries. Adam expects he’ll be in the group that remains in Tulcan but won’t know for sure until early next week (3/19). Adam loves Tulcan and the people there hoping he can stay in the area for 2-3 more transfers (3-4+ months) more.
- About 600 people attended the district organization conference on Sunday in a big, beautiful building that rivaled the chapels in the states. Adam loved the Colombian food while over there and promised to give us more details about the area and food in next week’s letter.
- While in Ibarra for the zone conference the missionaries stumbled on to a Papa John’s $6.99 All-You-Can-Eat pizza buffet. I’m sure the franchisee was disappointed to see them stop in for that one – might have to tell his family their income will be a little light this month. The stack of slice papers must be 50+ slices high!
- Adam's companion, Elder Miranda, celebrated a birthday this week. Happy birthday, Elder M!
- I love the photos of the steep Colombian countryside. "Happy" to see the soldiers on the side of the road helping to keep the peace. One needs little imagination to think of who else may be in those hills. He's in the right place...he's in the right place...
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