Dear friends and family,
I’m living an impressive lesson that looking upon something
the second time, with some maturity and experience, causes you to see and
notice things that you may have missed at first sight. I’m back in Esmeraldas
everyone, for a second time! And I’m seeing and noticing many things that I
never paid attention to when I was here during my first 3 months in country
from October to December 2016.
I remember talking about any number of things that made me
feel threatened here in my letters from 18 months ago. I remember feeling like
the area was a little sketchy and the earthquakes always had me a little on
edge. Well, I’ve discovered an awesome truth that is helping me so much. The
people of Esmeraldas are incredibly friendly and open! In Quito, up in the cold
Andes Mountains, everyone is comparatively closed off and we had to be extra
friendly to be able to talk to and contact people. I got really used to it. Now
that I’m here, I’ve continued to be extra friendly and I talk to everyone in
the street and they’re all super friendly back! It’s completely solved my previous
worries about weird stares and unusual cat calls. We’re going to be really
well-known all around town by the time I next leave here.
My companion, Elder Chavez, is great. He is from Provo Utah
but of Mexican heritage and speaks native Spanish. He’s super cool! We’re
always laughing about little things like how we have our 2 fans always running whenever
we’re in the house. We’re eating well, getting along splendidly, and working
really hard in our sector. I’m having tons of fun with him. I won’t say Esmeraldas
is the best place to live because of the heat, sweat and not being able to cool
off in the ocean or abundant rivers with the locals, but attitude really is
everything. And, as a bonus, I’ve reunited with lots of members from my old area,
Aire Libre. And they remembered me! I saw Hermanos Trejo and Enzo and we were
all smiles. And my ward, La Tolita, is really welcoming and friendly.
Sorry there’s not much time to detail and more this week –
time has been really short. It seems there’s always a report to be made, a call
to take, or a meeting to direct. It’s been cool though. Thursday is our zone
council so look for photos later this week. I love you guys. Stay tuned for
next week when I’ll update you about the shower situation here.
Elder Ericksen
No comments:
Post a Comment