Dearest family and friends,
This letter may be short because this week I’ve had a lot on
my mind. I’ve felt like every moment of the week there’s been an investigator
to think about, or a church member that is going through a challenge, or a
missionary companionship in the zone that needs our calls and support. It has
been a lot! At the same time, I’ve been enjoying many of those nights where you
get home and just flop into bed because you feel “wow, I couldn’t have done one
more good thing today because I was too busy getting every other good things
accomplished.” I’m splendidly happy! It’s been an excellent week to be a
missionary and not such a good one to be a letter writer.
On several different occasions this week I looked around and
thought: “whoa, this is pretty cool…my life is like a living National
Geographic magazine. On Wednesday I was walking along the side of a main road
of a place I wrote about long ago (when I was first in the coast) called, “La
Lucha de los Pobres.” We shuffled along, exploring the area and meeting as many
people as we could. I was sweaty but the sun wasn’t too strong that day. We
passed by the Esmeraldas prison and over the chipped-and-sun-bleached-painted
wall, I noticed that many inmates were standing by the windows of their cells,
looking outside. I think they just wanted fresh air.
Passing the jail, we continued down the road and I spotted
something I had seen before in Ecuador, but never before coming to the mission.
Lying on the road was a cracked open and ant-filled cocoa bean. I grabbed one
of the seeds and smelled the super rich, slimy chocolate essence of it. If
you’ve never seen a real cocoa bean, look it up…it’s kind of gross). I dropped
the seed and looked around my surroundings a little more and was surprised to
see the fallen seedpod was a wild cocoa tree! Esmeraldas is known for producing
cocoa beans and I’ve seen many in my travels – but usually the trees are hidden
behind private property because the beans are so valuable. I wish that I had
had my camera with me that day.
All the kids here have now gone back to school. I think I’ve
mentioned before that about 90% of Esmeraldas is African-Ecuadorian, right?
Well, each family signs their kids up for their pick of Catholic school and the
kids are assigned a uniform that is usually blue pants/white shirt and tie for
the boys, and a white, collared dress for the girls. It makes my day when I see
all the kids pour out of the big metal door of their walled-off schools in the
afternoon. They run down the dirt roads, make loud jokes with their friends,
and buy snacks from the little stores on every corner. It’s very picturesque.
Seeing them really reminds me of photos I’ve seen of kids in other countries
going to schools built by charitable organizations. It’s really interesting and
I feel very fortunate to be living and exploring so much of this part of the
world! Like I have said many times, culture is awesome! I say it with joy and
love,
Elder Ericksen
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