Week 21 - Change is Good

Dearest friends and family,

Hello everyone! It’s a pleasure to be writing you all in these beginning weeks of a new year and to be reflecting on 2016 that has now passed us by. If I had to sum up the last 365 days of life, I think I could do it in one word: change. Granted, the majority of this change happened in the latter half of the year which brought graduation from high school and the start of my 2-year service in Ecuador. Nonetheless, 2016 was a year of change and growth for me and something that I have been thoroughly convinced of as of late is that it’s truly marvelous when those 2 words are coupled. I’ve also been convinced that in more circumstances than not, it’s absolutely necessary that those 2 ideas are coupled – change and progression.

Sitting here in the 2^nd week of January, we are in the time of change. In fact, one thing that I really enjoy about my mission is that I get to be out in the streets all day, every day, preaching that exact message: that people can change for the better. And regardless of religious belief or any notion of history, that is the message I would like to convey this week to all of you.

Really it’s quite easy for me to realize that I’m surrounded by change. One factor that made it even easier to see that was the passing of Christmas here in the mission. Instead of my actual family, I was surrounded by President and Sister Murphy, Hermana Rosa, Hermano Enso, my Bolivian sidekick Elder Fernandez and the families of missionary friends that I have acquired in my time here. Instead of cookies, it was pan de manjor that we were eating every night and leaving out for Santa. Instead of stockings, it was clean-ish laundry hanging around the house. Lastley, instead of radio stations and Christmas CDs, it was Ecuadorian choirs that were inviting the Christmas spirit with out of tune carols and “music.”

Even further to highlight the change was my transfer to Tulcan. My sidekick has been changed from one Bolivian to another. My black shower bucket has been changed into a little white, wire infested box that hangs precariously over my head to dribble out WARM WATER (yes excitement implied by those capital letters). My zone of 24 missionary friends has been changed into a district of 4 closely knit comrades. Cow hoof soup is now chicken feet soup. Sweating is now shivering under scarves and sweaters. It's really quite interesting all of the experiences I’ve been having, and truly how different each and every zone in my mission is. Even the people are different here, the ones that we are teaching. There are a lot of Colombian people who come over the border to sell ponchos, jackets and other fabric homemade goods. They’re very nice people and we’re teaching a family that I LOVE who emigrated from Bogota a few years ago.

We did have a little run in with a Colombian on the bus yesterday. Usually the seats are assigned on the bus like an airplane but this day the bus driver made the announcement that it was free seating anywhere. Considering someone was already in our seats, we just filed to the back to all sit together. Things were going fine until this large guy and his wife came up (the last people to board) to us and demanded that we leave his seats. My companion started packing his things to move, slightly humorously. But as our assigned seats were taken and we really wanted to travel together, Elder Morales and I started explaining this to the man who started to become very angry that we were going to stay put. We pointed him to the jefe because we weren’t going to move without being able to return to the seats that we originally purchased. This guy continued the quarrel, pumping his chest and making tough faces like he wanted to fight. The thing is Elder Morales is the Guatemalan National Boxing Champion (not kidding) so we weren’t overly threatened.

Friends and family, regardless of what the things are that cause change in your lives, regardless of what sits in the back of your mind and pricks you from time to time with the thought that you can improve someway, somehow, I’m learning more and more every day that those things aren’t wrong and aren’t necessarily bad. Regardless, if it’s the message of Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Allah, a different faith, a nagging conscience, the good examples of people around you, your family, loved ones, your children, this letter, a TV commercial…whatever it is that leads you to the light and promise of change in your life, listen to it. Have an amazing week everyone! If you are reading this letter, thank you, and you mean so much to me. Until next time!

Much affection,

Elder Ericksen

Week 20 - Expanding My Spanish Vocabulary

Dearest friends and family,

I’m a person who loves to learn. Despite the fact that sometimes I found myself frustrated at busywork assignments and busywork teachers, I loved learning in high school. I also loved following my own interests outside of the classroom during the last 18 years of my life. I’ve always enjoyed finding, treasuring and incorporating new knowledge into my day to day life. For this reason, the mission has been a little bit of a switch-up because, while I’m taking a little vacation from my classroom pursuits, I’m very much still learning: learning valuable life lessons. I’m learning the Spanish language, I’m learning how to live and take care of myself, I’m learning how to cope with thoughts and emotions, good and bad, and also I’m learning to respond to many of the “real life” situations that have come up in the last few weeks.

In the past 7 days my course of learning has taught me many new Spanish words and phrases. For example, “cuanto dinero le llevaron los ladrones?” And “fue un hombre flaco, con cabello largo y acento Colombiano?” And finally “porque ustedes no cerraron la chapa?” The answer to the last one, by the way, is because we don’t have a chapa (or deadbolt as we say in English). I’ve also learned how to fill out a bunch of church forms that I’ve never seen before and how to look for a new house. Overall, I’d say that it’s been a pretty good week for the learning.

Let me go back to the start. There are 4 missionaries living here in Tulcan (my companion Elder Miranda and I and one other companionship, Elder Morales and Elder Loveland.) I arrived here about 12 days ago and the first 7 days were actually quite good. Elder Morales had to travel to Quito for meetings about some upcoming changes to missionary work around the world (we can sleep in on p-days, yay!) which left the other 3 of us here to work together. Last Monday’s P-day came with a trip to the Tulcan fruit market and juice bar. I discovered that the guanabang and mora mixture makes the most delicious cup of juice in the history of humankind. I also discovered that many of the “cranky” fruit vendor ladies can be talked down 50-75 cents on our fruit purchases. The following Tuesday and Wednesday were good, pretty normal. Working in a trio is always fun and we visited a place called “Cali-burguer” - you know, “Cali” as in Cali, Colombia and “burguer” as in burger to someone who hasn’t seen the word spelled correctly before. On Wednesday afternoon, the 3 of us took the 4:30 bus to Ibarra for a next-day conference. Three and a half hours later we arrived in Ibarra, dropped our bags at the zone leaders’ house, and left to work and find some food. This night was one that I’ll never forget, not for any special reason, but something really struck me as marvelous walking the misty streets of Ibarra, Ecuador with people from Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, and Idaho – all of us walking, talking, and making the occasional joke in hard-core Spanglish. The conference the next day was really uplifting and interesting. After our meetings, we left the chapel and bought our bus tickets back to Tulcan…arriving back at about7:30pm.

I knew right away that something was very different and very wrong about our house as we unlocked the door and followed inside. The first thing I saw was all of the contents of our emergency preparedness backpack thrown all over the floor. Walking in a little further, I realized the desk area was completely disheveled with all of my things scattered everywhere and all of the drawers opened and emptied. It wasn’t good and I panicked. Immediately Elder Miranda realized his wallet was gone with $150 of personal money. I noticed my new raincoat was gone and immediately picked up the phone to call President Murphy. We shared a short conversation about how it looked like the thief used force to get past the lock and probably knew that we weren’t going to be in the house the previous night. We decided that we should do a quick look around and then go talk to the owner of the house who lives next door. As we walked further into the house, it just kept getting messier and messier and more and more violated.

The one big hope that I kept in the back of my mind as I was looking around the tumult was that I had carried all of my really valuable things with me to Ibarra (camera, electric razor, personal debit card). That said, the thief managed to capsize my suitcase on to the floor along with every article of clothing in the 2 closets. I can only imagine what they thought when they found my healthy stash of mosquito repellant. We talked to the owner of the house who was no help at all. She walked up the stairs, examined the mess, and told us that it was our fault for not locking the screen door in front of the wood door. To be honest this was the exact opposite of what I needed to hear and I couldn’t decide if I was more disappointed in the thief or this woman who seemed focused on squaring blame on us. When she said this, Elder Miranda and I packed up a day of clothes and our remaining valuables to go live with the other Elders.

On the way out the door, we talked to our other neighbor who shared some info about a suspicious Colombian who was asking what time we usually come home at night and also about some strange noises she heard around 1am. All in all, it’s been a pretty odd experience. I’m really not set back too much by it, but it is really eerie and uncomfortable to think about someone going through all my clothes. I didn’t lose anything that can’t be replaced and I’m really trying to stay positive about it.

In the mission I’ve had many moments of wake up calls where situations have forced me to take a step back and reevaluate what is important in life. This has been one of those moments and it has taught me very powerfully that, even though some days are hard out here, I am actually extremely proud of the experiences I’ve lived so far. The photos I have that represent those experience are extremely valuable to me. I’ve felt humbling and warming emotions of gratitude for the prompting I had to bring my camera and memory cards to Ibarra. I’m also extremely thankful that the only things stolen were things of the world. And even though it’s a little insulting and humorous that they took the See’s Candy grandma Liz sent me, I know that I can replace what was lost. All in all, it’s been a great opportunity to learn to cope with another “real situation” of life and I’m very thankful for the chance to use this experience to strengthen myself emotionally and mentally.

Sincerely,

Elder E

In other news...

• The robbery was a setback but to be honest it really helped me bond with the 3 other elders here in Tulcan. We went looking for a new apartment but the owner lady just went out and bought a nice dead bolt for us today. I guess we’ll see. (Adam commented in his letter to us that the mess left by the thief was actually the bigger bummer.)
• Adam’s companion, Elder Miranda, is from La Paz, Bolivia and is the eldest of 2. He loves Adam Sandler and Japanese cartoon shows like Naruto. Adam has also enjoyed getting to know Elder Morales, who is from Guatemala and worked at a Walmart Call center so “he speaks near perfect Spanish and English.”
• Remember that ward party I talked about last week – the one I sang at upon arrival into Tulcan? Well it’s been causing us a bunch of problems as missionaries. It went past 1am and had some slightly off-color acts like a rap-dance battle thing and a magic show we didn’t see. This all happened in the chapel, by the way. So, this week a lot of our investigators had problems and questions, especially about the magic. It’s been kind of a mess.
• In a side letter addressed to “family” Adam wrote: It is interesting how the mission never really gets easy. Some days are really good, some are harder. But I can always feel Satan trying to get into my thoughts. I just miss you guys. I love reading your letters every week and sometimes I just wish I could be there for the things you all tell me about. Don’t get me wrong, I am so happy to be serving Heavenly Father and I wouldn’t change a thing about where I am or what I’m doing. But sometimes I miss the little moments with you guys. For now I know God wants me to learn how to be happy on my own and I’m learning how to do that every day. It’s an important lesson. You guys know how much I always love being surrounded by people and friends but when I come home I’ll be just as happy with myself and Jesus Christ.

Not how they typically leave the apartment...

Week 19 - Freezing in Tulcan

Fun fact: Tulcan is home to one of the largest topiary gardens in the world

Dearest friends and family,

Things have changed. Oh, how things have changed! I’m probably going to need the next 3 or 4 letters to explain exactly how things have changed but that’s ok. Let me just start by filling you in on the things that I have been doing and have been happening to me over the last 3 days. I’m just going to apologize up front, this isn’t going to be incredibly inspirational or emotional because I just really need to get out the details.

Tuesday morning I woke up before the sun and finished putting all of my belongings into my two bags for about the 10^th time in the last 4 months (exaggeration). The destination of my day’s journey was far away and I was excited. Elder Fernandez and I flagged down a taxi and made our way over to the bus terminal to meet up with about 5 other missionaries from the coast who all had their belongings in their 2 bags as well. We all bought tickets for Quito and climbed aboard our bus despite the fact that we all had pretty different places to go when the day was to finish. Two missionaries were headed to the jungle, 2 more were headed to Otavalo and I was heading to Ibarra – to the town of Tulcan. I slept most of the way to Quito feeling like I had gazed out the window enough already on this leg of the trip. When we arrived, I bought bread with some queso fresco inside of it and another ticket with an arrival time of 8pm, some 6 hours later. Elder Bermejo and I realized that we were both heading into the sierra so we worked out a plan that we’d buy the same ticket to Tulcan but he’d just get off the bus 3 hours sooner than me when we were passing through the town he had been assigned to. (They cut him a break of $5 on the ticket when we explained the plan to the bus lady). We were all set and boarded on our new bus, still excited.

Three hours down the road we pulled into Ibarra and I said goodbye to Elder Bermejo. I was now alone but I wasn’t afraid. It was a weird type of empowering confidence that I had that I was out on my own in a bus full of Ecuadorian culture as we rolled along the hilly, wet, mountainous landscape. Some kid fell sleep on my arm in the seat next to me and had been sleeping very well for the last 2 hours. He was holding a Spanish plants vs. zombies version of Monopoly, presumably a gift he had received for Christmas just 2 days earlier. Since he was sleeping, his grip on the game wasn’t very tight and, in fact, loosened with every bump. This of course made me antsy because the last thing I wanted to do was pick up monopoly monies in the crowded bus. But we rolled along.

I arrived at the last stop of the bus line, my stop, around 7:35. When I climbed down out of the bus, I was immediately hit by a rush of cold air, and a frenzy of money exchangers persistently pressing me to convert my dollars into Columbian currency. I was (and now am) very close to the Columbian border. After fighting them off, I collected my bags from under the bus and started the hard part: waiting to be picked up by my new companion. The first 25 minutes were easy to wait because I was fairly certain they knew I was supposed to arrive at the scheduled 8pm. The following 45 minutes were not so easy to wait. Some wayward fellow asked me, rather told me, to give him some money so that he could grab a taxi. Now, don’t forget that I’m still very much a Spanish language learner but I told him that I was a missionary and didn’t have any money despite wanting to help him. When he heard this his demeanor changed and he grabbed my right hand with both of his and beckoned “Bendigame, Protejame.” It was slightly humorous but I’ll take it over a demand for money anyday. At about 8pm a small family of Otavalenos arrived in the terminal. It was real cold and I felt exposed out on my own with my luggage so I huddled near to them to pretend I was part of their group. We struck up a conversation and they were very nice.

At 8:30 I told myself and the Otavalenos (they were very concerned that I really didn’t know where I would be staying or who was coming to get me) that I would try to call the zone leaders to ask for the phone number of the missionaries en route to me but in the exact moment that I turned around to start looking for a phone I caught a glimpse of them unloading from the taxi. I was so ecstatic to see them and we embraced in handshakes and hugs. Putting my bags in the tax, we departed. We rushed to the missionary house to drop off my bags because we needed to get to the church talent night that was already in progress! It was a really quick turn around if you were wondering. When we walked in the door of the chapel that had been converted into a stage, I was greeted by the friendliest, handshaky-ist church gathering that I have ever witnessed and boy did I really need it. I was working the figures in my head and realizing that there are only 4 missionaries in Tulcan (me plus 3) that I’m now 6 hours away from Quito and President Murphy and that my town is 3 hours north of any other civilization let alone other missionaries. But, like I said, the friendly branch members here really welcomed me in and for that I was thankful.

Right as I walked in they handed me a piece of paper with some words on it. Apparently there were lyrics and apparently I was going to sing in a trio with the other missionaries less the one playing the piano. I promise you when I woke up that morning I had not the slightest hint of an idea that I would be singing in front of my new ward that night but it actually went pretty well. I’m happy about it. After we sang they served us some rice that kind of tasted like fried rice if I had to describe it and it was warm and delicious. After we ate, we missionaries left back to our apartment ahead of curfew but word is the party didn’t end until about 1:30am – just to give you an idea of how lively the new branch is. We walked back to the apartment and I crashed hard after a long day of traveling.

So, to sum up, I’m now living in Tulcan and you can take everything I’ve ever mentioned about life as a missionary in the coastal town of Esmeraldas, imagine the exact opposite of all those things, and get a pretty good idea of my new surroundings. The people are shorter, the air is chilly, most streets aren’t dusty, I’m shivering instead of sweating, I’m eating lots of every part of the chicken, and we’re wearing sweaters as we cruise around town. It’s pretty much all changed and I think I’m going to like it here. I’m staying happy and positive. Stay tuned next week to hear more about all these changes. Have a great week everyone and Happy New Year!

Much affection,

Elder Ericksen

Tidbits from other letters:

• Adam was sad leaving Esmeraldas right about the time “I finally figured out how to do the coast.” He’s really going to miss the church members in the Aire Libre area who were so kind in helping him acclimate to Ecuador, particularly Hmo Enso who “saved him from loneliness early on” and Hma Leslie who kept them well fed and brought he and Elder Fernandez tacos for dinner on Christmas night (she served her mission Baja California, Mexico.) Even more, he’s really going to miss the incredibly delicious food. The one thing he won’t miss: dust and sweat.
• Ecuador parties hard for New Years Eve. Men dress up like women and wreak havoc in the streets, lying down to block cars with their bodies or with ropes. Then they dance “inappropriately” in front of the traffic jam they have just created until the drivers give them money. They’re pretty aggressive and drunk so we have to be in by 3pm. They have also been selling paper mache dolls in the streets all week. They’re different sizes and many represent famous people (president of Ecuador, movie stars, cartoon characters). People attach them to the front of their cars and drive around. Then at midnight they take them to the streets and burn them. Look up “AnosViejos Ecuador” – I bet you can find some fun videos.
• The transition from hot and sweaty coast to cold and damp altitude (Tulcan sits around 10,000 feet) has Adam fighting a cold. That said, “from a parent’s perspective” Tulcan is much calmer and safer than Esmeraldas. “Four days in and not a single weird thing has happened here.” (Hmm – makes me wonder what else was going on back at the coast?)
• Tulcan “feels European” and during the cold evenings reminds Adam a lot of Spain. The town is right on the border with Colombia, so there’s “5,000 flea markets and everyone is selling something ‘for a really good deal’”. It also sometimes feels like I’m walking around the set of Lord of the Rings.
• “I sleep with 3 woolen blankets and its kinda perfect.”
• “I think you guys would be really touched by the reaction of Elder Fernandez to all the candy from the United States. He LOVES it and always takes pictures of the trash. It’s so great.”

We didn't get any photos from Adam this week but here's a taste of how things look in Tulcan:

Week 18 - Esmeraldas is Basically Scout Camp...All the Time

So Adam experienced technical challenges and wasn't able to send a letter or photos this week which has him very bummed. But...he did get to Skype home for Christmas yesterday. His friends Mikayla and Mitch and grandparents were able to join us. It was absolutely wonderful to see him smiling and to hear first hand how he is doing. Adam called from the home of a church member, Hermano Enso, who Adam has previously mentioned in letters as someone always available to go on appointments and very generous in taking care of the missionaries in the area. We got to say hello and thank him at the top of the call and he said he’s grateful Adam is in the area — calling Adam “un misionero poderoso” - a powerful missionary. The camaraderie and care displayed by this great man toward my son was comforting.

Since there's no letter this week, it seemed appropriate and ok to share some of the highlights from yesterday's call.  Adam is enjoying Esmeraldas and would like to stay in the area at least another round of transfers. Adam’s companion goes home to Bolivia at the next transfer which happens the first week of February. The rest of this post are Adam's comments from the call.

It's very fun outside right now. Everyone plays soccer in the streets for Christmas - the balls have sand or some kind of weight in them to keep them close to the ground. They use 2-foot high modified soccer goals. Animal crackers and taffy are very popular at Christmas. All the stores sell little gift packs and I've had a lot of animal crackers this week.

The recent earthquakes have been wild. Back home (California) it’s more of a one and done and the houses are wood so they flex a bit. Here we have a big one and then like dozens in the hours that follow. And the concrete transfers the movement right to you so they feel really strong. I’ll upload some photos this week. Some hotels fell down in Atacames about 20 minutes from my apartment. The big earthquake back in April (which killed ~700 people) has everyone still pretty freaked out. People got their cars out of the garages and slept in the streets last Sunday night. We couldn’t lay back down because additional earthquakes kept coming. So we went to the chapel to sleep. All the chapels have alarms to prevent people breaking in and the missionaries have the key code because we use the building a lot. Well, there’s a safety mechanism that if the alarm is shut off after 10pm, a security company calls the building to see what’s up. Well, Elder Fernandez and I didn’t have the key to get to where the phone was. So an hour after we were in there, security personnel showed up and started banging on the gates and windows to get in and Elder Fernandez and I thought it was robbers coming to get us. It was honestly the first time I’ve ever feared for my life…you know because many people here are really, super sketchy. I thought I was going to die by the hands of a thief. My apartment is a single room and we moved our beds to near the door because it feels safer. The earthquakes seem to be around Atacames and last Monday we planned to go there because, well, we are dumb. We got to the beach and no one was there. And then we heard about a  possible tsunami, so we left.

It’s super hot here and I’m used to it now. My face really broke out and went crazy for the first month and my clothes are completely ruined. But I am getting used to it now. Everyone here is super dirty. (I can say this because English is like a secret language because no one speaks it. Its actually dangerous because if people hear you speaking English they will mug you - Elder George and I have to be careful on divisions.) So ya, when I got assigned to Elder Fernandez and met him in Quito my first day, he was super dirty, like way more than the other missionaries and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then I got to the apartment here that night and everything was dirty. We don’t have windows so the dust just comes and goes freely. You have to wear shoes all the time or your socks get destroyed. The area I am in is super hilly and the higher up the hills you go, the more poor it gets until eventually its just bamboo shacks with minimal plywood and metal roofs. The hills have gotten me in really good shape though. It’s good here, I like it. The humidity is really strong which makes its super hot and you never want to stand out in the sun. I have a mean farmer’s tan going on - a shower glow. My face is super brown but the rest of me is super white. It's bad.

The food is wonderful. I really love shrimp now. A lot of people don’t have much money so we eat a lot of humble foods - a lot of rice. People put rice on everything. I think the only people on earth who eat rice on a bed of mashed potatoes. And lots of pastas. We eat with one family each week and she makes the rice with oil and then puts tuna on top of it. The oil makes the rice taste a lot better. We get $90 every two weeks for food and supplies and it’s more than enough money. I made french toast for Christmas breakfast this morning and it came out really well.

I have lost weight. Most of it came off in the MTC (training center in Mexico City) and it has stayed off. I eat a ton - basically eating 24 hours a day. The people love to give you food. Lunch is the big meal. We have mamitas who serve use lunch everyday. Every meal starts with a big plate of rice and then stuff is added all around. When we visit people in the later afternoon, starting around 4, the families give you soup as part of the visit. We eat soup with every meal here. I’ve eaten lots of interesting things in soup. Like Yucca. Do you know what that is? Like super fibery, you wouldn’t want anywhere near your mouth. Well, they boil it, mash it with potatoes and then put it in soup. I’ve eaten a lot of fish and a lot of fish bones. They barely remove the scales and the skin still looks like a fish. And then it goes straight into the soup, bones and all.

Esmeraldas is basically like scout camp...all the time. There are constantly fires in the streets. There is a basic trash service that comes around once in a while but its not enough. So people make these piles of trash in the road and then someone sets it on fire to burn it. Ya - just in the middle of the road, with cars driving around it. I haven't eaten guinea pig yet, but I’ve eaten a lot of stuff way worse than guinea pig. Like cow stomach - the flavor is really good in a peanut sauce - but you have to chew it for hours and hours. On the inside there’s tons of flaps and the cilia and then on the outside its got these thick veins so its super chewy. Pres. Tello’s wife is the one who likes to give us more exotic foods. Last week she served us this pork chop with inch of fat and then skin still on it. And the skin - the hair was burned off but the follicles were still embedded in the fat...ugh. If people give you food, you are expected to eat it. And like I said, there’s no trash. And there are many people who don’t have food, so you can’t really throw or turn anything away. The people like to treat you and see how much they can give you and you can’t turn it back. And, when I first arrived I was dying to make friends, so I was eating everything. Now my stomach is stretched out and I’m feeling better, but the first weeks were a bit hard.

My Spanish is coming along - I’m to the point where there’s only 1-2 words in a sentence of statement that I don’t understand. But I can usually figure it out by asking questions or from context. The people are very hard to understand. I still haven’t had the “revealing” moment where Spanish becomes my language, so I’m still translating every sentence in my mind which is very tiring. But I’m feeling really good with my teaching and that’s helping. I’m understanding a lot more every week and that makes me a lot happier.

The kids are super friendly but they are also super thugs. The kids at church are wonderful. The kids in the streets are a bit rough and always shouting things at us. They call us “come gratis?” (so you eat free?) which is kind of funny because I’m pretty sure they aren't paying for their meals either. I’ve been making a list of all of the restaurants I want to go to when I get home. As a mental cleansing thing I wrote them down to get them out of my mind so I don’t have to think about them for 2 more years. But I do love the food here. The rice is 5-star rice and the oil helps it taste really good. The rice saves you if the meal is really bad.

I haven’t had a lot of time to write this week so my letter is going to be really short. I’m glad people are enjoying my letters. Thanks Mikayla and Mitch for your letters - they make me so happy. My letter tomorrow is super religious and short so stay tuned.

Everyone here loves the Simpsons like in Spain.

Don’t tell me anything about the Star Wars movie. The movies don’t come here right away so no one knows that’s happening.

There’s no street names. This place could really benefit from Uber but of course they need street names and house numbers first. 

The shower situation is ok now but I lost it when I first got here. I had a problem with my pin code so I didn’t get money for my first 10 days and the shower and dirty apartment, all of it. - I almost lost it. We collect water in a bucket each day and then use a pitcher to scoop water out for showers. The mosquitos come really quick here so you can’t keep water around or warm it. I shower at 7am which, ironically, is the only time of the day when there's actually a hint of cold. Quito has hot water and the missionaries there wear sweaters at night. I’m jealous about that.

I’m wearing my Quito tie for you guys. I really love it. I wore a red tie to church today for Christmas to match with our choir. No one plays the piano so our choir sang to a tape. It sounded pretty terrible but the feeling was there.

I print out all the emails and read them every week and they keep me going. I feel terrible asking for you to send me anything but if you have time, please make a flash drive with any and all church music possible and any church videos/mormon messages which are cool to share with investigators. All the TVs here have USB ports so I can use a flash drive to show the videos to people here. I’m going to invest in a speaker because I am dying without church music.

I’m great and this call has been wonderful for me. I've been out for 4 months and will be coming home August 6, 2018 so technically that's 4-1/2 months done. It will be a while before I get to talk to you again. Mother’s day, wow: I can’t wait for it to get here.

(Neither can we, Adam. Neither can we...)

Week 17 - Quakes of All Kinds

Lights out overnight 12/19 as Mg 6.2 quake hits 10km offshore from Esmeraldas

Dearest friends and family,

A first-hand, eye-witness account: it’s Monday, Dec. 12 around 10:38am. I am talking on the phone with another missionary, Elder George, discussing plans for later that day to go to Atacames, the touristy beach area. The phone call was normal, my companion was making use of the clothes washing apparatus in the bathroom, and everything was fine. Then I hear something that resembled a truck driving over a crunchy gravel road. Except only it wasn’t a truck! It was an earthquake! Elder George, not being as “accustomed” as we Californians shouts “Chuta!” into the phone and quickly hangs up to run outside. (It was only slightly laughable). I really wasn’t set back by the quake because it wasn’t very strong (I heard 5-something). But it is interesting how you experience quakes differently here. And since all of the houses are concrete and cinderblocks from the ground up, they move pretty good when shaken.

On that day alone, we had 2 other decently strong earthquakes, one more in the morning and one in the night time. We still went to Atacames but had to leave soon after because of a tsunami warning. There was no tsunami but the earthquakes have continued pretty much every day this week. It’s the strangest thing. I’ll just be sitting down to study, or talking to someone in their house, and the world starts shaking for a moment and we all kind of look at each other, acknowledge the temblor, and then resume what we were doing. I think they might be aftershocks from the big earthquake that we had here in April, but I honestly don’t know the science behind all of it. Whether aftershocks or not, they’re messing with my mind – I constantly feel like I’m feeling an earthquake when I’m not and second guessing the ones I’m feeling when they’re real. It’s odd. What’s even more off is that I’m starting to have a similar, insecure, lack-of-trust feeling with another aspect of my life here…the people. Earlier in the week I was talking to this nice Ecuadorian woman in front of her house, through her fence. Just like before the earthquake, all was normal. Then, all of a sudden, a wayward fellow walked up behind me real close, on my right side, stuck his left hand deep into my right pocket and felt around to see if I had anything (cell phone, money, tic-tacs), which I didn’t, grumbled some unfriendly words at me in Spanish and walked away like it was no big deal at all! It all happened in less than 2 seconds. When I looked back to watch him walk away, I saw him closing a box cutter that he had in his right hand the entire time, putting it back into his pocket. This last part surely made my heart pound. But the part that makes me the most uncomfortable is just how normal, how commonplace, almost expected it was. The lady I was talking to didn’t even seem the least bit stressed as she asked if he had stolen my phone. The other people that were around me at the time didn’t even turn their heads. It was so odd and, just like the earthquakes, has me second-guessing every person I now pass. I’ve been smart about where I keep my valuables since I arrived here but now I am extra vigilant. I’m always alert in the streets and my head is always up as I try to smile and greet as many people as possible.

I must admit I’ve been thinking really hard about how I can connect this back to something positive and uplifting and it’s difficult. But let me share how I’ve been combating these insecurities with the gente. I’ve been trying to just talk and make friends with everyone. For example, today I met this guy named Carlos who’s totally in a gang and looks like Drake. We talked a little bit about how we don’t pray to Joseph Smith and I passed him a card with a link to the church Christmas video. Although Carlos probably won’t be coming to church this week, I hope our new common understanding will come in handy in the future when it’s dark and we pass by a group of Carlos’ and his friends. I’ve also been trying to spend more time with my church friends which is going really well. Hermano Trejo still brings me mangoes (by the way, I’ve found it…the best mango…it’s called the milgelino mango. Look it up, seriously this thing must have won some awards.) I’ve also been asking hermano Enzo to come out teaching more and we’ve been sharing more church videos with Gabriel, the recent convert. All really good stuff and I will never forget these people who’ve become dear friends.

I guess what I am trying to convey in terms of an uplifting thought is this: expand your circles. Spend time with someone new. Create a new contact somewhere in your life that you know you could trust to help you out on life’s sometimes dark and sketchy streets you sometimes have to walk. With that, try to strengthen the contacts you already do have. I’m realizing that it NEVER hurts to have a deeper relationship with someone. Never. And more than everything else, keep your head up and mouth smiling as you live life because that really is the best defense to everything negative in the world. 

Have an amazing week everyone! I wish you all a very merry, happy and joyful Christmas coming our way this Sunday.

12/19am Update – So last night was the most adventurous night of my mission. I was sleeping like normal, when all of a sudden a really strong earthquake hit around 3am. It was strong enough to startle me awake and to cause me to want to run out of the house. Like I said earlier…concrete and cinderblocks all around you. Everything was shaken pretty good and was knocked off my dresser. Elder Fernandez and I ran out in the street along with the rest of Esmeraldas. People were taking their cars out of garages and really freaking out in general. Our downstairs neighbor and owner of the house we live in left with his family. The weirdest part is the earthquakes kept coming. We had 2 or 3 decently sized ones and didn’t feel safe being alone in the house so we went to sleep in the church. So yeah, crazy night.

With much sincerity,

Elder Ericksen

PS – Mitch remember when we were looking to plant an exotic, fruit-bearing plant in our backyards? Well I’ll be smuggling some milgelino seeds back into the US so start planning out a good spot. It becomes a decently-sized tree.

Other tidbits:

• I am here in the cyber. I am going to type a little more to you all but I’m really pressed for time this week. We had a great week. Last night was crazy. I’d love to hear more facts about the quakes. Word here is that 2 hotels fell down in Atacames. It cut out the lights at like 2 am and everyone was in the streets. The owner of our house just straight up left with his family and we didn’t feel safe being on the second floor so elder Fernandez and I went to sleep in the chapel. I will NEVER forget this night. Most adventure that I have had thus far!!!! [You can read more about the quake HERE and video footage of the quake HERE]
• I gave another talk in church last Sunday. I’ve talked at the pulpit 4 of the 11 Sundays I’ve been here.
• The whole zone of Esmeraldas went caroling in this funny park in the city center called Parque Infantil. We sang (poorly) but it was the most I’ve felt the Christmas spirit this year which was really nice. Mom may have received some pictures from a random guy of me painting the sidewalk for Christmas (part of the service this month). It was really fun.
• How are all of you? I miss you so much. I love you guys I am happy and healthy and insanely excited to skype you all.
• So we’ve all been stressed that packages many have sent to Adam hadn’t been getting through. Well another missionary, Elder George, was able to retrieve them on a recent trip to Quito. Adam describes that he and his companion “turned the corner to meet up with the other missionaries for divisions, he was puzzled by the large green sack slung over Elder George’s shoulder” and how it reminded him of Christmas. Then he remembered E. George had just returned from Quito and learned they were his packages! This year Santa came in the form of Elder George.
• Adam paused while writing a letter to me this week: “hang on, I just gave Elder Fernandez some of the sunflower seeds mom sent me and he started eating them and is straight up throwing the shells on the floor! Inside the house! I have to laugh. He’s now sweeping them up and throwing them away but that pretty much sums up the difference between us. [Father moment here: bite tongue and try not to think of the several, typically dumped over, many weeks-old cups of seed shells found on his dresser, on the foot rail around his bed, under his bed, by the closet, in his bathroom, etc. Just enjoy that he now sees himself as “different” J.]