First week of 2011

Juan Carlos and the senior missionaries who attend the Colon Ward

Juan Carlos with Marcos Perez (our Gospel Principles teacher and ward mission leader) and his wife Patricia (who is an excellent teacher in Relief Society). They have only been married a couple of months.

Juan Carlos and Norma (who is a dentist)

1/1 The morning and afternoon were very frustrating. I got Blogger to accept my words but I couldn't upload any photos. I finally got a short blog posted to the Southworth Family Blog but couldn't get mine to work. Lewis tried everything and then suggested we just move my desk closer to the router. Wow! It seems to have done the trick. We are now back to back in one end of our bedroom and the internet is functioning fine. YEA! Let's hope this is the answer.

We went to Juan Carlo's baptism at 5:00PM at the Colon Ward. He phoned but didn't arrive until after 5:30. He had taken a nap and his alarm clock didn't go off. But it did begin and was a wonderful service. Two little boys from the Primary were practicing beforehand and they did a wonderful job of singing songs from memory while we waited for Juan Carlos and Elder Hakes to change after the baptism itself.

Juan Carlos arrived looking like a missionary. He was beaming and they changed into whites and the meeting began with the ward mission leader, Marco Perez conducting. Norma gave a talk. She is a recent convert from last summer and is a dentist. She apparently is the one who referred Juan Carlos to the missionaries. She gave a very simple talk but very personal and heartfelt. She told of her decision to join the church and obey all of the commandments that she had been taught. She said it was not easy but so very worth it to feel her faith and testimony grow as she continued to learn and obey the new truths she was learning. It was a great baptism talk. The senior missionaries sang together and then we went to the font. After we resumed Juan Carlos was asked to speak. He was surprised at the invitation but went to the pulpit and talked about how he was learning that he had many mountains to climb. He said he had just climbed the first one and thanked his guides who showed him the way. He said that he knows there is an Everest he must climb to reach his ultimate goal but is willing to climb whatever comes his way to follow the Savior and reach his goal. He said he is glad to have found true guides and expressed his willingness to continue to study and obey the scriptures and the prophet. Very impressive young man. Then the Bishop spoke and welcomed Juan Carlos into the brotherhood of the church. Definitely a testimony builder to watch a tiny part of of this man's desire to know truth become the beginning of a life long journey back his Heavenly Father. We pray that he will be willing to continue to climb mountains. The Lord doesn't seem to let any of us become what we need to be while relaxing in an easy chair.

After the baptism I got one blog post up and started on Rosario's birthday photos.

1/2 Sunday in the Cólon Ward. It was fast Sunday and the first day of the new year. Juan Carlos was confirmed a member of the church and received the Holy Ghost. There was a steady stream of people wanting to bear their testimonies. I could understand most of them. All except for one elderly man, they were fairly simple statements of what they believed and how it had made changes in their lives. The children did not all say the same things. They did a better job of bearing testimony that our kids often do. I suppose they have not heard the standard pattern that our children so often use. And perhaps they are older than they look. People are very small here compared to Americans that eat cheeseburgers. The senior sisters tell me that it is hard to find clothes that fit them here.
The Gospel Principles class was good as always. Juan Carlos introduced himself as a member proudly when we went around the room. There was also another couple that are fairly new investigators. The wife is Estella and I sat next to her in Relief Society. The lesson was on Visiting Teaching so I tried to explain briefly what that is. I think she was impressed with the goal of caring about one another and trying to help each other. She told me she has a 15 year old son and she has a 2 year old daughter who is adorable. She came in from nursery with a jar of candy that had a removable 3D paper doll to cover it. She loved the doll but was even more intrigued with the candy inside. Her mother held up one finger and the child took just one piece of candy. It made me think of each of you. You would have done the exact same thing to quietly communicate with your child in a meeting.

In the afternoon I was finally able to get my blog posts up. I did four and got the story told until Christmas Day. I probably put up way too much information but I want to remember that much. When we get into a routine I will cut way back. I also got one photo done for Rosario´s birthday which is on Jan 10th. I need to hustle! Khristine said she would like a calendar for the year. Maybe I could get one done before the end of January.

We got Rosario set up on Skype so we can video chat for free. We talked with Jennifer who is all recovered from her flu. They have a new laptop so they can set up video calls on Skype too. We hope that all of you who have a video camera (or not) on your computer can get set up to talk with us on Skype. Its free for everyone if we are calling computer to computer. Our Skype address is "lewis.pettingill".

1/3 Monday morning and off to the office. Lewis printed out a five page list of students in Ecuador with unconfirmed school status. Their expected date of graduation had past without an update. Lewis called all day and I sent emails and we each completed a little more than one page. I´ll get on it again tomorrow. At noon we were invited down to the Mission Office for lunch. Apparently this is a monthly affair. We enjoyed seeing President and Sister Sloan and their two girls who were enjoying the last day of their Christmas vacation. They had meetings all day in the mission office and everyone contributed to the lunch. We enjoyed chili and taco soup, chips and fruit and cinnamon bread and cookies for dessert. It was a nice break but I also gained a new appreciation for our nice quiet office with only five people on our floor. They were still in meetings at noon and only Brother Yost was not involved in the meetings. Sister Yost was participating as a nurse. So Brother Yost was trying to hold down the front desk. There were about 10 missionaries there wanted to pick up mail and buy supplies. I tried to help. The missionaries taught me what to do to help them. There was also a landlady who wanted to be paid for an old electricity bill on an apartment that was no longer being used by the missionaries. She had to wait until the meeting broke up but eventually she got her check. It was a bit wild but fun to interact with the missionaries who are such great young men and women.

It was Family Home Evening at Sister Dresen´s apartment. She was making macaroni and cheese to try it out because they are making it to feed the zone and district leaders on Wednesday and Thursday. This is transfer week. I had the lesson and showed the movie, Prophetic Promises. No one else had seen it before and they liked it a lot. Hopefully we can arrange to speak to the Quito missionaries before they return home to the countries that have PEF available. The macaroni and cheese was good. We will help them assemble two huge pans and make stew tomorrow night.

1/4 Today is the day we were invited to go to the Panecillo with the newly arriving missionaries. There are only four coming so it should work well except for the cloudy condition of the weather. The time kept being pushed back but at about 2:00 we found a taxi with the Yosts and went to the Panecillo to meet the President and his wife and the assistants and the four new missionaries. It took a long time to get there. It is on a very high place at the south of the city. It was raining. There is a very large statue of a lady with wings overlooking the city. There is an amazing view but we couldn't see much with the clouds and the rain. We joined the missionaries who were under not enough umbrellas and the sisters did not have sweaters let alone coats. They were reading the story of the dedication of the country for missionary work by President Kimball at this spot. The rain was coming down harder and we could not hear the words over the sound of the raindrops pounding our umbrellas. Finally they gave up and we all ran back to the cars. The rest of them had a big van and fortunately for us there was an empty taxi waiting as well. Our papers (with the story about President Kimball) were soaked so we need a new copy to finish reading it. I´m not sure the sisters were thrilled with their first experience in Quito. I never did see their faces. They were going to the mission home next for pizza so I´m sure that things improved. We went home and changed clothes.

The evening activity was peeling potatoes and carrots and chopping them and onions and celery and meat for stew. We did so for about an hour or so and then came back when the rest of the missionaries returned and finished up the job. We filled five crock pots with stew. They cooked overnight and they are taking the stew in zip lock bags to Hermana Sloan to warm up. Then part of them will make macaroni and cheese and fruit salad today and take that over as well. All this schlepping is done by taxi. Sister Dresen was tired just planning it all and she said she woke up at 4:00 AM this morning. I think she loves it but it is stressful to work all day and be fully involved with all these meals as well. Sister Sloan believes that a well fed missionary is a happy missionary and I am sure she is right but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes. I think they miss Sister Rose who loved and excelled at all this food planning and preparation.

Saw this on the way to work. This bench is sitting in front of a shop which is not yet open but there is no padding. There are the nails or maybe they are screws poking up through the seat. DO NOT SIT HERE.

1/5 We finished up the list of unconfirmed graduations. We are also working on a list of responsibilities and questions for our training next week. For lunch we each got a quiche at Spicy´s and a Coke. Lewis said that the Cokes were $2 each but the total was $6.

At home I downloaded my photos and got them tagged. It took a very long time because the first transfer said that it failed so I downloaded them again and wrote captions and rated and tagged. Then when I figured out that I had two copies of each one, I deleted the duplicates. Then I had to redo all the work and reconnect the files. Oh well.

We talked with Rosario on Skype. She has a good chance of getting a scholarship that requires that she take a 6 credit class in the evenings. In order to survive she can´t take 12 credit hours of hard classes at UVU because she needs to work as well. So we spent 2 1/2 hours helping her go through the schedule and find classes to change her schedule. It didn't go well. All of the classes she would have preferred were closed or had a waiting list. She wanted to take dance or exercise or even first aid but all that was open was a Spanish class. That still will be easier than her math class. Hopefully she will get everything straightened out and will also get the scholarship. That would be a wonderful blessing.

1/6 We went to the Institute building before going to the office. (See photos below) We met the secretary, Ana Rivera. She is very nice and helped us understand more of how things work here. She said we are close to several universities. The big university that is government run is avoided by most of the LDS students because it is so political and inefficient that it takes years longer to complete a program. But she says there are others that are good schools and they offer a variety of good programs. The Institute building is big and set way back on a busy street. You don't notice that it is there. They have a soccer field with beautiful grass and the place is nicely landscaped. A green oasis in the busy city. We had wanted to meet the local service missionary couple, the Roceros but they were not there because their daughter is sick. But we found out that they only have one computer available for the both of them.. The Yosts went today to a school and donated the two computers that were replaced in our office. The school was thrilled. We are sad that we don't have enough computers! They took one away from the Mission office as well and they are unhappy too. The Yosts offered to write up a project to donate computers to PEF. I wish.They painted the ceiling in our office. It smells of paint but there are no black marks anymore. I had 6 birthdays and about 6 replies to deal with. We started in on the students that have automatic debit set up. There are 575 of them. And 85 worked correctly this month. We have our work cut out for us. Some didn't have funds in their account and others have errors we must track down. That will keep us busy.

1/7 It's Friday. We received an email invitation to a training meeting for volunteers at the Service Center for Jan 19th. The people in Lima planned it. So we took applications and the invitation around the building and talked to all of the bishops we could find. We asked them to think of older women who might have time to volunteer in our Service Center. They seemed receptive and I hope something develops from this. We worked on all of the participants whose auto debit failed on Jan 5th. I finished my list but it was much shorter than Lewis'. We get replies but not enough. We need help with people who can call and get direct answers and can both understand explain procedures well enough to solve problems.

After work we went for a long walk looking for the tie store. Never did find it but found a big Chinese dollar store and Lewis bought 5 ties for $10.00. We bought some rolls at a bakery because we were getting hypoglycemic but we made it home and then ate them. Had left-over fried potatoes with bacon and onion and peppers that was delicious too. It is my favorite meal to make here here in Ecuador, so far.