Wow what a crazy week. I keep thinking that eventually there will be some sort of routine, but there never is. We had 2 baptisms this past Saturday. It was really amazing seeing the husband change this week. He is the one that drank two fridays ago. He needed this extra week becasue he progressed more in the last week than all of the others. He realized how important this is and I honestly believe that he will be a strong garment wearing priesthood holder in 1 year. We´re also talking with the family of the wife. Her whole family is really powerful and we think we can baptize 1 or 2 of them in December. I had the wierdest experience ever on Saturday. We were at our mamita´s (members that feed us lunch) house and they had invited the mom´s sister (one of our investigators) and they asked me to bear my testimony in English after the lesson while we were waiting for the food. I could not do it. I kept going back to Spanish. I finally gave up and did it in Spanish and it was way easier. I honestly am forgeting English. You can probably tell by my letters. I´m not sure if this is good or bad because I can´t speak Spanish yet either. I totally forgot about Thanksgiving until another Élder reminded me at a district meeting. It was wierd. Christmas is in less than a month and tomorrow is December. Weird!
Well the food here is exactly how Nancy described it. First, a bowl of soup. Next a plate with a ton of rice, a little bit of meat, and a side (potatoes, salad, fruit, etc.). There´s always juice or soda. There´s a soda here that is only in Ecuador and it´s called Fióra. It´s so good. Everything here is really cheap too. I live with $180 a month easily. I ususally have to send money back to Quito. My companion and I walk everywhere except the centro, downtown I think, then we take a bus. I´ve lost weight since I´ve gotten here. My belt buckle is one size smaller and I can stick at least 2 fingers in the collar of my shirt. It´s really weird to be losing weight. I´ve been trying to gain for the past 4-5 years.
Well my companion is from Cali, Colombia. He has 7 months in the mission right now. He is an amazing teacher. I´ve learned a lot from him about how to teach and also some doctrines. He is 19 years old and he was actually born into the covenant. He´s one of the few latinos that isn´t a convert. Everyday we have a mamita, or a member that makes lunch for us. We have to figure out dinner on our own, but usually our investigators feed us. I had one day where I had to eat 3 lunches in a row. It was too much food. I was dying afterwards. I´m able to understand about 80% of the time now. It´s a lot better. I feel more comfortable now that I know what´s going on.
Well the weather here is nice. It´s still kind of warm right now but it´s really humid. There is this weird rain thing that happens here but not in Arizona. It´s like tiny tiny tiny drops of rain that is more or less very fine mist. It´s weird but it feels good when we´re walking around. THere´s also a ton of fog every morning but it´s usually gone by the time we leave the apartment. Our apartment is pretty nice. We´re actually moving to another apartment that is better next week. It just has to be authorized by the mission. I haven´t had a warm shower since I´got here. I´m used to it now though. Well i can´t think of anything else. I love all of you. I hope Thanksgiving was good for everyone.
Love,
Élder Hakes
