Apartment Change

First day off the plane, in the airport






With President and Sister Sloan upon arriving

¡¡Dear Family!!
Well this week was pretty crazy. It was really good because we taught tons of lessons, but bad because one of our investigators needs to talk with the president. Actually it´s with The first couselor in the mission presidency because we found out that President Sloan received a 2 month break from mission president to recover. He´s going to remain here in Ecuador, but he does nothing with the missionaries. He´s in the mission home with only his family. Right now we have 15 baptisms as a zone for this month and that is really good. Élder Estrada and I are planning on having 1 this week and 5 the following week. We´re praying hard that they´ll all be safe and everything will work out. The goal for the mission is 200 for President Sloan. Right now we´re on the way of completing this goal. I have É. Estrada again for this transfer. I´m excited because we both know the sector well and this sector is really blessed. One of my district members in the MTC is now a district leader and trainer for this transfer. There´s another Élder that came on the plane with us that is going to train as well. I feel bad for them a little bit because it´s so fast, nut they´re going to have to learn really fast what to do so that´s good too. We´ll see what happens. This week i had one wierd night where i was sick. It was only during the night though. I didn´t sleep hardly at all because I had a really bad fever, but the next morning it was gone. I was just dead tired the whole day because I didn´t sleep the night before. I think I´m still losing weight but i can´t weigh myself so I don´t know. We changed apartments this morning too. It didn´t take too long but it was a pain to have to clean it. Our new apartment is a lot smaller but it´s safer and better than the old one. I keep trying to send pictures, but myldsmail.net is really slow with pictures. I´ll try to send more after this letter. The scripture for this week :) is in Jacob 6:12 "be wise". I forgot what it says but I wrote it down in my planner to send to you so I hope you like it :) My Spanish is doing a lot better now. I can understand most of the time now and I can say what I want to say in broken Spanish. They understand what I'm trying to say but it's not perfect.
The rule for the Christmas phone call is that you call to a phone here and we talk. Aparently it's really expensive to call from here. I haven't heard what the rule is on phone cards though. I think you'll call here at like 11AM-2PM Arizona time but we're going to plan it next week and give you and official time. The call has to be 40 minutes or less so we'll have to remember that. Oh yeah another rule. The family isn't allowed to make fun of the English of the Missionary because the missionaries don't like it :)
I haven't received any packages yet. The only physical mail I receive is the DearElder from Papa every week or so. Christmas here is weird. There really aren't that many lights and not very many people have christmas trees either. And it's hot and humid like normal. Actually it's more humid because it's rained everyday this week. Well I love you all. Talk to you in 2 weeks :)

Love,
Élder Hakes

TACO BELL

Family!!!
Wow. I can't believe that Christmas is in less than 3 weeks. I can't believe I've been here for over a month. Well this week was kind of crazy. I went to Quito and got my Censo, card that let's me stay in the country. It's about 3-4 hours to Quito. We left at 3 AM on monday night/tuesday morning. We didn't even sleep. We got there and got the censo and then, believe it or not, we found a Taco Bell in Quito. It wasn't quite the same but it was good. I thought that was the craziest thing ever. I also went to the mission offices and found out that I have lost 15 lbs. already. I weigh 230 now. Walking in the heat and humidity in a 3rd world country can do that to you : ) I had a meal without rice the other day and I actually wanted rice. They usually have it with everything so I was astonished. The 1st Presidency Devotional was awesome last night. It was pouring and there was lightning for the first time during the devotional. I actually got to watch it in English with the other gringos. It was nice to watch something where the lips and words were the same. So I heard that the Christmas schedule is weird. We go to our apartments at 4PM because they have some tradition that women are scandolously dressed and won't let you pass unless you give them money. It's either money or they get to kiss you. That's just a little bit of a problem for us so we'll be inside. I don't know when I get to call. All I know is that it's for 30-45 minutes long so I don't know how you want to do it. Remember that I'm in the same time as Florida right now.
Also, it would be sweet if you could send CD's that are missionary apropriate. Himnos(Hymns in Spanish), Josh Grobeck or something similar. Whatever you want. I'm going to by a CD player and speakers here. It's actually more expensive here to buy a CD Player. I don't know what you think about sending it through the mail because it costs $50 for the player and $10 for speakers.
I keep trying to send more pictures but MyLDSMail.net is really slow and can only take 3 pictures in one e-mail. I think I'm going to make a CD and send it in the mail. I don't know when, but I'll send it eventually.
Well I have 2 scriptures, one is serious and the other is a funny that my companion showed me. First the serious. I studied Jacob 2 this week and I applied this scripture in a different way. It was just a thought that came to me when I was reading it. Jacob 2:16-17 replace "substance" with "knowledge of the gospel". I thought it was a cool application. Ok now here's a funny one. Read 1 Nephi 11:10 then read verse 15. I thought it was hilarious when E. Estrada showed me.
Well this week I feel more comfortable teaching in Spanish. I know it's not perfect, but I'm sharing more and more every lesson. I can almost understand everything now. I can tell what's going on, for the most part. That's sweet to hear that Greg is doing so well. I hope they kill Hamilton. Can't believe the Cats decided to be good while I'm gone : )
Next week there are cambios (changes). It's where new missionaries come so companions change. President SLoan doesn't have cambios though. Obviouly there will be one every 6 weeks for the new missionaries, but he does them whenever he feels it's right. E. Estrada's previous companionship only lasted for 1 week. So, the cambio isn't for everyone so who knows what will happen. I don't know if I'll get to write if there are cambios because it's on Monday's. We're supposed to be changing apartments on Monday too. That'll be fun. Well I love you all!!!!!

Love,
Élder Hakes