Hey Family!
This week was a LONG week for us here in our sector. We were doing lots of divisions with missionaries, and had a couple issues arise with some elders. We had some real funny stories at the same time though. One of our district leaders here is from Bogota Colombia, he is training a new elder from Arizona. So on Monday night during family home evening I got a phone call. It was the district leader. He told me he was lost in the mountains outside of Otavalo and couldn't see ANY city lights or anything. They had been looking for a house of some investigators, and decided to take an unsure ´shortcut´ and then the fog came in on the hillside and they got LOST! So the missionary I was on division with and I went to the nearest police station. We got there and told the cop at the front desk what the problem was and he while at the same time watching his little TV just said. Sorry, cant help you. I just kind of stood there shocked at his response. So I asked why and he just said it was out of their jurisdiction. So he told us we had to go to the little city where I live to get help here. But it being late, there weren't any more buses going out of Otavalo to Cotacachi, I knew it so I asked if by chance they could help us out and take us to Cotacachi. He simply said NO and continued watching his movie. So I got a bit frustrated about it and just left. We payed $5 for taxi to take us back here to cotacachi, got to the police station, and they had us get into the little 4 door Chevy luv and we headed for the hills! Luckily last Friday I was on divisions with this companionship, so I remembered where more or less the house was. So we about 2 hours later found them down a dirt road off in the middle of nowhere! It was a funny experience. One definitely for the diary. It was a crazy week in a lot of ways for us.
Friday morning we went to do a service project for some people. We went to where a family was building a new house. We started out by unloading a truckload of cement bags! Then we had to mix mud for a cement pad. It was a lot of fun for me. I felt at home. They do construct in a weird way down here. But it was really interesting to see the process and everything of how to put up walls and do flooring. I took a few pictures.
Last Sunday we attended at one of our two wards here. It was the first time we were able to go there, and apparently the missionaries before us hadn't been either, for about 7 months according to some of the members there. So when we got there we were welcomed by many happy faces. I wish I would have had a camera. I haven't ever seen such happy little Indian ladies in all my life! We had ladies coming up and shaking our hands and hugging us almost in tears they were so happy. The same thing happened to us last night while contacting in this sector where the missionaries haven't really been for a while. We didn't find, but were found by a few members that all welcomed us into their houses with open arms and happy faces. I love being here on the mission. I don't think I can possibly say it enough. I will never be able to look at these two years without feeling something special in my heart. It truly is going to hurt when its time to come home. Mark and Kyle are just right around the corner from getting home. Within some 3 months now! and Even scarier is that I'm just around the corner from them! But this is a great time and I'm not going to waste any of it. Thank you all for your letters and all that you do for me. Love you all!
Elder Matthew Morris