Hey everyone
Well this week flew by, just like usual. We had some neat experiences this week. I'm doing really well here. Still in good old Cotacachi. Changes are next sunday, I think that I will stay here another 6 weeks, but who knows. I really enjoy it here, but I could use a change of sector. 6 months of going up the same mountainside kinda wears you out. My companion and I are doing really well here. Probably the best thing that happened to us this week was our very last lesson last night. Just before coming to the house to finish up the night we passed by a house that we had contacted about 2 weeks ago. We had been back since we contacted the younger couple, but they were never home. But last night we found them there. The husband was a little drunk so he let us right in when we got there. They had us sit down and they sat to listen to us. After a few minutes the husband got a headache and went to lay down. But the wife stayed interested. She began to ask how we baptise in the church, how we do marriages, a so forth. Well, any missionary would love to answer these questions, they are just begging for answers about the restoration. So we explained about the restoration, about the baptism of Christ, etc. But when we got to the part about eternal marriage. When we asked her about the words that were said when she got married, she realized, she didn't want death to separate them, they have 2 little boys. And we taught her that families can be together forever. Her eyes got lit up, and she became very interested then. It was just a nice reminder to us of what we are really here to do.Help families make it to the temple. We are really excited for this next family, that so eagerly asked us to come back again Tuesday. There are alot of days out here that are just really hard, from one house to another of people offending us and denying us, but when we find those chosen families, it makes it all worth it. So all in all we had a good week here. We have an appointment tonight with an investigator (golden). His cousins are members, but he has never heard from the missionaries. So we got to go and teach him. Ever since the first visit he is progressing and loving the book of mormon. I am just loving being here on the mission. I am starting to have dreams about home though. This morning I woke up at about 5:30 about to cry. I dreamed that I was getting off the airplane, and ....... NOONE was there waiting for me. So I got myself home somehow, walked in the front door and everyone looked at me kinda shocked, but unexcitedly. Then instead of giving me so much as a hug or a hello, Dad told me to get changed and go look for a job. I was quite taken back. haha, oh well. Just gotta enjoy the time I have left. Tomorrow i hit my 20 month mark. Time is flying by, but there's still alot of time left to work. Love you all. I will try to get a video sent home in another letter here in a couple of minutes. Love you all.
Elder Matthew Morris

Hey everyone!
This week was a roller coaster week. Lots of ups ad downs... The interviews were good this week. After all of the interviews we went to dinner with President Sloan, his wife, and the Stake Presidents here in the two stakes we are over. It was great. It was a really fancy restaurant on the lakeside just outside of Otavalo. I got a green salad with ranch dressing to start, then a Filet Mignon, with Cantelope juice to drink, then after the meal, I got ice cream with chocolate cake! It was pretty good in fact. The sad part was, that my meal alone cost about 35 dollars! WOW, I couldn't believe it, but President told us not to be bashful about what we ordered, it was our special night. So that was pretty nice. Wednesday morning I had to go to Quito. We left here at about 6 am. I had to go with some new missionaries here in the zone that had to go receive their official Ecuador I.D. It was an alright trip. Didn't get robbed or anything so that was good. We went to that burger shop again. This time I got an GRANDE RootBeer and double cheese burger! haha, it was delicious!
We have a new investigator here that is doing great! He is a members cousin here in our ward. He is no coming to church regularly and even the ward activities! He loves the Book of Mormon. He and his family are Catholic, but when we explained to him the Book of Mormon and he started reading, he told us it was what has always been missing to him. He will probably be getting baptised the 19th of June. I will keep the updates coming on him. Yesterday in our sector we were just trying our hardest to avoid all of the drunk people in the streets! They were everywhere. Sadly a couple of the investigators were a little bit "chumado" aka drunk! So we had a few rough spots in the week with investigators and members, but all is well. We are doing good here.
This saturday we had a ward activity for Mother´s day. We had a small talent show, then a "Parrillada" (barbecue). It turned out very well, except for the fact that they forgot to bring silverware for the food. So it got a bit messy! haha. We were the waiters for the activity. We got to serve all of the food, just to pay back to our "Mamitas" here. So hopefully they were able to gain more love and confidence with us. Its always tough when you don´t have the support of the members in a ward. The members here are pretty good with us, but could always be better. We hope to have some more success here to be able to excite the members more about being involved in missionary work.
I was able to chat a little with President Sloan this week in my interview about some things. He gave me the impression that I will stay here in Otavalo for another 6 weeks. So I will be here the same amount of time I was in Esmeraldas for, 7 1/2 months! But we will just see what happens when we get the changes in a couple weeks. He showed me my scheduled release date. Thursday October 14th!........... 4 1/2 months is all that's left for me. Its pretty scary to think about, so I try not to think about it! haha. But whatever happens, I will enjoy the time left here. There is alot to do here, and I hope I can get some of it done.
Thank you all for your letter and your support. Love you all!
Elder Matthew Morris

Hey everyone!
This week was a rollercoaster week. Lots of ups ad downs... The interviews were good this week. After all of the interivews we went to dinner with President Sloan, his wife, and the Stake Presidents here in the two stakes we are over. It was great. It was a really fancy restaurant on the lakeside just outside of Otavalo. I got a green salad with ranch dressing to start, then a Filet Mignon, with Cantelope juice to drink, then after the meal, I got ice cream with chocolate cake! It was pretty good in fact. The sad part was, that my meal alone cost about 35 dollars! WOW, I couldnt beleive it, but President told us not to be bashful about what we ordered, it was our special night. So that was pretty nice. Wednesday morning I had to go to Quito. We left here at about 6 am. I had to go with some new missionaries here in the zone that had to go receive their official Ecuador I.D. It was an alright trip. Didnt get robbed or anythin so that was good. We went to that burger shop again. This time I got an GRANDE RootBeer and doublcheese burger! haha, it was delicious!
We have a new investigator here that is doing great! He is a members cousin here in our ward. He is no comming to church regularly and even the ward activities! He loves the Book of Mormon. He and his family are Catholic, but when we explained to him the Book of Mormon and he started reading, he told us it was what has always been missing to him. He will probably be getting baptised the 19th of June. I will keep the updates comming on him. Yesterday in our sector we were just trying our hardest to avoid all of the drunk people in the streets! They were everywhere. Sadly a couple of the investigators were a little bit "chumado" aka drunk! So we had a few rough spots in the week with investigators and members, but all is well. We are doing good here.
This saturday we had a ward activity for Mother´s day. We had a small talent show, then a "Parrillada" (barbecue). It turned out very well, except for the fact that they forgot to bring silverware for the food. So it got a bit messy! haha. We were the waiters for the activity. We got to serve all of the food, just to pay back to our "Mamitas" here. So hopefully they were able to gain more love and confidence with us. Its always tough when you don´t have the support of the members in a ward. The members here are pretty good with us, but could always be better. We hope to have some more success here to be able to excite the members more about being involved in missionary work.
I was able to chat a little with President Sloan this week in my interview about some things. He gave me the impression that I will stay here in Otavalo for another 6 weeks. So I will be here the same amount of time I was in Esmeraldas for, 7 1/2 months! But we will just see what happens when we get the changes in a couple weeks. He showed me my scheduled release date. Thursday October 14th!........... 4 1/2 months is all thats left for me. Its pretty scary to think about, so I try not to think about it! haha. But whatever happens, I will enjoy the time left here. There is alot to do here, and I hope I can get some of it done.
Thank you all for your letter and your support. Love you all!
Elder Matthew Morris

Hey Everyone!
We had a good week here this week. A few little stumbling blocks here and there, but everything is well. We went around the Plaza de Poncho this morning here in Otavalo. Its just a BIG park that fills up with Indigenous Artwork to sell. From knit wool slippers, to wood carvings. I bought a few little paintings that I saw last week. We were supposed to have interviews with President Sloan last friday, but all of the highways were shut off enterring and leaving Otavalo. The Indigenous were rioting against the new water laws here in Ecuador. So basically we were all isolated here in Otavalo all week, any time we had meetings among the missionaries here in the zone, we had to bacsically walk to the chappels. But all is well now, they got their issues somewhat worked out for now. Tomorrow at noon we have interviews. Im excited, it´s always a great experience getting to talk with President Sloan.
This morning my companion and I got up a bit early to go running. Well to tell the truth it was NOT my idea. haha. But so we got up and went running for 20 monutes around Cotacachi, we got some real funny looks from some of the locals there. My companion says he doesn´t want me to finish the mission fat so we have to go running now. I´m fine with it though. It will be good for us, everyday at 6 we will get up to go running for a half an hour or so. Good excercise. I held up good running this morning, 20 minutes without having to stop to take a breath.
I dont really have anything interesting to say this week. The only big news, Luis Alberto Quinchiguango, the guy I baptised in the lake, well his wife is pregnant and the baby will probably be born today. Its a little boy. We havent heard from them yet, but we are going to pass by the house tonight to see if they are there, if he isn´t born yet, he should be born by tomorrow evening. Its pretty exciting, I wish you all could meet this family. So very humble, but they have so much faith. Almost everytime we see Luis Alberto, he asks us when he can get the Preisthood, that he so badly wants to be able to give blessings to his wife, and his little boy when he is born. In these days preparing for the little baby boy Luis Alberto has told us he is really nervous, but excited to fianally be a Father. He will be a great dad I´m sure.
Well I hope everyone had a great week this week and that all is well with everyone back home. LOUA LOUA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Of course I´m not going to forget! I love you all. Hope to hear from you all soon.
Elder Matthew Morris

Well yesterday i just talked with everybody, so i don't have much at all to say. thank you for getting together, those that could. It was great being able to chat for a bit. I'm doing very well here. Today is a beautiful day here in Otavalo, partly cloudy, so its just right! I guess i will just write back next week. It was good to see you all. I'm including a few pictures on here from the last week. The fireside with Elder Nash, my delicious Barqs Root Beer, my best buds and I (Elder Zambrano, Quyaquil Ecuador, Mybeautifulself, Elder Morales, also Guyaquil Ecuador, and Elder Duarte from Columbia), then a picture of the Sloans and I at the dinner in President´s house! Enjoy!
Elder Matthew Morris

Hey Family, Sorry big letter this week...

Hey everyone!
This week turned out to be a good week for us. We had some pretty neat things happen here. First of all, I got a new companion. The assistants called us this morning and gave my companion a change to a different zone in southern Quito. My new comp is Elder Vomicil from Wisconsin. He got here to Otavalo about 2 hours ago. We had lunch in Otavalo then came out here to the sector to drop off his bags. Getting done here we will go back into Otavalo to wait for a new sister missionary that is coming here to the zone. My new comp is really nice. We get along great. He only has 8 months in the mission. It makes me feel pretty old. But I'm excited to be with him. We have seen each other a couple of times before during leader´s meetings in Quito, what I´ve heard is that he is a really joyful person that everyone gets along with. I´m not really excited to be with another North American again, but I don´t really have a choice. We will make the best of the time we have here.
The joint stake fireside and the special missionary conference both turned out great. I was pretty nervous to conduct the conference, but when the time came, all went well. We were able to attend the fireside with a family of investigators, it was great. I was able to learn alot of things. After the fireside, the family of investigators we had with us was able to go up to the stand in front and meet Elder Nash and President Sloan. Then after all of the fireside was over, Elder Nash and President Sloan had a special meeting with the stake presidencies that were there. During their special meeting my companion and I rearranged the chairs and benches to get ready for the missionary conference the next morning. We got done with all of that at about 10:15 PM, we wouldn´t have waited for so long, but we were the only ones with keys to close up the chapel, so we were obligated to wait for the meeting to end. Then upon leaving the meeting President Sloan invited to give us a ride to the nearby bus stop to make it back to our sector. So we all piled into President´s Ford Explorer. President and his wife in the front, then all crammed into the second row were Sister Nash, Elder Nash, Myself and my companion. We were squished in a bit so Elder Nash had to sits laps with me. It wasn´t quite how I was expecting to get to meet a member of the quorum of the 70, but it sure was a memorable one! haha. Then the next day my companion and I were up extra early to get to the chapel on time to resweep and arrange everything in preparation for the conference. The conference went very very well. I had a couple of great personal experiences. With President Sloan and Elder Nash both at my side the entire conference I felt like a mouse amongst elephants, but I was able to learn alot from them.
The other cool experience I had was something that happened last night. We arrived to the house of a less active family. One of the sons in the family is still active, but his parents and a couple of the sisters and brothers are inactive. Upon arriving at the house we were able to find the majority of the family there. Including the oldest daughter and her two kids. The daughter that we met lives in Holland with her two kids, they are here for another 2 weeks visiting the family. So we were able to teach them briefly about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, centering all that we said on Jesus Christ. They accepted that we return tomorrow to visit them more. Hopefully we will be bale to send the referral to Holland when they go back home. They were very interested. The most interesting part of the lesson was that, the two kids are 13 and 8 years old, having lived in Holland for the past 8 years. So they basically only know Dutch, a little English, and a little spanish. So between them, their grandparents(the inactives) and myself we had a total of 5 languages that we were using throughout the lesson to be able to all have the same understanding and comprehension of what we were teaching. It was just very interesting for me to be able to see how different each language was, but at the same time, all could understand the same thing. As Nephi said it so well in 2 Nephi 31:3, the spirit speaks unto men by their language and understanding.
And before I forget, this sunday I will be calling home for Mother´s day. I'm not sure what time, or where from..... but I will get that all arranged and will probably give a heads up call this week maybe friday or saturday. I'm not really sure when, We have to go to Quito thursday morning and will be coming back saturday morning, but either way, I will get it figured out and give you a call so that everyone can be around. I might if we can, get onto skype here in this internet shop that is next to our house. Its only 60 cents for an hour, and you will be able to see me. It doesn´t matter if you have a camera set up at home, at least you will be able to see me for a bit. But I will get that all figured out for sunday. But just as a heads up, be near the phones this weekend. Try to get together as a family to be able to say hi to everyone. If not, well..... its my last phone call, so I will just see you in a few months! aahhhhhh! Time is going by too fast. Well, thank you all for everything I love you all! Oh and, last week I dreamed I was getting off the plane in Idaho Falls, then coming down the escalator I saw you all there waiting, and little Caleb came running up to me before anyone and called me "Uncle Matty" and gave me a big hug! I woke up crying I was so happy! haha. Well I love you all, have a great week.
Elder Matthew Morris