Hey Everyone,
Sorry it took so long to write today. We just got into Quito. We have a leaders meeting tomorrow. This morning we did a 4th of July barbecue as a zone, and by the time we were all done cleaning up and everything, it was time to get ready for the trip to Quito! Today had a rough start though. This morning we carried the clothes up to the roof for our clothes mamita to wash them. While taking the clothes up I was admiring my new little indigenous grass slippers. Well, on the way down the stairs my beautiful woven grass slippers didn't get any traction. I slipped, while trying to catch myself, I caught hold of the railing with my left arm, but my right hand in its struggle to grab something, caught the broken window next to me. It only caught a piece of it, but it gave me a good notch in the tip of my ring finger! But the bleeding stopped after a few minutes! haha. Just kidding, well no, it was bleeding pretty bad, but I'm fine. I may not have been an eagle scout but I do know a bit about first aid! And this week I had to stay a half a day in the house resting, I ate some bad food or something, I got a bit of the fever and have parasites again. I got the medication, the fever is over, but I still am working on the parasites. But I'm feeling a lot better, so no worries at all! I'm happy as can be here. About the barbecue, I was the "volunteer" chef for the activity. We had 15 lbs of ground beef for the burgers, 10 lbs of beef for the shishkabobs, and a bunch of Doritos, and fruit for a fruit salad. It was great! We cooked it all over a barrel drum grill with charcoals. The burgers and shishkabobs turned out great.
Everyone loved my patriotic outfit, you will see in the pictures. One of the sister missionaries in the offices made me the apron. Its my favorite. The little American flags were a part of a package that Chelsey sent me a couple of weeks ago. Ya, she´s on my favorite list now. The only down part about the activity is that when one of the missionaries was taking down the volleyball net he kinda fell off the poll the he straggled up. They had to take him to the hospital, we aren't sure yet, but they think he broke his arm... oops... So that's how our day went here, it was a fun 4th of July, surely unforgettable.
(OK, just so you know, the apron is the Ecuadorian flag)

This weekend we had a great baptism. Saturday afternoon, I celebrated an early Independence day! Juan Villarreal is a guy that we met my first week here. He has had a rough life, but the moment we arrived, we knew he was prepared. After his baptism he bore a very strong testimony about the church, the Book of Mormon, and that God loves us all and gives us all the opportunity to change. His older brother who is not a member was present at the baptism, he came to church yesterday as well to see how the confirmation is. He really enjoyed church, he even got up a bore his own testimony about what he had seen and felt in the church, it being his first time. He is now an investigator. He was previously the Mayor of Otavalo so everyone in church was happy to see him and touched by his testimony! We have had some great experiences here. Tomorrow at some point in the day I am going to ask President Sloan if I can finish my last three months in Otavalo.

I hope that all is well back home. Thank you for the stories and all of the pictures of this weekend. I hope that everyone had a great fourth of July. Now for being here in Ecuador I have realized how great our country really is. We have a great government, many rights and freedoms. It is a great place, and even better in Idaho!
Love you all. I hope to hear from you all next week!
Elder Matthew Morris