Hey Everyone,
I have a few interesting stories for this week, and pictures to go with them! One of the things we did to start out the week was a service project for one of the bishops here. We went up to his land WAY up above Otavalo on the hillside in an area called Imbabuela.

Once we got to the land where he had his potatoes plants, they dumped us outta the truck with the hoes and gunny sacks and said, we will be back at one! Take into account that it was only 9 in the morning! haha. So we got to work, the bishop showed us where the rows were and handed us the hoes! So hand digging we spent about 4 hours picking spuds! We filled 8 sacks in the time that we were there. It was a different experience but it help me get back into the feel of things. I felt like an old time Idahoan for a few minutes. I'm sure grateful for all of the John Deere´s that we have back home, they sure make life easier on us all. I ended up with 5 blisters on my hands, two of which keep drying and splitting even now. But it was all worth it. It was alot of fun and a great experience. Getting the sacks full we had to carry them out of the field on our backs to the road where the truck was going to come pick us up. My knee did really well, it was a little bit sore afterwards, but its basically got all of its strength back from the football accident.
Friday afternoon we had an activity to go to for one of the indigenous wards, but before the activity for their ward, we had a small one in ours. The Relief Society had a "beauty shop" training at the church. So they invited us to come be the participants. They were cutting hair, doing manicures, pedicures, etc. No worries, I only got my haircut. So there is a picture in here of me getting my haircut.

The lady cutting my hair got baptised last December. I interviewed her and her husband and son on Christmas day, they were baptised a couple of days later. They are a great family. So during the haircut I kept reminding her to not mess up my hair or I would recall my permission for her baptism! haha. But she did a good job, I left without any cuts or injuries. So after that we helped out with the indigenous activity. I first have to explain the fiestas that are going on right now. This week is called San Juan, its a holiday only here in Otavalo, they celebrate and do rituals in thanks to the sun god for the crops and harvests of the year. It is a 2 week long festival. They spend days just dancing and getting together as communities. (just another excuse for everyone to drink and not work). So one of the wards here held a ward party to celebrate in a healthy way. All of the ward organizations prepared skits and or dances, including the organization of missionary work! So we got the district together and thought up a few little goofy dances to do. We got out there in front of everyone all dressed in the traditional wear and did a little "traditional" dance. They all were laughing and loving it, they gave us an encore and told us to do another one. Luckily we had kind of practiced another goofy dance, so we did it too! It was alot of fun, and I have the videos of it for everyone to see when I get home.
So after our dance, that part of the activity was over, so they moved on to the dinner part. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. From outta nowhere all of the members ladies started to pull out pots and pots of potatoes, beans, rices, more rice and potatoes, and some meat. they threw it all onto a tarp that they laid out in front of everyone, then they mixed in all in together, and served it to everyone in little bowls. It was amazing. And it tasted pretty good too!!!
Getting home that night from the activity a sat down at my bed a teared up a little bit. I love this people. I love how humble and loving they are towards everyone. Being here in this city so long, I have gotten to know most of the members. A few of them were so happy to see me in the activity. I don't know how I will ever get used to the culture again in the states. I just love it here so much. I cant really remember now if there were other stories. I just got teary eyed again thinking about the people here. I just love it here. I'm so glad to still be in Otavalo. Time is going by quicker day by day.
I'm glad to hear that the weather is getting better back home. Enjoy it. We have been getting rained on here every day for the last week. Supposedly we are entering into summer in northern Ecuador, but they are only tricking themselves. It really is an eternal spring here, no matter what sector of the mission we are in. I hope everyone had a great week this week! Thank you all for the letters and pictures. Love you all!
Elder Matthew Morris

Hello Family!
Well we just got done watching one of the world cup games as a zone. President gave us permission to watch one game on preparation day to let us enjoy a little bit of the world cup. We watched the Italy and Paraguay game. They tied 1-1, I was rooting for Italy. Oh well. I had never watched a world cup game, let alone any soccer game, before the mission. But they are interesting. Not quite as fun as the super bowl, but oh well. We finished watching the game and we have pizza delivered. It was pretty fun.
I'm doing well here with my new companion. I enjoy this sector alot. I knew I would miss Cotacachi, and I do ALOT, but I didn't think I would grow to like this new sector as much as I do now. I already knew my way around the sector, having been here doing divisions and interviews before, so its been easy to just get familiarized with investigators houses. The greatest part about this week was that almost everyday of the week we arrived to an appointment and upon arriving there, the people told us with tears in their eyes "thank you for coming Elders! We were waiting for you." Alot of times when an appointment fails on us, and we have to go to plan B or even plan C, it gets frustrating, but its always worth it when we realize, well its because plan C was the one needing us, not plan A. We just after leaving here writing, have an appointment up on the hillside with an family that was investigating the church a few years ago, but the Elders got changed and no one ever came back. We contacted them on wednesday, and when they opened the door to us their eyes lit up`and the mom said "Elders! your back!" A new personal goal of mine is to hear someone say that they were waiting for us, everyday of the week. I'm enjoying it alot here in my sector. I miss Cotacachi very very much, I have bumped into a number of members from Cotacachi in this last week, its great to see them again, even though its only been a week! haha.
While contacting this week up on the hillside in our sector, we stopped in the corner of a soccer field, then looking around us, in one square block from the field we counted 14 stray dogs!!!! YA, the rumors about South America are true. Bob Barker is a revolutionary man in my mind. He has saved the United States from a very sad state of over population. And a very ugly population at that. Some of the crossbreeds here are so wierd. In the group of 14 I saw a Lab-Weinerdog cross, cocker-pitbull cross, and many many more. Well what more can I say. I am loving it here, and we are doing what we need to do.
I am doing very well, my health is good, I think I am actually loosing a little bit of weight too. The volcanoes as far as I know are calmed down a bit, I haven't heard anything new about that. So no worries. All is well in Ecuador! haha. The days are winding down fast. Have a great week everyone! Love you all! Thank you for the letters and all the pictures Mary, and Loua! Love you all.
Elder Matthew Morris

Hey Everyone!
Well this has been a LONG weekend for us here. Last wednesday we went to quito for a leaders meeting. At the leaders meeting President Sloan made some new announcements, one of which, the new zones in the mission. Here in Otavalo we were one zone of missionaries covering 2 stakes, well we got split! We now have two zones here, and I got transferred. I am still in Otavalo, but now I'm here in the city itself. I got assigned to the latin ward, so we teach all of the latins in my zone, everyone else only teaches indigenous. So it will be pretty interesting. My companion is Elder Melendez from Peru. FINALLY another latin companion, I was beginning to get tired of having soo many gringo companions, too much english in my opinion. haha, So today we spent the day helping out the missionaries and getting all of the transfers figured out. It is a bit stressful being a Zone Leader at times, but it sure has helped me figure out how to handle responsibilities. Backtracking a bit, wednesday, before going to Quito, as walking back to the house to get the bags ready for the 2 day trip, we passed by a "north american" style restaurant in Cotacachi, a member came running out after us and invited us to have a gringo lunch! It was great, I had spaghetti and meatballs, and for dessert we had carrot cake, wow forgot how much I loved that! Then as we walked (on cloud nine) back to the house, we got up to our apartment, and the neighbor family from the 3rd story brought us down 2 plates of WAY good ice cream cake! So by this time my companion and I are dying of joy. Then we got invited to dinner in Quito with a couple of Senor Missionaries from Roy Utah. Sister Rose made ROAST BEEF, MASHED POTATOES, bread, and a fruit jello........ ya really....... and for desert we had a delicious chocolate cake with oreo ice cream.... cant get better right? WRONG!! So then thursday after the leaders council we went to President´s house and Sister Sloan made Chicken Enchiladas!!!!!! and THEN Root Beer Floats! All I can really say is, I am proud to be an american. But sadly my stomach was not as used to and happy with so much flavor. But I'm better now! haha. Thats my great story for this week. I am happy, I am still enjoying my time greatly here. I was sad to leave Cotacachi, it was a hard weekend, knowing that I had a transfer coming, but I'm still somewhat nearby. I assume that I will only be here for the 6 week transfer, to help my new companion learn some of the responsibilities, then I will get sent to another part of the mission to finish my last two transfers.
I hope that everyone is doing well this week. From all the letters from everyone, sounds like it has been pretty rainy and cold. Jared sent me some pictures of riding four wheelers and bikes out at 8mile canyon... I don't even know what to say about that. I guess just that, there better be a few machines with full tanks of gas for when I get back home. We live such blessed lives, so many toys.We live in about the greatest place in the world too! Love you all! I will be excited to hear from you all next week.
Elder Matthew Morris

one thing i have meaning to say. about 2 months ago there was an earthquake here in otavalo. it was a sunday morning at 3:30 am. there were actually 3 in a row over 3 hours the night, but the last one was the biggest. since then, a major volcano in central ecuador, tungurahua, woke up, it has been smoking since the earthquakes. last week it started having small eruptions of rock and lava flow. since then, one other major volcano and 2 other small ones started to smoke. there are some 40-50 volcanoes here in my mission (the ring of fire, ya not just a Johnny Cash song) so be sure to keep little ecuador in your prayers. we have a mission wide "fire-drill" in case of any emergencies. we all have emergency food storage and everything, so if anything were to happen, this mission is prepared. but just be sure to keep us in your prayers. love you all!
Elder Matthew Morris

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