Hey Everyone!
I hope that everyone is doing well back home. I guess the wedding and reception went well for Zach and Juliana. I didn't get any pictures though, hopefully you took pictures! I would love to get some more family pictures. I'm sorry Zach to hear that you have been sick. I hope you get better. Pioneer day was this last weekend, I was sure not to forget. We had a ward activity here in our ward that day. It was fun, we did some little games and relay´s. I enjoyed it, but my legs are still sore from doing jumprope and squats for the relay race. I guess I´ve gotten a bit outta shape. I'm only good for walking, walking, walking.
Today we went to the stake center and played soccer with the Elders from the zone and some members from my ward. It was alot more fun than I thought it would be. I'm actually not that bad at soccer. I just got out there and played like it was football. All the skinny latin kids kept their distance from me for the rest of the game! haha. I headbutted one pass from my companion and it almost went in the goal! I was pretty impressed! hahaha. Last week after having gotten to the sector, I began unpacking my clothes and books. But there was alot of junk on my desk, so I had to clean it all out and arrange everything. So in the cleaning process I found one of those little hacky sack style "stress-balls" that you squeeze in our hand. And so I started playing with it. -off track but- A few years ago at the thanksgiving dinner at the house, Aunt Florence´s car had a tire low on air, so I went to fill it up so she could go home. As I was filling up the tire I noticed that the wires were showing and it began to bulge. The thought crossed my mind "I wonder how much longer this tire is going to last, it looks like its about to pop." and as "pop" crossed my mind, it did just that! A big of a scary experience, but you would think that I would have learned my lesson. So, as I was playing with this small anti-stress-ball, I looked and noticed an unnatural bulge. The thought again crossed my mind, "wow, I wonder how hard I can squeeze this thing, it looks like it about to...." And of course, it popped! Anti-stress-balls cause a very stressful situation when they pop. I had some sort of a powder/sand mixture ALL over me! Those things look pretty little, but they pack ALOT of powder. But all is well, I think I have it all cleaned up now.
This week we had a neat experience in a lesson. We are teaching a few Haitian people here in our sector. There are 4 Haitians that live in the house we are visiting. Edmón, is 20, his friend Shamushka also 20, Noel 29 and his wife Marimar. All of them are here as refuges, all of them lost their entire families in the earthquake. In Haiti they speak French and Creole. So the lessons are a little bit slow, Edmón knows some spanish, and Shamushka knows some English. So little by little we explain, they read from a French Book of Mormon, and then they discuss amongst themselves in French/Creole. Everytime we get to their house, they open the door with GIANT smiles, there is no handshaking from the men, Edmon and Noel, they go right in and give big hugs! They live under very humble circumstances, a small block house, with only a couple of plastic chairs to sit in. But they always try to give us something to eat after lessons, most of the time an apple or a banana. They have passed such trials, and are still passing through difficulties, they don't know the language here, work for probably $15 a week. But they always have a smile on their face, and always want to learn more. It has been, yet again, another humbling experience for me.
I am getting used to the sector here. I no longer have to ask my companion which bus takes us where, nor which street the investigators live on. Its a really dry and hot area. I wear sunscreen everyday, here directly on the equator the sun hits hard! I imagine all of the time, this must have been what Jared lived in for 2 years in Chile! Im grateful for the green and beautiful parts of the mission I have been in. haha
I love you all and thank you so much for always writing! Oh, my Stake President´s son served in the Pocatello Idaho mission about 4 years ago, he served in IF, Firth, Pocatello, and a couple other areas I cant remember. Pretty neat! Love you all.
Elder Matthew Morris

Hey family!
This week was a good week. It was another rollercoaster week, but at least my health is good. Im all better, no fever, no parasites. We had a few challenges with some of the investigators that had plans on getting baptised. They will have to wait a little bit longer to be able to be ready for baptism. Two great things though. One, Last week while in Quito for leaders council, I was able to talk with the missionaries that are in my second sector, San Carlos/Santa Anita, and so I asked them how my converts are doing there, well, Fernando Barrigas, his wife and their two little boys are going to the Temple in Guyaquil next month to get sealed as a family! I still remember clearly the day they got baptised, now they are going to the temple as a family. It fills me with a complete and infinite joy, I cannot explain the feelings in me. And I just remember and think how I was simply an instrument in the Lord´s hands. The other good news, a few months ago in Cotacachi I mentioned in a letter about teaching a family up on the mountainside in the night under the stars, translating everything in Quichwa, WELL.... they are getting baptised this saturday! I would have loved to be present at the baptism. Now comes the sad news, I can´t make it to their baptism, because I got transferred today. I am now in Northern Quito. My sector has the equatorial line running right through the middle of it. Its an interesting area, the climate is much like a desert in fact. It reminds me ALOT of Mesquite Nevada. It was sad to have to leave Otavalo this morning, but I know that if the Lord wants me here, that's what I´ve got to do. There is some reason that I´m here. I love it here in the mission. Thank you Zach for your words in the letter last week. I'm so very excited for everyone back home. So many new things happening. I'm going to be the only single person in the family. Thats really odd. The pressure is on now. I'm in no real hurry though. I have got to apply for BYU I in the next little bit. Lots of crazy new changes coming up in life. I got my itinerary this week from the mission offices. I fly out of Quito October 21st at 6:15 AM, arrive in SLC that same day at about 8 PM. I think thats it, I will have to check for sure when we get back at the house. Like always, many mixed feelings about going home. But I know its just another "transfer" that I have to accept and search for the next lesson to learn from it.
I love you all so very much and am so grateful for the wonderful family that I have been blessed with. Zach and Julie, best of wishes. I'm happy for both of you, I was proud as can be getting the invitation this week, I showed everyone how my brother is going to get married in the temple, mostly I showed them because they all said how much better looking I am than you, but... haha. Love you all. Have a great week!
Elder Matthew Morris

The picture attached is of me roasting smores after the zone leader council here in Quito last week.
Totally forgot to even mention my new companion in the other letter. We are actually in a trip for right now, the missionary that I am replacing is Elder Harding from Virginia, he goes home on thursday, so he is just the third wheel for a couple more days, but my real companion is Elder Estrada, he is from Colombia! Finally! I have been wanting a Colombian companion ever since I got here. He is a great missionary. I knew him before in the mission. We are the zone leaders here in Zona Ofelia. There are a couple of challenges with some missionaries in the zone, but we are both excited to be here and to work together to help out the zone and this stake where we serve. The picture that I added on here was taken during the smore roast last week. Elder Estrada is on the far left, then comes my best friend in the mission, Elder Morales (he is also the new Assistant to President) and then my-handsome-self, and then Elder Duarte, my other best bud that is also from Colombia.
Elder Morris

Hey everyone!
This week was a MAJOR rolleroaster week. We had so many great things happen last week, and so many horrible things happen this week! It was very interesting to me how it all happened. I just know, its always darkest before the dawn. Last sunday we had 3 different families come to church, a total of 13, a record for me in the mission, this week we had a grand total of 0! One of the really sad things for us this week, was after church my companion and I decided to go visit our two investigators that were going to get baptised this coming weekend. Well we happened to find them both in the same place, one block away from the chapel, in a party, very very drunk. So we have our work cut out for us now to get them prepared better. They had both completely left alcohol, one of them is 3 or 4 months without drinking, and the other about 1 month. And they both fell, in the same party. It made me feel so sad. After that we went to lunch, it was a good lunch, I was feeling better, then on our way to another investigators house, like a ton of bricks it hit me, RUN TO A BATHROOM! Luckily we were close to the chapel. Last week I had taken some pills for the parasites I got, I was feeling better thursday through sunday, but they were only under remission. So I was dealing with stomach pains and other unwanted side effects all afternoon yesterday. I'm feeling a lot better today, no worries. And so with all of this going on and some other things, I got to thinking Why me? Why now? and I remembered, before church (and all of the bad fortune) started as I was sitting down reading my scriptures I felt impressed to read from Doctrine and Covenants section 121. And upon remembering that, I decided, all is well, I'm not THAT bad off.
7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
It was a good lesson learned. Before leaving the house sunday morning I prayed for the ability to learn patience and charity. I guess I didn't take into account the part about HOW I wanted to learn it. But I learned my lesson. I know that the Lord surely answers our prayers. There is no doubt in my mind about that. Amongst all of those problems, we were able to have a family home evening with Family Rosero (converts that I interviewed for baptism 7 months ago) and Familia Aizaga (an investigator family that we found knocking doors a month ago). It was a great FHE. The family is so excited to get baptised. They have the baptismal goal July 24th. I will let you know on their progress and everything.
I hope that everyone back home is doing great. I love you all so much. I have such mixed feeling about everything right now. I just now feel like I'm getting into the groove of things, but now its so close for me to go home. I am so very excited to come home and meet all the new family! The only house that I know is my own! Everyone has gotten married and moved away. But at the same time I want to stay here. I love it here so much. I now understand all those times when Jared would tell me with tears in his eyes, "I am so jealous of you, I would give anything to be back in the mission."
Don't anybody worry about me. I will be just fine here, parasites are curable. Thank you all so much for the letters and pictures always! I love you all.
Elder Matthew David Morris

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

Hey everyone!
This week was a very good week for us. We had zone conference and interviews with President Sloan. I still don't get tired of those conferences. My companion and I had to do the training part of the conference. It went very well. Today we watched the game of Chile vs Brasil, it was a qualifying game to get into the finals of the world cup, sorry Jared, Chile lost 3-0. We then went to a nice little restaurant and I had a plate called Churrasco, one of my favorites. It is a big grilled fillet of beef, a portion of rice, a portion of fries, 2 fried eggs and an avocado with some lettuce and tomato slices. DELICIOUS. Even though it may not sound very good. haha.
I am really enjoying my time here in Otavalo. President mentioned to me that I will most likely get changed here in 3 weeks. Its alright with me, I just told him if he changes me I want to go back to the coast! haha. This week we had 9 investigators come to church! It was one of my best weeks thus far on the mission. We have a new family of 6 that is investigating, all but the father came this week. The dad wanted to come but sunday morning while getting ready his work called and had him go help, so he couldn´t make it. There are the two parents, which ARE married, not very usual here, and they have 4 kids, Estefanía 11, Diego jr. 9, Shayla 8, and Cristofer 1. I have had some really good experiences every time that I have gone to teach them. After we finished the first lesson, teaching about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, we simply asked how they felt, now knowing that God has called Prophets here on earth again, and that he has restored the true church on earth. The wife got a big smile on her face and said "To be honest with you, I´m catholic, this is the first time that I have ever accepted missionaries into my house with my family. But I´m glad I did. I never would have known. I believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. I´m so glad to know this now, and that we have more scriptures to help us do whats right". As you can imagine, I was shocked. And we asked how the dad felt, he had the same thing to say. After the lesson we left 3 Nephi 11 for them to read as a family, two days later we came back, upon simply opening the door the wife smiled and begged us to please come in, she would gather the family. Within moments the little kids came running, excited to tell us about what they read in the Book of Mormon. So we re-read a little with them to be sure they understood it well, they did. haha. After the lesson we asked if they would like to come to church with us and they all got big smiles on their faces and said "we would love to!". So that´s their story, we have another appointment with the family tomorrow evening. We are going to teach them about the plan of salvation. We are going to put the baptismal date with them, for July 10th. We are really excited for them. We also have 2 baptisms this weekend here. One of the guys, is Juan Villarreal. He is about 45, recently divorced, has 4 or 5 kids, but they don't talk. His life was ruined because of a bad drinking habit that he produced. He over the years has been to the church a couple of times. He has had a copy of the Book of Mormon in his bookshelf for over 25 years as well. A member of our ward knew that he had been previously to church and had found out about the divorce and other problems. The member introduced us and we have been visiting him ever since, thursday afternoon he passed his baptismal interview to be baptised this weekend. He is very happy, yet regret at the same time that he didn´t decide to change sooner. I will be sure to send pictures of the baptism. And we will hopefully have a family home evening in a members house with that investigator family this week. I will be sure to send pictures as well. I hope that all is well with everyone back home. Thank you all as always, for the letter and pictures! Love you all so much!
Elder Matthew Morris

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