week # 11 Quito Ecuador

Hola Familia and Amigos !

ok, I´m running super low on time today so I´ll hurry!   This week was swell, we have 2 people that are committed to baptism, and we will have more meetings with them soon to see if they are ready to go in a week or so!  The area is still pretty tough, we`re getting a lot of contacts and rejections as we go, but we`re progressing well! 

 And I`m way excited for conference this week End! Everyone meets at the church, and I think it may be in Spanish.  Not too sure, I hope I can find a place where it`s in English. (and they have an oven at the church, so we`re going to try to make pizzas! Because we only have a stove in the apartment)  Spanish is still tough, but I practice during all the lessons, and I`m only drinking pure water too.  we get a mamita for every lunch, and our area is pretty safe.  Not perfect, but, you know.  It`s good. 

To answer your questions, Quito is poor with rich areas, and it gets richer the deeper you go to the center, or I should say, poorer the farther out you go, because it goes WAY out!  (Wealthy enough that I`m eating KFC right now! HA HA!)    and thanks for your letters and tips mom and dad!  And I hope you can put your car back together Chantel! 

And while you guys are enjoying your food harvest, I am tasting the first fruits of spiritual harvest
 (D&C 4)  
  1 Now behold, a ^amarvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. 2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the ^aservice of God, see that ye ^bserve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand ^cblameless before God at the  last day.
 3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are ^acalled to the work;
 4 For behold the ^afield is white already to ^bharvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in ^cstore that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
 5 And ^afaith, ^bhope, ^ccharity and ^dlove, with an ^eeye single to the ^fglory of God, ^gqualify him for the work.
 6 Remember faith, ^avirtue, knowledge, ^btemperance, ^cpatience, ^dbrotherly ^ekindness, ^fgodliness, charity, ^ghumility, ^hdiligence.
 7 ^aAsk, and ye shall receive; ^bknock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.
 I love this .....

     

Plus, there are some elders down here that say they met someone that knows our family, their dad`s name is Josten Curtis, and he works at the US embassy down here.  Know em?  Nifty. 
Well, that`s all the time I have, (normally I have an hour to write, and I can print out emails, but today we had to go down to the offices at it just ate up our day)
 Good luck Ashylne in lacrosse, Meikayla in volleyball, Madison in being the heart of the family, and Chantel for staying diligent.  Thanks to all my friends and my relatives that ask about me and pray for me, it means a lot , I love you all and pray for all of you too.
 Goodbye and I love ya!

-Elder Sanders

PS I sent a letter out today, so tell me when you get it so I know how long it takes! 

Eden is in the mission field ! Carapungo Ecuador !

Hola a todas hermanas y hermanos!  ECUADOR IS THE BOMB-DIGGITY!  First off, the people are nicer, the city is great, and it seems to go on for miles! (because it really does.)   And I can even see 3 of the 6 volcanoes from where I live, (I thought mom would like to know Quito is in a bowl surrounded by 6 volcanoes! :-)  )      BUT! The town is great, I have my own little yellow apartment, and my companion is spiffin!  His name is Elder Redd, he´s been out here for 15 months, he´s from Idaho, and has a fling for Spam.  (Which, if you get a chance to eat it, it`s actually really good!)  But yes, Mom and Dad, thanks for your letters, Chantel, sounds like life is giving it it´s all! And BRANDON! I got your letter! Thanks man, I`ll try to ship one out as soon as I can figure out the postage over here....   but OK.  I`ll tell you once I receive the primary letters also, because the mission home is where all the letters and packages go (please send them, they are so fun to get!)  and the mission home is about 30 minutes away, by bus.  Ish.

 WELL!   Before coming, I thought missionary work was all door to door approaches for 12 a day 6.5 days a week.  Was I wrong!  The vast percentage of the people we teach are through references through members and the past missionaries.  We go contacting about... hm.. maybe a few hours a day, but the majority of the day is studying, teaching lessons, making appointments, and learning how to serve.  So far, we`ve been teaching a small handful of people, we haven`t had any 2nd lessons with anyone yet, and in reality, the area is kind of dead in a missionary work sense, because it turns out the 2 missionaries who were here before us were really slacking and not following the rules and kind of dumped off.  BUT! Elder Redd and I are trying very hard to re-kindle the spirit of missionary work in our sector, and we`re trying to get references from everyone, teaching lessons with ward members, and I`m just adapting the world of Ecuador.  We make our own breakfasts (we`re already made pancakes, french toast, and Egg+spam sandwiches, that cookbook Mom wrote is great!), and every day of the week we eat with a designated family, or a `mamita´ for lunch.  Lunches here are huge and a little later in the day, so we don`t really have dinner but eat a snack once we return home (usually about 9 or 9.30, no later.)  I`m attaching pictures of my old district, a pic of the view from Pres. Ghents house (WHICH! BTW Mom, sister Ghent remembers you, and we were all talking about it!)  a pic of my Comp and I in our house (and I`m wearing the llama tie!), and my new decked out planner.  I`m praying more than ever, teaching more than ever, and Spanish in the `real world` just got a whole lot tougher!  I feel like out in the field everything is taken up an extra level!  But it`s nice, and I feel more compelled than ever to work.  Plus, I got to go to a baptism last Saturday!  Future goals!                        (Oh!  And before I sign out, 1- did you get my plaque scripture 2- Erik! I sent out an international add-on too! KT should be sending it to you soon! (and for some reason the pictures you attach don`t work... is there another way you can attach them? And yes. I did say those quotes out loud)  3- I must clarify, when I said houses don`t have roofs in Peru, I only meant the tops.  Of course all the homes have roofs!  Sorry for the mixup 4- Look up our area on google maps, it`s in Ecuador, in a town called Carapungo, you can look up the church using lds.org, and we live a few minutes away.  5- Ok, here`s my mission home address

Casilla 17-03-078
Robles 640 y Av. Amazonas
Quito Ecuador

CIAO!   -Elder Sanders.    I`ll tell you once I`ve eaten chicken foot soup.

Eden's in Ecuador !!!!!!

Hola a toda familia! 
I am now in the country of power:Ecuador!!!   The flight went very well, we got to have a nice day (more like a weekend) of goodbyes at the Peru CCM, and we left at 6Am this morning (the 13th)  We arrived in Ecuador at about 1pm, and the moment we got out of the airplane we gazed upon a glorious landscape with round green mountains creating a bowl filled the colorful buildings.  It is so DARN BEAUTIFUL HERE!  (I´ll send photos next week because this is just supposed to be a Í made it OK´  letter)   So as a metaphor, Lima was like a handful of Megablox, and Quito is like a sea of Legos.  I´m excited!  Right now we´re at the President´s house and tonight we´ll get to go meet our companions.    My new P-Days are Monday, so I´ll have to read your letters and such next week,  CIAO!  (oh, and could you forward this to Erik and Brandon, I guess I can´t e-mail friends, only family)   I LOVE YOU ALL!   -Elder Sanders

Edens companion :)

Missionaries fighting EVIL ! its awesome !