- JANUARY: Submitted our mission papers.
- FEBRUARY: Welcomed grandchild #28. Evelyn Kae Lewis was born to Patrick & Erica. She entered mortality 14 weeks early at 1 lb. 13 oz., was in the NICU for 91 days, and is now 5 months old and thriving.
- MARCH: Received our mission call to the Ecuador Quito Mission and announced the engagement of our youngest child Natalie to Brad Johnson.
- APRIL: Went on our first ever cruise with our 4 beautiful daughters - Jenna, Whitney, Staci & Natalie. Helped Ethan settle in Utah as he started his job with Lucid Software. Celebrated Natalie's graduation from Brigham Young University, the last of 8 children to attend and graduate from BYU-Provo. Went through the Provo City Center Temple with Natalie as she prepared for her temple marriage in July. Put our Richfield, OH home on the market.
- MAY: Stayed with granddaughters Mae & Emma in Maryland for a week.
- JUNE: Enjoyed visits from Natalie & Brad, Jenna's family, and Staci's family.
- JULY: Sold our lovely Richfield, OH home. Gathered with family for Natalie's & Brad's beautiful wedding in the Provo City Center Temple and reception at Le Jardin in Sandy, UT. Enjoyed a Lewis Reunion with our children and Max's family in Provo. Returned to Ohio to pack and store our belongings. Sold our vehicles. Traveled back to Provo, UT for 11 days of mission training at the Provo MTC.
- AUGUST: Finished our training on August 1st and flew to Quito on August 5th.
WHEW! The first half of 2019 has been AMAZING! We have felt the Lord's hand in our lives and in the lives of our family. We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and we welcome the opportunity to be here in Quito to share our testimonies of Him and to serve.
On Monday, August 5th we flew from the Salt Lake City airport to Atlanta and then to Quito. We arrived in Quito at 11 PM and were greeted by President & Sister Barlow. They were excited to see us and they are looking forward to having a senior missionary couple in the mission. (I hope we don't disappoint!) After greetings and photos, they drove us to our 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment that President and the Elders had outfitted with a new queen bed and bedding, and a few groceries. On the way we saw the construction site of the Quito Temple and the convention center where the Prophet - President Russell M. Nelson will be speaking on August 26th.
President & Sister Barlow gave us a quick tour of the apartment, the keys, and some instructions about plans for Tuesday. They left and we started to get settled. We did a little unpacking and then fell into our new queen bed for a peaceful night's rest.
Tuesday morning we awoke around 6:30 AM to sunshine streaming into our apartment. Two sides of the apartment's four main walls are windows covered with light filtering blinds. There was sunshine everywhere! Ecuador literally means "equator" and so the sun rises around 6 AM and sets around 6 PM every day. Quito's elevation is 9600 feet and the temperature ranges between 45 - 70 degrees year round. Quito is considered to be the City of Eternal Spring. That's a perfect description of the climate - Spring! We are loving the temperatures and the sunshine!!
The office missionaries were scheduled to meet us at 10:30 AM in the lobby of the apartment complex, but since we'd woken up so early we started unpacking. By 10 AM we'd unpacked our suitcases, eaten breakfast, and were ready for our first day at the mission office.
Elder Twitchell, Elder Flake, and Elder Burga met us in the lobby of the apartment complex to walk us to the mission office. The mission office is about 5 blocks away and less than a 10 minute walk. It is in a building that houses the mission offices for the Quito Mission and the Quito North Mission, a Church Distribution Center, and some other church offices. The building used to be the office for the South America Northwest Area. Several years ago the area office was moved to Lima, Peru because the lingering ash plume from the eruption of nearby volcanoes prohibited flights in and out of Quito.
Once at the office we started receiving instruction on what we will be doing. Elder Lewis will be the financial secretary and I'll be the general secretary. The Quito Mission is a walking mission so there are no vehicles to manage. The apartments are managed by Elder Burga who is from Peru. Needless to say, he speaks Spanish very well and is learning English. He has a lot of responsibility and does a nice job with the apartments.
At 3 PM we met the sisters, who also live in our apartment complex. The sisters took us on a walking tour of the area and showed us where to find the things we might need. We then made a trip to the SuperMaxi (a small Walmart like store.) We picked up a few extra groceries and then walked back to the apartment. We stopped at a bakery and bought the sisters a treat for helping us.
Speaking of bakeries, there are small bakery shops, mini-markets, pharmacies, and little cafes on every corner. It's easy to find the essentials.
Wednesday morning, President and Sister Barlow hosted breakfast and mission training at the mission home. Those who attended the training included us, 3 new Elders, 3 trainers for the new Elders, and the assistants to the President ( AP's). President also had several family members visiting from Utah and Idaho who joined us for the training.
Following our morning training we went back to the office and the AP's did more training for the new Elders. We participated in that and then enjoyed a pizza lunch with the Elders.
Wednesday evening we went to bed expecting another restful night, but soon discovered that our apartment neighbor was hosting a celebration of some sorts. The music and noise lasted ALL night long. We maybe got 2 hours of sleep. It was miserable! Thursday after returning to the apartment, we decided it was time to set up the ECHO and have some white noise play throughout the night to drowned out neighbor and street noises. It worked! We slept much better Thursday night. White noise is now a staple in this apartment.
Friday morning we left for the office rested and ready for another day. It was really quiet outside our apartment and I surmised that it must be an Ecuadorian holiday. When we got to the office we looked it up and learned that Ecuador celebrates its independence on August 8, 9 and 10; thus, the party at the neighbors on Wednesday night and the quiet streets on Friday. Ecuador gained its Independence from Spain nearly 200 years ago. Besides the party next door, empty streets, and closed markets, we haven't seen much else that would indicate a national holiday.
Today (Saturday) we figured out how to ride the bus and went to a large mall called El Recreo. Mall shopping was interesting. We were looking for a few specific things and actually found all that we needed - dryer sheets, a phone for our magicJack, a new battery for Max's old iPhone, and a few sundry items. We didn't make any major purchases because we didn't want to carry very much back with us on the bus, tram, or taxi. We took the bus to the mall and it cost us a grand total of 50 cents. We thought we would take the tram back to our apartment so that we would understand the different modes of transportation. However, that didn't work out because when we found the pick-up location for the tram we had just missed the tram we needed and would have to wait another 20+ minutes for the next one. We opted for travel Plan B and hailed a taxi. That was easy and we were home in 15 minutes. The taxi was $4! Elder Lewis was quick to note the price difference........ Bus = 50 cents vs. Taxi = $4! I'll admit that the bus was interesting, but I'll take the convenience and price of a taxi any day.
Today (Saturday) we figured out how to ride the bus and went to a large mall called El Recreo. Mall shopping was interesting. We were looking for a few specific things and actually found all that we needed - dryer sheets, a phone for our magicJack, a new battery for Max's old iPhone, and a few sundry items. We didn't make any major purchases because we didn't want to carry very much back with us on the bus, tram, or taxi. We took the bus to the mall and it cost us a grand total of 50 cents. We thought we would take the tram back to our apartment so that we would understand the different modes of transportation. However, that didn't work out because when we found the pick-up location for the tram we had just missed the tram we needed and would have to wait another 20+ minutes for the next one. We opted for travel Plan B and hailed a taxi. That was easy and we were home in 15 minutes. The taxi was $4! Elder Lewis was quick to note the price difference........ Bus = 50 cents vs. Taxi = $4! I'll admit that the bus was interesting, but I'll take the convenience and price of a taxi any day.
Tomorrow we will be going to church and meeting members of our Ward. We are looking forward to that. The Colon Ward is about .75 miles from our apartment and will probably be a 12-15 minute walk. In case anyone is wondering I will not be wearing heels to church!
We are almost through our first week and it has been a great week! Despite our limited language skills we are getting comfortable with our surroundings and optimistic about navigating the culture. Whenever we try something new, Elder Lewis will prepare a full sentence or two that we can use to ask for things or find things. I take the friendly approach and with 3 - 5 Spanish words from his sentences, along with some hand motions and facial expressions, I will ask a question or make a request. Today at the mall we were looking for a power strip. It's too bad we didn't video tape how I described a power strip to the store clerk. It probably would have gone viral!
Life is good! We are here in Ecuador to invite others to come unto Christ and we're grateful for this opportunity to share our testimonies of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. We hope that in some small way this blog will invite you to draw nearer to Jesus Christ and strengthen your testimony of His living reality. Love to all!
Wedding Day for Natalie - 12 July 2019!
Our Family at the Provo City Center Temple! All 45 of Us!
Elder & Sister Lewis..... leaving Utah on August 5th as missionaries for
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A morning of training with President & Sister Barlow.
Quito =
Querer (love)
Unidad (unity)
Inspiracion (inspiration)
Trabajar (work)
Obediencia (obedience)
Love this and love you! Thank you so much for sharing this experience with us!
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