Santo Domingo & Sightseeing

On Tuesday, November 5th, we reached our 3 month Quito anniversary.  It's amazing how quickly the time has passed!  With the exception of the language, we feel very comfortable in our apartment complex, in the area of Quito where we live, in the mission office, with the missionaries, and in the ward.

This past week we had the opportunity to travel with President Barlow (mission president) to the Santo Domingo zone conference.  Santo Domingo is 3 hours west of Quito and about an hour from the coast.  The elevation drop was noticeable.  We went from 9600 ft. to about 2000 ft.  The climate was also much warmer and more humid.

The Beautiful Andres Mountains!

El poder brutal, also known as La cara del diablo ("The Face of the Devil"), is a colossal sculpture located in
Ecuador.  It is carved into the living rock of the mountain.  It is especially famous for its size and because
it is located on the most traveled route between Quito and Guayaquil. 
(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_poder_brutal)

We left Quito at 9:45 AM and arrived at the Santo Domingo chapel shortly before 1 PM.  From 1 - 5 PM President conducted interviews with the missionaries.  Elder Lewis and I visited with the missionaries as they came and went.

We had some wonderful conversations and learned that there are 5 missionaries in the mission who have a twin serving somewhere else in the world.  We also discovered that the mission's tallest and shortest missionary are both in Santo Domingo.  Elder Marz at 6' 9" and Elder Chuquimango who is maybe  4' 9".

Missionaries celebrating birthdays in October & November.  Note Elder Marz at 6'9".  Elder Chuquimango is not pictured, but he is at least 8 - 10 inches shorter than the shortest Elder in this photo.

Knowing that we were going to be waiting several hours for President Barlow to finish his interviews, I took some piano music with me to practice if the opportunity presented itself.  At one point, while waiting for Elders to arrive, I sat down to play.  The zone leader Elder Wilkinson, asked me if I would accompany a few Elders who would be singing a special musical number the next day at zone conference.  I agreed to do so, and then I asked Elder Wilkinson what hymn they would be singing. He said they would be singing the lyrics from "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" with the music from "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Elder Wilkinson then went on to say that they didn't have the music for "Come Thou Fount", but was hopeful we could find a copy.

Monday afternoon when I was packing my piano music for our trip, I happened to find tucked in a thin book of chord progressions a one page copy of the music "Come Thou Fount." It was there because several years ago, when I was working on my own piano arrangement of "Come Thou Fount", I had made a copy of that hymn from a previous hymnal and apparently had left it in the chord progression book.  I did not realize it was there until the day before our Santo Domingo trip.  I decided to just leave it there and take the chord progression book  along with the other music I had to Santo Domingo.

You can imagine my surprise when Elder Wilkinson said they needed to find a copy of "Come Thou Fount."  There it was!  I had the copy that I'd found the day before!!  To be sure, it was a small miracle!! The next day at zone conference, five Elders sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to the accompaniment of "Come Thou Fount." It was BEAUTIFUL!

Following interviews on Tuesday night, President took us out to dinner at a nice restaurant in downtown Santo Domingo.  The food was delicious and very reasonably priced.  We ordered a popular dish in Ecuador - ceviche, which is basically a cold seafood soup.

Ceviche - is a seafood dish originating in Peru and typically made from fresh raw fish cured in citrus juices, such as
lemon or lime, and spiced with aii, chili peppers or other seasonings including chopped onions, salt, and coriander.

President had also made arrangements for us to stay in a hotel that was on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. He thought it would be the best place to stay because it would be more quiet than the hotel where we'd had dinner.  What President didn't realize was that it was the week of Santo Domingo's State Fair and the fairgrounds were right across the street from our hotel.  Needless to say, it was a NOISY night!  Music was playing until 3 AM and then the roosters started crowing at dawn's first ray of light - approximately 4:45 AM.  Elder Lewis and I got little or no sleep.  We were hopeful that President was able to get some rest, but discovered at breakfast that he too had had a sleepless night.

In spite of our sleepless night, being with the missionaries was energizing and we managed the entire day and the drive home without any problems.

Yesterday, we took the Quito City On/Off Tour Bus.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our 3 hour tour.  Some of the sites we had visited before and others were new to us.   We couldn't help but notice the Sherwin Williams sign.  I know that's not a "city site", but it's significant to us.  Have you been watching SW's stock price??

Sherwin Williams ....... cover the earth!

Homeless in Quito?

We do not consider homelessness to be a "city site", but this past week we saw 4 interesting situations.  This man was settled among the pigeons.  In two other cases, men were sleeping on busy streets in the morning hours. This morning on our way to Church, we came upon a young man (20 something), who was laying on the sidewalk at the corner of a busy intersection.  He looked as if he were dead.  As we approached him, I watched closely to see if his chest was rising and falling.  It was, and we knew he was still alive; but apparently he had fallen at that spot in a drunken or stoned stupor.  He was gone when we walked by two hours later.

We're not surprised by the situations described above.  In a city of over 2 million people, its amazing that we don't see more of the same.  But, it does cause one to stop and think, to count blessings, and to consider how best to share those blessings.

We are grateful to be here! We are learning and growing in new and exciting ways. We are serving and being served.  We are thankful for the love and support of our children, children-in-law, grandchildren, family members, and friends.  May God's choicest blessings be yours!

Love to all from Ecuador!
Elder & Sister Lewis