5 Months in Ecuador and 2020 Arrives!

Today, marks our 5th month in Ecuador.  It doesn't seem possible.  The days and weeks have passed so quickly.  Even when we think the week is going to be slow, its over before we know it. And now, we've just celebrated our first Christmas and New Year's in Ecuador.  Its crazy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!  We hope that 2020 brings desired blessings and opportunities to all. We started our New Year's celebration last Sunday evening with an invitation from the Paez Family to participate in their family home evening.  Brother and Sister Paez have two teenage children - Samuel and Daniella.  Brother Paez's mother also lives with his family, and his widowed sister and nephew were visiting from Peru for the holidays.  Elder Flint and Elder Martinez (assistants to the mission president) were also there.

We had a wonderful lesson!  Elder Lewis and I were asked to share our testimonies.  My thoughts included testifying that the atonement of Jesus Christ makes eternal families possible.  A blessing I truly cherish.  Elder Lewis expressed a desire to be true to his witness of Christ.  We also played a musical charades game and then enjoyed a light supper of baked chicken wraps, fresh fruit, and dessert.

After the evening was over, Brother Paez drove us back to our apartment.  On the way home, he explained to us three of Ecuador's New Year's traditions. One, is the building of a life-sized, or larger than life-size (2-3 stories), paper mache Disney or Superhero character prior to New Year's Day.  When finished, the paper mache character is placed in a visible area, ignited, and burned.  It represents saying good-bye to the old and welcoming in the new.

Another interesting tradition is for men to dress up in drag.  In garb, men will stand on street corners and approach pedestrians, or call out and stop vehicles at intersections. Apparently, this tradition is poking fun at a tradition that goes back to a time when women, who had been widowed in the past year, would dress up and stand in high traffics areas, flaunting their beauty in hopes of finding another spouse to care for them.  Brother Paez assured us that what we were seeing was all in fun; but we thought it was strange, and at times, downright uncomfortable!

The final tradition .... FIREWORKS!  Now fireworks are something we can relate to.  At midnight, the City of Quito EXPLODES!  There are fireworks going off everywhere.  We went to the open air plaza on the top floor of our apartment complex to take in the scene.  However, it had been raining and cloudy all day and we couldn't see as much as we had hoped too.  The audio was there, but the visuals were missing.  On a clear night it would have been spectacular!  Maybe next year......

Searching for fireworks in the cloudy sky of Quito Ecuador at midnight on January 1, 2020.

The work at the mission office was very slow this week.  For safety reasons, all missionaries were instructed to stay inside their apartments on New Year's Eve.  We invited the 3 sisters missionaries who live in the upstairs apartment to join us for dinner and games.  We had a wonderful afternoon  enjoying their company, celebrating the past year, playing games, and making plans for 2020.

New Year's Day, we were back in the office.  All businesses were closed, except for a few restaurants.  We kept busy in the office preparing for this coming week of transfers.  We will have 4 missionaries leaving and possibly 16 missionaries arriving.  I say "possibly," because the number of arriving missionaries is continuously fluctuating, due to visas delays and reassignments.  Visa delays affect both Latino and North American missionaries.  Last transfer, we had 6 or 7 North American missionaries who were reassigned to state-side missions the week before they were scheduled to come to Quito.  However, their visas came through at the last minute and they arrived as expected.
Missionaries coming and going keep us on our toes.  We welcome them all and we are so grateful for their sacrifice and service.

Quiet streets in Quito on New Year's Day.

This past week we had the opportunity to help teach a missionary discussion to Carolina.  Carolina is a young woman in her 20's who has been investigating the church for years.  She has been taught by multiple missionary companionships, the mission president, an area authority, and others.  She has finally made the commitment to be baptized this Saturday, January 11th.  We are thrilled for her!

We are still shopping for a cell phone to replace my stolen 6s Plus iPhone. We discovered that a brand new phone at MundoMac (the Ecuadorean version of an Apple Store) would cost over $1000.  We're definitely not spending that  kind of money on a phone that could be stolen again.

We also checked into buying a used phone at a place called Dr. Celular.  That was interesting.  I could buy a used phone like the one I had for about $300.   However, they didn't have a 6s Plus iPhone in stock. They took our phone number and said they would call us when one came in.  Forgive me for saying, but all the store personnel looked a little sketchy.  My first thought was that they are buying stolen used phones on the black market, retooling them, and selling them.  Hey, I could possibly buy back my own phone.

On one of our adventures to shop for a cell phone, we took the bus out to Quicentro, a nice upscale mall to the north.  We boarded the bus, found a seat two-thirds of the way back, and sat down to relax until we arrived at our destination.  As the bus started to move forward, it appeared that our bus driver was trying to drag race with another bus that had pulled out in front of him.  He stepped on the accelerator, zoomed forward, and followed the "competing" bus until it came to a stop.  Whereupon our bus screeched to a halt right behind the other bus.  Honestly, there may have been 18" inches between the flat nose front of our bus and the rear-end of the "competing" bus.  While the other bus was waiting for passengers to de-board and board, our bus driver decided to go around him.  As we pulled to the left on the narrow one way street, we heard this crashing noise.  The angle of our bus put the bus's back right window into the trunk of a tree on the street.  The window was shattered, but still intact, except for a small hole where it connected with the tree.  The passengers in the back seat shared a few expletives, jumped up, and moved to another seat.

Shattered bus window.

We were startled when we heard the crash and realized that the tree trunk was stuck in the back window.  The driver finally maneuvered the bus forward, leaving the tree and some shattered glass behind.  A few seconds later, the man taking tickets came running to the back of the bus with a broom.  I thought he was planning to clean up what glass had fallen out.  Not so!  The bus continued on its route for a short distance and then pulled up to a closed road-side dumpster.  When the bus stopped along side the dumpster, the man with the broom began punching out what remained of the window, spreading shattered glass all over the top of the closed dumpster and the street.  Once the window was out, the broom was used to sweep the glass that had fallen on the floor out the side doors of the bus and onto the street near the dumpster, not in the dumpster, but near the dumpster.  I guess that was close enough.

Without a second thought for the mess that we'd just left at the side of the dumpster and on the street, our bus ride continued.  At the next stop, another passenger boarded the bus, took the back seat where the window had just been shattered, and settled in for the ride.  He was none the wiser about what had just happened. Bus fees are $0.25 per person and in this case we got far more entertainment than we planned for😉!

Oh Quito, Quito, what shall we plan for next?

Love and blessings to all!
Elder & Sister Lewis