Serving the Lord in Quito, Ecuador: Crazy drivers, Graffiti, Spanish and the all elusive "ü"

6/30/2015

It's not easy to type as everything gets underlined in red. We had to move rooms today which was our second time so far which was not fun. The temple session today was en español which was interesting as they just dubbed the people in Spanish. The culture is definitely a lot different than America. For example when we are driving the drivers are very crazy and very impatient. Surprisingly, there are no accidents but they still do things that would get them killed in America. Also there is no real right of way and I am unsure that the police have real power here. The country isn't as bad as I heard but we probably don't see the worst parts. When we drive to the temple there is graffiti everywhere on the walls and graffiti is more of an art form here than anything. It was literally on all the walls and lots of buildings It wasn't just like the graffiti we have in America with the names of gangs or names of people but they have just walls of spray paint that portray different things and makes it very interesting. The food is decent and not too bad here at the MTC. The MTC itself is not easy but I am glad that we have Latinos here to speak Spanish with as it helps me know how well (or how poor) my Spanish is.

My Spanish is coming along pretty well and I speak broken Spanish but it still goes well. I have heard some other missionaries say they wished they had practiced like me and really it takes a lot of effort. Fortunately a lot of Spanish is easier than French as even the irregulars are fairly consistent. The only real hard tense I have had problems with is with the subjunctive with the irregular verbs in the subjunctive. I think Spanish might have more irregular verbs in the subjunctive then French does which is no bueno. But quite honestly the fundamental principle in learning a language is practicing it a lot and even if you speak the language in broken phrases or simply it really helps. Spanish is definitely a struggle sometimes and I do not know if I ever will roll my rs like the Spanish people do. I think me being gone will really sink in after I arrive in Quito as it will be the longest time I was gone from home ever so that should be interesting.

This week the weather was rainy. I never thought I would hate the rain but I do not like the rain as much due to the fact that whenever it rains we end up having to do gym time and the gym gets really crowded. It is no fun trying to play a game when it is so crowded. The last day with our batch of Latinos was sad as some were great. They are now out on the mission proper. In futbol I am doing better and yesterday I scored a PK for my team as the score was 0 to 0 and we ended up winning that round. The really neat part was I scored on a Latino and everyone there that was watching were very excited.

Our MTC president Presidente Duvall said this place was like purgatory once and I said to everyone that he was quite right about that comment. Here's a photo of the missionaries in the CCM in our group. I am in the upper right hand corner trying not to fall off the chair I was standing on. My companion Elder Woodmansee is standing next to me to the left. One of the Latinos that I am friends with is named Élder Egues with an umlaut over the u is standing in the back and he is the fifth person going from the left. (I still can't figure out how to put an umlaut over a letter and it is on the keyboard which is annoying.) Our mission president and his wife are in the first row of chairs. You can't miss them.