Winter is here, Accent Good When Actually Talking, Converts vs Baptisms

1/18/2016

The weather is more rainy than anything and due to the rain both sets of my shoes got soaked. Not greatly, but it has been really wet so it is officially winter here. Today we didn't do much other than change our house to a new house that is a lot better. The new house is smaller but a lot nicer and in the center of the sector. If we can get people to come to church we should get a few baptisms as well this change which would be fun. It went well enough. However the capacitations (translation: Training) we got in district meeting were more on how to get baptisms and not converts and our big goal as a companionship is to get converts. It was slightly funny as the district leader (who isn't my companion) gave the capacitacion and at one point I looked at my companion with just a puzzled and this-is-wrong look. We looked at each other the same time and then raised our hands to point out what Preach My Gospel says. That is what happened this week.

I got to see a new missionary come in from Chile and he is just starting his mission. When people asked what time he had he said like 3 days as Latinos only spend like 3 weeks in the MTC which doesn't count towards mission time. I felt weird as now three people in our district of 8 have less time than I do and 1 person has the same time.

As for our German contact, we only taught him one time as the family he was staying with were really aggressive against the church. It was a cool lesson as he understood well, but he had opposition from the host family.

I will tell you how people react to hearing my accent. When I don't speak much and ask how much time they think I have they usually put 3 to 4 months. I say no 7 months. When I speak a lot more then ask how much time they think I have they say one year. Answer, 7 months. So I believe I have improved to the point where they understand however I have to speak or they think I am new as I don't speak much and have a young looking face (even though I am close to turning 19!)

I promise to get some more pictures (if I can) during this next week and send them to you next Monday.


This week we worked really hard, but no one except less actives went to church which was funny. The hope is we reactivate the less actives. I don't think there is too much more to say. I think I might send a few photos latter on today to you. Have fun and love you all.

Elder Throop

Christmas Zone Photo (just found)

Combining zones, moving to Zone leader's house?, working hard

1/11/2016

Well the area is going well but we haven't been having much success getting people to go to church. Still we will see.

I have an anouncement we did get changes. I am staying with Elder Paul which is great news. They combined the zones though and that was a crazy change as they had like 6 districts but then cut it down to 4 districts. My companion was going to be district leader but then got bumped down to senior comp only which was what he had wanted. So we have a big zone. Today we helped one of our zone leaders out because the other one finished his mission. I got a little mini speaker from their house as the zone leader just wants the big speaker he had which was funny to see. But we plan on moving to the zone leaders house in the coming weeks if we can as it is a nicer house. We just need the time to do that. We have found lots of people and have had great lessons and we will be working in a new part now because of the changes to the zone.

Well I believe that was everything. It was a little nerve wracking getting changes but for the next change it should be fun and I believe we will get some baptisms this next change which would be a nice break for us as we have been working hard to help people out.

Have fun!

Love Elder Throop

Sunrise

typical road

New Year's Craziness, German investigator, Earthquake

1/4/2016

Well the area is going fairly well. We have a lot of problems getting people to go to church here which was unfortunate. For New Years here it was kind of crazy. There was a party that started New Years Eve below our house at two in the afternoon and lasted until 6:30 in the morning on New Years day. We had to stay all day on New Years Eve because of the parties and the drunks.

So to explain the traditions here. They light of bunches of fireworks for New Years make mannequins of wood and newspaper and light them with fire (and load those mannequins with fireworks and light them off). Something else, I didn't see this but I have heard about it. What it is is men dress as women and go and touch people. That is the basics. Lets just say it probably was good we were stuck. We didn't get too much troubles but a lot of the days we just walked because no one was there.

One of our investigator families is going to have a kid soon but we have good news. We have someone we contacted awhile back who is German that lives here. And we will teach him tommorow. I will send you a photo as proof. Have you gotten my photos? I just want to make sure as I was uncertain if you got them.

As for food my most favorite here is called ceviche de camaron. It is a soup that is really great here. Changes come this Sunday so we will have to see what happens. I don't like the seco de pollo here if it is done poorly (just look those up.) We have had rain but I have stayed mostly dry so no problems. I believe that is it for this last week but I will send you some photos this time as well of a few things here.

Oh one thing I forgot to mention. There was an earthquake in Esmeraldes on the 1st so that was a fun way to start the year. Nothing too bad but it freaked out everyone outside.

Love you all,
Elder Throop

Pensionist Family

Pensionist Family

Pensionist Family

Fires left from New Years celebrations

Outside the apartment

Christmas Skype, Packages from Home Received, Preparing for New Years and Next Changes

12/28/2015

Wow that is really great. You managed to get everything right for the camera and I did get some photos taken so I will be sending those to you guys. It was great seeing you in the call and I didn't cry afterwards but I really enjoyed seeing and hearing from you guys. I can still remember leaving to go here in June. Time has flown. The kids seemed a little quiet though but oh well.

I know it is supposed to get somewhat chaotic here for New Years. That is great to hear about the other missionaries. This week was a little lazier for us but we still managed to get work in. Basically from the phone call on Christmas Day we went straight to work so we didn't slack off too much. I enjoyed all the gifts and as I promised you will get more photos soon.

Today we just ate a nice lunch and cleaned our house as often we don't have many things to do here that aren't really expensive. So that is pretty much what we did. The Friday was interesting as we recieved a capacitacion (translation=Training) on Family History and the first half hour was like, you need to go to the temple. Well I thought, geez thanks I know we need to go. Say something else (mom's note-the Temple in Ecuador is in Guayaquil, so he won't be able to go there for his whole mission since it is in another mission altogether). So we spent a little time doing that. The sector and my relationship with Elder Paul are going well and we have changes coming up soonish so we will have to see.


Love,
Elder Throop


*Mom's Note
Tyler was able to Skype home Christmas Day, in the afternoon, so we were able to see him and talk to him.  He mentioned that he did receive both packages, one from me and one from the ward, for Christmas.  He had already made good use of the Nutella!  He also bore his testimony in Spanish which was great to hear.  He was a bit confused on my package, however, since he had forgotten that I had hidden his camera inside the box of soap.  I told him that he needed to go back home and open the "soap" box since that's where I hid the camera so it wouldn't get swiped by customs once it was inspected in Ecuador.  There have been many stories of items not getting to the missionaries because the boxes are searched before sending on and valuables are sometimes taken out.  So, after the call, Tyler was able to find the camera hidden in the box, so now we have the first pictures of him since Elder Goodfellow, his first companion, was transferred.

Selfie in his new Ecuador soccer shirt

Elder Paul's strange look

What passes for a "mountain" in Santo Domingo

View from apartment

Further down the street outside the apartment

Spoiler Wanted for Star Wars VII, New Years is a BIG Deal, Dinner with the President, Ecuador Futbol Jersey

12/21/2015

Wow that sounds cool with the Star Wars plot. Here in Santo Domingo the celebrations are a little died down for Christmas I think. I mean I have seen some parties and stuff going on but nothing crazy. They don't have too many Christmas lights. Mostly they go around with an image of Mary and light off fireworks causing some disturbances. It is during New Years that is the problem. Apparently the 31st people do lots of stuff here that is pretty insane. I have heard some things but I will be able to tell you guys more soon in the call. All I need to know now is your Skype info as it should be three here if I am thinking correctly.

I kind of want to hear the main spoiler as I have like 17 months until I will see it. I think my companion wants to know as well. I wasn't aware you were planning on getting me anything so thanks for those things. I guess it must be stuff I can only use after the mission. I recently passed a computer store and saw cameras and they were expensive so I will wait to see if those packages came in.

That is great with the Messiah. I have had a slight cold here but it is clearing up.

The main event of our last week was the dinner with our President. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to get to Quito. We left on Wednesday and had the dinner and everything on Thursday. It was really fun. So that was the main event we had. Today we had no activity but I did finally get an Ecuador futbol jersey (fake of course) for 8 bucks from my personal money. It looks pretty good and should last the mission. I think that is all I have to say for now. I hope you guys have a good week and I look forward to seeing you guys on Friday.

Love

Elder Throop

Dirt Roads Get Muddy, Cow Stomach, Can't Bully Me Anymore

12/14/2015

Well I did hear about Sister Young which is really sad. I knew she had heart problems but I didn't know she would die. That is really sad but we do know where she is now. She might even being keeping an eye on my mission.

It's great to hear grandma is getting a smart device. Hopefully she learns a little bit more about the twenty first century now. The area is going fine. We have been contacting like crazy. We had divisions with our zone leaders last week and I ran my sector for the first time. Everything fell (typical luck huh?) so we contacted a bunch. We are starting to see fruits of all those contacts as we had citas (translation=appointments) set up with many and we have many more citas planned for the coming weeks. 

As for the weather it rains almost every day but when it doesn't the sun comes out and bakes us. We have a lot of dirt roads in our sector so they get really muddy. As with the ward council well I think it is a normal thing here were it isn't the best but we still try to do our part. Here it is an obligation for us to be in ward council. So that will happen in this sector.

Well as for the foods I recently ate cow stomach. It looked really strange but didn't taste too bad. The rice part of that meal was worse quite honestly so we do have strange foods sometimes.

I don't know how exactly people get recommended to be senior companion but I do know it is inspiration as I know someone who just finished his training and now is training. Quite honestly I am alright waiting and learning as many people can remain junior companion for awhile but I have 6 months so no one will bully me and tease me as much anymore even if I am junior comp. I don't know if they want me to be senior comp or not.

Well it has gone well this week. This next week we are going to Quito for the Christmas dinner so two and a half days out of commission but you can see the pictures on Facebook if you look up the Ecuador Quito Mission as Hermana Christensen puts things on Facebook. So we will be doing that. I hope all is going well and I am looking forward immensely to the Skype.

Love 

Elder Throop

Dirt roads, Opening the Sector, Christmas is Coming

12/7/2015

I am in a nicer cyber this week but still dinky. This sector has a lot of dirt roads and there are many people here that are uneducated or poorly educated here so it can be harder to teach. My companion is from California and he has been bugged in recent days to hear about the terrorist attacks on California. I also heard a little on what is going on with the political elections. We got to see the Christmas program yesterday (in Spanish) and that was great but it was unfortunate Thomas S Monson didn't speak. His age seems to be affecting him.

This sector is a little harder as we are opening the sector. Opening means that you and another Elder have to find bunches of new people and contact like crazy and learn the sector and you have a hard few weeks. What happened previously was a missionary decided to do something dumb and emergency changes happened after like two weeks and so my companion ended up working in the other sector as this sector didn't have people (thanks to missionaries being not the most obedient). So now we, as harder workers (and hopefully more obedient), get to open the sector. It has been rough. The ward council literally does nothing and only like 4 people went to ward council. We had 170 something people in church but our bishop most specifically didn't say too much other than ask about the numbers and ignore everyone's council on home teaching. So we got a rough sector, but I can deal with it. So that is what happened.

Today for Pday we played football which was really fun. Last week we did have lessons but we did a lot of contacts.

Well love you all and Christmas is really close as well as the phone call.

Elder Throop