Monday, March 18, 2013

First Email from Ecuador!

Santa Monica Ward, Guayaquil, Ecuador

Hello Family!!!! How are all of you. I made it to Ecuador. It has been a crazy experience already. The plane ride was actually great. It was great to get two hours to just sit and do nothing. When I got here we took a bus to a church nearby the airport. President Montalti talked about keeping our objective in our minds and we got our companions. My companion is Elder Hoskins. He is great. He is from Idaho so he can speak english, which is always helpful. Unfortunately, I have not received my package or my drivers liscense yet. For packages that you guys send you have to pay the import taxes and put the green sticker saying you did so or else the packages get stuck in the post office and it costs like fifty dollars to get it out. And you have to get permission which can take forever. So I don't know if I will get them. I am not sure. My first area is pretty close to the airport and it is called Santa Monica. It definately is a culture shock for sure. When first walking into our apartment I was like seriously I have to live here but then after seeing what people in the area were living in I love the apartment. The food here tastes pretty good. It is always pollo and rice. And they always start off with a bowl of soup which is crazy because it is 1 million degrees outside. It rains here everyday which gets pretty crazy. One night we were out and it started pouring and the rain filled up the streets. Water was up to our knees. It was crazy we just had to walk right through it. The people here are awesome. The people is what makes it all worth it. We don't have any baptisms this saturday but the next saturday we should have 3, hopefully!!! Yesterday we went with the ward on visits. I went with the ward mission leader, Hermano Rios. He is a way cool guy. We visited an inactive lady who had her mother living with her. Her mother is 99 yrs old. It was crazy. She asked us to give her a blessing so I anointed the oil, in Spanish, which was a little dificult. My spanish is coming along alright. It is difficult to understand when people talk super fast but I'm picking up more and more. Also my music player got soaked because of rain the first day I was here and no longer works. It is unfortunate. I am always wet here. It is so humid and always sweaty. Also, I am having a guy make leather cases for my scriptures and other things and also a missionary bag thing because backpacks make your back super sweaty so I am going to need to use money from my card from home. Anyways I love you all so much. I miss you guys all so much. That is definately the hardest part of the mission is missing you all greatly. I hope you have a great week. One scripture for this week is D&C 84 verse 88. It talks about how missionaries will be safe, which is great for me because I worry all the time. Anyways love you Tons!!!
Love, Elder Benjamin Duzett

(P.S. Sent to Dad)
Thanks for the pictures. I love to see pictures of you guys. We get 160 dollars a month. Its about five dollars a day. It is not bad. Anyways I love you so much.







 

1 comment:

  1. Cool pictures. We are so glad he is getting settled into life in Ecuador!

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