First Week in Ecuador!!!

Hi everyone and family! This week has been absolutely crazy!

 

First,  Chandler... I know that he is in a better place now. I know that he is such a wonderful person and that he is looking down at all of us right now smiling. He lived a great live and he was ready to meet God, this is very hard on me and it makes me so so so very homesick and you don't know how badly right now I just want to hug all of you guys. But I think I wil be able to cope with Chandler. One day at a time...I will do better,  but at the moment I'm sort of sobbing everywhere. I know that I will see Chandler again, not in two years but it will be that much sweeter when I get to. I know that God lives and that Chandler is hanging out with him right now, cracking jokes and talking about the Jazz. I'm gonna make it through this. I know I can, "Man's extremity is God's opportunity"

Ok, so now I guess I'll talk about my first week here. Getting to Ecuador was crazy long however on my last flight to Ecuador I talked to a nice Ecuadorian man and his child, mostly about normal stuff and a little tiny bit about the gospel, but he seemed receptive and I gave him a pass along card and got his phone number so that was sweet. And, if I am ever in his area I will call him and try to set up a meeting with him.

 

Next we got to the Guayaquil temple and we met with our new companions and the mission president and my companion speaks absolutely no English, only Spanish and he is from Bolivia. 

 

My first area is Loja which is an 8 hour bus ride from Guayaquil, so we slept at the temple for one night and then went on our way to Loja. Loja is very beautiful and it is higher up in the mountains and there are mountains everywhere. I love the scenery. Our casa is pretty big actually, because it is meant to have four missionaries but we are the only ones here for now. My companion and I will have to start cleaning as when we arrived we found we have cockroaches in our kitchen and ants everywhere so making food scares me but I've got a system down for making eggs haha...

 

Mountains of Loja

 



 It was really hard to be away from you for my birthday, but one of the ward members made me the most awesome birthday cake.  It was really delicious!!!!

Birthday Cake For My 19th Birthday Made By One of Our Ward Members

 

 

 

I'm trying to work on my Spanish, but it is coming slow.  It has been a tough first week trying to get adjusted to my new surroundings, but I'm going to try to be more positive and hopefully will have a better week.

Love you all so much!

Elder Lignell