Rain Soaked Matthew & Companion

Too Wet to care!

Feb 27, 2012 - Dear Family,

Feb 27, 2012
Dear Family,
This week has flown past. I don't
even realize what day it is until Saturday comes and we have to get
ready for the hardest day of the week....Sunday. It's a pain to get
the the whole ward to church and convince some people to get out of
bed. Yesterday between the running from one side of the sector to
the other then back to the other side (which I might add, is 20
minutes) and then back to church. Then pouring water on some the
heads of some investigators and pleading with them explaining to them
the importance of their assistance in the church for their baptism.
We got four people there yesterday!
Ya know, I think in the church they
drug us or something to make young men want to swim in dog poop in 2
feet of water, burn like a marshmellow cuz the sun is so strong and
walk several miles a day for two years. We gotta be drugged cuz this
wouldn't sound fun to anyone else, but I'm still really happy. But,
I do say I'm pretty tired of the rain. It's always raining, oh well,
whatever. I dry my shoes good and we keep working. I got a nice
compliment from the zone leaders yesterday saying, I've been “doing
work”. 2 weeks ago we got 6 in the sacrament meeting and the 2nd
most in 3 zones next to someone who got 12 but then from there,
everyone had only 2 or 3. This week we got four there and that is a
good week. The zone leaders, Elder Vunovic and Elder Zuleta are
really cool but they are really strict and get upset at the
missionaries, which I don't agree with. For heck sakes, we are on a
mission, not running a business, but oh well. They still told me I
was working hard. Maybe they'll bump me up this next change, or bump
me out, haha, I wanna get out of my sector. I want to go to the
jungle 12 hours south of here in Zamora. That would be so sweet,
really, I don't really mind not having full baptisms all the time. I
guess it's just because my sector is really hard, but in Zamora the
baptisms are low but I still want to go because I know I can handle
it.
I loved that picture that you guys
sent. The missionary one but just FYI, I NEVER SLEEP!!! That
doesn't happen here. We do not have time to do that junk. I hope
you all know when I get home, I'm going to lay on carpet and a pillow
and sleep for 4 days to make up for all the lost sleep haha. That's
no joke, but I really can't wait to lay on carpet. That's going to
be sweet or sit on a couch. That would be cool to. We have just
plastic chairs but it's fun to be a missionary. I'm really happy to
tell you guys the truth. Don't worry about me. I'm doing great and
I'm always being fed food of all sorts like cow stomach, blech! Oh
well, it's fun:)
I love you guys a lot. Thanks for
everything.
Love, Elder Profaizer

Sar Bear
Hey how are you? It sounds like you
are super busy. That's so great. It makes me so happy. Tell me
about your friends. Do they speak English there or Arabic? Are you
just really getting good at speaking arabic? I hope you are still
getting my letters. The work is good here and things are pretty
normal. There really isn't anything new going down here but it's
still good. I love you lots and I miss you. Love Elder Profaizer

Early Birthday Cake from Ponce Family

Matthew tells that the tradition in Ecuador is to smash your face in the birthday cake. It looks like he really enjoys doing just that.

Matthew with the instigators














Anticipation



















After the smash



















The Monkey Face

Pictures

My Zone

Family Ponce gave me a Barcelona Jersey but it is a little Small. (Barcelona Soccer Team)













Burning Elder Orozcos Cloths













Super Wet after being out in rain storm













Street in front of apartment turned to lake after storm

February 20, 2012 - Hello Family!

February 20, 2012

Hello Family!

Wow, so this week was not that great, but it’s ok. It’s P-day and we start a new one this week. It has been raining soooooooooo much!!!!! Wow, all the time. I am always drenched but we get back to the house and shower quickly after and get clean and dry our shoes fast. It’s quite the experience here. There are so many parties, like vacations every month. This weekend, today and tomorrow is called Carnival. It’s a holiday of water and it is legal to throw paint, eggs, water, ink, oil, bathroom water, everything at any person. Yesterday it was only waterballoons so we were ok but we have to constantly look up at the houses so that people don’t hit us with stuff. I can’t believe we were not told to stay in the house for this, but whatever. The work is slow because all the world is drunk and partying for four days straight, so it’s a problem. Yesterday, a drunk guy was talking to us and crying, telling us about his problems and how his wife left him and all that. He kept calling me Tio sam. Tio in Spanish is uncle, so it’s Uncle Sam because I’m a gringo, haha. It’s pretty weird but I felt bad for the guy because he has lost everything. We told him that we would come by his house this week when he was sober. I hope we can help him.

We were contacting this week and as we passed by a house, there was a monkey. It reached through the cage and stole my pen, then it wanted food so some kids came by and they gave us a banana. It was so cool to feed the thing because it’s hands were so small, but just like my hands. It would peel the banana slowly, careful not to drop it. It was so cool, I wish I would have had my camera but I don’t dare go into this part of the city with my camera, it’s not safe there even if you only have one dollar.

I almost got robbed the other day. We were sitting in the middle of a round about and two kids

18 and 19 years old came up to us and told us to give them a dollar. I wasn’t going to give them anything but I was eating some salchipapas, which is like french fries and hot dogs. It was good but I could tell they were hungry. One kid was scared but the other had a face of pure hate. For some reason, I wasn’t scared, I just asked them how they were doing, and you guys know how I am a smart allec, so I joked with them and they didn’t think it was funny so I offered them some fries. The one that was scared come up and grabbed one and after he did that he said “gracious” then the other came up and got some. They both left! I can’t believe someone would come up to me and ask me for money when they aren’t doing anything to earn it themselves, but that’s just me. That was a first for me.

Oh, Ok, YES! I finally went to a place to get that stinking ingrown toenail taken care of and yes, it is better now. I feel like such a baby though. Really? I had to go to someone else to take the thing out. I couldn’t get it out myself. I had to pull money out of my account for that! However, the mission is going to reimburse me.

Thanks for everything, guys, really, I appreciate everything and I’m going to try to send more letters to you guys, handwritten ones but the thing is, I’m just really pressed for time. Getting letters written and sending them is a four week job. Sorry, I’ll work harder to do that.

So, I have been talking to Kirby. I’m happy to hear the shop is good. I really miss it there. I wish I could fix someone’s car or something but I don’t have tools. A member had no compression and I told him it was because the seals were bad and it’s going to cost him $800 to change them. Ah, that’s a cut to the heart here. In comparison, $800 is like 4 months rent. It’s a lot of money. Mom, tell crumps to use Allreds so Kirby has a shop going good when I get home I will have a job, haha, I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Profaizer

SarahJ

How are you? It sounds like you are super busy, that’s ok! I understand, take advantage of everything! You’ll only be there for a little bit. I’m so glad to hear you are getting my letters through scanning them. That makes me so happy. I love you Sarah, I hope you have a great time at Jerusalem. Be safe and study hard. Love you, Elder Profaizer

Feb 13, 2012 Dear Family - Senior Companion

Feb 13, 2012

Dear Family,

Hey you guysssssJ Well, my first week as a Senior Companion went well. We worked hard and found 9 new investigators and 6 of them went to church yesterday. It was super cool. My new companion is way cool and we get along really well. I love it here, guys. Sometimes the time goes slow but it is still going. Always, I am really tired but I guess it’s all part of the experience. Thursday it RAINED SOOOOO HARD. I’ve never seen anything like it. The streets filled up like rivers up to our knees. It’s kind of gross because there is dog poo and stuff like that but we were sure to take a gooood shower when we got to the house. It was so cool, we were literally drenched to the skin in every part. We were headed back to the house and there was a guy who didn’t have an air box on his car. The car took in water so he was stranded in the street. We pushed the car about ¼ mile out of the main road. It was quite a sight. In front of our house the water was so high. This happens rarely cause our house is so much higher. It was really something else.

So this mystery girl from facebook is my convert. She is a little crazy. I don’t know why she is adding everyone but don’t worry about her. She is a “Dolly”. Dolly’s are girls who have crushes on missionaries.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope it was a good one!!! You are all getting so old. Me to, Gosh, I’m turning 20 here in a month.

The other night the Ponce family threw a party for my birthday. Karla Ponce’s daughter, the dolly girls, birthday is the day before mine so they threw me a party. The tradition here is you have to bite the cake then they smash your face in it. It was fun and the cake tasted good in my nose. It was fun. They are really really great!

So I finally have one of those stories that all missionaries have at least one of and it happened Friday. All of our appointments failed us and we were walking without purpose. I was ready to call it a day at five in the afternoon. It was hot and I have an ingrown toenail that has been bugging me all day. My comp has never contacted like this before so he was super tired and we were without hope at all. We sat down on a bench so we could rest. I took off my shoe and my toe was bleeding good. We were about to call it a day when I felt the urge to say a prayer. I asked my comp what he thought and he agreed so we said a prayer and got up and started contacting again. First house, nothing, second house, we got yelled at by Catholics saying we were all politics. Third house, nothing and we crossed the street. I looked at a house that I had walked past a million times and it just felt right so I told my comp and we went to the door. We called out like we do here, and out came an 11 year old girl. She didn’t want to talk to us but then a 17 year old girl came out. She didn’t want to talk either. They looked at us like, Uhhhhhh, why are you here, then their Mom poked her head out of the 2^nd floor window and we asked if we could share a message about Christ with her daughters. She said ya!! To our surprise the two girls came out and we taught outside the house on a little rock wall. We taught about the plan of salvation. Then out came the Mom. She was so nice and asked questions and wanted to know about the Book of Mormon. We ended up teaching the restoration also. They wanted us to come back Saturday, which we did, and taught them again and guess what? They went to church yesterday! It’s truly a miracle. Pray that we can continue teaching them and baptize them in March.

I love you guys so so so much. Thanks for everything. I hope everything is good at homeJ Remember the Lord in all your choices and ask him for guidance and direction. He will help you and guide you through every step. Have faith in the Lord that he can do everything, after all, he did make this world, he made us and he can most definitely help us in our daily decisions. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Profaizer

Feb 6, 2012 - Well Hello Again

Feb 6, 2012
Dear Family,
Hey guys, Wow, again another week has flown past and guess what? Elder Orozco is now gone home and I have a new companion. Elder Orozco leaves tomorrow at 2:30 but he is now with the assistants. I won't lie, I almost cried when I had to tell him good-bye. He was way sad last night but we had a ceremony and burnt allll of his clothes. I'll send pictures next week but it's so true. The mission kills clothes. They were all way old and super worn out. It was fun to burn it all. So, I am a Senior Companion now, woooo!! My new companion has four months in the mission and is from Spain. He's way cool and talks a lot, ha ha, I wonder how long I will be with this one?...I actually might be a district leader but I don't know because they didn't tell me. Because I am a Senior Companion and Elder Orozco was a district leader and he's gone.....I guess we will see:) ha ha, that would be cool though I am not sure.
DAD, FELIZ CUMPLIANOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't have much more news but guess what? My convert, Luis Ponce, was passing the sacrament. That's so cool to me, wow:) It made me so happy to see that and to just see my converts staying active. They were all at church before I was on Sunday. That really makes me happy that we don't have to wake them up now!
I learned something this week, well, I was thinking about something this week because I was thinking how I'm really close with allllll the members here and I am also close with the Young Men and the Young Women. But, it dawned on me that we need to remember to stay young as we get older. We can be young and act young but still be good members and be responsible. The Young Men are always asking to go out with us to help us. Before we used to have to beg them. All the Young Women are so loving and show so much love to the new girls that we bring to church. It's so great, really:) It makes me so happy honestly. I love this ward. Me and my companion did a Family Home Evening in the bishops house this week because we wanted to thank him for all his help and love and everything. We told him we were 100% behind him in support and everything because right now, some of the members are giving him grief. I explained to him how it was when Dad was bishop. How even in Utah there are members who aren't happy with something he was doing and the bishop was comforted to hear that. We assured him he has all our support in everything he needs and he was very grateful for that.
Guys, I gotta say, when I look back on things we do out here, it's real! and I gotta say I honestly feel so good about what I'm doing out here and the things I'm changing in the ward. This ward has changed 180 degrees from what it was before. I really feel good about what I'm doing even though this sector is difficult and I haven't had a mountain of baptisms. I know I'm working hard and trying my best. I can't change those people but I can invite them to change and that's what we do. We don't force the gospel on people, we invite them to a better life basically.
Sarah, I love you and I miss you lots. I hope that you are having a great time and find that balance from fun and study. You will do great. You always have been really good at making that balance between things in your life and I admire that so much about you. Thank you so much for everything:) I love you lots:)
I love you all so much:)
Love, Elder Profaizer