Email 12/29/2014 Casi Feliz Navidad

  Merry Christmas everybody. I hope everyone had a great Christmas filled with good food, good friends and lots of family time. 

  Here in the mission it was an almost Merry Christmas.........As in it was super great, but it's never the same far away from the family. But it was great that I was able to talk to all my family this Christmas! Especially my Mom, Dad oh and my Grandpa and Granma Rodriguez (who I haven't seen forever).

  So anyway this Christmas was spent for the most part with the Cortez family, who are just super awesome. They gave us a great feast. Then once it was getting late we headed home and had a bit of a game night, playing cards, poping balloons filled with talcom powder (don't try that it hurts your eyes) and eating junk food.

  So thanks for all those who were able to gather around for my Christmas calls, it really meant alot for me. 

  Here we too were able to give to a family. Last week we found a family of 3, which consists of a single mother, her 12 tyear old daughter and her 4 year old son (who is speacial needs and could die at any second). This Christmas they had only each other and no gifts. So we pulled some money together in our little trio and we able to bring them some toy cars for the son, a Monopoly set and a bunch of sweets. You should´ve seen the happiness in there faces. And the happiness in ours.

  Then that brings us to today. The Cortez family took us to the center of Quito to a bunch of Museums and to the house of the President of Ecuador.... Pics to come. 

Well that's all folks.

Love ya all

PEACE!

Elder Rodriguez

Oh P.S.: Shout out to the Half Blood Beckham for having his birthday this week.

Myself and the lonely street dog.

The Cortez Family on Christmas Day.

Our home made Christmas Dinner in our house "fried rice".

Zone Leader action (oh and we bought Pizzas for Christmas to share with the Zone).

Some missionaries from our Zone. 

The center of Quito, Ecuador. 

A selfie of me.

Sometimes ya gotta be a man and guard stuff all day.

Remember that Angel that I went to my very first week in Ecuador, well there it is again!! 

Here are some HUGE live "grubs" that my companion ate. I didn't want a raw one cuz I know for a fact that they usually eat them fried. (Definition of Grubs: the thick-bodied, sluggish larva of several insects, as a scarab beetle) 

That's pure gold behind me.

Email 12/27/2014 Navidad

Here we are with the Cortez Family on Christmas with my 2 companions.

Pictures from our Christmas Lunch with President Richardson.

Our Zone decided to buy scarfs to wear to the party.

12/25/2014 Second Christmas in the Mission Field

Elder Rodriguez Skype his family on Christmas Day. It was fun to see and talk to him. We were able to say hello to his two companions and to the family that feed him Christmas Dinner. The Sanders, his Aunt DeAnn and Uncle John were at home so we FaceTime them and held the cell phone to the screen so Elder Rodriguez could talk to them as well. 

We miss him but know that he is doing important work in Ecuador. We look forward to talking to him come Mother's Day. Elder Rodriguez also told us that his release date is 09/22/2015. Let the count down till he comes home begin.

Email 12/24/2014 Feliz Navidad

First off MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Now I want to make a shout out to my mom, Thanks for the package.

Now for a shout out  to my Aunt LaVonne for my new camera, it didn't just make me happy but also one of my companion's that didn't have a camera. I gave him my old one so he can hold on to some memories on his mission. 

  Now this past couple of days haven't been filled with to many new things. Not many people have had time to listen to us but we have been doing a bunch of services. We helped one family move out of there house because their property manager kicked them out by surprise then we helped a family do some cementing again......The biggest thing that has happened is Christmas. I bought a new camera so you all can see me better, my companion got my old/new camera, then I bought my other companion Bopit....He's super happy now, I just won't have any food for this coming week hahah..... Seriously. But I'm super happy here and everything is going well. Oh one missionary that I haven't seen for about 6 months sent me a new name tag.....It's white for baptisms. I'll send pics to everyone.

Thanks again! MERRY CHRISTMAS 

PEACE,

Elder Rodriguez

New Camera (shock proof & water proof) 

My White name tag

Black & White

Jenna bridge at a members house

Where the studies go down