Email 05/19/2014 Dead Baby?!

Wellllll hello here from Ecuador. Today its bright and sunny and hot as always!

Well I hope everyone got the pictures that I sent this week.

One of them is of a live sized headless doll that scared the poop out of me and the others of me on a giant hill full of neverending stairs. I call it the stairs of doom because I feel doomed everyday as we scale that monstous hill.

Anyway this week was nice mainly because I got to talk to the family. Also this week many of the members have offered their services in this work of ours.

Which is much needed. Oh I'm also going to go to a place called Ta China an area in our area where no missionaries have gone yet. My plan is to leave this sector with a legacy to the Rodriguez name........ But mainly a legacy for the Lord. 

Well I'm not sure what else to write. This week we found alot of new people, brought back a family of 6 into activity in the church and all is well. 

This next Wednesday we are all traveling to Quito the capital of Ecuador to hear from Elder Waddel one of the 70. If your not a member he's just a really important guy in the church. Now as I should be super excited to hear from him I'm kinda more excited just for the bus rides there and back. The reason is that we can watch movies and buy the movies we want to watch. Because the bus people put on movies whether we like it or not and if we don't buy the movies at time they can be super bad. Well thats all for now folks.

Everything here is going well and my companion is doing good. Still don't like training but I'm getting used to it.

Love ya all and pray for the best,

Elder Rodriguez

I thought this doll was a dead baby!

Giant hill full of neverending stairs!

A top the Giant hill! 

PS: My mom made me remember that this week we also had a service project.....

With machetes, and you all know what that means...HUNGER GAMES... no no sorry. I mean alot of fun. We helped this one family clear their property of all the trees and shrubbery and it was a lot of fun. Until on elder from the states, Elder Hall lost his grip on his machete during mid-swing. Lets just say I almost died. But again it was a lot of fun chopping everything in sight. Sorry I don't have a picture of that but I hope you all can imagine.

Mother's Day phone call 05/17/2014

Elder Rodriguez was finally able to Skype his mom for Mother's Day, Saturday 05/17/14. 

Ivan is going really good! He says "Hello" to everyone. 

Email 05/12/2014 Esmeralds!!!!

Well Hello everybody!!! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there first of all. I wasn't able tocall because there was only one cyber open in town and all the missionaries were there. Oh and only 2 computers were able to use skpe so I plan on calling Saturday. 

So I got my new companion Elder Nogales from Chile and the first day was super rough. He started out the first day with tears in his eyes saying that he wanted to return to his old companion to fix some thing. So I told him to just call the President because an unhappy missionary is a missionary that can't work well. So he called the president then the President wanted to talk to me. So he says that Elder Nogales is a great missionary and is brand new, and for me to just have some patience and work him super hard.

Thats exactly what I did I put him to work. Everyday we return to the house this week our shirt were soaked with sweat. But I have to say he's doing a lot better and I'm feeling great. 

Also this week I had divisions with Elder Kerby. He's another American from my group that knows my family the Norris'. He was great working with and he's crazy good at spanish, but then again that's  why he's the Zone leader. So that was fun learning from him for a day.

Well today is Monday and we went fishing again. Only 2 people caught fish this time and the first person was me. Ohhhh yeah. Well that's all for my week. Church was great and I almost rescued a less active family of 6 back into the church, but the Bishop dropped the ball with interviews. Anyways in this month and the next I'm looking forward to alot of success. Love ya all. And thanks for everything. Once again sorry Mom and Dad for not calling

Elder Rodriguez

In this picture I'm pointing to the area that I work in. 

That city off in the distance is the main part of my sector.

The island that I'm on is my area. It's a big one. I walk a lot.

Myself & Elder Yat. He's from Guatamala.

Myself with Elder Hall. He's from Utah.

 It's a bug! 

Email 05/05/2014 Baptism & Changes

Two more baptized this week. Oh yeah. So this week was all right because we had 2 kids baptised. I'll send pics. There names are Maria and Gabriel and there both 12 years old. Maria is the Aunt of Gabriel and they were both born on the same day, weird. 

So this week we had a bunch of Divisions with the zone leaders here, and I have no idea why. But the zone leader that I was with is super cool. His name is Elder Yat and hes from Guatamala. Its funny but also kinda stern because he was in the military.

Anyway today was changes. My companion Elder Flores was sent to be companions in a trio with the Zone leaders and I'm still waiting for my new companion. So far I know his name is Elder Nogales and he's a newbie. So now I rised up to be the Senor Companion and I have to finish his training........ I really don't want to be training someone right now. Ha but ohwell.

Oh so yesterday we went to the bishops house and were knocking on his door. Then some random old man started to yell at us and say if he sees us on that street again he´ll kill us. Well I found out who that old man is.... The bishops father.....Bummer. Anyway so this Sunday I will be able to call mom and dad for Mothers day. I will be calling in the afternoon and thats all I know So be prepared. 

Elder Rodriguez

Elder Rodriguez with Elder Flores

Baptism of  Maria & Gabriel

Uncle to Maria & Gabriel

Crazy Catholics (Elder Rodriguez did not say what these people are doing)

New Glasses