Elder Kyle Reynolds: Donuts are my Weakness...

P-day Adventures in Quito!

Hello everyone!

Well this week compared to last week wasn't so spectacular.... Having a baptism is a real high and its hard to stay up there! lol But we do have another person on date for baptism next week! We actually scheduled him for this weekend but we totally forgot it was General Conference so it was kind of embarrassing that we had to change the date... But its all good because he is strong and is super excited to get baptized! His name is Gustavo. He just moved from Venezuela with his daughter and his wife should be arriving in Ecuador here in a week or so. We are hoping to get the whole family baptized!! I love when teaching investigators they just light up when you recite the First Vision to them. No matter what you are experiencing in life, that special experience always makes you feel like the world isn't that bad of a place after all. I love when it is my turn to recite The Fist Vision because every time it is so special. Such a testimony builder every time. I think that's what I love about the gospel most, is that it is never ending. You can learn so much from it and never get bored of it. Luckily, Elder Jacobs and I are starting to click while we teach. We do a lot of role plays in our companionship study and it helps me a ton. I thought the role playing technique was totally dumb, but it helps! You feel so weird doing it the first few times.... But it helps! Practice makes perfect! Even though I still don't know a lot of Spanish, somehow our investigators and the people we teach understand me. I am so grateful for the spirit. Without it I would not be able to communicate with the people we come in contact with. We are getting better at contacting people too. Well I am haha Elder Jacobs already knows how. It kind of sucks that the only way to get better at something is you just have to do it! It is crazy because I am leading the lessons now! Well not really leading, just starting off and trying to talk more and more.

We didn't have any crazy stories this week. Just another week in the life of a missionary. Waking up at 6:30 and being tired all day! haha For some reason it seems I am always tired out here! I don't know why I am because I have been living off of less sleep before the mission... hmmmm Oh well, some things just don't make sense. I can almost compare this to the construction job I had before the mission. At the end of the day you are always completely exhausted, but it feels good to know that you did some quality work. That's how I feel every night. This work is hard, but like I have said it is so worth it. The language is still coming.......sooo...ever so slowly. It seems I have hit a stand still in learning more and more each day. Instead it's like I have spurts. One day I can understand a lot and the next I have no idea what I am saying or the other person is saying. Oh something interesting happened kind of... A new donut shop opened up in our sector. I must say Ecuadorians definitely know how to make bread...but on the pastry side of things they need to learn some stuff haha But we ended up trying them last p-day annnnnnd yeah they got it right this time. It's so bad because the donuts make you feel like you have diabetes.....but they are soooo good! ha I am having a real hard time with self control... And it sucks because it is on the way to most of our appointments!! My companion already has probably knocked off 20 years worth of his life eating them... I probably knocked off 5 to 10 years.... hahaha The donuts are actually the first food that has really tempted me out here! But so far its all good, I still fit into my pants.... haha Saying that after a week. But we walked a ton this week! Its good because Gustavo lives on a crazy huge hill so every time we visit him we burn off about 1000 calories. It has been raining almost everyday too! Usually its off and on throughout a day but this week it has been a steady stream of rain! So it kinda sucks a little because nothing dries here!!! It is humid so wet just stays wet! haha experiences of the mission.

So I'm sorry this isn't too much to read.... I hope something crazy happens next week. I love you all!! Hang in there! Life is too short to not have fun!

Elder Reynolds