Monday, August 9, 2010

thats right I got transfered and it was a good one.
Im sad that I had to leave milagro but it was time, now I am here in the middle of the andes mountains and I am freezing my butt off. it seriously is cold here and the sun is out, I dont want to have to think about tonight, thats why, when I get done writiting Im going to go to the store and buy a sweater, its what all themissionaries do here,

I also got bumped up to district leader, so that means I finally have to work, I know it sucks that the missionary in the family has to do missionary work but its all good, I wont die from it. my comps name is elder Liberato, he is from guatamala, and has 4 1/2 months in the mission, but we have a solid group of investigatores here and alot have baptismal date, so I am really excited to work here, I was ready for a change of scenery but now that its come I am really ready to work my butt off,

as for packages, sorry but here they wont get here unless they only weigh like 2 1/2 pounds, but thats fine if you want to send me 2 giant bags of beef jerkey again ( wink wink wink wink wink)

Im sad to hear that cliff hazelton died, it was his time, he has served the lord faithfully his whole life and now is resting in paradise, and will soon come into and inherit his glory.

dad I hope your feeling better, just fyi, when you have really bad antacid chalky pills suck, you need to drink milk of magnesia, or pepto, the tastes arent too good, but they help more than tums, and faster.

I hope grandma is feeling better, mom just remember that when we lose our cool, it dosent help anything, so just remember pacience, and like I was explaining to the members the other day, pacience isnt enough, you have to develope all of the christlike attributes, if you want to be happy, I hope you all have a fun week in SLC tell everyone I say hi and if you cant get to a comp to write me dont worry, Im not going to die.

now dad car stuff, I think that is a really ok Idea, I have no problem paying for the things on my own car, so Ill be fine, it is good news that I wont have to go instantly to school, so I will just be able to relax, work on my car and work, but we dont need to worry about that until spring.

with electrical the 3 big problems were the energy drain, the clock/volt reader, and the dome light dont work, so there is definatly a short goin on in there some where,

dadd I want you to look please and tell me, in the hood by the engines are a couple of plastic parts that are broken, like the windowwiper fluid, can you look in black dragon and see if they have those parts, because if they dont I could see us having problems finding those, old plastic parts.

well Im sorry that this is a short one today I dont have alot of time and p day is going to end in an hour, and I only got here to cuenca 1/2 hour ago,
I love you all very much and next weeek I will write to you guys and describe my sector.

Love
Elder Jonathan Match
mission guayaquil sur, sector Tomebamba

Monday, August 2, 2010

so this week went really well and really bad, here in the pradera we have 4 people now that have baptismal dates, the only bad part was that for 4 days of this week I have just been really sick, now Im all better, but I just got a cold that knocked me off of my feet, we had our first interviews with president montalti, and from there we went straight to the house and I ended up sleeping all that day, then all that night, then the next day we thought we would leave and work, welll that didnt last long, and at this point elder jimenez is also geting sick, so we just took that day off as well and just rested, well it was worth it, becuase insted of just being, all sick and crappy for 2 weeks we took the days off and were able to finish the week strong,
 
other than that life here is going pretty much the same everyday of the week, there isnt alot of change, going on, but we have changes in a week and its going to be interesting to see if I stay or go, becuase, there are some big things that could start happening here by my sector so I will let you guys know how it goes next week if things turned out or no,
 
the stang looks really good, the body looks like its a heck of alot better than mine was, and im glad to see that your working on it steven and not just letting it sit around the ouse like I did with mine, but I know that that car will look good, so it has a back row of seats, huh, well thats cool, it has alot more space, but it sounds like you got alot of goodies to go along with the car as well. so take advantage of that, it just means that there is less stuff that you need to do to the car and you will able to get crusing around all the quicker, just make sure to take your time, a good cool car is way better than just a cool car.
 
well thats about all I got for this week, we are in the last week of the change, so I will let you know how transfers go next week,
I hope you all have a good safe week and all goes well for you
love you lots
Elder Jonathan match
Ecuador guayaquill sur

Monday, July 26, 2010

Hi family other than all the atacks that have been happening this last week I am fine, I kid you not I hate the flies  here they are so annoying  in the states when you swat at a fly its because its on your arm, but here they specifically go for your face I dont know why, mabye its because they are always in the eyes of the dogs here, or mabye they just dont care, but its all good, Im going to live longer than they do anyway.

things are doing really well, for the first time in like 1 1/2 monthes we had a really good week, yeah sure the other weeks we have been working out butts off to keep the sector alive and the members excitements up but finally we had a week where our numbers definatly showed how much work were doing, I am actually glad that elder fletcher and elder Jimenez are having a good tough first sector, it will help them for all the rest of the mission, because they will go to their next sector and have alot of success and will see that its s not always bad and they will just love missionary work so much more. when you just keep enduring with faith, god will always reward you you just have to keep it up or god dosent like it too much.

Steven hasnt told me squat about his new car( thats all) p.s GET YOU EAGLE

dad you need to remember the bumper ends were one of the first things that I ever took off of my car in 2006 if the bolts even still exist they will be in the plastic bucket without a baggy, when I took them off I just tossed them into the bucket, so not to make you search, it is my problem for being so stupid when I was 16 so if they are not in that little bucket, then we are pretty much out of hope on finding them.

dad mom right now do not worry about me working that is the only thing that Im doing, you need to remember that right now I am training I do not have the open space of an older comp, this comp of mine is a new elder in the mission, the rest of his mission could be possibly be based on how he learns to work with his trainer,
what I will ask you guys is that when we get really closer to christmas, not because I will get trunky but I will be feeling like I should be home then, last night elder halls got his flight plans in the mail and I realized that I should have mine as well right now. but then I also got thinking, you know there was a reason that I came back to ecuador, and if I do it after december it means that i couldnt have done it if i hadnt gotten sent home, so dont worry about me getting trunky, I actually like talking about the cars and the life at home because if keeps me calm. really reading about how you are going to conver the welder into a mig welder is a comfort and stress reliever for me, the same way that hearing that mom just finished the book of mormon (btw good job mom) is a comfort thing, really if it wasnt for that aspect, most missionaries wouldnt even care if you wrote them. so Just for you guys dont worry about where my heart is, there is no one else and I mean right now no one else who has my heart, only the lord, I remember the blessings and responsibilites that I have to preach the gospel to the lamanites and I am completly convinced that it is only for mine and the efforts that my other missionary brothers are doing right now that is keeping god from coming in that glorious day, god will not come while there are still people to find, and dont forget family there are always people to find, sometimes you have to get dirty and look under rocks and in the dirt, but really that is when you find gold, the work really is worth it, and it really is a good thing to be able to honor god, I remember something you said to me dad about 9 months ago ¨god honors those who honor him¨ dad now that I can feel his honor with me all the time I know with a surety that what you told me is true.

dad stay calm about the a.c, remember money is just money, yes I understand Alot of money is Alot of money, but what if you had tried to fix the thing yourself and end up breaking the whole thing and having to buy a whole new unit it could have been a little bit worse, just stay calm, you dont want to have a heart attack just because you got stressed about cold air.

tell scott congradulations for me.

hey a question, the next time you see brother fisher( therapist) ask him something for me.
my shoulder has started popping again, it dosent hurt really but its uncomfortable when it happenes, I just want to know if its a little temporary thing or if theres an excercise that I need to be doing.

mom keep it up with the new testament, once you get through the gosples it flies by, I know I have now read the N T twice here in the mission, I also love the Pauline epistles, they are great, just pure apostolic teaching, also keep your bible dictionary bookmarked because there are abunch of words that there was in old english that now mean other things, but just keep it up its really easy
did you guys know that all you need to do is read 4 pages(front and back) of the book of mormon daily and you will finish in less than 3 months. when I get to my last 3 Months I am going to start again and I challenge you to read it as well, Ive read the book of mormon in english 1 full time in the mission and now 2 1/2 times in spanish, and it really is an amazing book. before the mission I never could have imagined all of the things that god straight up reveals to his children very plainly. it really is the truest book here in the earth.

also I have now read Jesus the christ 13 times, I havent read in like a month because I am taking a break but remember that that book as well is just absolutly amazing.

well thats all about that I got this week, yes I know it was a little bit longer than normal. but I really hope all is going well there in texas, have a good week, make good smart decisions and pray and read your scriptures, and more than anything take full advantage of all the blessings that your getting for having a missionary in the family right now.
I love you Lots
Elder Jonathan Match
Mission Ecuador Guayaquil Sur
Sector La Pradera Zona Milagro(because they are never moving me out of here)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Letter to Family

so Ive only got a few things to write about this week as well but they are a little cool, well a little cool as a missionary,
so we went out to our friend cristorfers house, he has a finca ( plantation) of cacao, I know Ive told you about him before, but he showed me some of the bullets that hes saved up over the years, it was really cool, he had some from the m-16 I forget what size but they were smaller than I expected he aso had a .50mm bullet witch was cool it was the lenght of my palm, then  he showed me a  monster of a bullet, he says its what they put in the f.-16 fighter jets, this thing was huge I swear it was funny, he was in the ecuadorean air force for 25 years and he is a high ranking inteligence officer, he is always tempting me to go on vacations with him and his family, hes always likie elder match lets go to galapagos, ALL free, military transport and a military beach in galapagos where nobody is and im like no cris I cant go swim, then hes like well then lets go up to the mountains its really cool there, no cris I cant leave my sector, but its funny he is a really good friend and its sad because he is not progressin as an investigator.
                   then this thursday we went as a service to go clean te church and I swear it was so bad, nobody has cleadned this church in years it was so freaking dirty, we worked for 4 hours and still didnt finish, so if the work donsent get done I going to hav eot do it myself and Im not looking forward to that.
the weather here is still cool and during the days its great, the problem is that it cant decide whether to be hot or cold, one day it will be chilly then the next it will be so hot, we cant walk in the streets becase we will butn to easy, adn remember that I have been walking in the sun for the last 1 so when its that hot you know its hot.
 
    the work here is still going realy slow for us but I not super worried we learn alot when we are able to work without success this is the time when you just have to buckle down and keep it up, but I should be happy at least Im not in romania where blaine is going, at least I have had a baptism.
no but that is so awesome where he is going, he is going to learn a heck of alot there, tell him I said hi and good luck it will be really cool for him.
 
Im sorry to hear about grandma it really sounds like there was always a little bit of stress in this whole situation and im realy sad it had to turn out that way, tell here i love here and just to stay calm and think about recouperating fast from the operation, tell her im praying for her
 
oh yeah and dad HAPPY BIRTHDAY my present to you is that you get to make a 400 dollar mission payment for me to be here in a 3rd world country pulling my hair out with stress, but I really hope you have a good birthday, and stay strong on your diet, there is a whole lifetime to eat cake you can eat when the weight goes down, have meat snacks or cheese with candles in them. stay strong-
 
skype is really great with skype we will be able to talk in december a heck of alot easier and it will be cheaper for you guys as well
 
STeven you have time befor school starts, GET YOUR EAGLE its so so so sos sosos so worth it, all the stress goes away and then you get to just be chill and get some palms, doing straight up easy merit badges, just get it done and all the get your eagle stress will go away.
well thats all Ive got for today I love you all lots and hop you have a good week stay safe and keep the faith
Love
Elder Match
Mission ecuador guayaquil sur

Car Email

Today I am going to send 2 emails to the family, because of the amount of material that I have to write on about the cars today i am just making this email my car email,
on the my car front, dad Im not to worried about any thing that you can do on the out side of the car, because I can do it as well, but for sure I want you to leave, EVERYTHING on the inside for me to do when I get home,
next, dad  DO NOT put the windshield back in.
I have been thinking about it and my plan was to come home get a nice little car and have my cruise around datsun car, but then I realized that I could use my money in such a better way so I decided that the datsun is my car Im going to use her, and she is going to be my daily driver. and in that case I want her to be nice and that means that I am going to redo the dash, also I have all those electricle problems and to fix them I was going to have to probably take out the dash any way, so as it stands, go ahead and put in the rear hatch glass, but keep the windshield off so that I can get to those areas alot more eaisly. yes I also realize that my english speling has slowly gone down hill since I moved here and its sucks because I know that im going to have to take english classes when I get home, but its ok, hey thank you for figureing out the problem with the gas tank, that will save me a little bit of grief. but watch out if you try to drive it, the brakes need to be fixed and I desperatly need to grease up all of the parts so just be carefull even if you try to take it around the block and remember that it has been sitting not moving around for the last couple of years and needs to get all the parts back up to speed. some thing else that you might want to try looiking up and finding out right now, is about the steering wheel pad, and horn, I looked for months and never could see anything wrong but I am convinced that there is something missing there,so if you want to look something up that would be it.
       STEVEN, Im so glad your finally joining the club, of the people that have rust buckets sitting around in the garage forever. no seriously, thats so cool that you are getting a ¨new¨ mustang to work on, you should have no problem finding parts for it. What color do you want to paint it? is it a convertible? and how much are you guys going to pay for it? no but seriously thats awesome, I cant wait for me to get home right as you graduate and we can work on our cars together, and to top it all off mike as well is bringing home is car, so dad it looks like you are the only one left who needs a project, so start searching, I have the datsun and steven has the mustang, and uncle marvin has the MG so you need to find something origional and not copy one of us, but thats ok there is plenty to chose from, mabye an old truck of some sorts?
STEVEN do not, I repeat, do not get señoritis it is not worth it, and just work work work on the car, I know there will be days when you dont feel like it, you know that just driving the honda will be easier and yoiu know, the honda has a radio, just remember that its not worth it its way more worth it to just work and get the car in good driving order and go around witha  cool car for the chicks. JK but not really
DAD if you can get the bumpers on this week that would be really cool, and then take some good picture in that good ole TX sunlight,and send them to me that would be really good, for me I am kinda jonessin for some awesome pics of my baby, yes i know that there is a level of trunkyness in thinking about my car and I still have lots of work to do here but a boy can dream.
well thats all Ive got for now,
ALso send me a pic of steves new mustang and mikes car asap Please
LOVE
Elder Match
Ecuador guayaquil sur

Monday, July 12, 2010

I am not kidding I am so glad that it finally got finished, for the last couple of monthes the hype up along with all of the advertisements and all of the laziness that the people here were having is finally done, on sunday spain won the netherlands, 1 to 0 in like the last 3 minutes of extra time, Yes I admit it i saw the game, actually i saw most of the games because here in ecuador it totally isnt like the states, when the missionaries come over the tv goes off, well here its almost the opposit, we will sit down to eat our lunch and they will turn on the tv, yeah i know cool, but I was able to see alot of the world cup, soccer still is not my favorite sport in the world but I was cravin being able to watch sports, so I ate up all that I got, becase I still have a little bit of time before I get to sit down and  watch a sport on tv without feeling all of the guilt involved, its such a weird feeling I want to just sit down and be able to watch tv all I  want but at the same time when I honestly have the oppurtunites to do that here I feel so bad.

so a little bit went on this week I was able to do a freaking wreck of a service this thursday, we agreed to help one of the mothers in law of one of our members here, she told us that we werer just going to be moving a couple of bricks from one side of the yard to another. so Im thinking all right lets do it its just moving bricks, so we get over there, and lo and behold, there were more than 2000 freaking bricks all piled up about as tall as I am, so she also has abunch of hills of dirt in her yard making a straight walk over impossible. so what I had to do was first build a bridge between two of the hills so that we could put a wheelbarrow across the hills, then we spent the next 4 1/2 hours moving brick after brick across the yard, oh yeah did I forget to mention that we only got about half way done, and this thursday we are going to go back to finish the job so im not looking forward to it, my legs still hurt from the first time, and dont worry about my shoulder, its been more than 13 months from the surgury and I feel great there, its actually my other shoulder that hurts but dont worry Im doing fine on all the physical front.

I also met a very interesting guy, hes black and he comes from one of the islands and his parents were slaves, he was here when slavery was still legal, it was cool to talk to him a little bit about his life and all the stories that his parents told him, so that was cool.

and Ive been thinking about what Im going to do for work when I get home, because belive it or not we talk about that alot as missionaries, its always what we are going to do when this really short time runs out here, and I dont think I can work at dominoes, it would be a really good job but I dont want to put that many miles on my baby. so I have to think, but then I also though about umping again when I did it the first time I really did not take it all that serious, I only had like 16 years and  I wasnt ready to take it serious I just wanted money, but I think that now days I will be a little bit more mature and I get to make my own schedule so that could be good for me.

well Ive got nothing else, I look forward to hearing from you next week,
Love you lots, stay safe, and keep the faith
Elder Match
Mission Ecuador Guayaquil Sur

Monday, July 5, 2010

answer, all the dead cats here of course, I kid you not fam this week we saw like 12 dead cats all on the side of the road all just chucked out of the side of a car, really because the people here dont bury things they just go to where there are less people and chuck it out of their high speed moving car we never have to worry about being hit by the things because I still avent seen anybody do it we just know how they do it.
this week has goine a little bit better, the sector is still suffering a little bit, it is just rediculous finding new people to teach here, they jus all reject everyting, and the hardest part is that my sector isnt that big I ave every road memorized, but I just need to keep the work up. I know that in the first second that I stop working I will definatly not have any chance what soever of finding any news, so we are just confiding in the face that if we keep working really hard, eventually god will put people that are ready in front of us and really give us oppurtunities of people to teach.
My new companion is named elder Jimenez, he is from the country of guatamala and is pretty cool, hes kindof a shy quiet guy, but hes slowly getting out of it and getting talking to the people more. so we will see haw it goes but I am confident that he is going to be a really good missionary.
on thursday we were able to meet with our new president president montalti , he is from venezuela and he is relativly young, he has his 3 small children with him,  8 10 and 12 years old respectivly. he is really funny, and he has a great personality, so Im not worried about how its going to go with him, yeah it sucks that president johns went home, but he had done his 3 years and it was time for him to get home, so Im just ready, there have already been some really big changes made, and we found out that they are adding ALOT on to preach my gospel, and we have to start, learing all of the stuff thats going to go into it.

with the car dont you remember the same thing happened with the brake and the brake light a couple of years ago, the problem is I dont remember which car, so if you look in the datsun or the honda, you should find another bolt, pushing another button, I know its kinda makeshift and shoddy, but it works, and it shows, that little rubber pieces in cars suck.
I cant remember if you told me or not, did you ever find other bumper ends for the car, I think you did but I swear I cant remember, if you did, you should start looking for the bolts because evenif we have th right bolts they will be all rusted out and and it might be more feasable to just get new ones.

to answer your questions, the weather is getting better here, it actually has cooled off alot to the point when I get up in the morning and go to the roof to work out its actually cold, I know cold, so Im hoping that from here I might be able to go up to the mountains where it actually is cold, that would be the best for me. to actually get to sleep using the blanket that you makde for me. the rugby ball is going really well its just cool to be able to have it back in my hands, Im getting my good spin back and  just being able to strech out my arms throwing it around.
I know that this is the only time that I will ever be able to serve like this and wat makes it all the sadder is that Ive only got like 11 months left to do it, I really feel that this time is actually moving too fast, and its scaring me, because its already july 5 and the time is just speeding up, but im not too worried at the same time because I know that im doing the right thing.
wow mom it sounds like your changing the house up alot, its going to be a different place when I get home, its going to be interesting to see, dad have you given any thought to building that second garage on the back side of the house, or with that, what needs to come first, the fence I bet ri, well just let me know how that goes.ç
thats prett much all thats going on here, Im doing good and hope yall are as well, well Ill talk to you next week, ç
love ya lots
ELder Match