Elder Stanley Ogden - Called To Serve: Week 10

¡Buenas todas!

I hope every one is doing great! We had mainly a week of traveling this week. I hope everyone got a lot out of General Conference! I know I did. I was sad to not see President Monson and hear of the passing of Elder Hales. I loved that Elder Anderson had an opportunity to give us teachings from him for the last time. I hope every one will go back and read the talks another time. I thought a lot about the song Let Her Go by Passenger. I know it is a love song but I thought more about the lines "Well you only need the light when it`s burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow...only know you`ve been high when you`re feeling low, only hate the road when you`re missing home." I thought about this because it has been a full year since I have watched General Conference live. No one really truly misses something until they don`t have it. I love General Conference and I hope you all do too.

This week we had verfication which is basically making sure all of us new missionaries are progressing and are doing what we should be doing. I learned a lot about probably the most important questions we could ever ask, what, how, and why. I have always known that why is an important question but in missionary work, what and how is important as well. Their answers show how much they really understand about a doctrine, principle, or commandment. I ask all of you to ask yourselves those questions when studying scriptures and conference talks. I promise you will learn a lot more because you are showing your humbleness before the Lord.

I have heard people want to hear more about Cotacachi so I will do my best to help you see what I constantly see. In Ecuador in general, there are no boundaries. What I mean by this is literally everyone could do literally anything and it´s okay. For example, many people when describing others will use fatness as an adjective. It is very different social norms here that have been interesting to learn about. No one drives. Well, actually few people drive. Most people take a bus or taxi, depending on which is cheaper or easier. Both are stickshift. NO ONE and I repeat NO ONE has an automatic. After doing some math I found that if me and my companion take a bus roundtrip to a place (30-35 cents one-way), which we do almost everyday, and took a bus home in the night ($1.25), which we do almost every night, we spend about ten dollars in just transportation. Now there are some unexpected transportation needs, as any adult will know there are always unexpected expenses. It´s been a good thing for me to learn. The food here is almost always the same, rice, beans, maybe a vegetable salad of some sort, and meat. Every. Meal. That will be coupled with a fruit juice of some sort. The culture is to start with soup, have the main dish, then the juice. I love the fruit that they have here. One fruit in particular, and not in the States, is tomate de arbol. Very delicious fruit juice. In Cotacachi we have sectors, or towns in a larger city. This is what makes our travels on the bus so high and daily. I have absolutely loved every minute here and if the computer allows, I will send pictures.

That´s all I have for this week! Keep reading the Book of Mormon and serving others! Love you all!

--Elder Ogden--

Not sure how but I actually have all my pictures I thought I lost so here you go!

Pictures of Volcano Imbabura and Volcano Cotacachi, you might notice we are right in between both.