Elder Moranda and the Traveling Suitcase

NOTE: I will try to catch up on all the doings from the last of October, November and the first part of December. It seems that as the time grows shorter everything kind of snowballs and I get behind, sorry!


The flowered suitcase on its way to continue traveling around the world.


Elder Maranda with the special suitcase, so glad it was here in his time of need.

October 21, 2011
Elder Moranda was the Elder that stayed with us for a little over a week after he had surgery. We became quite close to him. He was waiting for his visa to go to Venezuela where his actual call was. His visa finally came through and he prepared to leave Quito, but he needed a suitcase! Low and Behold we had the flowered D.I. suitcase that the Flakes have been using. This suitcase has traveled all over the world, Africa, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Cambodia to name a few places. It comes full of goodies for the missionaries and leaves full of souvenirs or gifts for the missionaries families. Elder and Sister Flake are awesome in their care of the missionaries all over the world. However, their daughter threatened that if they brought this suitcase home again she would throw it away, so it was left in our care. Well on this day that suitcase is once again in use and on its way to Venezuela. Oh the stories it could tell!

WELCOME SISTER THOMAS

Before Sister Naylor left we had an evening together at the Geldmacher´s. I had made an apple pumpkin crisp and we just remembered our time together.

Sister Thomas and Sister Naylor.


Sister Thomas arriving in Quito, Ecuador.

October 14, 2011

We returned from Tena and were able to rest for a short time before we headed out to the airport to meet our new Sister who will be working in the Mission Office. Sister Stephanie Thomas is from Arizona but moved to Utah just before coming to Ecuador. She is full of energy and is going to be really fun to have in our group of Senior Missionaries. We found out that she is a beautician and she brought her hair cutting sissors with her!!! This is such a tender mercy from the Lord. Getting haircuts here has been a challenge and the cuts can get pretty interesting.

Elders, Hermanas, and more Elders!

On Friday night, August 19th, we took Sister Lopez and Elder Villa out to dinner. Elder Villa returned to his sector on Saturday morning, and Sister Lopez flew home to Nicaragua on Monday morning.



Elder Parrish, Elder Vergara, Elder Warr and Elder Estrada following dinner on Sunday.


Elder Vergara, Elder Villa and Elder Warr joining us for lunch.


Sister Rogers, Sister Caldwell, Sister Lopez and Sister Naylor. Sister Lopez is having problems with her knees and is staying with Sister Naylor.


Elder Vomocil, Elder Cox and Elder Hakes at their last dinner with us before returning home. Elder Villa, staying with us following surgery.

August 11,12,14, 2011
These have been exceptionally busy days. On Thursday August 11th we were asked if Elder Villa could stay with us for a week while he recovered from surgery. We had asked three Elders, who were leaving, to have dinner with us that evening. We had invited the Sisters to have lunch with us on Friday and we had invited the office Elders over for Sunday dinner as it was Elder Parrish´s birthday. Elder Villa came to the apartment about 3 in the afternoon. We prepared a chicken dinner with mashed potatoes for the Elders who came about 4:30. On Friday we made chicken soup for the Sisters including Sister Naylor and Sister Lopez, and the Assistants dropped by to check on Elder Villa so they had lunch too. Sunday we had chicken with mashed potatoes again, at the Elder´s request, for the four office Elders plus Elder Villa. All we did was cook and clean up the whole weekend. Elder Villa is doing very well and went back to his sector the following Saturday, the returning Elders are now at home and we hope doing well. We plan to ask the Sisters to dinner again sometime soon, and we have another birthday for one of the office Elders coming up so there will be more cooking.

Happy Birthday Elder Vergara and Elder Estrada

Blowing out the candles! Sister Naylor found the birthday candles and brought them to the party. They were so fun, they sent out sparkler like sparkles and would re-lite after being blown out!




The Elders taking home the left over cake following the party.

July 4 and 10, 2011

At our first staff meeting with the new President Elder Vergara indicated that his birthday was on Monday. The next person to introduce themselves was Elder Estrada who said his birthday was on the next Friday. This got to be kind of joke when I said our birthdays weren´t until August and September, everyone laughed. I decided to make a German chocolate cake (mostly because it sounded really good) for Elder Vergara on Monday. He was very surprised and seemed to really enjoy the cake. Then on Sunday the 10th we had the Elders over for dinner and had cake and ice cream for Elder Estrada. The missionaries like to be remembered and enjoy eating anytime, it is fun to do little things for them.

New President - More Eating

President and Sister Ghent, our new mission president and his wife.


Their first Zone Leader Council.


Happy 4th of July America!!!


Sister Ghent made matching aprons for all the Senior Missionaries, guess she heard about all the cooking and serving we do.

Tuesday July 5, 2011

President and Sister Ghent are getting right into the action. Tuesday was Zone Leader Council and for now they wanted to keep things as they have been. That means lots of cooking so we can feed the missionaries. We were not able to go to help with breakfast or lunch but Dad and I went to the mission home and served dinner. The Senior Sisters made cake and put the jello stripes in it then I made little American flags on toothpicks to put in each piece of cake for the dessert. I hope this was politically correct. I had the Elders explain to the Latins that July 4th was the celebration of Independence for the USA. I think I need to look up Independence Days for the other countries we have represented here and do the same for them. The Elders seemed to enjoy the meal, although I think they were trying to be polite for this first meal, since most didn´t return for seconds.

WELCOME PRESIDENT AND SISTER GHENT

Passing the mantel. President Sloan took off his plaqua when he went to met President Ghent at the airport. The mission is now in President Ghent´s hands.


One last group picture, FHE at our apartment.

June 30, 2011

President and Sister Ghent arrived today. It was emotional to say good-bye to President and Sister Sloan; there were many tears and lots of hugs. We had one last get together in the office with muffins and hot chocolate then loaded up and all went to the airport. The Sloan’s fly home on Saturday early in the morning. We had a staff meeting on Friday morning to introduce ourselves, the Senior Missionaries invited the new president and his wife to Sunday dinner. They had been serving a mission in Peru when they were called to come here. Their youngest son is serving in Brazil and will be coming "home" to Ecuador at the conclusion of his mission. They will be great to work with! It seems there is nothing as constant as change. We have had the privilege of meeting so many wonderful people, it is so great to be with people who are willing to go and serve.

FAREWELL TO PRESIDENT AND SISTER SLOAN

Some of the beautiful music of Ecuador, I recorded this at the Folk Dance Show.

Music of Ecuador from Brenda Yost on Vimeo.

The first time we went to this dance performance all my pictures were blurry. I have been doing some reading about using my camera so this time I set the ISO to 800 and my f stop to 4.3 and raised the flash, the pictures were much better, far from perfect but better. There was also a children´s group that performed this time they were so fun to watch.





Elder and Sister Yost over looking Quito.



Senior Missionaries: Pres and Sister Sloan, Sister Naylor, Elder and Sister Pettingill, Elder and Sister Yost, Elder and Sister Geldmacher


President and Sister Sloan.

Friday June 24, 2011

We were finally able to make arrangements to go to dinner with President and Sister Sloan before they leave. We went to Old Town to the restaurant Vista Hermosa (Beautiful View). We had dinner on the roof then went around the cornor to the Folk Dance show that is put on each Friday night. It was a delightful evening. We will really miss The Sloan´s they have been wonderful to serve with. On Monday they came to FHE at our apartment. On Thursday we met in the office for one last get together then went to the airport to greet the new President and his wife.

A Wedding and A Baptism

The assistants had taken the key for the water turn on so the Elders were filling the font with a hose, they added some warm water to try and make it more comfortable but it was still pretty cold and not very deep which made it a bit more difficult.
Elder Cox

Elder Vomocil

Elder Hamblin

They had many family members and friends who came to support them, many are not members but were asking about the Church.


They are a beautiful young couple, we wish them the very best.

Just Married!

Saturday June 18, 2011

The Elders phoned us Friday evening and told us they were having a wedding and a baptism on Saturday morning and invited us to come. They have been teaching this young couple, Alisha and Edwin, for awhile and today they will be married so thay can be baptized. It was so nice to be included and they seemed happy to have us there even though they don´t know us. I took several pictures which we printed and gave to them the next day at church. I always pray that the new members will stay active and learn more of the gospel. We actually have an 80% retention rate but there is still that 20%.

Special Meeting with Elder Gonzáles

Senior Missionaries were asked to greet and help seat everyone.

The missionaries were asked to be there an hour early, here they are seated and waiting for the meeting to start.

May 26, 2011

The mission had a special meeting today for all missionaries with Elder Gonzáles of the Seventy, and Elder Hooker, one of our Area Authority Seventies. We had been told that Elder Scott of the Twelve would be coming, but the plan changed. It was so awesome to see all the missionaries of the Quito Ecuador Mission together. Many had traveled many hours to be in attendance. I understand the meeting was really good, it was in Español so I had no idea what was going on. I do love to hear the missionaries sing and one day I will do a video of them singing.

Odds and Ends

As I am doing the posts I sometimes have pictures and videos that I can´t always get on the post. As a result I deceided to do an Odds and Ends post with some pictures and videos for your enjoyment.

We are often stopped on our way to work by students who are studing English and have an assignment to talk to English speaking people, They ask us questions, fill out forms for their assignments and sometime take a picture.

I just love this picture of a girl and her sheep. This was in Colta as we were leaving the HBB training. On the way there we saw a bus with several live sheep tied to the top of the bus, wish I had gotten a picture of that!

US Navy Band - Anchors Away Manta Ecuador from Brenda Yost on Vimeo.

Ecuador National Anthem from Brenda Yost on Vimeo.

A pelican on a fence in Manta. We saw lots of pelican but few seagulls.
I could watch sail boats all day long. From our balcony in Manta.


Of course at every meeting we feed the 5,000, at least it seems like five thousand.

Sister Rogers our mission nurse and Sister Figueroa her companion. They come in to the office every Friday and we take them to lunch. I help Sister Rogers with some of the nursing for the mission and Sister Figueroa helps Sister Naylor enter baptism records in the mission office.

We have had at least 2 sets of missionaries robbed by the robbers using a mind control drug or substance. The thieves ask the missionaries to help them read a paper and the paper has the drug on it. Once exposed the victims will do whatever is asked of them. This is getting to be a big problem here and has been a problem in Colombia for a while. For more information Google scopolamine or mind control drugs. In these pictures Elder and Sister Geldmacher are doing a skit to teach the missionaries about this problem. Elder Vomocil and Elder DiNatali are helping. They do some really fun skits for the missionaries.

We had Elder Miranda stay with us for several days while he was recovering from surgery. He has become quite special to us. He is waiting for a visa to go to Venezuela.


Dad doing his Emergency Preparedness presentation for the missionaries, he wrote the new Preparedness Plan for the mission. Guess you could say he wrote the book.

Health Fair and Other Activities

Dad working hard, Mom playing around with the camera.


Mom in the office by a plaque we received from the Day Care Center in Ibarra.

Dad in our office by the white board where we keep track of our various projects. You can see several are crossed off this means they are completed.

This was a previous meeting were Dad and I help serve breakfast, just before leaving for the Oriente. I could post several pictures of us serving but after awhile it gets old and actually I don´t take pictures much any more of these.

This was our latest meeting. Elder and Sister Geldmacher and I helped serve breakfast and then fixed luch for the Zone Leaders. I also helped Sister Rogers present an emergency first aid training/game to the leaders (sorry didn´t get any pictures of the game). That evening Dad and I served dinner at the mission home to the Zone Leaders. I also did some cooking for this whole event. We love being with the missionaries it is so fun to watch how much they can eat and they are always so grateful.


Pictures of the Health Fair, at least twice a year we visit each Zone and do the height, weight and blood pressure of each missionary. We also do some health teaching, for this one we did teaching on skin infections and oral care. Each missionary was given a new toothbrush.



Dad has been a little worried that many of you will think we only do sightseeing and touristy things, as that is mostly what I seem to post on the blog. He is worried that you will think we are not doing our humanitarian work or even much missionary work. So here is the real scoop. In April we traveled lots doing health fairs for the missionaries. During the time we traveled we looked for or made contacts for humanitarian projects in each of the areas we visited. Most of the pictures on the blog are taken from bus windows, or at quick stops. We do get to visit some sites, at least we try, at each of the locations we go to and I take lots of pictures. Just trust me when I say that pictures of our everyday stuff would really be boring and you would not get to see any of this beautiful country even if THE VIEW is from a bus window.