Hola Querida Familia!

Wow! I thought that this was going to be a normal week, but it turned out to be full of some interesting twists and turns!

I´m glad that Dad was able to get home okay, how strange that he had a problem with his passport, but I´m glad that everything worked out okay and that Dad was able to have a good sense of humor about it all. There´s a Spanish phrase that applies, ´´el que nada hace, nada teme´´ or, he that does nothing, fears nothing. But I´m glad that Dad had the chance to help so many people. Really the Gospel is something that links us with the whole world, and I´m so grateful for the help you could give!

Here on Tuesday we had a surprise visit from President Riggins! He interviewed everyone and talked a lot about how he wants to help Ventanas become a stake before he finishes his service as a mission president. There is still a lot that needs to happen before that can take place, but he helped us see the vision a little better. I´m excited to try some of the things that he taught us.

Then on Friday I was with a another elder in a companionship interchange. Then suddenly at like 6:30 at night, Elder Peralta just starting breaking out with little bumps and blisters all over his face and neck. It turns out that he had an allergic reaction to the crab we ate for lunch! We had to run to the pharmacy and call the mission nurses but the poor guy just has two weeks in the mission field and did not have the best time in his first time out of his sector. But on the bright side, he´s doing a lot better now, and knows not to eat any more crab. haha

The rains started this week (I think 10 days ago we had our first real rain) and the government is really worried about this being a year of unusually strong rains. (Usually they don´t start until the end of December.) They´re so worried that now all the schools have classes on Saturdays to finish the school year hopefully before there are any floods. No one is happy about having school on Saturdays, and I can only imagine the uproars there would be in the United States if anyone ever thought about making school on Saturdays hahaha. =) Hopefully we´ll be able to keep dry, but I´ve started walking around with my umbrella just in case. =)

On Saturday we had our first activity in the branch in almost over a year. Unfortunatley not many people came, but we´re trying to help them do more activities and hopefully this was the first of more to come. =) Also we learned how to make a very delicious Ecuadorian cake called ´´torta de tres leches´´ with a less active member. She really liked the activity, and wants to come back to the church! So I would say it was a success =)

That´s pretty much all from me this week, and I hope that everyone is doing well, and enjoys their Halloween! Here the big event will be on Sunday, November first, but it´s more like Memorial Day than Halloween. I´ll keep you all filled in =)

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Hales =)

Serving a cake at the branch FHE - Jonathan with Elder Cari