Elder Justyn Pollock

Dear Everyone, ECUADOR!! I'm in Ecuador now. The last few days in the MTC were really antsy because I really wanted to get here. It was sad saying goodbye to the friends I made in the first 6 weeks of my mission, but ALL of us were really excited to get out here. The plane trip went without much incident. The guy next to me was asking about the church, but then he moved. (I don't think it was cause I was bugging him haha he just moved to sit next to his son up front more because there was open seat). The latinos in my district in the MTC started calling me Elder Chicken-ck the last couple days because pollo in spanish means chicken. I thought it was funny, it was all in good fun and we were all friends haha. Ecuador is HOT! Colombia is not nearly as hot as Ecuador. I don't know how many degrees but yea it's like a constant sauna here. I arrived to meet some other American Elders that are about to leave in a couple months. We went to the mission home in Guayaquil and heard from the president all day. There was "cola chicken" for lunch (and of course beans and rice). It was delicious. They really do eat rice every day here for lunch and dinner. Without exception so far. Anyway that day we met our companions. My companion is Elder Ortiz. He's way awesome. We took a bus to the temple and all slept in the visitor center there. Then my companion and I started the 7 hour bus ride to our zone. It took all day. We ate Mcdonalds for breakfast and KFC for lunch (2 of the few approved restaurants to eat at haha). On the way there lots of street merchants (some 11 year old-ish kids!) would get on the bus at one stop to sell coconut juice and water in the aisle, and get off at the next stop. It's all pretty different here from the USA. The buildings are alllll made of cement. The towns seem pretty... ghetto (for lack of a better word). On the way there were banana plantations. It was ridiculous! MILES and miles of banana trees with rows going back as far as you can see on both sides of the bus!!! I don't even want to try to estimate the number of banana/plantain trees there were. Closer to my zone is a more mountainous area. It was really cool. It reminded me of Emperors new groove were there are hills fading into the distance with the sun shining on them. Muy chevre (very cool). I live in a city called Piñas.( It means pinneaples in English) It is AWESOME. I love it here! My companion has been here 5 months and already wants to live here after his mission haha. The best way to describe here is tranquil. There is little to no crime. I'm still careful about showing money and stuff but my companion insists that there is no need. Everybody is really cool here. They are all really nice and the atomsphere is just laid back here. It's actually a little bit more of a rich town too. There is tons of gold around here, so alot of people own gold mines. Even still nobody has a nice TV or car or anything like that really. It's still a humble place and everybody is happy. The members of the church make sure the missionaries are fed, which is nice. The food is pretty good too. Lots of chicken, rice, beans, and soup. My companion is the branch president here. It's interesting being the companion of branch president. There are alot of duties associated with that on top of missionary work. He's a great trainer and helps me with my spanish. I'm not sure how much English he knows. We only speak in spanish. He's from Mexico. He has visited seattle before and thinks it's awesome. We have taught some lessons to some investigators and members. We gave a blessing to a nice old lady yesterday who is sick. Nobody here speaks English. There are some who speak a little but yea I am in full spanish right now. I love my mission. I know the church is true. I know the savior loves us and the book of mormon is the word of god. I know we have prophets on the Earth today. I know god blesses us when we do the right. I love you all! Elder Pollock justyn.pollock@myldsmail.net