Ecuador Guayaquil North Mission

Okay, so one of the things culturally there is when they offer you food, unless it's like a safety concern that you're worried about it, for the most part, you get to eat the bird, but you eat it. Because what they're offering you is that's like a day's work for them when they're offering you their food. And so for them, that is like a very high form of respect. You know you're in with someone when they offer you food. Like when the family comes and offers you food, you're like, we're in, we're good. You know, they're like us, we're chillin', we're good, we got a relationship now. But if you, so if you turn down that food or if you just like eat half of it and just like push it away, like we sometimes do here, they will be offended. And so you learn how to get that food down and get it down quickly. There's something like, for me, I hate papaya. That's something I absolutely despise. But one member gives, or like a friend gave us papaya. And so you choke it down for the best, but.

Um, not, there's not a lot of personal like transport in a lot of areas we were in. A lot of like, for the most part, the areas we were in, people just rode in like Tracy Motors, which are like little motorcycles like a carriage behind it. Super fun. They go really fast and they're very excellent drivers. Um, buses or taxis are pretty much like your three main modes of transport, but a lot of times we just walked just everywhere. But you can pretty much get those for like 30 cents or 25 cents. You just take a ride and the Tracy Motors will take you, halfway to China. So good guys. And then the food there, ton, ton, ton of rice, especially for serving in the city, like around the city of Guizhou. You will get served a plate that's about this big and it will be like literally half of it will just be, I'm not exaggerating, it'll be half of it is just like rice. You learn how to down rice pretty well. And a lot of times there's not like a lot of people.

I think one of the biggest things, everything about Ecuador is just like color. Like, they dance all the time, their music is like playing in the streets 24-7. People just have like these massive boomboxes, like they're in these little cement houses and like, it's like no AC, but like they got their boombox. And this huge massive boombox, and there's like music playing 24-7, they're dancing, they're like, it's crazy. Like all of their houses are just like yellow and green and blue and purple, and you just like walk down the streets, there's just colors everywhere. And like, it's green, it's lush, it's beautiful. People are just like so, I don't know, they're just awesome people. And like, the thing is, they work really hard during the week, they're very hardworking people that are going through a lot to try and put food on the table. But at the end of the weekend, for better or for worse, they are partying. So, they're very, they're incredible people.

One of the things I love about a Golan culture is that there is just a belief in God. And sometimes that when... Again, it's a cave. Sometimes they'd be like, well, I believe in God, but I just don't... But then they wouldn't really do anything with it. But also it made it really nice when we were teaching people, because I only met like two people in my entire mission who'd never even heard of God. But, so that was really fun to get to see some like from the ground up. But, for the most part, people knew who God was, people knew who Jesus Christ was. But the really cool thing that we were able to do as missionaries was to come in and teach them more. And be like, well, you know that Jesus Christ died? And they'd be like, yes. And be like, well, did you know why he died? And they'd be like, for our sins. And I'd be like, yes, correct. But did you know that he also went and suffered this for your pains, for your infirmities? This is what you can do with it now, and this is how you can be baptized and access that through covenant. And so then to get to open up their entire world to that was awesome. And you just have such a firm belief in God, which is just so cool.

One thing that is so awesome about the Burang people is they are, I don't know, they're so... they're easy to love, but I think one of the coolest things when you start using little phrases or words that they use, or when you start kind of like, you talk to them, and the more you know about their culture, the more you know about them, the more you're able to incorporate it into your lessons. It was really cool when one of my areas, we were in the middle of the fields, and so to get to use that during lessons, we teach them about Alma and planting seeds. And we'd say, well, when you plant seeds, what happens? What do you need to do with them? How do you work with them? And they'd be like, we need to go out in the field, you need to work with them, you need to be with them 24-7, you need to be like... It was a very intense job for them. And so then they understood that at a different level, and to go through and be able to piece different pieces of this area needs this type of teaching, this area needs this analogy, was really cool to get to do that on the show.

Okay, so people there are incredible. I've never met nice people in my entire life. I absolutely love Ecuadorian people. They are fantastic. And one of the things I love the most is that no matter who you are, well, especially when you're a missionary, but when you come into their house, it doesn't matter if they're like halfway through making a meal, it doesn't matter if they like have just finished, like they will give you a plate and they will like sit you down and they will feed you or they will give you a glass of water or an apple or a mango or a banana. Like anytime you come in their house, they are always so like, such giving people. And it doesn't matter like if they're rejecting you, they do it in such like a, well, sometimes, for the most part, but for the most part, they're very just like kind people. And they're the people that would be like, I'm not interested in hearing the gospel, but here's this bag of mangoes. And we'd be like, thanks. And they're just like, they're just the best people in the entire world.