Guinea Pig - What????

9-24-12

Ha this email is a little bit earlier than last week! We made sure we had time this week to use up all 45 min to write to our families. I felt so bad last week that I made you guys worried and couldn't email til later. Oh well it’s all good. So yesterday we had 6 people come to church! 3 of the people are from 1 family, then a wife and a husband, then a lady who has 20 years with 2 kids. The kids have 1 year and mas a menos 3 months. So yeah we are having a lot of success with these people from Cuenca!! 

The mom of the family of 3 will be getting baptized this Saturday!! I’m so excited, mi primer bautismo!!! But, she has to talk to her husband first if she can get baptized. She loves the church; she feels the spirit every time she prays to god (and not the virgin ha-ha) when she reads the BOM, and when she goes to church. It’s an awesome feeling helping people get help!!  Nowhere in the bible does it say to pray to the virgin, ha-ha it’s a little different here. Sometimes we walk into homes of the investigadores and we see pictures of Mary.... I’m just like WHY!!! POR QUÉ!!!!! Ha-ha it’s frustrating but it’s all good. This lady needs to talk to her husband if she can get baptized, she told us yesterday that her husband doesn’t think its necessary for her to be baptized again, because she was baptized as a kid. Well, if you want to play it like that, I can show you hundreds of scriptures in the bible that says baptism es para limparnos. Ha-ha these people are great though, besides their religious beliefs, they’re awesome and really receptive. We can possibly have 4 bautismos for Octubre!! If everything goes well, we can help 3 families get on the right path. I’m so pumped for the next 3 weeks; there are only 3 more weeks of this change so we are going to work hard and help more people come to the truth. Eso es mi meta!!!!

So about the Cuy,,, ha-ha it wasn’t that good to tell you the truth. I’ll send you pics so I don’t have to describe how we cooked it. but I ate the meat, and it tasted umm, decent ha-ha. but the skin was WAY to salted and pretty hard texture so I didn’t like that. I ate the liver of the rat too, and I almost ate the heart, but I chickened out and didn’t eat it ha-ha. I think its illegal to eat cuy in the states. I would be surprised if it is because it’s pretty cruel. Guinea pigs are so small, innocent, and these people just slit their throats and put it on a stick and eat it. It’s pretty gruesome, and really expensive. I’m just glad I can say now I ate cuy. ha-ha. 

So the language is really good now. I would say that I made my goal. I wanted to get the Spanish down by the 23 of October, and I think I made it early. there are still problems with the bible, I think the bible is hard to understand because the words are so ancient and people never talk the language of the bible. but I think I got Spanish down. I still don’t completely understand some parts, like "lo que" o present subjective. but I can the "R" a lot better now, and I think I got the vowels down. so yeah that’s where my Spanish is. on viernes. we were teaching the lady who has a baptism this Saturday, her and her son. she had to leave to talk to my company about a problem, so they went around the corner, and I talk the first lesson to her son, SO I CAN FINALLY TEACH!!! it felt great just talking smoothly and not trying to think of the words. I gotta say, my Spanish in the mtc was rough. I could never say what I wanted to say. I felt like I could start saying what I wanted to about 7 weeks in the mission, in the mtc. but not, I can teach just fine. Spanish is really cool. I’m not kidding family, please learn Spanish. it would be so cool watching 8 gringos talking Spanish to each other ha-ha. me gusta eso bastante!!!!

So I still haven’t received anything, dear elders, packages, or letters. the Zl went to Guayaquil today so maybe they’ll bring something back tomorrow. I hope. I’m dying to see the pics from lake Powell. and the dear elder. alright family I hope you liked this email better then the last one ha-ha sorry again, I just wanted to be able to send pics to you, that’s why we waited after lunch to write. but yeah we had to sit at the home for 3 hours. so I was suffering too ha-ha. no more of that I promise!! alright peace out family!! luv you tons!!! oh and Jaxon, you look legit in that foto!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Gates