The Mountains of Ecuador

Well, another week here in the mountains of Ecuador!  This week went by very fast!  Our sector here is huge!  From the starting point of our sector to the end is 4 hours big!  IT IS MASSIVE!  It's only my companion and me and 2 other sister missionaries!  So yeah, we travel a lot on bus and I am for sure going to get lost here when my companion leaves in 2 weeks to go home haha but all will be well! 

This week we taught one of our investigadors who's only 17.  She has 2 kids and her husband tried to jump the fence into the US last month and is in jail.  Super sad.  But all is well with her here and she has a date to get baptized in 2 weeks!  Going to be awesome!  Another one of our investigadors has been investigating the church for 1 year and she had some doubts about the Book of Mormon.  However, she prayed last week to see if it was true and she got an answer right after!  So tonight we are going to invite her to be baptized next week.  Hope it goes well!  The work up here is hard sometimes haha!  I get yelled at a lot by people who don't wanna listen to us and I also feel like I'm a missionary in the US at times because we teach in English every once in a while! 

So Cuenca is a very pretty place, but yeah I actually get cold here and that is such a huge change from being in Guayaquil for 7 months!  Cold is awesome!  There are still areas here where the Ecuadoreans are living like native Incans.  We don't really go to those areas though.  Today we went to a lookout place at the top of a mountain and we could look down and see the whole city!  It was awesome!  Then we went to the mall and it's just like malls in the US, with American music playing too!

Also, this past week our Ward Mission Leader took us out to get ice cream and it was a knock off of Cold Stone and so good!  Last week I bought pizza for everyone in our house so that we could celebrate our US holiday of Memorial Day.  It was great!!!  We had a Zone Conference this past week with President Moreno and it was great.  And I think I saw Cole Butcher in the Ensign haha!  Man, the Conference issue of the Ensign made me so trunky with all of the pics of Utah!  Yesterday at church I talked with a guy who is from here but he lived in Utah for 20 years.  So awesome to talk with him!

All is well with me!  Thanks for the emails and prayers and love!

Con Amor 

Elder Hoole

maxwell.hoole@myldsmail.net

CUENCA IS SO AWESOME!

Well, another week up here in Cuenca and man, this place is like a completely different world!  It is super Catholic, very rich, cold, very safe and really pretty.  It feels like I'm legit serving a mission in the US.  However, the work here is a lot harder and sometimes very depressing.  Nobody cares to listen to us, and we get yelled at sometimes, but my companion and I have fun with it!  We do have some great investigators here though and the members here are great!  They help us so much and are just awesome!  The second counselor in the mission presidency is in our ward and his family is awesome!  We went to their house yesterday and had hot chocolate and cake and it was so delicious!  

I have yet to see some Cuye (Guinea Pig), yes the people here in Cuenca eat Guinea Pig haha!  So that is a little weird, but I do have our Papito making it for us this week!  Haha should be yummy!  We have a Papito here (a dad who cooks us lunch everyday) and he lived in the United States for 8 years and makes us killer American food!  So that is awesome!  Our sector here is huge!  It is legit a 4th of the city, I swear, and we don't have a car or bike so that really blows!  We live with the Zone leaders and both of them go home in July and my companion goes home in three weeks, so our house is trunky at times, but we have had some fun! 

Here the cows just walk around and it's so cool!  I fed a baby cow this week!  And today for Pday we went and saw some llamas! 

Well, hope all is well back home!

Con Amor,

Elder Hoole

Big Change! I'm in CUENCA!!!

OH CUENCA!!!!!

Well, this last week has been nothing but awesome and crazy!  I'll start from the beginning!  We had such a powerful baptizme on Saturday!  Hermana Maria!  She is so awesome!  Her faith and testimony are unreal!  After her confirmation on Sunday at church, she stood up in front of the congregation and bore a strong testimony.  She is amazing!  She lives in an area with a Catholic church across the street from her home, and one right next door, and she had never gone to either of them.  When we met with her and started teaching her, she agreed right away to start coming to our church.  And 3 weeks later, she is baptized!  Such great faith!

On Sunday morning, I got a phone call from my Zone leaders and they told me that I had transferes and I was so scared, but they told me that I was going to Cuenca!  So if you know anything about Ecuador, you know that Cuenca is the best place in the country (right after Galapagos) and man, I am so happy!  I loved my time in Guayaquil, but it was time for a change!  Cuenca is about 50-75 degrees everyday and rainy and safe and just super pretty!  My new companion, Elder Dures, has 23 months in the mission and is from Argentina.  We live with the Zone leaders in the coolest house haha (with warm water!!!).  They both return home in 2 months, so I am the youngest one here.  We also have 14 sister missionaries serving here in Cuenca.  Missionary work is hard. Working hard in football during high school has really helped me with working hard on my mission!

I had to travel 4 hours by myself this morning on a bus from Guayaquil (just like the bus we rode all over Europe last summer) and I will admit that I was lowkey a little scared, but all is well!  It was definitely one of the prettiest drives I have ever been on!  Funny thing, I took a lot of my clothes to be fixed because I have lost weight and they are too big, and I couldn't pick them up before I left Guayaquil!  So I should get them back in June!  hahahaha

Here are some pics of some of the yummy food that I have had lately at members' homes, the baptizme, and a visit to Isla Santay, as well as the bus ride to Cuenca and the city of Cuenca!  

Also Skype yesterday was awesome!  Loved seeing my family!  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOMMY!!!!!

Elder Hoole

maxwell.hoole@myldsmail.net

 Macaroni and Cheese!!!

Ketchup on everything

My suitcases were filled with cockroaches yesterday!

hahahahahahahaha

Isla Santay

Isla Santay - notice the ferris wheel

beautiful sunset

baptizme of Hermana Maria

skyping with my family

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!!

At the Sernaque's home for dinner and skyping!

Such a great family!!!!!

On the bus ride to Cuenca

The mountains on the way to Cuenca

On the bus ride to Cuenca

Lake in the mountains

Cuenca

Cuenca view

My new home!

Wearing a sweatshirt!  It's cold!

P-Day clothes!  

Raining and wearing sweaters!!!

What's Up from Guayaquil!

Another week down here in Guayaquil!

First off, shout out to my mommy and the Badgers for the dopest packages ever!  I loved them!  Made my whole week!  Also, happy birthday Rambo! 

Well, this week was good!  We had Stake Conference and we had 6 investigators show up!  It was so awesome! One of them was "Grandma Maria" and she is legit so awesome!  We met her 3 weeks ago and this week she is getting baptized!  Her faith is stronger than mine, and she is a great lady! 

Also, this past week it was very hot hahah!  And last Monday I ate MAC N CHEESE!  It tasted so awesome and delicious! hahah  Also, that's exciting for the Jazz to be in the playoffs and last week I saw a guy here wearing a UTAH JAZZ jersey!!!  Crazy!

All is going well for me here!  Loved the emails from everyone today!  Not much else went on this past week.  I guess it was kind of a slow week!  I really hope this week something funny or dope happens!  My spanish is just ok still and it's very hard; people sometimes look at me like "what is he saying?!"  I get to email my family on Saturday for 10 minutes to let them know what time I will be skyping on Sunday!!!  I can't wait!  I am so pumped!!!  We will be skyping from my Bishop's house and he is awesome!

Love, 

Elder Hoole

Scripture challenge - Open your Book of Mormon and read the entire book of Moroni this week!

Baptisms and Blessings

Man, last week was so awesome!  Well, first we got to go back to the temple this past week!  Man, I love the temple!  If you have the time to go in the coming weeks GO!  It is so awesome!  :)  Anyways, also this past week we had some great, great lessons!  We have a new investagador who is legit so ready for the gospel in her life!  We knocked on her door two weeks ago and she told us that when we were talking to her she felt like this was the church for her in her heart!  She always has Catholica and other religions knocking on her door but she has never gone to church!  She has now been twice to our church and is planning to get baptized next week!  It is so fast!  She is like 4 feet tall and 75 years old and just so cute and nice!  

Also we had a great baptism last night!  THE FAMILIA GARCIA WAS BAPTIZED!   Yes it was so awesome!  The whole ward came to it and it was so touching! The mom and her two kids were baptized!  Their husband/dad will be hopefully in the coming months!  It was honestly so awesome!  This past week here in Ecuador the teenagers started up school again and we were at the Familia Garcia's house this last Thursday just talking, and getting ready for there baptism and the thought popped into my head to ask them (the kids) (Alejando and Mia) if they would like a Priesthood Blessing. (I remembered that my dad would always give me and my brothers a back to school blessing) so I asked them if they would like one and they said yes!  So my companion and I gave the whole family back to school blessings and work blessings!  It was so awesome and such a great experience!  S/O to my dad for the great example!

We have had so many blessings here in the area of Ecuador!  Not much really else has happened.  We did have another activity last night too with the ZONE.  So our zone this last week had a ton of success so the APs are buying us pizza this week!  So awesome!  In case you're wondering, It is hot here!  But yeah all is well!

Con Amor
Elder Hoole