Santa Rosa!

Well new year, new area! 

Well when I got called to Santa Rosa, I thought it would be a poorer area and I was really expecting that my new area was going to be just like Guayaquil, with scary stuff going on all around and a lot of garbage, but man it's like I'm in a whole new country!  My new area is in the middle of banana farms and rivers and it's so awesome!  The bus ride I went on was through banana fields!  Everybody lives in real houses and some even have swimming pools!  It's hot here, that's for sure, but not as hot as it was in my last area and it's even cold at night!  Our house is pretty dope but we have a LOT of mosquitoes.  I'm close to Peru and I might have to get someone to get new luggage for me there because everything is way cheaper!  

The people here are great!  Santa Rosa is still just a District, so I'm in a Branch and this Branch is so Strong!! There are 200 or more people in church every week.  Everybody does their callings! The Branch President is such a homie!  The rumor is that in February, it will become a stake!  I hope so!  All is well right now!  hahah  I think this last week was the first time I've ever prayed for the mission to go by slow because man, this week was SO fast!

I'm the Zone Leader here and we share this branch with 2 sister missionaries. All the other missionaries in the Zone live 30 minutes to 2 hours from us so we have to travel a ton!  It's kind of tough, but it should be an adventure! So far, it's pretty fun here!

This past week we had a bautismo with the Sisters! They had taught 2 people who were baptized and we had 1 investigator baptized!  My companion, Elder Barnett, the Branch President and I baptized them and it was awesome!  Great way to start off the week in the new sector!  But man now we have nobody to teach..... kinda blows and I'm stressed, We Starting From the Bottom. Should be fun to see who we can find and teach!  All in all, all is well for me!  Tomorrow my companion and I have to get up at 4am to travel on a bus back to Guayaquil for a Zone Leader training.  I hope we get there in time to watch the announcement from President Nelson on tv!

Elder Hoole

 With the sisters, my companion and our Branch President

We travel around the city in these.  They're called MOTOS.

The view from inside a MOTO when you are riding in it.

Landscape

Santa Rosa!

Crossing over using one of the many water pipes

He was pretty camouflaged.

At our baptism last week!

Before the baptism

Selfie - kind of blurry

One part of my new area

Seafood ceviche!  Yum!

Leaving to Santa Rosa!

CAMBIOS!

Well after being here in this ward since the beginning of September, I was just told that I will be leaving!!! NOOOO!!!!  I'm so sad because this has probably been my favorite area so far in the mission! Super sad to leave these people, but I know that they are in good hands! 

My new sector is called Santa Rosa.  It's on the border of Peru!  It's a pretty big area!  It's surrounded by banana fields and lots of seafood!  It's going to be a huge change but it should be awesome!  My new companion is named Elder Barnett from Ogden Utah; we have been out here the same time in the mission and were in the same MTC class! Haha so that's pretty cool!

Well, this last week here in this ward there were some big changes!  A lot of the new converts we have here just were called into leadership positions!! I'm so happy for them!  It's great to see how the gospel pushes people to be better everyday!  I have seen so many changes in great people here that have made them even better people! The work here in Guayaquil is going well! 

Also, shout out to Ann Hoole (mommy) and Madi Hoole (Sister in-law) for their BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK!!! 

Elder Hoole

@maxhoole   ;)

La Segunda Navidad! ~ Christmas Email

La Segunda Navidad!

Well, this week was crazy fast with a lot of stuff! First off, we had our activity for Light The World and it was so awesome!  We were expecting more people, but it was a fun time!  It was a little devotional and some members came up and gave some really good talks about Christ and the activity Light The World and then after the activity everybody received a balloon and with the balloon they had a card and they were supposed to write a scripture or something on it and then the balloon was to float away with the card so that somebody else in Ecuador could feel the Light Of Christ! And it was awesome! 

After this activity, we had our NOCHE BLANCA!  And yes, that also was awesome because as a Zone we had 13 Bautismos and it was awesome!  A ton of ward members came and it was just super powerful and you could really feel the spirit!  It was awesome!  We as a ward had 5 bautismos and a kid that just got baptized like 4 months ago gave a talk during the baptism because his parents were getting baptized (Familia Cabrera) and it was so awesome for him to share his testimony in front of his parents and everyone there! Then after that I got the great opportunity to skype the fam!!! 1 MORE!  Always great to see those guys! 

So yeah, over all it was a Merry Christmas!  Thanks for the love and support!  Hope all is well!

Part of a Christmas dinner we had! 

Our Light the World banner for the Stake activity

We had a balloon arch

Christmas lights

Everyone getting ready to light the world!

A family at church

Getting ready to let off our balloons

A few of our baptisms

Getting ready for our White Christmas - so many people chose to be baptized!

Skyping with my family!

A Christmas gift from one of the elders!  

Another pair of shoes!  Yay!

Our stake activity went well!

Feliz Año Nuevo

Feliz Año Nuevo

Well this week was one for the books! Lately we have been working a ton with those new converts. It is frustrating to have baptisms and then watch people go inactive. So this week we really made sure that every person who has been recently baptized knows why it is important to read the Book of Mormon and go to church, and I think we did a really good job. 

We had a great church session yesterday and our Stake President came and gave 2 great talks about the church and how tithing is here to help, not to take away and that was great for our investigadores to hear!  He focused on: 1) Pay your tithing; 2) Pay your fast offering; and 3) save your money.  I learned a lot!  Really enjoyed church! 

This last week we also had to go up to the north part of Guayaquil and our Stake President drove us around in his car and showed us some cool things in this city.  That was awesome to see some other parts of the city for a little bit and just have a little adventure haha!  But while we were driving around he got a bad flat tire and we had to change it in the middle of the street where people were selling Monigotes (new year tradition here in Guayaquil) so right there he taught us how to change a tire in less than 5 minutes and it was awesome! haha  I really learned a lot from that guy this week!  But yeah, all is good!  We need to find some more people to teach though!  I feel like this week will be a good week. Since it was a holiday, I took a good nap today!  It felt great!  So last night here in Ecuador it was crazy for the new year! The people here make these things called Monigotes. They are like people-looking dolls made out of paper, and then they burn them down by sticking gas and bombs on them, and so it was crazy last night!  I was just sleeping and then at 12 o'clock midnight it sounded like WW3 was going down in Guayaquil Ecuador!!!   haha IT WAS AWESOME!!!!  You gotta google or YouTube it!  Monigotes! 

So yeah that's about it from this week! Think I'm going to have transfers this upcoming week and I'm super sad about that! I hope I don't!  I like this ward a lot! 

Elder Hoole

Write me! lol 

maxwell.hoole@myldsmail.net

Enjoy these photos of Monigotes (large dolls) - they are paper-mache and come in every size!