Happy New Year!

Hello Family!

All is still just fine.  I actualy havnt opened that cereal yet.  I dont have milk right now.  But ill open it soon.  

Wow i think i remember when chelsea said that!  (referring to Chelsea saying that she knew that she would be serving the Lord every single day of 2014).  Well this next year is definitely going to be a good one!  So 34 more to go means that you can get it done in 34 days right?  (referring to finishing the D&C)

A few weeks ago my zone had a zone conference thing and a dinner at the Presidents house.  So just not with all the missionaries.  

So yesterday we got our changes!  And they werent very exciting.  But still good!  So i am staying here in Guamani and so is my comp elder Bryce.  So now we get to stay together and finish the things we started last change.  So we decided we are definitely going to have a better change this time than last time.  

Also yesterday we contacted a reference that we got a while ago from a different missionary and even got a nice family out of it.  His name is Freddy Florres and he is super cool.  He doesnt remember how old he is so i think he might have some type of a learning disability.  But hes super nice.  And his family is quite good too.  there is 6 of them.  But two of them live out side of our sector so we can only baptise 4 of them.  And i think they have a pretty good chance at being baptised.  

Oh and today i got the umbrella!  thank you!  And thanks for the other stuff inside too!  

Well i think thats pretty much all for this week!

Elder Eastman

Hello my Father,

Well im pretty sure that the christmas call didnt mess me up.  So thats good!  It was just reall cool.  So yep im doing alright! Thanks for the advise about success!  This last change was a bit tough with that.  Alot of people didnt want to listen to us or just werent home.  So our numbers for alot of the week were pretty terrible.  And my companion occasionaly had a bit of a hard time still thinking that we had any success at all.  We definitely tried as hard as we know how to do and tried our best.  But sometimes the bad numbers would just get a hold of my companion and make him think that he was a bad missionary and doing something wrong.  So i tried to keep myself away from that and stay positive and think of the little successes that we did have.  And at least my companion is always trying to improve and become a better missionary.  I just think that sometimes he just listens to the wrong voice.  Because that is what satan tries to tell us, that we are worse than we really are or tries to make us feel bad about ourselves.  So yeah im going to try really hard and not base my success of of just numbers but think of the effort that i have put into it.

Well thats pretty cool that youll be teaching the little niños!  There is a super good talk that i have been listening to lately by David m. mcconkie called Teaching with the power and authority of God.  So you should look that up.  Its really good.  

Love you too!

Elder Eastman

A picture of my zone that actualy just changed a bit, me roasting marshmellows in our fire place, me, elder bryce, elder memmott, and elder hayrond, and me with mator (from the movie cars)

Christmas Day Skype

We sure love this missionary!  We are so grateful that we could talk with him, and as a bonus... we could see him too! He skyped in at the end of Hermana Chelsea's phone call, so they were able to say hello and say a few things in spanish to each other.  "I love technology!" (sing it like in Napoleon Dynamite)

Rough Pre-Christmas Week

Hello Father,

Well Christmas will defintely be very different this year but im glad im here too.  

Wow a primary teacher!  I definitely would never have expected that!  But thats super cool!  Isnt there like 206ish primary kids in that ward?  

Hahaha ceviche is super duper popular here! Shirmp ceviche is the best of them all i think but i still really dont like it.  There is just so much onions and weird stuff in it.  But ya ive had ceviche a bunch of times so far.  I dont think i have told you this but ive also had the wonderful opportunity to try chicken foot a few times.  Its always just thrown into soup.  So if they have chicken foot at that place i would recomend that you try it.  Because its super super gross.  But not as bad as pig skin or cow stomach.  

Love you too and ill see you on Chistmas!

Elder Eastman

Hello everyone!

So i think we are going to skype around 5 our time.  Which i guess would be 3 your time.  

Well sounds like you guys are just having a super wonderful time over in Utah!  That south american restaurant sounds pretty cool! 

Well this week was pretty rough.  We are really trying not to base our success off of the numbers.  Because this week the numbers really didnt show at all how hard we worked and how much we tried.  They were super terrible.  And pretty much worst of all our golden investigator Hna. Teresa didnt show up to church on sunday which means her baptismal date fell.  So now itll be on the 3rd which is next change which means me and elder bryce might not be there.  Or possibly only one of us.  So that wasnt very fun.  We still have to talk to her to figure out the reason why she wasnt there.  So i guess patience is a big thing that we can learn from this.  

Well i think thats pretty much it for now!  I can tell you more things through skype on Christmas. 

Elder Eastman 

A Dream

Hello Father!

Well i'm a bit jealous that you get the cold and snow! It might not ever get very hot here but it can sometimes feel hot when it's a clear day.  Maybe becuase we are a couple miles closer to the sun.  I think the place i'm at (Guamani) is about 10,000 feet high.  

Haha i really like what you said about the light bulb and Thomas Edison!  That is a super cool analogy.  

Well everything is going pretty good here!  It's still hard to find people to teach but we keep working hard.  One of our best investigators got a cool answer to her prayers a few days ago.  I'll explain it better in the other email to you guys.  But she said because of this answer she is for sure going to baptised!  That made us super happy and excited.  Her baptismal date is on the 27th.  So that will be my first baptism in my mission.  

Well have a good week Father!

Hello Family!

Well first off i have some good news!  A few days ago a got a few packages.  One from the Wright grandparents, one from you guys, and another one from you guys.  So im guessing that means that both of the packages you sent made it here!  One is in a box and the other is in a padded envelope.  I'm waiting for christmas to open them (except the one from grandma and grandpa, i already opened that).  Also i want to send you guys and some other people some letters but i didnt get any time today to write/send them.  So hopefully i will have time next p day.  

Thats a pretty sweet 12 weeks theme!  PMG is awesome.  Also cool about Hayden and all that military stuff.  

Yes i know what the Share the Gift thing is.  We have pass along cards that say El es la Dádiva.  Which pretty much means He is the Gift.  On the back of the card there is a link to a video on the church website that we tell people to go to.  

Well here i dont really think christmas is quite as big as it is in the states.  But its still pretty big.  People dont have big trees here (real or fake) like they do in the states.  They are just small little fake ones (like maybe 3 feet tall normaly).  Also not very many people put lights up.  And when they do its just a very small amounts of lights.  Other than that stuff though i havnt really noticed much else.  

Well the fruits of our labors were definitely more visible this week.  Mostly just with our one really good investigator that we have.  

So a few days ago we taught this investigator of ours named Hna. Teresa the word of wisdom.  And we found out that she really really really likes to drink coffe.  Like alot of the people here.  But we talked to her about it and all that good stuff.  And she said that she will pray to get help with over comming this and that she is going to try really hard to stop drinking coffe.  So that was really good and so far she hasnt drank any more coffe.  Then a bit later on in the lesson she told us something super duper cool.  Well first she has been really trying to figure out why this church is the true church by asking us and also by praying.  And during this lesson she said she got an answer to her prayers.  So what happened is she had a dream.  And in that dream she saw me and my companion.  We were dressed in white and the space around us was really bright.  She then looked around a bit and saw that the space around us wasnt quite as bright as it was around us.  Then she noticed that we were calling after her.  I guess we were telling her to come to us.  She said she was a bit hesitant to come over but she did anyways.  Then when she got to us she saw a foutain with really really clear water in it.  And that was the dream she had.  After this dream she said that because of this she is for sure going to get baptised.  So that was super super cool!  And will be my first baptism on my mission.  Her baptismal date is on the 27 of this month.  

Well i dont have anymore time for emailing.  But today we went up that cable car thing they have here called the teleférico.  It was super cool and fun.  I have some pics.  

Well have a good week everyone!

Elder Eastman

Slow Going

Hello Father!

Everything here is just fine.  The work is still tough and going pretty slow.  Probably most of the citas (appoitments) we make fall.  Mostly just because the people arent home for some reason.  So that can be a bit frustrating.  People are still never in the steets so contacting can be difficult too.  Lately we have been just knocking doors.  Alot of people say either they just arent interested, they are busy right now, or they say ok but when we ask what day would be best for them they say they work all the time and have no free time.  And alot of the time when it is a street contact they say they would like to talk more but then when we ask where they live they give somewhere super far away or somewhere super general, so we ask for a street number and house number and they say they dont remember it or they dont have one, so we ask for a phone number but they say they dont have one.   And then sometimes we get lucky and they actually give us a time and place when we could teach them.  And then out of those good ones very few are actualy home when we come over at the time we set.    So yeah that can be a frustrating sometimes.  But i guess all that really matters is if we always keep trying.  And we have been trying hard lately.  So thats good.  

Me and Elder Bryce have been getting along well.  We both want to do the best we can and always be obedient.  Sometimes it can be a bit hard to know what we need to do like when a cita falls because we are both super young in the mission.  But we are definitely learning and trying to get better.  

Well thanks for being such a great dad and teaching me well!  

Elder Eastman

Well happy birthday mother!  43 isnt super old!  Just a little :)  

This week was still super hard.  Finding new people is really tough but we did have a bit of success with this.  We found 3 new people this week.  But im not too sure how well they are going to progress.  2 of them are super catholic i think, and we only got to teach them the first half of the Restoration so far because of time.  The other guy is pretty good and accepted baptism but still didnt come to church yesterday.  So I dont know.  Hopefully they will be good.  And none of our other investigators came to church yesterday either.  So everyones baptismal date fell and will have to be pushed back at least week.  

No i didnt get to watch the Christmas Devotional.  We were only aloud to if we brought an investigator.  And we werent able to do that.  

So far i have been too tired and lazy to do any exercising in the mornings.  But we just bought this long stick for $1 and we have a bunch of water jugs that we are going to tie to the ends of that.  So we are going to start using that to exercise.  

So for Christas we are aloud to skype.  So be ready for that.  Would 3 o'clock for you guys (4 o'clock here i think) be good for you?  I think that is what my companion can do.  

Well i think that is pretty much all for this week.  Sorry i dont have more.  

Elder Eastman

Oh i forgot to tell you that yes i do email my president.  But theyre not nearly as long as chelseas.  Theyre just short and boring 

Service Really Can Do Some Good

Hello Father,

Things are going pretty good here!  I totaly forgot it was Thanksgiving on thursday last week.  Yeah they definitely dont celebrate it here.  Most people here dont know who Joseph Smith is so I havnt gotten that question yet.  

Well sorry i dont have much else to say.  This week was a bit on the non exciting side.  Not to much happend.  

Well have a fun week at work and with the fam! 

Su hijo,

Elder Eastman

Hello Family!

Yes i got the advent calendar a few days ago.  Thanks for it!  I like it. 

We do laundry and a members house.  We get fed by members for lunch almost every day.  Normaly nobody gives us dinner though.  So for dinner we normaly just make some eggs at the house at the end of the day.  

Yes we have to drink bottled water.  The water from the tap is unsafe.  Im fine with just normal water.  (I asked him if he wanted flavor packets)  We drink juice alot of the time too so its not always boring.  

So far the dogs have stayed some what away from us.  There is only a few who will actually get close to us.  Most are all just bark.  But still super annoying.  

Thanks for ordering the same umbrella!  I really liked that umbrella.  And i havnt bought a new one yet.  

Well this week was a bit unexciting.  I think all of our lessons that we had planned with the new people that we have contacted fell.  And most of the lessons with members fell too.  So we really didnt get to teach a whole lot of lessons this week.  For some reason just nobody is ever home.  Which is weird because theyre not in the streets either.  So im wondering where everyone is.  Guamaní feels like a ghost town sometimes.  A few days ago me, Elder Bryce, some other missionaries and a bunch of ward members helped clean this house of some recent converts who havnt been coming to church lately.  Wow their house was quite the mess.  Tons of cockroaches, dirty clothes outside with flies all over them, stuff like this.  So there was a bunch of stuff to be cleaned.  A bit gross but still a good experience and a good oportunity to help some people out.  And what was really good because of this is that this sunday they actually came to church!  So service can really do some good things sometimes!

Also a few days ago i bought a speaker and a little 8gb flashdrive to put music on.  The speaker says Beats on it but its not a real Beats speaker because it was only about $20.  But its still a good speaker.  And now i can actually listen to music.  Right now i only have a few talks and a bunch of motab from the church website.  But ill try and put those cds i have on it too.  

Cotopaxi!  One of the great views from our house.  On a clear day like this we can see 3 awesome looking volcanoes from our house.

Me and Elder Bryce.  Sorry i forgot again to take a picture with him until just now, so we took one here in the internet place.

Well thats pretty much everything!  

Have a good life!

Elder Eastman

Contacting

Hey dad,

Things have been going pretty good! Elder Bryce is definitely a good missionary.  But we are definitely learning together.  The work has been a bit tough in Guamani.  I guess the last companion of Elder Bryce didnt really like contacting so they just taught the same people over and over again without really accomplishing much so we dont have very many investigators.  We just got a new one though a few days ago though.  Her name is Hermana Teresa and she is super great.  She came to church on her own yesterday which is a really good sign.  Also we have been contacting a ton.  Yesterday we got 27 contacts which is the most we have both ever done in one day.  And the total for last week was i think some where in the 70s.  So we are really trying to find new people.  We have found a few people who accepted a visit from us but havnt been able to visit them yet.  I think there is a few appointments coming up this week.

Thats good you have been going home teaching.  And yea we have alot of appoitments fall all the time.  Its kinda crazy to think that literally all im doing now is pretty much just home teaching.  I used to not like it very much but now it feels good to be teaching a lesson and a bit upsetting when appointments fall.  Little kids are super tough to teach with.  A ton of the lessons we teach have little kids how are super loud in them.  

I love you too!

Elder Eastman

Hello Family!

Well i have some bad news... A few days a go we were on a bus that had about 1,000 people on it and when we were trying to get off my wonderful umbrella fell out of the outside pocket on my backpack that it was in.  Either that or someone stole it.  But either way it made me quite sad.  That umbrella was fantastic.  So now i am umbrellaless in a place that rains like none other.  So i guess i need to find one here.  But the ones here arent nearly as good as the one i had.  

So other than that things here have been going great!  Elder Bryce is wonderful and we work well together.  Right now we really lack investigators so we have been doing a TON of contacting.  Which is actually pretty good because now contacting is alot easier for me and we have been able to find a few families who accepted a visit from us.  Hopefully some of these families turn into good investigators.  

Contacting here in Guamanì is definitely a bit different than it was in Villa Flora.  I think there are more dogs in the streets than there are people.  And since we are trying to focus on families we pretty much have to contact every family we see.  

And speaking of the dogs here i have a great dislike for all of the dogs here.  Becuase alot of the time they arent very nice and bark a ton at us.  And sometimes try to eat us.  And in those cases we quickly try to find a good rock and then through it as hard as we possibly can at them.  It is mostly Elder Bryce that has been doing the throwing so i havnt really gotten a good chance to nail a dog yet.  But im sure i will get my chance soon.  Alot of the dogs here have battle wounds too.  Like legs that dont work, eyes missing, chunks of flesh ripped out, things like this.  So some dogs are definitely not very nice.  

We recently got a new investigator named Hermana Teresa.  Shes really good.  We have had one lesson with her so far about the Plan of Salvation (becuase her husband died a little while ago).  That lesson went decently well.  Well the first part was good but the last bit of it wasnt.  That would be becuase of the member that we had with us.  Well ill just say that sometimes you cant really expect or control what the members decide to share.  Some times they just go off on what ever principle of the gosple that they know how to talk about.  In this case it was the whole message of the Restoration like Joseph Smith, translating the Book of Mormon, the life of Christ, Apostacy, things like this, right in the middle of a Plan of Salvation lesson.  Members are wonderful it can just be kind of difficult to stay focused when they sometimes like to show off their knowledge.  But she still came to church the next day all by her self so that is fantastic!

So earlier today we went to this super sweet market place thing with an overwhelming amount of cool ecuadorian things.  So i bought some super awesome stuff for you guys at home.  I forgot about Chelsea but maybe ill go back some time and get her something too.  And then maybe you could then send it to her where ever she is.  So yeah i got some great stuff and then sent it today too.  Hopefully you guys like it.  I wrote on a little peice of paper saying what everything is and who it is supposed to be for.  Sending it cost $16.  Hopefully it makes it and doesnt take a super duper long time to get to you.  For my self i got a super cool change holder thing that is leather and has an awesome horse on it. 

I think my testimony has grown alot mostly just by sharing it so much.  It has become more special to me and more meaningful.  A testimony is one of the most powerful tools you can use and one that can bring in the spirit the best.  And the spirit is what does the converting of people so that puts a great importance on testimonies.  I think one specific thing with my testimony that has grown is that we are all children of Heavenly Father and that He loves all of us very much.  This might be the thing that we share the most to people and i have really started to look at everyone here not as just random people but as brothers and sisters and children of God.  Thinking this makes talking to people alot easier and alot more meaningful.  It gives a greater purpose to what we are trying to do here and helps me enjoy being a missionary even more.  

Well that is all for now!  Have a good week everyone!

Elder Eastman

New house!  this is the main room where all the studying and planning goes down.  Guess which desk is mine.  Correct! The super clean one!

Our super awesome and now super clean kitchen and fridge!

Our room.  My bed is on the right.

More of our room.  I have all of those closets.  My companion uses the ones in the other room.

A close up on my super clean and organized desk.  I like having an organized desk.  

"A clean desk is a happy desk.  A happy desk is a happy missionary.  A happy missionary is an effective missionary."

                                                             - Elder Eastman

Sorry i dont have any pics of my new comp.  Ill try and take one this week.

Adios Villa Flora! Hola Guamani!

Hello Family!

I got a backpack becuase my mission president allows them and yes the shoulder bad really hurt my shoulder after carrying it for a while. 

Thanks for that picture of NXN!  Thats super awsome that it snowed that much recently!  I kinda miss that race and XC. 

Well thats a bit of a bummer about the package!  Its alright though!  I really want to get some cool Ecuadorian stuff to send back to you guys.  So ill try and find some stuff so i can send it soon. 

I dont really have a way to listen to music.  But i have been ok just listening to other elders music.  Alot of elders have little speakers with music on a flash drive or something like that.  No we didnt get to teach Libertad this week.  I think she might not have been in town of something like that.  And the Familia Oña (bread family) werent really progressing well.  I think their desire just wasnt there yet.  So we kind of stopped teaching them.  But hopefully in the future they decide to progress and get baptised.  Unfortunately me and Elder Peters didnt get any baptisms this change.  But we definitley worked hard and tried our best. 

So this Sunday we got the news on if we would be transfered or not.  Me and Elder Peters thought for sure that we would be staying together in Villa Flora to finish my training.  But nope!  I got moved down to a place called Guamani which is still part of Quito but in the very south part of Quito.  And Elder Peters got made the zone leader of the zone that i am now in! So that was a bit sad but itll still be good!  I definitely miss Villa Flora!  That was a super great place with an super great ward.  The experiences i had there were really awsome.  But i know that i will have good experiences here in Guamani too!  We got this news pretty late last night.  So i had to stay up pretty late packing everything.  So i didnt get to bed until around 11:30 and then i didnt fall asleep untill around 1.  So Im pretty tired today.  My new companions name is Elder Bryce.  He just finished his training.  And is now training me.  So thatll be interesting!  But so far he seems like a good missionary.  His spanish is pretty decent.  But definitely has alot more to learn like me.  He is from Pheonix.  Right now i dont have any pictures of him.  Guamani is an ok place so far.  Im sure ill really grow to love it just like i did with Villa Flora.  Becuase at first in Villa Flora i wasnt really sure how i felt about it either.  This place is so much more quite than Villa Flora.  There isnt tons of big buses that always spit out a bunch of smoke, there is alot less people out in the streets, and there is alot more undeveloped land.  So we will see how it goes here!  I think itll be a good change with some good success. 

Elder Eastman

Here is a cool pic of the Panacillo and a cool volcano here called Cotopaxi.  Its to the very left and covered in snow.

This is me and my now old district and part of the Familia Jimenez who are recent converts.

This is me and an hermano named Brian Moreta and his family.  He went with us to a couple of lessons and is a really good member. 

The Ecuado Q.U.I.T.O Mission

Hello Family!

So this is something that I learned the first day i was here but I just kept forgeting to tell you about it.  And this has been taught by President Christensen multiple times since then.  And this is how I know that im pretty much in the best mission ever.  So these are some of the atributes that the best and most effective kind of missionaries have.  

Q = Querer (want)

U = Unidad (unity)

I = Inspiración (inspiration)

T = Trabajo (work)

O = Obediencia (obedience) 

And i have learned that obedience is the most important one because without obedience we "quit" being great missionaries.  

So thats just some cool thing about the name of my mission that i thought I would share with you guys.  

This week was a pretty good week.  Nothing to crazy happend though.  We started teaching a new investigator this week who was a reference from of the Hermanas that makes us lunch sometimes.  Her name is Libertad.  She is really active in her other church though.  And her church teaches alot of good truths like sharing the gospel with others, baptism by emersion and stuff like that.  So that could be kinda tough to get her to come to our church.  And the way she became interested in this church is that her friend (this Hermana that gives us lunch) told her that we do baptisms for the dead.  So guess what our first lesson with her was about.  Yep baptisms for the dead.  Kind of a not normal first lesson but she really liked it and we set up a time to teach her again.  So thats good!  

We also had Stake Conference this last saturday and sunday.  I couldnt really understand a good amount of what people talked about so i didnt get a whole lot out of it.  But it was still good.  President Christensen and his wife spoke in both sessions.  So that was good to here them.  Quick fun fact that i learned recently about the President is that a while ago he worked for the church and at one time he was in charge of all the tithing for the whole church and got to work with the Prophet and First Presidency alot while he did that.  So thats pretty cool!

The next interesting thing that happened this week happened today.  That is that we got to go to the Basilica as a district today.  The Basilica is the super cool and massive Catholic cathedral in the center of Quito.  We got to walk around inside and even got to go up the big spires.  Its a super cool building and really pretty.  Altough the things they have in there are quite different from the things we teach in our church.  But it was pretty interesting to see these things.  I took a bunch of pictures so ill send some of those.

Oh also at the begining of this week me and the other new missionaries got to go up the Panecillo which is the cool statue at the top of the big hill in the center of quito.  So i actually got to do alot of cool things this week!  I met my mtc companion Elder Fuller too.  So that was fun to be able to talk to him and see how he was doing.   

And i think that is pretty much all for this week!  

Elder Eastman

P.S. Family,  Yes i got your letter mom and the one from the grandparents.  I think it was the begining of this week that i got your letter mom.  Also thanks for it.  I hung that picture of me up on the wall by my desk.  

Also I will definitely keep Alex in my prayers.  Thats gotta be super tough.  

Oh and i bought a back pack recently

Hello Father!

Im doing pretty good! Always trying to do my best and get better at teaching and with spanish.  Most of the people here are always helpful and encouraging with me learning spanish.  But one thing that i really dont like is when people ask why im in a bad mood or angry.  They think this because i dont really say a whole lot when we arent teaching a lesson.  And im quiet during this time because my non religious conversational skills in spanish are pretty terrible.  And Im never really in a bad mood or angry but when they ask this it kind of puts me in a bad mood.  So i try and just brush it off and forget about it and keep trying to teach good lessons.  

Being in a good mood always makes missionary work so much better and find that i teach better when im in a good mood.  So i always try and pray to be in a good mood during the day.  

That is good that youre going to try and have more Christmas spirit this year!  Also i like what you said about the Atonement and our freedom.  The Atonement is definitely one of the most important things that we are teaching about.  

I love you too!

Elder Eastman

Finally! Cow Stomach...Then Upset Stomach

Hello Family!

Ya pretty sure we dont have any time changes here.  Also something else about being on the equator is a little while ago i noticed that the shape of the moon when its not a full moon is horizontal.  Im pretty sure its not like that in the states.  So thats kinda cool i guess.  

We send our emails from one of the millions of internet cafe things there are here.  The Familia Oña couldnt come to church again this week but they said they will try for next week.  So hopefully that will be able to happen.  And none of our other investigators were able to make it to church yesterday either.  So that was a bit of a bummer.  Juan Carlos and another less active we have been teaching named Barbara have been coming to church lately.  So thats good!  

Yes ive been using those rain jackets.  My shoes are holding up good.  I dont think i have to put more of that stuff on right now but i probably should soon.  

Well i could always use more ties!  And some good american food would be nice.  Like maybe some top ramen, milk duds, other good stuff like that.  I cant really think of anything else.  

Well some things that have happend here this past week.  On tuesday i got the wonderful opportunity to eat some cow stomach!  Which is the second worst thing ive ever eaten.  Then the next day i got to eat some liver!  This was actually quite good.  And i didnt know it was liver untill i was told what it was half way through eating it.  Then after fasting yesterday i got pretty sick with what we think is some type of food poisoning.  From about 3ish to about 10 at night i threw up 5 times and had diarrhea twice.  Definitely not very fun.  Today i feel better though.  Except i have to be on an all liquid diet today so i dont have very much energy and im quite hungery.  Other than the cow stomach and the sickness this week has been great!  

So i took some more pictures this week so ill try and send them.  

Hello Father!

Things here are pretty good!  This fast sunday was pretty tough for me.  The hunger and tiredness was super hard and then after i got to eat a little food i got pretty sick.  First i ate a pack of ritz crackers and a piece of bread.  Then i started feeling really bad and couldnt eat dinner.  Then i had diarrhea.  Then when i got home i threw up.  So i had to stay home and rest.  That was only supposed to be for an hour but after about an hour i threw up again.  In total i threw up 5 times.  So i ended up staying in bed the whole rest of the day.  We called the missionary nurses and they said they think i got some type of food poisoning from the food i ate before i started fasting.  And since i was fasting the effects didnt come until later when i had some food in me.  Luckily today i feel quite alot better.  Except i have to be on an all liquid diet for today so i dont really have any energy.  

A picture of Quito

 Our zone got to play some fútbol here today.  

This me and Elder Cháves who is from Guayaquil.

Me and my companion Elder Peters

 Me and a guagua.  Which is pronounced wahwah.  Guaguas (bread children) are this traditional pastry they have here for this holiday that i don't know the name of.  We buy them pretty much every day because they are fantastic.  Except now the holiday is over so they're not making them now.  (I found out from his friend in the Quito North Mission that the holiday is called Día de Difuntos)

 Me making guaguas at the Oñas paneria

This is where we teach our lessons with this family. 

Lesson In A Paneria

Hello Family!

This week was pretty good!  Nothing to crazy exciting but still good!  The not so good parts of this week were that the appointments with both Mirian and William fell and they both werent able to come to church this week.  So thats been kind of a bummer.  Hopefully we will be able to start teaching them again soon!

The best parts of this week however is that we have been able to find a few more people to teach!  Last sunday me and my companion fasted that we would be able to find some new investigators and this week we found some really good ones!  So thats a little testimony builder on the power of fasting!  So first a few days ago we decided to go buy some pan at one of the many panerias that there are here.  We do this quite often because the pan here is sooooo good!  But anyways we go into this paneria, buy some stuff and then we decide to contact this guy running the store.  His name is Marcos and is a super nice guy.  We ask him if we can come back and share a message with him and he said yea and you can come back later today too! Then later that day we come back and share a lesson with him and even the rest of his family in the back of their little paneria.  Their name is the Familia Oña.  It was a tight squeeze to get eveyone in there and it was quite messy but it was a super great lesson about the Restoration.  They really liked it and even accepted our baptismal invitation!  The only bummer this is that they work literily all day every day so they werent able to come to church this week.  When we visited them after church this sunday Marcos (the father) told us that he starting working at 3 am that day and hadnt stopped working.  I was really surprised about that.  They said they want to come to church though so thats good! 

The other success of this week is that we got to keep teaching this lady we contacted a little while back named Yolanda.  And this time her daughter (Sylvia) and this other lady were there too.  I think they actually all just live in the same house.  This lesson we taught about the Plan of Salvation and they all really liked that.  And turns out they have quite alot of family members that have died so that helped them like this even more.  Then at the end they accepted our baptismal invitation!  And then later this saturday we had a baptism of one of the investigators of some other missionaries in my district and we invited them to come and they did!  The next day on sunday we went over to their house to pick them up for church but for some reason they werent there.  So we went to church hoping that is where they went but they werent there.  Then right as sacrament meeting was starting Yolanda and Sylvia walked in!  So that made us really happy!  Im pretty sure they stayed for the whole thing too!  Or at least the first two hours.  

And thats pretty much the best things that have happened this week!

For p days we first do our laundry at this members house.  His name is Juan Carlos and is less active but actually came to church this week.  We never use a dryer though (a) because he doesnt have one and (b) becasue we dont want to pay for one.  So we just hang up all our clothes to dry after we wash them.  Then we either go play some fútbol with the other elders in our zone or just clean our house and then go to this mall thing to do some grocery shopping.  Today I bought some ritz crackers, some animal crackers, some yogurt, and a loaf of bread.  For breakfast i normaly just eat a couple pieces of toast (toasted on a pan because we dont have a toaster) with some jam that i bought last week.  But this week ill be also eating some yogurt to go along with that.  Then today we took a nap for about an hour.  Then we came here to email!  Also today, about an hour ago, we had probably the biggest thunder storm ive been in while being here.  The lightning was super close to us so the thunder was incredibly loud and car alarms would go off after just about every one.  And the rain was super crazy hard with a bit of hail in there too.  My legs got super wet.  So that was fun!  Then after this we are going to buy some super good pizza if they have it.  Sometimes they dont have any made or its just not open.  Then we are going to go out, teach some good lessons and find more people to teach!  And that is our p days.  I like p days.  We havent done any field trips yet but i think next week we will be going up that gondala thing that we saw that one travel tv lady go up.  

Well that makes me super happy to know that MVXC has been doing pretty great!  I definitely miss XC.  

Im pretty sure i can get ziploc bags here.  But most of the food so far has been really good.  Pig skin is really the only terrible thing ive been fed so far.  

Just a little side note.  Ive heard that alot of packages people send to countries in south america will get broken into.  And if you put stickers of the virgin marry all over the package it wont get ripped open.  So maybe you could try that when ever you send a package.  

Well that is pretty much everything for this week!  Have a good life everyone!

Elder Eastman

Working On Spanish and Piles of Food

Hello father! 

Things down here are going pretty good!  My companion is really nice and a great teacher.  He is also our district leader.  He always makes sure that we are doing the right things.  And always willing to help with spanish.  

Im trying to teach as much as I can but it can be really hard sometimes.  I rarely can understand what a scripture says so i just have to find roughly what its about through picking out words i do know and what others say about it.  So it can be pretty hard to explain scriptures well.  And then i would say about 90% of the time when people say something to me I cant understand it.  And then i feel really awkward when i cant respond and have to look to my companion to know what they said.  Its really hard sometimes to not get super frustrated.  And alot of the time I think of how easy it would be just to be able to teach and talk to people in english.  But i try not to think about that because i know there is nothing i can do to change it except keep working hard on spanish and know that i will eventually be able to have good conversations with everyone here. 

Wow that is a really good story!  Sometimes if i want to pray for something i would think that that wouldnt be something that Heavenly Father would answer to and its a dumb thing to ask for so i just wont ask for it.  But this just shows that He really can bless us with anything if we have faith. 

Love you too!

Elder Eastman

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty good!  Spanish is still really hard and its hard sometimes not to get frustrated with not being able to understand people or say what you want to say.  Sometimes I wonder if ive even improved at all while being here.  But I definitely have.  I think sometimes i just compare myself to every one around me and feel like i should be alot better with my spanish than i am.  But i just have to remind myself that ive only been here for about 2 weeks and remember how very little spanish i knew before the mission and then i realize how much ive learned in the mtc and being here. 

So some of the cool things that happend today are these...

On thursday I got to eat some really interesting foods.  Both suprisingly really good and not suprisingly really bad.  For lunch me and my district ate at this familys house.  There name is the Familia Villacresis.  And theyre very nice people.  Our soup was a pretty normal soup with potatoes and some type of bean in it.  That was quite good! But then when i finished that and was waiting for our other plate I saw the mother slicing up this weird looking thing into squares that was thin, brown and floppy.  I had no clue what it was.  I thought to myself, oh no... is this cow stomach?  I was wrong.  I got the plate and what was on the plate was rice (of course. we litterly eat rice with every meal everyday except breakfast), a sausage with mayo on it (not what i would choose to put on it), regular everyday beans, and pig skin.  I very very very much did not want to eat pig skin.  But i had no choice.  And so far in my life pig skin is the worst thing ive ever eaten.  It has an absolutely horrible texture.  Its squshy, slimy and chewy and even just a little piece in my mouth makes me gag.  And just a little side note, when ever you dont finish even a little bit of the food people give you (which is always a ton) they get offended.  So you have to finish everything.  And this made me worried because i knew without doubt that i wouldnt be able to eat all of the pig skin they gave me.  So after i finished everthing except for the pig skin i waited for the oportunity when the mother and father werent looking to slip it way into the garbage.  And im pretty sure i successfully did this with out them seeing.  

Then later that day for dinner I was fed this plate of rice with a whole fish right on top.  So of course i thought to myself, oh no i hate fish, im definetly not going to enjoy this.  But then when i broke through the skin of the fish and ate a little piece of the meat i was very suprised at how good it was.  So that wasnt hard at all to finish.  And after the first few days here of huge meals ive gotten alot better at being able to finish all of it.  So thats good! 

Now moving on away from the food!  That same night we got to teach one of our investigators named Mirian and this other guy that we havnt really taught much named William.  I think William has just listened to parts of other lessons we have had with this family that made us this fish.  But this time we were for reals teaching him.  We taught a pretty good lesson about the Book of Mormon.  Then we invited mirian to get baptised on the 8th and also invited William to get baptised on the 8th.  And both of them accepted it!  So that made me really happy.  This sunday William came to church for the first time and even brought the rest of his family.  So maybe we could get the rest of his family to get baptized too!  Unfortunalty Mirian wasnt able to come to church this sunday for some reason.  But im super duper excited for the 8th!

And thats pretty much everything exciting that has happened this week.

Elder Eastman

Elder Hombre del Este

Hey guys!  

Quito is such an awesome place!  It really does rain here every single day!  Exept for some reason it hasnt rained yet today.  But im sure it will eventually.  Aparently it hardly rains at all in the summer months though.  But i really really like it here.  Its quite dirty but still really pretty.  The streets can get pretty crazy steep so it can be quite the workout walking alot every day.  

Elder Peters is a fantastic companion! Hes been here for a year and his spanish is pretty great.  Hes really nice and really good missionary.  He is from utah.  I think park city.  But ya he is a really good companion.

Well thats kind of a bummer with the honda!

Church yesterday was pretty good!  I cant understand everything that people say so i didnt get a whole lot from it.  But still really good!  

So just some things about quito really quick!  The various breads and pastries they have here are sooo good!  The other food here is pretty good too.  One thing about the food that i wasnt expecting at all is this... So i knew they had soup ALOT here but i didnt know that one thing they really like to put in their soups is popcorn.  So that was a bit weird to have for the first time.  But its actually not horrible!  One thing that can be kind of horrible is the rediculous quantity of food people give you.  Last night this member family we eat with alot gave us this plate of rice with various meats mixed in it.  It was quite good but they fill the whole plate with it and then a good probably 5 inches above the plate.  And they get offended when you dont finish all the food.  So this is pretty difficult for me.  And we meet with members alot every day and every family we meet gives us a full meal.  

Yesterday we also got to teach this new investigator we just got named Mirian.  We had a really good lesson with her about the Restoration.  And i was actually able to say a good amount this time which felt really good because normaly i dont know how to say the things i want to say.  Or i just cant understand what is being talked about.  But ya i got to recite the first vision to her that i memorized in the mtc and say some more things about Joseph Smith and stuff like that.  She didnt quite accept our baptismal invitation we gave her this time but i really think she will soon.  

Ok it just started to rain which means its officially rained here every day since ive been here.  

Well im going to try to send a few pics now!  hopefuly they work

Love, Elder Hombre del Este

P.S. People here sometimes have a really hard time pronouncing Eastman so this is how we explain it sometimes

Some MTC Pics with Instructors and District

1st Apartment in Quito with Elder Peters

The Streets of Quito

From the Mission President and His Wife

10 October 2014

Dear Brother and Sister Eastman,

We are so pleased that Elder Eastman is serving in the Ecuador Quito Mission.  We welcome him with all our hearts and know that the special gifts he has been given from our Father in Heaven  and talents he has developed will bless the lives of those with and for whom he serves in a unique way only he can offer.  His dedicated service will further increase his abilities and character in remarkable ways.

There are currently 251 missionaries in our mission, serving in 13 zones.    Elder Eastman has been assigned to serve in Quito in the Santa Ana Zone with Elder Peters  as his companion and trainer.  Elder Peters is known by the other missionaries as being a great teacher, who loves the people, is patient,  a wonderful example, and a worthy representative of Christ .

 Attached are several photos including those that show Elder Eastman with his companion; the group of missionaries with whom he arrived;  his group with their trainers; and  with us.

We know and understand that there is sacrifice on your part both emotionally and financially to support him during this period of full time missionary service, especially since you also have a daughter serving at the same time, and we express our gratitude for your offering to further the work of inviting others to come unto Christ and to receive the blessings of the Gospel in their lives.

With our love and gratitude,

President and Sister Christensen

Hermana Christine Christensen

Misión Ecuador Quito