Here's the January-March update on Nathan. Nathan stayed in Otavalo for January and February before getting transferred to Quito at the beginning of March. He enjoyed teaching with his companion, Elder Quispe, in Otavalo. His new companion is Elder Kowallis from Logan, UT. He lives in an apartment with 3 other missionaries - 3 Americans and one Bolivian.
Back to January... the first week, they found a couple and their son who were interested in learning more. When they asked the husband why he accepted to have a lesson, he said he had this amazing feeling when they walked up to him (he was feeling the Spirit). Another experience with street contacting was meeting a boy named Santiago. He was really curious about them and led them to his mom. After a lesson with the family, Santiago followed them around for a bit, introducing them to some of the neighbors and asking if they were going to teach them. Santiago's family didn't keep with it, but Santiago wanted to learn more. He was disappointed when Nathan and his companion didn't teach their family. What was funny is they tried - they were outside their gate, but the family didn't respond. When Santiago talked to them later, asking why they didn't come (to their scheduled appointment), Nathan told him they tried. Santiago said, "We were home though!"
In January, they baptized a girl named Jaden, who was a social media contact referral.
Nathan had a surprise party for his birthday with the Erazo family (Guido and family). I was grateful he was able to celebrate his birthday. They made a cake for him and then told him he needed to try to take a bite without using his hands. He could see what was coming but went along as they smashed his face in the cake! It must be a tradition for the unsuspecting new missionaries or something. Besides someone celebrating Nathan's birthday with him, the other tender mercy was Audrey's Christmas package showing up at this apartment ON his birthday. It took 7 weeks to get there and then arrived on his birthday. My birthday package hadn't arrived yet, so I was so happy that he still had something to open that day.
There have been a few weeks when they only had about $5 left for the week, but he didn't seem bothered by it. They've always had their needs met. They ran out of toilet paper a couple of times. The first time, they were able to use the roll of Charmin toilet paper (donated by Weston) that we sent for laughs in his Christmas package. The second time, the shops were closed by the time they ran out at night and they had to find some in a restaurant or something.
Nathan got to learn how to make Tallerines Verdes, a dish from Peru, that is pasta with a sauce made from onions, cheese, milk, and peppers. Some of the church members invited them over to make pies and dinner with their friend who wasn't a member of the church.
They had another baptism in February of a 10-year-old girl named Juliete. Her mom was a less active member and agreed to let Juliete get baptized. The mom also was reactivated in the process of teaching.
In February, they celebrated a holiday called Carnival, where people spray each other with water, foam, and occasionally eggs. He got soaked from that in the streets. He's played a little bit of soccer, basketball once, and Catan on preparation days. He's still got some fun non-teaching time every week, so he enjoys that.
He had to say good-bye to the people in Otavalo in March and headed to an area of Quito called Bellavista. They've been working hard and doing a lot of street contacting. It has rained a lot, so they've gotten used to doing things in the rain. One day they helped a car out of a ditch and the wheels spun gunk all over their legs. They ended up teaching 2 lessons after that (with sewer gunk still on them). The next week was another messy experience. Nathan went to an area called Guayllabamba to do a service project. They were supposed to help build a wall, but the cement hadn't arrived. They ended up cleaning out a cow pen that hadn't been cleaned in 3 months. While cleaning out the cow manure, a cow gave birth, but the calf instantly fell in a large water trough and drowned. When the owner realized what happened, Nathan and the other elder helped get it out of the water and carried it up the hill in their yard.
We didn't get a weekly e-mail for this last week of March, but we chatted with him for a little bit and the work is going well. He took us along on the bus ride and walk to his district meeting that evening. That's probably why he didn't have time to get his e-mail out that night. Since Alex is in Scotland right now, it was interesting to think that we were on a video chat from 3 different continents. Technology is pretty amazing!
He gets to go to the Quito Temple again this upcoming Tuesday and we'll all be watching General Conference "together" this weekend. He got his Easter package this past week. I made a scripture hunt, where they had to look up a scripture and find a word. The words from those scriptures made a phrase. The tricky part was making it in Spanish. They also got a "golden egg" with a little spending cash and some candy and snacks.
