I got the package you sent it was not opened. I thought you might like the picture.(picture of the package) I need to print The Living Christ before I can solve your story line, we have it hanging up in the wrong order right now. (I put it in the order the website had it!, it was a great banner I wish he would have sent a picture of it hanging up) P.S. I have walked two days in your shoes. I have learned how to have a funny story every week. Week ultrasound, electrocution, retard, and now I have this. On Thursday I was cleaning out my left ear. I accidentally pushed the Qtip up to far and then I noticed something was wrong... I could not hear, anything in the left ear. My first thought was, why could it not be my right, now me and mom can not sit next to each other because we are both deaf in the left ear. So I went to the er just to find out I had caused inflammation like non other. I can hear now, but I still have ringing in my ear until it fully heals, stuff sounds a little quieter though, I am pretty sure that will get better too.

This week was a great week in the mission. We have been making progress with all of our investigators and have nine baptisms set and have found two more investigators. The only problem is the seven of our nine are all dependent on matrimony. We have a family of three and one of four. Both of them need to be married. So our baptisms have been moved to the 13th of April because both of them are missing a paper that is needed for baptism. Transfers are also next Monday so I am really hoping we don't get transferred before they are baptized because we have no baptisms for this weekend. :(  Because the only people who came to church were the ones that had the marriage problems. If I get transferred that is at a minimum of eight weeks without a baptism. (a little depressing) We still have hope for one baptism this week. She has attended church enough times and has the lessons, she just needs to have permission from her mother. Other than getting chewed out by the District Leader, Zone Leader, and Assistants to the President, for having to move eight baptisms for this week to the 13 of April, this was a pretty awesome week! We had a lot of success and lessons taught and people found, so at least we are able to have work...which in reality I think people want while they are on the mission, the more members, the better. That is pretty much all this week hopefully the baptism follows through and i will have some great news next Monday.

So I have been watching the readers on this blog and there have been more than a few from a couple other countries. I saw that it had been viewed in Ecuador and I asked Jesse if he'd looked at it at all.  He said no and then told me this story! "Only one person from ecuador has viewed that I saw, me, (he can't see the list that I see). Elder Duzzetts dad I know reads the blog, that was funny when we were in Peru and me and my comp introduced ourselves as the zone leaders and then he goes hey, your Elder Mccammon, my dad reads your blog!"  Too funny...so Thanks Elder Duzzetts Dad for reading my blog!!!

So this is the video that Jesse took from his balcony of the reenactment of the Triumphal Entry for Palm Sunday last week.  There is the St Paul's Catholic Church just down at the end of the street where he lives.  He said he thought it was funny that the Bon Ice guy was pulling up the rear to make some extra sales!!!  He Said he wondered if Thursday and Sunday they would re-enact the crucifixion day and Resurrection day.  We'll see next week I suppose!!!

 He said he sent me a skinny picture...his companion laughs at him, because he thinks he looks like Bobby Hill from the King of the Hill TV show.  I think he looks great!!!

This is the Easter Basket we sent him.  There wasn't a whole lot, I told him to go buy his own candy!!! I sent a great banner and went to a lot of work, but he didn't take a picture of that.  Oh well.

Back to Work!!!

This week has been great, one of the best so far. we had a great showing of 5 investigators at church this Sunday.  That night we also went to a family home evening at a members house. It is crazy how the spirit works too. These members were less active so we would not have seen them at church. We were walking back to our house and instead of walking the normal route home we decided to walk through the farmers market/street fair thing that happens every morning. We passed a members house, who usually just says hi and do not really talk for too long. After about five minutes these less active members walk by and invite us to their family home evening on Sunday night and we agree. At the family home evening they had their nephew there who is really interested in the church and thanks to the family knows a lot and is pretty much ready for baptism. Found him just by walking a different way then usual. It was just crazy that one path can lead to someone that is ready. I did not even think about it being the spirit at first, it was just, hey lets go this way.  We have also had a lot of success this week in teaching lessons to investigators who are usually not home and from that we have six commitments to be baptized on the 30th of March, but a possible eight. So this week has been great and everything is looking up. I should have my first baptism by the end of the month! I am not quite comfortable with the language yet but it is coming along better and I know a lot more, that is for sure.

Remember my leather shoes I brought down. I walked on a gravel road when it was wet with them because it had rained the night before. Well I went to grab them the other day (about a week later) and the bottoms were just moldy out of their minds it was gross so I ended up getting them resoled, but it was crazy.  I am always wet too, whether sweat or rain, but it was funny yesterday we walked so much that not only did i get a blister but i popped it to, thank you melagel. Also do you know the food that everybody has in their life that just makes them want to vomit. We went to a members house and they had spaghetti, not just any spaghetti but spaghetti with a green sauce on it. I assumed it was similar to a spinach cream soup they have down here and it was just a cream spaghetti. nope. That was the nastiest thing ever. I have never gagged on one bite of food like that ever. It probably would not have been that bad if I had not have assumed it would taste like something good, but I was glad people were focused on the tv and I could get some coke in my mouth before somebody saw. bleh. it was so bad.   I never want to eat green spagetti again. (say it like the girl who does not like green beans) note: for anyone who doesn't know what he's talking about, its a hilarious video on youtube, check it out if you get a second.

I asked about transfers, new missionaries, and the mission split.  Transfers are usually every six weeks, I came in a week early, but there was a mid transfer last Monday when I was on rest and we were fine so I am assuming every 3 weeks. We are going to have missionaries so fast that after I am here for 13 weeks everyone that is a transfer ahead of me will be a senior companion and every Latino in my transfer will be one, the next one or two after we are supposed to all be close to that state if not in it, but no there has not been talk about the new mission. I assume that they will just redraw boundaries and if you are in the boundaries you are in the mission. I hope I still have the chance at Galapagos though.

I never did send any recipes with him because we weren't sure what the situation for cooking was, well last week he asked for a few, I guess after being on rest for a week and not having people feed you every day its hard to think of things to cook!  He said: "Some of these recipes are hard because we have no oven so we would have to go to a members house. So for next week a cake from scratch recipe would be nice."  He tells me he has no oven, but wants a cake recipe!!  That strikes me as being funny!!!  Hardly cook at home just breakfast and when we could not leave, there is no microwave here just a gas stove, but I have to go. I love you so much and miss you all, 13 weeks down about 90 more to go and I look forward to every one.
Elder McCammon

He hadn't had a haircut since he left here...I can't believe they didn't do it before he left Peru!!!

 What a mop!!!

 Geez he looks older and 10 pounds lighter with no hair!!!

Jesse and Elder Martinez in their Aggie Gear!!!

Dr. visit makes for an unproductive missionary week

This week has been really slow. Our first baptism we were supposed to have, fell through. Her mother was very Catholic and did not want her to be baptized. This week we also did not teach very many lessons. There were a lot of meetings and a lot of our investigators were not home at the times that we would stop by their house. Me and Elder Martinez are going to shift our focus this next week to finding more investigators to teach and visit some old investigators whose situations might have changed about the gospel. We also found a golden investigator this week. He was a reference from a different missionary. He had been going to Church but in the wrong ward. The other missionaries had not really taught him, but they had given him a Book of Mormon and some other random church books like principles of the gospel and a hymn book and two Liahonas. He is half way through Alma, he has been reading principles of the gospel and cross referencing in the Book of Mormon, he loves that hymn book, and he STUDIES the Liahona, not just reads. He told us that he loves the church and it just makes so much sense. The only problem is he needs to get married to  his wife before they can be baptized... why does marriage have to be so expensive!! It costs $50 to get married here.  That's a lot for people here.
This is one of the things that happened this week that will make you laugh. Remember Scott's story about trying to make hot water with a rock and some wire. missionaries do dumb things. we had a fan in the house that hasn't worked and i thought to myself. i bet i could fix that. well i open up the fan to find out a cord has just fallen out. i thought i have messed with enough cords in my day to fix this, so i grab my leather-man and fix the fan. well what i didn't notice was that in fixing the fan i was letting the cords that need to be separated touch. so when i plugged it in there was a flash. i dropped the cord and started laughing. i shocked my thumb. the electricity in the cord had broken the cord in five different spots... the fan is now in the garbage. i was fine except for a blister on my thumb. I could not stop laughing i though it was hilarious, because like father like son right.

Had some medical issues this week and they had to stay back at their casa since last Wednesday. He said they cleaned the entire house, read My Heritage and Our Search for Happiness.

 a picture in front of our house on what we call pilsner day and there are usually twice as many crates of beer

my soccer jerseys of both guayaquil teams

 my scripture cases 

Its go Forward day!!! March Fourth!!!

I guess its an omen that all is well!!!  Got to email chat for a long time with Jesse today.  His companion had a lot of emails to answer.  I guess when you've been out a while you keep up with all the other companions you've had.  He seemed in great spirits too!  He's doing great!!!

Mom and Dad;
The mission is going great we are finding investigators and all are pretty much golden. Most of our investigators that progress are referrals from the ward, but occasionally we come across a window with someone looking out and are able to get them to progress. On Saturday we found a woman and her daughter that way, who when we committed them were excited for baptism. They were not able to attend church Sunday because they were going to be visiting family, but it made me laugh because when we asked when a good time to come back would be the daughter immediately jumped to wanting us to come back tomorrow and the mother had to remind her that they were visiting family so we will end up visiting again tomorrow. The ward here is amazing though and very friendly there are a few families that when we have the time we are usually able to sit down and talk to them for a while and usually get a reference from them.

When it comes to meals there are members that we have on rotation for missionary visits. Meals consist of always soup, rice, beans, and some type of meat, mostly the meat is chicken and we have had no guinea pig yet. We always have soda with dinner to because no one has filtered water. In our house the tap and shower are both unsafe to drink, but we have water-bottles with a filter so we can drink anything with them and they need to be changed about every year.

Our area is a pretty good sized area and it is apparently one of the best in the mission, which I believe. Our mission, right now because it should change soon, has 11 zones, ours has twelve districts and our district is 3 companionship's. the language is coming great I can understand almost all of what people say, when they speak clearly otherwise I am lost. The problem I have is thinking of responses and just actually speaking because it takes me a minute to think of how to word something and by that time the moment is gone. The lessons are going great though and we are a great companionship with some top numbers in the zone this week. So it has been pretty good. I love all of you back home.

love, Elder Jesse McCammon

Here is some info I gleaned from our email chat...I asked how much his monthly allowance is and what all he has to pay for...he gets $160 a month, for food, cleaning supplies and laundry supplies...a ward member does their laundry, but they have to buy the supplies. He said they have ants and mold everywhere...nothing ever dries out because its so humid. He said he has a fan that goes from his desk to his bed morning and nite.  He had a pair of shoes that got wet when they were out in the rain 2 days ago and they were finally getting dry and they sit by the fan the whole day while they are gone.  They have a temple in Ecuador but they don't get to go unless one of their investigators go.    In his shopping around down there he told me he found some fun pants he might have to bring me home...Zumba is everywhere there, he said they hear the latin music everywhere even when they sleep and it makes him smile because people are Zumbaing all around and he thinks I would love it there and it makes him smile. He said "by the way you should look up the addidas F50s  I can get them for 6 dollars here I have a pair that are light blue with orange striping and they are sick. Every time I see these pink ones with blue striping I think wow those would make great zumba pants for mom!"  I told him he might have to pack a bag just for me when he comes home! I told him I sent an Easter package and to let me know when it gets there, and how it looks and not to get his hopes up to high its not too amazing.  He said they don't have kool-aid, jerky and taco seasoning there.  He had a story "there is a member down here that some missionaries let him try kool-aid and jerky and he is in love with them. Every time new missionaries come in or we stop at his house it is always where's my jerky and kool-aid. I don't care for jerky but the classic missionary kool-aid packet would be nice."  He said so far he hasn't found much that seems to be unique to Ecuador, but he is in a very Urban part, I told him to keep an eye you never know what you might want to remember.  He's not homesick, just really enjoying himself!  He sounds like the language is coming along pretty good and he's doesn't sound frustrated by it, so all in all a great letter!!!

 A salamander they found in their apartment

 A light snack of cheese and crackers and gatorade.

 Emelec Soccer Jersey, a local team in Guayaquil

 Jesse's Desk

Yes, Yes that is a game system...broken or at least it has no cords, but it makes him feel at home!!!