There And Back Again: No, Wait, Pucará.‏

So my companion and I are sitting there in our house in Pusuquí on Saturday, doing our usual studies. We know that our district leader, Elder Brown, is going to stop by to do a revision of our house, so we're kind of expecting that he'll come by soon. I peer out my window and there he is, finally. But wait. There are four missionaries there, not just Elder Brown and his companion. Wait, those are the assistants. What are they doing here? Some kind of weird companionship exchange? I didn't think much of it.

Then the came into the house.

"Elder Scanlan! You have changes!"

What.

"You're going to Pucará! And you're going to be training! And the district leader!"

They hand me the leader and training packets. WHAT.

Just when I was getting comfy in Quito, again...

Anyhow, I was sad to leave. Elder Draper and I were getting along well.

But the new sector is pretty cool! Pucará is a ward out in the fields (right next to my old sector in Ibarra, as it happens) where mostly natives attend. By natives, I mean the indians that live out here. They have their own language and everything, Quichua, and the men let their hair grow in long ponytails and the women carry their babies around on their backs. Most of them do understand and speak Spanish, but every once in a while in the meetings they'll flip over to Quichua and things just become unintelligababble. They also say "waiki" instead of "hermano," because that's how you say brother in Quichua.

Church leaders may or may not have said that this is one of the purest lamanite places on the planet. There are two stakes here. That didn't stop Elder Holland from telling them that he wanted 10, 20, 30 stakes when he came here a few months ago.

The members were showing us around and we were going up one street and they pointed to I think every house on both sides, "oh, here lives a member - here, too - oh, here lives the bishop." It'll be a different experience, that's for sure!

What else about my sector...like I said, it's out on the fields. It' s not particularly wide, maybe a mile wide if that, but from the main highway it just goes straight up the side of the volcano Imbabura. I'll send pics.

My companion (my son!) is Elder Molina, from Peru, and I've been blessed with a super prepared companion. He knows his stuff, so training him won't be a problem.

Anyhow, to share a spiritual thought, after all of this we were reading on the missionary handbook, and I was reading how as missionaries we've been called by a prophet of God. I know God puts His trust in us! So that makes me feel good. Hope you all have a great week!