Hola Familia y Amigos,
I´m here! I survived the CCM, I barely survived the all night plane ride, and I have arrived in glorious Quito Ecuador! President Christensen is so nice. I love him already. It´s been a very crazy week. The field is definitely harder than the CCM but it is also SO much better!
My trainer´s name is Elder Garcia. He´s from El Salvador and speaks almost no English. He is super nice and very helpful. It is a little bit hard not being able to communicate very well but we´ve been able to make due and work well together. My first area is an area in the southern part of Quito called Turubamba. Everyone here is so nice. I have been having a lot of trouble understanding them though. Some of them speak a little bit of English and like to show off their skills to me. I love them all so much.
The members of the ward here have been having a lot of fun with my last name. I get "Exsh" and "Eek" and "Heesh". One family spent like five minutes trying to pronounce it and during the lesson I heard one of the little kids playing in the other room saying "Hicks Hicks Hicks Hicks..." I didn´t expect people to find it so entertaining but I guess it´s different than any name they have here. One of the families that I love is called the Velasco family. They are a part member family with three kids. The oldest is Marco and he sings and plays guitar really well. The next is William and he is crazy smart. He is like 15 years-old and is in college. He has been studying English and likes to ask me questions about myself in English. He even acted as a sort of translator in one of our lessons. The youngest is Carlos. He is 9 years-old and is super funny. He is way into Minecraft too which I thought was kind of funny. I´ve been to there house twice and they are always super friendly.
So it´s really cold here in Quito. It also rains constantly and hails every so often too. The city is very beautiful from above but a little less so from the ground. There are dogs everywhere. There are only two kinds of dogs that live in Quito: the ones that looked diseased and super sad all the time and the ones that absolutely hate missionaries. But it´s been fun getting to know the area and the people.
Well, I think that´s about all I have to say. One of our investigators has a baptismal date set for October 8th so I´ll make sure to send plenty of pictures of that! I love you all and hope you are doing well.
Sinceramente,
Elder Travis Hicks
Picture 1: All the Perry kids at the CCM took a picture on our last Sunday.
Picture 2: A view of Quito from outside Pres. Christensen´s window.
Picture 3: Lunch on a P-Day. I am eating rice and eggs covered in BBQ sauce. This is the life!
Picture 4: Elder Garcia and I contacting oustide of a McDonalds. He wasn´t to interested in what we had to say.
Picture 5: Hermano Pavia and I
Picture 6: Elder Syndergaard and I with Hermana Balderas.
Picture 7: Left to Right: Elder Syndergaard, Elder Watkins, Elder Carter. They were my roommates. I love them so much. Elder Watkins is in my zone so I get to see him every Thursday!
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