Week 6 in Quito, Ecuador

Sunday night we had FHE at the Kaneens.  They had us relate the circumstances of our serving a mission. It was enjoyable to hear each couple give their experiences.  Elder Nelson & I are the only ones who are serving our second mission together.  Sis. Platts served a mission a couple of years ago in Bolivia serving in the Cochabamba Temple.  Elder Kaneen was at the age when he was 19 that, because of the Viet Nam war they were limiting the number of missionaries and he was unable to serve. But the other Elders all served missions when they were younger and Sis. Phelps served a mission, actually serving in this area when it was divided off from the Andes Mission back in 1967.

Monday was another busy day at the mission office, though not quite as busy as usual.  They made a change in what we now have available for the missionaries to purchase in the office and many of them  were downstairs at the Distribution Center making purchases that they would have normally made in our office.  It was also our last day to have Elder Vega in the office.  Tuesday morning he was transferred to serve as Zone leader in Esmeraldas which is several hours away in the northwest part of Ecuador, where it is close to the ocean.  He was excited to be able to do more proselyting but a little sad to leave us in the office.  Pres. Ghent says because he will have a phone we can call him if we really have problems that we can’t handle but he knows we can handle our duties.  Elder Nelson & I wanted to give Elder Vega a gift for the great job he has done in training us.  Elder Nelson noticed that his shoes were really worn, so we decided that we would purchase a new pair of shoes for him.  We cleared it with Pres. Ghent and Elder Nelson kidnapped Elder Vega from the office for an hour or so to go get the shoes.  They found some at a Payless Shoes here in Quito.  There are several of them.  Elder Vega tried to turn down the offer but Lynn was persistent.  When they got back Elder Vega had a great big smile on his face and came to me and thanked me for the shoes.
After the nurses, Sis. Morris and Sis. Holbrook were in the office for a short time on Monday they were called to help a gentleman upstairs who had collapsed on the floor with a heart attack. He was a bishop and they kept him alive while an ambulance arrived.  His wife was with him and Sis. Holbrook had to ask her to move so that she could get his pulse.  When they came back to the office, you could tell that they were a bit unnerved from the experience.

On Monday, one of the missionaries related their experience that they had in order to perform a baptism.  It seems that the chapel they were going to use didn’t have any water, but there was a large storage container nearby that had water in it so they had to carry buckets full of water from the container to the font.  They finally got it filled just barely high enough to cover the convert and performed the baptism.  They had to lay him completely down on the bottom of the font to make sure that he was completely covered.  Our missionaries have many challenges to overcome as they serve their missions here.

I’ve become known as the “high-tech chick” in the office, as Sis. Thomas says.   Sis. Platts and Sis. Thomas call on me often to help them with some problem they are having on the computer.  The other day Lynn was working on one computer and I was on another in another room.  He called out, “What determines whether you use one click or two.”  I said, “You try one click and if doesn’t work try two.”  Both Sis. Platts and Sis. Thomas bust out laughing.  They thought that was a funny thing to say since it didn’t sound like a very high-tech answer and Sis. Thomas said I said it with such a straight face.

Pres. Ghent was in the office for most of the day on Wednesday, since he had some interviews to do.  As Sis. Thomas and I were visiting with him he related this story from when he was a stake president.   It was stake conference time and Elder Kikuchi was assigned to be the visiting authority.  Usually, Pres. Ghent would receive instructions and guidelines for how the conference was to be conducted about 6 to 8 weeks before the scheduled conference.  He waited and waited and didn’t receive anything, so when it was about two weeks before the conference he called Elder Kikuchi’s office and asked him what he wanted done for the conference.  Elder Kikuchi said to just send him what he had.  Since they had been waiting for instructions before planning anything he held an emergency meeting with his counselors and hurriedly pulled a plan together and sent it off to Elder Kikuchi’s office.  When Pres. Ghent got it back it was marked on and several things were crossed out and a note was written on the bottom telling Pres. Ghent to just following the outline and instructions that had been sent.  Pres. Ghent called Elder Kikuchi’s secretary and told her that they hadn’t received an outline.  She apologized, since it was an oversight on her part and the instructions were sent.  When Elder Kikuchi arrived for the conference he brought with him several laminated signs:  3 green with 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and 1 minute written on one of each; 1 white sign that had 0 written on it; and a red sign that had -1 written on it.  He instructed Pres. Ghent to have his Executive Secretary sit right in front of the podium and as the speaker was getting close to the time he should end was to hold the signs up in order so that they would end on time.  

Well, Pres. Ghent, thought that maybe that was a good idea, so when the next conference came around he had some signs made that were similar and showed them to the visiting authority.  This authority said that he wasn’t to bother. That it wasn’t necessary to use the signs.  Pres. Ghent said that some things in the church are just preferences  and can change according to the personality of the leader and that other things in the gospel stay the same, like the basics principles and doctrines of the gospel.

As we are preparing for the great change that will be coming in July with the division of the mission Pres. Ghent has the huge job of deciding how to assign the missionaries.  I have mentioned before the list that I made for him showing the release dates of all the missionaries.  He is now going through the list separating the missionaries into the A group and the B group.  He says that he’s trying to keep both groups as even as possible with missionaries leaving as staggered as he can make them, so that large groups are not leaving either mission at the same time.  Starting with the next change day in April we expect to have around 45 to 50 new missionaries arrive in the mission before the division so that is making the job even harder.  He doesn’t know which of the lists, A or B, will be in which mission.  He said it’s kind of going to be like when he would have one of his kids divide up some goodie to share.  He would have the one who didn’t cut it choose first.   His one concern is with those that he has been working with that needed some encouragement.  He’s afraid that if they end up in the other mission they will think that it’s because he really didn’t care about them, when actually he does very much.  He feels the burden greatly.  When the missionaries are initially called it is by inspiration and he knows that these assignments to one mission or the other need to be the same way.  I know he will be guided as he goes through this process.

One of the things that Elder Vega was training Elder Nelson on before he left was on how to prepare the empadronaientos  for the missionaries.  These are forms that are used to carry around instead of our passports and visas as proof that we are in the country legally, since we keep all the missionary passports in the mission safe rather than have the missionaries carry them around with them.  Passports are very valuable on the black market, being worth a couple of thousand dollars each.  Missionaries keep copies of their passports with them but recently, before we arrived in the mission, they had a missionary serving in the most northern zone, next to the border with Colombia, who was taken into custody and taken over the border. The authorities didn’t accept the copy of the passport he had as proof of being in the country legally.  Lucky for him we had a member of the church that had some influence that was able to clear the problem up after his passport was taken up to the area.  Pres. Ghent, in wanting a way to protect other missionaries from having the same problem, was told about the empadronaientos and Elder Vega had been getting these for each missionary, but he could only do about 10 at a time.  He would have a notarized letter giving him permission to act on behalf of the missionary and would obtain these for the missionaries.  He would get to the immigration office early, wait 2 to 3 hours, leave the passport with the necessary application form filled out for each missionary and then return in about 2 days to get the empadronaientos.  The original is on a 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper so he would reduce these down to four per sheet and have them each laminated and then give or send to the missionary to carry with them.  It has proven helpful as we had a missionary who was recently stopped, showed his laminated copy of the empadronaiento and had no problem.

Thursday, Lynn and I left the office early to go to the immigration office that is just a block or so from our apartment building to obtain our empadronaientos .   As we were standing in line to get a number Lynn noticed a sign that said that they would no longer allow others to obtain necessary documents for another person.  This now presents a problem for us since we will now have to have those that most need these forms to come into Quito to get them for themselves.   It is not a very quick process.  We got to the office at about 1:30pm, got our number, and waited.  The DMV in Utah was quicker.  After we had been there for a while it was announced that they were having computer problems and that they didn’t expect to have them going again for about a half hour or so.  We decided to just wait it out.  At about 4pm we were still there waiting and not much was happening.  Many people had left by then.  The only ones being served were those who were there to pick up prepared documents.  I needed to use the restroom but they had no public restrooms in the building. Since our apartment building was only a block or two down the street I decided to go home, use the restroom at home and then return.  That’s all that was needed for Lynn to get served.  He decided to move to the front row.  One of the clerks motioned for him to come forward and asked him what he was there for.  He told them, she asked another clerk if she was able to accept the application and he was taken care of.  He met me on the way back and we hurried back to see if they would let me also turn in my application.  By the time we had return to the office they had started to call people up to the windows and my number finally came up.  We have to return on Monday to get the processed form.  I just hope it’s not as long a wait as it was to turn in the application.


Saturday was an enjoyable day. We senior missionaries decided to go on a trip to see the Mitad de Mundo (Center of the World).  We had a man, who owns a van and gives rides for the missionaries when Pres. Ghent needs him to take a large group such as when they visit the Panecillo. Victor (I don’t know his last name) picked us up at our apartment building and took us to three different places.  The first stop was a place called Pululahua, which is a reserve of a crater from an extinct volcano.  It now has a very lush and green valley at the base.  We had a beautiful view from the top of a large platform.

On our way to the center of the world, Mitad de Mundo.

Pululahua, a crater of an extinct volcano.

Victor, our driver, standing next to the equator.

Our group: Sis. Platts, Sis. & Elder Phelps, Sis. & Elder Sego
Elder & Sis. Nelson, Sis. & Elder Kaneen

Lynn with a machete at Pululahua

We visited two places that are called Mitad de Mundo.  The main one, which we went to third or last, commemorates the first mission to establish the center of the earth.  In 1736 two Spanish sailors and several French scientists came to Ecuador on what was called the first Geodesic Mission. It’s main purpose was to measure an arch of meridian to prove the shape of the Earth.  A second mission was sent at the end of the nineteenth century to confirm the results of the first mission.  The Equator Line (in Ecuador) was established based on the pyramids of Oyambaro and Caraburo, landmarks left by the First Mission of scientists.   In 1936 a ten meter high monument was raised to commemorate the 200 years arrival of the First Geodesic Mission.  It was placed in San Antonio de Pichincha, a place where the French scientists never arrived.  Then 43 years later it was moved in 1979 to the town of Calacali, a place also crossed by the equator line located 7km to the west.  They built a 30 meter monument replica and around it was built “The City of the Middle of the World” which are several buildings with museums, restaurants, souvenir shops and other tourists attractions.  They have a large awning where dances and programs are held.  There is a museum in the interior of the monument that shows the many groups of people that form the nation of Ecuador.

Lynn & I holding up the world.

Lynn & I standing in two different hemispheres
Lynn in the northern and I in the southern

  Our second stop, passing this main one to go to it, is also called the Mitad de Mundo, but it is based on GPS measurements, located at 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude.  They have small buildings showing how some of the indigenous people lived in the early days of Ecuador civilization.  There are monuments representing the many nations of Central and South America.  We were shown demonstrations of the effects of the two hemispheres meeting.  Our guide divided our group and had some of us stand on each side of a globe and one person stand facing the center.  As he spun the globe we each saw it spin in different directions:  the ones facing the southern hemisphere saw it spin clockwise, the ones facing the northern hemisphere saw it spin counter-clockwise and the one facing the equator saw no spin at all.  He also had, those willing, try and stand an egg on its end, something that can only be done at the equator.  Elder Sego and Elder Kaneen were able to do it, receiving an Egg Master certificate. It was all very interesting.  I purchased a postcard and stamp and we sent it addressed to ourselves to be sent to our home in Utah so it will have a postal stamp from the center of the earth. They also stamped our copies of our passports with a stamp saying that we had been there. It was a very pleasant day with good friends.

Demonstrating the spin of the world in the two hemispheres.

Elder Kaneen earned a Egg Master certificate by standing
an egg on its end.