Lynn and JaAnna Nelson Family: Week five in Quito, Ecuador

I think Elder Chamorro must think he was playing Monopoly and landed on the go to Jail, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. In fact, he had to spend more than $200 to get everything cleared up. Lynn was with him on Monday and Tuesday as he had to jump hoops to try and get everything done. He had gotten the problem that he came here for straightened out but he had to spend the rest of the time trying to get everything cleared up so he could leave the country and go back to Colombia. One problem was that when he was at the airport and taken off in handcuffs they didn’t stamp his passport, so he had to try and get the paper he turned in when he
got off the plane, which hadn’t been filed and was in a big bag on the floor of the office. When he finally got to the place to get his passport signed and cleared he was told that the only one who could authorize that was in a meeting so he had to make an appointment for Tuesday morning to meet with him. When he went the next morning to meet with him he had to convince the secretaries that he really had an appointment. When he finally got in to see him, he looked at the papers, said everything was in order and signed the paper. After that everyone seemed a lot more cooperative.

He was also not in the country when they had the election so he had to get some papers to prove that he was out of the county at the time of the election and that was why he couldn’t vote. They fine the residences of Ecuador if they don’t vote in the election. That got taken care of on Monday. Ecuador has bureaucracy down to a science and I thought the US had a monopoly on it.

Elder Chamorro finally left very early Wednesday morning. Since there is no flight directly to Colombia from here he had to go by way of Panama. He was delayed in Panama because he missed his flight and so had to wait for the next flight. He finally arrived in Colombia safely and is back to his usual duties in the office. What an adventure for him.

We found out a little about the mission president of the new mission, Pres. Bryan Richardson. He has actually lived here in Quito and even been a bishop here. He worked for the church and some of the people in the Church Office building know him. This will be a great advantage for him as he takes on his new duties in July. The new mission will have offices in our building on the 7th floor. We are on the 2nd floor. It is anticipated that our office will be doing a lot of inter-action with the new mission office personnel as they learn their duties and we make the transition. As part of the process President Ghent will be calling additional AP’s and mission elders to come in and learn about the office and other duties so that they will be all ready for the new mission president.

The Kaneens in front of the Stake Center where zone

and training meetings are held. This will have

to change in July since the new mission

will encompass this area.

Tuesday the Kaneens and us went to the Zone Leaders Council to help with the breakfast and lunch and ended up not going into the office at all. As we sat in the first part of the meeting and were introduced to the zone leaders I was so impressed with how young these men are and yet still are able to carry out their leadership duties with such maturity. The church is in great hands as these young men will leave the mission with the skills to be great leaders in the church.

Wednesday was spent in the office. Since this was the last week that Elder Vega will be with us in the office we had to glean as much as we could from him. He will be transferred to a new area next Monday. Elder Papworth will stay until the next change to continue training the Kaneens.

Zone Leaders Council Breakfast.

Lynn and Elder Kaneen cleaning up after
Zone Leaders Council.

Elder Papworth and his surprise birthday party.

Thursday was what they call verification of new missionaries. This is when those missionaries that arrived two transfers ago and have been in training are tested on how well they are learning the things that need to be done. Lynn set in on one of the groups and was able to play the role of an investigator for them. He really enjoyed the experience, reminding him of our time at the MTC. Several of the missionaries had mentioned that they were out of Book of Mormons. We have been without them in the office for a few weeks and they finally arrived this week. This shipment was being held up in customs for some reason. As part of this meeting, Pres. Ghent and Sis. Ghent go with the missionaries to the Panecillo, where Elder (Pres.) Kimball came in 1965 to dedicate the land of Ecuador for missionary work. It is a tradition here to do this with every group of new missionaries. They relate the story of the beginnings of the church here in Ecuador and tell of Elder Kimball’s visit. It’s a very special meeting. The Kaneens and Sis. Platts went with them this time. Lynn and I decided that we would wait until the next opportunity since we needed to get back to the office to do some things. Lynn needed to get the packages that needed to go to the outer zone areas ready to take to the bus stations later in the afternoon. I decided to return with him to do what I could to finish up the baptism records since we are supposed to close them out by Friday. It didn’t do me much good since there were still some missionaries who had not sent their records in yet but I was able to finish up some other things that need to be done.

Lynn and Elder Vega with a typical mail bag.

Thursday was Elder Papworth’s birthday. Elder Vega had asked us to prepare a surprise party for him for when they got to the office after the verification meeting. He requested banana splits. They didn’t get to office until almost 4:30, which was when Elder Vega and Lynn had to take the packages to the bus station, so they had to wait until they returned to enjoy the banana splits. Elder Papworth was very surprised and pleased with the party.

Friday was really quiet and a little frustrating since we still had baptism records that needed to be sent in. All the zones were having their mini-conferences so we hope that by Monday we’ll have what we need to close out the month of February. Friday was International Women’s Day. There was a volunteer on the 3rd floor that send flowers to the sisters in the church office building. It was a nice surprise.

Saturday, Sis. Thomas, had a birthday party for herself and she invited just the wives of the senior couples plus Sis. Morris, the mission nurse, and Sis. Holbrook, her new companion (replacement). It was called “Breadfast at Stephanies”. We enjoyed spending some quiet time together just talking girl stuff. After everyone else left Sis. Thomas & Sis. Platts took Sis. Kaneen and I up to their roof where we were able to get a good view of some sights in Ecuador. Even a good view of our apartment bldg.