These Past Few Days Have Been Some Of The Most Memorable Of My Mission-Machala Week Seventeen

So I realized Thanksgiving is this week. Hope everyone enjoys there food. Yes, thank you for asking. I will enjoy my rice and chicken...

Zone Leader 4

So yours truly had the opportunity to be Zone Leader 4 for 3 days this week.  Zone Leader 1 has the most time in the mission and so forth. Not really.  The zone leaders have tons of respect and trust in us so they always ask us to do exchanges with them to help out with the zone. (They live with the Zone Leaders.)Friday, we had exchanges with them. I went with Elder Myers and we went out to help the other missionaries. First we went to help a companionship that needed help committing everyone to come to church. We spent 2 hours in that sector, had success and then moved to help the hermanas. We were there for 3 hours. I have never walked so much in my life. The people that the hermanas needed to visit lived on opposite ends of the sector. We pushed forward and helped them. We then returned to Vencedores hoping to have some time to work in our sector. We were there for literally 5 minutes when we got a call from the hermanas that we were invited to a Family Home Evening. Of course, we went.  Now most houses here are all the same but this house was awesome. 3 stories, and then like a rooftop balcony that overlooked a shrimp lake. Not to mention they gave us some delicious food. So I guess being Zone Leader has its perks. Saturday, we were enlisted again to help them. One of the Zone Leaders had a "cambio" (not sure what that is in english, sorry). Because of this we worked in a tripanionship. So saturday I was ZL 3. Pretty much we just helped carry out the baptisms in the zone that day. There were 8 baptisms so we were constantly in a taxi or in the church. After that I was ready for my bed. However, before that the Zone Leaders asked us if we could wake up at 5:00 the next morning in order to carry out exchanges with other missionaries. The other companionship needed some help, so we gladly said we would do it. So a few things I have learned from the life of a zone leader. You dont sleep that much and you hardly work in your sector. However, these past few days have been some of the most memorable of my mission, and I enjoyed it all!

Elder Shanklin found Bass Pro in Ecuador

Investigators

We are still working with Scarlet and her baptism is for this Saturday. She is awesome and hopefully everything runs smoothly. A couple others that we have started working with are Shirley, Carlos, Alexander, and Fanny. All are super awesome, and love the gospel. There are many more that we are working with too. Prayers for all would be awesome. The Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to be here in Vencedores. It is a beautiful place and the people are super nice. 

Futbol

The picture that is attached with all of us wearing the futbol jerseys is awesome I know. But we have them because my companion bought them for all of us. I am still unsure how we convinced him or why he bought them but shoutout to him for my first of many  futbol jerseys!

Elder Shanklin with his new futbol jersey!

Great memories

Ya for now that is all that I have. Sorry that it isn't a lot but this week hasn't been anything special. It was awesome getting to work with some of the leaders of the mission as well as with other missionaries.  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and a safe black friday!

Elder Shanklin giving Santa his Christmas list.

Life is a sport, make it count

Elder Shanklin

A New Companion & Death By Food-Machala Week Sixteen

I am just gonna jump right in

Fight Club-Bus Style

So this week while we were waiting for a bus 2 guys starting yelling at each other. Not gonna lie I was quite entrigued by what was going on even though I was only catching bits and pieces of what was being said. However, when they got on the bus they started swinging. As the responsible people that we are we tried to get the closest we could to the action without gettting involved. We decided that it would be a good idea just to wait for the next bus. 

Pizza

So this last week was my companions last week in the mission. To celebrate this we decided as missionaries and missionaries of the ward we are going to make pizza. My companion who studied culinary before the mission took control of the reigns and practically did everything. This pizza was delicious and I learned how to make pizza another way then I thought. Much better than 22 dollar pizza. I had like 4 pieces and it didnt cost me a cent. 

Death by Food

Not gonna lie, this week was pretty great when it came to food. Since it was my companions last week, everyone and their dog wanted to feed us. I think one day we had like 5 meals. Sometimes that is more meals than I eat in 2 days. Every member that we visitied offered us food. I can say that I was full most of the week. Fish, Rice, and even one family feed us hamburgers. The members here in Vencedores are amazing when it comes to this!

New Companion

So I am a murderer. When someone goes home in the mission they die and there companion murders them. So yeah I am a murderer. Sunday night we recieved a call that we had to be at the Bus terminal at 330 in the morning so that my companion could catch his bus. He was up to 1230 packing and then eventually we got about one or 2 hours of sleep. We awoke at 230 to get to the terminal. There at the terminal I said good bye to Elder Quispe and then I recieved my new companion. At 4 in the morning there isnt really that much to take about, but yea he is awesome! His name is Elder Martinez and he is from El Salvador. He has been in the mission for about 20 months. I have been blessed to have 2 experienced latino missionaries that help me learn the language and also the gospel! 

Thanks for all the support and prayers this week. Please pray for the Familia Cruz, Scarlett and Shirley. Running low on time so I apologize it things seem scattered!!

Life is a Sport, Make it count

Elder Shanklin

Hotel California 25 Years Later-Machala Week Fifteen

Shout out to my example in everyway, my dad. Best of luck to him in his new calling. 

Meeting with President

Numbers are extremely low in the mission right now, so the mission is making his rounds in order to inspire the missionaries. He talked about the importance of obedience. Also, as a mission we have specific goals weekly, and daily. We should be completing them with love not because of obligation. After the meeting the president wanted to interview everyone missiionary. He began at 1 and at 5 we were told to return to our sectors and tomorrow we would have interviews. The next day we showed up at 10 and at 3 we were told to return to our sectors because there was no time. So many hours spent in the chapel, but no interview. Still I was inspired and learned alot from the message of the president

Hotel California

I recently received a letter in the mail from my dad in which he shared with me that while serving in Peru the people all loved the song Hotel California. Well I am here to tell you that things have not changed in the past 25 years. I have been asked by countless people if I know that song, and also there are a bunch of clothes that say hotel california on them. Not exactly sure why that song is so popular but it is. 

Blackouts

There were like 5 blackouts this week, which isn't really a lot but normally they happen when we are not in the street. However, 2 happened at like 8 at night while we were in the street. Im not talking like a couple street lights went out. The whole city was black. The only lights you could see were from Central, which is like 20 minutes away. Always, when the power goes out at night the streets clear. Like in 30 seconds there was nobody in the street. So we were just left in the street to die. Not really mom everything was fine. There was like a Purge feeling. Which isnt really good. During another we were at a members house. Curfew came and we decided to head back to the house in the darkness. I felt like I was a parent leaving there screaming child. She begged us not to go but we trudged through the darkness. Only for the power to go out again (after it came back on at the house) later that night when I was making Mac and Cheese.

Intercambios

So I have like no idea what they are called in English, but here in Ecuador or in Spanish they are intercambios. You switch companions for a day. I went with my district leader, Elder Narro. He is 26, and is from Peru. Totally awesome missionary. Super awesome experiences to work with another missionary and see how he does things!

Investigators

S came to church this sunday and is super awesome. She has made friends with all the young women and some of the young men. Here the youth do a great job of fellowshipping and it really aids in the progressing of the work. 

The Candy Man Is In Ecuador-Machala Week Fourteen

Hope everyone had a safe and awesome Halloween this past weekend.

Apologies

I don't know if they read these letters but I want to apologize to the Garcia family. They were awesome to me in the CCM and the green soccer jersey that I wear in a lot of pictures is from them. They did a lot for me. However, I sent them like 3 thank you letters and I recently recieved 2 back. Not sure if they recieved the other but I wanted to personally say thank you to them for all that they didnt for me. SO...Thank you. I haven't forgotten what you have done for me.

Happy Halloween from the Elders

Halloween

Basically everyone knows what Halloween is but nobody celebrates it. There is no candy, or costumes. There were a couple of parties but what is new. That is everyday in Ecuador. However, Mom, the candy and little toys that you sent me where a huge hit with both adults and kids. Story time. Every friday night we have an activity in the church called noche de amigos. Every week we watch a church movie and play games. This weeks as a participation prize I gave out dum dum suckers and little halloween rings. But by the way everyone reacted and how excited they were you would have thought that I was giving out 100 dollars bills. So now in Ecuador I am called the Candy Man. Not really but that would be awesome

I guess every missionary brings a stuffed animal on their mission!

Baptisms

I am sure my parents have been anxiously waiting to hear about these. On Halloween we had 2 baptisms. Pretty awesome way to celebrate it! B and D both got baptized. We did have a little scare but every ended up good. At 540 we passed by the house of Dayana and told her we would return at 6 to help her. We came back at 6 and she wasnt there. We call her and she is in Machala Centro. Like 15 minutes away in bus and 5 in taxi. She quickly jumped in a taxi and everything was fine. Except a baptism that was supposed to start at 630 started at 710. I gave the message about the spirit. Also those were my companions last baptisms because he is going home in like 2 weeks. 

D. with her family

Elder Shanklin, D. and Elder Quispe

Elder Shanklin, D, B, and Elder Quispe

Elder Shanklin, B, and Elder Quispe

B. and his family.

Investigators

Numbers are really low in all the mission right now. However, we have 1 solid investigator right now. She is neighbors with B. We gave her a Book of Mormon and we we returned she had already read 8 chapters. Yeah it was awesome. WOrking hard everyday so I know the Lord will bless us!

I think Elder Shanklin loves the beautiful sunsets on the coast.

Dia De Los Muertos

Day of the Dead. Nothing special about it. It was celebrated on Sunday and basically everyone just goes and visits the cementaries. Curch was like a ghost town. Not really but some people were missing! 

A fish eyeball that Elder Shanklin ate this week.

I think Elder Shanklin thought for a moment he was really in Hawaii!

Thanks for everything! Wish everyone the best week!

Life is a sport, make it count

Elder Shanklin