On The 13th Day Of Christmas Prez Gave To Me..An Exchange-Machala Week Twenty One

Just gonna jump right in

First Exchange

Like I had said in previous letters my time finally came to an end in Machala and now I am in Guayaquil. In most missions or some at least you have like 3 days notice to pack, say bye, and do everything. Here, there are exchanges everyday and at anytime. So at 10 at night on thursday the Zone Leaders got a call that I had cambios. I finished my packing at midnight and then had to wake up at 2 in the morning in order to take a 4 hour bus ride to Guayaquil. My companion is Elder Maravilla or marvelous in english. He, like all of my other companions, is going to complete his mission soon. He has like 22 months in the mission and is from El Salvador. I have been blessed to only have latino companions. Because I am learning (I think) a lot faster than I would have. So my first Christmas in the mission will be here in Guayaquil.

Temple Trip

So this past week on Tuesday we were just chilling in district meeting when the ZLs burst into the room and tell us they have an awesome announcement. Everyone needed to pack clothes because we would be taking a two day trip to the temple. It was a complete suprise, and from what other missionaries have told me is that nothing like that had ever happened before. So Merry Christmas to us. I got the opportunity to see some missionaries that were in my zone before and it was awesome. Wednesday we did a session at the temple and then hit the road in order to be in our houses to prepare for the next day. It was an awesome experience.

Guayaquil Ecuador Temple
Want to know more about LDS Temples?  Look here.

Elder Shanklin and Elder Martinez at the Guayaquil Temple

Chef Shanklin

So one day this week our lunch canceled and they just gave us a bag of shrimp. So somehow the four missionaries that live in the house put together something edible. I was head chef. By that I mean I cooked and then just told me what to do. We made like coconut shrimp and fried bananas. It was actually really good. If you don't believe me I will have to make it for you when I get back. I could be a professional Ecuadorian chef by then. 

Chef Shanklin at work.

Coconut Shrimp and Fried bananas

Enjoying their meal. 

Christmas

Merry Chirstmas to everyone. I hope everyone gets what they want and enjoys the family time. Yes, I will enjoy the rice and chicken or Top Ramen that I have for Dinner. Just kidding many members have offered to have us over to everything should be awesome. Christmas sure is a lot different here. However it is a unique experience that I will never forget. Supposedly it is more like the 4 of July. There are a bunch of explosives and fireworks. I have been imformed that they New Years I will not be able to sleep for most of the night. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Exchanges and the temple trip took up a bunch of time this week, and with Christmas this week hopefully I will have more to talk about the next week. Once again...

Elder Martinez, Elder Shanklin and Scarlet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Life is a sport, make it count

Elder Shanklin