In an effort on our part to catch you up on Elder Wilcox's life in Ecuador, here are a select few emails from the past few months. Since the last blog post, his trainer Elder Rodriguez left and Carter was put with Elder Perez
from Panama. He was with this companion when we talked with him on Skype Christmas Day. In updating Carter's Facebook page, many members have commented on his happy demeanor and how funny of a guy he is. :) We've also learned that he's had two other companions between his current companionship and Elder Perez. He has 8 months as a missionary already.
Carter was transferred from Santa Rosa South to Guayaquil, where he is currently serving as the Mission Secretary to the President with Elders Espinoza (from Arizona) and Cayax (from Guatemala). As of this month he is now also the District Leader. He says it's hard and scary, but challenging and he enjoys it. (
Office elders tend to have their mission office duties and then serve in a proselyting area after office hours.) Pictures of the past few months will posted sometime in the next week. Enjoy!:
**"Well this week came by huge surprise to me! I was living with the Zone Leaders at the time and the Assistants called and told them that I have transfers so I packed everything and went to the bus terminal the next morning. And as you know they told me that I´m going to be training to be the new Secretary and at first I just thought it was a joke but then they told me that it was really what was going to happen. Being Secretary is a lot of work but I also really enjoy it. It´s helping me be more organized in my life and teaching me how to do complicated things. Thank you so much for the opportunity that you have given me to do this!
**Hola Presidente!
Well this week was just another normal week! Not much new. Just teaching and preaching and all that fun stuff!! This week what the Lord has been teaching me is
Patience. I live with my companion and one other companionship and they always pick at me like I used to pick at Kendle. (Bit of karma as well...) Holy cow they bug the crap out of me. But during my personal study I`ve been trying to develop patience and reading about how Jesus did things really helps me to control myself. I`m getting better but it`s still a work in progress.
**The week was SUPER busy!! I went to the airport 5 times this week!! 3 times to send missionaries home (Disobedient, trunky, and finishers) and 2 times to do transfers for the Galapagos Islands. Twas lots of times and lots of waiting.... Not much else happened after that. I also slept in the temple hotel
(Note to the Reader: In other countries, members often travel long distances to receive temple ordinances. To help lower costs, some LDS temples have rooms where visiting members can stay for free) for a couple nights which was really cool. :)
**Well honestly, I don't remember a lot about the week... That's why I write things down!! Life as the Secretary is super busy but it's also SUPER fun!!! I get to talk to and meet lots of the missionaries and this coming week we have a new group of missionaries coming in and a group that's leaving so it's really cool to see brand new missionaries and their super scared faces and also the awesome stature of the missionaries who are finishing with honor. I also go to the airport a lot.... The transfers to the Galapagos are all coordinated and taken care of by me so it's fun to buy plane tickets and get people on planes and pick them up and what not! This week will be fun because I'll be sleeping in the Temple hotel pretty much the whole week!!! Super excited!!! Have a great week! Love you all!!!
Love, Elder Wilcox
**This week was a good week. We had a lot of lessons with and without members but not very many new baptismal dates yet. We're working hard and praying that we'll find that golden family that´s waiting. We are working with a family that wants to get baptized but just needs a couple papers to get married then we can baptize them. We also taught a lot of lessons to Less Active members and we had one rescue this past week with a goal of more this week."
.JPG)
