A letter from Babahoyo, Ecuador

¡¡¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!!!
How is everybody doing? I made it to ecuador and I am in a city/town/place called Babahoyo :) And it is hard to type on this keyboard cause the symbols are all in different places lol.
So, I got here Tuesday night at like 1030 and the Pres Gamboa and his wife and the APs were there to greet us and help with our bags. They took us to the AP's house where we ate McDonalds lol. And they told us what we would be doing on Wednesday. Then we went to bed downstairs where they had 11 matresses all over the floor for us 4 white guys and 7 Latinos who arrived earlier that day. They got to go to the temple but we didn't :( And from what I hear we won't get to go to the temple...that stinks. So wednesday we woke up and played kickball at a field across the street from the house (gringos vs. latinos....I think we won lol) Then we went back to the house and got ready and went to the church. There, we met with Pres. Gamboa and we learned a bunch of rules and stuff. Next, we went to Pres. Gamboa's home (which is way nice and there's a pool and stuff) and we ATE and ATE. I was SOOO full lol. We ate a fresh fruit cocktail with all kinds of fruit, some sort of breaded chicken/turkey thing with mashed potatoes and carrots, and a banana pie with ice cream. And they had this really good juice, too. I thought I was going to pop cause I was so full! lol
After that we went back to the church and had a quick interview and met our companions! My companion is Elder Rodriguez and he is from Mexico. He speaks English pretty well though, thankfully lol. He's been out for 13 months. So after I met him we got in a taxi and rode to a bus station. The bus station kinda reminded me of a ghetto Union Station (like the one Alexa made everyone evacuate lol) So, we took a bus to Babahoyo. It was about 1- 1 1/2 hours with no AC, just open windows. And yes it is pretty sweaty here during the day, but not unbearable. When we got to Babahoyo we dragged my suitcases about 1/4 mile to our apartment. The apartment is 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and like an open area. It isn't TOO gross, but I wouldn't mind if it had an "Extreme Makeover:OCD Edition" lol. It's all good cause we wear flip flops all the time.
So after we dropped of my bags, we bought a few groceries. I bought a dozen eggs, bread, jam, cereal, milk, juice, cookies....for $8.34 lol. Most things are sooo cheap, but like a little jar of peanut butter is like $4 haha. After that we went to a few houses and taught lessons.
All of the houses are pretty small here and either have cement or bamboo/wood floors. Some houses are made of bamboo, others are made of like bricks or cement. VERY humble houses...but they almost all have a flat screen LCD TV and a DVD player hahaha. It's interesting.
So this week we've been walking ALOT and teaching. On the 10th of October we are planning on 2 baptisms! Lucia, and Raul. There's this family, the Ochoas, and they have 5 kids that are super smart and remember everything we tell them. People here speak really fast and most of them are missing teeth so that makes it even harder to understand lol. I am catching on more and more though.
On friday night I "knocked" my first house (we don't actually knock..we stand outside and say "¡A VER!" haha) So I talked to the lady a little bit and asked if we could come in and she said....YES! haha It was awesome. She also told us that she already believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet...so that was interesting lol.
Sunday we had church, and only 2 investigators came. :( Elder Rodriguez told me that it is like a tradition here to lie...I am learning that that is true lol.
Today we took our laundry to the laundry Mamita and we pick it up on Wednesday. We don't have a cooking Mamita, but we do have lunch appointments every day (except Pday). They feed us ALOOOOT lol. Mostly rice with a little bit of chicken. Yesterday, though, we started off with some jello, then some chicken with pasta stuff. Everything I've eaten has been edible, and it's all pretty good. They put catsup on like everything lol. Today for lunch we're gonna eat lunch at a pizza place...the pizzas are like 12-14 inches and are $2.50 :) Earlier today I bought a "satchel" ....kinda like a 'murse' haha.
So..i gotta write to Pres Gamboa now. But reply and I'll try to reply too! All is well here in Babahoyo, Ecuador. We're workin hard! I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!! Seriously :) Keep praying for me!
Love,
Elder Beck in Ecuador