The Twenty-First Year - 2000

The new millennium came without a hitch - for the most part. My twenty-first year started off where my twentieth left off, in Quevedo, Ecuador. I was there for a few more months with Jorge Mogollon (from Guatemala) after Hendrickson left. Mogollon was a tiny little guy. He probably didn't weigh more than 90 pounds and came up to my shoulder, if that... but he was the only companion I had that could keep up with my walking pace or my appetite. In fact, that little guy out walked and out ate me - to this day I have no idea where he hid his food.

We did a service project for the stake center building that sat at the top of a very steep (maybe 20 foot) hill - we cut the weeds. In order to do it we had to tie ourselves off with rope and hang down while we cut out the weeds with machetes. Yes, the machete, the Ecuadorian all purpose outdoor tool - every missionary had one. It was a fun project - but I still have scars on one of my hands where giant fire ants had their way with it during that project. I only had one glove because another missionary that was helping forgot his.

One of the families I got to know in Quevedo decided to get me a gift - a monkey. They went out to the jungle and caught one, brought it home and gave it to me. I LOVED it! It was way cute - unfortunately, there was no way I could keep it, so I told them, "thank you" and asked them if they could just keep it for me. So they did. Kerli, the little girl of the family, used to bite the monkey's tail to make it made... it was kind of gross, but funny.

One day we went to visit a family, and as we approached the door two women came running out of the house screaming. They said a big iguana just crawled in the house. I went in and found it, caught it, took it back to our place, left it in the shower, then we went back out for the day. When we got back that night I took it over to a friend's house and they cut off it's head (with a dull knife, while I held it down - the head kept biting long after we cut it off) and then they prepared it for lunch for us the next day. It was actually really good! Tasted like a mix between fish and (of course) chicken - everything tastes like chicken.

After four months in Quevedo I was moved to Porto Viejo. It was a great city. We lived just down the street from a pizza place that had the best (Ecuadorian) pizza! We would get one almost every night, some of the toppings available were pretty strange. For the life of me, I can't remember what I would get on mine, but I know I loved it.

We lived in the city but the area we worked in was beyond the outskirts - out in "el campo" or the jungle basically. Sometimes we would hitch hike to get there and sometimes we would just walk. The "houses" (cane shacks) were built basically one on top of the other on the side of a hill. Down in the valley there was a man and his wife who lived in a cane shack (housing options where either cane or cement). The man did all sorts of things to earn money, whatever he could really - one of those things was leather work. He made me a pair of sandals out of leather and an old tire (for the soles). I still have em, uncomfortable as heck, but I'll never get rid of them.

One time my comp and I were walking after dark out in the outskirts of town and we saw a bright green light streak across the sky then disappear behind the hill - then a bright green flash lit up the entire sky. It was probably a meteor or something, but I thought it was really cool at the time - actually, I still think it was pretty cool.

I loved my time in Ecuador. We would go out early every morning, walk ALL day in the sun - teach the gospel message and come home late at night - more often then not we'd fall asleep on our knees praying for those we were there to help. Some nights we would be so tired, even the one praying would fall asleep mid prayer - we'd usually wake up in the middle of the night (2 or 3am) and wake up the other companion and tell them to get in bed - then we'd start the day over again, bright and early.

I think, other than the people there of course, I miss the food most of all. Every day we could expect a hot bowl of "caldo" (soup) with a nice hot drink of something usually thick and creamy, and a plate of "arroz con menestra" (rice with goo) and a side of s meat (usually thin flank steak or some fish or chicken) and some "patacones" (fried plantain bananas). I know you probably think I'm being sarcastic about loving such food - especially when the temps was always about 95 degrees and 150% humidity, but in all honesty, I LOVED it. I can't wait until I can afford to go back. But the best dish of all was encebollado. It's an Ecuadorian fish soup. It has yucca, fish, onion, chifle (basically plantain chips) and a bunch of other yummy stuff that you just can't find in the states. I'd give my right kidney for a fresh hot bowl of it right now!

The LDS mission is usually a two year commitment. I had every intention of serving those two full years. However, after being out a year, and doing the work I was there to do, I couldn't deny any longer that I shouldn't be there - not until I took care of some things that happened before I left to serve. I went to the mission president and talked to him about the issue. He did all he could to keep me there, but in the end the decision wasn't his - I had to return home to take care of things there. The next day I was on a plane for home.

The flight home was the longest, most humiliating, and LONELIEST flight ever. My plane landed in Phoenix late on a Monday night; my parents were there to pick me up - probably not AS disappointed in me as I was, but I don't remember much of anything being said the entire four hour drive back to Lakeside.

The next morning I woke up and called Bethany to tell her I had come home - but I was planning on going back out to finish no matter what and that I would't see her until after I finished my service. She kind of freaked out and was in shock and started crying. She told me she had just had a dream that I had come home. She told me (through tears) she couldn't talk to me right then and she would call back... she never did. I got a letter in the mail a few days latter explaining she was sorry for how she acted on the phone and that she understood why I had to come home and that she still wanted to "wait for me." Three months later I found out through my friend Christina that Bethany had gotten engaged.

During those three months I went back to work for Kirby Karkula. He and I, along with one other guy he hired while I was gone, built a house. It was a pretty nice house if I do say so myself. We even made the custom cabinets and everything. We only subbed out the painting, plumbing and electrical - I think. It was a great project and kept my mind off things those three months, but after getting the news of Bethany, I decided I needed to get off that mountain.

I moved down to Scottsdale with Bret and Tevia and I enrolled in classes at ASU. I got a job for a custom cabinet maker in Mesa and I bought a new (used) car - because the car I had before I left on my mission was given to my brother Quentin and, although I bought it and it was technically mine, my parents said I couldn't have it back since I wasn't even supposed to be home yet - rather than arguing, I let him keep it (a '92 Ford Escort). I bought a POS Plymouth Sundance - It got me from point A to point B, but that was about it. I got it for pretty cheap because the front suspension was shot. A few hundred dollars later it was on the road. The car had pretty bad leprosy so for a few hundred more, I got a Macco paint job.

I finished up my semester at ASU and ended up getting a new job (closer to Scottsdale) with a company called PracticeMax - a medical billing company.