our lives here in Ecuador

Hi, Guayaquil is about 2 hours from the coast, or playa/beach. It is a port, because a large river comes into Guayaquil that rises and falls with the tides. There are about 3 million people here. The weather is almost always in the 80's or above, and the sun rises and sets at about the same time every day of the year because it is so close to the equator. We are supposed to be in the rainy season now, 30 inches in a month, but it really hasn't started as yet. We have a little rain in the evenings, but when it really starts I guess it comes in buckets.
We walk to a nice mall ( about a mile away) to so our shopping, and then take a taxi home. The taxi costs $2.00. They use American money here so we don't have to exchange our money, and we can get money from the ATM here. The grounds of the temple, as well as the temple are beautiful. There is a large mango tree right outside our window that is covered with fruit that is almost ripe. The gardner brought us a coconut from a tree on the grounds last week.
We are spoiled because we live in an apartment house on the grounds of the temple. We live on the 3rd floor, and have a nice view of the town out our windows. The apartments on the other side of the hall look out on the temple.
When we leave the apartment house, we walk about 100 steps to the temple. :)

We love serving here. There are 2 other English speaking missionary couples here. One couple is from Arizona, and they have been here about 8 months. He learned Spanish on his mission in about 1958, and she has had to start from scratch as have I. The other couple is from Nova Scotia, and the have been here about 3 weeks longer than we have. They have been learning the ordinances phonetically, and he is having a harder time than she is because he has taken on a project of helping a family build a bathroom laundry room on the back of their home. Thus he has much less time to study. Now the temple engineers have enlisted him to build some large boxes to hold some things they are lifting onto the roof of the temple to put in the cooling systems. However they love it here as well.
The temple is open two shifts a day on Tues. - Fri., one starts at 6:15 a.m. for the missionaries, because we open or close the temple for each shift. That means we turn on the table lamps, in the entry, and celestial room, stock the initiatory,
turn on the organ in the chapel( it plays hymns from a disc) and get other things ready for the day. The sessions begin at 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00. Then many of the people eat either breakfast or lunch in the cafeteria so we don't leave the temple until about 1:30 on the first shift. The temple is closed midday. The second shift starts f or the missionaries at 4:15 p.m. and we do the same things again. This shift ends about 10:30 for the missionaries as we are the last ones out of the temple except for Security.
The temple grounds are surrounded with a fence just like in other places, but it is the whole grounds, and there is a guard building that has 24/7 security that checks every person or vehicle that come and goes.
Our shifts change about every 2 weeks. We have been on the evening shift and thus we work in the baptistry. What a joy to see them come. One day last week we had 4 wards come all at the same time.
It has been quite a challenge for me as it is hard to communicate with the youth, but they are very understanding, and Sherman can speak with them. On Saturdays we go in at 7:00 a.m. and work until 6:30 p.m.. We have buses that come from outlying areas that come on Friday night and leave on Sat night. Some of them come from Columbia a 12 hour trip. The apartment building has rooms that have 3 bunk beds and a bathroom. The families or youth stay in them, and on the main floor there is a large room with 3 or 4 kitchens where they can prepare their food. I think it is very reasonable for them to stay here, but they have to do at least one session or baptisms each day they are here.
We would welcome any of you to join us here :)
Love
Hermano & Hermana Rigby