Tuesday, February 25, 2014

El Cuarto Misionero (week 27)


Two reasons why the subject is called "El Cuarto Misionaro"... First of all. As a mission, our mission president, president Richardson challenged us to read "The Fourth Missionary" several times through February and January. It talks about 4 different types of missionaries and helps missionaries realize what they can become. I actully read it in the MTC once before but now I've read it twice in the mission since the challenge... The other reason is(Thanks to the calculations of my companion) I now am 1/4 the way through my mission as of today, and I'm wondering what happened to the time.

I did splits with Elder Bustillo in his sector this last Tuesday and our momita fed us fish eggs. The taste was so weird, I couldn't decide if I liked it or not, but I ate all of it like always... Also I ate orange chicken later in the week and I've never had anything like that in the mission until now...We had a couple of good lessons that day and then watched "The John Tanner Story" with an investigator family and they loved it! They wanted to watch another so we watched "The Stonecutter" video too. We then talked about the two videos after and bared testimonies. It was such a simple lesson but the spirit was super strong. I then answered like 100 questions that the dad had about the Book of Mormon and then gave him the book and told him that all of the answers are in here and you have to find them. We also left the DVD with them so they can watch The Restoration too. Their sector has one huge hill that we walked up and down like 5 times, which was super joyful.

On Thursday we had interviews with the pres in Esmeraldas and they gave us lessons on "The Fourth Missionary", the area book, and basically all of Chapter 8 of PMG. I always learn new things from them. My interview was shorter since I just had one about 3 weeks ago. We had the district meeting on Friday morning instead of Thursday and the zone leaders came up to do splits with us and interview some of our investigators. Plus, I recieved like 3 packages from Christmas all at the same time. So that was awesome!

Lady Valdez and Miguel Cevallos were baptized this last Saturday! It was so awesome! Elder Macalopu baptized Lady and a ward friend of Miguel baptized him. I conducted the baptism and taught Lesson 3 while they were changing. They were both confermed yesterday. These guys are solid and I'm sure they'll "Endure to the End". Miguel also brought his family to his baptism and to church so we'll try to teach them soon; Miguel will be an awesome example for them. Speaking ofSunday, we weren`t allowed to leave because this place can get crazy during elections. We only went to sacrament meeting and then tried to entertain ourselves for the rest of the day. We studied, watched church videos, and slept all day long. I felt super weird as a missionary doing almost nothing.

Espero que ustedes tienen una semana bien bacán! Les amo todo de ustedes!

(week 27)














Monday, February 17, 2014

Quinindé! (week 26)

Yes. I did get transfered. I`m in a city called Quinindé. It`s costal baby! I don`t have a beach in my sector but I`m about 2 hours away from Esmeraldas, which does have a beach. They're a ton of black people here which is awesome haha. My new companion is Elder Macalopu, he`s from Peru. There are two other companionships here in Quinindè, Elder González, Elder Bustillo, Sister Cayama, & Sister Smith. This place looks pretty sweet! I'm blessed to be in a costal region. It's hot here but not near as hot as Coca. Coca is like sitting in a closed box of the side of I-15 near Vegas. Quinindé is hot too but not as hot and it has a breeze so it evens things out. I'm excited to be working here! But i will miss the first sector for sure.

Let me catch up on last week... So first off, Elder Black left for his zone leadership meeting in Quito so I was with Elder Mamani and Elder Wright on Monday andWednesdayTuesday I was with Hno. Alverado all day long and we did work! And that counted as a member present for every lesson too haha! It was a good last week. We spent the last few days working a lot with less-actives and we went to Loreto for the first time which we usually never do but there's one member family that lives there so we decided to visit her. We ended up giving priesthood blessings to all of her family haha. It was hard enough in English so I'm glad I had to spirit to guide me on those. In fact, in the last two weeks I', given 3 priesthood blessings and have been a part of 3 others. Line up. Sunday night we got the changes. I knew I was going haha. But my guess was to Otavalo. I packed that night and left in the morning around 9:30am. Elder Black is going to train as a ZL so that's interesting. I guess that's how I was. Those were the only changes in the whole zone. I'll get many more pictures from Elder Black of the investigators in the zone in March.

I traveled alone to Quito and almost got lost but I found my way to the church office building and was fine. I met my dad, Elder Agapito right before he died; Now he's dead in his house haha. I also saw Elder Magalhaes, Elder Guild(He's in Quito now), Elder Murphy, and Elder Hess. So it was awesome seeing familiar faces. I slept in the assistants appartment that night(They have freakin carpet!) and then I left to Quinindé(Alone again) that morning. I arrived around 3:00 and there was a huge statue of Jesus there to welcome me so that was comforting haha. Elder Macalopu, Elder González, & Elder Bustillo found me around 3:20 and we dropped my stuff of at my new home. After that Elder Macalopu interviewed an Investigator of the hermanas named Antonio and he'll be baptized this week! So that's cool to come to. Also I met Diana's family that lives here and told them that she'll be getting baptized this week!(She did! And I missed it!) And they were thrilled!

Antonio got baptized on Friday at 5:00 by Elder González and it was sweet! I still don't know hardly anyone here but Miguel Cevallos, one of our investigators, will be getting baptized this next week! We taught him after church in a room on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and during the closing prayer that he gave he said, "I know what the missionaries are teaching me is true, I want to be baptized, and I want to be a missionary." I just stared at him during the prayer with my eyes and mouth open hahaha! I couldn't believe it. It's so awesome here. And Ladi will be baptized this week too. Ladi's story is interesting: We thought she was a member this whole time but we figured out she wasn't so we taught her the plan of salvation really quick and asked her to be baptized this week and she accepted hahaha! We also have Oriana with a date two weeks later, I believe. On Friday we traveled to Esmeraldes to meet Elder Kingsford, Elder Pop(The zone leaders) and the other district leaders for the leadership meeting and we ate pigs foot with them before we left back to Quinindé. It tasted like strait-up fat haha. Awful. 

Sorry for writing 2 weeks late fam haha. I have to go now but I'll send more pictures around 5:00pm, my time. Love you all! Peace out! 

P.S: By the way if you could send me a new journal soon that would be great. The ones here suck...

Monday, February 3, 2014

(week 24) Coca could be coming to a close

43-8 Superbowl, huh? Oooh what a thriller haha. I was hoping they would both lose.

The Zoo was awesome! Anacondas, tucans, monkeys and other cool animals. Unfortunatly I can't send pictures this week because I'm already in a Cyber and I forgot my camera in the appartment haha. Which is also a bummer because Elder Wright (He says: HI!) and Elder Mamani baptized Kevin and Bryan on Saturdaymorning, so you can't see those pictures yet haha. It was so awesome though! We found this beach on the riverside with big trees hanging over the river. Pictures to come... 

A TON of investigators came to church on Sunday! Finally! Fasting really works! We usually get a lot of commitments to go to church but only a few show up but this time we had 8 investigators show up, which is the high of the change for us. With the investigators from the other elders, we had about 13 investigators in our Gospel Principles class that we teach every Sunday. Carlina and Orlando Ortiz are doing awesome. They actully got lost on Sunday and asked the Community of Faith church the directions to ours haha. Diana just needs 1 more attendance and she can be baptized and she's so ready. I'm afraid if i get changed to another place next week I'll miss her baptism. Seriously though, I might be leaving my first sector in a week... Henry and Kelly came again and we'll try to get a date on him soon again. Three of the kids from familia Japa also came to church. Next week we're puting a focus on less-actives. The church starts at 8:00am from now on.

On Friday we had a Zone conference in Lago and we also had our interviews with the mission president. So it lasted from 1:30pm until about 7:00pm. We learned a lot of new things and were reminded of old information too. I really liked the lessons though, they're really helpful. Elder Murphy and Elder Leong got sick and left to Quito last week so they'll be gone for good until the next change. Now we have two new Elders: Corum, and Perez. And Elder Galvis is now the zone leader. I finnished the Pearl of Great Price today and now I just have to read the Old Testament, bring it on! I'm also taking pictures with everyone (Tal vez me voy!) so those pictures will come next week too. Right now I'm with Elder Wright and Elder Mamani because Elder Black goes to his leadership meetings every month with the other zone leader in Lago, which is now Elder Corum. He'll be back on Wednesday night but until then, I'm with these guys and I'll be doing splits with ward members too.

Espero que puedo enviar más fotos la próxima semana. Todavía no estoy seguro porque los cambios son la semana siguiente... De todas formas, Les amo!

(week 24)