Sunday, September 28, 2014

(WEEK 56) Enviados de los Dioses!

So two weeks ago we baptized Misleydis Alvarez after teaching her for just 3 weeks. She was amazing and always accepted the invitations that we gave her. Right after than we found her brother, Leosdon Alvarez. He's a huge cuban haha! He was even greater with the lessons! He seriously had like no problems during all of the commandments that we taught him even though we were looking for his "Iceburg" the whole time. We even told the missionary that interviewed him to double check if he had any problems. And nope! Nothing! He was baptized on Saturday at 10:00 in the morning. The baptismal fonts here take like 4-5 hours to fill up so we had to wake up so early. But sacrafice = reward. His testimony is so strong even though he's had a rough life before and a little time listing to us. Fortunatly his wife is an active member so she really helped us out. It's going to be awesome when the church gets officially established in Cuba because like 1/3 of the baptisms I've seen here are from cuban immigrants haha

Another success this week was the Guerra family. We just rescued the parents! (reactivated them in the church) and the mom already is lined up to get a calling/assignment with family history because she really likes that. The father is planning on baptizing his 12 year old and 10 year old sons the 4th of October between conference sessions. So there'll be a ton of people already there! We have a couple other investigators that are doing pretty good but those are the main ones... We gotta work on finding more people now though because we've either baptized or dropped the majority of our investigators haha.

Other then that it was honestly a pretty normal week. I did divisions with the DL of Santa Anita, (Elder Hererra) we contacted, and one of the doors that I knocked on resulted in a new progressing investigator for them! So that makes me happy! An Elder that was is this zone about 3 months ago (Elder Castro) and his "son" stayed with us again last night because he has to get another opperation. So I hope everything goes good with that. On Friday we had a huge Leadership meeting with all of the zone leaders and district leaders from the 4 zones in Quito and the Jungle zone. We're kind of training new district leaders so it was preatty helpful for them with all of the interview practices and new information. (But I'll be honest, I didn't learn anything new in the meeting, but don't tell anybody!) Also today we did a zone activity in the chappel. We had a giant breakfast with a ton of bacon! And then we played dodgeball and basketball. So it was sweet. I'm happy.

Eso es todo mis queridos! Que ustedes estén bien y tengan una buena semana! Está lloviendo durísimo afuera. Creo que vamos a ver bastante lluvia empezando éste mes. Cuando llueve aquí, llueve como el diluvio de Noé! Pero está bien, somos enviados de los dioses!

(WEEK 56)









Sunday, September 21, 2014

(WEEK 55) La semana loca

So last Monday reflected on this whole week haha super busy and running around everywhere. On Tuesday we had a normal day until I got a call that we had to pick someone up from the terminal again. Elder Espinoza (who was in my district when I was a District leader about 4 months ago) was coming from my first sector in Coca to stay with us for 3 days to pick up his son (New gringo missionary that he was going to train) and to renew his visa with me on Friday. So he helped us in the lessons on Tuesday night and then we helped him get to the Iñaquito chappel to find his new companion Wednesday morning. Being the zone leaders of the office missionaries, makes us the assistants of the assistants of the mission president hahaha. While they were training the new missionaries we went and did a couple chores for them and then we came back and saw the mountain of new gringo missionaries. Mountain first of all becasue there were a ton! And because there were like 5 missionaries that were at least 6'8. Like a bunch of Shreks!

Elder Espinoza picked up Elder Wheelwright, and they spent the whole day with us in the lessons that we had in the afternoon. On Friday Elder Espinoza and I had to go to the church offices in Quito to renew our visas wih like 6 other missionaries. We had to wait for like 3 hours for our turn. Plus the new senior office missionary doesn't speak Spanish very well yet so I had to translate for him. Which was kind of fun actully. But at the same times I was thinking, "Come on, man..." After that we had a ton of lessons in the afternoon so even though I was the only one out of the 5 missionaries that knew the sector, we did splits and I gave Elder Flores and Elder Parra the best directions I could. The good news is that they found the houses! 

Saturday morning Elder Espinoza and Elder Wheelwright left and we recived a new chore from the offices: Elder Castro(Who was in this zone about 3 months ago but left to another one of my old sectors in the coast(Quinindé)) Was going to train as well but he got apendecitis so he's been in the hospital for a couple of day now. So I had to drop off Elder Parra with him so he could watch over him and do nothing all day long, and also take Elder Castro's companion in the field, Elder Olsen. We had the district meeting/zone meeting this day because we didn't have time on Thursday or Friday. So I was a lonely zone leader in the trainings hahaha but I was kind of fun. It felt like being a district leader again, just with a giant district. At 6:00pm we had a ward activity called: The Dispensations, where we spilt the members and investigators off into 4 different groups and put them into stations where they rotated after every 10 minutes. Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses were the stations. In the stations they learned things about each dispensation and played games too. Then we put them all together and watch one of the new bible videos about Jesus Christ. And then we watched part of the Restauration video and then had Cola-cola floats after(Because Root Beer is really hard to find here). It was awesome and a ton of members and a couple of investigators showed up.

On Saturday night around 8:00pm we had to pick up Elder Parra from the hospital and switch him with Elder Castro's companion, Elder Olsen. We got there a little late, like around 9:00pm. We picked him up but we had a problem finding his visa copy that he had to leave with security, we finally found it after asking like 6 workers, but then we didn't know how to get back home from there because the Metrobus shuts down at 9:00pm and we didn't have money for a taxi. Then a miacle happened! A member from La Gasca (A ward that's now a part of the other mission) saw us, picked us up, and drove us to our house like 30 minutes away. So we got home around like 10:00pm hahaha but sometimes I like experiences like that.

Other funny news: Elder Flores got crapped on by a pigeon! So that brought joy to the week. It was a crazy and dificult week but I was grateful for it.

Leos Don Alvarez (El hermano de Misleydis) se va a bautizar éste Sábado! Él está bien animado y comprende todo lo que enseñamos. Los Guerra están progresando también y sólo les falta la entrevista. Ojalá que Miguel y Avaneth puedan terminar los papeles de divorcio, porque ya solo les faltan esos papeles y están listos para casarse.

Escribí más que normal, anímense! Y que sepan que les quiero mucho!

(WEEK 55)









Sunday, September 14, 2014

(WEEK 54) Crazy Changes!

So I'll start with the changes: Elder Santana left to Imbabura to eat plates full of a ton of rice and 20 potatoes every day hahaha. And Elder Araque left too. He left to repeat a ward that he was in just 8 months ago called El Vergel. So I'm the only one that stayed in San Carlos! Plus I'm in another trio. I'm with Elder Parra(Chile) and Elder Flores(Peru). The whole zone changed aa ton. In fact I'm the only missionary with a leadership position that stayed in the zone. But I don't have any more time to talk about the changes haha...
This week was the busy week were all the zone leaders from the coast and jungle stay in San Carlos with us. So on Monday they all arrived and on Tuesday we had the mission council. Elder Santana and I trained all of the leaders and the mission president on "How to correct a (Disobedient) missionary."  It was pretty intense but it turned out to be pretty dope. Elder Ospina(The Ex-Assistant) gave his testimony at the end and it was amazing. Blew my mind. It was sad to see him go. Right now he's in a plane haha. On Friday we did the mini zone conference and said goodbye to everyone because we knew that it was possible that a lot of missionaries were going to leave the zone. Then we did divisions with Santa Anita and I was with Elder Bell again. I like being with the new missionaries. They're so pure and innocent haha. I would have loved to train a gringo.
Misleydis Alvarez got baptized! We was baptized on Saturday by Elder Santana. And it was awesome because her brother that was working in the United States came down to see her get baptized. And now we're teaching him. The Guerra family is also still doing awesome. We're starting to finnish up on lesson 4 (The commandments). And they're still great with their baptismal date on the 27th of September. Plus we got the bishop to interview their less-active (But re-activating) dad. So now he's a Priest and can baptize his children!
I'm writing today (Tuesday) because Presidnet Richarson gave us permision. Yesterday I was travelling in Quito all day long trying to pick up like a million different missionaries and getting them to their new sectors. So my companions and I didn't have time to write. However I don't have as much time today so I'm trying to writes super fast haha. Other things that happened this last week: I pierced the tip of my finger with a staple and it went all the way in my finger. So that was fun haha. A crazy lady from Otavalo was yelling at us because we're missionaries and saiçying that we were false and deamons, so Elder Santana bashed her with his cleaver words as a watched and laughed in my head. And that's all haha.
Eso sería todo. Les quiero.

(WEEK 54)











Monday, September 1, 2014

(WEEK 53) We've got a program going on

I'm happy. San Carlos finally has a nice program. This sector is easily the hardest sector of the mission so far but lately we've seen miracles, not just in the ward, but in the whole zone. Misleydis Alvarez passed her interview  on Sunday and is getting baptized on Saturday! My comp is going to baptize her. We finally had the less-active that we were working on go to church yesterday. One of the families is la familia Guerra. Which includes 3 less-actives and their 12 and 10 year old sons that aren't baptized yet. They have a date for the 27th of September. Also la familia Tene came again! I didn't think they'd come again but they did! Avaneth now has all of the lessons and we've taught her even up to the 12 tribes of Israel hahaha and they're finally working hard on the divorsement papers so there's just nothing stopping them from progressing. They even invite us to eat lunch with them when the lunch appointments fall. So there're miracles.

This next week is going to be crazy with everything we have to do. First off, it's time for he mission council again. So all of the ZL's from the coast and the jungle are staying in our house tonight. And it'll be a crazy meeting because the only missinoary that is going home is an ex-assistant named Elder Ospina. And he's awesome so I'll just be waiting for president to get emotional when he bares him testimony. And guess what, Elder Santana and I have to train in that meeting!!! O sea, all of the duros in the mission (Zone leaders, sister leaders, assistants, secretaries, president Richardson and his wife) are going to be they have we have to give a huge lesson to all of them. It's already planned out but I'll let you know how that goes. I'm not going to lie, I'm going to be super nervous tomorrow hahaha.

An 18 year old in the ward named Paul Cevallos is preparing to go on a mission to Guatemala. He leaves in 1 month so for his preparation he's working with us liek 3 or 4 times a day now. So all of our lessons have been with a member present other than 1 this past week haha. The sisters in the ward are also improving their whole sector. They're super diligent and get liek 1,000,000 contacts every week and the members love them. Like I said the whole zone is doing better lately. And to make us more united, we're going to make a zone T-shirt. And it's going to be dope. I'll send pictures.

Other notes: Now I oficially have MORE than a year, pilas. The earthquakes and tremors that were happening like 2 weeks ago finally stopped, so that kind of makes me sad. And for the past 4 days, stray dogs have been following us home. It's a different dog everyday. I have no idea why but to me it's hilarious haha.

Eso es todo mis queridos. Ojalá que yo encuentra la razón porque perros de la calle nos sigan, quizás huelo a carne. Pero para que sepan, por lo menos, los perros sean bonitos. Pilas.

(WEEK 53) We got a program going!