(WEEK 60) I got transferred!

So after 18 weeks in San Carlos they changed me to another sector in Quito haha! First I started in the jungle, then the coast, and now I've been in the 3 stakes in Quito in the mission. This one is called La Ofelia. And the ward is called El Condado. It's actully kind of cool though becuase I get to open a new sector as a zone leader. So I'm pretty excited about that. Plus there are 6 missionaries in the ward. One is Elder Risco, my step-son (Because I finished his training). And his companion is techniqually my grandson Because my son is training him right now haha. He's a 6'6 gringo named Elder Mott... Plus I only moved like 5 minutes away from my old sector. I'm still going to attend church in the same chappel but in the afternoon. So I'll probably see some members and the missionaries from San Carlos every now and then. My companions name is Elder Olivares. He's from Peru and has 19 months in the mission. I'm pretty sure I'm going to spend Christmas in Quito now. So I'm pretty pumped about that too! After this change if they don't send me to Otavalo, Imbabura, or Ibarra (The mountain zones outside of Quito) It would be super weird because other than those zones, now I know like all of the mission haha.

I can't even remember what we did this last week haha. We visited a lot of recent converts and less actives, Nicolas Guerra was ordained as a Deacon, and I did a ton of emergency divisions with the 2 district leaders becuase Elder Parra was in the hospital ever couple of days for his knee with Elder Flores. It was really weird leaving a ward after 3 whole changes though. I'm really going to miss San Carlos.

Bueno, eso sería todo porque no me recuerdo nada de ésta semana! Espero que estén bien y que tengan una semana buenísimo.Y que me incluyan en sus oraciones porque no conocemos nuestro sector hahaha... Pero está bien, "Porque por fe andamos, no por vista." - 2 Corintios 5:7.

(WEEK 60) I got transfered!

(WEEK 59) Confirmed.

So we had 7 confirmations yesterday. The 2 Guerra kids and an investigator that the sisters baptized last week couldn't get confirmed last week because it was general conference so they got confirmed this week. Plus, the sisters in our ward baptize families of 4 like it's no big deal. They baptized the Almagro family this last Saturday. So we had 7 confirmations this Sunday. That kind of makes us invincible for the verifications with the assistants hahaha! It was really cool too because the bishop invited us to help with the confirmations. As a ward we made a goal about 2 months ago to baptize 15 people before the year ends. We still have 2 1/2 months left and we already got 10 down! Yeah!

This week the zone leaders from the coast and jungle came last Monday night for the mission council. Almost every monthy council there are missionaries that have their last council and bear their testimonies. This month there was a ton! Including the only missionary from Germany in all of South America, Elder Stank. My "mom" died as well. (I'm sorry for useing missionary terms). I'm really going to miss not having the missionarys from the best zones in the mission come to my house for 3 days every month. And I say that becasue I'm pretty sure I'm going to have changes this next Sunday. So I'll probably be saying good-bye to San Carlos.

Sometimes I don't realize how weird South American countries can be. For example, near one of the main streets in our sector called, "La Vaca de Castro", We walked by this karate place and just see this lady doing sit-ups... Suddenly, this "trainer" runs up (And I mean, runs up) and just starts punching her in the gut between every sit-up that she does. Other than the grunts that she makes between every blow, she just keeps going like nothing's going on... I always thought that there was a fine line between making yourself tough, and mentally jumping off a cliff. But maybe that's non-applicable here. So that's my missionary story of the week hahaha!

Other then that, I was a pretty normal week. We've either baptized or dropped a lot of investigators in the past month so we don't have a ton of options right now. But we're planning on focusing purely on finding new investigators and working with less acitves this week. And I still really think that I'll be in a new sector in 7 days so I'll be saying good-bye to members too haha

(WEEK 59)

(WEEK 58) Did ya see me on tv!?

So I don't know how it was at home, but between the 2 sessions of conference Saturday they show the Church News update and mormon messages. And we didn't really have much to do other tahan hurry and eat lunch and then come back to the stake center. So last month we did a service project by helping handicapped people move from cars to their new wheelchairs in our stake center. And that was one of the subjects on the Church news update! I saw my back on tv! haha... Anyways, those were my 2 seconds of glory.

General conference was awesome though! It's kind of funny because like half of the missionaries in the "gringo room"(Where we watched conference in English) admitted that when they were younger they basically never watched conference other than when their parents said, "Come here, the prophet's speaking!" But as missionaries, we all loved and appreciated conference a lot more. Plus it seem to go by suer fast! Kind of like a Christmas for missionaries.

Saturday was the strongest day of the week because we saw the 3 sessions of General Conference, but before that, at9:00am, we had 2 baptisms! We had 2 investigators baptized and the sister missionaries in the ward baptized someone as well. We had to wake up early again to fill the font! At 5:00am! But it was definatly worth it. The dad, Vladimir Guerra, baptized his 2 sons and then the whole family shared their testimonies. They made half of the filled room cry! So it was the perfect thing to start the conference weekend.

The assistants did surprize divisions with us on Tuesday! So that was interesting! We had a couple of lessons and then we started contacting. They are beasts at contacting! They always know exactly what to say! So I learned a lot from them. On Thursday we had the zone council, which is kind of a new ting that we do in this mission where all of the missionaries of the zone present their achievements and goals of the month that just happened and their goals for the month that comes. Plus we decide 3 focuses as a zone. But it was the most spiritual meeting I've had for a while in the mission. At the end we're supposed to excite the zone and modivate them to work hard and convert the world, so all we did was watch a couple of motivational videos that Elder Parra had on his flash. We got almost everyone to laugh and cry with a little more than 20 minutes of time!

Today we went to a place called Puluahua, which is a sweet looking volcano that you can hike down into. It's just a little bit more north of "Mitad del Mundo." So you can check it out if you want. When we were hiking out the crater filled up with a ton of fog so you could't see a thing!

Eso es todito. Gracias por sus cartas que me envían! Me dan mucho ánimo y siempre me gusta saber lo que está pasando en los estados y en otros partes del mundo. Quiero que ustedes sepan que les quiero mucho! Que tengan una buena semana!

(WEEK 58) Did ya see me on tv!?

(WEEK 57) The "Day-off" week

So Tuesday was an interesting day, I was in the hospital all day long! Hahaha! There was a sick missionary that's also a new missionary that was having really bad migrains about 10 days ago. So he goes to the hospital and it turns out that he had blood in his brain. So that's nice! But anyways his companion, Elder Budge, was just waiting in the hospital with his for days and he wasn't able to shower for days either. So, being the assistants of the assistants, so, as I got a "day-off", we gave Elder Budge a "day-off" too while he went with my companions to write his family, eat, and shower. As a missionary is was kind of frustrating  not doing hardly anything for an entire day, but at the same time, It was kind of nice... I mean, I didn't do anything hahaha! It felt like a vacation that was killing me. I stayed with Elder Holst and watched movies and played cards all day long while I was translating for him and the doctors. Plus the mission nurse brought me a burger!

Our investigators that we've being really focusing on are doing good! The 2 Guerra kids got their baptismal interviews and are going to still be baptized on the 4th of October (Conference day!). But now were going to do it at 9:00am. So that'll be interesting waking up around 5:00am again. Leosdon moved to Miami, Florida and will be there for a little over a month. So we're going to miss him. The good news is, he's technically not living in Ecuador, so I think we can write him on Mondays! This week we also found a couple other potential investigators by knocking on doors and referals from members, so I 'll update you guys on there progress next week.

This week I got to teach Bill Yard (A total gringo recent convert from California that doesn't speak Spanish very well) again! It was hilarious because he lives in the sisters sector but on Sunday we were asked to go over to his house and give him a blessing because he didn't go to church. So we arrived and he's like, "Yeah I had a terrible migrain this morning but I feel 100% now!" So just to annoy my companions, we had a lesson in English and then we just shared stories after. My companions couldn't understand us after like 15 minutes of squinting. So they just started eating popcorn and watching kids play soccer outside. Then after we left they were frustrated because they didn't understand most of it. It just made me smile and say, "Lo hice sólo para que sepan como yo sintí hace un año!" So I'm kind of dispicable.

On Friday we had a zone conference with an area 70, named Elder Calderón. He's kind of crazy and took up a ton of the mission presidents training time. Even to the point that we left the meeting 2 1/2 hours late and in rain hahaha, but he was pretty cool and we learned a lot of things. Plus I think I finally got the very first picture with my zone (Which includes president and his wife, the assistants, the secretaries, and the mission nurse) in all the time that I have here! (4 months and counting)...

On Saturday while it was raining, a car drove by through a huge puddle on the side of the road and soaked Elder Parra hahahaha! I ducked just in time and used my umbrella as a shield and also shielded Elder Flores, but Elder Parra was completely soaked while Elder Flores and I were bone dry. I thought that only happened in movies...

Aparte de eso, compré una corbata otavaleña de un miembro de Otavalo. Incluso tiene el logo de la misión! Entonces, eso me hizo feliz! Espero que tengan una buena semana, que sepan que les quiero, y que no se olviden de la conferencia general ésta semana! Full doctrina!

(WEEK 57)