(WEEK 39) Read this, it talks about a tini granny

A ton of meetings this week! A ton! On Tuesday we have ward council meeting, but that's normal. On Wednesday, we had interviews with the president as a zone that lasted from 2:00 - 6:30. On Thursday we had our district meeting and I taught on Diligence in General and used the examples of Nephi and Peter to help me. And finally on Friday we had our leadership meeting with the ZL's. And this week someone from the 70 is coming down to have giant zone meetings with us and interview some random missionaries in our zone and all throughout the missions in Ecuador and Peru. His name is Elder Waddell. So on Thursday night and pretty much all of Friday we'll be in the Iñaquito chappel in downtown Quito. And that doesn't count the regular district and leadership meetings that we'll probably have on Wednesday andThursday morning. I'm excited for him to come though.

Silvia and Martha went out of town again. They are super difficult to find sometimes. All they need is an interview from the zone leaders and a new baptismal date. So they STILL haven't been baptized, but it's just a matter of getting one more appointment with them, and them being there this time. Juan and Cathorine are still progressing well. Juan is almost in 2Nephi in him personal reading, so I'm pretty happy about that. They only problem with him is his attendances. A typical problem in Ecuador is selling bananas on Sunday morning. And Juan has to do that every Sunday to support him family. Sometimes he finnishes early and can go to church at 10:30am but other times he can't. We just have to get lucky with him and hope he can find another way to support his family.

We found a soild new family thanks to a referance from the mission secretaries. Familia Dias. Finally we have a new solid family to teach. We haven't actully had time to teach them yet but we've talked to them and they just sound perfect. We have a new less-active activating goal that is bacansisimo. Entonces, pilas!

Other notes, On our lesson with Juan on Tuesday he just ripped one in the middle of our lesson. That's right, this kid just passes gas while he's reading 1 Nephi 7 and then just keeps reading like nothing ever happened hahaha. I just looked at my companion and then was fighting back laughter for the next 5 minutes. I guess I'm just inmature haha. Also, on Tuesday, I met a a little indiginous lady that was about 3 feet tall(At most) and was probably about 100 years old, we contacted her and she gave me a coffee flavored hard candy haha! Woo!!

No mucho pasó esta semana, pero aún fue muy espiritual y eficaz. No me puedo esperar para las entrevistas y conferencias con Elder Waddell y también los milagros que nos vamos a ver en nuestro sector de Comité del pueblo muy pronto. ¡Les quiero mucho! ¡Amo la misión!

(WEEK 39)

(WEEK 38) Mother's Day

I'll start with the work of salvation: Silvia showed up this week but her daughter, Martha did not. I'm not sure why. But she's now totally set for her baptism this time. Now it should be a for sure. She'll have her interview this Wednesday and be baptized on this Saturday. Martha should be ready soon too. Juan can't always come to church because he has to sell bananas with his mom on Sunday mornings. If he sells them all fast, he can usually make it to church. Cathorine and Juan both have all of the lessons now. They just both need two more church attendances each. We can't really do much until they go. This week we are planning on doing a ton of contacting (I'll be honest, I don't like it, but we need a larger pool of investigators now.)

On Friday we did divisions with Collaloma and I stayed in my sector with the new guy of the district, Elder Williams. Andon Saturday we had surprize divisions with the zone leaders. They're in a trio right now so Elder Meriles and Elder Pita stayed in their sector while Elder Ospina(Ex-assistant) went with us in our sector to first check our house and then help us finnish all of our appointments that day. Our ward had a huge Mother's day activity on Saturday. They brought giant speakers into the chappel and then had a talent show, after that they just danced all night long. In the end they payed a Meriachi band to come hahaha They even had fireworks here for Mother's day. We never do that in the states for Mother's day hahaha. On Sunday I got to talk with my beloved family by using Skype. I was even better this time (The 2nd time). I'm imagining it'll be even better the 3rd and 4th times. (P.S. Elder Bolton is never trunky, he's a rock.)

Last Monday we went bowling and I started out so terrible, amazingly terrible. I wasn't even mad because it was so bad. I was just laughing because of how many gutter balls I was getting. But then I got 2 Turkeys (3 strikes in a row) with a spare to separate them to finnish it off, so I won. I actully switched balls to the number 6(Super light) and just chucked it as hard as I could every time hahaha. Other news, I'm in Psalms in the old testament. I think I'm in section 85, or something like that. So I should finnish it pretty soon. The chappel was broken into Monday afternoon, We found it on Monday night. They didn't steal anyhting but they broke some doors with the emergency axe, crazy, right? I'll send pictures. Now I'm sure the 2 wards will remember to set the alarm every night.

Esa fue mi semana, mis amados hermanos. Yo estaba pensando que esta carta sería pequeña porque ya hablé con mi familia ayer, pero creo que lo hice bien hahaha. Hasta luego

(WEEK 38)

(WEEK 37) Comité Mormón

'll start with the changes! Elder Gebs se fue :( But I'm super happy for him because he's going to Ofelia as a district leader, where he will do work! That's my baby Gebs... Elder Santos got Elder Williams in place of Elder Gebs. He's from the same group as Elder Gebs (About 6 months). Other than that, the district didn't change. Elder Ospina has been an assistant since I arrived in Ecuador and now he's my other Zone leader. So now it's Elder Meriles and Elder Ospina, so that should be pretty sweet. My MTC companion Elder Guild is now a district leader in Ofelia as well. Represent!

The Collaloma missionaries had the baptisms of David and Carlos Calderón. When I interviewed them a week ago I knew they were super prepared. They're not just baptisms, they're converts. We also helped out with a ward baptism the same day. The daughter of familia Lozada-Suin was baptized. I conducted the baptism and Elder Risco gave a talk. If all goes well Silvia and Martha should be baptized this next Saturday. But the happiest news of the week: Juan finally showed up to church! Finally!! Tours do work! Familia Pazmiño has been going through big family problems lately, so we visited them like 3 times this week. They're still not in the best shape but I think they're doing a lot better now. This week was the week of divisions too. I wasn't even in my sector that much this week. First i did them with La Bota, then Collaloma.

We had a mini zone conference on Thursday so I didn't have to train this week. Then we played dodgeball; Gringos vs. Latinos. Best 3/5 wins. And after it all, Gringos won in game five! It was one on one to finnish it too. Santana vs. Folsom (Father vs. Son). We used a ton of toilet paper rolls with a ton of tape for the balls. Super fun. During the meeting Elder Santana and Elder Folsom gave a talk on Pride. And it was sweet. Like slaps in the face for everyone, but the kind of slaps in the face that you enjoy. Like Elder Holland preisthood session talks. Our mission president really wanted my companion to get a haircut because it was getting out of control. So we both got haircuts. He kept telling me he was going to kill me hahaha. Oh, hijo mio, paz a tu alma...

Compré mucha comida hoy, entonces ahora, casi no tengo dinero para esta semana. Disculpa la mala pobreza ;)

I'll send a separate E-mail about Skype. Si estáis preparados; No temeréis. Hahahaha

(WEEK 37)

(WEEK 36) And that's the way the cookie crumbles

So we were just walking in la Quintana and this 40 year old guy randomly pops out in from of us and starts calling us devils and is trying to cast the evil spirits out of us. Some sort of street exorcism. So we're evil apperently hahaha... But I never get offended, I only laugh afterwards...

So we've been trying to find less-actives lately and we finally found Jermania! We've always heard she was solid and have been searching for her for 2 weeks and we found her on accident when her daughter walked by their house. Score. We've also been giving tours of the chappel lately too. I kinda forgot how effective they are, but when you do them, the investigators are so much more likely to show up on Sunday. Also we finally found Silvia again. She randomly goes out of town a ton without telling us haha. But this time we officially committed her and her daughter to be baptized on the 10th of May.

I made a ton of cookie dough one day and I brought most of it to familia Pazmiño's house so we could use their oven and made a giant cookie. It took up a giant pan and was filled all the way to the top too haha. We ate it while sharing some mormon messages as an FHE. On Friday the Elders that were in Zona Calderón for the last change were invited to a breakfast at the mission home on this last Friday. The last change they got a ton of Rescatados(Rescues) as a zone. Which is basically when you teach all the lessons to a less-active again, get them an interview with the bishop and they start attending church again. But a lot of us were not invited so that morning we quickly made a huge breakfast of our own with bacan, chocolate milk, and a giant omlete with ham, cheese, more bacan, and hot dogs. Oh, and there was ice cream. I think we won... Gracias. On that same Friday we did our giant activity with the other two wards and missionaries in our district: Jeopardy 2.0 Android 3.2.4 Galaxy S5 con Afterparty. And words can't discribe how awesome it was. You'll just have to imagine the Celestial Kingdom, and only then will you be even close.

On Saturday Joseph Espinoza was baptized by a friend of his in the ward named Christian. Joseph is an awesome guy but just by his nature and personality I thought it would be a good baptism but kinda so-so on the spiritual part. But I was dead wrong. After I gave my little talk and after his baptism he and his mom both stood up and gave super strong testimonies. SUPER STRONG. I was shocked and touched at the same time. He really did change a ton since we first met him about 3 weeks ago. Best baptism of my mission so far. On Sunday he was confirmed and I also did my first two interviews with two brothers from the missionaries in the Collaloma ward that will be baptized this Saturday. They both passed perfectly, and are totally prepared.

Eso fue mi semana. Gracias por todo. Justo Recibí un paquete de Pascua de las oficinas hoy día. Lo que pasó es que se fue a Esmeraldas primero, pero ahora lo tengo. Seguir adelante