WEEK 36: TRANSFERS & EARTHQUAKE!!

 Elder Solari & Elder Jenkins

 A family night

 Bus ride to Cuenca

View of Cuenca

Yes everyone there was a big earthquake here in Ecuador. I didnt have a chance to experience much of it because Friday morning I had transfers...you guys wont be able to believe where I am. Im in CUENCA. It was a pretty scenic bus ride and is about 4 hours east of Guayaquil. Its so beautiful here, I am in barrio Tomebamba and the weather is so great. In Guayaquil I was just getting used to getting home every night with a super sweaty t shirt and here in Cuenca we barely sweat! The weather is perfect, and its not even humid here. You guys should pull up the weather for the two places and compare them. Here in Cuenca it rains almost everyday, but its like an ice cold rain that makes it super cold. There are also a lot of old retired people that live here, and a fair amount of gringos. Our area has the downtown more touristy part of Cuenca...so this next P day when we have time we are going to go and look around and take a bunch of cool photos. There are a ton of musuems, it kind of has a Park City vibe here, just minus the snow. So about the Earthquake....we were here visiting a sis. in the ward and it was probably 7:15pm when we could feel an aftershock. We were in a 2nd story and it was pretty cool, not brutal shaking or anything. But the sister was freaking out the whole 2 minutes we could feel it. So Cuenca wasnt really affected much but in Guayaquil a couple of bridges collapsed and like 300 people were killed. The church has already sent a ton of aid to help these people rebuild and help the refugees.

So the people here in Cuenca are a little more hard hearted from what Ive heard and seen so far. Theyre a lot more catholic so contacting is not very efficient here. The best is references from members. The sectors here are also HUGE compared to Guayaquil so we spend a lot more time walking. So my new companion here is Elder Vega, he is from Cuzco Peru and has like 23 months in the mission. He is from the same group as my other companion, Elder Jenkins. He is a HUGE 49ers and Giants fan so automatically became close friends.Im kinda bummed we were only companions for like a week and a half because hes such a powerful missionary and we got along so well...but I know im supposed to be here in Cuenca with Elder Vega. Also, the food here is so much better than in Guayaquil. Here they always give us vegetables and avocado and more meat...when in Guayaquil it was like a big pile of white rice and some beans haha.

So this last Sunday we had this cool Multi Stake conference via satelite. So it was all the member of the church in Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. More than 39 stakes and 27 branches! It was braodcast from SLC and we heard from Obispo Davies, Elder Oaks, Elder Hales, Sister McConkie and Elder Hugo Montoya from our Area Presidency! I think its a new thing the church is trying out and it was super powerful! The best part was Elder Oaks gave part of his talk in Spanish even though he doesnt know a lot of Spanish. It reminded me a lot of my first Sunday in the field when I had to give a talk haha. They talked alot about keeping the sabbath day holy, serving missions, paying a full tithing and rescuing less actives! A lot of the things that the church is struggling with here in South America. 

So I am sure her baptism went well because she was super excited and prepared. Ill attach a photo of the Noche de Hogar the week before I had transfers. Also a picture with Elder Jenkins and some pictures from the bus ride to Cuenca. We passed just a bunch of farm lands and banana plantations. Anyways thats all the time I have! I am going to take a ton of pictures here!}

Love you mom!

Elder Solari

WEEK 35: HAY QUE BAUTIZAR POR LA VIDA

Hey guys! You got the Christmas package back, thats great!! The title means that You have to baptize like your life depends on it. Its one of our quotes of the mission haha.

Everything is going great out here in Guayaquil. I dont know if I told you guys last week but our mission president got called as a 70 this last general conference! So he was in Salt Lake, and got set apart by Elder Ronald A. Rasband! So cool. So when he finishes his mission here in 2 months or so he is going to start his new calling as a General Authority.. He said he got called for 5 years and is super excited to keep serving the Lord in this new calling. When he was in Salt Lake he got to go to a special training with the whole Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency! We also had the opportunity to have a mini training with Pres. Torres in our reunion saturday which was really cool! He talked to us about being diligent.

So this last week Elder Rodriguez had transfers. He left Guayaquil and is now serving in Santa Rosa South! Its an area of Ecuador where the church is really new. Its just a branch and its been open for maybe 2 or 3 years! So my new companion is Elder Jenkins...and you guys probably wont believe it but hes from AUBURN CA! He went to Placer High School and we had to come all the way to Ecuador to meet each other. Its really cool because we have a ton of mutual friends and he shares my love for Adalbertos. 

Anyways this week we worked really hard trying to catch up and lift up our program and we sure did. Elder Jenkins has 22 months in the mission so its nice being with a super experienced Elder. I definitely have learned a lot from him in this last week. Also, we have been working trying to get a baptism for this week and we are going to have one! Her name is Victoria. So if you guys could pray for her so she can be baptised this week that would be great. For PDAY today we went to the mall with the APs and got Carls Jr, wow it was so good.

To answer your questions, with new converts, we usually reteach them all the lessons and keep passing by to help them out for around a month or so. Unless they stop going to church or are having problems its usually around a month. We have a lot of converts so sometimes its hard to always visit them and try finding new people to teach! But thankfully thats something the Ward Mission Leader helps us out with. I feel like the people here in South America are so much more receptive to the gospel. I mean they are living where the Book of Mormon took place so I dont find it too hard to believe. I feel so grateful to be here working in the Lords vineyards. 

Thats all the time Ive got Ill send a bunch of pictures next week I promise!

Elder Solari

WEEK 34: GENERAL CONFERENCE 186

When President Monson announced the new Temple that is going to be built in Quito, Ecuador the WHOLE Chapel erupting shouting for joy and saying wow. The people here are so excited to be getting another Temple here in Ecuador! The missionary work here is growing so rapidly it was only a matter of time.

Wow this General Conference was great! And I was able to understand all of it in Spanish which is better than the last conference! My 2 favorite conference talks were Elder Gary E. Stevenson from the 12 and Elder Gerrit W. Gong from the presidency of the 70. Two powerful talks. One about the Priesthood keys, why they are so important and crucial, and where we find them being used in the church. I loved this talk when he shared about missionary work. I also enjoyed Elder Gongs talk about Jesus Christ, and how we need to always remember his hand in all the great things that happen in our life. Because its really a lot of what we do as missionaries. We help people to understand the role Jesus Christ can have in their life. And how we can be blessed and have miracles pass in our lives daily.

Speaking of miracles, we had one this last week. So about a month ago we made a committment to have one baptism this weekend of General Conference. As a missionary we make a lot of committments with the Lord, like how many baptisms were going to have in a given month, how many investigators we are going to have in church, things like that. So our baptism for this week we baptised last week (Joel). So we started this week with a couple baptism dates for later this month and nobody for this week. So we started this last week praying like crazy. And Monday we received a reference from the Offices of the Church. We went and visited him right away and he accepted to be baptised yesterday! His name is Victor Cruz and we taught him everything in 4 days. He is studying medicine in College here and is 19 years old. He had gone to church in different wards with some friends in his University. It was an amazing experience. Because when we were talking to him Monday he told us he wanted to get baptised before we even brought it up. And then we told him he could get baptised Conference Sunday and his face lit up and he said ´´´Si, quiero hacerlo¨¨ (Yes I want to do it). It has been such a marvelous week. I know that the Lord blesses us as we trust in him completely. Like we can read in Alma, he gives us according to our desires. But we have to do our part and he will help us reach our goals. He is blessing us every single day!

I love this quote from President Thomas S. Monson during Priesthood Session:

“Remember who you are and what God expects you to become. You are a child of promise. You are a man of might. You are a son of God.”

I know that this quote applies to all of us. In all instances we need to remember who we are and who God wants us to become. It will help us make the best decisiones possible so that we can return to live with him and our families forever. 

Love

Elder Solari