6-13-16 letter
¿Como estan ustedes?
This last week will probably be
one I will remember for the rest of my life. It was honestly a blast being able
to have a training conference with Elder Ronald A. Rasband from the Quorum of
the Twelve Apóstles(We werent allowed to bring our cameras). But Ill tell you
more about that later in the letter.
So this week we had a baptism!
His name is Ryam Tomala and his mom has been inactive for years. So we have
been working with her and trying to reactivate her and this last week she
finally filled all the requirements so we also prepared her son for a baptism!
He is 9 years old. But funny story. So about 2 weeks ago the other Elders had a
baptism..but the drain wasnt working in the baptismal font. So we get there
Saturday and it is full of water and not draining. So what did we have to go?
We emptied the whole baptismal font running buckets and dumping them in the
bathroom. Now baptismal fonts are the same size here as they are in the
states...so it took us about 2 hours to do it. As I am writing this I am still
sore from that afternoon. So he was baptised yesterday (Sunday) and it was a
great service. We had strong support from the members and great messages
shared. So what did we do this morning at 5:30? We got to empty the baptismal
font again! But this time we did it with the other 4 Elder in our house so it
went a little bit faster. I guess in this ward it happens a lot so this week
they are going to sent an email to the church offices to get someone sent out
to fix it! So that is reason 1 why I am going to remember this week.
Another thing that is great
about our ward is the food. The member here love to give us food and invite us
to have dinner! Which is kind of rare here because Lunch is the big meal. Our
mamita this week is a recent convert from the beginning of this year. And she
cooks so great and always offers to have us over for dinner. The family is a
blessing because they take great care of us as missionaries. Let me see if I
can attach some pictures of the food for you guys haha.
Yeah so the conference with
Elder Rasband was historic for a couple of reasons. So it was the first time
that an Apostle had come to Ecuador to give a training to the missionaries. The
other reasons are because it was the first time THE WHOLE MISSION was together
for a conference. Even the missionaries in the Galapagos came for the
conference. And the other reason is because in the conference were the other 2
missions in Guayaquil. So Mission South, West and North of Guayaquil. So in
total like 600 missionaries there. The training started at 10am but our whole
mission was there early at 7:30am before any of the others arrived. It was
crazy seeing the difference in missionaries from the other missions compared to
ours. Were like an army of soldiers all with the perfect part in our hair haha
but I love it. So we all got to shake Elder Rasbands hand and look him right in
the eyes. It was definitely an experience I will not forget! The only other
Apostles hand I have been able to shake was Elder L. Tom Perry at the huge BSA
encampment years ago!
So what really impressioned me
from the training is that everyone talked about the importance of our smile.
Elder Montoya and his wife, and the Apostles wife also shared messages. They
talked a lot about how all the people here in Ecuador have to see the smile and
the sparkle in our eyes. Because before they accept the message they have to
accept the messager. Elder Rasband also talked about how recently they opened
missions in Turkey and Kasakhstan so thats cool too. He took questions at the
end and someone asked him about how we can tell between what the spirit is
telling us and what our mind or the enemy is telling us. He told us that we
should always follow our first impression as missionaries because it is the
Holy Ghost. We should never talk ourselves out of doing that first impression
that came to our minds. Because thats when the adversary comes in to push us in
the wrong direction.
He also shared a really cool experience that had to do with
him assigning missionaries to serve in missions all around the world. He told
us that only Apostles or the First Presidency assigns missionaries..nobody else
does it. You can find more in one of his talks called ´´The divine calling of a
missionary´´ I really recommend that you guys read it.
President Moreno gets here the
end of the month...I think the 28th. Send me the picture of the whole mission
together!
Love you guys!
Elder Solari
