WEEK 63: ECUADOR

Zone

Isabela baptism

10-24-16 Letter

So this last week we had another baptism here in Batallon. I honestly love this ward we have so much help here from the member and the leaders of the ward. I think I know why everyone in the mission always talks about this area and that its so blessed...We have been working with a less active family these last few weeks. Its the Rivas Carpio family and the mom and her oldest kid were less actives..and they have a daughter who had not been baptised because they fell away inactive for a time. So this last week we were able to reactivate them and Isabela, the daughter, was baptised! And now the mom has a calling in Relief Society, and Jordan, the son, is going to seminary! Honestly the best way to work here in Ecuador is with part member families and reactivating and baptising at the same time. It has helped my companions and I have success here in Ecuador. I love being able to help the Ecuatorianos find the join the true church. Now that they are going to be building another temple here in Ecuador everyone is anxious to help us in the work. 

This last week we also had Mission Leadership Council and its interesting to see that there are so many new leaders in the mission, and there are a bunch of new missionaries arriving to serve here. At the end of this transfer in 3 weeks 27 or so missionaries are going to get here. In the leadership council we talked a lot about 2 talks. From Elder Bednar, how to be a missionary according to Preach my Gospel, and from Elder Oaks, our message to the missionaries, taken from the worldwide broadcast to the missionaries this last January. President and Hna. Moreno are putting a big emphasis in this two talks and how we are going to use them and study them all our time here. We also changed District Meetings, which are now Fridays, and Weekly Planning, which takes place Tuesdays now. As well as this meeting Wednesday, Friday we had our MultiZone Conference with President Moreno so almost 2 days this week we didnt get to work in our sector at all. But it was great he taught us about the Doctrine of Christ in 2 Nefi 31 and I enjoyed it a bunch..was able to see Elder Bolen and Elder Barba from my district in the CCM. Elder Bolen is a ZL here in Guayaquil and Elder Barba is Presidents Secretary! So Ive got another hook up there in the mission office hahaha.  

So it looks like this next month we are going to have a visit from Elder Godoy who is the Area President of the missions here in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. He will be here November 17th for Mission Leadership Council, and the 18th to visit all of the missionaries here in Guayaquil Sur. Its honestly going to be a great opportunity to be trained by a 70!

Yeah so here is a day in the life of a missionary here in Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission. So at 6.30 we wake up and do exercises for a half hour. Sometimes we go out and run, sometimes we go shoot hoops in the park or we lift weight because we have some dumbbells in the house. At 7 we shower, get ready for the day and eat breakfast. In the morning its usually hot bread we buy in a bakery close to our house and yogurt. At 8am we start personal study..ewhere we read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes and and other half hour we study for our investigators and what we are going to teach in our lessons that day. At 9am we have companionship study and talked about what we learned for our investigators and do practices of what we are going to teach them. At 10am we have language study for an hour. Usually I study spanish for an hour but because I live in a house with 3 latinos I teach and help them with English, and we read the Book of Mormon in English together. At 11am we get everything ready, backpack, polished shoes, the million dollar hair part, and we leave to work. Sometimes we have appointments in the morning but if not we will go and contact, or find members that can go on visits with us later that day, or the two things. At 1pm we usually lunch and we eat a ton of rice, with some kind of hot soup and tuna or chicken or beef. Its pretty plain the food and we eat almost the same thing every day but I love it. Then from 2-9 we go teach the investigators we have with the members. Nicolas is a young men who is preparing for the mission who accompanies us a couple days a week, also Jhon and Erik go on visits with us usually, theyre also preparing for the mission. We usually have appointments, and if we dont, we will go contact referrals that we have or go teach some less actives and recent converts. Almost every day we find new people to teach whether its someone we talk to in the street or a referral from a member. So we are always weeding through the people that are truly interested and those that arent. And if we are lucky someone will invite us to have dinner with them! (rare) But usually there isnt time to eat so we just keep working until 9pm. At 9 we are back in the house and we plan for the day until 9.30. And from 9.30 until 10.30 when we go to bed we usually call some companionships in the zone and verify how theyre doing and who theyre teaching and we do everything in our power to help them and their investigators. And then we go to bed, wake up and repeat!😀

Right now we are teaching 2 people that are super solid to be baptised this coming month. Xiomara Rodrigues, cousin of a member, and Hugo Macias who works with our stake President. Theyre both progressing and coming to church and the activities so it is only a matter of time! The most important thing is that they are both reading the Book of Mormon so their conversion will come pretty quickly! If you guys could pray for them that would be great!!

Another cool thing this last week. So Ecuador like 20 or so years ago had their own currency called sucres. I was able to get a couple of the bills from some members last week theyre super cool Ill see if I can get a picture.