WEEK 11: SPLITS WITH ZONE LEADER

Hey fam and friends!

The work has been progressing well. This last week was definitely busy and we got a lot of stuff done. Tonight we have a noche de hogar (family home evening) with one of the strongest families in our ward. They are inviting 3 other families who are not members and we are going to teach and show one of the shorter videos about the restoration! This is going to be a big night for us! 

I am not sure if I told you guys a week or so ago but I had interchanges for a day with one of our zone leaders in our zone. And he sure worked me hard. I learned so much and was so sore the next day because their sector is quite a bit larger than ours. I like going on changes with other Elders because I have the opportunity to learn to teach and contact in a different way. We got so much accomplished. I put this into practice when I got back with Elder Tomlinson and it has helped us out a lot as far as working efficiently. 

So we do have 2 investigators with baptism dates for the 14th of November right now. They are an older husband and wife. They are in their early 60. Their names are Gaston and Rosio. Gaston is a politician for the city of Guayaquil. Not quite sure to what extent but he works in a big office building. He is the coolest guy we have met. He has been keeping committments and always asks a lot of questions during our lessons. His first sunday in Elders Quorum with us he was contributing so much because he has read and studied the Bible and he is a really intelligent guy. And his wife is not there as much but she is getting ready for the same date. Funny thing, because one of their daughters lives below them with her husband and their 3 kids. We are hoping to be able to get this family all baptised at the same time. Wouldnt that be so great_ (my question mark button doesnt work) We have not had a lot of time to teach them this last week because their daughter had a Qinsinetta(sp) they have been preparing for. But this week we are going to go back at it full force!

The food is growing on me. And by that I mean the soup. Because the main plate is always a bunch of rice. One of the hermanos in our ward makes the best sopa de queso! In english its cheese soup, I pray you guys could have figured that one out on your own haha. But its a cheesy broth with noodles, potatoes and chunks of cheese...its my favorite! 

So I guess any day now we are supposed to be getting the el nino rain storms here. Ive heard stories of Elders walking and proselyting in the flooded streets with water well up past the knees. So we are going to see how bad it gets

Picture from another family home evening with the Portilla Family(whos house we are going over to tonight) on the right. They are one of the families that have us over for lunch and Rico served his mission in Columbia some 10 years ago or so. They are a great family and he is always so willing to go on visits with us so it is great.

Glad all is well for the fam! I love you guys keep having FHE and remember to read the scriptures every night and pray together! All is well out here

Love 

Elder Solari

WEEK 10: 3 NEPHI 5:13

Multi-zone training meeting

Hey family and friends!

This last week was great. We focused a lot on finding new people since most of our progressing investigators have been baptised. We have this phrase in the mission, its called 'Working with the tractor.' And it has to do with getting references from members, who are the tractor. Because we can reap and reap all day with our sickles, but the ward always has good references and we can teach so many more people and families this way. Anyways this last week we did just that. We probably got a good 30 references or so. We have not gotten in contact with them all yet but we are working on that still. As a result we have a lot of new investigators to keep us busy! We already have 2 of these references committed to be baptized next month! Our mission has some strict rules in order to be able to baptize an investigator: 

1. They have to have attended church atleast 3 times for the full 3 hours

2. They have to be keeping committments

3. They HAVE to read the Book of Mormon for 15 minutes everday for atleast 2 weeks straight in order to be baptized. Now this is the hardest one. An investigator can be at their baptism, and if they did not read the Book of Mormon the day before they cannot be baptised. We dont just want members, we want strong members who are going to stay active and keep the commandments. And this is exactly how we can help ensure that. Our role in missionary work with recent converts does not end until they enter the temple and receive the temple ordinances.

Our mission has a motto. Every district meeting, zone meeting and multizone conference we recite it, all in unison. It is found in 3 Nefi 5:13:

'He aqui, soy discipulo de Jesucristo, el Hijo do Dios. He sido llamado por el para declarar su palabra entre los de su pueblo, a fin de que alcancen la vida eterna'

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word(gospel) among his people that they might have everlasting life.

Nothing brings the spirit more powerful that reciting this with all the other missionaries. We had a multi zone training with our mission president this last week and the 5 zones in the Guayaquil South Area were there. Some 70 or so missionaries. We had a great time. We focused a lot on the Atonement, and how when our knowledge of the Atonements grows, so will our desire to share the gospel. We also talked about how exact obedience brings miracles. We had a great lunch and then worked on our technicas and practiced teaching and contacting other missionaries while the President was holding interviews. Elder Barba and Bolen were not there so I think theyre probably serving in Cuenca or some other area more southern. 

So the family I told you about in my letter last week has been feeling like we are pressuring them too much, they dont want to keep committments. We have still been teaching them but have slowed it down a lot. We are still trying to get them to come to church but they have not yet. 

Ill try to take more pictures next week! Oh and send me pictures of our family! People always ask me for pictures of my family but I dont have any. Keep working hard you guys I love you!

WEEK 9: GUAYAQUIL INDEPENDENCE WEEK!

Hey fam and friends!

We had two baptisms this last week! The work has been progressing well and I got to be a witness for both of the baptisms! One of the members we go on splits with, Moroni, baptised Lorena because she lives with them. She was able to stay off coffee and was baptised! Our other baptism was with an old investigator who just needed permission from her parents because she was not 18 and she finally got it! She has been going to church for years with people in the ward. 

Sandra Lorena is the mom of the family with 2 recent converts. The one who would not let us in the house but now finally did. So guess what? She likes listening to us and sometimes cooks mediana, or dinner for us! And this last week we taught her whole family the first lesson, the Restoration! So we have 4 new investigators and are praying they will feel the love the Lord has for them. The spirit was so strong during the lesson. Nothing helps to bring the spirit stronger than the First Vision and you could see it working in their hearts and eyes. We ended up giving them 2 copies of the Book of Mormon and committed them to read and pray about Joseph Smith, or as they call him here, Jose Smith! We are going to stop by them again tomorrow and see how they felt and hopefully teach them more about the Book of Mormon and the plan of salvation!

So other than this family we have been teaching, We have been out contacting and tracting and trying to find new people to teach. It has been a little hard because people set up appointments with us and are excited about it but then they either tell us the wrong phone number/address or are not there when we come by! So just last night, we had an impression to speak to these two guys who were talking outside of their house...turns out one of them is a less active member, and the other is not and we have an appointment to go teach him and his family this week! We feel good about this one because the less active member is going to accompany us when we go teach them! The best references we receive are from members. After this house, we ran into the old bishops kid and got more references from him that we are going to talk to this week also! We are getting answers to our prayers and fasting. 

Oooohhh my first fast Sunday in Ecuador. I am not going to lie, it was tough. We started after lunch at 2pm and went until 2pm on Sunday. That whole day after lunch we tracted and I usually drink a ton of water but I didnt because of the fast! We were both so tired and drained but worked so hard...then Sunday, last night, we have all these new people to teach and share the gospel with! Just like the Sons of Mosiah in the BoM, if we pray and fast mightily we will be blessed and be able to teach with power and authority like they did. 

As far as my daily schedule goes it is usually the same

6.30 wakeup and exercise

7.00 breakfast and getting ready for the day

8.00 personal study

9.00 companion study

11.00 language study

12.00 almuerzo

1.00 Visits, appointments, tracting

9.00 back to the house to plan

9.30 get ready for bed

10.30 sleep

So from 1-9pm we are doing everything. Teaching lessons, finding new investigators, going on splits, holding baptism interviews, visiting new converts and less actives, everything! We just plan what we are going to do the night before every night. Planning sessions we try to do quickly because we are always so tired.

Then Tuesday mornings we have district meetings from 9.30-11.30am and Saturday we have Zone Meetings from 9.30-11.30. Ward Council is usually Wednesday night at 7.30...but does not start until 8 because the Ecuadorian people are not known for being punctual hahaha. 

So the multi-zone training is actually tomorrow. So hopefully I will get to see either of them tomorrow! I am excited to be able to have a meeting with and talk to our mission president again. He has such a strong spirit and the first capacitacion(training) I had my first day was great

I will start asking around for somewhere to take my clothes to make them smaller! I probably wont need it for a little bit longer...but once the neck gets too saggy Ill have to take them in. Here are a few pictures of the baptism we had this week! I will try to send more pictures next week.

Thank you so much for everything Mom! I love you! Tell the Fam I love them too!

WEEK 8: CONFERENCE AND COMPS 20TH

Elder Tomlinson 20th Birthday!

Hey family and friends! Hope you all had a good conference week! I was able to watch conference in Spanish at the stake center here in The Acacias. It was definitely a different experience trying to take it all in with the Spanish that I know now. I did my best to keep up with it. So what I am waiting for now is for the Conference Issue of the Ensign so I can see if what I jotted down during conference made any sense or not! It was definitely kind of hard to see President Monson in the state he is in. He has been through a lot lately. Even during the Priesthood session you could see him struggling. He has been such an important figure in my life so it was hard to watch that. Weve been praying for him extra lately.

Funny thing about the people of Ecuador...they are kinda lazy and just sit around all day. Conference was at the stake center and during saturday morning and afternoon, there were maybe 35 people each time. Then Sunday morning we went and the chapel and overflow was full! We even went around and told everyone Saturday morning and they all said they werent going to go because they wanted to sleep. It is definitely a lot different out here than in the states! 

Anyways... my week was a good one out here in the Acacias! Our baptism this last week fell through. She drank coffee for the first time in 3 years one night for no reason! We know Satan is working very hard to push back and stop our baptism dates. So we have been stopping by everyday to remind her because she is going to get baptized this weekend. A lot of our investigators are not quite 18 yet so we have been trying to go around and get permission from their parents. We just got permission from another sister and she is going to be baptized this next week too! 

So how lunch works out here, Every week we eat with a different family. It is usually a bigger family with youth, who is usually a very strong family in the church here. This last week we had almuerzo with the Portilla family. They are the ones we got Gabriela and Nicole as a reference from who were in the pictures I sent home last week! They have a boy who is 12 and a daughter who is 3. They are such a funny family. The mom is Columbian and the Dad is Peruvian. They always make great food and a lot of it. 

Cool story from this last week. So we teach Gabriela and Nicole(our recent converts) outside their house because their mom is very Catholic and will not let us in the house. So we found out from Hna. Portilla that the mom always sits upstairs with the windows open and listens to all of our lessons with them...And she likes what she is hearing. So this last Wednesday when we were teaching them, There was a little rival school fight right on their street! Kids aged 12-17. They were launching big chunks of the pavement and rocks at eachother! So we were sitting outside right in the line of fire..and the girls had already run in. We were just kind of watching and the MOM came out and grabbed us and let her in the house for the first time! It was pretty monumental even with the circumstances. So we got to talk to her for a few minutes and she is really nice. She invited us back that night for dinner and cake because it was Elder Tomlinsons birthday! We can see the Lord working in her and just need to figure out when the time is to ask and try to start teaching her and seeing what her expectations are. The Lord works in mysterious ways but the harder we work, the more blessings we get and see in our investigators!

Other than that we have been busy contacting and talking to people in the street trying to find and get new investigators. It gets pretty hot and the days are long but I sleep well every night and am rewarded the harder I work. We are getting ready for the rainy season in the next month or so. It supposedly rains nonstop and in the streets the water gets up to mid calf so that is going to be a new experience too. 

Sorry i did not take many photos this week! These were from my comps camera that we took on his birthday! This one is with a member who is leaving on his mission to Colombia in 2 months! He comes and goes on visits with us most days

We are having a multi zone training with the mission president this week on wednesday so that is going to be fun as well! Hopefully I will run into Elder Barba or Bolen from my district at the CCM!

Glad all is well!  I love you Mom!

WEEK 7: MY FIRST WEEK IN ECUADOR!!

Hi everyone! My first week here has been great. I am serving in the Acacias sector, Huancavilva Zone. It is the northern most part of the mission. So we have just south of Downtown Guayaquil. It is a pretty rough place, south of the city in the ghetto. The apartment we both live in is pretty nice for the area, we have a small kitchen, bedrooms and a blue bathroom. Our sector is pretty small. About a mile wide by maybe 600 meters long. There is such a high concentration of houses though. The weather is always hot and muggy, but it cools down enough at night to sleep because we have a lot of fans in the apartment. We also sleep under huge mosquito nets, even though there are not a whole lot of them in our area.

The mission president is a great guy! He has about 10 months left out here to serve and gave us some great training. We learned about the formula for success out here on the mission, Charity + obedience + the spirit is how we have success. As a mission we have a goal of 600 baptisms every month...we have not hit the goal yet but we always get very close. We are the highest baptizing mission in the world as of right now. We do have some more strict rules because they hold us to such high esteem. We are not allowed to play sports, even on P day. And on P day we are to stay in our proselyting clothes all day. At first I was bummed, but then I figured out that we need to make sacrifices and give in to the Lords will in order to help the work progress more rapidly out here.

The flights out here were great. We went smoothly through Colombia and got out here to meet my companion. His name is Elder Tomlinson and he is from the Portland area. He is gringo just like me and has about 10 months left out on the mission. He has a great spirit, and is teaching me how to work and more importantly, more spanish. And guess what....He has served in the Galapagos! I asked the mission president about serving there and he said its like the Celestial Kingdom...only the most obedient and hardest working missionaries get to go there. So I have something good to motivate me!

We had 3 baptisms this week! I attached some pictures. They are some people they had been teaching, and we interviewed them this last week and finished teaching and they were ready for baptism! I got to baptize Jeremy this last week. He is the younger boy. And this is the family in the ward who we got the references from! The members always have the best references for us to teach. And Gabriela and Nicole, the other two we baptized, have more friends and family we can teach! We are so excited and ready to get to work. 

We have a goal to give 8 invites to be baptized everyday in our mission. Each companionship. I love having such motivated leaders and mission! It has helped me to want to work so much harder to reach those goals. There are something like 250 missionaries in the mission, and if we all manage 3 baptisms a month, we can achieve the goal of 600 baptisms a month. 8 invites a day is what 56 a week? That is a lot of potential baptisms! We also have a large pool of investigators and potential baptism dates so we always stay busy!

My first Sunday was great! The ward is full of friendly people who know I cant understand the language when they speak it really fast. I also found out on Sunday I had to give a talk in Sacrament and had only a couple hours to prepare. We talked about missionary work and it went great! I almost took up too much time. The members out here love the missionaries. When we are walking on the streets they always yell AYYY MI GRINGO AMIGOS and come talk to us. Everyone here for work mostly has little stores in their house, so people are always on the streets to talk to. 

The food is not bad. Every week we eat at a members home for Lunch at 1, which is the big meal of the day. Our mamitas usually cook rice, sometimes pasta and some kind of meat, whether bologni, beef or chicken/turkey. The first course is also always a hot soup which is funny because it is always hot outside and I never stop sweating. Not that many places out here have air conditioning. They also always make fresh juice for us. There are a lot of good little stores here that cook fresh bread so sometimes we have that for dinner or for a small meal later that night. Breakfast is usually a banana or some cereal. Today we are going to go to the store and buy some groceries! We do also take the bus a little bit because my companion is our district leader so we have more responsibilities and are always busy!

Anyways an hour sure does fly by on the computers because my trainer is strict which is good! God is good and the work is progressing. Thanks for all your prayers. Ill talk to you guys next week!

Love you guys!!

Elder Solari

Packages and letters can be sent to this address:

Elder William Joseph Solari

Mision Ecuador Guayaquil Sur

Casilla 09-04-566

Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador

Packages have to be less than 8 pounds, and sent in padded envelopes will get them here the fastest. Make sure they send it with the green sticker. Also...if you are going to send anything important, hide it in something in the package and cover it in pictures of Christ or the Virgin Mary

WEEK 6: ARRIVAL OF ELDER WILLIAM SOLARI TO ECUADOR!

The following pictures & letter arrived via email from the Guyaquil Ecuador South mission home this past Wednesday...

                                                                  Misión Ecuador Guayaquil Sur

24 September 2015

Dear Brother and Sister Solari:

It was a very special experience to personally greet your son, Elder Solari, at the airport upon his arrival in Guayaquil. We were impressed by his great spirit and desire to serve. We are grateful and humbled to have him serving here with us.

From the airport we took him and the other missionaries downtown to the Guayaquil Temple for a picture.  We then went to a stake center to meet the office staff and take care of some paperwork, and orientation.  We enjoyed a great Ecuadorian dinner after which it was my privilege to interview your son as well as the other arriving missionaries.  What a nice experience it was to get to know your son and feel his outstanding missionary spirit!

Later in the day, they were assigned companions for their first assignment. The next morning they traveled to their new area. Your son was assigned to the Huancavilca Zone with Elder Tomlinson as his companion. The address for the mission office is Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission, Casilla 09-04-566, Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador.  If, in case of emergency, you need to contact your son, please call the mission office.

Your help in encouraging him in your letters to continue to serve faithfully, being completely obedient throughout his mission will be greatly appreciated. We know that he and the Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission will be in your prayers. We also know that the coming months will bring many blessings into your lives by your son´s faithful service and the sacrifice you are making for him to serve the Lord. Thank you very much for having prepared your son to withstand the rigors of missionary life and to now be serving with us.

May God bless you for your consecration towards furthering the Lord´s work.  We send our love and appreciation.

Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission

President Maxsimo C Torres                                       Sister Blanca T. Torres

WEEK 5: MY FLIGHT PLANS ARE HERE!

(L to R:  Elders Smith, Bolen, Sheppard, Wilson, Peterson, Heap, Waite, Myself and Barba)

Last class with our teacher Hermana Velasquez

___________

This Monday the 22nd at 10:30pm a van is taking Elders Barba, Bolen and I to the Mexico City Airport to catch our first flight at 2:15am to the Bogota, Columbia Airport! We should get in around 6:40am and then we have a 2 hour layover and should be getting in to Guayaquil at about 10:30am. We are all so excited to finally get to Ecuador! It also looks like I have window seats for both flights so that is another big bonus. I will definitely call you guys at whichever airport I have more time in, either Mexico City or Columbia. So be on standby because I will probably be calling from a weird number! I am also going to have to pay to check one of my bags because only 1 is free but they reimburse me when i get to the mission home.

This last week here at the CCM has been great!

It started off really on Saturday with the Cultural Celebration. I dont think I´ve seen a cultural celebration ever before and it was sooo interesting. It was an hour and a half play about the Book of Mormon! It started out with Nephi going and retrieving the plates, and progressed through building the boat, lots of war scenes and ended when Christ appeared to the Nephites! After that it went through the Restoration, and the story of how the Book of Mormon was first translated into Spanish which was a really cool story. And it showed how traditional Spanish dancing has progressed throughout the ages, the ones with the big flowy dresses. It was a really cool experience and really helped to show how far the restoration has come and how much more of the world it still has to reach. 

The Temple dedication was great. Elder Holland and President Eyring both spoke before the dedication. We were watching a CCM only broadcast but it was a live feed and the auditorium was treated like an extension of the temple! All week there had been rumors of Elder Holland stopping by for a surprise devotional Sunday...but our CCM President told us he wanted too but that they did not have enough time to stop by. They did both give some powerful talks...and the dedicatory prayer was amazing. They both kind of talked about how the temple had to be rededicated..but then they turned it into how we really need to rededicate our lives to serve the Lord. And i Think that really hit home with me because I was rededicated and my life was set apart to serve the Lord for these next 2 years. We watch so many talks and excerpts from talks in our classes....and not surprisingly the majority of them are from Elder Holland. He always gives such great talks. 

As far as teaching investigators it is going well. We have 3 that we are teaching almost daily. Some are progressing nicely but one is a little more difficult. We usually follow the lesson order in Preach My Gospel but we always mix it up and really try to teach what the Spirit tells us that the investigator needs to hear. So there are set Lessons we are supposed to teach...but we have leeway in teaching them our way. One thing that is cool about Preach my Gospel and that us missionaries are supposed to do now...is that we are supposed to extend a baptism invitation the first lesson we teach them. The first time I was told that I was almost shocked but now seeing how it has played out...it really helps you to know what the investigator needs to be taught in order to be ready for that next step. 

So the 15th was Mexican Independence Day. And when they party here in Mexico they go big. All week long all we have heard at night is non stop fireworks, live music and gun shots firing into the air. We have also celebrated this a little bit at the CCM because the food has been better than normal and they have had a lot of good Mexican candies

Sorry these last few emails have been short! I know once I get out to Ecuador there will be so much more to tell about and so many more pictures to share! So tomorrow is another big day. Its called our ¨In-field Orientation´ day. We wear our suits all day and go to a bunch of work shops, and goal setting meetings. It should really be when they start teaching us and telling us about how it is going to be in the field. Because up to this point it has just been doctrine and Spanish that we have been taught. So tomorrow should be an exciting day. I also got to try out my rain coat and it works great!

Thanks mom I love you! Pass my love on to Dad the boys and Buster! 

Elder Solari

Dont worry I did get a haircut right after this picture...and I was sick.