WEEK 24: THE MISH

Brother Rivera & family

Villon family

Brother Rivera baptism

Hey Mom! This week was good! Sorry I wont have a lot of time this week to write. We had a medical appointment for my companion and we were stuck in buses for about 2 and a half hours today. But it was a good day! And a cool adventure finding this Dentists office in the middle of this huge city. And Im sure you guys know this but its raining pretty much nonstop now. I enjoy it because its a lot cooler with all the rain. 

My companion Elder Rodriguez is from Balvencia Colombia. He has almost a year in the mission, and he was able to serve in Cuenca for awhile so thats cool! He has a lot of cool stories of life up in the mountains, and that it is full of gringos. I guess a lot of people go there to retire. 

Yes Hermano Rivera was baptised this sunday! We did it before church at 2pm so that he could receive the Holy Ghost right after! The really cool part was that his son was able to baptise him. His son is a convert of maybe 5 months, and we could feel the S`pirit powerfully during the service. The baptisms are the same as in the US. We have the program with 2 talks, hymns, a special musical number, testimonies and a snack for after! The person that gives the talks are usually the friends that gave us the referral or the bishop, and sometimes the high priest group leader. And I was able to get some pictures this week for you guys too so thats awesome. 

Other than that we have been working hard! Knocking a lot of doors, working a lot with part member families, and contacting references. We have a lot of help from the members in this ward. There are a lot of the priesthood holders that like to go on appointments with us so that is very good! The members also love to prepare food for us when we visit them, and always cola. The people here drink Coca Cola like its water. Theyre my kinda people

I have been making some good progress on reading the Book of Mormon in spanish before general conference. As of right now I am in Mosiah Chapter 3. And I am doing something special with it. In preach my gospel one of the suggestions in studying the Book of Mormon is to highlight every reference to Jesus Christ and underline everything he said, did, and any prophecy about him. I have been learning so much that I did recognize or know beforehand. And I know you guys can learn so much by reading the scriptures everyday and really studying and meditating on the words. This week I have been studying the Manual teachings of President Howard W. Hunter, and this week I have been meditating on John 16.33. It is one of my favorite scriptures. That no matter what is happening in the world or in our lives, if we put our faith in Christ and his teachings, we also can overcome the world, and our own problems.

Love 

Elder Solari

WEEK 23: FIRST TRANSFERS

OLD APARTMENT - LAS ACACIAS

NEW APARTMENT

RAIN!

Hey guys I got transferred this last week! For the first time and Ive already been out for more than 5 months! Tuesday at 9:30pm we got the call and I had to pack all my stuff in less than 30 minutes to catch a taxi to my new area! I am in ward 25th of July in the Pradera stake.(Sure if you put 25 de Julio, Guayaquil, Ecuador in Google maps it would show up, its a pretty huge highway) It is one of the other big zones here in Guayaquil. Its pretty funny, the church where we attend is only maybe 20 minutes wallking from Las Acacias. This sector we are in now is HUGE. I have 6 days here now, and my companion, Elder Rodriguez, has been in the sector for almost 2 weeks. The first few days were hard finding our way around but we are finally starting to get it down. Elder Rodriguez was with me in the other zone for almost two months so I already know him really well. We have been working hard and have already seen miracles here in this last week. 

When I got here, I heard there was a Brother Rivera who had a baptism date but it fell. He already had his interview with our leaders and the records were ready to go. But for some reason it fell, and neither of us knew why. So we went to visit this Brother Rivera this week Wednesday. Turns out he is a 77 year old man who has been investigating the church for some time now. We talked with him some more and he has a real desire to be baptised, and that he feels the church is true, but doesnt know for a fact yet. So this past week we have been working a lot with him. Turns out the prior missionaries had been pressing him big time to be baptized quickly. And it caused him to totally close to the missionaries for 2 weeks or so until we visited him, two totally new missionaries to the area, how about that? And he loves to go to church with his wife, but cant walk very well so we coordinated with members to bring them.We made sure that he would come to church with a question in his heart so he could receive an answer. And the whole three hours he told us, Ill tell you Tuesday If I am going to be baptized for my birthday in two months or not. And after church he was so excited he told us he wants to be baptised this Sunday! In 6 days! From the first day or two here telling us he wanted to wait months to telling us this Sunday is so amazing! I know it was because of the Spirit he felt during the church. It really is one of the only places on the earth where we can feel the Spirit so greatly. So we are preparing him for this week!

We always have success with references from members around here. You guys all need to give references to the missionaries in your wards! We have 7 or 8 other people we are preparing to be baptized that were references from some new converts. It is the best way to share the gospel with your friends, have them come over and then have the missionaries show up ´¨unexpectedly¨¨  Here we go to church at 3pm, and its been fun here as well with the rain. The house it a lot cooler too, and we have a balcony! Im going to try to send some pictures of it. The ward is about the same size, we have maybe 110 or so people that assist every Sunday. But the cool thing is they get here on time and dont arrive late like Acacias haha. 

General Conference is coming up, and we have been challenged to read the Book of Mormon before conference this April. We had to restart from where we were and finish before then. As of right now I am in 2 Nefi 16 in spanish! Its only maybe 8 or 9 pages a day and all you guys are going to be reading it in a language you fully understand. But really, I want to extend this same challenge to all of you guys. It doesnt matter where you are in the book of mormon, restart and read it from the beginning. You will learn so many new things you didnt understand before. Because the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, and the most correct book of any in the history of the world. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and my testimony grows everytime I read it. And yours can too!

Love you Mom!

Elder Solari

WEEK 22: 20 YEARS OLD & 5 MONTHS IN THE MISSION

As I am writing this letter it is pouring rain and I cannot hear the voice of my companion who is next to me. Its here! The time I have been waiting for! It helps a lot with the heat, and we dont use umbrellas. Only hermanas use those here in this mission!

We had a really good week here in Las Acacias. We had a baptism this Saturday! And it was such a great baptism service, we had huge support from members, and we bought a cake to bring. We have been working to reactivate the Fonseca Irrasaba family because they are inactive. And one of their children, Jose, had not been baptised. So we were able to activate the family and baptise Jose Saturday! He is 9 years old, and I do not have picture from the baptism yet. But all of the people that have baptism dates were able to see the baptism so that was great as well. We work hard to bring all of our investigators to the services. 

We had a mini birthday party at our zone meeting this last Saturday. We had cake, and they also sung to me in Spanish. Instead of candles, they use this firecrackers for the cake it was pretty cool. The other Elders brought their cameras so I am going to need to get the pictures from them to send to you guys in a week or two. The day was pretty normal, we had a good colombian food lunch, and worked all day long! 

Yesterday I had an experience that really grew and shaped my testimony so much. We heard of a hermana in the ward who has been unable to come to church for years and partake of the sacrament because she has been sick. The good thing is that the Deacons bring her the sacrament every week. So we went to visit her with a family in the ward...and this hermana was one of the first members of the church here in Ecuador. She is 94 YEARS OLD. And she has one of the most powerful testimonios I have ever heard in my life. And the fact that she is so strong in her own conviction and faith, regardless of her circumstances is amazing. We can all learn from an experience like this. Even if things in our life are going bad or we have struggles, this should not affect our faith and our conviction of the gospel. That through Christ, we can and will accomplish and overcome everything. 

The investigators are progressing well! Sorry I dont have a lot of time the power keeps going out in the cyber so we are out of time. I will try to get more written next week to catch you guys up.

I love you mom! Tell Dad to write me!

Elder Solari

WEEK 21: 2016!

New Year's firework device

The rainy season begins!

This last week was great! 

It was New Years week and the people here partied all week long. The 31st and 1st we had to be in the house a little bit early at 6:30pm. We had some members brings us food so we were all good. Here in Ecuador for New Years they build these statues of TV characters and movies, and they stuff them with fireworks. So for New Years at midnight they burn them and blow them up, its a pretty cool tradition. A ton of them were minions, characters from kids tv shows, classic horror movies, star wars, all kinds! I have a picture or two I can attach of some smaller ones. It was so hard to sleep that night because our neighbors were burning them right outside the windows. We felt like we were in a war zone with bombs blowing up everywhere. They shook the house it was awesome. And all of the explosions were so bright. 

Not a whole lot happened this week. Just working hard and especially working with the people we are preparing to be baptised. This Friday the whole city was dead from all the partying during the night, it was impossible to talk to anyone. Everyone was sleeping or not in their houses. It was literally a ghost town, usually its so busy in the afternoon around 4pm but there was nobody.

I am still in Las Acacias, I have not been transferred yet but it should be any week now. Just today one of the other missionaries that arrived here with me got transferred. So I am just waiting..I do love this sector and the ward. They are helping us out so much with lessons and helping with the missionary work in the ward. I am excited to go see another part of Ecuador eventually though. Because our Zone Leaders pulled a joke last week and told me I had transfers, So I started getting everything ready and they called me 30 minutes later when I already had a bunch of stuff packed and told me it was a joke. I guess in latin america December 28th is Dia de Los Innocentes, like April Fools Day in the United States. They got me real good haha.

This week the rain finally arrived as well! Friday around 7pm while we were out proselyting it started to pour at 7pm and did not let up at all through the night. We got drenched. But it was so much cooler outside so it wasnt bad. We took some pictures to mark the first night of rain because this is probably going to continue for the next couple of months. 

Dang I am bummed about the package. I was so excited for it to arrive here.So are they going to send it back to you guys or is it just going to be trashed here? I am going to be 20 on Friday! Pretty cool. I got a christmas card from the Young family.

That is all the time Ive got. Hope you guys had a great new years! Start the year off right and set a goal to read the book of mormon! It is the best goal you can make this year. Read it everyday for atleast 15 minutes and your testimonies will grow so much I can promise you guys that! And read D&C as well! 

Happy New Year!

Elder Solari

WEEK 20: FELIZ NAVIDAD!

(I already told you guys about Navidad when we skyped so this email isnt going to be super long)

Hope you guys all had a great Christmas! Ours was awesome! We had a Noche Blanca. All the Elders in our stake got together and had a night full of baptisms the 25th! Ill attach some pictures in this email for you guys. It was awesome.

Not going to lie, it was hard to keep in contact with some of our investigators everyday this week. We have a goal to pass for every investigator that has a baptism date everyday..and as of right now thats 11 people. The town here was dead the 24th and 25th, it was so hard to contact and talk to new people because everyone was sleeping from a hard night of partying, or they were out of town. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we worked until 7:30PM. And when we got back we were told to study Luke Ch. 2. So that part was the same as any given navidad in our family! Elder Diaz and I also bought a pizza to celebrate Christmas Eve, and some members brought us some really good food too. The members out here love us. We have a lot more support from them than when I first arrived here. Its been cool to see the change in their hearts. 

The baptism with Leandro went great as well. Recently we have been working with his mom and other brother to try to get them baptised. But they are always so busy working its hard to find them. Plus Sundays they cant go to church so itll be difficult for them to progress. But this coming Sunday church starts at 8AM so hopefully it will be better for their work schedules! Its also going to be great for us so we can wake up extra early at 5am so we can wake up all of our investigators! We are literally going to have to go around to all of their houses and pound on the door to wake them up because sometimes we help the missionaries with early church do this too. 

I love this gospel! Everyday I have to share it my desire to share it grows stronger. I know as you guys share the gospel with the people in your life, so will your desire to share it with more people! 

I am still waiting on your guys packages! Holy cow COLE is HUGE. When did he get so tall? Hes like the iron giant! 

  

Love you guys!

Elder Solari

WEEK 19: A HOT CHRISTMAS HERE IN ECUADOR!

Hey everyone!

This last week was great! We got a lot of work done and were able to get some new people prepared for baptism dates. We are teaching a couple families and working with some part member families. It is the last week of the year so we are working hard on getting baptism dates set for this week. So far we have one, his name is Leandro. We have been teaching him for awhile, and he is from a part member family. His sister has been a member for awhile and he has been coming to church with her often. We are preparing him for this Saturday! What a Christmas gift for him and for us to be able to be baptized at this time of the year!

Other than that, the heat has been picking up, and for the first time (surprise) I have been getting sunburnt. The sun has been brutal the past week, and since I am done with the training we get to leave the house earlier everyday when the sun is stronger! 

We have been teaching the family Aguilar these last two weeks. And just the other day we had a really cool experience. We were talking with them about bringing them to church and everything. And she shared her testimony with us. That she has been receiving so many blessings in her life since we have started visiting them. That her Dad sent them money for Christmas, they were able to get a free fridge from a friend, all of this really cool stuff has been happening to them. And she told us that she KNOWS its because of the gospels influence in her life. And she shared with us that she knows the church is true! We are preparing this family to be baptized the 23rd of January so keep an eye on that!

We had a cool zone meeting today. We got together and had pizza and played some UNO for PDAY. I guess thats what all the missionaries here usually do on P day. So it was pretty fun. We also now have 2 hermanas in our zone. They were sent here to die (meaning they both only have 2 months of their mission left). Not die literally. So now we have 12 missionaries in our zone and in one of the other sectors there are 4 missionaries working. This is also our last Sunday at 3pm in the afternoon, after the new year the church is going to start at 8am. I am not sure how good that is going to be for the ward haha.

As far as skype. My comp and I are going to be doing our calls around 1 or 2PM Ecuador time the 25th. We probably are not going to call the day before to confirm because it costs a lot of money so just have skype up and ready! But if for some reason there are problems we will call Christmas Day to make sure everything is ready to go. I think that we are 2 or 3 hours ahead.

I wanted to bare my testimony about enduring to the end. Because we have a lot of inactives and less actives out here in Ecuador. We need to be baptized and get on the straight and narrow path. And after this, the work never ends, we have to progress and perfect ourselves in everyway that we can. Its called Enduring to the end for a reason! We need to be 100% committed to the goal of eternal life and inheriting the kingdom of God. If you know or have friends that are struggling with this, help them out! We cant let anybody slip away! We need to do everything we can to help them or we will be held accountable as well 

Jacob 1:19

And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins ofthepeople upon our own heads if we did not teach them theword of God with all diligence; wherefore,by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon; otherwise their blood would come upon ourgarments, and we would not be found spotless at the lastday.

I love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Elder Solari

WEEK 18: CHRISTMAS TIME IN THE SUMMERTIME!

Hey family and friends! Not sure if all of you know this or not but its summer time in Ecuador! And its super hot! And its almost Christmas which is weird but awesome!

We had 2 baptisms this week! The cool thing is that Ive been here to teach them both every single lesson with my papa Elder Tomlinson and my padraste Elder Diaz! The first is Jesus Molina, and he was a reference from our ward mission leader. We have been teaching him for over two months and he was baptized on Saturday! We are working on getting him the priesthood and he is going to baptize his wife in the next several weeks! Its been difficult because her mom that they live with is very catholic and does not want her daughter to be baptized. But hes 23 years old so we have been working hard to make her excited about it. The other baptism was Hermana Olivia Peralta! Her we found though our own efforts. And it has been a long way. We have been working with her almost since I first arrived here. And her challenge at first was that she needed to feel prepared. And she finally was ready and I got to baptize her! They are both going to make such strong members. They were also both confirmed yesterday! 

We have been doing a lot of tracting lately. There are so many inactivos, so we have a directory of the ward and have been finding these people, and getting references and finding more new people to teach. We are also working on reactivating some families, but its difficult because one of the main reasons are inactive is because they are upset at someone in the ward. Or they were offended by something someone said. Its honestly the worst reason to be inactive. People out here are weird in that way. They need to understand that its the doctrine of the church thats perfect, not the people.

P day today was pretty cool. We have been having a lot of success here in our sector so we got permission to go to the mall for an hour or so! Pretty cool because usually its hard to get permission for the mall. I bought some ties, a watch, and some McDonalds and Cinnabon of course! 

As far as your studying with Preach My Gospel, keep a study journal. We have a saying in the mission ´Whatever you dont write down youre going to forget´´ Thats roughly the translation, its sounds a lot better in Espanol. Its hard to write you guys in English because I havent spoken it in over 3 weeks hahaha. But I guess thats a good thing because I feel semi fluent in the language! 

About calling you guys on christmas, were going to be skyping at a members house! So I need the skype username you guys are going to use. And my companion is going to call you guys the day before to confirm at what time were going to call. So I also need a phone number we can reach you on on Christmas Eve. Better practice your Spanish mom! And it is only one hour, the mission is pretty strict on that...but I am excited to talk to you guys for a whole hour! And its all going to be in Spanish!

Nate and Aria are engaged? I saw that one coming. Thats cool to hear about how the ward at home is growing fast, and how there are so many future missionaries in the ward!

Theres a new really cool video the church has on lds.org. You guys should go watch it! Its about Jesus Christ, and his birth. I know there are a ton of well made videos of the new testament and His life also. I wish I could watch them but you guys need to! He is our Savior and Redeemer! Every single one of you guys! Be grateful during this season and spread the love and the gospel!

Love you mom!

Elder Solari