Week 44 Ecuador

Did I mention Elder Vargas and I have the same birthday? We celebrated with another sister in the ward.

Our weird Catholic Christ's last supper statue in the house. "Judas lost his head"

I lost a bet and had to carry Elder Vargas's pack for a day. All with good spirits!

Did I mention we have a pool? and can't swim:(

Ward activity...

Hermana Castro is awesome (Katty)

Elder Howell has a skill with children. I'm still working on that one...little by little.

July 27 weekly update (voice message)

D&C 123:16 “a very large ship is benefitted very much by a very small helm...”

There are no small things in great endeavors.

Hi family, it’s Sunday night, just wrapping up the week. It’s been a while since I’ve got seven good lessons in a day, so we’re ending it right. It’s been a really good week, at least to say I enjoyed it. 

Elder Bench, one of the assistants of the President, he goes home Monday (tomorrow), but he surprised me stoppin’ in Tuesday for my district meeting. So, I guess we’ll see if I passed the test!? 

This week I guess I had to loose a couple investigators to gain a couple. Not ideal, but seriously I’ve been really happy. It’s a true joy when people tell me it’s time to find the truth, or go back to church, and that they want my help. That happened a couple times this week. It was awesome; it gives me purpose. I feel right now that I’m really doing things right. I’m searching for the spirit and the work, I’m trying to be a good example for Elder Vargas, and I guess it’s just a small preparation for the almost perfect year we have approaching. 

Another thing that’s made me happy this week is I found a guy randomly in our sector that has a ball pump, which are surprisingly difficult to come by. He actually loaned it to me. One night I came, and I filled up all the basketballs, the soccer ball, the football, and then I took it to him the next morning. So, I’ve been getting all the Elders out of bed for a little 3 on 3...ultimate frisbee, basketball, soccer, all that stuff. I’m learning that while the latinos are good at soccer, they lack a lot of hand eye coordination. We’ll have to work on that, all the other sports they struggle. 

The night I got the pump, Elder Vargas and I just went outside in the parking lot where we live, and were throwing the ball. He threw a wild one, and I got there just in time to knock it down, but I fell into a car, and it’s alarm went off. We were like “Oh no,” it’s 9:30 at night, and the owner comes grudgingly walking out of his house. I went up and apologized to him. He was actually really cool. I had the football in my hand, and he’s like, “Hey, so that’s like the gringo football?” I was like, “Ya, something like that.” I taught him how to throw it, so he was chill about it. 

The next day, me and my companion made the 45 minute bus ride out to Prima Vera, which means spring in English. It’s a sector where the Hermanas (the sisters) in my district are working. We did 2 baptism interviews, and they were baptized last night! It’s really awesome to see them have success. They have a newborn baby (one month old), and it was kind of sick, so they asked us to give a blessing after the interviews. So, I did my first “baby” blessing, placing my two fingers on her little head and I can feel her heart beat as I was doing the blessing. That was kind of a cool experience. 

The highlight of the week was definitely traveling to the temple with the ward, and three less active members that we have rescued. It was awesome, I haven’t done confirmations in the baptistry since me, Rachel and some friends went, but we performed nearly 500 confirmations my companion and I. I had a sore throat after, but it was awesome. We’re getting together with the ward family history leader, and were going to try to set up some activities to get some investigators and the ward members all doing their research so they can take names to the temple. I kind of hope that some day I have a future calling that will allow me to work close to the temple. I love it. 

Speaking of the ward though, continuing with that we did have a missionary activity, most closely considered like a battle of the sexes activity. It turned out pretty good. We did some soccer, apple bobbing, sack races, stuff like that. I have some videos I’ll shoot to you guys. Hopefully they send through. I had to keep them like 30 seconds. 

Friday night, dad you’ll appreciate this. We went to a lesson that we had with a family. They’re a little bit less active, but they had some investigators there in their house as well. We went there, and they’re all sitting down watching Lonesome Dove. They’re like “Hey, come in, sit down, watch the movie for a minute. You guys can watch this?” We were like “Ummm...yep.” So we sat down and watched the last, I think it was like 15 minutes or something. Darn good movie. Made my heart ache a little bit. 

I’ll end with this. Dad you always joked around that the day you become the bishop, we’d be having meetings over a cup of coffee. Well, the ward council today wasn’t to far off. Every Sunday after church we get together with the ward council, and one of the counselors went out, later returning with Chinese for everyone. As hungry as we all were, and yes I like Chinese, Ecuador had amazed me once again, buying Chinese on the Sabbath day with the ward budget money. Well, what can I say...baby steps right, baby steps.

As I sit here tonight I have to recognize if we rewind a year ago, we were all in Seeley Lake Montana. Awesome, and I guess if we look one year ahead, I’m pretty close to coming home, back to Utah. There’s a lot to be done before that though. So, love you all, and have a wonderful week.