Week 82 Ecuador

4/17/16
I`m sure headlines have made it your way of the 7.8 Earthquake that hit the north of Ecuador last night. Oh yea, I felt it. We were walking in the street and at first I thought I was going to pass out for some reason, then realized that everything was moving around me. Lights out, screams, people jumping off buses and hitting their knees in prayer, I`ve never seen anything like it. I stayed calm through it all and actually thought it was kind of cool, stuff was scattered all over in the house that had fallen. We slept on the roof in our hammock`s just in case the house tried coming down on us. 

Really devastating hit for Ecuador, we got in contact quick as possible with the missionaries from the zone and later president and everyone is Good. I am writing just to tell you that I AM OK! Love you all and I`ll be writing sometime tomorrow. 

(church was even canceled here)!

Love you all,

Take care.

4/18/16
Your inferences were correct and although there were several deaths nearby in Guayaquil, bridges coming down, we are all ay okay. I threw the majority of info out in my voice recording you all should have received. We are mainly helping gather food and clothing to send north but we did some service yesterday and maybe tonight tearing down walls that are cracked and unstable with some members. I might just gain some muscle back swinging that sledge-hammer. Spirits are high. My companion has been stressed but after talking with his family today he should cheer up a little.

Love you all. Thanks for your faith, it saved us!

4/18/16 “Safe and sound” voice recording

Hello family, well it’s been a great week with a few more accidents than normal. We’ve been working, staying at it. It was fun this week, we decided to go play soccer with the ward one night. We got some investigators and less actives to go with us. I got a goal, and played a lot of defense. Out of the four rounds that we played, we never lost…went undefeated! I held my own as the gringo out there on the court. On our way back, we were actually going to do an exchange with the other elders that night. We were walking by, and this dog was laying down normal, it didn’t bark or anything, and just randomly jumps up and bites my leg and runs off! It didn’t puncture the skin, but it scraped it and bruised my ankle. It bled a little bit. I came home and put hydrogen peroxide on it, and I didn’t really say anything. I didn’t want to go get rabies shots and stuff, but it looks like it’s closing up, healing pretty good, so there’s that.

My day in the other sector went good. We had some success, but the times that I’ve gone over there I see in general the lower, lower class of society that lives there creates one sandy gospel foundation. Although we stay faithful and optimistic, you always hear about the humble and willing, that the missionaries want to go find them and baptize them, their more receptive but I believe they are often mistaken for the more ignorant and helpless. 

Along that line, yesterday although church got cancelled, and we didn’t go, some members called us and there was a satellite broadcast for Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela which all completed 50 years. The church has been here for 50 years, so their anniversary. Elder Hales, and Elder Oaks spoke, and they both congratulated especially Ecuador for the progress they’re having, in the mission work and things, but made the comment that if they wanted to keep growing, then they have to be more faithful than they now are. That the blessings will not come, and they won’t see that growth and those blessings unless they are more faithful and that is in sabbath day observance and in tithes and offerings. They’ve been hammering down on us as missionaries to that we need to teach that better, more faithfully. Though I feel weird about it, even take our converts and less actives to the bishop to pay their tithing, present them, show them how to do it. It’s kind of weird, it’s like you’re obligating them, but it’s for their wellbeing I suppose. 

A lot of good things happening though. We went over to my favorite family here in the ward, the Cardinas. They were laying tile in their house, their kitchen floors and everything. So, we went over there. I was helping the dad cut tile out with the saw, and while I was doing it, it made me think of dad through the years, tiling his bathroom, and later doing the bathroom downstairs, and just building. I enjoyed it, and then we got out the grout and started grouting the cracks in the floor and everything, so it was time well used. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the zone lately too, and felt there’s something that we’re missing. I prayed a lot, and turned out what the assistants claim to be an incredible invitation that we can all study our mission callings, and see what mom always says…remember who we are and what we stand for…see the expectations of the Lord, and the prophet as we are called, and the promised blessings as we are faithful to that. Kind of to motivate the missionaries themselves to see where they’re at, and their progress. If they’re living up to that, but set it out; it was pretty inspired. I felt good about it. Really grateful.

Also, spiritual accomplishment this week. I finished the BOM for what I believe to be the 5th time. I’ve read it twice in the mission now, and I think I did it three times before. While a lifetime of references and lessons remain, my understanding and love for God, my Savior and all men has really increased. To see history for real, the BOM is a sad story, but a lot of great, great principles. All I can say, as I finished that is…I thank thee oh God for a prophet, in our day! That guides us, and if we will listen to him, as the people in the BOM at times did, and others not, that we’ll be saved, we will prosper. That’s my hope for the future. If I do things right, God will continue guiding me and blessing me, and our family. 

I also feel incredibly blessed for what has happened here in Ecuador these past couple days. We were walking, returning from the church the other night. It was Saturday night about 7:00, and I felt like I was losing consciousness, like I was passing out, until I realized that everything was moving around me. It turned out to be a 7.8 earthquake on the richter scale, that lasted for about a minute, and then there was a lot of continued smaller earthquakes that went on through the night. That happened up in Esmeraldes, the north of Ecuador if you guys haven’t looked it up already. My view of it the street was moving. It was crazy, I was surfing on the ground. I’ve never felt anything like that. Lots of people were screaming. One lady pulled over and tried getting out of her car, she was screaming help me, and I was like hey, just stay right there, stay calm. We waited with her for the whole minute until it stopped, then we told her to drive safe to her house. There were people praying. People got off a bus, kneeled down and started praying. It was pretty crazy, all the lights were out. The towers had lost service so we couldn’t call anybody in the zone, so we searched for a phone that did have reception, and we called all the missionaries, and everyone was safe. They all went home, and we called the assistants, President Riggins and everything. Everything went well. 

We ended up sleeping in our hammocks on the roof that night, because my companion was afraid that the roof might come down on us if there was another earthquake. So we slept up there, no problem with me. I like my hammock, pretty comfortable. My companion was pretty worried about his family being up there pretty close to the earthquake, but a huge blessing, it sounds like it didn't even get close to his home. It went in a different direction down the fault line, but I tried to give him reassurance, he’s anxious to talk to his family today. See how everyone’s doing, I can understand that. Up where it was at I heard there was around 280 deaths, over 500 people are injured. A lot of news reports, but I have to consider…I think the earthquake in Haiti 4 or something years back was about this same size, same magnitude, and A lot more people died. There was a lot more distraction, so not to downplay what’s happening here, but I feel that we are very blessed. I feel blessed that nothing happened around here, or those that I care about. 

Although I was happy, I was grateful that we could in some way help. We, the church, this area, the stake was approved to send food and clothing for donation, so we got a big bag of clothes from our house of stuff that had been left around from other missionaries, and some shirts that I had, and grabbed a few cans of food that I had. We went to different stores, and we asked for donations of food that’s not going to go bad. A lot of people were very gracious. I showed up to the church with a very big bag of food. They were all very grateful, and they sent that off this morning to the north of Ecuador to help those people. First to help the members of the church, and later everyone else, according to priority. I wish I had gotten photos of all this, but I think you guys can better see the damage and things that have happened on internet.

I just want you to know, I am fine. I am safe. I’m happy, and continue to look for ways to serve and help the people. Lots of people have questions about God. People are asking why God would let things happen, and what do we do now, and looking for hope, and it’s a great moment to be a missionary, to be able to serve in that aspect. 

We’ll end on a high note. Marco Travez, good friends, he’s a returned missionary, called up one morning, and said he needed a favor. We went over there, and he has a Huge, huge bouquet of flowers that he wants us to take to his fiancé, singing her There is Sunshine in My Soul Today, and give her that while they were filming, so we did! It was a lot of fun. We hung around and got cordon bleu, cupcakes, and they had an official asking for her hand in marriage that night. The night of the earthquake, crazy, crazy night. We went out and hung out with them. It was a lot of fun. He ended up sending 5 bouquets of flowers with different people throughout the day, just getting her buttered up I think before the big question, but it was fun.

 Well I’m going to cut this so we can go send the report to the assistants and President and everything. I’ll be talking with you later. I hope you are able to talk, and I love you all very much. Take care.