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Baptism of Eilyn |
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Birthday Jazz |
3/14/16 voice recording
Good morning, and Happy Monday my beloved family. Itās been a big week, some big events, so weāll start with the big news. Everyone knows Rachel Munford right? Of course. Well, she if you havenāt heard is engaged to Derek Jennings, and yes they are getting married on June 9th. Wow. Well, I suppose this is all making up for a good story to tell someday, and one less mystery to solve when I get home. Enough said, back to life.
We had fun this week. Weāre getting some basketball tournaments going with the youth here in the ward, well weāre trying. Itās going to start this next week, but we did play some basketball with them. Iām always down for a round of 21 too. Elder Estupinanās teaching me the ropes a little bit. Iām not really great, but Iām not terrible either, so thatās where weāre at there.
Baptisms, baptisms, super important stuff, so we did have the baptism Saturday of Eilyn. Awesome, really fun baptism. Crazy downside is that Iriina and Kevin still havenāt entered into the waters of baptism, due to some complications. Coming from an extremely Catholic family, all the family actually likes us, their pretty receptive, except for the dad. He wonāt even talk to us, and the day of the baptism he threatened to throw Irina, yes sheās 26 years old, but he threatened to throw her out of the house if she got baptized, so that put some nerves into play, and well, weāre working on it still, but sheās going to get baptized. Also, Maria Jose, incredible testimony that made me cry. Sheās an investigator, sheās not even baptized, like doesnāt have the gift of the Holy Ghost yet, but me and E. Estupinan were talking and we believe God knows who he wants in his church, and they want to be there. Itās really super easy, our job, when people have the desire to better their lives, they want to come to Christ, so itās fun seeing miracles happen. They really do!
So, aside from baptisms and the work we had a meeting with President Riggins and the stake president again that we do every month. Theyāre interesting, you learn a lot. Actually E. Estupinan came up with incredible spirit guided consejo that now weāre going to change the whole organization of the stake missionaries, but not ātil the end of March, so that will wait. I think heās trying to screw us over, cause heās going home, idk ha. Weāll see how it works out.
As for March 11th though, we woke up to a partly cloudy and the usual 73% chance of rain in Ecuador, with 85 degrees. If she were permitted, I know grandma and all of you would have called me and sang me Happy Birthday like every year, but Iām happy to say that President and Hermana Riggins beat you to it, and yes they sang me Happy Birthday over the telephone. Although it was a pretty busy weekend withā¦I didnāt know I shared by birthday with the anniversary of the relief society, but it was a busy weekend in the church. The bishops daughter had her birthday on the 10th, so they sang to me there. Ummm, we were going to do an exchange with the other missionaries to work with them, but they got sick luckilyā¦I didnāt want to do it on my birthday anyway. I had a lot of fun, so we have officially waved goodbye to the āteenā years, and hello to new adventures and discoveries. 20 years old, as they say in Ecuadorā¦itās not an age, itās an attitude. The birthday cake did come through last night though. A sister in the ward, Iāll send you guys some pictures, she decided she was going to make us a chocolate cake, and we also bought ourselves some neopolitan and oreo ice cream, and weāve been treating ourselves well, not to worry about us.
So the biggest adventure of the week I guess would be curiosity grabbed us, and we went to a 50 foot metal wall looking for an ocean radar ship. Itā pretty big, but when we went there the security guard showed up too, and he was drunk. He let us in, he was like āHey, you want to go in? Go in.ā Me and E. Estupinan both took like a spirit check to see if we were getting any tingly sensations, but we didnāt get anything so we went in. This whole place was abandoned 8 years ago. It was an old military base, and it was super crazy. There was some houses, some huge abandoned boats, and then thereās this one big ship. We went back there, and this lady came out, and she was kind of freaking out. She was like hey why are you in here, how did you get in? We were like hey the security guard let us in. Then she went and got the security guard, and then we had this big discussion because they all thought that we were spies, that we were infiltrating everything. We were like no, we just want to take a picture. They were like no you canāt take pictures because they thought that we were secret security, CSI stuff. So, we walked around, and unfortunately I didn't get a picture but we did get to see a lot of really cool stuff, and then we were escorted outā¦bummer. Pretty cool to see though.
Alright, to wrap this thing up, speaking of being wise and 20 years old. I came across the definition of wisdom this week listening to a church talk. Wisdom means applied knowledge. So I asked myself after 20 years of life, and almost 20 months in the mission if I am applying and really putting to use all that I know, or in other words how high am I setting my bar? What do I expect of myself? I learned a lot so far about the importance of surrounding ourselves with good people. Itās said that we are the average of the 5 closest people to us, so pick good friends right? So you can be a better person. I donāt know, foremost I think we have to be that person, or strive to be the person we want to be. As far as putting off our imperfections, we have to stop trying to put off our imperfections. We have to succeed in doing that which is necessary. I get really tired of missionaries āI tried, Iām trying, I tried.ā Bueno, we must succeed in doing that which is necessary. Get it done. Do it. I like that. Iām learning a lot to be less judging, and more accepting, to inherit the best of those who surround you. Thereās a lot of good to be found. However, donāt judge their faults because we all have them, and we all have different gifts that we can take from one another and perfect ourselves. I think my biggest trophy thus far, well this morning I was putting on my shoe. One of my dress shoes, and it has a big tear down the side, so a pair of my shoes officially tore. Thatās pretty crazy, so weāll see how many pairs of shoes I come home with.
Anyways, if you get this and listen to it, you guys can send me a quick message. Any questions? Howās life for you guys? Iām sure you all wrote me, youāre awesome, and I love you, and Iāll be writing you all later, just not right now. Mom I hope you got into the nurse practitioner program. That would be awesome. Weāre going to have a lot of highly educated members of our family here coming up. Garrett, I hope baseball is going awesome. Hope youāre hitting a lot of doubles, maybe a triple, home run coming up. Donāt forget to read your scriptures. Dad, keep tearing it up with the family history, and carpentry, or you still canāt go motorcycle riding. Maybe you can go on the turkey hunt, maybe get some turkey tags. Iām throwing a shout out to Maddie, Aeva, and Gracie. All three of you are tearing it up in soccer, and itās cool. I know youāre like angels in church, and awesome friends. You always have the best friends. If youāre a good friend, you get food friends, so congratulations. Darby I hope your getting a nice pancito, thatās how they call a little stomach here, a little tummy for your baby, and Iām excited to find out if itās a boy or girl, so donāt pull the whole secret thing. Oh, weāre going to see when it comes out, cause I want to know if I have a nephew of niece. Bryan, be a man dude. Be a man. I know that Iām not there to do man challenges, but youāve got to keep challenging yourself to succeed, to be the best, and then Iāll come back and weāll be each others wing man, and everything will work out good. Ok, love you all. Da-da-da thatās all folks.