por venir!!!

 Tuesday

We had pday today because Edler Besera from the seventy came to speak Wednesday Thursday Friday. We went to the super maxi which has some American stuff like cereal from America and Dr pepper and peanut butter. And we got crapes with ice cream and Nutella and it was amazing. 

Wednesday 

Thursday 

Friday

Elder Besera 

We also had the other elders stay with us so that they didn't have to travel to Guayaquil and back every day and that was super fun. Just 4 gringos in Ecuador. 

Saturday

We taught Flor and Robert and they are someone we have been teaching a lot and I really enjoy teaching them and they are super cool. They seem interested and I want so badly for them to except the gospel. They believe that all the churches that talk about christ are just different ways to end up in heaven but we talked to them about how there is only one lord on faith one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). And how we know that the gospel of Jesus christ is perfect but all the religions teach something different  so only one of them can be the true church. 

Sunday 

After church we had like 3 meetings and it was overwhelming but it's really cool to be in a ward that cares about missionary work and wants to help us. 

Monday

We were walking around after a lesson fell through and we found this one guy to teach and throughout the lesson they just say "mhm claro" which like "oh yeah for sure yea" and it was obvious did not care at all. And not to mention his daughter was like stacking rocks in his belly button during the lesson. That basically sums up Ecuador. Later that night we taught Elkin and Victor again and I can already tell I'm going to miss them. We are baptizing Elkin this week and his brother is going to receive the priesthood so that he can perform the ordinance. It was also super funny because we were going over the baptismal questions with him a little bit and in the middle of it he told us that he has killed to cats one he sat on in a hammock on accident and the other he gave a paracetamol which paralyzed it and then it died a little bit later and we were all just dying laughing. But we assured him that he can still get baptized haha. 

Tuesday 

Today was super slow and long. One guy we were teaching said the most hilarious sounding swear word and I totally lost it while we were teaching him the plan of salvation. I couldn't stop laughing. Elder Gonzales and I are going to use that word a lot now  There's so many people here that could just talk forever about something that doesn't matter. We ask them a question and they they tell us a story about something that has absolutely nothing to do about what we asked and then after they're done we just say " wow that's great hermano but any way the plan of salvation..."

Looking back on this week was super long with all the lessons we had and the three days we traveled to Guayaquil to listen to Elder Besera but at the same time it went by super fast. Elder Gonzalez and I have the funniest experiences and I wish I could remember them all because there is some hilarious weird thing we see or hear everyday here Ecuador. 

We have some good people that are progressing and that I really want to keep teaching and helping them prepare for baptism  

Something I liked from Elder Besera is he talked about what you need to  do to be a consecrated missionary/disciple of  christ. He sad the 4 steps are 

Obedience 

Sacrifice

The gospel of Jesus christ

Chastity

He mentioned how you could be doing all of those things but if you get out of bed at 6:35 instead of 6:30 you will never arrive to become a consecrated missionary. I like that a lot and I've looked at each step and seen what I can do better. For example as soon as the alarm goes off I've jumped out of bed and started saying my prayers and I feel like just that makes a big difference in my day and my ability to teach, learn and follow the spirit. After I looked at what else I could do I realize there are a lot of small things that I could be doing better that don't seem like a big deal but to the Lord they are and when we make in effort to change the lord blessed us and helps us. 

Changes Happened !

 Lots of meetings and traveling the last month so I haven't been able to write a lot. Here is the update: 

So I'm in a different area now called Por Venir in a big city called Milagro. So unlike my first area (Catarama) there is actually stuff to do and all the gringos said that there is dr pepper and mt dew here which is crazy. Not to mention peanut butter again I'm excited about that. Haven't had peanut butter for a long time.  This ward has about 100 members attending every sunday or more. Which is crazy because Catarama was the second biggest area in this mission and way way way bigger than Por Venir and it had 30 members attend every Sunday. So there's actually members to visit and things to do. My companion is Elder Gonzales but don't be thrown off by the name -he is a gringo. He has one less transfer than me in Ecuador but is spanish is insane. We are working super hard and being being super obedient and it's definitely paying off. We just put Elkin on date to be baptized and we are helping his brother get the priesthood so he can baptize him.  And there are lots of other people that we know we can put on date and help receive more peace and blessing in their life from the gospel of Jesus christ and I'm super excited. One cool thing in the mission is the harder and more obedient you work and the more you focus on other people the more you figure out your self and grow and learn yourself. And you are just happy.  OK I'm going to go quickly through al my days. This week has been super fun but it's also been like my hardest working week. Duh. I'm just going to do some highlights of the days. 

Tuesday

We woke up super early Elder Cortez and I to take three buses with 6 suitcases for the space of like 3 and a half hours on the buses. we had to throw one suitcase ahead of us and then pull 2 behind us haha. Oh yea and we don't have enough missionaries right now and that why we both left Catarama. Right after I unpacked we had to go do a service project moving dirt for a few hours and that was actually super fun. Spent the rest of the night visiting a few members so that I could get to know them. 

Wednesday 

We had to do laundry at the Zone Leader's house because they have the machines but anything better than washing them by hand like I did in Catarama for 4 months haha. I got fitted for a suit because a few months ago a member pointed a rip right down my whole butt at church haha. 

Thursday

It was cool to see some missionaries that I came in with today in district council that I haven't seen for a long time. We taught the plan of salvation to Diana and her sister and it was a little awkward because we both don't have much time in the mission or speak Spanish but we can teach what we need to pretty well and we are learning fast because we don't have a choice.  We tried to teach bother Falconi who all of his kids are members and one is serving a mission but him and his wife arent.  Every question we asked he would just respond with "I know that God takes care of and loves all his children". Which obviously is true but we still have to do stuff in this life. We had some guy come up to us named Jose. He asked us if we believe in Christ and everything and said that he felt like he needed to talk to us for some reason. But after talking to him for a while and asking him if we could meet with him again we realized he was trying to convert us so I asked him if we could meet with him so that he could tell us and teach us more about what he believes and he like looked to the sky and thanked God because he thought I like realized he was right or something but I I just trying to find a way to meet with him again haha. 

Friday

We have family home evening with the ward and we watched and video about christ and him visiting the America's and it was super good. 

Saturday 

We had a service project with some other missionaries and it was actually kinda hard. It was super hot and we moved a bunch of dirt in wheelbarrows. After a while we saw the lady bring put a cold pitcher of purple looking juice. After we all drank it super fast we realized that it was disgusted and we asked if it was filtered and she said "oh no we're healthy this is boiled rain water". So yea we all poured out the rest of our cups. So we met with Jose today as well and we walk in to his house/room thing and he tells us that I'm going to pray first and my companion second and then him and he tells us what we are going to pray for and after we finished he says "now close your eyes because now I'm going to pray" but like he was super cool or something. This guy starts rapping slash yelling a pray and says " in the powerful name of Jesus christ" like 50 times. I literally felt the spirit leaving g the room. And I felt terrible. After that he had us sit down while he taught us for like 30 minutes out of the bible and we barely got to talk.  At one point after he read a scripture he asked if it gave me the tingles and I said "to be honest no" and he told me it's because I wasn't paying attention and I wanted wanted leave and he asked me if he could pray for me. He wouldn't except a book of Mormon because it has the name Mormon. We tried to over and over again telling him how it's not to replace the bible and how all it does is testify of Jesus Christ like the Bible but he just wasn't having it. Later that night we visited the Jimenez family that my companion just happen to think of while we were walking and the dad asked us why we visited visited and that he was really struggling that night and it made him feel better talking to us and the scripture we shared. 

Sunday. 

We put Elkin on date to be baptized yayyy. And his brother is going receive the priesthood so that he can baptize him. We ate burgers with the family Jimenez and we talked about how difficult it is to get to America and just all the opportunities we have in America. And it's not really something I've ever talked about but it's so true. I always new America had greater opportunities and freedoms but I now realize how blessed I was to live in America and have my family there too. Just a reminder to you guys to be grateful for what you have. 

Monday 

We had another lesson with Elkin and Victor helping them get ready to receive the priesthood and get baptized and we had the stake president in the  lesson with us and we recovered the restoration and the spirit was really strong and president knows such about the gospel it was really nice to have him there. Before their lesson we taught someone named Susan and have way taught the lesson we both looked at each other and had the feeling to ask her to be baptized and she said she not ready but we feel that we could help her be ready. It was cool because what we were talking about didn't have to do with baptism but we both had the thought to ask.

Anyway sorry it seems like a little kid wrote this but I don't have much time haha. But I'm doing good we are working hard and being obedient and we have lots of lessons so I'm pretty happy.