#66

I totally forgot to tell yáll last week that my companion is no longer a caterpillar, but is now a full fledged butterfly as she has completed her training. It`s kinda funny, one of her goals in her eleventh week of training was taking the initiative in every situation, and her 11th week was our first week here, so everyone thought that she was training me haha because she was in charge of everything that week. 

What can I tell you about this week?

We have been running around like crazy. Our sector is huuuuuge, and beforehand it was divided and was shared by two companionships, and we figured that another companionship would be arriving in a few weeks, but nope. It`s just going to be us. So we´re covering the area that two companionships covered beforehand. There is a lot of work to do. Lots of people that joined the church when the church was still new here but still haven`t gone to the temple to be sealed and invested, lots of people that are attending church but living without being married, about 450 less active members.... Lots of work! But I love reactivated. That is the funnest and most challenging thing for me in the mission. It`s fun to teach people the same things that they`ve heard for years about the Book of Mormon and Jose Smith and covenants (things that they`ve heard but never developed a testimony) and invite them to act and know. There are lots of opportunities here. 

The lovely family I told you about that wants to get married and baptized is going to sell something called bollos this week to raise the money (it`s like a Ecuadorian fish tamale with peanut and stuff... it sounds funky but it`s pretty good). And I will buy every single bollo if I have to so that they can get married and baptized in the next two weeks. We`re pretty excited because we already have half of the bollos pre-sold, and once we advise the other missionaries in the zone, I imagine that they`ll be helping out quite a bit as well. So get ready for some pictures! I don`t have pictures to send this week because I don`t take my camera with me (it`s a little sketch here). 

What else... umm....  

We`re moving to another house. The church was renting two apartments but now they just need one so we`re going to live in a cute little apartment that the bishop build specifically for the missionaries. It looks like a beach house on the inside.
We`re excited about that. We`ve been cleaning and packing all morning.

Yup. 

Pa, I loved what you wrote. I have been thinking a lot about that very same scripture this week, la esperanza de un mundo mejor. It`s been a little hard on me and my companion as we`ve seen the suffering of some families and we`ve felt that we haven`t been able to help them too much. It`s hard, but there´s a reason why we keep visiting these families. I really do know that if we live the gospel, everything works out, and everything is okay. It seems like such a basic, non profound statement, but when you think about it, it`s a miracle. I think of the blessings we`ve received as a family, and with everything we`ve experienced, with every trial, everything has worked out. We`ve all been okay. That is nothing short of a miracle.

 

I SAW MEET THE MORMONS. You guys saw that right? It`s going to be coming to Ecuador in a few months and we`re going to use it as a missionary tool. That movie contains tons of miracles stories of people who have seen miracles because they have lived the Gospel.  I looooved it. We watched it in a zone conference with the mission president on Saturday. So good. Watch it. Love it. 

Well, my time is far spent.

I love you all! Thanks for writing!