April 29: Weirdest week ever

This was probably one of the weirdest weeks I've ever experienced in my life. To start off, we have a family that is progressing super well and we've been working hard to get them married, and they finally put a date in June to fulfill with it. They have been attending church every week since we found them, and really the progress they've made is insane. We went to visit them this week, and things between them started to get out of hand and they got in a super bad fight and ended up separating. This has been super hard for both of them, and also for us to see how their lives have changed spiritually since the incident. The woman had to go to the hospital and currently is recovering from some dental issues that she faced. 

Something that I learned from this situation is that no matter what our lives or circumstances may be, the Lord's arms are outstretched still inviting us all to partake of his salvation and love. No matter what color we are, how poor we think we are, or what mistakes we have made, he still loves us and is with us in these difficult times.

We had heard many rumors this week about a man that was murdered right next to our house. We went to visit one of our families and we noticed that all their windows are shattered and there is no one home. As we continued to talk with people and find out a little more about the murderer, we found out that it was one of our investigators that had stabbed a young man to death. We hadn't taught him that long, but his family was really progressing. The whole family was forced to move because all the neighbors disowned them and threatened to kill them if they didn't leave. 

Despite all the craziness this week, we were still able to move forward in Faith, trusting in the Lord that we will continue to find new families that are searching for further truth and light in their lives. I studied President Nelson's talk from this past conference called "Come, Follow Me." Jesus Christ invites us to take the covenant path back home to our heavenly parents and be with those we love. Something I learned from this was that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ assures that every person will be resurrected and live forever, however, that doesn't include what kind of life we will live. Only those that are baptized, and make covenants in the temple and keep these covenants have the blessing of exaltation with their families forever. But, Jesus Christ invited ALL mankind to receive these covenants and blessings, but simply people choose not to. As a missionary, it's my role to help people and families so that they can have exaltation and have these wonderful blessings. Sometimes, and a lot of times, it's super hard, but with the knowledge of our restored gospel I'm happy and I don't worry because He is here with me.

Love, 

Elder Rich

Pictures:

Today, we went today to the Monument of the Equator. It was a 2 hour bus ride there but was really cool. There was so much to see.

April 22: Another week in Ecuador

We had another fun week here in Ecuador, I think it's rained about every day here since I've arrived. The people here really don't celebrate Easter which is weird.  It's not a huge deal here. Even in church they didn't discuss Easter which I was surprised about. But they still do Holy week so because of that, nobody here eats red meats, only fish.

This week our Golden investigator Louisa explained to us after church that she had made the decision to push her baptism off until June because she wanted her family to be able to see it. We were super shook, but of course, respected her decision. We were able to teach her later that night accompanied by a convert of the church. We could tell from the start that something wasn't right. This past week she had visited her family in Latacunga towards the Coast of Ecuador. She had explained to her family that she was planning on switching religions from Catholic to ours, and her family was not happy to hear that. The member that was with us bore a super strong testimony about his conversion. He explained that before he converted he was also Catholic, but he was Catholic by tradition, not because he knew it was true. And similarly, his family gave him a super hard time, but he testified that this church is true because he received a witness from the Holy Ghost, and that is something he can´t deny. We were also able to bear strong testimony about the importance of Baptism. I explained to her the problem of waiting a little longer to be baptized is that Satan is trying his hardest at this time, doing everything he can to prevent her from taking this new step in her life. He is putting thoughts in her head telling her she isn't ready and that her family won´t respect her because he wants nothing but bad for people. But if we listen to God, he wants nothing but the best for his children and baptism being one of the best and also, for her to receive the holy ghost to help avoid the temptations of Satan. At the end of our lesson, we re-invited her to baptism and kept her baptismal date for this Saturday the 27th. 

It is very important to focus and live our lives in a way where we can always receive inspiration from God. I wish everybody a wonderful week.

Love Elder Rich

Drunk guys here. He just came up and gave me a hug 

Crepes and waffles in Ecuador

We went to a small amusement park today for p-day.
There were only a couple of rides that we found out we couldn't ride.

April 15: There is snow in Ecuador

Man, the weeks are starting to feel like days, and the months are starting to add up. Having hit my 6 months on Wednesday, I am especially grateful to be where I am at now, and not starting. I am at that point where I am comfortable speaking to anyone and getting my point across. It is a true blessing that the Lord blesses his missionaries because I am not very smart haha.

Also this week we ate giant worms called chontacuro. They were cooked but next week we are going to eat live ones. Honestly I thought they didn't taste too bad. 

Today for our P-Day we woke up extra early and took a 3-hour bus ride South of Quito to hike the second tallest volcano in the world. The whole drive up through the mountains to the volcano, Cotopaxi looked exactly like Yellowstone National Park and was absolutely gorgeous. We had a private guide show us the way and helped us throughout our 3-hour hike. It was super super cold, it was snowing on us the whole time, and I definitely didn't have the proper gear for the cold - well because I'm in Ecuador. We finally made it to a peak where there is legit snow and ice at about 17,000 feet. It was super steep, and slippery so only 3 of us touched the snow and I was one of them. Because it was so slippery all 3 of us lost our balance and fell down the steep mountainside for some time. But it was super great to see some beautiful snow since of course, Utah got so much this year.

We have a large pool of people to teach, it's so cool to see the progress that we have made since we started off this area with not a single person. We easily have 5 families that are all progressing and we are excited to put them on date and bring their lives in harmony with Christ. We call this transfer the harvest because we are starting to harvest all our hard work. It's fun to see. 

A scripture that I read this week and liked was in the Book of Mosiah 14 but is from Isaiah 53

.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

I hope everybody has a good week.

Lots of love.
Elder Rich

6 month tradition

Chontacuro

On our way to Cotopaxi

Our guide

Cotopaxi

Snow

April 8: How Blessed We are

Good afternoon all, this week was especially good for the wonderful conference that we all experienced. I must be getting old because I absolutely loved conference so much - I never thought I would say that. I want to take this mass and talk about some things that I really enjoyed and learned from the spirit.

I noticed the main topic throughout all the Apostles, Prophet, and others was three distinct subjects. The first is The Atonement of Jesus Christ. The talk that I especially liked in this topic was from Dallin H. Oaks in the Sunday Afternoon session. President Oaks started off his talk by talking about there are certain serious crimes and mistakes that we make in our mortal life that can put us in jail without parole which means we may not be able to leave forever. He continues to say that there is No sin that cannot be forgiven by the goodness and power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This really impacted me. Even the most severe sins can be forgiven if we have faith in Christ, and sincerely repent with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We are all sinners in a broken and corrupt world that desperately needs a solution. God cannot make us repent, it's entirely up to the person, but without it as President Oaks and the scriptures say "Except you repent you can nowise enter into the presence of God." I encourage you all to take the challenge of our dear Prophet, President Nelson to repent daily. To let the Savior transform our lives to the people he wants and needs us to be.

The second topic was our new change in our church focusing on our studies at home. I think Elder Bednar did a great job of explaining why it is so important to focus on the gospel at home and not only at church. He explained that we need to attend church and not talk about what we learned from Sacrament meeting, but the focus of our conversations at church should be what we learned at home with our family. He testified that the ultimate Missionary Training Centers are in the home. Our houses are a safe place, a place of refuge from the adversary. There are so many voices in our lives pulling us in so many different directions, which do we follow? If we spend too much time in unspiritual areas we will physically fall away. Only attending church once a week is not enough, we need to feed our testimony with good things like prayer, scripture study, Come Follow Me. Always trust in God and his plan, he will not let you down.

The third and final topic was the importance of members gathering scattered Israel on both sides of the veil. I think my favorite talk from this conference was from Elder Rasband. His talk was about the importance of our testimony and sharing it with others. He explained it as our personal fortress. We need to build a fortress and guard our testimony. He explained that President Nelson is the watch guard, telling us the things to come, or the things that will harm us. Without our personal testimony, there is no way we can share what we know with others. Now is the time to gather Zion, and prepare the world for the Second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

May we all share our testimony, and invite all to come unto Christ.
Love Ian

I caught a frog

Cool Railroad tracks

Typical Ecuador. This is a pig.

April 1: God answers prayers

This week was super fast, not much time to write this week but we experienced some cool miracles. This week we had our Stake Conference and we got to hear from a member of the 70. I didn't fully understand everything he said but there was such a powerful spirit and feeling in the room. Many people shed tears. We also had 10 of our investigators attending that meeting, and I'm so grateful that they got to experience such a great and powerful church meeting. They all loved it and felt so good listening to the member of the 70. 

Our investigator Louisa told us this week in a lesson that she didn't think she was ready to be baptized yet. She still had the desire, but just felt that she wasn't ready and needed more time. She felt she hadn't received the answer that she wanted and needed more time to make sure this was actually worth doing. Yesterday in our lesson with her, she shared an experience she had in her week. She had a dream during her week about one of her sisters who had passed away quite some time ago. In her dream, she shared that her sister told her that she never had the chance to be baptized and that she needs to be baptized in order to be saved. It was so cool, not only for that but after, we explained how after she is baptized she can go to the temple and be baptized for her sister and fulfill her ordinances for her. God answers prayers, never forget that.

A scripture that I read this week and really liked is in Mosiah 3: 7-9

7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
9 And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.

 

What I take out of this is that Jesus plays a way bigger role in our lives than we think. His whole purpose as it says in verse 9 is to bring salvation to all humankind, but we need to have faith in his name and exercise our faith by using his sacrifice. 

I love you all.

Elder Rich

Pictures.

1. Cool canal

2. Cloudy and rainy pretty much everyday

3. BLT for Breakfast