August 26: Power of Faith

This week was a lot slower than they usually are. Now that school is starting for the kids here so many families are gone on vacation or just don't want to even talk to us. We weren't able to have many lessons this week and nobody answered the phone so we were stuck with plan B - tracting pretty much the whole week and nobody wanted to listen to us.

Gladys came to church this week and invited her sister to come along with her. Gladys loves coming to church and knows this church is true. We had a lesson with her last night asking her how church went and what her sister thought. She explained that her sister asked her why she liked the church, and why she wants to get baptized if she's been Catholic her whole life. She told her sister that she knows this church is true because she feels so great when she goes, and she's not Catholic because they never go to church. She's been looking for a church to attend and she found it. What a blessing, she will be getting baptized on the 7th of September.

Well, our Golden Family of Lincoln & Norma explained to us that they aren't married and have been together for almost 5 years. But, they read the pamphlet about the law of chastity and realized that they are wrong for living together without getting married and want to keep this commandment so we will be helping them this week with that.

Right after my time here, we have the privilege of taking Gladys, Lincoln, Norma and their 2 daughters Sabrina and Maria Sol to see President Nelson. I've never realized how lucky we are to live so close to God's mouthpieces and to see them quite often. There are thousands of amazing members here that have never even seen an apostle, nor seen the Prophet and probably won't in their entire life. I'm guilty too because I never wanted to go to general conference in person growing up or wanted to go to certain activities to see the members of the 12. But there are thousands of incredible members that have the opportunity to see God's prophet for the first time in their life today and they are so excited it makes me happy.

The scripture for the week is in Ether 12.6 which says.

6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped or and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

This scripture has a lot of power, I learned this week our faith is a lot stronger than we think it is. Faith has more power than the many temptations that Satan tries to get us to do or moments of happiness for choosing bad decisions. But we all go through trials of our faith, to see if we will be willing to really follow God. But we receive no witness of things that are true until after we bore our trial of faith.

Love you all, thank you for your love and motivation.
Love Elder Rico

Lincoln and Norma

Picking avocados from the church tree

BEEF JERKY

August 19: Fasting for miracles

This week was incredible, we again in church had 8 people come and are continuing to work with them helping them realize this church really is true. 

We've been working with Lincoln and Norma this week, and honestly they're the most prepared family I've yet found on my mission. They took a trip Saturday morning to a place called Santo Domingo which is about 3 hours away from Quito, and drove all the way home and got home at 12 in the night and came to church the next morning at 8:00. We put their family on date for the 31st of August. This Thursday their daughter Sabrina is taking off to the Temple in Guayaquil with our ward and is super excited. President Nelson is coming to our Mission next Monday and we got tickets for their whole family. They have come to church 3 weeks in a row, and our ward is so excited they've never seen such a family so prepared. Their mindset has completely switched - they are all asking us to visit this family, we don't even have to ask them. It's funny.

We also put another family of 3 on date for the 6th of September. The mother Gladys is super excited and knows that the church is true, and her son Joel and her granddaughter Emily will be getting baptized with her. We found them the beginning of August and she's come to church every week with her kids and absolutely loves it. She was feeling very ill last week and didn't know if she'd be able to go to church, so we gave her a blessing and right after she felt so much better. 

My companion and I this week, fasted 3 different times to be able to put some people on date for baptism. We knew that it would be hard, and we'd be super hungry but we did, and the Lord blessed us for our faith. Honestly, we're super excited to have 6 people with a date and excited to keep working getting more people there and coming to church. This is the Lord's Vineyard.

Love Elder Rich

Cooked some Venezuelan food

This Brazilian liked it

so did this Dominican

cooked some burgers for p day 

August 12: A week full of Miracles and challenges

I've never experienced a week in my whole mission with so much sadness, grief, and anxiety than this one. With the coming home of my Big Bro Austin from his mission, I was filled with sadness and pain. But I saw so many tender mercies from the Lord picking me up and telling me that he loves me. This week, despite all the fun and games, we experienced a ton of sadness for our investigators. The baptismal date of Estela fell because we found out that she's not married, we dropped Lucy and about every other investigator that we found. We had a poor girl in my district that went home early because her father passed away early due to an accident in his work. 

But the love of our Savior kept me going. The family we found last week, Lincoln and Norma, are so excited to be investigating our church they love it. They fed us lunch on Saturday, tilapia to be exact and we shared a powerful message about Christ and his restored church. Their 17-year-old daughter Sabrina went to a stake dance that we had this week without saying anything and she signed up for seminary and will start that in the fall. Their parents and Sabrina came to church on Sunday and loved it again. They are the most prepared family I've yet to find on my mission. 

We had a stake meeting with our ward leaders and stake leaders and they said never ever in La Paz history ( which is the name of my ward) have they seen so many different people come to church. This week we had 8 people, and it was a straight-up miracle from the lord.

Also this week we had a baptism of a 9-year-old girl named Valeria who is from Venezuela. It turned out to be a very powerful meeting full of love. 

Despite all the hard times this week, I know that God loves me. I know that he gives us hard times to bless and strengthen us. I know that he cares for us, and wants us to be happy. I know that his arms are stretched out for each and every one of us. He loves us, and I am a witness that it's true. I hope we can all find hope and joy through his grace and mercy.

Love Ian

Austin completing his missionary service

My family at the airport!

Exchanges with Elder Binda from Brazil 

Tilapia

Baptism of Valeria

August 5: Finally a person with Baptismal date.

Thank you, everybody, for the love and support on my birthday. My computer was flooded with emails. I am eternally grateful for all of you and for your help while I'm here serving my mission. I really don't think I could do it without you. Well this week on my birthday, we had the opportunity to put somebody on date for baptism. After my 13 weeks/91 days of working here, we are finally seeing progression. 

Think week actually on Saturday, Elder Alconz and I were out finding in the morning. We had planned to go to a specific area by our house. We contacted a short street when we both felt like we should go and search somewhere else. We began to contact a street that we already contacted a while back, a street full of rich people who don't want anything to do with us. We contacted the whole street, and the last house, we knocked into a man doing service. We politely asked him if we can help him, and he said: "Why not. We can talk meanwhile." He let us in, and we helped him rake up leaves and pick avocados from his tree. When we finished he pulled out chairs and asked us to share a message with his family. We were very impressed and super happy. We shared a message about the Book of Mormon and left them with the invitation to read and ask God to see if it's really true or if we are just crazy. Lincoln, the man, explained that he really would like to come to church and help his children have more of God in their lives. He explained that he would talk with his wife about coming to church.

The next day, Lincoln and his wife Norma and their 17-year-old daughter all came to church. We had a wonderful sacrament meeting and afterward went to class with them. We were learning about the importance of missionary work, and it was more like a discussion between everybody. On a certain question, Lincoln raised his hand. He explained that his family always leaves on vacation on the weekends, but this particular weekend they decided not to go. He explained that his family has been searching for God in their lives for quite some time until two young men knocked on his door asking him for service. And the following day here he is with his family. Both Lincoln and his wife Norma loved church, and want to come back. What a miracle.

We also got commented by various members how hard we've been working, and how many different investigators we've had coming to church in these past 7 weeks. They explained that not once have they seen so many different people coming to church by a set of missionaries. I know that God has a plan prepared for each missionary and that he specifically put me here in this area because he knew that I could make it work. I know God is preparing the hearts of so many people, and that he is guiding us to find them. Really this work is not of man, I am just an ordinary missionary, but God is helping us and we are just his instruments in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of his children. What a time to be alive.

I wish everybody a wonderful week, and hope you can all look for God's hand in your life and focus more on being happy and positive. 

Love Ian.

Changes and Elder Mora

August 1

We had pizza for lunch

My investigator Estela made me some food

Birthday candles and bread with the Barton's.

 This family sent my mom photos on Facebook
with my cake! They are wonderful.