Nov 25: Wet Feet

On Friday Cicalia got baptized. She truly is a miracle, we were afraid she would back out last minute but she actually came to the church. And when she changed into her baptismal clothing we knew it was happening. She was super shy and did not want anybody to see her. The baptismal service was super powerful. All of Cicalia's granddaughters gave either a message or the prayers and each one of them cried their eyes out in gratitude for the miracle that had happened. I had the privilege of baptizing Cicilia. Since she is older, I had to help her down the stairs and down into the water. Before I began the prayer, I looked up to see her daughter, Vicky, and her whole family with tears flowing down their eyes. Never did they think this miracle would happen. But God specifically knew that Elder Hunter and I could touch her heart and help her make this next step in her life that every person and missionary thought would be impossible. 

Jefrett, on the other hand, got wet feet, which means he backed out at the last minute. He got scared. He has a lot of doubts about a Halloween dance we had a while back saying we shouldn't be worshiping Satan and God at the same time. Hopefully, he will understand we don't and will get baptized this weekend.

We had an open house at the church this Saturday too. All of us missionaries had a competition to see who could bring the most people from the street and get them to take a tour of our church. We all spread out in our own directions and started talking with hundreds of people, but mainly getting rejected. Elder Hunter and I ended up bringing 12 people. It was a lot of fun but was super hard. On a particular contact that some other missionaries had, they decided to talk to 4 young kids who are maybe 17 and 18 and on their way to play soccer. Thinking they would just get rejected, they decided to just invite them to the church and they accepted and took the tour. The next day, out of our surprise, we see 2 out of the four sitting at church. They loved it. That same night we had a big family home evening with our bishop and we invited one of the kids to come with us and eat some free food. Out of our surprise, he brought both of his parents and his two younger brothers telling them how much he liked church. We had an incredibly powerful family home evening and his whole family was stoked. They are super interested in listening and coming to church. 

A great example of how the Lord works through his servants in mysterious ways to bring and invite his children once again to come unto him. 

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I've been thinking about how we need to always be grateful for the little things we have. This year especially, I'm grateful for my family, my country, my agency, the atonement, and the loving arms God offers for each one of us. I know he lives and loves us. 

See ya in 294

Love Elder Rich 

the Cicalia

 pre baptism

runnin Utes

 never done this before

the rainy season has begun

NOV 18: No coffee = No rice or Encembollados

We started off this week in Quito for verifications for all the new missionaries and missionaries that are training. We also had our zone conference on Thursday, so that's 14 hours of meetings this week alone. 

On Friday we visited Cicalia and decided we better cover the topic of "Coffee" because her baptism is drawing near and she is not willing to stop drinking coffee. We explained the importance for the 10th time but she still is fighting strong. She loves her coffee. Her daughter Vicky cried because she knows her mother's heart is so hard, and she doesn't have the faith to stop drinking it. After Cicalia told us no, I suggested we did something - if she would go a single week without drinking coffee, then Elder Hunter and I would go a week without eating rice or our favorite meal Encebollados. And I think everybody can witness that going without rice for a day here is hard enough let alone for a week. But we got her to commit to trying. Cicalia said the closing prayer and cried asking for strength to stop so she can get baptized. When we left, I took with me all the coffee she owned, knowing she's too old and weak to walk to a store to buy some more. Guess you can call that a problem solved. 

On Saturday morning Elder Hunter and I decided to go contacting for a couple of hours before our lunch appointment. We got sidetracked at a basketball park, and we ended up watching some kids playing ball for some time. We both looked at each other, like reading each other's minds and said let's play some ball. We took off our ties, watches, pulled out our white shirts and walked up to the boys and said: "Alright let's make a deal, If we beat you guys, you all have to come to church on Sunday." They all agreed, so we played a little game of pick up ball 5 v 5, knowing the Lord would not let us down haha. We played our guts out, I have never been so tired in my whole life, even though they weren't good at all. We ended up winning 25-21, so after I wrote down all 15 of their names and numbers and they all promised they'd come to church on Sunday. 

Not a single one of them came hahahaha.

Jefrett also had his baptismal interview and will be getting baptized this weekend. Cicalia will have her interview tomorrow and will also be joining him this weekend. 

We went to a huge volcano that when it last erupted, left behind a huge caldera and formed a huge pretty lake. It's called Quilotoa.

We also went to Chilis and spent $20.

Love Elder Rich

just a man and his bike

Ward American idol

the bet

I'm really not that good

CHILIS

Go UTES

Quilotoa

Nov 11: The intense game of Ping-Pong

This week was pretty spiritual, I felt the spirit a lot in lessons and church. It's a blessing to know that God loves us even when we mess up. We had 10 investigators at church this week, which is my end goal in every sector I'm in. And so far, I've gotten it in every sector here. We also put another lady named Cisalia on date for the 22nd of this month and she is a straight up miracle.

Cicalia's daughter, whose name is Vicky, got baptized over 28 years ago, and her mother, Cisalia was born Catholic and said that is the way she will die. Since Vicky joined the church she's always tried getting her mom to listen to the missionaries or even come to church which she would never want to. 18 years passed and Vicky had a dream that one day, 2 white missionaries or (Gringos) would come and serve in her ward and baptize her mother. The first time that happened in 10 years was this past transfer that I had with Elder Stephens. We started to teach her the missionary lessons, but her answer was always the same "I'm Catholic and I'm going to die Catholic." Even when I was with Elder Stephens, Cicalia didn't want anything to do with the church, we couldn't get her to read the Book of Mormon nor come to church. Now being close to 88 years old Vicky knows her time is getting close so it's now or never. Elder Stephens got the call and would be transferred, but I would be staying here training a new missionary and out of my control, I get another white companion. With my new companion Elder Hunter and with Vicki's family, we began to fast and to push her mom once more to come to church, but she still didn't budge. We figured out that we were helping her the best way and for the past 28 years too. When Vicky would invite her mother to church, she of course wouldn't go, or when we'd call and invite her she'd nicely decline our offer and say she's Catholic. So 4 weeks ago we decided to go to her house and bring her to church. As we would arrive she'd nicely decline our offer, but we began to persuade her and interest her into coming to church. Even though it would sometimes take over 30 minutes. And now by doing this, she's come to church 3 weeks in a row and now has a baptismal date to be baptized this 22nd of November. Their family is pretty excited. 

We also played a lot of ping pong this week. 

Love Elder Rich

Streetlights

The intense game of ping pong

Got milk?

Already in that Christmas spirit

Our friend Jefferet

NAUTICA

Nov 4: Fishing in Ambato

We started off this week teaching a man named Enrique who found the church online and sent in his information saying he wanted a Book of Mormon. He was super interested in our message, but at the end of our lesson, he told us to call him in a month so who knows.

Ecuador does not celebrate Halloween at all. There is no dressing up, no trick or treating. They celebrate the Day of the Dead where they clean out all of the cemeteries and repaint them and do things to remember the people who passed away. They also eat this bread called "Guagua" which is made out of the shape of a person and a "Colada Morada" which is a purple drink to celebrate their past. Elder Hunter and I took a couple of trips buying candy and took turns giving each other candy. His mom had sent him a package that same day, so we had a ton of American candy and we ordered a pizza to celebrate.  And yes mom, we did dress up and we did take photos.

We also went out on visits with our friend Jefrett, our miracle from last week. We found him on the street walking and he said, "I'm bored can I come visit people with you." We visited a couple of families, and man, his testimony was so strong. He bore firm witness on the truthfulness of our message even though he wasn't a member. It was weird being in lessons teaching a family, but also having him there teaching not just the family but himself. In a lesson, we were teaching the importance of baptism to the parents of Stalin Recalde who had attended church for their first time. I invited them to be baptized and they accepted, but they said the only way they will get baptized is if we say the baptismal prayer in Hebrew, so we'll see on that one.

We went fishing today, it was so fun. We all took turns catching your natural trout and after, we took it to a restaurant and paid them to cook up the trout. It ended up costing like $7 for each one, but it was worth the experience. I hope all can find ways to be grateful this month.

Love Elder Rich

I wanted to be a missionary for Halloween

"Trick or Treating"

The pizza

Teaching the law of Chastity

Fishing

All cooked 

Oct 28: Baptising Jews

This week was pretty fun, it's a little different now that I'm with another companion but we're still working hard. We didn't have much time to work, we were so focused on helping our Jewish family get baptized so we tried to visit them at least once a day. They got their interview on Wednesday, and we scheduled to have their baptism on Saturday. Everything went smoothly, and when Saturday came around the corner, we prepared all the baptismal stuff and waited for them to show up. The mother Mabel came first with her 2 sons Israel and Yoel, and instantly Mabel went into a room with a member and began talking. We called her Husband, Stalin, asking where he was and he said he got into another argument with his wife Mabel and they planned on splitting up. We settled things with him and got him to come to the church to talk with a member to get things figured out. Both of them sat in a room for over an hour talking until they finally left, changed into their baptism clothes, and were baptized. Stalin and Yoel wanted me to baptize them, my new companion, Elder Hunter baptized Israel, and a ward member baptized Mabel. Overall, I'm happy that our hard work paid off. From the start, to teaching them with their different beliefs, to them entering the water was such a miracle.

Speaking of miracles - we found the coolest dude on Friday night. His name is Jefrett. He actually approached us and asked us for a bible. We didn't have one, but we did have a Book of Mormon so we gave him and invited him to read the part where Jesus Christ comes to the Americas. A couple days later on Sunday, he came to church and loved it, he was giggling the whole time and was asking so many good questions. We visited him that night and he explained that 3 days prior he had a dream, and in his dream, he saw my companion and some other white missionaries. We testified that God had responded to his long-lasting question as to which church is true, and we put him on date for the 16 of November... 2 days, 1 visit, 1 church attendance, and he has a baptismal date. 

That's all for this week, it's starting to warm up here. 

Love Elder Rich

The baptism

the love coke

Yes it's a scorpion

Baños again today for p-day

Oct 22: Another Transfer

We got word early that Elder Stephens would be leaving this week to San Rafael and that I would be training again. New missionaries usually arrive on Tuesday, but for some reason, they got here on Sunday this time. So I took off Sunday afternoon to Quito where we stayed the night. The next morning we got ready and went to the offices and then to a meeting with President Barlow and all the other trainers. I got assigned training another Gringo, this time from Syracuse, Utah. His name is Elder Hunter. I'm excited to train again, but it was super sad saying goodbye to Elder Stephens. We had a super fun 6 weeks together and we are both super sad that our time is done. It went by so fast, but we are also excited for the next journey we are going on here in Ecuador.

This Saturday we should be baptizing a family of 4. Their family is from Jerusalem and they consider themselves Jews, and they are always teaching us new words in Hebrew. The parents have been through hard times and got to the point where they wanted to get separated so we are doing all we can to get them back on track and in the water this Saturday so we'll see.

It's also starting to get a lot warmer here in Ambato. This Saturday we had a big ward activity where we played all sorts of games and we left absolutely burned. All of the members were calling us camarón which means shrimp. Elder Stephens and I both felt dumb, and we knew our moms were going to get mad and, yes, they both did.

I'm super excited for another transfer here in Ambato and to get back to work. We are seeing so many miracles and the Lord has been helping us so much in this work. I really know that God knows his children and he loves us so much. I hope we can all find his love this week and we can look for his loving outstretched arm this week.

Love Elder Rico

Ward activity

sunburn

your average cow

Took my new companion to get a burger.
Venezuelans make the best burgers 

This morning: Goodbye Elder Stephens.
My new companion, Elder Hunter, is on the right

October 15: Lessons from the chaos

Last Monday night, we got actual notice that they were really going to shut off the water. My companion and I got prepared by washing the little dishes that we needed to wash, and by cleaning parts of the house that we needed to clean before the water shut off. We visited many people that night that continued to let their dishes sit in the sink. Even though they knew the water might get shut off, they decided to not do anything about it. The water evidently did shut off and those that didn't wash their dishes or do the necessary things ended up suffering by having a dirty house for 5 days, dirty dishes the whole week, or not having enough water to drink.

There are many lessons we can learn from this, we need to be prepared, not be slothful, but what I learned from this is that we all know that one day our Savior, Jesus Christ, will come. This is something we all know. Are we going to push it off like the many people that pushed off doing their dishes? Or are we going to do something about it? Are we going to start preparing ourselves now? We all have the opportunity to "wash our dishes and clothes" by doing the necessary things like praying, studying the scriptures and serving others. If we prepare ourselves now, one day we will be prepared to meet God.

This week we stayed in almost every day and since there was no water, we did grow a decent beard. The schools and buses were still shut down, and all the supermarkets ran out of food and people went crazy. People in our ward were good to check in on us and bring us food. This week many policemen died by the bombs or by fire. Many angry people marched around with spears, torches, and bats spearing every car tire that drove by. 

We did not have church this week, rather we stayed home and we blessed the sacrament there. On my 1 year mark on Thursday, we ordered a giant pizza from someone in our ward covered in 1/2 pound of cheese and we sat up top of our house and watched all the people walking around with torches, and bats. I was able to even burn one of my white shirts in honor of the 1 year. I feel humbled to have been a missionary this last year.

We got notice yesterday that everything is back to normal. Sunday evening the President met with the indigenous leaders and he decided to give up on the gas prices and put them back to normal prices. The area presidency asked us to stay indoors again yesterday as a precaution while things are stabilizing. So now everything should be getting back to normal and we are all safe. Thank you for all the love and prayers during this period.

Elder Rich

march right outside our house

Bagre

took a photo with the protesters

your classic photo if you're me

the pizza

one year