Visits

Super exciting title right?? 

I´m getting more and more creative...

No it´s actually a really great title if you were here with us! Remember the great couple that we found last week? Nick and Joyce? Well, we keep seeing them during the week and they keep taking us in their car everywhere that we ask them. We haven´t really had time to teach them because they have been so busy WITH THE MEMBERS (I mean we are members too but can you see how the members can take two investigators and treat them as friends and members. And all of the sudden two investigators are more active than anyone else. Just because two members include them in Everything. If you don´t know how that works, let me show you) Well the Elders Quorum had a soccer tournament this week that they included Nick in one of the teams. The soccer field was on the property of the Branch President and everyday the members took nick and joyce to help clean up and get the soccer field all ready for the activity. Sometimes we call nick and joyce and they tell us "Sorry we can´t have you guys over tonight because we are headed out with the members for dinner" What a wonderful excuse! And then Sunday they left with us to go visit people! Wait wait wait... Investigators going on visits with the missionaries... The church is so perfect and if we, as members do our part, it becomes Zion! 

We also, with guidence from our mission president, didn´t do any exchanges with any of the zone. So had a week to ourselves! What a blessing (just because I think this is the first time in 8 months without an exchange one week) I could really focus on studying and listening to the spirit. What an amazing feeling it is to be reading the scriptures and then all of the sudden you find the answer to your prayers. I´m not sure I really learned (meaning recieved a testimony) of writing down spiritual impressions, but thanks to the mission, I have one! 

EVERYONE, go and buy a little notebook so that you don´t lose any of those impressions, they can come any time in the day, so be ready! 

I also am soooo happy for this family to be baptized! Elder Clayton told us in 2016 that less active members are a gold mine of investigators. And that promised was fulfilled! A less active member got back to church. Got his family home evenings going AND he got to baptize and confirm his dear children. It was an honor to stand in the circle giving them the Holy Ghost as the Lord spoke through their father that his son would serve a mission. A wonderful spirit! 

And finally, my companion and I found in DVD general conference from 2008 and we have been watching the whole and I realized how much I really do LOVE conference. We have almost 200 years of scriptures from the prophets and the most important from April of this year! Got to find more time to listen more!

As I pray at night, the smile of Elder Christofferson comes into my mind when I ask for Charity. And I imagine myself looking at your faces and smiling :) You all are my motivation and thank you for all you do. Known and Unknown!

Love you

Elder Devan Alder

And the pictures are to give you all an idea of what we eat here. RICE 

Listen To The Spirit

What a wonderful, rainy, hot week here in Ecuador. I am just loving it. It is so great to feel "Hey I need to get better at this" and then a week later it happens! 

Well I don´t think I have explained this yet. (If I have I apologize, I am forgetting a lot of things like how to spell words haha) Our mission President has been praying and has asked us a mission that everyday we can talk with 3 new people every day and get an appointment with that person. Well let´s get to work! My companion and I made it our personal goal everyday and... Miracles!!

We had an exchange with the elders of the Second Branch and while we were contacting we passed a house that was playing english music, but we didn´t knock on the door that week. The next day we were contacting again and the thought came in to the mind. "Go knock on the door where you heard the music" Yeah, let´s go! We went and a 19 year old girl came out and told us how her husband and her had recently lost their first child at birth and that her husband didn´t want to talk to anyone. Well we talked a little bit and asked if we could come back. She said yes. After we left (they told us a little later) the couple talked in their house about us and I guess we did a good job. They left the house looking for us. The next day (I thought I heard that it was the girl´s birthday) So I had the feeling that we should buy them cake. We took them the cake and turns out that it was the husband´s birthday and we were the two of 6 people that told him happy birthday. We became friends really fast. (The husband is 20 years old so how can you not become friends!) We set a time to go take a church tour because they live like 5 mins from the chapel. and we went. We went to the church tour with a youngerish member that made friends super quick with Nick (the investigator). They told us that they were waiting all day for the church tour with excitement! In the church they committed to go to church. Sunday comes and they just loved it! The branch was doing a soccer tournament and EVERYONE fought over Nick to be on their soccer team. 

The Lord prepares His children. He knows them. He wants them in His church as much (I think way more) as we do. But Heavenly Father waits until His children invite their brothers and sisters to church. He wait until WE listen to His spirit and follow what He tells us. It´s works everytime, we just have to learn to listen. I hope and pray that I can listen harder to be able to have even more trust from the heavens. He lives! He loves us! Let us just show our love to Him. 

Love you all and hope to hear from you :)

Elder Devan Alder

Pictures: A wonderful family that I got to know in Machala whose mother lives in our zone!

Got Guanabana Juice?

Our landlords went to New York and they brought us Peanut Butter!

Mother, I love you, I do

I hope everyone remembers that song from Primary. I didn´t end up singing that song for my mother last night...haha. But my companion and I sang that song a lot for our "mamita" that gives us food everyday. We sang it for my companion´s mother and we also sang it for a bunch of old ladies (one of which I got to know in machala who is a member but the rest of her 5 older sisters are DEFINITELY not members, haha) What a sweet spirit the Primary songs have. Honestly I kind of felt like the Christmas Skype was yesterday. Time is flying by soooo fast!

We had leadership council this week and it was wonderful! I love working with President and it is always a rush to see all the leadership of this mission. At this point in the mission it is also very exciting to see all the new elders and sisters that they are assigning as leaders. Especially becuase in a couple of months A LOT of the leaders won{t be here anymore. The mission is amazing and I can´t imagine how a mission president feels to work with missionaries and then the next second ALL of those missionaries have gone away. What a great calling!

I am grateful for a branch that is super close to being a ward because we can really focus on missionary-member work without any problems. We are finding less active members that wanted to come back but they were just waiting for someone to visit them (which was us!) The Lord can lead every single one of us to those in need. And there are more in need than we know.

One thing that we learned in leadership council is that LOVE is the fuel of the Lord´s work. (It´s really charity but that´s only because this world doesn´t know that true love is charity and nothing else) Well I was thinking, pondering, and studying and it is true! Why does the majority of the missionaries work a little harder after mother´s day skype? Because they just felt a sincere love from their family. This work runs on Love. Which means life should run on love and eternal life is.. well you get the picture! 

I "love" you all haha

Elder Devan Alder

Pictures: a family found by an activity in the church and Squid soup :) 

Pray and Sacrifice (and Smores!)

Well this week flew by! Like always! There is a Hymn in Spanish that I think is in English too but I learned it in Spanish first. "Hay poco tiempo" There is not enough time to do all that I want to do and sometimes things come up and we get stuck not doing anything (For example we had a marriage in the branch which was great and all as you can see from the pictures and right after the wife got baptized and it was so wonderful to see them and I´m not complaining but we were there 4 hours as you can also see with my companion and I waiting for our fancy dinner :)) I just feel like there is sooooo much to do and not enough time in the week! 

Another thing I learned this week is that Ecuador does not have smores and if you do a fireside for the branch that you should probably explain to all the members how to make a smore or they will start burning the marshmellows and puting the cracker on the stick with the cookie. It was a disaster but hilarous.

Spritiual experience to name one (Becuase there was a lot like taxi drivers not asking for money for the ride or people giving us food without us asking) But one night we were walking home and a son of a member walked up to us and told us to visit him. He was a little drunk but started crying as he talked about his problems and how he had seperated from his wife and was about ready to kill himself.. Pretty rough right? Thanks to our Heavenly Father, he found us and now we are teaching him. He is a great man and we pray that his faith and a little fasting on our part with lift him out of his problems.

I would love to be here in Ecuador longer! (Don´t tell my mom okay?) :)

Love you all and hope and pray that we can each pray a little more feverently

Elder Devan Alder

Bye Lamb, Hello Bingham!

Well I think everyone hears from missionaries that this was the craziest week! And it´s very true! Every week has turns and slides and every week goes by crazier and crazier (and for me faster and faster) 

The title is saying goodbye to Elder Cordero. A great missionary and a great friend. He was my assistant and a great companion for 6 weeks. It´s always a great encouragement to see elders who finish their missions kicking. He definitely kicked all his mission and was really a great example to me!

A couple of weeks ago, I felt like one of the other AP´s was going to be my companion. but my new companion is.... drum roll... ELDER MILNE. Well I know that doesn´t mean much to the public but let me explain a little bit. One, if you didn´t get from the title, he is from South Jordan, Utah and graduated from Bingham High (Shout out for the Miners(At least Herriman won State in 2015 right?)) The next surprising thing is that Elder Milne and I got here to Ecuador the same day. We also got to the MTC the same day (differnet countries though). And with the knowledge that I have, we will be flying to Utah the same day as well.... aaaa...Don´t ask me! It´s the Lord´s will! I am actually super excited to work with him! Great elder and we have A LOT of work ahead of us in our wonderufl zone. 

Today, as well, we have the blessing to have two sisters in the branch as well! That is 6 missionaries here in the small branch (4 elders and 2 sisters)! The branch also is very excited for this type of missionary fire! I am too! 

Well as you can see with the pictures. Elder Cordero was very loved here and they made ALOT of food for us. I know some missionaries are always hungry but here that is certainly not the case. 

This is a very blest city and we are seeing a lot of blessings with contacting and working by oursleves. But we are working a whole lot more on working with the members, It´s the best way to do it and that is what the Lord wants for His church. The members look. The missionaries teach. And the House of Israel comes together a whole lot faster than we thought!

I love it! I absoluetly love being here and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me!

Love to hear what the Lord has in Store for you all!

Love Elder Devan Alder