Baptism in the River (Not mine though) :)

(The baptism was of the zone leaders but I got to see it because my companion was in saraguro, entonces, it was just something cool this weekend. You should´ve seen this guy. He was in the water before we sang the first hymn, it was great and that´s the photo attachted)

But let´s talk about Ecuador. I don´t think I have mentioned this. If I have, I am truly sorry. But my favorite temporal thing about this country is there is a bread store on every corner! Where you can buy... guess? BREAD. ¡Pero pan ricisimo! I absolutely love it! (My companion thinks they tempt me, but I save my money, no worries!) (But the milk doesn´t taste the same, I have no idea why...)

Yeah, the important stuff.

I don´t think I have told ya´ll about the expectations of this mission. Or at least not all of them. Baptimal goal monthly: 600. and one of my favorites is Invitations to be baptized. How many do you think daily we are supposed to invite to be baptized?.... 8, boom. (haha and everyone was so scared in the CCM to invite people to baptized in the first lesson) 

How crazy but it really pushes us as missionaries! So when you don´t have success, it really bugs 

because normally everyone around you is. So we worked really hard this week to invite 8 people to be baptized everyday. And what happened? Through the grace of God we have 8 baptismal dates! Just like that. Obedience with exactness brings miracles. And with a miracle we will have a baptism this Sunday! Saturdays and Sundays are probably the hardest day because you are doing everything you possibly can to get people to come to sacrament! But sometimes, they show up to church by themselves and that is the biggest blessing ever! 

But things are going great here, just have to work harder every day!

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 2:17. The one we all know. When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the Service of your God.

But one tid-bit of spanish. Fellow-beings in Spanish is semejantes. Which literally could mean in English "comparables". Especially at the start of my mission, I thought that every person I passed was a beloved child of God. And they are. This week, I plead with all of you to look at the people around you and service them as your "comparables" They are just like you with problems that you can´t see. Everyone is struggling. But this week if we serve your fellow men as yourself. We all service God and get closer to becoming like Christ. He is our Savior. The least we can do is be in His service!

Love you Guys!

Elder Alder

"It´s not that hot, a little bit of a kick and then it´s done for the aji pepper."

The Attack of the Grapes

Every week just keeps getting better and crazier!

I think I mentioned last time that my father (trainer) was dying! We had to travel to Guayquil over night and then back with my new companion! 18 hours in a bus is absoluetly...fun... But we made it and are living great! My new companion is... Drum Roll.... Elder Garcia! (Photo attached) He is from Mexico! (Esó! First Latin companion) He is absolutely hilarous! He loves to talk and he tells me stories of Mexico, rats, and iguanas. (Yeah he is a little bit crazy) He doesn´t know any English, so my spanish is improving a bunch! I don´t understand everything he says but he is certainly helping me with my listening skills! The funny thing is, he has 5 more weeks in the mission... You can just call me the send off missionary man! Take 2!

I remember how nervous I felt the first couple of days because he is definiately letting me learn by experience. I felt more of the responsibilty of taking charge in our teachings! It was definitely a gift from the spirit because now we are working super hard! It´s great!

The great thing this week was we had 3 investigadores in church! (1 in Loja and 2 in Saraguro) Everyone said that the mountains are hard and they are but with work, anything is posible! Like, remember the drunk man from last time, he came to church 30 minutes early! (That´s where the story of the grapes comes in. We went to go bring him to church, wasn´t there, went to the market to find him, billions of people in the market, police passed by in a truck, people were not happy with them, so they threw grapes at them and missed and hit me....) But he came to church and will soon be baptized! (Not to mention he is also taking anti-alcoholic clases)

Scripture for the week: Moroni 7:33. Más o menos dice: "And Christ has said, if you have faith in me, you shall have power to do whatsoever think that is expiedient in me" (How was my translation of scripture?) And in Doctrina y convenios 8 it says that without faith, we can´t do anything. Maybe that´s why (from Moroni 10) since faith develops into charity, without charity we are nothing. (Sorry for the spider web of scriptures and ideas)

But it´s true! without faith, we can´t do anything. Without out faith, this man addicted to alcohol will not reach baptism, but with his faith and actions, he will! And I have faith he will and can!

Les quiero Mucho!

Elder Alder

La Fe, orando, y Padre

Hola a todas las personas en Estados Unidos y en el mundo. (I think)

Great week of learning here in Loja! Tough but absolutely wonderful!

I heard it was Halloween (I almost forgot!) Hope the world was a little more sweet this week-end! Sorry for the sarcasm! But one thing about Ecuador, they don´t celebrate halloween, they just go vacation, or in this case, walk with the virgin to another city. I know we all have silly tradicions and I´m not trying to offend those who worship the virgin. I just wouldn´t walk a bunch of kilometers following a statue for my halloween celebration. Hahaha. Just know it says in the scriptures that Mary did advise us to follow her son (She must of knew something)

Investigador report:

This is where the rough part of week was. No investigadores came to church, that means all our progressing investigadores are now not progressing anymore. It´s quite hard. And just to protect the identity of this people, I am going to start changing names (Unless I baptize them, then i´ll tell you :))

But for now I think it´s better to keep the names secret. Just in case one of them like this week, we found drunk in front of their door. It was quite sad and I have all the respect for this wonderful child of God, so we are going to try harder (Well I am going to try harder my father (trainer) is dying (going home) because this person is a child of our heavenly father and they need the gospel more than ever.

We have definitely been praying a lot for this person and fasting and I have learned a lot this week about how God answers our prayers.

And the spiritual topic I want to discuss is La Fe. 

Faith is so vital to our salvation. Elder Neil L. Andersen exhorted all the preisthood with this topic and one line that I think is for the world. "Your faith is either getting stronger or it is getting weaker" My scripture for this week is Alma 32:21, it says that faith isn´t a perfect knowledge but a hope for things not seen. But in 27 it says that we must experiment on these words and ACT by our own free will. Then in 41 it says we have to cultivate with "gran diligencia y paciencia".

And that´s the key. Everyday we need to cultivate our faith in the gospel or it won´t be growing.

And especially! We need to be patient with this groweth, Its like the groweth of a plant.

Love to all

Elder Alder

Elder Barney (Devan's trainer (father)) is returning home soon

¡Capacitación!

This week has just been packed full of activities! (Not to mention we ate at KFC today, doesn`t taste the same but it`s fake so what more do you need!) Firstly, everyone was sooo nervous because we had a training (That´s the translation of the title) with Presidente Torres! Super Exciting and nerve racking. Why? Because he is probably the nicest, most spiritual person ever and the last thing we want to do as missionaries is disappoint him. 

But it was absolutely amazing!! Two really important themes that I will talk about at the end. Also, during the training we had inverviews with him, all the missionaries! Took a long time! But when it got to my turn and I finished, a thought came to his mind and suddenly I was singing A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief in the adult session of District Conference (Since we are branches out here that´s what stake conference is) with another Elder playing the piano! I didn´t do perfect (I had one day I´m sorry) but Presidente was crying so at least I brought the spirit!

Also had baptisms in the Zone! And another on November 21st, in our sector! ¡ESO!

Investigadores:

Hugo Naranjo (Almost orange juice but not quite): Baptismal date: 21st de Noviembre! He is doing great! He attended the Church 2 years ago but now he is reading the Book of Mormon everyday and stopped drinking for 3 weeks!

Estella Castro: Really nice lady that cuts hair and gave us hot chocolate, but she doesn`t believe in being an active member anywhere but I have a feeling she will accept the invitation this week to be baptized.

Marcos Chimbo: We just have to find him! But we have had some really nice lessons with him about the Sabbath day.

Gerardo, biatris, and a couple more we haven´t been able to meet with because they are always gone!

Themes: DÍA de reposo y caridad.

My scripture this week is D&C 59:9. Not sure what it says in english exactly but I will try to translate. Most importanly the blessing of being spotless from the world if we offer up our sacraments on el día santo? Sacred day. Anyways, meaning the sabbath. It is the sabbath DAY, not three hours. We need to treat it as such and that is when we recieve the blessings!

And without charity we are nothing! One piece of advice that Presidente gave to me for learning the language is love.

And I testify that it works. 

In D&C 121 it says that we can have the constant companionship of the Spirit if we have charity. That´s why we are nothing without charity, because we don´t have the spirit.

So two pieces of advice, have caridad for ALL people and Keep the Sabbath Day Holy. The whole Day.

Love the Gospel. Love this wonderful opportunity!

Elder Alder

KFC!!

¡Spiritual Forces!

What an absolutely wonderful week here in utahish weather Loja! The rain stroms are bipolar and when the sun comes out, everything heats up!

Since some people have been dropping hints about how they dont`t know what happens in my day, (In this mission we call that a silent machete) I´LL TELL YOU ALL con amor :)

Up at 6:13, so we can say prays and work out at 6:30 (if we want to run, we have to go at 6) Desayuno at 7. Personal Study at 7 (My favorite part) followed by companionship study and language study till 12ish. Then here we have mamitas. They are members that cook lunch for us! And Man is it a big luch! Then lets go preach the gospel! Investigadores are the most important, then we go visit less active members and try to get them to church, and also members houses to find more people to teach! Back at the house at Exactly 9 so we can plan for tomorrow and on our knees at 10:20 so we can pray and be in bed at 10:30! 

There is a normal day! But everday is different! Full of things to learn! Visit seminary at 5:30 in the morning! Waking up at 3 in the morning because some dog doesn´t like another dog or a small earthquake (it was just one shake no worries) Or we contact someone on the street and invite him or her to be baptized!

One thing I love about this mission are the expectations! So the picture is a shirt we made for the guys in our district! Super chevere! (That´s why the title is spiritual forces because that´s what it says on the front of the shirt.) But on the sleeve it says 600! That´s the mission´s goal for baptisms each month! Wow! That`s 3 baptisms a month for each missionary! The best part is that it is possible!

Progress report:

Gerardo: Haven´t seen him this entire week and we have been to his house everyday!!!

Biatris: She is always going on trips.... But we have nice conversations!

Marcos: New Investigador! Uncle of Gerardo, and have had some great lessons on the Sabbeth day! 

Romel: New investigador!! 21 and has a motorcycle! He didn´t technically say no to my invatation to be baptized but it wasn`t a yes..

Entonces, Love the field! Is it hard? Yes. But That is the best part. We get a chance to grow! That is the purpose of this life! And at the same time we can laugh with members, investigadores, and missionaries as well. Not to mention the constant companionship of the Spirit. 

Scripture this week: 3Nehi 5:13 (I think) I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is my goal. I hope it can be yours too!

New district (soccer) shirt and new haircut!

 Top of La Puerta de Cuidad overlooking the city!

King Lamoni

Hola Familia y mis amigos! Man the days keep passing by faster and faster I can hardly keep up! But I`ll try to remember everything I can :)

So I guess I didn´t tell yall about our other sector! It´s called Saraguro! It´s about two hours away from Loja in the mountains in the middle of nowhere I really don´t know how it got there. There are about 10 members who live up there so my companion goes up there on Sundays to give them the Santa Cena (sacrament, but I guess techicnically sacred dinner) So Jueves are for Saraguro, once a week we go up there to preach and teach english! The picture is of the first class that we had! About 10 little kids when we started and now we have 24 people and the adults wanting to participate! The only reason we are even allowed to preach up there because we befriended the president to the little city. So sometimes I feel like Ammon teaching King Lamoni, in this little poor city, the big difference is we only get to be up there once a week and I can´t speak politics in Spanish, haha, but I can bare my testimony! 

So this part of this area is quite an adventure! But at the same time is hard because we are split between two places. On sundays, I am here in the branch hopefully strengthening the branch and gaining their trust! Kind of difficult but I am learning super fast! let´s just say that are branch had 70 people there yesterday and that has to be a record! (average here is like 20)

Temporal: Loja weather is a lot like in Utah summer weather. Hot somtimes, with wind all the time, and bipolar rain showers! I really lucked out! A lot of things are americanized here, Por ejemplo, I had a hot dog for lunch today! There are tiendas literally on every corner. Buses do not stop as you are getting on or off the train. And since things here are in american dollars, everything is either super cheap (like I can buy 30 eggs for $3) or overpriced to the max (Shampoo is like $20 in the American sized)

Spiritual: I guess I should start doing an investigador report!

Biatris Lima:50ish Lady that runs a little tienda and loves to talk about Christ. She says that all the matters is Christ. Which is a pretty good start! We are working hard to get her to church and read the book of mormon. Not to mention she was a reference from our converso Juan Cordero! As the missionaries say here: "¡Esò!" (It just means like YEAH) 

Gerardo Chimbo: 23, went to go meet with his dad who was an old investigador. Dad moved far away and he said he wanted to make changes in his life, Boom Gospel. 

There are some in saraguro and others that are progessing a little slower pero no hay tiempo! My scirpture for this week (the thing the seventy said in conference. Yeah? in Spanish it was meditizar, is it ponderize or something?) is The one about small and simple means. For example, on sunday we ate at a members house and the mother asked for a blessing. The son is the missionary leader, so we assumed he would do the blessing. My companion annointed, we looked at him, and looked right back at me. First blessing of health I´ve ever given in Spanish..... And appartently it was 10 minutes long! Was the blessing perfect? Absolutely not. But the Spirit used what spanish I knew to bless this lady. Maybe not a big thing for most but I was certainly humbled.

This isn´t just another church. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ. This is His church. His work will go on even if we don´t. Do the simple things. Read, pray, go to church, do what you know is right and life suddenly becomes easier to bare!

Elder Alder

Teaching english in Saraguro

Loja District

Elder Collins (Devan's brother) and Devan with Elder Barney their Father (trainer)...note: read his shirt

Beautiful Saraguro

Jaiba (pronounced "Hi-Ba") crab dinner

Éste es mi Gozo

"This is my joy." This is from Alma 29:9-10. 

Just yesterday I had the grand opportunity and honor to baptize Juan Cordero. One of God´s sons. And just as it says in Alma 29. I can´t boast of myself (There is no way I am human and the scriptures say I am the dust of the earth) but I will boast of my God.

He and His glorious spirit converted this man. Just a little bit about him. He is about 40 years old, divorced, has a little girl of 6, and he is probably the craziest person I have ever met. But he is so close to the spirit. Everytime he talks about the church he feels something the spirit so stong that he is stopped in his words. (

He also thinks that I can´t understand anything he says but that´s not entirely true!) But he was prepared by the Lord. He came to preisthood session of conference with Elder Barney and I, and all he wants to do is serve his nieghbors. He is a blessed soul. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and he was okay with me baptizing him.

And one of our first lessons we learned as missionaries here in Guayquil Sur Misión is that our work doesn´t end in the waters of baptism, our work ends at the doors of the temple.

So in one year, that´s the goal!

This is why this mission is so great! The people here are so close to the spirit that when they hear the truth, they instantly want more and to be baptized. That is also why the goal here for invations to baptism Daily is 8. How bold, we have just met you for 5 minutes, maybe know your name and we are inviting you to be baptized. Go Loja! This is probably a really big area for two sets of Elders and two sets of Hermanas. But the Lord is helping us every step of the way! Our zone had 5 baptisms this week! One was a 9month (I´m pretty sure nine month because she could hardly walk) pregnant lady. Can you imagine what we did in that situation? And also I got to sing "When I am baptized" (I think that`s the name, I`m translating) in Spanish (The "I like to look for rainbows" one) Was it perfect? Absolutely not (Back to the nothing thing haha) but I had fun!

Now let`s all press on in the work of the Lord! So grateful for this absolutely maravilloso (because I can´t spell that in English) experience for a little 2 weeker in Ecuador. The rest of Alma 29 says something like this: That I may bring one of my brethren to the Lord. Now this is my Joy because I remember how merciful God has been to me.

I can´t do any of this without His help. Especially in spanish, my words without the spirit, as Paul explained it, a twinkling of a trumpet (so just nothing anyone wants to hear) I testify with all my heart, might, mind, and strength that This is the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. He lives. He loves you. And He is at the helm of this Church. The ability to participate in this work is wonderful. I know without a doubt in my mind that this is His work and His glory to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man. I am lifted up by him everyday. And lifted by the many prayers in my behalf and for His children. Thank you! Shout out to my wonderful family who raised me. Shout out to the people who have made me who I am today. And shout out to my mom: The apostles, your family, and I love you!

Les quiero mucho

Elder Alder

Ceviche de Camaron (this looks amazing!)