3-4-13
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| Cooking patacones (fried bananas) |
"Okay so on Thursday,
a seventy came and talked, his name is Elder Wadell? Something like that. He
came and spoke, and I gotta say, this man is going to be the next apostle ha-ha.
He spoke and testified with power and I could easily tell that this man receives
revelation. He really changed the way I view the mission."
He says baptisms are
great, through baptism, the person can enter and live in the celestial kingdom,
but just by being baptized, doesn’t mean they are going to live in exaltation.
Okay forgive me if my English is bad, I don’t remember the words in English. But
he said that the recogimiento de Isreal (gathering of Israel) is happening right now with us. As
missionaries, we are sharing this gospel with everyone around the world, we are
here to baptize, simple as that, but we are also here to direct the camino (path) for
those investigadores so they can enter the temple. Elder Wadell said that a
person isn’t recogido (sorry, I don’t know the word in English) if they don’t
go to the temple and receive the Abrahamic covenant. It’s simple, in order to
be recogido, (gathered) we need to go to the temple, get married in the temple, and start
a family. Idk I’m now applying that into missionary work, a lot of my conversos (converts) are teenagers, they can’t go to the temple, but I can still set a path for them
so when they have 18 years, they can enter the temple and serve a mission and
one day, get married. I’m definitely going to have more cuidado (care) with my
investigadores. I need to set a path for them, I need to baptize, but also a
path for them. And when I go home, I need to get married ha-ha. It’s the only
way to be recogido. Elder Wadell is awesome; he spoke with a lot of autoridad (authority).
Okay family thanks for everything. I’m glad to hear my sobrinita (niece) is here without problems. Thanks for your emails and your prayers; we could possibly
have 6 baptisms this week so pray a lot for us!!! Alright peace!!!!
Answer to dad’s questions:
Hey we
have changes every 3 weeks now. Next week we have changes. And just to let you
know, I met the elder from Cedar City. What’s his name like Elder Lemich? Something
like that. I asked him if he knew McKay, he said ya his nickname is lurp. Ha-ha
I laughed. He’s doing good here.
* * * *
3-11-13
Subject: Hello
Okay family first of all, we had changes, I’m not with Elder Viteri anymore. We are in the same ward and everything. Elder Viteri is going
to have his comp tomorrow and yeah I met my new comp this morning. His name is
Elder Roig from the Dominica Republic. He’s a black dude!!!!!! But yeah he’s
cool. So this is what’s going to happen. There’s going to be a lot of
missionaries coming in the next 2 months, so president is putting 4 missionaries
in 1 ward. I’m not sure how many wards have 4 missionaries; all I know is that
batallon is going to have 4 missionaries. So yeah it’s going to be interesting
what happens. Yesterday we took 18 investigadores to church. 4 of those
investigadores need to get married, and the rest can be baptized in March. However,
not one of those investigadores are solid, like not one of them say, "I
want to be baptized!!! Baptize me!!" not one of them say that, but a lot
of them have a lot of desire to go to church and be baptized. We need to get
permission to baptize a 12 year old today. This kid has been visiting the other
deacons with the presidente of the deacons. They live right new to each other. So
yeah this kid looks just like a member. We are going to see if we can baptize
him. We are going to talk to his dad tonight. They usually say yes . . . .so we are going to see. Oh and a teenage girl was going to
be baptized last week. But she left and lived with her dad. She left her
clothes here but left with her dad. We don’t know why. So we went and talked to
her neighbors (they are members and asked why she left. the neighbor said she
was falling in love with me and didn’t want to be baptized because she doesn’t
want to get sad when I leave........ I’m dead serious.... ha-ha the neighbor
said that. So this is what I’m going to do, I’m going to call her, tell her to
come back. Then I’m going to have a conversation with her and explain to her
that she is going to meet her husband in the church, is going to get married,
gonna have a family happy for eternidad. I know it’s going to be hard for her
to let me go, because ha-ha come on.... I’m Elder Gates, the elder with
the biggest trapezoids in the mission. But she has to understand that I’m going
to get married to a gringa que sea guapisima!!! But this girl has 17 years and isn't ugly....... but trust me, I’m not going to get married here ha-ha. Okay and we
also have 2 other girls who are going to be baptized, we just need permission
from the 2 and we baptize them. I think Elder Viteri is going to work with them
so I hope we can get 2 baptisms from them. So in total, we are going to have 4
baptisms this week, that’s the numero that we are shooting for. I think we can
do it.
And I love the pics of my little sobrinita. Ha-ha she is so cute!!
She is going to be able to walk in what 6 months? I’m not familiar with the age
of the new born baby when they are able to walk. And Tanner, teach the baby Spanish
so that when I come back, I’ll be able to talk to her. Babies can talk when
they have 1 year, I’m not sure. Let me know.
Okay family thanks for the emails......... Okay thanks family for todo (everything). Chau!!
3-18-13
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| My Apartment |
That’s awesome to hear that Tanner went to that guys farewell. Wow I was just thinking the other day; I don’t have very much time left. This Saturday I’m going to complete 10 months, but my mission was cut so I’m going home 3 weeks early, so I might as well say I have 10 months in the mission. Wow time is flying by so fast hear I can’t believe it. We’ll be talking on Skype here soon ha-ha.
Okay everyone thanks for the emails and fotos. I will send pictures this time. I’m so sorry. It’s been a while.
Okay everything is going good hear. I’m working hard with Elder Roig!!!!!! Okay guy’s bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3-25-13
Subject: Pictures First
Okay so I’m going to send
pictures first ha-ha. So I have some good news. I got the package!!! I love it
thanks so much for everything!!!! The journal is awesome, it will last me until
the end of the year for sure, and I liked the 100 grand bars and kit kats, and
the iPod..... Wow I can’t explain how happy I am to have music in my life again
ha-ha. I’m going to say the truth, the people here suck at singing, and they can’t
sing if there lives were dangling in front of them.... does that make sense? Anyway
they can’t sing, so when I hear music from the tab choir, or when I hear a
beautiful girl singing from EFY, oh man it pumps me up and I want to work!! Thanks
for everything!!
Ok so
last week didn’t end how I wanted to end. We were going to baptize 3 people
last Saturday, we were going to baptize my dolly, but she left to her house again
and is never going to come back. her dad got really mad on Monday, came here to
her house, and took her away for good... yeah it was pretty rough. But hey it’s
all good. And our other investigador is named Nick. Nick is the grandson of a
convert of Elder Donis ha-ha. Elder Donis, my best friend in the world was here
in batallon, in this sector when he started the mission. So yeah his convert is
an old lady, and nick is the grandson of her.
So Nick was going to be baptized this Saturday, but
his parents didn't let him be baptized. We talked to them for a good 30
minutes, but they said no he needs at least a year to prepare himself. Hey if I was 12 years old, and I wanted to be baptized in the
testigos de jehova church, would you let me? Ha-ha. So Nick wasn’t baptized. And
the one baptism that I counted as 100 % sure fell through. His name is Ismael,
he has 11 years. He was going to live with a member family until May for vacations.
So we were going to baptize him. We talked to his family and his parents; they
were of agreement and everything. But Saturday night..... One of the aunts of
the parents of Ismael got sick and went to the hospital. So Ismael parents couldn’t
go to the baptisms, so they called everything off. And it gets better; today supposedly,
Ismail is going to leave for 1 month with his family. He’s going to live with
his family again until May. Oh man I put myself sad. I was dead set on baptizing
this little kid. But hey it’s all good. I took a picture yesterday of us so I
will send a pic.
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| Elder Gates & Ismael |
Okay so this week we have 2 baptisms. We are going
to baptize an old man that has 80 years. His name is Urbano. And he’s a man of
so much faith!!! This guy is legit. I have an awesome experience that I want to
share that has to do with the priesthood.
"Okay
so it went like this. Urbano has to go to church yesterday so be able to be baptized.
Last week, he was sick in his bed all day, from Monday to Friday. This man
would tell us every day that he wants to be baptized, but cant because he couldn’t
raise himself out of bed. I was fasting, praying hard so that this man could at
least sit himself. Every day it was getting worse. But on Friday, we went over
there, he was very sick, it was in the morning. We asked him how he was doing. He
said "I’m sick I can’t get up" he couldn’t move. So I felt inspired
to give I’m a blessing. We had already given him a blessing last week, because
he had something different, his sickness this week was different, so we had to
use oil again. We anointed him, and I sealed the blessing? Is that the right
word dad ha-ha? Anyway we gave him a blessing. This was in the morning. So we
passed by there again in the night, like around 6 because we were going to take
him to the hospital, we arrived to his door, and we saw urbano sitting
down..... Laughing and smiling.... we said "Urbano how are you
feeling?" and he said "I’m so much better!!! Thanks for the
blessing!!" wow in this moment I knew the holy priesthood saved this man’s
life. He was dying in his bed, and couldn't move. He asked for another
blessing, and through the faith he had, he was healed. We told him we were
going to take him to the hospital, that I was going to spend my money so he could get better, but he said "I’m not ever going to the hospital!! God is
my doctor!!!!" ha-ha I hugged him and thanked him for his testimony,
because this man’s testimony strengthened my testimony as well."
So that was the cool story of the week. I will
never forget this man’s smile on his face. So Saturday, Elder Viteri and his
comp has 1 baptism, so we took Urbano to see the baptisms, and after the
baptism, he told me "I want to be baptized like that!!" ha-ha he came
to church also, he talked to the bishop and everything. This guy has full
desire to be baptized this Saturday. He’s going to be baptized with his
grandson this Saturday. I have a request; please pray very
hard for Urbano each day so he doesn’t get sick. He worries me; I don’t want
anything to happen to him.
Okay so that’s what we have going on here in
batallon in Guayaquil. It’s been a fun week. The mission is trying to have 300
baptisms this month. I think right now we have 213 with one more week to go. We
are going to do everything possible to baptize 87 more people ha-ha.
Okay so I have some good news, Andrea, the girl
here, went to take out my package. She said that the post office is going to
take out the candy, I don’t know why. But I’m still going to have my shavers
and presents, did you send Cream mom? They said that I had cream in the
package? Cream and clothes ha-ha. Idk but my goal this
week is to take out the package ha-ha.
So Elder Lemich is here in my same zone ha-ha. The
elder from Cedar city. He’s cool, he asked about McKay, wondering how he is
doing. He told me to tell you to tell McKay that he needs to prepare himself
fast so he can enjoy the blessings of being a missionary. That came from Elder Lemich.
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| Elder Lemich From Cedar City |
Okay so that’s it for this week. I’ll send an email that
talks about each foto. Just remember to pray hard for Urbano so he can be baptized
this week. Because he needs to be baptized fast because his end is coming up
soon. If he dies, I’m going to do his work in the temple very fast. Okay family
thank you so much for everything!! Oh ha-ha so I have a cool story. A teen that
was in a ward in Cuenca that I met left for the mission in January. He just
wrote me and told me that his trainer is Elder Truman, the elder from
enterprise ha-ha. Ha-ha small world huh? He went to Peru.
Okay
thanks for everything. We will have 2 baptisms for sure this week. Peace!!!
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