April Report (& Prank) ~

4-1-13

There were 6 baptisms this day. 3 from me and Elder Roig, 1 from Elder Viteri and his comp, and the other 2 from another barrio. An elder that is my great friend from Bolivia was with me in Cuenca, now, he’s here in another ward. He took 2 investigadores to our chapel and we had 6 baptisms. In total, our zone had 30 baptisms, that was our goal and we made the record. The goal of the mission is 300 baptisms, idk if we got 300, I think we did, they will let us know tomorrow.

So these fotos are of the baptisms we had yesterday. Urbano is the guy in the wheel chair, and we baptized his 2 kids. The one kid was funny ha-ha. We all know the 2nd part of the baptism is just as importante as the first part. On Sunday he went to the hospital because he was sick. He went with his mom. I freaked out because I thought this  kid was going to have to be baptized again because next week is general conference. I talked to the bishop, and I told him what was happening. The bishop agreed that we could confirm him in the consejo de barrio at 5 a clock. So we took him to church at 5 and he received the Holy Ghost that way. Urbano and the other kid went to church in the morning. It was a lot easier with them ha-ha.

 Okay the baptism of Urbano was really scary to tell you the truth. Elder Roig and I were in the water with him. Elder Roig said the blessing, and when we dunked him, there wasn’t very much room between us and the wall, so when we baptized him, his nose didn’t go down all the way. So we had to baptize him de nuevo (again). After the first time, Urbano started to shake. I thought we killed the man. But we baptized him good the 2nd time. I was scared to death; we wanted to put him in a chair to begin with. But Urbano said in his old man’s voice "NO I WANT TO BE BAPTIZED LIKE JESUS CRISTO!!" ha-ha oh man his determination was astounding. But it was pretty hard after the baptisms getting him dried and dressed but Urbano didn’t get sick, he was a good sport. This man needs to go to the temple soon before he dies, he has 82 years. He can die any day. But he’s going to be one of the most special converts for me.

This is what I did on Sunday night, I sat in my chair, I put my legs on the window, and I drank mate. Mate is a drink that comes from Argentina. Elder viteri gave me some when I first came here; I’m addicted to it now. So I’m drinking it because this week was pretty crazy ha-ha. The assistants were always calling me in the night to make sure we did everything possible to make sure the investigadores got baptized. Oh man it was driving Elder Viteri and me crazy ha-ha. So it was nice to relax for a night ha-ha.

PRANK TIME: Okay so this week was pretty crazy, we were trying to get 300 baptisms as a mission that has never happened here in Guayaquil before. So it was a pretty hectic week ha-ha. It was fun though. So there are 4 elders in the house, me and my comp, and elder viteri and his comp. Elder Viteri is training, and ha-ha his comp is very gullible. We did a prank to him in the middle of the night. This is what we did, we changed all the clocks in the house so they said 6:30 in the morning, we changed every clock except one watch (so that we would know what time it was) so in realidad (actually), we woke up at 12 a clock, three of us knew, but Elder Balda didn’t know. So we woke up, said our prayers, and we started to do stupid stuff so that he would think it was a dream. My comp did exercises (he never exercises), we invited a member to come over and sit down and drink mate, and I started to write in my journal, and Elder Viteri just sat down in his chair. So there were 5 people in the house, the member, and us 4. Finally Elder Viteri told Elder Balda (Elder Viteris comp) to shower, so this new missionary went to shower. And when he entered the shower, we all fixed everything, we changed the clocks back to normal, the member went home, we turned off the lights, and we went back to bed. When elder Balda got out of the shower, he turned on the lights and looked around, he was really confused, and he started to wash clothes.... I have no idea why ha-ha. So I get out of bed... pretending to be tired and angry, and I tell him "Elder, what are you doing, its 12:30 in the night!!!! He told me he was washing clothes ha-ha. So I just used the bathroom and went back to bed. 5 minutes later, Elder Roig, mi comp, gets out of bed with his white bible (the rule book) and he tells Elder Balda at 12:30, we have to be in bed. Elder Balda got scared, so we went to see the clock, and he saw the hour, ha-ha so he turned off the lights and went to bed. Ok so in the morning, at 6:30, we all get up, we didn’t say anything for like 10 minutes, then finally Elder Balda says "I had the craziest dream, we all woke up, you guys were exercising, a member came and drank mate!!! Then I showered!!!!" we all looked at him and laughed!!! We said "hahahahahaa you showered!!!! you were sleep walking" the funny thing is this, he thought it was a dream, he told us a member was in the house, we told him that was impossible because members can’t be in the house at night, he then said Elder Roig did exercises, we told him that’s impossible because he’s lazy, and we all lied very well, he thought it was a dream, we literally created a dream, I felt like inception ha-ha. So we teased him all day about it, about how he got out of bed and showered. But we finally told him the next day that we created the dream and that it was a prank. Oh man he got so angry, he literally thought he was crazy for a whole day. He said "I SWEAR YOU WERE ALL AWAKE AND THE MEMBER WAS HERE" oh man it was the greatest prank ever.

 I hope you all have a great week, I love you take care!!! Remember this Saturday and Sunday is general conference, wow it feels like yesterday we had the conference ha-ha. Time is flying by. Okay family take care!!!!

4-8-13

 Hey guys!!! So ok I just read the emails and I would like to thank each and every one of you for the time you have spent to let me know of all the good things that are happening there in the amazing city of Ivins. So I’m hoping I will receive some news about what’s happening between South Korea, North Korea, and the states. I’m surprised you guys haven’t given me updates yet, this seems like huge news. . But yeah the news here is making it sound like a huge deal. For that, I ask -  do you promise me that nothing is going on? Because I understand that you want me to be focused on the work and everything, but I desperately want to know the truth from a source who knows the truth.

So conference was awesome. I got to watch the first session with a member. That was cool that president Monson announced a new temple in cedar city. Wow that’s going to be awesome. I wonder how much time they will need to build the temple. Dad should help ha-ha.

. But conference was fun, I didn’t get to watch Holland’s talk, I did watch Bednars talk on Sunday..... Oh man his voice in Spanish was really powerful, I imagine Bednar in English was very powerful also ha-ha. we only brought 5 people to church, we were expecting more but the people here like to lie to and don’t do what they say ha-ha, but believe me, it’s not as bad as the great virgin believers in the city of Cuenca. I didn’t watch the conference of priesthood tampoco (neither). I’ll watch everything when I get home in 14 months ha-ha.

Okay thanks for everything family, the weather here is pretty hot. It was raining every day, now it doesn’t rain very much. It’s really hot though, I need to drink a ton of water still.

Okay family peace!!!!! I haven’t received the package or had changes yet ha-ha. I’m still here in Batallon in Guayaquil!!!! Peace!!! 

4-15-13

Hey guys how’s it going!!! So we had a tough week last week, a lot of our baptisms last week fell because of baptism permission, and for lack of excitement. We had a baptism on Saturday, this little girl who has been going to church for 8 months with her aunt finally got permission. Ha-ha she asked me to baptize her, so yeah I baptized her, it was awesome, and I’ll send pictures.

 But yeah I have a lot of faith; I know we can have 1 baptism more this Saturday. We found an old lady the week of conference, she went to the conference, and went to the baptisms of the little girl, then went to church yesterday. She is awesome. Yesterday we invited her to be baptized, she said no because only god tells her to do things ha-ha. So yeah ha-ha I guess she is going to pray to god to see whether or not she should be baptized. I hope so, she is really cool. She’s like 60 years old. 

So yeah last week was pretty hard. I thought we found a lot of people that were going to progress, but nope, a lot of people couldn’t progress for their husbands, for their work, and for their desire to go church, but we are going to have a better week I promise.

so my English is horrible, and I’m not even kidding, like you don’t understand how thankful I am that I finished my English classes in college. I CANT TALK TO SAVE MY LIFE. I only talk in Spanish, unless a little kid wants me to talk in English. Right now in this ward, there are 3 other elders. My comp from the Dominica republic, he’s awesome, we are having a lot of success together. And Elder Viteri, my really good friend had changes on Saturday. Yeah it was sad. But hey he had a lot of time here in Batallon, so he was ready to leave. There were quite a few members that cried when he left ha-ha. Okay so right now here in this ward, there is Elder Balda that’s waiting for his visa to go to Argentina, my comp Elder Roig, and the other elder, Elder Castro. Elder Castro has 8 months in the mission, he’s cool. 

Elder Gates buddy who helps a lot with the work

Okay so I think that’s all here in Batallon. I’m doing good here. I’m waiting for some big news again like "Tanner got engaged!" or "dad got drawn out for the elk hunt" ha-ha idk something. Make something up next week ha-ha jk.

Okay family I will send pictures this time, I promise. I’m doing really good here. I’ll have 1 year in the mission soon wow can you believe it. I think I’ll be talking to you guys in like a month right? President said I can do Skype so I’m going to do Skype this time!!!!! I’m excited!!!! Okay family thanks for everything!! Bye!!

Lunch with one of many nice family's in Ecuador:

4-22-13

Hey I’m sorry for the bad news, there are not pictures. We didn’t have any baptisms last week. It was pretty hard because we had an old lady that was super anxious to go to church, better her life, but yeah she doesn’t want to get baptized. We told her a lot of things, but we weren’t able to convince her. So this week, we have 1 baptism, his name is Jonathan. Jonathan is a boyfriend of a member. Get this, about 10 years ago, there was a happy family, they were prosperous, going to church, the dad was a bishop and everyone, but something happened to the family, 2 daughters in the family died in the same year, so the family went less active. But anyway, Elder Viteri and his companion started to activate the family since November of the last year. Elder Viteri baptized 3 members of the family, and when I came we baptized 1 of their cousins who live in the same house. And a little time after we baptized other members of the family. So we are slowly activating this family. Get this.... on Sunday, the whole family went to church (besides the dad) and everyone in the family is members, only one of the sons isn’t member. The boy has 17 years. He went to church on Sunday with the whole family. We invited him to be baptized on the 4 of May, but he said no because he has problems with word of wisdom so he doesn’t want to be baptized and then fall into temptacion again. So we tried to help him make up his mind that he needs to be baptized. He was telling us no, no so we gave up.... but the mom didn’t.... she gave one of those "Mom testimonies" that was very very powerful. She started to talk about how if it wasn’t for his parents, he would have had a better life and everything. She started to cry and explained to him to not make the same mistake that his parents made. Idk I was very close to cry.... I DIDNT CRY!! But I was close because I really felt the spirit hard when this mother gave her testimony of the church. I know that she knows this church is true, but she is having a hard time right now. she feels bad that she wasn’t able to overcome this trial in her past with her 2 daughters, she decided to leave the church, and now, she is completely sad with this decision because her boy is doing other things in life. I love this family, they are all amazing people, I’ve never talked to the dad, but everyone in this family is very special for me. I say this story because we can learn something from it, if something seems hard in life, if a trial comes to you, never EVER lose faith in Jesus Christ and heavenly father, because if you decide to leave the church, you don’t have the promises from god that he is going to help you. idk I’m scared that if I ever leave the church I would  have a lot of problems with my family, problems with money, problems in general, I love the scripture that finds itself in 1 Corinthios (Corinthians), 10 13. This scripture teaches us a great message about what god has for us. I always share this scripture when someone things they can’t overcome a temptation. ALWAYS IT’S POSSIBLE.... ALWAYS. So yeah this mom is having a hard time, right now all of her kids are going to church besides her only son, but still this boy could be a missionary in 2 years.

Okay so I’m excited to work this week, we have a lot of potencial of taking 10 people to church this week. I’m super excited. We are going to have changes tonight, I don’t think I’m going to have changes but we will see. Okay thanks for the birthday wishes and thanks to my  grandma's for sending me money ha-ha I’m going to bring back an Ecuador souvenir for them ha-ha.

Okay you will have pictures next week!!!! CHAO!!!!!!

4-29-13

Hello everyone. So your child is doing very well here in Ecuador. This week has been pretty crazy to tell you the truth. One of our baptisms fell through on Tuesday  but hey I think we might have a baptism this Saturday, it’s a possibility. A cousin of a member, went to church last Sunday, and went to some of the baptisms on Saturday, she loved them, and so she wants to be baptized. We talked to her parents on Saturday night with the family Lopez and the parents of the girl said they are going to have a conversation with the girl to really see if she has the desire to be baptized. Yeah so there is a chance we will have 1 baptism this week. Pray really hard okay ha-ha.

So not much happened this week, my companion threw out his back a little bit on Thursday, I wasn’t there I was in another ward, but he called me in the morning and told me that his back was killing him and that he had to go to the hospital. So he went to the hospital and the doctors told him he has to wait until Monday before he can start walking. Well of course my companion left because we had a lot of potencial to take a lot of people to church, but he had to stay in the house quite a bit. But a lot of members helped us so we were able to do divisions quite a bit. So it all worked out in the end. But yeah tomorrow he will find out if his spine is the problem. He did a test last week and tomorrow we will find out the results.

Okay so my birthday was fun, just running around a lot ha-ha there were a lot of interviews that day so I was running around with Elder Balda like all day to do interviews, the other elders bought a cake for me, and in the night, the Lopez family brought me a cake and I ate it very happily.

Okay now for the mother’s day call. The Lopez family says that I can use their computer to do Skype. I’ll let them know that you guys are signed up on Google+ so all they need to do is add you on Google+ right? I’ll talk to them today so they can get that all organized. The girl that is going to do it is called Andrea Lopez, she’s awesome!! She’s always helping me out with things. I’ll talk with her so she can get that organized.

Okay thanks for the emails. I didn’t have changes last week. Okay right now we are back on the 6 weeks changes. What they did is the following. During my 6th change, they ended the change after the 3rd week. So I just cut out the last 3 weeks of the change and moved to the 7th change. Does that make sense? so in reality, I’m on my 8th change right now, I think I’m going to be home a little earlier than I thought, I’m thinking like 30 of April or something like that. Yeah I’m not too happy about it, but it’s all good, so we are going to have changes again on the first week of June. But knowing Presidente Montalti we can have changes whenever he wants ha-ha. I don’t know I’m not sure if I’m going to stay in this sector for too much longer, but hey you never know.

Thanks for all the emails everyone!!! Thanks for the support on my happy birthday. I took out the money from my grandmas. Tell them thanks so much. Would it be possible to talk to Grandma Goodwin on Skype? I would love to do that and talk to Grandma Gates also. Start writing down the questions you have so I can answer everyone on mother’s day. Peace!!!!!!