Brandon's Ecuadorian Tales

Hey Everyone,
Let me tell you a Little bit about my week. This week went really well for us. We aren’t as lost anymore and we’re starting to figure everything out about our new sector. The members have been helping us out a lot as well. We went out with a member 5 days this week which is quite a change compared with Esmeraldas. I was there for 6 months and we never went out with anyone. The only times that a member came with us were when we baptized someone and had them come with us. So long story short, it’s really nice to have so much support from the members. The relief society has been helping us a bunch as well with all our lunch appointments. The president of the relief society is this super nice lady that has a son on a mission in Bolivia so she really likes to help us out a lot! They just reorganized the “mamitas”(the families that feed us) and now we have appointments to eat lunch AND dinner every day. They are really taking good care of us here. It seems like every time we see a member they are offering us food or something. There’s even a guy in the ward that is a professional cook that invited us over and made us this HUGE pizza. Basically I love this ward and this sector so far. It’s a ridiculous contrast with what I had in Esmeraldas.

I gave a talk this week in church about testimonies. I had written it all out and was planning on just reading it but when I got up there and starting speaking I just threw away what I had prepared and just started talking. It’s amazing how much the spirit helps me to remember things and to be able to teach clearly in another language. I know I’ve said this before but the gifts of the spirit are real. I know because I’ve experienced them.
We had a few successes this week.
1) We had a baptism. It was an 18 year old girl named Lucia that had been listening to the missionaries since December. She had been through a lot of struggles in her life and basically grew up without parents. She had to face a lot of opposition from her family and a lot of people that were telling her that she was crazy for getting baptized but she went forth and faith and did it anyways. Her parents even ended up coming to her baptism even though they were some of the people that had said that she was crazy. I didn’t really do that much to help prepare her for baptism… I just kind of got here and she was all ready and all we had to do was make all the preparations. My companion and I played “come thou fount” on our guitars at the baptism and it was a big hit since hardly anyone here has musical talent. haha

2) The ulloa taipe family that I had been teaching for 5 months in Esmeraldas got baptized this weekend as well. I was kind of sad that I couldn’t be there since I had been through so much with them. They used to have a completely broken home but over the last 5 months we have helped them to overcome their problems through the gospel. I saw miracles with that family. I wish I could have been there for their baptism but oh well, that’s how the mission is sometimes.
3) We received a reference from the mission offices this week and when we went to contact it we found out that it was a lady that was about to get baptized in Guayaquil a few months ago but then she moved to Quito. We met here and taught her a lesson on Saturday night and she went to church on Sunday. The only problem that we have to overcome with her is that she doesn’t really have any good friends in the ward yet… but that’s a very small problem compared to others that we have some times
4) We’re planning a few baptisms for next week. One is an 11 year old kid that is deaf. When we teach him his mom has to translate with sign language. I’m not exactly sure how his baptismal interview will be but we’ll figure it out.

What else…. My companion got sick yesterday, but that’s pretty normal for new missionaries. We just stayed in the house after church because he was too sick to go out so that was kind of a refreshing break from walking up and down ridiculous hills at 10,000 feet. That’s the only bad thing about Quito, the hills are killer! But my lungs are getting used to it so I’m sure I won’t even mind in a few more weeks.
Well that’s all I’ve got for this week. I hope everyone is doing wonderful back in the states! I love you all!