Brandon's Ecuadorian Tales

Hey everyone!!!!!

I hope all is well back in the states. Let me tell you about my week. First off, This week went by really slow because my companion was sick and we couldn’t go out and work for like 5 days. It was kind of like a mini vacation for me since I just got to hang out in the apartment all day, do some extra studying, and learn some hymns on the guitar. My companion is new so it was expected that He would get sick sooner or later. It happens to all the North American missionaries when they get here.

We witnessed a rather interesting/funny incident this week. We live on a street where there are always a million drunks and occasionally they do something funny, like this time. It was like 7 in the morning on a Tuesday and I ran out of water so we had to leave the house real quick to buy some from our neighbor(she runs a little store out of here house. When we got there we saw that there were 2 old drunks arguing right down the street. Long story short there argument turned into a fight. One of the had a bottle and was trying to hit the other guy with it. We thought it was a glass bottle but when he finally landed a blow it turned out to be plastic. Yes that’s right, he was trying to beat up the other guy with a plastic bottle haha. It was super funny because they were super drunk and could hardly walk straight much less fight. They were so uncoordinated. All the neighbors heard all the commotion and everyone came out to watch. It was quite the event and everyone had a good laugh. I kind of felt bad for the guys afterwards because all they do with their lives is get drunk every day. It’s rather ridiculous.

On Sunday I had a really cool experience. It was just a normal Sunday. We got up, studied, and then went to some meetings in the chapel. After the meetings we were walking out and going to sacrament meeting when I saw some familiar faces. The ulloa taipe family that I had been teaching in Esmeraldas and that got baptized right after I left had traveled 7 hours on bus all the way from Quito just to come visit me and tell me that they got baptized and thank me for all that I had done for them. They only stayed for sacrament meeting and then had to leave and go back to Esmeraldas and the whole family couldn’t afford to come so it was just the dad and the 8 year old daughter but it definitely made my day and I’m going to have to say that it was the highlight of my mission up till now. I was super sad when I had to leave before they got baptized and without saying goodbye but I was super happy that they came all that way just to thank me and say goodbye. My joy was full. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to see them in the celestial kingdom.

Later on Sunday, we got asked to give a blessing because some lady in our ward had a sick son. We showed up to give the blessing and when we got there, there were like 20 people there. I’m not gonna lie, it was kind of nerve racking to give a blessing in another language with so many people there watching. I felt like there was a lot of pressure but I just put my trust in the lord and it turned out good. After the blessing the kids dad(who isn’t a member) asked us to come and teach him. It was a good experience and another piece of evidence that the powers of godliness are manifest when the priesthood is used(like it says in D&C)

Last week we contacted a reference and it turned out to be a lady that had been investigating the church in Guayaquil. We went to teach here this week and when we finished the lesson we asked if there was anything else that we could do for her and she said “yes, I want to get baptized”…. We definitely weren’t expecting that but it was a pleasant surprise.

This week I did a baptismal interview for some missionaries in my district. I interviewed the nephew of a family that has 2 sons that live in the US. One served his mission in North Carolina and is now studying in Provo at UVU. The other one is one is mission right now. He started out in the Colorado Springs mission but is now in California… it’s a small world.

That’s about it for this week. I love you all. Thanks for all the support!