Brandon's Ecuadorian Tales

It’s been a crazy week, that’s for sure! We weren`t able to get much done this week because of all the craziness that has been going on with Inty Raymi. Look up “Inty Raymi Cotacachi” on Google images or YouTube or something if you want to see what it was like. I`m sure they have some pictures or something. We tried to spend as much time out of our sector as possible but we had to run by the house a few times so we saw what it was like. Basically every village has a good of men that walk around stopping their feet on the ground in a specific pattern. They all wear chaps and weird hats with swastikas and other symbols on them. And they are all way drunk. A lot of their wives would walk behind the group to bring beer to their husbands when they wanted and to grab them and keep them from fighting with other groups when they got mad. I felt really bad for the woman. Anyway, they all carry whips and/or big whips and machetes and they go from one corner of the park to the other doing their little dance and yelling and screaming like idiots. The Ecuadorian version of the swat team was there on every corner with smoke bombs and other non-lethal weapons in case any fights broke out. They did get into a few fights but according to what I’ve heard no one has dies yet. The whole environment was just really ugly. When we walked out of the house on Friday morning and the cops were already there I could feel something heavy in the air. I don’t know how to describe it. It was like the spirit had already left that specific place altogether because it knew what was going to happen. Maybe before my mission I wouldn`t have felt it that intensely but I think being on a mission has made me more sensitive to the spirit so I really felt a difference in the atmosphere with all this. It will be the same thing this week because Inty Raymi doesn`t get over until Saturday.

Other than all that it was a great week! Why? BECAUSE WE BAPTIZED THE BONILLA FLORES FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!! Can I just tell you the baptizing a whole family is like that best feeling that a missionary can have. It was wonderful. It was like they have been waiting their whole lives for us to come teach them and baptize them. They will get confirmed next week because this week was stake conference. I`m confident that they will make it to the temple in a year.

Stake conference went really well. President Sloan came and gave 3 talks. And did a miracle…. On Saturday after the priesthood session of stake confidence he started talking with an investigator in the zone that has wanted to get baptized for 9 months but can`t because he is only 17 and his dad won`t give him permission. The missionaries have tried talking with his dad and everything else that they have been able to think of but his dad has been really hard hearted and didn`t want to give him permission. When president Sloan was talking to him he tald him that if he had faith that the lord would soften his dad`s heart. I don’t remember everything he said but I just remember that president promised him that his dad’s heart would soften. The next day he showed up at stake conference and said that his dad had given him permission. I did the baptismal interview and asked him what happened and he said that he went home and prayed really hard so that president Sloan’s promise would be fulfilled, then he went and talked to his dad about it and his dad was still hard hearted but in the middle of the night he came into his room and asked “what do you need to get baptized” and he said “just your signature” and his dad so ok I’ll do it. His dad even showed up to his baptism. It was a really neat experience though to see how president could just promise something like that and see it fulfilled. The kid asked President Sloan to baptize him so he stayed for the baptism even though he had a meeting in Ibarra right after the conference. I guess he just decided that it was an appropriate moment to focus on the one because his meeting was at 1:30 and he didn`t even leave Otavalo until 1:45 and Ibarra is like 30 minutes away. It was a really cool experience to see all that.

We did a special presentation for the conference with a giant book of mormon and we passed out referral cards to all the members as they entered. President challenged them to give referrals in his talk and we ended up getting 28 for the whole zone so that was good. Hopefully some of them will be golden.

This weekend was presidents last weekend in Ecuador. The new president gets here on Thursday, President Ghent. I think he’s from California. Its gonna be interesting to see what things will change with the new mission president.
Thanks for the package mom! I loved it!!!!
That’s all I have for this week. I love you all. Talk to you next week!