Rapido

Hey everybody!

Sorry about this week, but my letter will be brief.  We just barely found out that there is going to be soccer this morning (again) and my companion will get grumpy if we miss it.  I think there just might be a different zone activity next week.  We shall see!

So we have to continue getting Llimi and Jasmin ready for their baptism.  For their marriage more than anything.  He can´t get off work because his boss won´t let him.  Work is really hard to come by down here, so he really doesn´t have a choice.  It´s been an uphill battle the whole way.  We are also preparing Daniel and Karen, who also need to get married.  We´re going to find out if she has all the necessary papers.  In the meantime, we have been finding new families and working to strengthen the ward.  We had a combined fifth Sunday lesson yesterday, and we did a role-play to practice home teaching and visiting teaching.  That was fun.  It´s something we do all the time in district meetings, but it was fun to see all the older members do it.  Great stuff.

Well I think that´s about the gist of it.  Sorry for being so short of words!  I will write more next week and also answer all the individual emails.  Take care!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Elder Syndergaard & Elder Wallace

Liza Syndergaard just sent me this photo of Ian and Spencer in the MTC together...almost a year ago.

Wedding Week (Hopefully)

Buenos Dias!  How are things back in Utah?

So great to get letters from everyone!  Sounds pretty crazy, with lots of vacations, talks in church, and marriages.  Speaking of marriages...

Llimi and Jasmin are soooo close to getting baptized!  We just need to take them down to the Registro Civíl (I honestly don´t know the translation for that) and get them hitched!  We´ve basically been concentrating the majority of our efforts on helping them, especially since they have such sincere desires.  We went with them Tuesday to help them get their baby Matthias registered.  Now we just need to take out his birth records or something like that, then set apart a day for them to get married, then have the actual event!  Then comes the question of baptismal interviews and the baptism, but we´ll just focus on a little bit at a time.  We´re also doing a game night this Friday as a ward activity.  I´m going to be really tired this coming weekend!  I think I will also be an expert on Ecuador´s marriage laws.  So much paperwork to do!  I kind of wish I had a lawyer in my ward... sure would make things easier!

This week was also crazy for me because I kept having to go on splits with other missionaries!  I got to go with Elder Smith, one of our zone leaders, and also with Elder Thurber.  We helped the sister missionaries in the district with one of their families who was having doubts.  It´s tough because the people here are experts when it comes to making excuses.  We have to be very direct with them, but with love.  It´s pretty tricky, but a necessary skill to learn.  President Sloan told me that we have to be direct because they don´t know what they are doing to themselves by not keeping their commitments.  He´s a very good president, and I´m greatful to have him leading me.  He´s going home this June, which will be sad.  I´ve learned a lot from him.

This week we also had a run-in with an Evangelical pastor!  That was really interesting.  She was visiting a family that we also went to visit.  I am determined NEVER to teach my investigators like she tried to teach!  She just spouted of an endless stream of bible references, didn´t ask ANY questions, and didn´t seem to concerned about whether or not the people understood.  She kept telling us that we needed to ¨confess Christ´s name with our mouths.¨  Eventually we got bored of hearing her rant.  So I asked her some questions and got her to contradict herself.  Elder Diaz called her on it, and she got really mad.  So we left.  We didn´t contend a bit!  I was proud of us for that.  Just made me think about how if we really represent Jesus Christ, we had better act in a way that honors his name!

So far in the mission, I think my best spiritual experience was in Quito, with Elder Corado, my companion from Guatemala (he´s in my zone again now, by the way!).  Our zone leaders told us to contact every referral received within 24 hours.  So the next day, we went to find all of the referrals we had.  One of them lived way up in the mountains in a part of the area we weren´t very familiar with.  Seriously, it was up HIGH!  It was really cold because we were literally up in the clouds!  So we searched... and searched... and searched... until we became hopelessly lost.  We decided to go back down to where the bus stop was so we wouldn´t be late for our first appointment.  But we felt impressed to go down a different way.  So we did, and on the way we saw a mother with three kids.  We greeted her, to which she replied ¨Hello, Elders¨.  We take an interest in anyone who knows us as ´Elders´!   After speaking with her more, we learned she was an inactive member, and the only member in her family.  So because we obeyed our leaders, we ended up finding an entire family.  The father and three children are now baptized, and the family is getting ready to go to the temple.  When we go about doing what we should, good things happen to us.  The Lord puts opportunities in our path.  We just have to take advantage of them.  If you go on the blog, I think you can find them.  They got baptized on the 24th of July, if I´m not mistaken.

So there you go.  The thoughts and stories of this week.  Thank you all for your support and for your prayers!

Love,

Elder Wallace

From Sister Sloan's Blog

Esmeraldas and San Rafael Zones at the mission home Christmas lunch.

Feliz 11 Meses!

Buenas tardes mi familia y amigos!

Well I´ve got to say that this week was without a doubt one of the best that I´ve had in my 11 months as a missionary!  (That´s right, I complete 11 months today!)  We had a LOT of people at church yesterday, which made me super happy!  I also had to give a talk, which was rather interesting.  Still a bit unnerving when I have to give it in another language!  But all went well. 

We´ve almost got a family ready for baptism!  They´re getting some of their documents in order today so that they can get married!  Their names are Llimi (pronounced ´Jimmy´) and Jasmin.  They are both really awesome and they came to church together for the first time yesterday!  Llimi was all decked out in his slacks, white shirt, and tie (with a big old gold chain with it!).  We baptized their daughter Michelle last month.  Now the parents are able to get married, and they can get ready for the temple!

There are some tougher investigators as well.  It´s not necessarily their fault, it´s just that they have circumstances outside their control that make things hard.  One lady has some sisters who are very hard on her and don´t let her leave the house very often.  Another one of our investigators has a gang of Columbians trying to kill him.  So all of your prayers for them are much appreciated!  We just have to do all we can and let the Lord help us with the rest. 

Things I´ve learned here so far... well I think I just mentioned one in the last paragraph.  I´ve also learned that the work goes a lot easier when you cultivate all the friendships that you possibly can - with the members, the investigators, and even the people you pass by on a regular basis.  When you´ve got lots of friends in lots of places it makes it a lot easier because you have lots of sources of help to turn to.  Also, you just have to do all you can to sincerely care for the people, to have an interest in their lives.  Elder Diaz and I have been working on just getting to know the people during the first visit so that we understand them better.

There you have it.  This week in Esmeraldas.  Hope all is going well in freezing-cold Utah!  Still feels like an oven here!  It doesn´t matter, becase we´re accomplishing more than we ever have before, and that´s enough for me!  Take care!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Hey!  Looks like you had an awesome time!  Good to hear.  I will look forward to the photo book.  I got grandma´s package.  Nothing from Brooke yet.  That is my current mail situation.  I´m doing well though.  Thanks for everything!  I don´t think I´m hurting for anything right now.  I´ve become even better at keeping a budget.  I even had enough this week to go dry clean my ties!  So yeah, I´ll let you know.

Love,

Spencer

Back In The Swing Of Things

Buenas Tardes!

How is everything going?  Well first of all I´d like to wish Brooke and Karsen both a happy birthday!  Hope it all went well!  This week was pretty normal, with a lot of searching for people, teaching people... you know how it is.  All is going well with the investigators.  They have issues with coming to church though.  Considering sharing Exodus 31:14.  What do you think?  Haha.

So I sent the photos!  Enjoy!  Some explanations...  There´s a couple of Elder Diaz and I with our lovely christmas tree (we´ve almost finished eating it!), one of our chapel, a hastily taken picture of our zone, and some of us cooking pizza with Elder Thurber and Elder Vasquez.

So they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, which means I´ve already sent you an 8,000 word email with my photos!  So I´m pretty sure that you´re tired of my words by now!  My fingers are pretty tired as well.  Take care, we´ll talk more next week!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

My goodness!  This sure has been a crazy week!  We had transfers today, but I´m not going anywhere.  Sort of have mixed feelings about it.  I have really come to love the ward here, but I´m also feeling like I´m ready for a change.  We´ll have to see.

This week we focused on getting more help from the members.  Reason #1 -  Esmeraldas is a pretty tough place to live the gospel, and the investigators will nearly always inactivate if they don´t have support from others.  Reason #2 - All of the non-members (as well as some members) were drinking all during the week!  Makes it a bit challenging to teach anything at all.  We came through in the end.  We are now getting members to come with us during the week, at least one every single day.  I´m expecting some drastic differences from what we´ve had in the past!

So shall I describe a New Year´s celebration in Esmeraldas?  Allow me to explain:

First of all, the streets are LOUD!!!  The people here like to point their speakers outside their houses for some reason, so there´s always music blasting.  However, it´s even louder during the celebrations because people take the trouble to set up those giant speakers that you usually only see at concerts and things like that.

Second, you see a lot of Años Viejos, or life-sized effigies that the people make here.  It´s actually quite an event.  During the days before the year ends, you can see everybody´s little creations because they put them outside for everyone to see.  Once the clock strikes midnight, they burn them all!  It´s quite the commotion, woke me up at midnight when it happened.  

Last of all, the people don´t call it quits at midnight like we tend to do.  The drinking, dancing, and loud music lasts all the way into the next day.  Although the afternoon on New Year´s Day was rather quiet.  Mostly because everybody was either passed out in their houses, or in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained while burning años viejos.  

So there you have it.  Quite the event.  I´ve never seen anything like it.  Hopefully all of your celebrations were just as spirited, but maybe not so dangerous (or sinful!).  More stories from Esmeraldas soon to follow!  Take care everyone!

Love,

Elder Wallace

P.S.  I brought my camera cable.  Ready for some photos?