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
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