Happy Halloween...?

It´s kind of an up-in-the-air kind of thing here in Ecuador, Halloween.  Apparently President Correa banned it from all the schools because the Ecuadorians are supposed to celebrate ´El día del escudo´.  (Day of the coat of arms, or something like that.  I think it has something to do with that little do-hickey on their flag). Interesting stuff.

So this week Andrés got baptized!  He´s 22, and has some really good neighboors who are members.  They helped us out a lot with their testimonies (they brought cake to the baptism as well, which wasn´t too bad either!)  Just goes to show that testimony is a lot more powerful than any knowledge of doctrine that we have.  Knowledge is important, but it´s not everything.  He was a bit nervous at first, but we helped him out!  He´s really great and we´re going to help him receive the priesthood as soon as possible.

We also had a full weekend of conferences.  First, the zone conference among missionaries.  I had to direct the conference, give a training, and organize a musical number with a musically-challenged zone where half the missionaries just barely arrived.  That was interesting.  But it all went well.  I directed just fine, the training went well, and we sang ´´I´m trying to be like Jesus´´.  Simple song, even we couldn´t mess it up!  President Ghent spoke to us, and gave us a lot of good counsel.  On Saturday and Sunday we had district conference, so we had even more meetings this weekend.  Lots of chances to get our investigators to church.  We went with the Benavidez family, a newlywed couple that we´re working with right now.  They´re great!  Their boss is a member who lives in Quito, so we have a really good fellowshipper right away!  When we got to their house, they were barely getting up, and the husband said that they probably wouldn´t be able to go because they hadn´t showered, his wife was making breakfast, and the floor was all dirty and needed to be swept.  I told him to go shower while his wife made breakfast and while I swept. Persistence!  The four of us had a great time at church!  

This week will be interesting.  Lots of people to find, lots to teach, and lots to baptize.  We´ll see how it all goes!  The photos of today are of Andrés, and also of Vinicio and his aunt Mercedes.  See you all next week!  

Love,

Elder Wallace