Chimborazo!

Hey everybody!

First of all, I want to say happy birthday dad!  Well, three days ago, but still.  I hope it went well!

We climbed Chimborazo today!  It was pretty cool, since I haven´t seen snow in such a long time!  You should have seen the missionaries who have almost never seen snow in their entire lives!  The place we went to was 16,000 feet up, which is super tiring because there´s no air!  It was also really hot because the sun is so strong up there!  Kind of a weird combination.

What else...?  President Sloan visited our branch this weekend!  I think for the first time.  He gave a super powerful lesson on faith, which helped a couple that we´re teaching to make the decision to be baptized.  I was really grateful for that because when we first started teaching them they were on the brink of divorce.  We will keep working with them.  I liked President Sloan´s thoughts on faith - when members go inactive, it´s not because they got offended or because something is keeping them from going.  It is because they lack sufficient faith in the Savior and His promises.  Always something to think about.

We also found a really great family of about 14 people!  The only catch is that they live half an hour away!  We still went there Sunday morning to take them to church, and about a third of them came.  That made me really tired, but it was still great that they came!  They invited us to come over for ¨Good Friday¨, but that´s when I have a meeting two hours away... I´m still pretty interested to see what some of the Easter traditions are here.  I hear that everybody wants to be reconciled with God during that week, so maybe we´ll have an easier time getting people to listen!  We´ll see!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Go Away Rain!

Buenas Tardes!

It´s rained so much this week! We also have been working hard with a lot of investigators who have endless challenges! I would send photos, but my camera has died. I´d better charge it, eh?

This week was quite the battle. We are facing a lot of challenges, and the weather hasn´t exactly been too favorable with us. I did an interview with an investigator of the other missionaries. Yikes. That´s actually the first time I´ve had to call President Sloan about an interview. He says that he´s not sure if he´ll even interview the investigator at all, and if he does he says he´ll probably have to write to the First Presidency to get a baptism authorized. It sure wore me out! But President Sloan says that it´s good for me and will help me learn more. I realize more and more just how messed up the world is today, which makes it so important to live the gospel. It´s the only thing that can really protect us from everything that´s out there.

My scripture study this morning helped me out a lot. I read in Doctrine and Covenants 84:80. I learned that if I keep working hard like I should, the Lord will take care of me and nothing bad will happen to me. Good to receive some comfort! I also thank you all for the letters! I appreciate each one. Take care!

Love,

Elder Wallace

GET MARRIED!

Well Hi!

So great to see general conference! I think I caught the main idea of it in the subject line, what do you think? When the leaders talk about missionary work and how the members need to help, we missionaries are all smiling and nodding our heads in agreement. Then when they start to talk about marriage, we get kind of freaked out! Although we did get to tease Elder Estrada after every single session (he´s going home in a month!). My district had to travel for two hours to get to the closest conference, which kind of wore me out, but it was worth it! I like how Elder Holland said that there´s something for each one of us at conference. I think the same goes for sacrament meeting. I just need to get more people down here to realize that.

Today was a bit crazy for us! I got called by the zone leaders at 7 a.m. and was told that Elder Garcia was getting transferred. So today we´ve had Elder Robinson with us while he waits for his new companion to arrive. I hope he´s not lost, I had to do some extensive explaining over the phone on which busses he needs to take! All should go well though. We are getting Martha ready for her interview, I just hope she keeps feeling confident about her decision. We will do all we can to help her out!

Is the snow going away yet? I hope everyone is well and that they all enjoyed conference. Hope you enjoyed the priesthood session! Also I hope that Nate´s fake tooth is alright! I don´t know how much contact you have with Raelene, but tell her I said congratulations (and to practice her Spanish because Chileans speak horribly fast and not very clearly!) Enjoy the soccer games, and also marrying people (it´s so great that dad is helping people to follow the counsel given in general conference! haha). Well that is about all for now. We have to get ready to head out again! Love you all, and talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Six More Weeks!

Buenas Tardes!

Well, I´m looking at six more weeks here in Guaranda!  We didn´t have any changes at all here.  I´m glad for that because I have really enjoyed it here.  The members are great, and we have plenty of people to teach.  It always takes forever to find out who´s going where, but finally I can have peace of mind again!  

We have some great investigators right now, with several who are sooooo close!  They just need to get to church!  You wouldn´t believe how the people here can crank out excuses!  But we will persist!  Our golden investigator right now is named Martha.  She used to be a Jehovah´s Witness, but stopped attending there 3 years ago.  She has a great testimony, and even said she stood up for us when one of her friends was making negative remarks!  She is going to be baptized in two weeks, so we´re getting her well prepared!  She was a bit suprised when we told her that she CAN get baptized in less than a year and she does NOT have to take a written exam!

Well, that´s about all for now!  I´m super excited for conference this week!  The only tough part is that it is two hours away!  That´s all right though.  I think I´ve already read the last conference report at least a dozen times, so it will be nice to get some new counsel from the prophet!  Good to hear about the ward baptisms and about all the good things happening in Roosevelt.  And do you know what mom?  I´ve already tried coconut water several times!  It´s pretty good.  I never thought of it as ´nature´s gatorade´.  All I know is that if you´re not careful, it´s nature´s laxative!  Supposed to be good for your kidneys though.  Or something like that.  As for the easter package... let´s see.  All my clothes are holding up well.  How about a jump drive?  That would be great!  I think that´s all.  Food is always welcome!  Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Wallace

And yes, I´m the one floating on the lava.  My companion is the next one down, the one with his rear on fire.  ha!  That story of the father stealing from the fields is in a book we have.  that ´children´s book of virtues´.  I think it´s called ´Somebody sees you.´ Great story!

Getting Close!

Hey everyone!

That´s right, we are getting close! Close to a whole bunch of baptisms! It´s been a challenging few weeks; lots of searching, lots of teaching, and lots of weeding out the those who don´t want to progress. But now it´s paid off. We have several families to teach, and a lot of people with great desires (we even have a JW!). The branch is really big right now, we almost don´t have room to seat everybody. I think we´re going to see two branches here in Guaranda pretty soon. That´s completly all right with me because then I won´t keep having to share the organization leaders with the other missionaries! I´ll get them all to myself!

We had a zone activity today, which means... another four hours travelling to Riobamba and back! It was fun though. We played some basketball, had burgers, and watched one of President Sloan´s ´approved animated movies´ (Los Increíbles). We´ve got some transfers coming up this next week, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

That´s about all that´s happened this week. I will write next week, unless I get changed! I doubt it though. Maybe I´ll have to wait for a new companion. We shall see. Until then, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Wallace

One Month In Guaranda

Today's district activity.

Chimborazo, a volcano that I see every Friday on my way to the leaders' meeting.

How's it going?

It kind of feels weird that I've already been in my new area for a month! I guess I'm kind of grateful for that, because the earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami that caused a lot of problems for a lot of places. I hear that it was going to hit Esmeraldas. Do any of you know anything about that? I just hope my old ward is okay!

This week was pretty calm. I'm glad that Carnaval is over because more people are willing to listen and fewer of them are drunk. I actually got to stay in my area for the entire week as well! Not so many meetings anymore. We are making progress here, and the word is that our branch is going to divide into two pretty soon! We can't be a ward yet because we're just a district, not a stake. I really enjoy it here because the members are super helpful and they all care a lot about the welfare of our branch.

Apart from that, not many things out of the ordinary happened this week. Good to hear from home. Hope all is well with the ward baptisms, the drum lessons, the eagle project (hint), the math tutoring, the wisdom teeth, the marriages, the returning missionaries, the soccer games, the football games, and the jailed intruder. Did I get everything? I hope so! I did take some more pictures today, so I'll send them right away!

Love,

Elder Wallace

Feliz Carnaval!

Feliz Carnaval everybody!

What´s ´carnaval´, you´re asking?  I didn´t know either!  Turns out to be a big week-long celebration that the people in Ecuador do every March.  I´m still not sure what they are celebrating, but they get pretty wild!  They throw water at you, spray foam stuff, have parades every day, and drink a lot.  Personally, I kind of think that they just had too long of a wait in between Valentine´s day and Easter, so they invented a holiday to fill in the gap!  Others tell me it´s some kind of native celebration.  Whatever the case, it sure makes missionary work hard!  We had investigators stuck at work, investigators off visiting family, and even one in jail.  It was a tough week, but we made it through!  Tomorrow the festivities are going to calm down, and we can have some peace!

This week we worked very hard with an investigator named Ana.  She and her husband own a restaurant where they sell encebollados (look it up, they´re super delicious!).  Anyway, her husband is inactive and they need to get married.  We had so much difficulty with the husband because he didn´t seem very interested.  But now, he has expressed desires to start coming to church again, and they are going to get married this Friday!  We were really happy when they told us that they aren´t drinking coffee anymore!  That was another challenge.  We actually confiscated two jars of coffee from them before they decided to leave it!

Apart from that, we´ve just been dodging water balloons, avoiding large crowds, and teaching all the people that will listen to us!  We also visited the Indian ´Guaranga´.  But yeah, I´ll show you some pictures!  Here you go!

Love,

Elder Wallace

The photos -  My district: Elder Sotomayor (Guayaquil), Elder Garcia (Nicaragua), me (you should know that one), and Elder Robinson (Paragonah, UT).  Me and my indian buddy.  Sotomayor and I with the confiscated coffee.

We take the bus everywhere.  I think I´ve had several near-death experiences on the buses here!  The drivers talk with their friends, eat lunch, text, and drive all at the same time!  My companion goes with me to the meetings in Riobamba (two hours away) but when the meetings are in Quito I go with the other district leader in our zone.  The apartment is good,  and the food is very similar to my other areas.  Not as much fish now.  

How are your referals working out?  The referrals are going well, for the other missionaries that is.  None of the people we talked to lived in my sector!  That´s okay though, because we´re in the same branch. 

What is your companion like?  My companion is very friendly, he tends to think that I´m a bit uptight, but he´s starting to be more agreeable, especially with the mission rules.

Are you getting along well?  It gets better every week!

What is your apartment like there?  The apartment has running water all that time!  Also electricity all the time!

What is your ward like?  It´s a branch, but it´s even stronger than my ward in Esmeraldas was.  The people here just have a lot more incentive.