Elder Sanders

Elder Sanders

Monday, September 10, 2012

Week #59 hard week for Elder Sanders

Hello dearest friends and family members alike!

  This has been a rather... interesting week.  Mostly because it was so full of ups and downs!

But first:

Thanks to the Paulovich Family for your awesome email, and also to Barbara for your marvelous letter!  How wonderful to receive mail!

And, the canyon looked like fun, I`ll be waiting for the package (thanks parents!), congratulations for success in the preschool, and good to hear that the family is whole and well!

And now!  The part we`ve all been waiting for:

Tuesday- We found a new family!  YES! and then, later on in the day, we received an eventful phone call: ¨Hey Elder Sanders, you need to go alone to Quito to renew your VISA, and then you get to go BY PLANE to Coca (a city by our sector) for a special training meeting)¨    Wonderful! That sounded like it was going to be a great trip!  I was going to get to go on an airplane even before I finished my mission! Sweet!

Wednesday- Left Lago Agrio at noon by bus, arrived in Quito at 9pm

Thursday- Arose at 5:30am, renewed my visa, spoke on how I should backup the photos on my camera, spend the afternoon with the mission secretaries, and left to the airport at 4. BUT! I couldn`t get in because apparently they just came out with a new law that I needed to have my passport with me or an `authorized` censo (it`s like an ID), and although I was `authorized`, the attended got really defensive and wouldn`t let me in. And although I passed by the airport offices and received permission from the director of that division, she still denied me!  And so I missed my flight! All because she was stubborn! Which meant that I had to spend another night in Quito, which also meant that I also missed that special training meeting.  *sigh*

Friday- Arose at 5;30 am again, saw some old companions, and left on the bus in the morning.  Within an hour on the bus (you guys are probably going to be more sad than I was) I took a nap, and the sneaky fingers of a shifty thief found their way into my backpack and stole my camera!  NOO!!! Which not only means the loss of photo taking abilities, but the also the loss of all the photos I`ve ever had on my mission! From the MTC to Otavalo to the Jungle! CURSES!    Well, I guess that means I`m going to need a new camera... *sigh* x2   (well, at least a large portion of those photos lost are magically saved in the archives of all the emails i`ve send home)

Saturday- Mini-zone-conference.  Much bus travel, much spirituality acquired.  And, I also got to do another baptismal interview, which went well. 

Sunday- Our investigator attended church!  And has a baptismal date for September 22!  Hallelujah! She was the Colombian that attended last week, and has been living in Ecuador for less than a month. We`re so happy for her!        And then!  A second eventful phone call came!  It went something like this: 
¨Elder Sanders! We have an emergency!¨  ¨What`s wrong? What happened?¨  ¨Emergency Changes!¨   NOO!!!    So, not only did my companion change, and one of the other missionaries in our house change, but half our district is gone!  Or to explain, many missionaries are finishing their missions, and there is a lack of missionaries, so they took our 2 missionaries from the four which existed and shipped them off to other sectors, leaving only Elder Plùa and I to fend for ourselves in the sector!    So, I was only with Elder Oropeza for 2 weeks, and he is now off to a distant land.

SO!  That was my week! Exciting, eh?  

I guess it helps me see how i feel about my testimony, because although I was very angry at the lady in the airport and the bus-thief, the only thing that makes me  more upset and it hurts is when a person says the Book of Mormon is not true.   yup.

Well... hm.  I believe that is all for the moment.   I wish you all well! and everyone have a great week....
much love,
-Elder Sanders

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