Eden and the Volcano ! Week #36

Hello family!  And, before I get into any story or anything, I´ve gotta say now we only have 30 min of internet time due to the ´wickedness´  of the mission, so if letters are shorter than normal for a while you´ll know why!

   And before I continue on any further....        I GOT MY CHRISTMAS PACKAGE!!! 
So, thank you thank you thank you oh so very much indeed!  It was greatly appreciated, and I pretty much exploded when I saw what was inside, so I drew plenty, built some Legos, and fused the T-shirt to myself!  It was great... to bad I was changed from Elder Housley, he was the only one in the mission I knew that appreciated Legos.   *sigh!*

Ok, next off....  Congrats to Madison for her play!  Good luck indeed!    The BYU game and Hunger Games movie (I gotta see it...)  all looked great!  And I sure will miss Alberto and Margarita, good luck to them in thier trip also! 

And ok, now for our week:  we had a normal week, but with many, MANY things inserted!  We had divisions on Tuesday-Wednesday, a special training meeting Friday with the president and his wife, (which, By the way, sister Ghent gave me a copy of Mom and Her in Women´s conference, I shall be sure to try to send a copy!")  and on Saturday we did service in the sector of the Sister´s, clearing out weeds and shrubbery in a Jungle!  Well, it´s more like a half-junglish area, but enough that their backyard has frogs, bamboo, and big colorful spiders! We were sure to avoid those...
So, a very busy week, and unfortunately with that many activities (a few more), our numbers this week were rather poor, like an old wayfaring man of grief.   (almost a pun :)   )

And as for our investigators, only one attended church with us: Fabian!   And he´s to be baptized this weekend, between sessions of conference!  Yes!  All of the missionaries in our zone are going to have this Saturday´s baptisms in the same chapel for conference, so it shall be a ´Noche Blanca´  (which means, white night, because of all the baptismal clothing.´ 

So, with my companion and I, things are just going right now.  Yes, our first week was quite rough, and then it started to improve mightily!  But now... I fear it is deteriorating again.  Sigh...  So, I shall continue on, and hope that things start to get going smoothly.       *pity me!*

But, I shall be sure to stay in contact, and I pray for you all every day and night!  Stay strong, do your scripture study, and go to church! 

OH!  And to end with a quote-    ´Too often we pray to have patience, but we want it right now!´   - (I forgot who, but it´s from one of the Apostles, sorry!)

-Elder Sanders




PSS- Photos 
One is of us after doing service, me and 2 other missionaries in the Sister´s sector,  a great pic of the volcano from my room, and me celebrating Christmas on March 21st.

AND!

                               Happy General Conference!

Eden new area

Hello family!  This week has been quite eventful...

So, first off, It`s always tough to begin anew, with a new sector, new investigators, new ward (actually, here it`s only a branch!) and a new companion.  It`s just like leaving and starting in a new home!  Quite tricky I`d say...     SO!  A little about our sector:  there are about 2 parts of our sector which are like mega-main streets with lots of houses surrounding them, kind of like the size of 2 of our wards.   And the rest of the sector goes on and on!  There are hills and mountains with lots of houses randomly scattered about them!  In a real sense, it`s so big that I don`t know where our limits our.  And it`s not that it`s huge and has a ton of houses like Guamani, it`s just that the land goes on and on.  Plus, this sector is super famous for it`s jeans.  In one road, there are about 10 jeans outlets in a row, right next to each other! (along with all the mini jean factories too.)    Neat, right?

And my companion is named Elder Carcini, he`s from Mexico, lives a few hours from Cancun, and is just swell.  With him... let`s just say that when we started we had to go through ALOT of rough spots.  *shudder!*  but now we are definitely improving!   I just hope that this change goes well!

When I came in, we had 2 people with a baptismal date, two young adults named Fabian and the other Luis . Fabian is a normal investigator, but Luis is an 18 year old with Epilepsy, and has very strong desires to be baptized. YES! Both we had to teach simply, and unfortunately Fabian`s baptismal date fell this weekend and yesterday, Luis told us that his mom won`t let him get baptized . He really wants to be baptized, and we know he`s ready, but we just need his mom to soften her heart to let him follow Jesus Christ.  (so, if you can, all prayers will be appreciated!)

Other than them, we found 1 new family, and a new person who accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson.  So we also hope that they will improve!

All in all, it`s just a tough sector.  There aren`t very many people to contact, and the members also need to put in their part.  Our ward is only a branch, which means we have no bishop, just a branch president, and only have a small amount of members.  SO!  We just need to rely in the Lord to help us!

This last Sunday we also had the opportunity to give talks at church.  I spoke on mission work and how members are missionaries, and my companion spoke on the potential of the members of the church. I thought it went rather well.

AND 2x!    I got here just in time, because today our zone had planned to go on a super-trip!  Yes, we got to go to Chimboraza, the tallest volcano in the world!  (don`t worry mom, this one is IN-active :)   )   It was about a 2 hour drive to go up, and we hiked for about 30 minutes.  And lo and behold, it was just like Christmas!  Both in happiness and snow!  The first time I had rolled around in snow since winter of 2010/2011.  We threw snowballs, went sledding on sheets of tin roof that we found, and even photographed some wild llamas.  It was quite nice.

Well, I believe that is all the news I have for now.  I hope this sector will bring us fruits, and that it may also be fun! 

until next time,

-Elder Sanders

PS-  AH-HA!  HOPE IS NOT LOST!  The Christmas package is in Ecuador!  The only tough thing is, since we are outside of Quito, only the zone leaders go once a month to the offices to bring back anything.  It`s about a 4-5 hour trip just to get there!  So, I shall see if they are going in the following week,  I hope so!

PS. photos!
Here are pics of me by a ridiculous amount of bananas, a picture of Mt. Chimboraza, me reminiscing childhood memories, and my companion contemplating on throwing a giant snowball.