Hello!  This week was rather swell indeed! We had many fun stories this time, no new spiritual experiences since my Book of Mormon revelation,   but first!  To answer questions from your letters!  (Which, by the way, thanks to all who wrote!)   Ben is getting married next week!  And Zander`s getting baptized! CRAZY TIMES! We`re also going to have a baptism this weekend,  AT LAST!   Sister  P,  she is ready, and will have made powerful covenants by the end of next week!  We`re quite excited.       And yes, transfers have passed, (2 weeks ago, I wrote about it...)    And we have not changed! Yes!      And I did make the Pasta Sauce.  Apparently I don`t quite have the same magical motherly touch that can transform any raw ingredient into a delicious wonder, but I shall keep working at it!   (and yes, all that random stuff you found on the porch was from Erik`s Mom, neat!)      Oh, and as for Spanish, I definitely am not fluent yet.  When it comes to gospel principles, yes, but for everything else....   lets just say that I`m sufficient at the moment.  :)

So!  This week was quite well, although we definitely had a low on people with a baptismal date.  It just seems as if our investigators are getting lost in sub-space.  (for example, we haven`t been able to find Mr Fas or Humberto because of dreaded work!)   We only had 1 investigator attend this Sunday, only one!  ACK!   But, as for fun stuff, we were leaving our Mamitas house on Thursday, and walked half a block only to encounter a gigantic parade.  Kids dressed in indegenous attire, fireworks shooting off, candy being thrown into the sidewalks.  After standing in awe for about 10, wondering if it was a holiday or not, we decided we needed to run and grab our cameras (luckily our house was 2 blocks away).  It was a sweet surprise.

And then, Saturday we had a lesson with the family Caisawano, and lo and behold:  it was their daughter`s birthday!  We brought her some ice cream with a card, had dinner, had delicious Ecuadorian cake, and then a small lesson afterwards about families.   It was a jolly time.   

We also had an open house at our Stake Center in Chilloguillo.  Our zone (Chilloguillo) and my old zone (Atahualpa) joined forces to turn our church into a master  knowlegde center for investigators of all kinds.  Of course, the members were teaching inside and all the missionaries were spreading outside, bringing all in the street into the Steak Center.  Elder Hernandez and I contacted 40 people in the space of an hour or so, and only 5 attended, but that`s pretty fruitful from my point of view, especially if there are also about 9 other companionship roaming about.    It was essentially good.  

Anyways, right now we have 4 people with a baptismal date, Sister Caisawano and a new family, la familia Peña.  We hope that we may also be able to give a new date to those that missed church and us essentially.  We`re excited!  

Alas, I shall write you all soon!  Stay mighty!

-Elder Sanders.

Hm... and as for a spiritual thought....      You should re-read The Family: A proclamation to the world.     It is just oozing with doctrine and family organization, and how we can build more strength in our individual families.    While teaching the family Cai, we were teaching this principle and about our priorities.  Then, while we were discussing this, the grandpa said something to the extend of we should put God first, and then worry about our families later.  A mini argument ensued, and then I said something to the extent of, ¨we don`t need to do that.  When we are keeping the commandments, and blessing our family, we really are serving God.  Essentially we don`t need to put one over the other because they are the same priority.¨   And the arguing ceased.    It`s true!  The strongest happiness we can attain in our families is when they are build upon the principles of the Gospel.        Read the Proclamation together, and if there are others that haven`t read it before, go online, find it and read it!  It has power!

OH! And as for the Christmas package, I heard that for any package normally it takes this long.  So, I shall probably be receiving it in the next week or so.  It`s not lost, just floating in Ecuadorian mail-space.  

PICTURES!

 Pictures of the parade!

 Our happy Italian pasta.

 A picture requested by my companion. 

 

Pictues

This is the Italian in him coming out ! LOL

check out the propane tank !! AHHHHHHH!

ward mission leader and his companion ! Eden looks like a giant !

beautiful mountains !

Eden drew this in some ones hymn book.

Baptism day ...

Eden and his companion made scones !

Week #27

Greetings one and all!
   Thanks very much for your letters, comments, and other goodness!  It was nice!   (And we´re going to the offices this next week, so I shall see if my packages have arrived soon!)

Ah, and to start... this week was....  CHANGES!  *ensue organ overture*   And my new stats are:  Guamani with an Elder Hernandez.   Wait.... that´s where I am now the companion I have now...  WE DIDN¨T CHANGE!  HAHA!  we´ll be able to see our baptisms through after all!  Happy day!

Alright, so here are some other stats of the week.  This last week we had a grand total of 15 people with a baptismal date.  (We had a GOOD finding week.)  The only downside is that out of that 15 people only 4 were able to keep their date by attending church and following up with commitments.  JS  had a  baptism date (which was planned for this Saturday, but he has a work trip and now it´s a 50/50, I hope it works out!)  and we just need to find a time to visit the family Lui.  Their date is for this Saturday too, and they are just never home!  I hope they´ll be ready in time too!    All in all, we´ll have to get the rest of our investigators to start progressing!  They are all so good!

And it sounds as if things at home are well too!  I can see that as I am growing spiritually, so are you guys!  It´s great to read how you scripture studies and Sunday lessons are going!  (And you´ve gotta send me a picture of Tristan´s new Sunday Suit!)   I´m always praying for you all.

And today was great too!  Why?  This last Wednesday Elder Hernandez and I set a list of goals to try to accomplish this week, such as finding 6 new families, arriving early to lessons, planting a baptismal date for new investigators, etc etc, and decided if we could complete them we would make a ´Mega-Meal´  this Monday.  And what happened?  We did it!  And after seeking knowledge through my mission-mom-cookbook, we made a heaping plate of scones with honey-butter!  I´ll say, after having a lack of ´Sanders´ food for 6 months, today was a real slap in the face, but in a good way!  

So, my companion is doing good, my Spanish is always fluctuating, and we are striving to study every day.   All in all, the mission field is well.  We just need to invite the members to come out with us more often...perhaps soon!

I always have you all in mind, and here is a spiritual thought for the day-

The Sabbath day is a day of rest, where we depart from our labors and worldly things.  And we also have fast-sundays, where we skip out on food to easily become more humble and receptive to be more in tune with the spirit.  Then I thought, we do a kind of fast every Sunday.  I see the Sabbath Day as a fast of worldly things.  We skip out on movies, video games, and work to be more humble and more receptive to the spirit. And just as we wouldn´t dare eat one piece of bread during a fast of food, we also shouldn´t dare to take a minute at doing something ´worldly´ during Sunday.  It´s just that important.  And the blessings promised of the Lord is we obey this day, are an increase of peace and joy in our lives.  Not to mention the renewing of our covenants during the sacrament.  

Well, that is all for today it seems, may your days be merry!  

-Elder Sanders

Pictures! (I´m attaching more in  seperate letter)

1- View from in front of our church (zoom in on the mountains!)

2- Us with our ward mission leader, Hermano Casco!  One of the finest old men yet to live!

3- A picture I drew in the Hymn-book of our zone leader

4- Eden trying to learn how to make scones

5- Eden finally discovering the secret of how to make the dough as soft as a dream

Eden got letters from the Youth in the ward and a pic from Eric !

Edens best and worst expierence 1-9-12

 Hello, one and all!  How is life? 

First off, I have received... PACKAGES!!!  Ha HA!  The one from Dad with all the letters from the young mens/young womens, and twas great!  (I`m so excited to eat the peanut butter-honey mix!)  and the one from Erik, it had a CD of the Mormon Tabernacle choir singing songs from movies and plays, and a Lego Missionary!   I shall write as soon as I can get the rest of the mail.   BUT!  I did get letters from the Plowman`s, Mikayla Boren, and KT!  Thanks! VERY MUCH!

Ok, as you can see in the title, this is going to be a good letter.  

It began as a return lesson with 2 families that we had taught the week before.  One had a recent death in the family, and the other was Baptist.  They are neighbors that live by one of our Mamitas, and were a reference from them.  And usually, references are always very accepting.  So, today we planned to plant them the Restoration lesson, and taught all about Apostasy, Dispensations, the need and purpose of a prophet, and about Joseph Smith.  We used the white board, showed a video, and testified of the Book of Mormon.  All in all, a great lesson.  We then gave them the invitation to pray about our message later that night, and to our utmost surprise, they said no. 
We re-explained some principles, bore our testimonies again, and re-gave the invitation.  Once again, they rejected.  The next 20 minutes were us combating doubts and showing how what we were sharing about the Book and Mormon were in reality, true.    

Eventually, I just said,  ¨Can I just share a scripture form The Book of Mormon?¨  I flipped open to Helaman 5:12

" And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the ^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

and just started reading.  Immediately, I was overwhelmed with a feeling.  I felt something indescribable, my eyes starting tearing up, and as I read how Jesus Christ is the rock of our salvation, I was completely and undeniably overflowing with the spirit.  It was almost unreal, and by the  time I finished reading that one verse, I felt the spirit so strong that I didn`t even know what to do next.  I just sat there, just hoping that the families could feel what I was feeling.   Once I finished reading the scripture, the mother immediately said, ´that`s already in the bible.´  in the most snotty, matter-of-fact way I have heard. As she started flipping through the Bible to try to prove The Book of Mormon wrong, I sat dumb-founded.  Here I was, feeling as if The Lord himself had read that scripture, and here they were, even rejected the Holy Ghost. 
  There was nothing more we could do for them, we were at the peak of our teaching and spiritual capacity, and this family had quite literally looked God in the face and said, ¨No.¨  

There you go, the best and worst lesson ever.  We didn`t even invite them to baptism or to attend church, just to take 1 minute and pray!  They already thought that they knew all they needed to know, and that was it. It`s just like in Alma 33:17, it`s not that the people couldn`t understand the doctrine, but that they Would Not understand the doctrine.   Although the lesson felt like a complete failure, I strode away triumphant.  I had never had a spiritual manifestation such as this ever in my life, nor a spiritual testimony that the Book of Mormon was true.  I`ve always heard of people tell stories of feeling the spirit, and always thought that I could imagine how it felt, and that was all I needed.  But now, I`m here to say, that if you have not felt this for yourself, you are definitely missing out.  (Now I know why people cry during Testimony Meeting!)     And so,  after 19 years of being in the Church and 5 months in the Mission, I have a Testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Well, that was the highlight of my week!   As for other news, this last Thursday we had a special training meeting, and afterwords President Ghent and Sister Ghent went out with us to go to our lessons!  Opportunity of a lifetime!  But!  Alas, we passed by 5 houses, and all of our lessons fell because no one was home.  Grrr.... we had the Mission President with us and he didn`t get a lesson with us.  But, it was a great hour with him and his wife!  

Well, that`s all the morsels for now, I`ll write later and urge you... Read Your Scriptures!

-Elder Sanders

PS: Photos!

1- Eden and His package!

2- Lego Version of Eden and Erik`s Christmas Card in the Background

PSS:  Scripture for Mom and Dad!   Read:   3-John  1:4 " I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth."